Well it has been a busy few weeks for me.  My younger son got married Saturday.  The few days before the wedding were busy days.  I attempted to use the Silhouette Cameo to make a card for the wedding shower, but two nights in a row, all I made was trash.  I still don't know what happened.  I was attempting to cut letters out of card stock, with the intention of placing a contrasting color of card stock behind it, but for some reason I could never cut the letters out smoothly.  The "s" would not cut at all.  I am wondering if maybe it was just the font I was trying to use.  At any rate, I decided to try one more time, with a completely different idea and finally, mere hours before the shower, I was successful.

I even made a little box like envelope to go with the card. 

I cut the brown card stock for the gate fold card and welded the groom's name to the, what would be the bottom of the top flap and the ampersand as well. I then cut the bride's name out of the same dark card stock, but I welded a small rectangle through it, to hold the letters together, didn't worry much about how it looked as I was going to put the lighter color letters on top.  I cut the date out of the dark card stock, individual numbers.  I then cut individual letters and numbers a bit smaller from the light brown patterned paper and carefully glued them to the dark brown matching areas.  I had to use tweezers to accomplish this.  I offset the lighter letters on top of the darker ones, to give a shadow affect.  For the inside I used a piece of off white card stock and a  copper color silhouette sketch pen, to write my sentiment on the inside, and cut it with a scallop around the edges and glued it to the inside middle. I embellished with some brown and off white tiny roses and some wedding layered stickers.  I just made up the envelope pattern as I went and cut it with scissors since I didn't have a pattern.  Placed the card in the box envelope and tied it with a piece of black tulle, it would have looked better if I had had a piece of brown or off white, but I didn't, so I used black.

I also made the bride's maid gifts and the groomsmen gifts.  They consisted of nice shaped jars with the names of each of the attendant's names on one side and the wedding date on the other.  The bride placed fancy scarves in her jars and the groom put tobacco in his jars.

You can see for the girl's jars, I only had a two inch by two inch square to work with.  This presented a challenge with the longest name.  So I chose a font that was rather skinny and tall to begin with, as I thought it looked best in that small space.  For both of these I used the bead blast cabinet to accomplish the etched affect, as opposed to etching cream.  The bead blaster makes a deeper etch. To do the bead blaster though, you have to cover the entire surface of the object to protect it from over spray; and not everyone has access to a bead blast cabinet.

The happy couple had chosen a lantern theme for their big day.  And I had something special I wanted to make for my son.  So I chose a pretty shaped lantern for the project.  We had a dear friend of our family, killed in a car wreck nearly 6 years ago now.  She was 24 years old at the time of the accident; and had spent a good amount of time in our home.  She would impulsively scribble a note on whatever was at hand.  She had written a note on a very small piece of paper, and stuck it in the trim on our stairs, where it still is to this day.  My son has told me through the years that is his note.  So for his wedding I bought a lantern at Hobby Lobby and etched the note on the glass of the lantern.  But the really personal part was, I took the note she had written and scanned it, used the trace feature in Studio to trace it and make it into an SVG file.  It takes a long time to adjust the points to smooth out the writing, but it was worth it.  I then took my SVG file of her handwriting, and cut it in vinyl, and weeded the letters out, leaving the negative space, and etched her note onto the lantern, in her own handwriting.  It was very special to my son and sat on the head table for the reception.

I know it is hard to read in the photo, but it says, "smile b/c (because) God loves you", with a smiley face.  On the other side it says "Have a great day" with her signature. 

We all need that reminder sometimes, that God loves us.  ^"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."  1 Peter 3:9

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" John 3:16

God is merciful and longsuffering, two things I certainly need in my life.  But God loves each person and desires that each person would come to repentance and faith.  Mercy is God withholding what we deserve, punishment and hell.  Grace is God giving us what we don't deserve, Love, Salvation, Heaven, eternal peace, etc.  I am so thankful for both Grace and Mercy.  In Paul's letters he often opened with "Grace and Peace to you", you can't have peace if you don't have Grace.  Thank you Lord for Your Grace and Your Mercy, which allows You to forgive me daily.