Wedding Vow Plaque & 5 Years of Wedded Bliss

November 1, 2013 by admin Leave a Comment

I cannot believe that today marks one of the happiest days of my life; Five years ago this happened.

Right after we got married I made this plaque with a slab of MDF, some paint, vinyl decals, and an image I put together using our wedding vows and a photo from our wedding.

I choose you,
To be no other than yourself,
Loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not yet know.
I will respect you as an individual, a partner, and an equal.
I promise to laugh with you when times are good,
and endure with you when they are bad.
I will always adore, honor and encourage you.
You are my best friend, and I will love you always.

Even the best marriages experience ups and downs. This is why I feel especially blessed that the last five years have been filled with nothing but good times, happy memories, and more love than I ever knew existed.

Happy anniversary Mr. Meckley. You continue to be everything I never knew I always wanted. Here’s to another fabulous 5 years and many more!

Erasing My Mistake

July 14, 2013 by admin Leave a Comment

It should come as no surprise that I like to give handmade, personalized gifts. Especially for weddings, and I’d like to think that most new brides are as excited as I was as a newlywed to see my new last name everywhere. 🙂

I also like to give useful gifts…things that will be treasured and desired long after the honeymoon. This is one of the reasons I decided to give a cutting board and knife set to our friends who recently got married. I went to the local kitchen store to get my supplies and headed home to engrave the cutting board.

I’ve engraved lots of wood items, including several cutting boards, but when working with a new style or brand you never know how exactly it’s going to turn out until you try. I only bought one board so I only had one shot.

Guess what…? I messed up.

It wasn’t all that bad, really.Since the board was constructed of two types and tones of wood the design had light and dark spots, which is understandable. I could’ve engraved another time or two to make the etching darker and deeper, and that probably would’ve been okay.

Let me rephrase that. I tried to engrave it a second time, but I must’ve bumped something because the second engraving wasn’t 100% accurately lined up with the first run so I decided to just scrap the project and do something else with the same design:

(You can read more about that project on this post!)

Anywho…I now had a half-engraved cutting board. I suppose I could keep it and use it myself, but that seems weird. What if we had these friends over for dinner and whipped out this lovely board with their name on it?! Awkward! =)

So I dug around in the garage, found my husband’s orbital saw, and got to work.

I was delighted that is was much easier than I expected! I’ve never sanded anything before, nor have I attempted to “erase” an engraving before, so this is a handy trick to keep in my back pocket for future reference. And now I have a blank slate to engrave again, or leave it as is!

So, now that you’ve seen both gifts…which is your favorite?

Easy Wedding Gift – Personalized Hurricane Vase

June 23, 2013 by admin 2 Comments

Several months ago while perusing the aisles of Hobby Lobby I bought a bottle of etching cream on a whim. Like so many other craft store goodies I take home, that bottle sat on the shelf collecting dust. That is, up until a few days ago when I got it out to help my future sister in law with a wedding project. Now I never want to put it down!

Oh. Em. Gee. This stuff is UH-MAZING, I absolutely love it!

When we were done with the wedding project I seriously found myself looking around the house thinking,

“ETCH ALL THE THINGS!!!!!”

But I didn’t, much to the relief of my husband. Instead, I went shopping to find the perfect wedding gift for some friends…something I could etch, of course! I debated on so many things – coasters and drinking glasses and cake pans, oh my!

Then I saw it…a lovely but plain hurricane vase. It was just begging me to take it home and make it pretty.

Isn’t is gorgeous?! I tossed in some coffee beans and a pillar candle to complete the perfect gift.

I have been laser engraving gifts for years and I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I much prefer using the etching cream. The results are stunning, and very smooth; you can barely feel a difference when you run your fingers over the etched portions.

I couldn’t stop looking at it. I hope the bride and groom love it as much as I do. =) I am pretty impressed with etching cream and will definitely be using it again and again.

I also wanted to share a tip for applying your vinyl decal over slightly curved objects, such as this vase. Apply the decal as you normally would, then cut several slits along the curve and carefully burnish each little section. Be sure to cover all the exposed areas with masking tape before applying the etching cream. Works like a charm!

The hardest part about this project was getting a decent photo of the finished piece! (Seriously, have you ever tried to photograph glass?!)

Do you love this vase as much as I do? If you’ve already used etching cream, what has been your favorite project?

Our World Famous Cupcake Stand

January 13, 2013 by admin Leave a Comment

Okay, maybe world-famous is a bit much…but it’s made the rounds on the Internet and wedding forums since its debut after our wedding in 2008.

We wanted something a bit extreme, yet flexible so we designed a giant cupcake stand that has interchangeable panels that can be swapped out for another wedding or event in the future. This makes it PERFECT for event planners & bakeries. Or, if you want to leave it up on display at home you can make panels to match your decor and use it to hold trinkets and framed photos if you like.

When it came time for our baby shower we didn’t need a GIANT stand (which holds about 220 regular size cupcakes) so we built a smaller version that holds 65-75 regular sized cupcakes.

You can find the free tutorial for the giant stand here, or you can purchase a PDF with step-by-step instructions and lots of photos in the Etsy shop.

Check out some of the lovely stands people have built using our design in our cupcake stand photo gallery! If you build one we would love to see and share your photos!! Send us a note & image right on this site.

Happy anniversary Mr. Meckley. You continue to be everything I never knew I always wanted. Here’s to another fabulous 5 years and many more!

So, now that you’ve seen both gifts…which is your favorite?

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