Personalized Bridal Shower Gifts

Last weekend I had my little cousin's bridal shower. (She hates that I still call her my "little" cousin, especially since she towers over me, and of course the obvious fact that she's now 24...but even when I'm 50 I think I'll still be referring to her as my little cousin!!)

I decided to go the "handmade" route with a lot of her gift.

The first thing I made was a decorative keepsake plate with the couple's name and wedding date on it. When I had originally bought the glass plate, I didn't think about how it would look being clear- I just figured glass would be a good universal "color" and when they bought their house it'd be easy to coordinate the rest of their decorations! After I had cut out and applied the vinyl and bought the plate stand I realized that buying a plain glass plate was probably the silliest thing ever! The stand I had gotten was black, which mean that you couldn't actually see the design once it was displayed!! So at the very last minute I ended up grabbing some fun fabric and mod podged it onto the plate. (I really lucked out with the fabric too because I didn't have a lot of simple fabrics in my stash and didn't want anything too wild or girlie! Then I remembered I had some of this Michael Miller Delovely Damask left AND the fact that it was that pretty pale blue worked even better since that went with their wedding colors!!)

The second thing I had done was something that I'd been wanting to try forever! Glass etching! I figured a small casserole dish would work best and etched "the shorts" on one side and "est 2012" on the other. There's also a small owl etched in between! Glass etching wasn't so intimidating. The directions on the etching cream states that it doesn't work with Pyrex, so I made sure not to buy the Pyrex brand. I ended up using another brand, however, I think it was made of a similar material as Pyrex, because I had left the cream on for an hour and it scratched JUST ENOUGH of the surface! Part of the lettering doesn't look as etched out as other parts, but I guess for my first time etching it wasn't too much of a failure!

Lastly I decided to make some personalized hand-stamped silverware. I ending up stamping two teaspoons with "mr and mrs" on it, as well as some serving-ware with "est 2012" onto it. I also added in some ruffled tea towels with a black and white owl fabric. I figured these would be a cute addition to any kitchen, and the teaspoons would come in handy if there was any fighting over whose dessert was whose!

I had a lot of fun making these items, and I'm hoping to get some fun sets into my shop one of these days to make it easy for those who are interested in shower/wedding gifts.