Love is Sweet with Rhinestones

Because I paint each and every sign order as the orders are placed, I am able to paint just about any color I'm asked for.  It's challenging to match up colors online, I must admit, as photographed colors often just are not true colors online.  But usually the wedding or event colors blend well, and that's what matters.

 

Once in a while a buyer will request a glitter glaze on the lettering, as shown in the following sign:

Love is Sweet

So Take a Treat

(sold here...) 

This buyer also request rhinestones!  I had never attached them to a sign before.  I wanted to make sure the rhinestones would not fall off (with cheap glue), nor could perhaps be picked off by some sweet little 3 year old child! I asked Mark (my husband) what glue he thought would be good.  He knew immediately that I should use what is called "PRO CA Cyanoacrylate Glue".  It's make by a company called "Great Planes".  You can order it through Amazon if you can't find it at a local store.  This glue is incredible.  But DO NOT let it get on your fingers, it adheres almost instantly and permanently.

 

This photo (from Amazon) shows "THICK", but the one I used was "MEDIUM".  They also have a "THIN". (You can click on the glue to get to Amazon.)

Just wanted to share a very good product.  Again, let's review what NOT to do with this glue---let it touch your skin!!!

 

My outdoor photography....but inside?  I have some lighting issues....
 

Advise, please?  I spend a lot of time painting, which leaves me little time to actually photograph my work.  I have lighting issues (obviously!) and wonder if anyone has some lighting tips? I take most of my photos at night and use every light available, but I'm not satisfied with the lighting.  Please don't suggest photographing during the day, as here in Oregon...well let's just say I could never be a "Natural Light" photographer!

 

Blessings,

~Heidi

Romantic Chic Wedding

Weddings are wonderful, aren't they? We recently attended one of my niece's wedding, which was held at a beautiful California golf course.  The setting was lovely, nothing like the setting sun for an outdoor wedding!  The reception, held inside the golf club, was romantic chic and you know how I love that combination!  To top it off, the bride let me paint a few signs to use; my pleasure.

presenting....Mr. and Mrs!

presenting....our daughter, Jessica on the right

and another of our nieces on the left (there were 8 attendants each)

presenting....our family

presenting....grab a treat, candy!

("Love is Sweet   So Grab a Treat" sign)

presenting....a lovely romantic cake!

I loved the pink swirls and roses.

presenting...each table had cupcakes as centerpieces

presenting...Happily Ever After Starts Here

presenting....Mr. and Mrs!

This one is my VERY FAVORITE photo! 

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Ray!  It was an honor to witness your marriage ceremony and then celebrate at your reception. May God bless you as you begin you journey down the road of life together.

Blessings & hugs, Heidi

Love is sweet.... forever and ever....

Oh my goodness there must be a lot of sweet stuff happening at weddings these days.  I continue to sell more "Love is Sweet" signs than any other sign currently.  Some of the girls tell me they are buying it for their wedding reception candy bars.  I have to admit, I wish I could follow along with the sign straight to the candy bar, I'm a candy lover.  

Some of the brides are buying them for their cake tables, or cupcake tables.  Some for other areas of their wedding.

Last week I painted a custom rustic "Love is Sweet" sign with the wedding date and last name.  This is really getting fun now:

I just wish I had more hours in the day to paint all the wonderful ideas regarding "love is sweet".  I do love to paint these custom signs!

Wedding and Pinwheels

We had a great time at the lake over the long 4th of July weekend.  I'll have to share pictures soon of the biggest trout I ever caught!  We caught a lot of other trout, too, enough to freeze for meals later.  That's a treat.  The big plus was we had sun all 5 days! 

The wedding I helped out with on Saturday turned out beautiful.  It was park-like setting and a gorgeous day.  The details I helped with were the pinwheels.  We had pinwheels up and down the main isle the wedding party used.  (There was an isle runner added after this photo.)    

Then we placed various heights of pinwheels around the reception tables.  We tried to set them up in groups of three, with the three main colors:  pink, purple and orange.

The center pieces for the 20 tables were vases filled sand and then the pinwheels.

