Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Simple Wedding Shower Decorations


My wonderful, handsome son, Michael, and his sweet, lovely fiance, Jennifer, are getting married this Saturday, February 18th... on my birthday! I don't sound a bit biased about any of it, do I? ;-)

Jennifer's family had a shower for them a few weeks ago at their church fellowship hall. Everything was decorated so pretty and was so well planned. A week later, we ~ me, my daughter, Jessica, my two sisters, Della and Barbara, and Della's two daughters, Mashawna and Deanna ~ had a shower for Michael and Jennifer in our church fellowship hall.


Until the showers for Michael and Jennifer, I hadn't been to one in quite a while and was definitely not up to date on what was in and what wasn't. So, we kept it sweet and simple, focusing on the couple (although Michael had to work that day), their gifts (of course!), the food (can't forget that either), and enjoying the company of a room full of family and friends. That sounds like a lot, but it was simple and not stressful at all.
Family and church ladies all came together and made it work perfectly! :)


Using a 1950s vintage wedding etiquette book, I made several a lot of folded fan rosettes from the pages. Some were glued together with my favorite Alene's craft glue and some were taped together with double-sided Scotch(R) tape.

I punched circles out of purple and yellow card stock with this Martha Stewart scalloped circle punch and the hearts were made from pages of the book. Most of the hearts were cut by hand because the heart punch I ordered didn't arrive until the morning of the shower. I did use it to punch all the hearts that we scattered on the tables and for a few larger rosettes. I also used a larger scalloped circle punch from Hobby Lobby for the larger rosettes.

We hung the rosette fans on a twiggy branch that I found in the edge of our yard a few hours before the shower. I used purple and yellow seam binding ribbon from Zipperstop for the ribbon hangers. If you order from them (they have great customer service, by the way) be sure to tell Jeff that Lana Manis sent you over!

{photos of Michael and Jennifer; also shown is a little felted flower pin I made for Jennifer; the yellow ribbon loops can be removed.}

I also used pages from the vintage book to make a banner. It's easy, just time consuming. I used Printmaster Silver Version 16, but you can use any word processing program. Choose your page size, your font style and size, and print a letter on each page. I printed a couple of sample pages to fiddle with the letter size before I printed the entire banner. I punched holes in the pages and carefully strung them on the seam binding ribbon. If your paper is delicate, you may want to reinforce the corners with a small square of paper where you will punch the holes.

{we were in the process of setting up in this photo}

I used my old ironstone platters and bowls for the food. They went well with the slightly aged pages of the book. Thankfully, they all made it back home intact!

About halfway through stringing the letters, I wondered if I should have just went with Jenn & Mike instead, lol! The stands were ones that Jessica and I made last summer to display my wreaths at the Lavender Festival.

{finished setting up but someone forgot to remove the foil from a dish of spinach dip.... hmmm, think that was me!}

Jessica made red velvet cupcakes with butter cream frosting, embellished with pretty little edible pearls!


I printed about fifty I Do phrases and cut them out to make little banners for the cupcakes. Jess taped them on toothpicks with double stick tape.


Jess also made French Vanilla cupcakes for those of us (yes, me) that aren't crazy about red velvet... I know, I know... how could one not like red velvet???

I don't know why I didn't think to print the words Red Velvet and French Vanilla to match the banners instead of hand writing them. I think it may have been a last minute craft and I didn't have time.



Everyone enjoyed the shower, Michael and Jennifer got lots of items for their new life together, and I didn't stress out at all! Now, let's see how I get through the wedding this Saturday....

Have a blessed day!
Lana
~*~

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Heart & Hand


A heart for an old friend,
A hand for the new :
Love can to earth lend
Heaven's hue —


{excerpt from The Watcher by James Stephens}


Have a LOVEly day!
Lana 




Love token in antique French frame may be found here.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Let's Go Shopping!

{Etsy shop ~ Dolan Geiman}





I was looking through my favorites on Etsy this morning and was somewhat surprised to have 117 pages of favorites! I have all the items in my favorites for various reasons: future purchases, a hint to my family for something I'd like as a gift, inspiring colors, antique and vintage references, items for treasury collections, items that are just plain gorgeous, etc.

I thought it might be fun to share some of my favorites with you from time to time. Each item has a link to the individual Etsy listing. Who knows, you may see something you just have to have! ;-)

Enjoy!

{Etsy shop ~ One Clay Bead}

{Etsy shop ~ MarciG, daughter of One Clay Bead}

{Etsy shop ~ Raceytay}

{Etsy shop ~ Oh This Nose}

{Etsy shop ~ Little August}

Monday, February 6, 2012

Love Tokens & A Giveaway


Hand cut, hand woven tokens of love are one of my favorite things to make. I could sit for hours sifting through my box of papers, choosing just the right piece of aged parchment paper to pair with a watercolor stained scrap. Actually, I have sat for hours doing just that very thing! One of my most recent ones is shown above in an antique red velvet frame. For the cuff, I used a piece of vintage gold foil paper salvaged from a 1930s envelope. You may see the 2012 Love Token Collection here.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, they were often made from scraps of paper that one had on hand (pardon the pun!) and given as a symbol of love and friendship. Sometimes they included a lock of hair as seen in the photo below:

{photo courtesy of AAAWT.COM}

Some of the valentines were so intricately cut and patiently woven together, it makes one marvel at the love one person had for another:

{photo courtesy of Carlson and Stevenson}

Puzzle purse valentines are another passion of mine. I make a collection each year and have done so since reading about them several years ago. After seeing the fold lines of a puzzle purse online, I made my own and worked with it until I figured out the way to fold it. This one, ca.1835, is shown fully open and framed:

{photo courtesy of Carlson and Stevenson}


My puzzle purses are made from stained, aged, and sometimes painted parchment papers. The watercolor artwork is often inspired by Frakturs of the 1700s and 1800s.

{one of my puzzle purse valentines; for sale here}

I finally listed several love tokens over the weekend. I have been collecting antique velvet and embossed frames for a few years and decided to use some of them with these pieces.

{sold ~ thank you!}

{sold ~ thank you!}


These two love tokens (above and below) are in matching frames that I purchased from a dealer in France. No, I didn't go to France but I'd LOVE to someday! It was an online purchase.

Notice FAITH on the cuff of this one. I use copies of an 18th century indentured servant letter with some of my love tokens.


{sold ~ thank you!}





{sold ~ thank you!}



If you like to see more, just head on over to the Valentines page at Honeysuckle Lane. I have everything set up with BUY NOW PayPal buttons to make shopping a breeze. :)

Now for the giveaway ~ Visit my Simple Joys Paperie Facebook page or my Honeysuckle Lane Folk Art page and click to share the giveaway post. The share link is located under the picture and in the row of words: Like * Comment * Share. When you have shared it, I'll enter your name in a drawing to be held Wednesday evening for a framed heart in hand! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by ~
Take care and God bless,
Lana

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Grateful Living



Hi everyone! I'm working on orders and valentines today, but I wanted to stop in and let you know about a (somewhat) new blog. It was started by Molly Alexander and is a place where we, the contributors, "share pieces and parts of our personal experiences with you as we do our best to walk on the sunny side of the street." You may read my first post here: Grateful Living: Lana Manis: Simple Joys.

I also wanted to let you know that TDIPT Mercantile has new items today! I forgot last night was the update and I am a little behind. I'll have my valentines on there by noon (eastern) today.




Have a blessed day!
Lana
~*~