Do It Yourself Swarovski Crystal Monogram Cake Toppers

When I started looking at photos of wedding cakes, I saw a cake topped with a bling monogram. I immediately googled monogramed cake toppers. I was appalled with the prices! $225 for a three letter monogram cake topper! Are they on crack?!

The price did not deter me. I was sure some bride out there had some info on this project! I was right! Chocolate brides DYI! I went to craftcuts to purchase my Monogram. I purchased one 5" letter S, one 3" letter C and a 3" letter T in the brock script font. The font was considered a special order. I paid $15 additional. The total cost was $22.

I sprayed the letters with a primer and then with silver spray paint. The next day, I bought 3", 4". and 5" flat back swarovski crystals. With the assistance of gem tac glue, an rhinestone applicator and a Q-tip, I went to work! When I was finished with crystalizing one side of the letter, I painted the other side with silver sparkle paint. I also primed and painted wooden hearts that I purchased at Walmart for the bases to stand the letters on.

I was happy with the results! It was not hard at one you get the hang of it!

Next Project: personalized aisle runner!

Martha Stewart Escort Card Board!

To personalize my wedding, My lap top has become my boyfriend! Aside from Mr Chocolate, my laptop has been my constant companion! I can be with boyfriend surfing the net all day and not find what I `am looking for!

Martha Stewart is a bit shabby chic for my taste, but occasionally, she will post something of some use!

On, her website, I discovered this escort card board. What a nice Idea!


My pink & Leopard escort card board

THE DIVA WEDDING!

My favorite color is pink and silver. I also love leopard prints and anything that sparkles. I love classics, like pearls, too! I knew this wedding had to incorporate these things without it looking out of place. I googled leopard themed wedding, with very little results. I wanted pink and silver, but I had to have leopard. I wanted bling and pearls, but I did not want things to look gaudy. They say your invites should dictate your wedding theme, but I could not find invites that had anything with leopard print. When I found an invitation, they did not have pink and they were not a pocket invite. Refusing to change my theme I decided I had to go the Do It Yourself route to get what I wanted!

I Began to check out pocket invites. They wanted close to $500! WHAT!? ARE THEY CRAZY! I refuse to pay that for a piece of paper that will eventually get tossed in the garbage can! I decided to google DYI wedding pocket invites and discovered the wedding bee and project wedding

When I found the type of pocket invites I wanted, I took a trip to Michael`s and AC Moore. There, I discovered the world scrapbook. I bought light pink textured paper and found leopard print paper. I made a small 5x5 pocket and realized I could not fit what I wanted in it. One day, I was shopping at Walmart. They had some pocket invites on clearance. I bought the set and took the pocket folder apart to use as a template. The paper was not long enough to make the complete pocket folder, so I cut the triangle part of the pocket out of the leopard paper and glued it to the pink paper. To hide the seam, I purchased a roll of bling from Michael`s. This is what I came out with!

Template

Pocket Invite

The pocket invites are 5x7" I purchased A71/2 envelopes and A2 envelopes for my RSVP from paper source

Whew! Those are finished! Now I had a problem cutting the actual inserts( RSVP, Reception and direction cards) evenly! I read on project wedding that one bride took her paper to staples to get cut. So I took mine to Office Max. I took 100 sheets of paper with the three templates. I also had them copy one sheet from THE GUESTBOOK STORE on 100 parchment looking card stock paper and cut to size. That only cost $17!

Inserts for Pocket Invites


Guest book page


I tried to find a scrapbook holder that had three rings. I ended up paying $18 for the binder and $8 for twenty plain and ugly sheets. Had I purchased all pages from the guestbook store I would have paid over $80!

I went to a closeout store called Big Lots and found a scrap booking machine called the cricut, for $70. (Its priced over $100.) This machine cuts different shapes. Since I wanted to get into scrap booking, this was a great start! I purchases two cartridges with wedding fonts and shapes. I went to work!


Place Cards



Save the dates






Table Numbers


I have to purchase a white table cloth so I can put everything together. I do not want to wait until my big day and not like the setup!