Papel picado progression

Decor follows food in the case of Georgzilla's and Jaxs' baby/family/housewarming shower.  They decided on Mexican, so I dubbed their event the Family Fiesta.  We had different teams to handle cake, drinks, favors, and activities, which left me as manager and director of decorations.

At first, Jax mentioned Mexican oilcloth tablecloths, which set the color scheme as "rainbow."  But to cover six long tables went out of my budget, so that idea was out.  (After considering many table covering options -- except for the disposable plastic ones, because they are 1) ugly and 2) un-eco-friendly -- including buying yardage at the Fabric District or using a Joann's coupon for a bolt of muslin, I went with the Ikea Knoppa flat sheet.  At $1.99, it's the downright cheapest reusable tablecloth ever!)

In an epiphany, I came up with a color scheme that I call "Modern Mexicana:"  shades of red and shades of green, with galvanized steel instead of terracotta.  Pink and green being Jaxs' favorite color pairing, I got an immediate thumbs-up. 

I ran to Chinatown to get varying sizes of paper lanterns in said colors, and grabbed a bunch of papier-mache streamers.  I also wanted to make a doily garland (tutorial on Project Wedding).

More than anything, I wanted to make this a really custom event.  It's my brother, after all.  I've been really into Mexican papel picado for a while, and this was my chance to design one of my own.  I was super-excited!  Once the big decisions were made, I began doodling and sketching and cutting out prototypes.

Initially, I was just thinking of making one, to put on the cover of their guest book and maybe another for their front door.  So I went crazy with details:

I definitely wanted the sheet to represent the entire event, so made sure it included their names, the date, reference to their Little1 (my niecephew!), their union (bells), and their home (see it in the middle?).  I also wanted it to retain a bit of the traditional papel picado motifs of flowers and doves, scallops and gridlines.

Then we went to Hawaii, and my design changed to incorporate a lot of those motifs because it was such a special trip for us.  I also wanted to make it simpler because somewhere along the way I decided that I wanted to make a papel picado garland out of tissue paper.

Pineapple -- the international sign of welcome; sea turtles -- because we swam with them; waves -- because Georgzilla is a surfer... with Little1 at the center of their heart and home.  But cutting out the bird feahers was still a lot of work.

So I simplified:

Larger numbers, thicker lettering, simpler flowers, simpler 'feathers'...

And here is the final cutout version.  Only two hours to cut each one -- sharp blade a must.

I cut about 60 altogether, in red, pink, and lime green tissue paper.  One of Jaxs' friends did the hanging up at the Fiesta, and here's what they look like, dancing in the sun and breeze on a clear day:

They were a hit!  Not only did the couple like them, so did the guests.  And I was a happy little helper, glad to have contributed something special to three people I love dearly.

No idle hands

Or, in other words, explainin' where I been...

DC came home last week, after having spent a fortnight in Africa (+ nearly 2 days' travel each way).  Just in time to celebrate the 4th of July.  Which is also our Y1 anniversary.  Luckily, he broke me in to his summer rovings by taking a monthlong trip to Europe when we first started dating last summer, so two weeks really was nothing.  It gave me some time to do stuff around the apartment (rearrange, again) and work on my gift.

The idea that We. Must. Have. A. Logo. got into my head a while ago, and stuck.  So, with the idea of getting the image in my head down on paper and framing it, I sat down with Microsoft Word and my extremely mediocre design skills.  I wanted something plain and graphic, and was going to put it over layers of security-lined envelopes of different patterns.  After nearly an hour of making text boxes, scaling, and aligning, I got it the way I wanted, and hit Print. 

Then I decided that it'd be better to print on the laser printer at work (shhh!), so I saved it to a thumb drive. 

Then I decided to print on my cotton blank postcard stock, so I dove through my stationery stash to find it. 

Then the idea came to me to do a cutout, so I traced the logo onto the blank card, and got out my knife and ruler.

Then I decided to make the cutout circle of the "d" into a heart.

Then I decided to do another "frame" of the security envelope pattern around the outside of the logo.

Then I chose the background color (chose the black over baby blue, to highlight the heart).

Here's what the final product looks like:

Not what I had in mind at the beginning, and certainly not perfect, but organic and spontaneous -- which reflects us.  The second part of the gift is the requirement to take a picture with it every July 4th!  I'm thinking of making a smaller version that we can take along on our trips, too (he doesn't know this yet, but will be happy to oblige, I'm sure!).

* * *

Whenever DC is away, I take out his letters and read through them again.  Not only does he write beautifully -- both in penmanship and content -- he shows his creativity, too.  Here's an example, which I'd been meaning to frame for a while but just got to recently:

[with new succulents!]

It's a little puzzle he made for me, using a coffee cup sleeve!  Cute, no?  I used another security lined envelope innard for the background, it's a subtle gray color that adds the right amount of texture.

For my Y1 gift, though, DC completely surprised me with:

[lovely! green!]

After exchanging gifts, we headed out to meet our parents for brunch.  Interesting way to spend our Y1 anniversary, don'tcha think?!  We celebrated in the evening -- just us two -- with wine and sparklers. 

* * *

In my last post I mentioned that I was already putting the Kacha-Kacha Counter to good use.  I got to over 100 rows much faster than I had time to take a picture, and then got to the point where I don't need the counter anymore!  This morning I finally snapped a couple of shots before heading out the door.

This is Forecast, by Stephanie Japel for Knitty W05.  Yes, I have wanted to knit it for that long.  But I was daunted by something sweater-sized and held off.  For a long time.  During which I knit shawls and socks and other little things.  One day, a couple weeks ago, I decided to cast on, and from there I kept going.  And now I'm almost done!  I got some knitting done during lunch, and am over halfway done with the ribbing on this (second) sleeve.  If I don't have to stand on the bus ride home, I think I can finish by the time I get home today!  So I can start picking up stitches for the button band.  Which shouldn't take long.  Which means I will have an FO to show you shortly!

The full story when the time is right.

Happy belated 4th of July!  I hope yours was good, too!