A Bridal Shower

So excited to share with you what I put together for my cousin-in-law's bridal shower over the weekend. It was a fun event honoring a very special woman and I really thought it went so very well. I signed up to do the invitations, party favor boxes, and a marital advice tree. And of course, knowing me I can't keep things simple, so I have a lot of late nights getting it all done, but it was worth it for her!

So because I was so excited by the party favor boxes, I will start off with those. I found the patterns for a three-tiered paper box cake that Stampin' Up! had shown in the demonstrator magazine and another version of the cake-shaped boxes that had a base and a lid. Well of course, I liked the three-tiered cake look, but the actual box that had a base and a lid. So I had to create a pattern for the base and lid for each layer of the cake which was based on the overall dimensions that Stampin' Up! did. Like I said, I can never keep things easy! So anyway so Bazzill Basics paper in Pomegranate Splash made up teh base and Basic Grey Bittersweet raspberry cream made up the lids. I scalloped all of the sides of the lid to make it a little prettier.

I knew I wanted to put flowers on somehow and I had seen a couple tutorials for making paper roses, so I gave a couple a try. Of course, my friends (hey girls!) all picked the more time consuming one...I picked it to, but that meant a lot of cutting and gluing for many nights! Anyway, the paper roses in a shimmer white cardstock (tutorial HERE that I used) looked beautiful and added a touch of elegance to it. Then I found to keep the boxes together nicely, I did have to tie a ribbon around each layer...was hoping to avoid this at first, but I think I like the look now.

The invitation was a CASE of a bunch of bride silhouette cards that I had found on Splitcoast. Seriously, I love that site so much when you are in need of ideas...always helps me out! I hand drew a template for the silhouette and then cut out all of them by hand. I embossed the top portion (the bodice) of the dress with the Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder and put a ribbon around the "waist". Then added a couple of punch out (and crumbled) flowers with a sparkle white brad. The "You're Invited" was printed on the cardstock prior to cutting out the silhouette. I loved how these turned out and then I realized that not everyone got that it was a bride silhouette on the front...maybe I should have drew my silhouette differently or something! I am really not sure if anyone got it without me telling them.

Then the last project for the shower was a marital advice tree. We had everyone write a piece of advice for the couple on a card and hang it on a tree I put together. Then when their present was opened, I read off the piece of advice they gave the bride. I thought it was a nice touch. Anyway, the "tree" was a couple of branches that I hot glued together to make a fuller "tree" and then my husband cut some holes in some wood to help me stabilize it in the planter. I spray painted it a solid brown and then added some gold sparkle paint to it to jazz it up a smidge. I wanted to leave it very plain so that if she wanted she could keep it and decorate for each season or holiday or something. The cards were actually kept simple...amazing, I actually kept something simple!

Well there you have it! What do you think? Let me know if there are any questions or anything! Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!