Wedding Blog

I decided that as of today, I want to make my own thank you cards. You can almost see me standing underneath a ray of sunlight streaming down from the heavens, wide eyed at my revelation, as angels sing Hallelujah!

And then… you notice that I’m standing at the edge of a cliff just about ready to fall off.

I know our wedding is still about five months away, but I had this sudden urge to… craft… so I had to share my big news. Actually, this urge was more like an itch that started a while back when my FSIL hand-made a thank you card for me:

I totally fell in love with the card because the picture of her with her son (and our future ring boy) seemed so much more personal to me.  Although she insisted it didn’t take much time at all to make it, I thought it was cuter than any old Hallmark. However, it never occurred to me that I could make something like this myself.

Then my itch turned into full-blown poison ivy. You see, several weeks ago I saw Miss Eggplant’s personal blog for the first time, and almost fell over from the cuteness of her cards (seriously—go take a look! You will die). She kept talking about stamping this and stamping that and I really had no idea what she was talking about. Then it hit me. Oh my gosh. People use stamps. To make pretty things.

At first I just stalked her blog like a crazy woman. Then I scoured stamping websites for days. Using Amazon’s “universal wish list“, I added cute stamp after cute stamp, a Cuttlebug, and countless embossers to my Amazon wish list. Just for the record, for some reason I love adding things to wish lists; that way I don’t forget I want them, and just in case I can’t ever find those things again, I have record of everything. Better yet, sometimes I go back to the list months later and wonder why I wanted any of it at all. Regardless, I stopped myself from buying anything at first because I saw that this could easily become a very expensive and time consuming obsession, and I am barely getting any wedding planning done as it is.

During an impromptu trip to Michaels today however, I went a little nuts. I saw stamps and paper in a new light. I always loved this store, but all of a sudden, I knew what to look for, when previously, I’ve felt a bit lost. I recognized tools now and I knew what a “die” was, and it wasn’t a threat (har har). Then I came across these:

40 plain cards and envelopes, on sale at 2 packs for $10. Then I suddenly realized something. Why don’t I make… cards… for our wedding? Why don’t I make… THANK YOU cards… for our wedding? No two cards would be the same. It would be a personal labor of love. And yes it’s a lot of work, but once I get the hang of it, won’t it get easier? Can you just SEE me basking in my epiphany in the middle of the paper aisle at Michaels? I bought two packages of plain cards and envelopes, lots of card stock, a few stamps, some ribbon, and other minor supplies to get me started. When I got home I called Mr. Martini to see what he thought of the idea, and he actually loved it!

And so, my craft adventure begins. I really can’t wait to make my first card—I decided to send the first one to my FSIL along with a copy of Twilight. I promised to buy her a copy because (gasp) she hasn’t read it yet (I know).

I just hope it doesn’t suck… and I end up falling over that cliff.

Any tips for a new DIY’er like myself?  Are there supplies that I can’t live without?