Rubber Ducky You're the One...

..making chocolate so much fun.  Okay so that might not be the right words but this past week they made my cupcakes absolutely adorable.  My cousin's are both pregnant and our family decided to throw them a joint baby shower two weeks ago.

I love baking so I decided to bake something special for them.  I made vanilla cupcakes with baby blue butter cream icing.

The design I was going for did not come out right since I never took into account how hot and humid it was going to be that weekend.  Let me just say that my adorable duckies that were supposed to bring the design together became nothing but pool of chocolate and icing. Complete and utter failure but still delicious.

The duckies were easy to make and if I can make them in my first attempt you can too.  You will need to purchase a candy mold, candy melts, oil base food coloring for added color, and something to stir them with. Once you have your materials then you're ready to begin.  Follow the directions on the mold.  Clean the mold. Dry it.  Melt the candy melts in the microwave (or in my case melt the chocolate in a double broiler).  Pour the melted chocolate into the molds and let it set in the refrigerator.  So those were basically the instructions that came with the mold.  What I learned along the way was that if you work with chocolate you need to have a candy thermometer handy.  It turns out that chocolate is sensitive and one needs to learn how to temper it correctly.  Since I used Ghirardelli chocolate for my duckies I found it useful to read what they had to say about melting it correctly.  Let me just tell you that I found it easier to work with white chocolate rather than milk chocolate.  To get the different colors on the duckies I mixed the colors in a separate bowl and added them first to the mold then on top of those colors I added the color yellow.  I used a long pick but you can use special brushes they have at the craft store for this specific task.  It was so easy to make especially if you have a microwave where you can melt the candy and then just pour.  I hope you guys have fun making your own designs.


I really enjoyed making these and I can't wait to try other molds.  Next time I'll make sure to check the weather report before hand.

Have you guys ever worked with chocolate before or attempted anything with candy molds? 

Happy 4th of July!!!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July!! I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday weekend.  I will have an upcoming post on these adorable duckies...

....and Now Table Numbers! Pt 2

Okay like I've previously mentioned we decided to go with the photo and number combo for our table numbers. I just couldn't help myself but the tricky part was trying to figure out how to add the numbers on there. If you've been following my journey you must know that I'm a trial and error kind of girl. I first attempted to add the numbers using acrylic paint, then I moved on to playing with the paint program on my pc, followed by going to the store and looking for vinyl numbers, and after much frustration I went back and realized that the individuals before me that had done such a task used Adobe Photoshop. The problem was that I didn't and still don't own the program so to get around my little problem I downloaded the FREE 30 days trial.

So, here is what I did for those of you that don't have time to experiment with it but remember that I'm not a professional and I've only had the program for 3 days.

First go to file and open the file where your photo is kept in. Once you click on it the photo should be right in front of you.

Then go to "layer" and add a new layer. Click okay. Then go to the text icon (that's the one with the capital T on the left hand side). Click where you want to add the number at and play around with the font and size until you get what you want.



To add dimension to our numbers I clicked on the different "styles" on the right hand side. I used the one that made the numbers 3 dimensional.



Once I did that I went into "layer" section and in the "layer style" I added "drop shadow", "bevel and emboss", I changed the "color overlay", and I also changed the "gradient overlay". After all that is done this is my final product.


In my first attempt I made the numbers orange but thanks to my HBoO help I changed it.

Before:

After:
Here are our table numbers:



I added orange card stock that I had on hand and glued them to a white canvas I had cut down to fit the easels. The photos are 5x7 and I love how they look on the easels. I'm glad we went with the blue ink since it pops out and catches your attention.




Once I finished all the numbers I uploaded them to Costco Photo Center and for $5.99 I had all my table numbers. Oh and for those of you who are wondering I bought the easels at the Art Supply Warehouse for $1. 89 each.

So what do you think of my table numbers?

I've been so busy...

I'm trying to finish up some project before the big day and haven't had time to blog about anything lately which is terrible since I have so much to share with you guys. I do plan on telling you about my diy centerpieces, my escort cards, my seating chart and final guest list. I hope that in the next couple of weeks I can share more details. Until then I leave you with a couple of photos of our trip to the L.A. Flower District.


Are you DIY your centerpieces? If you are where are you getting your flowers? Have you ever visited the LA Flower District? Do you have any advice to me if you've visited the L.A. Flower Distict?

