Wedding Wednesday with Artline - Wedding favours

I'm still feeling all loved up after the royal wedding celebrations and it's my own anniversary soon so I thought I'd fit in another wedding themed post.  I got married on a beach in Jamaica and didn't have to plan anything other than my dress and shoes as it was all done for me (which I am grateful for!) but it's kind of nice to write these posts and go through the process as if I was arranging my own fantasy wedding now.   

Today I'm thinking about wedding favours, they are a lovely little thank you for your guests who have taken time out of their busy lives to get dressed up and come and celebrate your special day with you.  They don't have to be expensive but they are a nice little touch for the tables at your wedding reception.

Wedding favours and place cards

I love arts and crafts so I would definitely make my own instead of buying premade or filled favours.  I brought some packs of favour boxes and matching place cards from my local Home Bargains but you can find them at craft shops and online places like eBay and Amazon too.  I decided my colour theme would be gold and bronze and I got out my metallic Artline Supreme markers to add some colour to the plain white products.

Colouring in the favour boxes

I have said before that I love colouring and I find it really relaxing so I would do a few of these in batches each evening until I had enough for all of the guests.  I used the Supreme markers to colour in sections of the cut out design on the boxes and then did the same on the matching place cards.  Colouring them in means you can make them fit the colour scheme of your wedding and makes them a bit different to everyone else's who brought the same sets as you.  You can make them all unique to your big day!

I also used the Supreme markers to write the guests names on the place cards after I had coloured them in.

Adding a touch of colour to the place cards

Unless you have a lot of space to store the favours I wouldn't assemble and fill the boxes until much closer to the wedding, I'd probably invite a few friends around to help me as well!  They are easy to fold into shape and fill with some kind of sweets, I went with sherbet lemons because they're my favourite.  Then it was just a case of threading the ribbons through the top of the boxes and tying them with a bow.

I would also keep the place cards flat and unfolded until it was time for them to go onto the tables as this way they are less likely to get damaged.

My unique favours and place card

I think they look really pretty and much nicer than plain white, what do you think?

If you are looking for more wedding inspiration check out my previous posts here and if wedding planning is making you feel a little stressed then I have some ideas about ways to relax for you too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Planner Friday - May

I'm making plans for my perfect summer over on the Trendy Twine blog today!  

Summer is just around the corner and I can't wait!  Spring has been a mixed bag this year, we've had a lot of rain and even some snow this side of the pond so I am looking forward to spending time outside in the sunshine more than ever right now.  Today I thought I would document my ideal summer in my travellers notebook using some of my favourite APB stamps to really get me in the mood!

Products used:

Documenting The Everyday stamps

Documenting The Everyday #2 stamps

Choose Happy stamps

Perfect Pairs stamps

You & Me stamps

Used but not pictured:

Foodies stamps

Drinks & More stamps

How's The Weather? stamps

Weekend script stamp

Camera paper clip

My perfect summer

So as you can see most of my favourite summer activities involve some kind of food!  Whenever I think of summer I always picture BBQs, ice cream and chilled glasses of wine, get togethers with family and friends and adventures!  

You can read the rest of my post here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Artline Monday - Artline Heroes

Is it a bird?  Is it a plane?  No it's a pen.... actually it's an Artline Hero!  If you are looking for some super fun activities to keep your children occupied over the upcoming school holiday then you are going to love the Artline Heroes!

Artline Heroes

They have just taken over the Artline website and there are games and printables you can print off to keep your little ones busy during the break.  There is also a great competition to design a superhero mask and win a big bundle of Artline goodies.  What's not to love?

You can find the game sheets here, there are a maze, wordsearch and follow the line activities.  Just click on each sheet you want to print, it is really simple to do!  I have printed mine off already but I'll be saving them for next week.

Fun and games with Artline Heroes

The competition is here, print off the templates and let your children get to work designing their own superhero masks.  Get them to pop on their masks and take a photo of them striking their best superhero pose and then share your photos online with @ArtlineOfficial and use the tag #ARTLINEHEROES for your chance to win the big prize!

