Personalized Clock

I made this project as a gift for a bridal shower recently. I found the tutorial long ago and finally decided to make it.

With the hubby's help of course...I don't touch the power tools :)

My friend, who is the bride and the recipient of this gift loved it. In fact everyone at the shower was amazed that I made it myself. The mother of the bride was almost in tears over how much she loved this gift. I even had a little old lady (friend of the bride's family!) that wouldn't leave until I gave her my contact info so I could make one with all of her grandkids on it.

The tutorial originally came from Rosy Red Buttons.  I will give you my .02 worth on this project too.

1. Sam's Club does not offer a 12x12 photo size. They don't offer any 'even' (8x8, 12x12) prints that I could see. I had to order it as a 12 x16 and cut four inches off. This was ok since my photo was 'artsy' anyways and it didn't matter if I cut it apart. But, for a family photo or something with subjects all the way to the edges you may have to work on it. I really wish I had photoshop!

2. Sam's club does have the cheapest prices. My poster cost $3.14 after taxes and it was ready in about an hour. The next lowest price was $6.99 at my Walgreen's and the prices went up from there. I looked into having it done as a engineer blueprint at Staples but they start at $9.99. I wanted to keep this cheap!

3. PicMonkey is a great site. I never really got into Piknik so I was not too sad to see them go. Maybe I just didn't try enough. I didn't really 'get' it. But, I tried PicMonkey and it was so easy and I loved how the picture looked.

4. I bought my clock set at Hobby Lobby for $4.99 and bought an extra set of longer clock hands that were black for $3.49. The set comes with short gold arms and they didn't go with the image in my head.

5. I bought my numbers at Jo-Ann's for $2.99 in the Scrapbook section. Hobby Lobby has a much better selection. And, better prices. I originally bought some there but I didn't like the way they looked once I was done with the clock. Since Jo-Ann's is closer and the shower was two days away I didn't have much choice. They still looked nice but they were flat and I wanted them to 'pop' off the face a bit.

All in all once my husband cut the board for me it went really fast from there. I was so happy with how it turned out and so was everyone who saw it. I LOVE this idea and am so glad I found the tutorial!

My finished product:

This picture is one of their engagement shots and sums up my friend's personality well. She has had this shot as her profile picture on FB for months so she was excited to see it as the clock I think too!

Another cardbox

Last summer my BFF asked me to try my hand at making her the cardbox she wanted for her wedding. I did and it turned out better than I thought I could get it to look. I blogged about it back then, too.

I guess I did a really great job because I was asked to make another one like it. A very good friend of mine from college requested one for her nuptials this June. She liked a lot about the original one I did and was pretty open to the design-she told me I could do what I wanted. It just had to be pink and black.

I began looking around online for some inspiration pictures so I could change up the original box a little bit. This friend is such a fashionable, modern yet timeless kind of girl. I mean, she always had the most chic dormroom in my opinion. This was a girl who used to dress up on Halloween as her icon: Audrey Hepburn and she looked fabulous doing it. I knew this box had to be great.

I used the same damask print in black and white on only two of the boxes. The middle box I made solid black so I was able to incorporate the pink on it. I also spray painted the box tops this time so they had a shny/glossy finish to them. I was afraid that the paint would warp or peel the papier mache boxes but they are still perfect and I love the way the black glistens :) I made the flowers myself out of satin and left the top blank this time. These flowers are what I would think of if my friend were a flower....the whole thing suits her and the 'feel' of her wedding to a 'T'. These boxes seem to get more detailed as I go along but I get better with each one I complete!

Wedding Card Box

My BFF is getting married this summer and I am so happy for her. We have been friends since we started high school. We went to an all girls, Catholic high school together and were next to each other for everything. Quite literally. My maiden name started with SL and hers starts with an SK so we had lockers next to each other all four years and sat together whenever we were in home room. She was in my wedding two years ago and I am so happy to be in her wedding in a few months. About a week ago I was surprised and excited to see she was video calling me on Skype. While we talked she linked me to some pictures of a card box she liked. After looking at several differetn designs she liked on ETSY I told her not to worry about it and I would make it myself. She was looking at boxes just like the one I made and they were $55 or more plus about $20 or more to ship it to her! I told her I would take over from her and it would cost less. She gave me $30 for the whole thing but I may have spent a bit less than that even. I know I would have spent less had I waited for things to be on sale and for more coupons but I needed to get it done. I bought everything at JoAnn's during their friends and family sale weekend and used my25% off my total order coupon. I bought MUCH more fabric than I thought I needed..I only used 2 feet on this one! The boxes were the next big purchase. I had to get the five piece set since I needed a 14 inch and they don't sell those separately. At least not that I saw. So, I got two boxes I didn't need but I am sure I will eventually use them. Based on the number of people she is expecting to be at the wedding and the number of cards she may get I used a 14 inch, 12 inch and 10 inch box. She chose the fabric based on one of her inspiration pictures and then another picture showed solid black lids and she liked that too. I used a simple plain black craft paint so it isn't shiny or glossy or anything. She also liked the look of a bow on top so I bought a 5 inch wide satin ribbon and made a bow. It is wired which I don't particularly care for but it can be perked right up if it gets smooshed or anything too. I went and pulled out my wedding cards (yes they are saved in a keepsake box) and found three different size ones. A square musical card, a extra large card and a slightly larger than average one. I made sure they all fit in the slot and cut it out to be 2x8. I also cut all the box bottoms and lids BEFORE I painted them so I wouldn't paint anything I wouldn't use in the end anyway. They are all glued together with a hot glue gun and my friend is really happy with it. I didn't glue down the lid of the biggest box so she could still get the cards out. I LOVE how this looks and am thinking of starting to offer this service to some other brides I know ;)
 Please excuse the bad photos...I finished it at night and wanted to take the pictures so I could send them to the bride...