Homemade Wedding Gift "Take 2"

Some good friends just got married. As I decided on a gift, I reflected on my own wedding 13 years ago.  I can only think of 3 wedding gifts that I still have and remember who gave them to me.  My wedding topper. (Which my kids just broke.  Thoughtful, I know.)  A painting made by our artist friend, Joe Penrod, and a recipe book scrapbooked for us by his wife, Michelle Penrod.  (Pictures are at the end of this blog post.)  The painting always hangs in the entryway of each house we move to.  We're military so that painting is well traveled.  :)  It's hung in at least 9 homes, 2 countries, and 6 states in those 13 years.  Several of Michelle's recipes have become family favorites and every time I open the recipe book I am amazed at the time and effort that went into the gift.

In light of these thoughts, I decided to make a personal gift for my friends.  Another picture frame similar to the first one I made HERE.  It seems to be the most popular thing on my blog.  I used their wedding invitation, save the date card, envelope and rsvp.  It has become my favorite type of art to make.  I think it turned out great.  In light of my reflections, I also decided to make my own version of a recipe book inspired by the one given to me.  I hope they like it!

This is the 4x6 picture frame.  The purple paper was the envelope the invitation came in.  That was so useful!  From working on the last 'wedding invitation picture frame' I learned that a mistake in cutting can be costly.  So this time I made several photocopies of each invitation/announcement I was going to cut up.  I could cut up the copies with no worries and once I had decided how I wanted everything, then I cut the originals.  

I always like to show the mess I make of the invitations.  This is only a 10th of the mess I made but, you get the idea.

The congratulations card I made for them.

 For the recipe book I used a photo album.  The front is also made out of the wedding invitation.

 I stamped the purple envelope paper with a background stamp in irridecent ink.  Hard to see it here but it is really pretty.

I made my recipe cards and category cards roughly a 4x6 size and slipped them into the photo slots.  The cards can be rearranged and added to easily.  The little pink tabs peeking from behind some of the cards had some extra info for the recipes and are to be removed by the recipient.  I only included a few favorite recipes so there is plenty of room for them to add their own recipe cards.

 The mini pumpkins are one of my favorite accents to any of the cards.  So cute.

If you want any of these recipes leave a comment with a way to contact you or email me at: natlukecannon@yahoo.com   and I will post them on my recipe blog.

Decapitated wedding topper.  Haven't been able to find the grooms head but I'm hoping it will turn up at our next move.

 My favorite art piece by Joe Penrod.  

A little sample of the care and hard work that went into Michelle's recipe book.

Letter envelope. A little bit different.

Here is a Thank You card I made.  It's the size and shape of a regular letter envelope.  I love the long shape.  Makes for a different, even unexpected, look.  It is not a card you open.  It's one piece of paper with a front and back.

I love to stamp on velum.  It has texture but you can see degrees of depth with it.

 Sorry the picture of the back is sideways.  Can't figure out why my pictures keep doing that.  I didn't tie the ribbon I just twisted it around and used glue dots to keep it in place.  I wrote my note on the flat part but didn't want it to show it here so I cut it off in the picture.  I think I might use this format a little more often.  Always fun to do something different.

Thank You and Get Well Cards

Here are some 'thank you' and 'thinking of you' cards I've made recently.  

 Sorry these are upside down.  I will try to fix it later.  For my mom's birthday she asked me to make some get well cards.  Here are a few I came up with.

Thank you card for our lawyer and scientist friends at Amgen that took my son around on a little tour. I know they are a little girly but whatever,  I'm a girl.  :)

 

End of year Teacher Gifts 2013

Jack made a robot card for his teachers.  The back of the plastic candy cup is tin foil for the teacher to pierce through. 

 

Here are the gifts for Ilana's teachers.  My favorite chex mix, ok the only chex mix, I like.  It is beyond addicting.  

Chex Mix Recipe:

 Judy's Chex Mix
  Crispex Cereal (1 Box)
  Large jar of Plantars roasted peanuts
  Small bag of pretzel sticks
  1 Box of light brown sugar
  2 sticks of salted butter
  1/2 cup light Caro syrup (you can find it right by the pancake syrup)
  Mini baking M & M's
  A cheap throw away turkey roasting pan.  If you get the really big one it just makes clean up way easier.
 
  Put: cereal, peanuts, and pretzels in the roasting   pan.

  Put: sugar, butter, and syrup in a pot and bring to a boil. 
          *it needs to be a FULL boil (center and  edges)  for 90 seconds.  If you don't do it long enough then  the  chex mix will end up sticky and if you do it too long it will be really hard.  So watch the clock.  

Pour: over dry mixutre and stir it up.  

 Put: in the oven at 350 for 8 minutes.  Stir itagain and put   it in for another 8 minutes.

 
  Spread  over tin foil (the new non-stick kind is best) on the  counter  to cool.  You will need a lot of counter space  so clear it off  before hand.  Add the M & M's as  soon as you can.  They  will melt a little bit and stick  to the mixture.  That is okay  because otherwise they  would all fall to the bottom of the container  and you don't  see them again until you have eatten it all.
 
  As the mixture cools it can  all lump together.  As it cools I usually go around and spearate it a little.
  

Catch Up Teacher Gifts 2.0 (for Valentines Day) 2013

My mom helped me sew this apron as a Christmas gift.  

I've seen all over these all over the internet and had to try it out.  Ha, I just realized I didn't take pictures of the final project.  Are you kidding me?  Blech!  Good thing I actually forgot to give one to Liam's speech teacher.  I'll get it out and take a picture before I post.  For heavens sakes.

*Only one picture wasn't fuzzy.

Use a razor blade to slice down the paper, much easier than just ripping it off.

 Organize  your colors.

 Chop them up on a chopping board YOU NEVER WANT TO PUT FOOD ON AGAIN.  Yeah, I ruined two of my favorite boards.  (Sigh).  The wax just doesn't come off completely no matter what.

 

 I bought a rubber mold that could go into the oven specifically for this project.  It's hard to get the wax totally off this too so I don't think I'll ever use it for food either.

 I wanted to try it out in a metal mold as well.  It was hard to get them out intact.  Won't use this again.

Catch Up Teacher Christmas Gifts

Stampin' Up Matchbox Sizzix Die.  I love these little boxes.  It's so easy to make a small gift with some chocolates.  

 Card I made years ago with my friend Leah Russel.

 Bought these little Christmas bulbs a few years ago at IKEA.  They are just the right size for a gift accent.

 I love this ornament punch from Stampin' Up.  I am sad it is retiring now.  I've seen people make the neatest things with them.  Even real looking roses.