i'm sew not crafty

I’ve always so admired crafty people like Katie, Sarah, Michelle, and Melissa.  People who can take a piece of felt and a glue stick and create a masterpiece.

I’m not a crafter. In any sense of the word. I can’t sew myself out of a corner.  The only time I’d ever use craft to describe me, would be followed by the words mac’n'cheese.

I subscribe to no less than 50 craft, design, and fashion blogs, wide-eyed gazing at the posts in my Google Reader like a little girl would tear through a Tiger Beat issue. It’s sad, yes. But I am an admirer of crafty design, not a possessor of the skills required.

I usually find that when I get something in my head, it won’t get out ’til I satisfy it. And for months I’ve been determined to find a stress relieving hobby that does not require me staring at a computer for 20 hours a day. However, I never expected to summon my crafting desire at midnight on a Tuesday in a 24 hour Kinko’s in Katy, TX.

If you are a reader of this blog, you’ll recall that this year I am attending 15 weddings. Four of those which I am either in or helping to plan.   Over the next 10 weeks alone I will be hosting 2 bridal showers, organizing 1 couples shower, planning 2 bachelorette parties and attending 3, 2 bridal luncheons, 4 rehearsal dinners, and attending 5 weddings.  And that only takes us up to August 31st. Then begins fall wedding season. I’ll spare you the details. Plus, I’ve gotta leave something for you to read in the book I’m writing about all of it!

So takes me to Monday night. Sitting at dinner with Amber talking about the upcoming 3 weeks of wedding festivities upon me. I had searched all day for bridal shower invites for a shower I am hosting in a few weeks.  I really needed to get the invites out stat, and couldn’t find anything I was looking for. Amber suggested Michael’s and I immediately perked up. I had been searching at every stationery store I could find in Houston. (Actually have a later post planned on this, found some great places!) But nothing had what I was looking for color and budget-wise.

The thought of going to Michael’s always intrigues me. Much like things normal people do, like grocery shopping, when I am in Michael’s, I feel like part of a society of crafty people. “Ah, yes, can  you point me in the direction of the paper mache aisle,” I could hear myself casually say. Or exchange jovial beading tips with whoever happened to be standing on the bead aisle. (Did you know there is a whole aisle of beads?!). Dreams, all dreams.

It was 8:30pm and I was in the city. I had to get the invitations out by the next morning, and the closest Michael’s to my parents was in Copperfield, and closed at 9pm.  I had my mission.

I promptly thanked Amber, and headed out 290 like a wild woman. I arrived at Michael’s 10 minutes before closing. The large front display windows glowed in the otherwise empty suburban strip mall parking lot like an oasis in the desert.  I tore through the aisles, of course having no idea where invitation supplies would be. Passed it up about 3 times. Finally got to the “wedding aisle.” Yes, there’s one of those, too.

I quickly grabbed a modern looking Red & White invitation kit from Gartner Studios, a box of blue favor boxes, a roll (do they call these rolls?) of red ribbon, and a tin of blue flower confetti. Oh, and gel glue.  Martha Stewart brand gel glue. I figured I couldn’t go wrong with anything that said Martha Stewart on the label.  I can’t even explain what made me grab those items. It was as if my hands were possessed. I had no idea what I would do with them once I got home, but I knew I need to get 40 invitations in the mail by the morning.

After a stop at CVS for mailing labels, I arrived back to my parents’ house about 10pm. I felt like I was cramming for a college exam. I spread the contents of all the boxes out on the floor and got to work.

I had seen a party theme on one of my favorite event design sites, Hostess with the Mostess, for a Red & Aqua modern kitchen shower. I’m an event planner.  I can make events happen.  Crafting?  Not so much. Little did I know I was in for a night full of lessons, experiments, and fun.

The invites I got came in a cool packaged set which included a white card stock, printable (or so i thought at the time) invitation, a red scalloped invitation cover, a reply card and return envelope, and a white ribbon and decorative paper center piece that reminded my of snowflakes we would cut into pieces in art class. 40 of each. All for only $25. This was the best part. Cheap. The invites were supposed to look like this when assembled:

I ditched the white ribbon and snow flake and got to work on the invitation wording.  I found lots of cute wordings on the web and decided on a playful one.  The invitation set came with instructions on downloading an online template for both the invitation and the reply card. Since I wasn’t using them for a traditional wedding invite, I made the reply card into a gift registry notification. I downloaded a modern looking font, and I was ready to print. Or so thought I was.  It was about this moment that I realized the only printer we had at the house was black and white. I need a color laser printer, and the closest 24 hour Kinko’s was in Katy. Nothing was stopping me now. I gathered up all the supplies, and headed for Katy, TX.

When I arrived, I made besties with the night staff there.  It was now 1am and I’m sure my frenzied state and the determined looking in my eye humored them to no end. I handed over the invite cards, gave him the template on a jump drive and figured we were go to go. The invite cards that came with the box had a pearlized texture, and raised flower embellishments on the corners and border. Once he ran the invite through the ultra hot industrial machine, all of these details were flattened. No time to waste, we quickly came up with a solution.  He cut similar sized card stock into the size I needed, and we were back in business. At that minute, I knew what I would use the confetti for.

I broke out the box of blue confetti and began to glue 3 pieces at the bottom and one at the top, where the raised embellishment had been. It actually turned out more of a look that I wanted than the original paper. Much more modern looking on the plan white paper. I high-fived the Kinko’s night team and was out the door.  Pushing 2am at this point.

I returned home, finished gluing 4 flowers on 40 invitations. stuffed the invites in the covers, replaced the white ribbon with blue ribbons that happen to come with the blue gift boxes, and wrapped the red ribbon around the cover of the blue gift boxes. Brilliant! I had to say, I was super proud of myself. Oh, I left out the part about adhering all of the mailing labels to the envelopes while on my way to kinko’s. While DRIVING.  Yes, I’m a dangerous multi-tasker.

The end product turned out like this:

It was nearly 4am by the time I got all of the invites stuffed, addressed and ready for mailing. I have to admit, the feeling of accomplishment outweighed the exhaustion. This small project made me feel that maybe I’m not so craft-challenged afterall. Maybe, just maybe there’s hope for me yet.

View the set of images on Flickr here.

Tags: arts, bridal shower, craftiness, invitations, shower, weddings