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Getting Married: 20 Weeks – DIY Invitations #2

This week, I started working on the invitations some more. You’ll remember that last year, I started working on the hand stamps I planned to use for them. You can find that post here.

First came the wording and the placement of the text on the card stock. I have been saving wedding invites, save the dates, programs, etc for years now. I gathered them all into bag and have been reading through them, getting ideas on verbiage and layouts. Matt and I discussed certain details we wanted, needed, and didn’t need in the invitations. One detail was that we didn’t necessarily need to have the names of our parents in them. We love our parents, but we are kind of pressed for space. Also, it seems that couples include the parents’ names when the parents are the ones throwing the wedding. Given our age and stages in our careers, we’re able to handle most of it on our own, so we’re throwing our own wedding. We, therefore, settled on including the line “Together with their families.” This includes more than just our parents in the invitation as well, since we are both close to our siblings and others.

Another tricky wording was that of the reception. Our ceremony is open, but the reception is a closed event and by special invitation only. However, how do we convey that in an invitation that we will be sending to everyone? After some wordsmithing and testing phrases out, we decided to include after the ceremony details this sentence: “Private reception to follow.”  For those who are invited to join the reception, there will be a separate insert with reception information and instructions to RSVP on our wedding website.

Now we’re just trying to figure out how to print them from Matt’s printer. It works really well, but so far, I haven’t been able to save the file as a .pdf  with the right parameters of the invitations. Oh well, that problem is fairly easily solved.

Next is how to easily replicate the same pretty look of the invitations using my homemade stamps. I really wanted to use paints instead of inked stamp pads. One major problem with the stamp pads is that I could not find a good, sweet looking yellow. I looked in a bunch of different shops and couldn’t find anything…even on the Stampin’ Up page. I was shocked!

So, I opted for my old reliable medium: acrylic. I grabbed a paintbrush and painted some yellow over the stamp and then pressed down. The image was alright, but I knew I’d have to rinse off my stamp before the paint dried. FYI – acrylic paint will not wash off after it has dried onto a stamp. Wash it off immediately. This went directly against the “easy to replicate” stipulation.  When I bought the rubber pads and tools to make my stamps, I also picked up a Speedball roller and some paint for it. I tried it out just for the heck of it, but that paint is also acrylic, so that’s a no-go.

The next idea was to get some washable markers and try inking the stamps that way. The image turned out a little faint and I ended up having to use the markers to fill in spots that didn’t transfer. Also, I wanted to have more of a watercolor image and that meant using a wet paint brush to extend some of the ink. This also went against  “easy to replicate” so I went back to the internet to search for some yellow ink pads.

Success!! Amazon carries a couple different shades of larger ink pads, so I ordered them and now I just have to wait for them to arrive before I can test them out more. The following pictures will give you an idea of what my Thursday afternoon looked like.

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I can’t wait to finally get a finished product and get started on the rest of them. It will be quite a project, but I’ve got some wonderful ladies who have volunteered (right? You all did volunteer, right?????) to help me finish them. Just have to find what works best!

Did you buy your own invitations? Did you make them? What kind of roadblocks did you have?

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I’m getting married to my, you guessed it, best friend on June 1st, 2013! Matt and I are super-excited and since we have quite a bit of time to plan this thing, I decided it’d be fun to blog about it. Well, maybe not always fun, but at least informative and it might give me a welcome distraction. You can find all the posts by clicking the “Getting Married” tab on the right of this page, or by clicking here. Thanks for stopping by!

My Pinterest Wedding Board

Our Wedding Website on WeddingWire.com

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Insta-post: Paint By the Glass

Friday night, I indulged in a fun evening of painting at Paint By the Glass. I’ve gone three other times, the last one being to paint a vibrant color rendition of Union Terminal in downtown Cincinnati. This time, my mom joined me to paint Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

We have been so excited to do this one. In case you don’t know about Paint by the Glass, here’s the gist. A “class” is held and people can sign up to come to a specific painting class. The painting is sketched out on the canvas and the artist instructs and demonstrates for those in the class. They serve wine and such as well as hors d’oeuvres. You can read about my first visit here. I’ve gone with friends and also by myself and enjoyed myself in both settings. I’m not usually intimidated by flying solo for an evening.

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Sampling of the paintings they do in the class.

Some of these I hadn’t seen before; I would love to do the butterfly and flower one at the bottom!

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Nothing like well-loved brushes.

This is probably my new favorite thing! If only it didn’t come in a plastic bottle!

They always start you off with a blank canvas and the picture sketched onto it. This is the first time I’ve ever seen them give any guide to the colors and such on the canvas, but it was very helpful since there was a lot going on with this painting.

Blues are fun. This painting took a lot of blue. I mean, A LOT of blue. And yellow, but that comes later. You always start from the furthest thing back and come forward in the picture. We were supposed to do it all in flat colors, but I wanted to make mine with a little more texture before putting on the etch strokes. I like how it turned out.

Cloud etches, purple mountains and swirls in the sky

Yellow!

I wish I had paid closer attention to how big the yellow circles were and actually closed them in a bit with the blue, but it turned out alright having really large moon and stars. Making the swirls within the stars was probably my favorite part.

My final product! ‘Twill look great in The House!

I love how my tree and village turned out on the bottom. I had so much fun painting this! I think I do a lot better with more abstract painting. There aren’t as many rules, but I love coming to these classes and learning little tricks here and there to be a better painter. Kat and Ashley were the instructors that night and they were so helpful. We had such a large class that both were painting a canvas and walking around to help.