Designing the masks

Here is my youngest wearing her mask, she's Star Girl and she is ready to join the Artline Heroes!

#ArtlineHeroes

You have plenty of time to get your entries in, the competition is open until the 31st August.  My girls loved making their masks, in fact they have asked me if they can make some more so I have printed off a few extra templates and they can get creative again over the holiday.  

I can't wait to see everyone's photos!

New Japan Candy Box - Review and giveaway

Hello!  I've got some exciting news for you today, Japan Candy Box have recently turned three years old and to celebrate they have redesigned and updated their boxes of treats!  They have sent me one of the new boxes to review and are going to give away another box to one of you too!  Pop your details in the widget at the bottom of this post for your chance to win.  Okay, now let's see what's new and what is inside this month's box!

Fab new style box

The boxes have a fresh new design and the address label is now on the reverse side so it doesn't hide any of the logo or images, just in case you wanted to share a pic on Insta without hiding your personal details!  The biggest change is on the inside though!

New information booklet

The old boxes used to come with a postcard inside which listed the contents but didn't give you any information about the products.  Now you get a super-duper booklet that is jam packed with illustrations of each item along with their names, details about the flavours and some facts about them too.  

Useful info about the products

Each box now contains 10 Japanese candies and savoury snacks and has a wider variety of products than ever before. There will be more exclusive and limited edition treats like Japanese Kit Kats, seasonal Pocky and Hi-Chew sweets too!  A one off box costs $19.90 USD which is about £14.70 or 16.70 Euros and that includes worldwide shipping .  If you subscribe to six or twelve monthly boxes you will get them for a lower price and you can find all the information about that here.

Some of my yummy treats

My box has a Japanese exclusive dark chocolate Kit Kat, a bag of Meiji peach flavour gummy sweets, Koikeya BBQ corn snacks, Tomica Ramune candy and Tohato caramel corn snacks.

There was also a Popin' Cookin' Kuru Kuru Takoyaki DIY candy kit, a pot of Kabaya chocolate puddings, a box of Strawberry Pocky, a Yaokin Umaibo corn snack and a bag of Kasugai rose flavour candy.

DIY candy kit and more

Out of these my absolute favourites are the Meiji peach gummies, the Tohato caramel corn snacks and the Kasugai rose candy, they all taste so good!  My children also tried everything and their favourites are the strawberry Pocky, Kabaya chocolate puddings and they loved the peach gummies too.  My husband loves dark chocolate so he took the Kit Kat and gives it two thumbs up!

Taste testing!

We haven't had a go at making the DIY candy kit yet but we've always had a lot of fun when we have done them before so I'm sure we'll enjoy it!

On to the giveaway!  It's easy to enter, just fill in the sections below to be in with a chance of wining a box of treats sent directly to your door!  Or if you just can't wait you can treat yourself to a box here (but still enter, you might win another one!).

She's Eclectic Japan Candy Box Giveaway

Good luck everyone!

Artline Monday - Royal wedding celebrations

I couldn't do a series of wedding posts this month without mentioning the royal wedding!  I am super excited to watch the whole thing on TV this Saturday and see the dress, the ceremony, the outfits etc and have some kind of celebration at home with my girls.  This got me thinking about street parties people might be throwing or celebrations and get togethers that will be happening to mark the occasion.

Making plans for the royal wedding

If you are planning a street party then you probably have everything sorted by now but I have a few ideas for when it comes to adding some finishing touches to your tables or if you are just having a small gathering and want to make it extra special, after all it's not every day we get to celebrate a royal wedding!

Mini chalkboards and Artline pens

These mini chalkboards were only 49p for a pack of four and I thought they would make cute little keepsakes of the day.  Now I could have written on these with my Artline chalk markers but I wanted the messages to be permanent so I used my gold Supreme marker and Artline 999XF metallic pen instead.  