Take Out + Candy = Our Boxes

When you think of favors or recuerdos in a Mexican wedding you think of something plastic with lace. My mom and aunt kept asking me what type of favors I was going to have and since I don't want to ruin the surprise of the candy buffet I insisted on simply stating candy. I don't have anything against recuerdos but I rather have something that my guest can eat instead of just throw away.

Here is an example of a recuerdo:

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Like I've previously mentioned here we are having a candy buffet. When trying to figure out where our guest were going to put the candy in I began to look around at different ideas.

One option was bags:

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Another one was jars:

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And the last one was take out boxes:

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The one I completely fell in love with was the third option. I found that Paper Mart has the cheapest take out boxes. I ended up spending less than $20 for 100 boxes including s&h. If you live near L.A. you can pick them up from there warehouse and can save on the shipping.

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Here is how our boxes arrived:


Here is where we thank our guest for sharing with us:


Here is our names and wedding date:


Here they are all together:


Many hours and miles of ribbon later we finally finished our boxes for our candy buffet. I am really happy on how they turned out especially since my HBoO and I burned ourselves on the glue gun on more than one occasion.

Total cost of this project approximately was about $25 for 100 boxes all completed.

What do you think of our boxes? What kind of favors are you going to have at your reception?

Illustrator + Patience = DIY Maps Pt.1

Now that the invites were sent off and I have more time on my hands and I can tell you about my adventures with Illustrator. After going to a wedding in the beginning of June I realized how useful the Map/Direction insert included in the invitation is. Val, my MOH, drove us to the wedding and although she had a navigation system in her car we relied on the map to get us there. It was clear that I wanted a map with my invitations as well. I knew I could came up with something spectacular (okay maybe not that professional but you get the point) in the likes of one of my favorite calligraphers Laura Hooper or perhaps one like Crystal Kluge. I'm not trying to show off or anything but I do posses some ability with a calligraphy pen and after taking countless art classes I to can dabble with that as well or at least that's how the conversation went in my head. After thinking about the priorities for the wedding it seemed that my attention was required elsewhere. I decided to do a "quick" DIY map using illustrator but the problem was first trying to figure out how to use the program itself.


Here are two examples of what I was first thinking about and decided not to do:

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Once I decided to play with the actual layout of the design I began to look up some clip art that I would be able to incorporate into it.

Here are a couple of the ones I chose:

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Finding cute designs was more difficult than putting together the whole map. I thought I was going to save time by using clip art instead of actually drawing things myself. I will continue my adventure with Illustrator on a different day.

What do you think of my clip art so far? Are you including a map in your invitations?

Can I get ketchup with that dog?

Wedding Mode Day 1:

If you are from Southern Cali and you are on a budget you have to go visit the Fashion District or what is more commonly known as the Garment District. I spent my day today in Downtown L.A. on the search for some DIY ideas and for great finds.

I totally scored and I will share my finds with you within the next few days. My recommendation to you if you decide to go is to take public transportation. Not only is it cheaper and great for the environment but you don't have to deal with traffic and parking. One of my favorite stores to go visit while I'm there is Maple Craft 925 Maple Ave # 1st Los Angeles, CA 90015 (213) 622-9602‎. This store has an array of stuff for DIY. You can find artificial flowers, ribbon, stuff to make favors, etc.


Another great store is Craft Beads. Both stores pretty much have the same things except that they sometime have different prices. Yay! This is handy when you are trying to score a deal.


The one thing you have to do while you are visiting the Garment District is to grab yourself a nice hot dog. A hot dog from an outdoor cart is such the L.A. thing to do while you are there. For $3.00 you can have yourself a treat that you normally wouldn't.



The reason I suggest the hot dog is because once you go there and start looking for deals you'll forget to eat.

Where have you recently scored great deals at for your DIY projects?

But teacher I have a wedding to finish planning...

I wish I could just tell my professors that I can't take my finals because I have to continue the planning but since I can't today will be a fun filled day. I will be at school all day doing a final, reviewing, and studying. Life doesn't hold still when you're planning a wedding and since I have other obligations you won't hear as much from me in the next few days. Once the madness is over I can move on to all the DIY projects I've been telling you about. Before I go away for a the next few days I will leave you with what I like to call my ring pillow. One of my bridesmaids was kind enough to give it to me since she didn't have a need for it in hers. I appreciate and welcome all items I can "recycle" into my wedding. I tweaked the pillow a tad and made it more personal. I'm trying to decide if this is what I want of if I should change it but as of right now this is our ring pillow.



Before:



After:


I hope to see everyone in a few days until then have a lovely week and wish me luck on my finals.