Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Vintage Book Decor ~ Rehearsal Dinner



Our sweet son just got married this past weekend in Chicago and I had the fun of putting together the decor for it!  

The dinner was held at a fabulous eclectic place in Logan Square called JAM.  Please give them a look-see at jamrestaurant.com, and make a point of dining here for breakfast, brunch, or lunch if you are in the area.  We had TONS of comments on the delicious and different foods that Chef Jeffrey Mauro served for our buffet dinner.  The service is fabulous, the building is gorgeous, and it's refreshing and different...but not weird.  :)  Chef Jeffrey is actually going to be featured on the Food Network this Spring in an episode of The Sandwich King!  

Our son loves to read and has alot of vintage books and vintage decor in his Chicago condo, so I found it a perfect match to use vintage books as the theme for my handmade decor.  I barely had to buy anything, as I already had vintage books to use for crafting and others to use for stacking.  So this was a very inexpensive genre to use, and so much fun!  I'll blog about the different things I made in several parts.  
I found this fantastic idea of 'book flowers' HERE...a big thank you to the creative blogger, Sara, who posted this tutorial!! I looked at our thrift store and found ONE vintage book with colored page edges.  For $1, I bought it, removed the cover with a craft knife, and it was rather easy to then do all the tucking of segments of pages.  A rubber band keeps it in place, and the ribbon dresses it up and covers the rubber band.


Isn't it pretty when the colored edge shows?  The spine of this book was too stiff to allow the book to bend completely around into a circle, but it worked GREAT as a half circle.
I made about 50 of these paper tags to dress the favors with, and used one of them to go in the center of the ribbon...the finishing touch.  More on these toppers another time.

Ready to try this project for yourself?!  It makes a great centerpiece for a table, but it's now also standing on my fireplace mantel here at home!  :)  Let me know if you make one!
Come back soon to see some of the other projects I made, including vintage page table runners, buntings, tags, and favors.

Enjoy!


Blessings,

Donna
Linked to:
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My Romantic Home
Sunday Showcase
Sew Many Ways
Sweet Little Gals
Shabby Art Boutique
Finding Fabulous
Shaken Together

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Family Binder For My Daughter in Law {Love}




Our son is getting married in 10 days!  We are excited for the wedding and the joy this marriage will bring.  I had the joy of traveling to Chicago for our new daughter-in-law's bridal shower in February.  Besides purchasing a gift for them from their registry, I wanted to create something more personal and unique for them.  I decided to make a Family Binder for our new daughter in law, so that she could have some info and dates and recipes from our family available for when she wants or needs them.  It turned out well and was a fun gift to make.

In the first page protector sleeve, I placed a letter I had written to her...telling her how much we love her and are excited to have her in our family.


I thought that putting our son's family tree in the binder might be helpful someday if they need the full names of some of our family members.

I created a page of all of the birthdays of our son's side of the family, and what year they were born.  

The email addresses of all the family members.

Some Hayden Family favorite recipes, and the little stories behind these dishes.



More recipes




I also included 3 pages of photos of our son during his growing up years, so she can see how their children resemble him for the future.


The ladies at the shower passed around the book and enjoyed looking through it.

And here is the lovely bride to be...the next Mrs. Hayden!

I decorated the front clear pocket of the binder with some vintage book hearts that I handstitched together with embroidery thread.  I also made their last name initial out of 2 colors of paper plus a vintage book page.  And lastly some little book page birds, and a part of our daughter in law's favorite quote.


Consider this idea as a creative, helpful, thoughtful gift for any new bride to be!

Thank you for stopping by!


Blessings!

Donna

Linked to:
My Romantic Home
JoJo and Eloise
Sunday Showcase


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