Chalkboard keepsakes

I think these boards will look so cute dotted around the table/s among the food and drinks and the guests can take them home as a memento of the day if they like.

Decorating the milk bottles with chalk markers

As well as the chalkboards I brought some sweet glass milk bottles for us to use and I have personalised them with a purple Artline chalk marker.  I wrote Harry and Meghan along with the date of the wedding on some and on others it just says Royal wedding.  Being a chalk marker this will wipe off with a damp cloth so if you wanted to decorate any of your glassware for the party you could wash it off afterwards.  Artline have glass markers you can use too which are also easy to remove once the event is over.

If you wanted to permanently decorate your glasses then you could use the Supreme markers and Artline 999XF pens I used on the chalkboards instead.

Artline Stix are great for colouring in & playing with

If you are having a lot of children around then you could also print off some free royal wedding colouring in pages for them to do while the adults watch the ceremony or are having a chat.  I found a few different ones online including this one from eParenting.  You could add these pages to the table/s along with a pot of pens to use, I recommend some Artline Stix because not only do they colour really well but they are also really fun to play with!  You can connect them together side by side or end to end and see who can make the biggest construction, they are just like building blocks you can colour with!

Do you have any hints, tips or ideas for the wedding celebrations to share with us?  Leave me a comment below, I love to read them!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wedding Wednesday with Artline - Invitation calligraphy

Have you selected your wedding invitations yet?  Are you planning on writing them all yourself?  If you answered yes then you are in the right place!  Last week I shared some ideas about wedding planning and I thought for today's post we could talk about using calligraphy to write and address your invitations.

Wedding invitation and calligraphy pens

It doesn't matter if you haven't tried any kind of calligraphy or hand lettering before, all you need is a pencil, a calligraphy pen, a notebook and some spare time to practice your letters.

If you look online there are hundreds of calligraphy lettering styles to choose from, find one you like that shows the complete alphabet and use this image to copy each letter.  You will also need to find a style of numbers you like for when you address the invitations.  If you aren't confident with a calligraphy pen to begin with then practice with a pencil until you are used to writing the letters in your chosen font and then move onto the pen.  

Practicing and trying out different pens

When you are using the calligraphy pen remember you want to press slightly harder on the down stroke of each letter and lighter on the up stroke.  This gives you the basic calligraphy look for your lettering and then you can work on the flourishes and embellishments.  

If you find yourself struggling with a calligraphy pen then you could cheat and use a pen or marker instead.  You just need to make each down stroke line a little thicker.  In the image above I have used a silver metallic marker then a calligraphy pen and a bronze metallic marker in the large notebook.  When I was using the markers I just went back over the down strokes once I had finished writing each set of letters to make them look wider and like they were done with a calligraphy nib.  

Muscle memory will make you want to write each letter in your normal handwriting to begin with so the more you practice writing in the new style the easier it will get.  It might be worth carrying a calligraphy pen and pocket size notebook around with you so if you find yourself with a spare five minutes during the day you could get them out and fill that time with lettering.  Little practice sessions soon add up and you will find yourself becoming more confident and start to write the letters naturally when you pick up your pen! 

Retraining muscle memory

If you decide to go with a calligraphy pen then Artline have lots of different colours to choose from so you can match them to your colour theme or you can go with a traditional black calligraphy pen on your invitations.  If you are looking for something a bit different then I love the metallic and rustic sepia shades but there are also pastel colour calligraphy pens available if they are more your style.

Addressing envelopes

Once you are happy with your lettering then it is time to get started on the invitations!  It is a good idea to do them in small batches so your hand does not get tired and you are less likely to make mistakes if you only do a few at a time and then take a break. 

Here are my top tips

• Practice as often as you can

• Go slowly and take your time

• Write the invites in small batches 

• Try writing any complicated words in pencil first on a scrap piece of paper before you move onto pen on the invitation or envelope

If you want a few more hints and tips check out my previous lettering post here and if you do have a go at using calligraphy on your invitations please let me know how you get on!

