New Line for Joie de Vie and a Giveaway

Friend and Etsy wedding colleague, Blair Schron Britt of Joie de Vie Jewelry, has started up a new Etsy store exclusively for wedding & event stationery and accessories. Blair has some really great wedding jewelry pieces and I've been watching her grow her stationery line and doing event planning in her "free" time. She finally decided to open Joie de Vie Paperie and she's kicking it off with a giveaway for a custom monogram stamp!Visit her blog for details on how to enter your chance to win! Wishing Blair all the best in her new shop and I'm sure it will be as successful as her jewelry line! Contest ends at 11 p.m. PDT on Monday, November 1st!

Images courtesy of Joie de Vie.

Bouquet and Boutonniere for a Destination Wedding in Bali

This is going to be a CRAZY busy week of trying to complete 7 bouquets. I finished 1 bouquet which would make that a total of 8. On top of that I have a large corporate holiday card order to get done as well!

Anna came to me and had asked me to quote her on some bouquets and boutonnieres. She had an idea of what she liked, but over time things changed. First off, my quote was a little out of her price range but she loved the flowers so much she decided to at least get her bouquet and her groom's boutonniere for their destination wedding that will take place in Bali next month.
Initially she liked a myriad of various flowers and then she was torn because her family told her no white flowers. However her colors are like a cerulean blue and creamy yellow. She thought maybe peonies, roses and callas with hints of blue would go. I was a little hesitant but suggested she think about it some more. Her first idea was to have all white/ivory flowers. I told her while I could do flowers with hints of blue, in the end after her wedding is over, is she going to regret having clay flowers that are not realistic looking because they have painted hues of blue? In the end, this is how it turned out and she LOVES it!

This bouquet would look lovely over the beautiful aqua blue waters of Bali! :)

Final C3 project completed!

It's been a very busy couple of weeks trying to juggle being a mom, teaching and getting my work done. I finally had the opportunity to finish the last C3 project from the instructors course with the DECO Clay Craft Academy. The final project was lots of work, but it turned out beautifully.

Something that's very popular in European and Japanese wedding floral design is called an "assist" it's basically a frame that adds a decorative flair but also provides support for the bouquet. My instructor, Yukiko shared with us how to create these lovely bouquets! We learned how to do phaleanopsis orchids using some new techniques, shrub roses and lilacs using some cool peps. Where were these peps when I was making my lilac bouquets for my clients?
I chose to do white orchids with purple centers but I also wanted a touch more purple in the bouquet so I added deep purple orchids into the mix and alternated with light and dark purple lilacs. The shrub roses are in white and peach tones.

Now that this project is done, I have 8 bouquets I have to complete and then start working on things to sell for a craft fair down in San Diego in a few weeks!

Taking Time to Smell the Roses

After a long week of training last week, my dear best friend, Myrna of Petal Chic and I decided to go to the Rose Garden nearby and practice with our cameras. At first I thought I left my memory card at home but realized I had another card in my point and shoot camera. So since she didn't know how to use her settings on her D5000, I decided to share what I learned in my recent photography class. She was so excited to learn how to use her camera a little more.
The roses are so amazing, so many colors, so many varieties. Rows and rows of them. These are some photos I took while we were there. Many of them more of my son and Myrna than the roses.
My son has an awesome smile, but many times when I want to take a photo of him he forces the smile. So this one that I captured I used the word "poop" to get him to laugh. Not something I like to admit, but whatever will make him give me that infectious smile that I love so much!
Love this photo of him with the reddish pink roses in the background.
Being silly near the water fountain.
One of my favorite shots of the day. My son loves his "auntie" Myrna. Even though they are not related, she treats him as if she was his biological auntie. She spoils him rotten. She indulged him when he asked if he could make things out of clay, she built LEGOs with him, colored in his new Dinosaur Train coloring book with him and laughed at all his really bad jokes! We all miss her and wish she didn't live so far away, but we are so happy we got to spend a week with her! Honestly, the love of DECO brought us together and I'm so honored that she's become my best friend, my sister and a truly talented DECO instructor!

Silent Auction for My Son's Halloween Fun Night Fundraiser

This year I've been more involved in my son's education and school. He's in kindergarten at the elementary school where I went. They really depend on the parents to volunteer in each class. I decided that I would focus on helping in the classroom and volunteering as much as I can as time permits. Sometimes I get roped into more than I had bargained for, but it's all for a good cause. I've enjoyed working with my son on his homework and watching him excel in school. Just seeing him read a little more each time we read a new book is mesmerizing!

