bridal shower invitations - a photo walk through

hey peeps! so last week i busted out these invitations start to finish for erika's bridal shower, and thought i would do a quick little photo tutorial of them. yeah, they are pretty easy, but i figured why not? the part of this process i left out was the grumbling and beating of the printer while things weren't printing right... and the three cards that got stuck in it as a paper jam. so you get the pretty and sparkly part of the process!supplies
cards - mine were originally planned to be 5x7 flat cards, but when i saw pink and the right size, i bought them. came home to find they were folded cards. long story short, i liked how they turned out better
glitter - as you can see, i used pearl glitter. purchased at beverley's
modge podge
blue tape - standard painter's tape.
paint brush
paper bowl to catch falling glitter/pour back in to jar
wax paper - important if you are messy like me, and do your crafting at the same place your computer keyboard isstep one: lay out tape to section off the area(s) you want glittered. for mine, i did a basic stripe to keep it simple and classy, but still sparkly and tie in her second wedding color (orange)step two: slop on that modge podge! the lines taped off help keep everything in exactly where you want it and prevents bleeding of the modge podge.step three: carefully peel off the tape. something about the blue painters tape allows for tape to stick down and do it's job, but not rip away whatever it was stuck to. i only had a few paper peel mishaps, but with my money practically invested in blue tape stock, these slip ups were minimal.step four: pour on that glitter! i started from the top and let it drift down to the bottom that way in to the bowl. it generally stuck really well, and then i tapped the card a few time to knock off any excess glitter that may have come loose.step five: let dry. and really, that's it! i finished my cards around 3pm. then got home from work around 8pm, and they were good and ready to stack up. no glitter flaking off anywhere or anything.
and there you have it! simple, easy... only five steps to go from blah plain cards to glitter fab. let me just tell you, this whole bridal shower planning process has been very glitter involved. so come the end of april, there will be much more glitter pink & orange-ness to be shared once the bridal shower is over. stay tuned, my friends!

wordless wednesday

the "betsylu" ruby red slippers

on the other side of my life (the photography business side, of course) i have been actively working to put together my first stylized shoot. nothing super fancy or detailed. just a day of shooting a super gal i know who looks adorable in anything. it started with a red cardigan, and with every fabulous girl comes a fabulous pair of shoes, right? well, she didn't have any red shoes, so i took matters in to my own hands. a little help from pinterest, eco thrift & joanns, and my supplies were gathered. five layers of paint later, and these shoes were straight up perfection.
before: you can see the shoes were in pretty good condition. no massive wearing or anything. if i could rock a pair of heels, these shoes would have been totally perfect even without the glittering.
after: i left the heel black for two reasons. 1. because i liked them better that way. gave a little "edge" to them i felt. and 2. because i was too lazy to paint the heel. there, i said it.
as far as the brand of glitter goes... i love it. fantastic glittering without the mess of having to paint on modge podge or fabric glue and then shake glitter on. the dry time inbetween layers was SUPER easy to deal with (about an hour tops) and real easy to clean up. i used the glitter before (different color) when i painted my cap for my college graduation, and i plan to use another color in order to decorate some letters for bridal shower decor.
i've got a few more craft projects up my sleeves to do in order to deck out this faux bride to be, but as soon as the final project is photographed, i'll be sure to give y'all a photo and a link over to the full blog post on my photography page. even better, you can always head on over to the blog by clicking here and add it to your google reader and stay up to date!
glitter brand: folk art extreme glitter by plaid