Just a few days before the wedding I said, "Let's make pinwheel straws for the kids to use!"  Funny thing was, the adults were using them too, and at the end several kids came up to me asking for more pinwheel straws.

 

The friend who made the cake for the couple used more pinwheels we made as the cake decoration.  It was really cute.  The cake was yummy, too.  I always taste wedding cakes!

I made a bunch of felt pinwheels for the flower girls and bridesmaids to wear in their hair.  After making the pinwheel I just used the end of the thread to tie them on the clips.  For extra security I added a dab or two of hot glue.

This was a colorful wedding and it was a treat to make the pinwheels.

I also made a few rustic signs which we staked out in front of the facility.  The  bride asked the date be painted on the back of "WEDDING", so that she could hang their names and the wedding date in their new apartment.

Blessings, Heidi

(linked to Between Naps on the Porch Met. Monday)

Oh Ya Oh Ya!

Oh ya, oh ya.....

Ellie and I giggling together....the sound of heaven on earth!

It's Friday and the SUN made it's appearance...finally!  Lots to do around here-gardening, painting, wedding preparations (for a couple weddings I'm helping with) and family to love on.  Maybe the grand-kids will come by today, we'll see if they surprise us!

Monday, May 30, was me and Mark's 30th wedding anniversary.  And it was Memorial Day, too!  We spent a few days up at our little cabin on the lake.  Mark caught a huge trout and a huge bass, as well as regular sized trout.  Can you say fish for breakfast?  And lunch? ...and dinner?  Good think I like fish!  Oh, and have you tried fish tacos yet? So good, too.

So, I'll show a few pictures from the lake now...

One of the little signs I painted for our cabin years ago:

I want to start painting custom cabin signs now!  Our little cabin sits on a small cove, so as I was trying to come up with a name to name our cabin I decided to use the word cove.  The sign I'm painting for our cabin will read, "Sweet Woodruff Cove Cabin".    Or something like that!

Summer is the most popular time for weddings, and boy have I been painting a lot of wedding signs lately!  The most popular sign is the "Love is Sweet" sign.  This is being used for reception candy bar, or candy buffets, as well as on cake tables.  Wish I could sample all that sweet stuff!

Have a blessed weekend!  ~Heidi

(Linked to Cindy's Romantic Home Show and Tell Friday here.)

White Chocolate Weddings ~~ Oh, sweet love!

Today I'm participating in Faded Charm's White Wednesday!

So....moving right along....  Weddings!  There's several special weddings written on our calendar this summer.  One of them, my niece, will have a reception filled with Sweets. Yes, Desserts with a capital "D"! Won't a ddessert rreception just be perfect? 

So...lucky Mark and everyone who comes near....I am experimenting with sweet desserts!  One of my first experiments I made was White Chocolate Cream Puffs.  I just made a batch of cream puffs (easy to make, they are in every cookbook, or look on All Recipes), then made a box of instant white chocolate pudding (yes, they make that now!), and topped them off with melted white chocolate chips.  They were so yummy!

But I didn't like how heavy the pudding felt, and the white chocolate on the top became hard, and yummy as they tasted, I didn't like how the combined effect.  I'll experiment with a white chocolate mouse type filling, then maybe even leave off the topping. What do you think?

All this white chocolate reminds me of the cake that our friend made for Jessica's wedding.  I have a picture of this on my refrigerator. I don't think a day goes by that I don't dream of that delicious cake. 

Gorgeous, too!  Jessica had found a photo of this cake online (don't remember where) and gave the photo to our friend to make.  The cake was a gift, and oh what a gift Jessica and Craig received! 

The pieces all around the perimeter of the cakes was rolled and cut white chocolate. I can't even imagine how many hours she spent working on this gorgeous cake.  There were three different flavors, but the piece I had was white chocolate---ah----TDF!!!! (to-die-for).

Here's one of the pictures of the cake from our photographer:



Speaking of weddings, this was my favorite wedding picture of Craig and Jessica, in black and WHITE:

...can't stop there....here's a few more favorites of mine...

Thanks for visiting today!  Blessings, Heidi

Linked to Cinday's Show & Tell Friday here.