I had offered to donate a clay floral arrangement and that basically got me somehow roped into designing the gift basket for our Halloween Fun Night. Each class is required to create a gift basket with a specific theme and the families donate to the basket with items or cash. Since I agreed to donate an arrangement they decided on a "garden" theme. They thought I also offered to design the basket so I got suckered into that one. Honestly though it was kind of fun to do. Thankfully the other parents donated items and cash so this is a great gift to receive. Since I have lots of zenatona art and "bloomies", I thought this would be perfect to include in the themed planter! I titled the planter - "garden in bloom". All the parents loved how it turned out. I already know a few moms who are ready to bid on this item. It's all for a great cause. It's one of the big fundraisers for the school for the year and a lot of fun for the kids.I made all the signage for the planter to make the gift cards and seeds stand out a bit more. I had used the artwork I had made for one of my clients which I thought worked perfectly and I loved the pink and green hues! Makes you ready for Spring again even though I love Fall!

I'll also be trying my hand at face painting. Clay, now give me clay and I can really do something with that. Face painting? Oh dear.... LOL.

Corporate Christmas Card Time...

I cannot believe it is almost November. We haven't even gotten through Halloween yet, but alas, I am already designing the annual holiday card for my corporate client. Due to my hectic schedule this year, I had to modify my design to make it sophisticated yet simple.

Thankfully they yet again loved the design I came up with. Love Envelopments' new twist cards for the holidays! Not sure what the count is this year. I know it's a minimum of 300 cards to produce, but it could be as high as 700. We shall see!

Fall Inspired Bouquet Order for a Halloween Wedding

Fall is in the air. After a week of record temps, we finally have cold, wet weather. During all my training classes this past week I had to finish an order for my 10/31 bride. Stephanie found me through some chat boards on clay flowers and after shopping around some, she finally decided to go with my services. She is getting married on Halloween so she really wanted pumpkins in her bouquet. I'm not much of an orange flower kind of person, but everyone says that my orange hues really pop. I think what really made this order was the pumpkins and hipericum berries as they really made the bouquet come to life!
This one was a lot of work, but I'm happy with the results and so is the bride. As soon as she got the photos I sent she was in tears... Happy ones of course! She was so thrilled with how it all turned out.Best wishes to Stephanie and Matt on their wedding day!

I'm busy catching up on little orders and hope to have more to share later next week!

A week of instructor's courses with Yukiko Miyai

It's been a hectic week of intensive training with our head instructor, Yukiko Miyai of the DECO Clay Craft Academy. It's always nice to see her since I don't make it to Oahu at all. The creativity and new techniques are always fun to learn even though every day is intense and we have lots of homework. Thankfully my instructor/student, Myrna of Petal Chic and I kept each other motivated to finish our homework every night.

These are some of the projects we worked on. I have one more project to finish before I get signed off on the 3 series we learned this week. I can't wait to show you the last project as it's stunning.

This particular project was called Flower Dolls. We learned how to make these cute little dolls with lovely miniature flowers coming out from vines from hats and leaves on their heads. Very cute and whimsical. Lots of creative ideas flowed as to other things we can do with the techniques we learned.

This is a beautiful magnolia branch project using what's called "Garden Clay". I've been with DECO for almost 10 years and this is the first time I've used it. AWESOME stuff! Allows you to make trees and figurines and gives great texture. They also introduced using magic water (acrylic water), which is very cool. I've always been too nervous to work with it, but it's very nice! Can't wait to try other things with it!

This is another project using the "Garden Clay". Believe it or not the entire tree is using the CLAYCRAFT by DECO and Garden Clay mixed together to form this beautiful bonsai like tree. Myrna and I envisioned a Halloween tree before we placed our plum blossoms on it.

The above arrangement was involving long stem flowers. While I learned irises when I first started, Yukiko has taken the time to perfect the technique and it's much more realistic than the way we did it before.

We had also learned water lilies a long time ago, but again, Yukiko has been really focusing on more advanced techniques. Love the use of the magic water and the center fringe has much improved since the last time we learned it. I think that's what I love most about DECO, you can always find new ways to improve on your techniques to make the flowers look even more realistic!

