Knox & Co.

Thankfully and sadly, the wedding is over.  I'm sad because that means there's no more projects and last minute planning to do, but thankful because now I have an awesome new brother, my sister is a wifey, and I have time to share all the awesome things we did!  I'm currently waiting for the video I edited to be "prepared" for DVD, so I thought I'd share a quick post about one of the things I did for my sister's wedding.  

Months ago, she asked me to make her some feather wreaths.  Feathers were one of the things included in the wedding that honored and reminded us of those we've lost and couldn't be there.  Ya'll know how much I enjoy making wreaths, so I was thrilled to take on this project.  She wanted two small wreaths with banners or signs that said "Bride" and "Groom" to put on the door where each was getting ready.  I was imagining something like this:

She also wanted two large white wreaths to go on the front doors of the church.  Something like this:

I can't tell you how honored I was that she asked me to do this for her, and how excited I was to make them!  Well...time went by, I decided to leave my job (and lost the income that goes with it) and was fulfilling other maid of honor duties and got busy busy.  So, I ran out of time and money to complete the project.  I was still planning to do it, but a couple of weeks before the wedding when it still wasn't done, my sister told me not to worry about it.  She said the more she thought about it, the less important that part was.  I still wanted to do SOME kind of something for the doors where they were getting ready, because I liked that idea.  So, I started brainstorming.  

Back in February, I went shopping at Michael's and got this stash with some gift cards and coupons I got at Christmas:

I loved these little canvas signs with flocked detailing, and for only $1, I knew I had to have them!  

I thought about using them at my friend, Beth's shower but couldn't come up with any inspiration for what exactly to do with them.  Then, I thought about using them for one of Kim's showers, but still couldn't think of anything worth using them for.  So, when I discovered that I wasn't making the wreaths anymore and could make some other kind of door signs, these sang to me.  It's like it was meant to be! 

My sister's wedding was themed around "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and there were touches of Tiffany & Co. throughout.  I decided to run with it.  Why not do  "Bride & Co." and "Groom & Co." signs?  PERFECT!!  Here's how I did it:

I started by printing the words off of my computer using "Baskerville" font with the Small Caps setting.  First, I measured the framed part of the canvas prints to make sure the size would work once printed.  Then, I made text boxes to fit that size to prevent having to print, reprint, etc.  Then, I cut down to size.  The exact shape doesn't matter at all.  

I remember reading a friend's blog about transferring.  She isn't doing crafting blogging much anymore, but I wanted to give her credit for helping me figure out how to transfer font to canvas!  Thanks Caity!  You can head over to her site to see another tutorial, but I just followed her steps:

Flip over your printed paper and scribble over the letters with a pencil.  This doesn't have to be exact, and I recommend heavy coating for easier transferring.  

Once the back is scribbled (I forgot to finish taking step by step pics with the groom sign, so I switched to the bride sign), flip over the paper, center the text where you want it, and trace HARD over the letters.  The pressure from the tracing pushes the lead from the scribbling onto the canvas.  So, if you trace well and have heavy lead on the back, it should be a breeze.

The transfer will look like this:  

All I did after that was use acrylic black paint and a thin brush to trace over and fill in the transferred words.  

Here's the finished products:

Larry took his sign and hung it on his Groom's room door at the church where they got ready.  We hung Kim's bride door on my parents' front door where Kim got ready.  I loved them (I think the bride did, too) and I think they perfectly tied into the Tiffany & Co. theme without being too over the top.

Head over to Under The Table and Dreaming where I'm linking up this week!