A paper anniversary

My daughter and son-in-law recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary. It is incredible how quickly that year has flown by. I shared many posts with you during the pre wedding build up last year of all  the jewellery I created, the card etc. I had lots of "bit and pieces" of memorabilia from both the build up to and the actual wedding day. I had a whole bag full and was not sure what to do with it until one day another of those light bulb moments occurred in my little brain. I would put them all together in an album. I decided to create a "Smash"album which I could give to them as a present for their  first wedding anniversary as that is traditionally a "paper" anniversary.

For those of you not in the know a Smash album is a sort of scrap book but with the advantage that the pages inside are all  themed. The idea is to "Smash" in everything and add to it as you go along.I bought the Wedding version and ordered some copies of the photos I took at the wedding so that I could create a memory album that could be treasured and perhaps even shown to their children one day.

It took me a long time to work out an order for the album and eventually I decided to start the album with photos of when they first met, their engagement, the buying of the dress, the hen party  etc and I would end it with photos of the actual day, 28 July 2012. I used all the little bits and pieces I had kept; ribbons, receipts, menus etc etc.

I had a trial laying out of everything and then I stuck everything in. I cut lots of themed die cuts and I also added some text in my own handwriting as I thought that would make it very personal.


Here are just a few of the many pages I made;

This page is their engagement showing the cake I made and the silver pendant.  I had kept a piece of the ribbon from the cake so I added that.

 This is the wedding jewellery I made for my girlie, her bridesmaids and me.

The dress fitting and the receipts .

Our fun cheesecake testing day and hair practice in the May, on a very hot sunny day.

Their wedding card; I had kept some of the embellishments which I stuck in around the photos

The day before the wedding when we had the day together, just Mum and Daughter in a beautiful hotel in Midhurst, near to the wedding venue. This was the morning of the wedding.

The moment she arrived....a moment that still makes my eyes prickle ;0)

and joyful celebrations for the newly weds

I had kept the ribbon and the pins from her beautiful bouquet as she gave me her flowers. I carefully fixed them in place in the album.

I also decided that I would make some special wrapping paper and a tag to present it in. My daughter adores strawberries so this was the theme, as was their strawberry anniversary card which I have shown you all previously. I hand stamped the paper.  Brown paper is always the perfect medium for this and gives a really great hand made effect. I use it a lot for wrapping very special parcels and the hand stamped images made it really one of a kind. It is also so much cheaper than gift wrap....a £1 roll wraps many many pressies.

I also made a little strawberry gift tag to match and my made with love 1st anniversary present was complete.

and here it is all wrapped up. My daughter and son-in-law absolutely loved it and I got such a sweet teary text from my girlie on the morning of her wedding anniversary...it went down a treat and is much loved ;0)

I would like to enter my tag (and even my smash book and wrapping paper if they qualify ;0) into the following challenges;

Crafting for all Seasons tags
Whimsy Clean and simple
Papertake weekly flower power
Emma's Cards floral
Rhedd and Rosie use red
Divas by design use some twine
Pile it On No designer paper
Papercrafting Journey anything goes
Make it Monday Linky party
Heck of a challenge summer holidays
A little bit crafty summer sun

It is the bank holiday weekend here in the UK, the last one before Christmas no less (123 days to go). Enjoy it and I hope you get some crafting time as well as time to relax. We finally got a real soaking of rain this morning to water my very parched lawn.  We are planning some quiet time at home but on Tuesday I am off to a card class run by my blogging friend Brenda Brown in Hampshire. I am hoping to learn some more about distress inks, which she is the Queen of. As it is near to my daughter (76 days until our grandbaby is due ;0) I shall be carrying on afterwards to visit her and my son-in-law. My Hb is taking the train down after work and we will enjoy an evening meal with them both before driving home. I also have Wednesday off work for our monthly ladies' lunch/mother and daughter day which I am really looking forward to, a real double day bonus in my eyes. Take care everyone and thanks as always for visiting me here and reading my Journal.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x