One last bouquet arrangement to follow in a few days. It has shrub roses, phaleanopsis orchids and lilacs. Stay tuned...

My Custom Anemones and Engage!10 The Breakers!

So if you recall last week, I blogged about a special project I was working on where I made 235 anemones in pink and white. Well, I can finally share some final photos from the event that they were used for.

To give you some back story, the associate catering director of The Breakers resort called me and said she was interested in using my flowers for the upcoming Engage!10 Wedding Summit at the resort. Looking at my schedule I called her back and asked what she wanted in terms of the flower and declined. I talked to my husband who told me to find a way to make it happen and that this was a great opportunity that I couldn't pass up. So I called her back that night and agreed to do it. I had 3 days to complete 225 anemones that were at least 4.25" in diameter. Let me just say that there were several moments where I thought I wouldn't get it all done and maybe I should throw in the towel. But my husband helped clear my plate of all mommy duties which helped me to focus on all those flowers.

These photos are courtesy of Mel Barlow Photography and Allan Zepeda via the Style Me Pretty website! So thankful that Abby Larson is on it when it comes to providing the latest details on events such as Engage!10!I'm so very thankful to Kym Bichon at The Breakers for finding me in the Fall 2010 issue of Inside Weddings magazine and for ultimately asking me to do this. Most of all for believing that I could make it happen in less than a week's time! Just so you know these lovely lunch boxes were served during Sylvia Weinstock's presentation on her amazing sugar flowers. Couldn't be more perfect than that!

Centerpieces for My 20 Year High School Reunion

Wow, 20 years since I graduated high school. Makes me feel old! LOL. Actually what really makes me feel old is that my son is going to the elementary school I went to so many years ago. It's a great thing to see 2 generations going to the same elementary. Anyway, back to my high school reunion... Unfortunately I won't be able to attend this milestone event, but with that being said, I'm able to contribute in some small way by donating these lovely centerpieces I made for the reunion. I wonder which 10 of my classmates will be lucky enough to take one of these lovely centerpieces home. :)

Our school colors are black and gold, so I decided that creamy yellow peonies with a golden yellow center would be perfect. The class coordinators told me I had creative license to do what I wanted. The issue for me was time and my existing work load. I had offered the peonies because they are big and would make a statement, but simple at the same time. I was looking for a good bud vase and came across these cracked glass bud vases that add a neat element instead of just plain glass bud vases.I'm thankful that Facebook has reunited me with many of my high school friends. It's neat to see how much everyone has changed and some who remain the same. We are all at different stages in our lives but it's fun to see what everyone is doing and see their children.

Another Fall Wedding Bouquet & Boutonniere

A couple weeks ago an Etsy buyer asked if I could make her some smaller gardenias with alligator clips rather than the u-shape hair pin. She also expressed interest in the peony flowers for a bouquet. We exchanged several convos back and forth and she decided to go with the creamy yellow peonies and add some more jewel tone colors to the bouquet.

Betsy was so ecstatic when she got the photos today and said she would always cherish the flowers. She asked for her bouquet as a bridal shower gift, I think from her mother. That's actually a neat way to be able to get your bouquet flowers, ask your bridal shower attendees to chip in or buy you your dream wedding bouquet in clay! :) She also requested a matching boutonniere for her groom.

Something different about this couple is that they are using an old high school gym as their venue for their wedding ceremony, but all with a fall inspired color palette, complete with pumpkins! Best wishes to Betsy and her fiance!

Full Bloom - Clay Flowers Featured in Fall 2010 Issue of Inside Weddings

I recently found out via another wedding industry colleague that my clay flowers were featured in the Fall 2010 issue of Inside Weddings magazine! I had no idea. The feature article was the magazines take on new discoveries for brides. The article talked about my clay flowers being offered via Estilo Weddings! Definitely check out Estilo Weddings website and if any of these clay floral pieces interest you, you can purchase them through their site.

I was so excited to hear about the feature! It's always a big deal when you get featured in a magazine. With so many hot trends to talk about and a limited number of pages each issue to do so, makes real estate in a magazine hard to come by.

Love the real weddings section of this magazine as a big portion of the issues are focused on all the details of some truly amazing weddings. Check out Inside Weddings magazine on newsstands now!