We were finally able to (almost) surprise my parents with their 40th anniversary party this weekend. Now, my family is not one of those families where everyone is happy all the time, so of course there was some drama, but I can honestly say that we all enjoyed revisiting old memories and even made some new ones! :-) My cousin Sara was sweet enough to take pics, so as soon as she edits and uploads them I can post more for you. In the mean time, I will share some of the preparations with you!
We chose a country theme (
not country-western...just country! There IS a difference, as I learned from my little sister!). And these are the invitations we sent out:
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| The verse above the bow says: SHHHHH!!!! It's a Surprise Party, so don't tell a soul! Tommy and Cheryll have made it to ruby, now they're headed to gold! |
I used burlap (which I bought online by the bolt so we could have plenty for decor and such) and ivory-colored cardstock, with jute twine tied around the cardstock. To adhere the cardstock to the burlap, I just used double-sided tape and to adhere the bow and string of twine around the cardstock, I used Tacky Glue. Because of the bow, the USPS couldn't send the invitations through their machines, so we had to pay extra postage for each of the invitations (still only $0.65, though). The envelopes were just catalog-style 6x9 envelopes from office depot that I used an inkpad in "weathered burlap" (I think is the name of the color) to make it look like wood slats. I actually came upon that technique/look by accident, but hey, it worked!! ;-)
For favors, we decided to make coasters! Our cousin (another one - I have about 3 million cousins...) Amanda (btw, Amanda also did a CRAZY amount of work for the party, too!! We SOOOO could not have done this without her!!) donated about 130 tiles for me to customize. My sister and I chose to put a "love" themed quote on each coaster. Originally, I was going to design them on the computer with some country-themed artwork, but I stumbled across a burnt paper quote somewhere...probably pinterest...and fell in LOVE (pun intended) with just using a very simple primitive country font to make each quote the focal point. Here are some pics of our work:
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| This is after printing, trimming and burning the quotes . It took a while, but I love the primitive look it contributes to the tiles! To burn paper like this just youtube "burn paper tutorial". There's plenty of great tips out there! |
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| My first three. I used Mod Podge as the main adhesive/sealant and did one coat all over (brushing L-R), then placed the quote, then after the first coat dried, I did a second coat L-R, then a THIRD coating I did up and down to create a cross-hatch, fabric effect. VERY cool, but my iPhone didn't catch that detail. ;-) THEN, because I read somewhere that the Mod Podge doesn't make it waterproof, we used a clear acrylic spray to seal it. (Just noticing that there is a lot of blurry images below - my apologies!! If it was too hard to read, I tried to include the quote in the caption beneath the pic) |
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| Sorry for the blur - this is the chorus of "When You Say Nothing At All". Notice the soot on the left. I had to keep reminding myself that the beauty of hand-made is that not all of the items will be perfect....I still had my favorites, though! |
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| From an Alan Jackson song -- that man writes some great love songs for married people!! LOL |
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| One of my sister;s quotes that wound up being one of my favorites. |
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| "A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers." -- a quote by Ruth Bell Graham, wife of Billy Graham. |
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| "A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person" - Mignon McLaughlin |
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| 1 Cor 13:13 |
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| 1 Cor 13 |
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| A quote I found YEARS ago...I want to make me and my hubby a plaque with this on it but haven't gotten around to it yet... |
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| Marriage is our last, best chance to grow up. - Joseph Barth |
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| We don't have much...but we have love. And that's enough. - me! --Taken from the song I wrote for the parents. |
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| Don't know where I found this, but I LOVE it!! |
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| "Sometimes two people have to fall apart to realize how much they need to fall back together" - source unknown |
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| from my FAVORITE Alan Jackson song Like Red on a Rose: "I love you like all little children love pennies. And I love you 'cause I know that I can't do anything wrong. You're where I belong - like red on a rose" |
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| And this is the rows and rows of coasters by husband and friends Darin and Judy helped us to make!! |
To finish the coaster, we Tacky Glued felt to the back of the tile to protect furniture surfaces. Of course you can use these tiles for accent artwork or anything, but we kept calling them coasters, so that's what they became. ;-)
We also used mason jars as center pieces and did burlap wraps and things for them, but I will make that a post later. Right now, I must find my bed! It's been a CRAZY weekend and my hubby is going to be gone this next week to the
South GA Church of God Campmeeting (he's leading worship Wednesday morning!! Follow the link to watch live!!) so I will be single-parenting-it this week since my son's school doesn't celebrate their last day of school until FRIDAY! Sheez...I don't know of any other school district in session this late...
Hope you have a GREAT week!!!
