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Mrs. Hydrangea, Dallas Age and Occupation: 26, Administrative Assistant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Network Analyst Engagement Date: June 2007 Wedding Date: September 2008 Blogging Since: January 14, 2008 Venue: Catholic Church and Reception at The W Hotel About Me: Mr. H and I come from very different cultures and backgrounds so I'm excited to plan our wedding with a balance of both traditions. My mom has always been a DIY queen, and I'm just now starting to get into it with a new house and a wedding to plan!
About Mrs. Hydrangea

My First DIY

February 5th, 2008 @ 10:57 am by Mrs. Hydrangea

I wanted to give my bridesmaids something thoughtful when I asked them to be a part of my big day. But then I procrastinated…and waited a little more…and put it on the backburner. With 8 months to go, I figure I better get a move on it.

I decided instead of just scratching the project and asking them via phone, I would go ahead with what I had planned. There are a few elements to the gift, and the first element is a homemade card. Each one of them will receive a similar card, but the dress on the front will be different. I also had to create one groomsman card for one of Mr. H’s guys that isn’t local.

All of the products are from Michael’s. I went into a local scrap-booking store first, but was so intimidated and confused, I went back to a place where I felt comfortable for my first project.

The Materials

Step One

I started by taking my cute black and white damask wrapping paper (found during Christmas at, of all places, Old Navy), tracing the size of the envelope onto the backside and cutting it accordingly. Then, I took the adhesive tape and put in on one half of the card. I wrapped that half first, then folded it over and finished wrapping the card.

Step Two

The next step was to cut out the black cardstock to place on the front. I pretty much eyeballed the first one and then cut the other three to the same size. I also cut out the white cardstock, ½” shorter in the width and height and used the adhesive to attach it to the black cardstock.

Step Three

I placed the cardstock onto the card wrapped in the damask paper. I then used adhesive squares to attach the dresses and give them a 3-D look. The dresses were found on istockphoto and I printed, cut out and traced them onto the remaining black cardstock. Since I am going to have black bridesmaid’s dresses, I figured this would be perfect. (And I can use the images over and over for other print projects in the future!)

After the first couple of cards, I got a little fancy and did some rounded corners. The more I worked on them, the braver I was to play around a bit. I was going to put something cute on the front with my own writing, but was worried about messing up the whole thing after all that work, so I left it as is.

The inside of the girls’ cards said the following:

I wanted to pick something
You all would like

that way you wouldn’t
have any gripes

As much as I looked
and as much as I liked

I just couldn’t justify
paying that price
So for my big day,

this is all that I ask

Please pick something black

And pick something long

And please don’t let me see

your boobs or your thong

Your hair and your maeup

are all on me

As long as you are
my bridesmaid to be!

The boys’ card said the following:

I always knew one day
I’d be a groom
I just never knew who

would fill the room
The time is now here

and I
must decide
Who I want to stand

When I take my bride

It would be a great honor

If you would agree

To stand at the altar

And be a groomsman for me!

I placed each card inside these cute damask boxes filled with tissue paper. Along with the card and box was a personalized photo album for each girl (more on that fiasco to come)! The girls really loved the cards, which, ultimately, was most important to me. I’m just relieved it all turned out well. Since I’m not very sentimental, I felt uncomfortable getting all mushy when asking them, so, instead, I handed them their presents and let them read the card.


I can only aspire to be as great as some of our other crafty Bees, but I have to say I did enjoy my first DIY project. Hopefully this is the first of many to come!

**On a side note…I am no poet, nor do I even claim to know the proper ways to form a poem. I just did them on the fly and wrote them down to my best ability :)

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26 Responses to “My First DIY”

1.
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Guest
Mrs. Designher

OMG that is too AWESOME!! The paper AND the poem ROCK :) Can I steal them? :)

 
2.
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Bee
Miss Cherry Blossom (message)  696 posts, Busy bee

love the paper! what a sweet gift and poem! HI FIVE!

 
3.
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Member
angiepangie (message)  157 posts, Blushing bee

Those boxes are awesome! Did you get them at Michael’s too?

 
4.
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Guest
NH

really cute.. fun and sweet :-)

 
5.
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Bee
Miss Canary (message)  636 posts, Busy bee

Ooooh very pretty Miss H! I love the poems!

 
6.
Miss Toucan
Bee
Miss Toucan (message)  984 posts, Busy bee

Those came out great, Miss H! I loooove the paper!

 
7.
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Guest
Jeanne

Oh i love the boxes. Where did you get them?

 
8.
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Bee
Miss Hydrangea (message)  386 posts, Helper bee

Thanks for the compliments!

The damask boxes and paper I found at Old Navy during Christmas. Not sure if you can still find it somewhere online or not though :(

 
9.
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Guest
beanchar

Very crafty and cute! Brava!

 
10.
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Guest
SB

I bought 6 rolls of that wrapping paper @old navy after xmas for $1 each! I got 3 rolls of b&w and 3 rolls of black & gold. nice job!

