Valentine's Day draws nearer everyday and I asked my neice (she is soon to be four), if she would be my Valentine, to which she responded, "No." But I think that I can change her mind with a rockin' be my valentine card. 

What do you think about Valentine's Day? Celebrate it, give a simple gesture, anti-v-day, or is everyday Valentine's Day? Hmm. Personally, I think it's a bit cheesy, but it is a good excuse to watch An Affair to Remember, and have a decadent dessert! This is definitely something to look forward to while depressing January comes to a close.

Something else to look forward to is that MissBojambo.Etsy.com is offering free shipping on all orders through the 10th of February 2010 for those of you that would like to order something sweet and thoughtful for yourself or another special someone. 

There are new pieces to choose from, all vintage inspired and wonderfully feminine. I hope they perk up your day,  considering January is turning out to be quite depressing -  it's turning my life into a dark and gritty graphic novel... Yikes. Enjoy the Jewels!

I will not go as far as saying that everyone I know is getting married - that would be madness. But I do have quite a few friends and family that are taking the plunge and they are all doing it in their own style. 

As a favor/ wedding bonus gift to my sister, I extended her the offer of my time and ideas to help her keep her wedding budget in check, and ensure that the extra funds would funnel into her honeymoon budget. Let's be honest, times are tough and the cost of weddings can be outrageous. Paying five to ten dollars per invitation? No thank you. 

For her wedding, we needed to come up with an elegant wintery invitation that was possible to make for around 200 (give or take) guests. Ahhhhhh! She had already bought some supplies i.e. paper, stamps ... without a strong plan in mind. Our goal was to figure out a way to use those supplies without having to spend more.

We decided to print the invitations off of a computer and simply halve the standard sized sheets horizontally for an easy format. From there, we selected a beautiful fibrous navy blue paper to back the invitations and sturdy it. 

To add a little flare to the invitations, we came up with the idea to stamp a block of space on the invitations that would read: celebrate! over and over. We then thought to cover the stamped area with a bit of shear light blue ribbon. Finally, we found an old, navy blue t-shirt (like the paper on the back of the invitation) and used the fabric, along with more of the shear light blue ribbon and beading pearls that we purchased, to make wintery blossoms for each invite. Now that's a homemade wedding invite!

All in all, I'd say we created beautiful handmade invitations for my sister's wedding and they are totally unique! We plan to pack these in a chocolate brown envelope with gold writing (that's what we had to start with!), in addition to the R.S.V.P. postcard and a trifold itinerary, both of which are going to be on a light blue card stock, however they are still works in progress. The package which includes envelope, invite, trifold map & itinerary, and the return R.S.V.P. is under one dollar sans postage!

We had so much fun making these ... it was a challenge, but it was a blast playing conveyer belt. We saved money for her honeymoon, hand crafted an invitation unique to her taste and wedding, and gained pre-wedding memories. Aw. 

Don't be scared to make anything for yourself, my friends, because you can do it yourself.  Be bold, be creative and be unique!

-Miss Bojambo