National Stationery Week - a week in pictures

So National Stationery Week is over again for another year!  Did you have fun, I know I did!  I thought today would be a good time to do a round up of all the days we celebrated together. 

My stationery themed jewellery for the week

In honour of the seven days of stationery I wore my stationery themed jewellery with pride.  The name badge necklace is from Finest Imaginary in collaboration with Onr Shop and my pastel pencils pin is from Ip Dip Design on Etsy.  I love them both and received lots of compliments while wearing them!

Box of supplies from the NatSatWeek team

I was sent a huge box of stationery supplies by the NatStatWeek team and sponsors, it was filled with items which matched the themes for each day of the week.  I used these products to take photos based on the themes and shared them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter daily as well as my post for World Stationery Day. 

Monday - #makeanote

Monday's Make A Note day was sponsored by Nu:notebook and I was given this gorgeous pink Spectrum notebook.  I was out and about that day so I took it with me and snapped this pic in the park.

SNT Thank you cards

Say Nice Things surprised me with this lovely set of Thank You cards, they come in packs of four and are perfect for sharing your gratitude with someone.  I can't pick a favourite but I love the little foil accents on each one!

Tuesday - #penandpencil

Tuesday was Pen And Pencil day, sponsored by Staedtler.  I used a couple of their pigment liners for this shot along with my copy of Stationery Matters. 

Wednesday - #stationerytheworldover

For World Stationery Day I made a paper clip out of felt shaped like the Earth and then surrounded it with lots of stationery goodies!  I have made myself lots of plushie paper clips over the years, all based on this tutorial by the lovely Mrs Brimbles if you are interested in making your own.  #stationerytheworldover was sponsored by the Stationery Show London, I really wish I could have visited this year but the dates just didn't work out *pouts*, maybe next year!

My personalised paper clip

During the week I received this amazing paper clip from Handcrafted by Sheree, she also sent me the die cut of my blog logo that I used in my photo for World Stationery Day.  Aren't they cute?

Thursday - #workhappy

Thursday's Work Happy day was sponsored by Mustard who have the perfect range of products for brightening up your desks!  I love the doggy page markers and rainbow sticky notes so much but the T-Rex highlighter is my favourite, it's just too cool!

T-Rex highlighter in use

I use highlighters a lot in my bullet journal so I tested this one out on Work Happy Day and wrote over the top of it with my Artline calligraphy pen as if it was going to be the header/title for a section in my notebook.  It writes very nicely and is comfortable to use.

Friday - #aplaceforeverything

I think this year was the first time Santoro have been involved with NatStatWeek, they sponsored A Place for Everything day.  I used some of their cute products for this photo but now my eldest daughter has claimed the A4 folder for her art work and my youngest has her eye on the pencil case and Clipboard planner!  Ah the joys of raising stationery addicts!

Saturday - #getcrafty

Saturday was Get Crafty day and Crafters Companion sponsored this one.  They sent me a set of dual tipped Spectrum Noir metallic markers in precious metals and these pens are brilliant for working on coloured cards and paper.  The inks really stand out against darker backgrounds and are very nice to work with. 

Sunday - #signaturesunday

Signature Sunday was sponsored by Cross so I used the super swish Bailey ballpoint pen they sent me to write a quick blog post.  Click on the photo to enlarge it if you want to take a peek.  The Bailey pen also came with it's own leather case so I will be able to pop it in my bag and not have to worry about scratching the black lacquer or chrome areas.

Personalising my notebook

The end of National Stationery Week made me feel sad so I cheered myself up by personalising my new notebook using a couple of the Spectrum Noir markers.  Now every time I use it I will remember what a great time I had during NatstatWeek and look forward to NSW19!

How did you celebrate this special week?

Thanks for stopping by!