The One With the Other Kind of Cupcakes

Having survived (both financially and physically) a pretty dangerous clearance sale at Sur la Table, I had a new brownie cup pan that just needed to be tried out. It makes a new kind of cupcakes... cakes that are actually cups for holding other delicious things.

Experiment Number One: Strawberry Shortcakes


They were simply delicious. The dough was unsweetened, so I doused the strawberries in sugar and that made up for it.

Experiment Number Two: Brownies filled with pudding. This time it was chocolate pudding. But I also tried French Vanilla the other day and it was also scrumptious.


Next up: Ice cream filling of some kind... maybe a sponge cake or two as well.

The One With Kaycie and Erich's Engagement Pictures

Yes, I realize that I already posted about Kaycie and Erich's wedding. But I wanted to backtrack and post pictures from their engagement shoot. (Photography by Michelle).

The One With the Handmade Thank You Cards

Michelle made these Thank You cards by hand. She used the same stamp that appeared on the rest of the wedding suite and hand calligraphed the lettering. Sweet and simple, these cards will be be the perfect reminder of the couple's special day.

More of the Metzelaars Wedding

Michelle designed these bridal shower invitations. And the wedding programs pictured below.

The One With the First Attempt

Well, here it is. My first attempt at hand-drawn art computerized via the Bamboo Pen and Touch. It's not a great first attempt, but it is an attempt nonetheless. This particular illustration will be appearing on a card for my sister-in-law, Annette, who just had a baby girl, Carly. (Click on the picture to view in better quality.)

The One With the Metzelaars Wedding

Last weekend, we celebrated the wedding of our dear friends Kaycie and Erich Metzelaars. It was great fun hosting the wedding at Maple Leaf Events in Stevenson, Washington. It was, in every way possible, the perfect wedding.
Check out some of the process:

First things first: Save the Dates
Michelle designed these Save the Dates using Adobe Photoshop CS3. They perfectly fit the fun, flirty and casual style the bride and groom were going for with their wedding.Wedding Invitations:
The DIY package of invitations was purchased at Michael's and is from the Martha Stewart collection of wedding invitations. It was even on sale! And then came the fun part. We brainstormed to figure out the coolest way to make the invitations unique for Kaycie and Erich.
So we found a cool flower stamp for the accents and clear letter stamps by Inkadinkado to create the monogram with their initials. We used a coral stamp pad and clear embossing powder on the monogram to make it stand out. And it was all put together assembly-line style by the very talented bridesmaids! Each envelope was hand-addressed in a casual, yet pretty style:

And when the big day finally arrived, the simple and elegant touches made it a celebration to remember:
The bride getting ready.She wore a birdcage veil handmade by her mother.
And a strand of pearls from her mother-in-law.Michelle, matron of honor, and Ellie, flower girl.
Mallory was also a bridesmaid-extraordinaire. More to come: Cheesecake bar for dessert, unique programs and handmade "Thank You" cards

The One with the Photo Book

I'm all about sweet and simple gifts. For our recent graduation from college, I wanted to commemorate some of the wonderful times I have had with my girlfriends. Of course, with a baby, finals and a husband also trying to graduate, I didn't have much time for an elaborate gift nor did I have a lot of money for something expensive. My solution: Handmade Photo Books (x3). I loved them so much I made one for myself after graduation.My idea evolved as I worked: I started out with a stack of 4.5 x 6.5 inch photo frame cardstock from Michael's. I knew I wanted to have them bound together in some form, so I cut 4.5 x 7 inch white card stock to mount my frames and pictures on. The extra .5 inch in length was for the binding in the end.After mounting each photo and frame on either sides of the white cardstock, I made little, handwritten labels. Normally, I am far to obsessive to write my own labels in my scrapbooking attempts, but I did for this because I wanted it to be as reminiscent and hand-made as possible.

When that was all said and done and I headed to our school's graphics lab to employ cheap production while I still could. However, this would not be expensive to do anywhere (another thing that makes this gift so great!)I used a cold laminating machine to laminate the cover and back page in order to protect the book. (A hot laminating machine did not work because of the multiple layers of the sheets). Beware the cold lamination - at least the stuff I used -has only one transparent side, so you can't have a picture on the backside of your lamination.)

After the lamination, I took the cover, back and all the inside pages to have them bound in a print shop. It cost me about $3 to have all four photo books bound. Be sure to specify that you want a loose comb binding - don't let them bind it too tight or it will be difficult to use and won't lay flat when you're finished.

This project is so simple! You could easily whip one together for a friend's birthday or to commemorate an event or vacation. I love that it doesn't require the same level of commitment as a scrapbook can: it only has to be as big as you want it to be and it is much less expensive to put together.

And the finished product looks great in any living room!