Well, you already know that I’m a pretty big nerd, but I do get it honestly! My mom loves to watch the show Doctor Who and got me hooked on it as well. One episode, I think last season, had The Doctor and companion Amy go back to visit Vincent Van Gogh. Afterwards, when they were in a modern art gallery, they looked closely and found a Tardis (his space ship) tucked into the painting. Mom was really keen on duplicating that into her painting. She got the basic shape down and then Kat (a fellow Whovian) helped fill in the details. Mom is so excited for her painting now.

Check out my previous review of Paint by the Glass here!

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Review: Paint by the Glass – West Chester, OH

 

A month or so ago, I logged into my email and found a Groupon in Cincinnati, OH for Paint by the Glass in West Chester, OH.  I had never heard of this place, but I love painting and upon reading more information, I was pretty sure I’d have a good time.

Here are the specs: 

Paint by the Glass
8179 Princeton-Glendale Rd.
Suite G.
West Chester, OH 45069
(on 747, it’s across from the Kroger)
513.874.1101
Facebook

The schedule really varies, so I’m not going to put their hours up.  Generally, the adult classes are in the evenings and the kids classes in the afternoon (2pm) but you’ll have to go to the website to check out the calendar.  The calendar features which painting they are working on which night, so you can choose the class you’d prefer to attend. 

My friend, Lanna and I went the Saturday before Valentine’s Day and had a really great time.  The painting was called “Love Tree”, for obvious reasons.  I was surprised to see so many men there, but it was a predominantly Valentine’s Day theme, so, I’m sure many of the guys were forced into it.  I did see one couple in particular, where the guy was just observing his SO painting and didn’t seem to be much preoccupied with anything else.  Anyways, since I’m not really a fan of Valentine’s Day, to spend an evening doing something crafty with my best friend was all I could have asked for this year!  We also sat at a table with a cool, trendy Christian couple and had a lot of fun talking and joking with them.

Here’s how it went:

At each table there was an easel with an unpainted canvas, an assortment of brushes, and a plate with all the primary/secondary colors and white.  Oh, and of course, a cup of water.  On the canvas, as shown to the right, the basic picture is sketched in pencil, so it’s like a paint-by-number without the numbers.  I wasn’t sure how I would feel about that, but it was really nice.

The artist (I forget her name! boo) was really great at helping us through the process.  It’s been ages since I’ve painted on canvas, so getting the pointers was really helpful.  Like, wetting your brush before blending colors.  When I paint on wood, that’s not helpful, because then it thins out the color which means I have to do multiple coats and if it’s a blended color, I don’t always have a lot of it.  But this tip was good for both surfaces: Start from the furthest area “back” and come forward.  Basically, start with the background and build on top of it. I usually do this when I paint on wood, but I wasn’t thinking about it for canvas.

So we built and built and painted and painted and blended and blended.  At this point, we took a “break” and were able to eat some of the yummy hors d’oeuvres they were serving; chocolate-covered strawberries, meatballs, veggies. 

By the way, they serve wine and such in the evenings.  If you’re not savvy to that, they also have pop available (not a huge selection, but good enough).  They also have a kids class called “Canvas & Cocoa” which is in the afternoons on Saturdays, with age-appropriate paintings with a drink/snack served as well. 

I’ve also seen a “Canvas & Causes” class posted on their calendar where certain amount of the class fee goes to a good cause.  The painting seems to be related to the cause. 

While we were painting, the artist/teacher was painting along with us, at pace, so we could see technique, ask questions about brush selection and blending, etc.  What I really enjoyed about the class is that everyone was of a different level of ability.  No one was excluded.  Also, you could choose whatever colors you wanted, and the style of painting could be whatever you felt most comfortable with, or maybe thought would best fit your home decor.  She coached but didn’t dictate or criticize.  I felt like I was back in any of my high school art classes where creativity and exploration was encouraged and only technique was taught. 

Oh, and if you’re worried about drying time, don’t be.  They have blow-dryers handy to help you get your painting nice and dry for the ride home. (Acrylic paint is a quick dry-er anyways) 🙂

I am fully expecting to go back sometime.  My only negative is the cost.  $35 for one class, and as far as I could tell, that didn’t include the drinks. (I had to pay for my Coca-Cola.)  So, here’s the breakdown:

The class:  Really fun. Casual. Definitely felt like an art studio.  Our class was scheduled to go from 6:30p-8p. I don’t think we left until a little before 10p.  But they were gracious hosts and didn’t make us feel rushed or try to shove us out the door.
The food: For hors d’oeuvres, excellent.  Just don’t go expecting them to take care of a meal.  You’re there to PAINT not dine!
The help: Everyone there was great.  The artist/teacher, it was apparently her first night, and she did a wonderful job!  Whenever we needed something, extra paint, another plate, more water, a paper-towel, etc, they were quick to get it to us.
The parking: It’s in a strip-mall across from Kroger and there is lots and lots of parking in the lot there.
The accommodations: The room is narrow but it’s easy to get yourself around the table to the food, drinks, restroom.  I was sitting pretty close to the artist/teacher, so I didn’t have any problems seeing.  I didn’t check from other parts of the room though.
The price: For the adult class, it’s kind of pricey, by my scale.  $35 for adult classes. $17.50 for Canvas & Cocoa.  There is also the option to schedule a private party, but there are no pricings available on the site for that.
Returnability:  It was a lot of fun.  And if I see a really wonderful painting on their calendar, I may fork over the moolah, if I have extra in my budget.  But really, to go back on a regular basis, it’s more than my budget of a post-college grad paying off student loans.  I’m more open to the Canvas & Cocoa though…so long as I can kidnap a kid to take with me. 🙂

from the Paint by the Glass Facebook Page (click picture to view)