 
11.
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Bee
Miss Lovebug (message)  714 posts, Busy bee

Awww, that’s sweet! I love the paper, too. Maybe that’s why I had to fire my bridesmaids? Because I didn’t ask them in a proper, super cool way like this? Kudos!

 
12.
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Guest
camillec

One of the cutest DIY card designs ever - I may steal your “vision”. You did great. The wording was hilarious for the girls.

 
13.
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Guest
ErinMarieMack

A wonderful way to ask the gals and still retain your “non mushy” style. I love it!! The poem is definitely the icing on the cake and the way that everything coordinated perfectly is impressive!

For others who are looking for ideas, I used
http://www.classybride.com. They have great shirts that say BM, MOH, etc. that come in adorable boxes that say “Will you be my?”…. So far, no one has been able to resist!

Thanks for great reading material on a sick day!!

 
14.
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Guest
ErinMarieMack

Oops! I entered the link wrong. It should be:
http://www.classybride.com

 
15.
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Guest
Sarah

As an aside, I’m a big-time go-gettin’ scrapbooker, and even I say those scrapbook stores are just too much. A coworker of mine got married four or five years ago and has yet to do an album for herself, because every time she goes into a scrapbook store she’s overwhelmed with new ideas. I’ll do it all in black and white! I’ll attach all the lettering with brads! Meanwhile, she’s spent a pile o’ money on stickers and paper, and accomplished nothing.

So, yeah. Go to Michael’s. Go to Hobby Lobby. Go to a Super Walmart. Go to the store that has what you need.

 
16.
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Member
julieulie (message)  266 posts, Helper bee

I’m not a sappy, sentimental person either, so I did a humorous card to ask my bridesmaids to be my bridesmaids. I did it early on, however, so it was the first they knew they were going to be asked, and since I’m a plane ride away from most of them and knew I wouldn’t be seeing them for another 6 months - 1 year, I couldn’t give them out in person.

I made a card and on the front, found different pictures of the UGLIEST possible bridesmaid dresses I could find, and photoshopped their faces into the dress. It was a HUGE hit! My two best friends are male, so I asked them to be ushers, and I photoshopped their heads onto a slew of different bridesmaid dresses and wrote them a little poem about how I just couldn’t find a great bridesmaid dress for them, so how about they just wear a tux and be an usher instead. I knew my laboratory-learned photoshopping skills would come in handy someday!

 
17.
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Bee
Mrs. Apple (message)  23 posts, Newbee

very cute!

 
18.
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Guest
December

It’s super cute, but I have to wonder what the groomsmen thought. I can just see my man’s friends going, “What the crap is this? She came up with it, right?” :)

 
19.
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Guest
Grace Kim

I also wanted to ask - is your fiance ok with you sending this card to his groomsman for him? My fiance would definitely nix the poem in less than a second.

 
20.
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Member
bbg-girl (message)  36 posts, Newbee

love the cards!

 
21.
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jnicholea

That is so adorable! You claim not to b a big DIY’er and so you have given me hope! I can create something like this I think. Who wouldn’t want to be your bridesmaid after getting something like this?

 
22.
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Bee
Miss Hydrangea (message)  386 posts, Helper bee

December & Grace - I only made one card for the lone groomsman that doesn’t live in Dallas. His wife is one of my bridesmaids and the poem is in my handwriting so they know that part was me! Mr. H wrote his own little note on the left hand side that was much more manly, lol. The rest of the groomsmen are being taken out to dinner!

 
23.
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Weddingbee » Blog Archive » Memory Books

[...] second part of my gift for the BMs was a photobook. I looked at many different sites to see which one gave me the best options, but [...]

 
24.
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johnsbridesept08

Thanks SOOO much for sharing! I have been searching high and low for a groomsmen poem that wasn’t too cheesy or silly! I am glad you shared THANKS so much!!!

 
25.
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Guest
Confession: I’m kinda crushing on the suitcases I bought for the bridesmaids. « Confessions of a reluctant bride or: how I learned how to stop worrying and love the bomb.

[...] first contact with these suitcases was from reading a weddingbee post–one of the lovely Bees was a.) making her bridesmaids a little “will you be my [...]

 
26.
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Inclusiveness and drama « Repeat Bride

[...] Draw application.  The font is Jane Austen from daFont.com (love), and I borrowed Mrs. Hydrangea’s dress outline (as well as the idea to make the dresses black).  In the space next to the dress, I’ve [...]

 


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Mrs. Hydrangea Mrs. Hydrangea, Dallas Age and Occupation: 26, Administrative Assistant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Network Analyst Engagement Date: June 2007 Wedding Date: September 2008 Blogging Since: January 14, 2008 Venue: Catholic Church and Reception at The W Hotel About Me: Mr. H and I come from very different cultures and backgrounds so I'm excited to plan our wedding with a balance of both traditions. My mom has always been a DIY queen, and I'm just now starting to get into it with a new house and a wedding to plan!
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