Weddingbee Blog

This past weekend, Mr. Cloud and I made the trip to Scituate, Massachusetts where my parents live, for my second bridal shower! While we were there we took care of quite a few wedding tasks, and saw lots of old friends and family. The entire weekend was hosted by Mama and Daddy Cloud, including the shower on Saturday and a big cookout on Sunday. I just can’t think of a better way to spend a few days!

I should probably share a little back story. I have mentioned this before, but I wanted to clarify a bit how everyone ended up where they are. Daddy Cloud was in the Army when I was young, and we landed in Northern Virginia. Brother Cloud and I both left that area to go to college (I to Richmond, and  he to Virginia Beach). After being empty nesters for a while, they decided to move “home” to Massachusetts. Going from being about an hour and a half away from them to over a ten hour drive has been harder then I could have imagined, especially now that I am planning the wedding, I miss Mama Cloud more and more with every big decision we make about the wedding.

I knew she was going all out this weekend. Like mother, like daughter! Very few details were going left untouched. Right down to the special hand towels to be placed in the bathroom (I promise I will blog more about the shower soon!). After all her hard work, I couldn’t go without giving her at least a small gift of thanks (even though she insisted over and over I didn’t). When she was down a few months ago, she mentioned that a neighbor had given her a basket of fruits and muffins with a tiny card tucked in. She was looking for similar cards, but was striking out everywhere. Well, my creative wheels started turning, and the night before we headed up north, I decided to make her the cards she had been searching for!

Mama Cloud and I both love the look and feel of embossing. And to be honest, even though I have done it a ton of times on a ton of projects, I am still just fascinated by the whole process! Magic, I tell ya – and super easy! I was really intimidated by it before I tried embossing, but I seriously emboss anything and everything I possibly can now, and people are always impressed… if only they knew!

First, I gathered my supplies:

1. Cards to emboss (and envelopes)
2. Ink of choice (NOT a quick dry; most will even say for embossing right on them. If it dries too fast, your powder won’t stick)
3. Embossing powder (I have used that little jar on 6 or 7 projects now; it lasts forever!)
4. Stamp (I have had more success with rubber then anything else, but that could very well be user error.)
5. Embossing gun (I had read somewhere that you could also use a blow dryer, and I tried that once when I had ‘misplaced’ the gun, and it was a nightmare. It takes longer to heat up and isn’t as easy to control. I got this at Michael’s only $20 before a 40% off coupon, of course, and was well worth the money.)
6. 2 pieces of paper (one flat as a work surface for easy clean up, and the second folded length wise)

I started by doing six cards at a time, stamping then dumping a bunch of powder on top. As I got lazy, I was up to ten cards at a time. It all depends on the ink you are using, really.

I always have that folded paper to dump the extra powder onto, and then I just pour it right back into the little jar. They actually sell small trays for this, but an old scrap of paper works just fine for me!

Hit them with the embossing gun and wrap them up! You can see them dry, and it only takes a second. Since the ink dries with the powder, they can also be wrapped up right away! They were a hit with Mama Cloud. Even Daddy Cloud was impressed!

Did you make any little gifts to say thanks to a hostess or parent that has done a lot for you?