Wedding or Shower DIY Gift

It's wedding and shower season, so I thought I'd share a project fit for the occasion. 

Last year we attended a destination wedding for my cousin in the San Juan Islands in Washington. Although it was a destination to the Pacific Northwest, it was very much a southern wedding. As a lover of paper and stationary, it was so much fun to get mail relating to the events at the wedding – there was an invitation or itinerary for everything – a pig roast, rehearsal dinner, after party, the wedding itself, and brunch the next day. With all the beautiful paper goods we received I wanted to make a gift for my cousin to keep all the items that she created (or had been created for her) in one place. I was also inspired by something I had seen in a friend's house with their first dance lyrics. I quickly went to work!

I bought two shadow boxes from Homegoods, some craft paper and a heart hole punch from Michael’s, and went to town. Sorry the pics aren’t better… these have long been sent out so I couldn’t re-take the photos (here's an after picture of both).

For the first dance display (the hearts on the right), I printed their first dance song on one sheet of paper, and their initials and date on a sheet of paper that was blue with white music notes. I had intended on using the blue for the lyrics but liked the more neutral color when looking at the stationary box. Once the first dance lyrics were printed, I started punching holes with the hearts (as much in order of the lyrics themselves as possible). Then I simply folded each of the hearts in half, put some glue along the fold, and placed them as neatly as I could in the box. Once the glue dried, I opened and refolded the hearts as needed to get them to look as consistent as possible. I also printed the lyrics again and glued them on the back of the shadow box, as well as a wedding wish from us.

My cousin will be putting these up in her new home. I thought I’d share this as an easy but thoughtful personal gift to make for your friends or family for any special occasion. It's simple and thoughtful - doesn't get better than that.