All About the Appliances
How to Choose Kitchen Appliances
I’m Dreaming of a Not-White Kitchen
How to Plan a Functional Kitchen Layout
The Money Pit (Part 2)
How it Looked on Moving Day (Part 2)
A Favorable Program
(WARNING: The sheer cutsey-ness of this project might make you gag.)
It floors me when I realize how many people are afraid to try a simple DIY project involving paper, some ribbon, a blank CD, and a little imagination.
I have always considered myself one of those un-crafty people who couldn’t even sew a button to save my life, but this? This is do-able.
I decided to combine my programs and favors into one, cute little CD pouch/book thingie. The program contained all of the pertinent wedding information (key players, timeline, thank-you note, etc.), but the neat little surprise in the back was the personalized CD with meaningful and fun songs for people to listen to on their trips back home.
When I came to terms with the fact that we weren’t having the simple destination wedding about which I’d always dreamed, I took it upon myself to make things as difficult as possible by making many of the wedding-type projects myself. And the programs (and favors) were no exception.
Truthfully though, I wouldn’t have done it any other way. Why pay someone a small fortune, when I can create my own and have complete control over the turnout? I won’t lie, though – this does take some time.
Here’s what you need:
- Paper (I used linen textured paper that you can find at any home office store)
- CD pouches (Bliss Weddings Market)
- Full sheet sticker labels for the cover (I bought the HP brand from Office Max)
- Blank CDs
- Downloaded Songs
- Computer
- Ribbon
- Small hole punch
- CD labels (optional) (I bought the Memorex CD & DVD label-maker from Office Max)
- My template (optional)
- My fonts (optional)
I’m providing my template in the sidebar on the right of this page. It should be downloadable – hopefully it works! You can get a couple of my fonts on this page.
1) Download the songs you want (try to make them meaningful to you in some way – we used songs that were played during our ceremony and reception and songs that we’ve enjoyed together).
2) Start burning! This will take awhile, depending on how many you need.
3) Use the template to fill in your own information– wedding participants, songs, ceremony order, special ceremonies/readings, pictures, remembrance page, and a kick-ass thank-you!
4) Print– make sure you print page 2 on the back of page 1, etc. because otherwise the margins will not line up correctly. When you’re ready to print, always print a complete test program and put it together so that you know everything worked as it should.
5) Design your inside and outside covers to be printed on the full-sheet label paper. I was able to print 4 covers (2 front and 2 back) on each sheet of label paper. Cut them out and apply them directly to the CD case.
6) Cut the excess paper off your main program pages. Once the pages are all cut (this can take a loooong time), stack the pages for one program together in order (excluding the separate insert with the song list) and hold them inside the CD case. Punch 2 holes in the spine and all the way through the pages to make sure everything lines up. Tie the ribbon through the holes, and you’re done! Lots of work, but well worth it. Stick the extra insert in the pocket on the inside back over of the case.
And there you have it. You can download the templates on the right side of the screen, but take note: some fonts I used are copyrighted– that means I cannot share them on here. The templates will also look strange because you most likely don’t have the same fonts I used. If you still want to know what they are, I used Bickham Script Fancy, Afternoon Delight, Beautiful ES, and Centabel Book. (Again, this page has a couple of fonts. Also check out DaFont.com for hundreds of FREE downloadable fonts!)
There are lots of beautiful and fun fonts out there, so create your own look and have fun!
Drawer Storage Turns Me On
How to Store all those Knives
I’m No Dummy… Am I?
How I’m Learning to use my Camera
Down with Popcorn
Raise your hand if you have that popcorn-looking stuff on your ceiling.
Anyone?
Raise your hand if you hate it as much as me.
When we first moved into our house, one of the first big projects we tackled was removing the popcorn from the living room ceiling. There were some fugly track lights in the corner, and when we took them down, they left behind a yellow mark. Rather than try to paint over the popcorn (which could have been disastrous), we decided it all had to come down.
This was actually one of the easiest – and messiest – high-impact projects we’ve done!
If you decide to tackle this in your own home, just make sure your ceiling has not been painted. I read that it can be extremely difficult to remove if it’s been painted. Try to take some down in an unnoticeable corner. If it is at all difficult to remove, you might want to consider another project.
Just wet down the ceiling, bit-by-bit, and then scrape off the popcorn with a large putty knife. We used a previously-unused insect repellent pump sprayer, which worked pretty well. Not only does wetting the popcorn make it slide off like buttah, but it drastically cuts down on the dust.
***IMPORTANT NOTE*** If you live in an older home, you will want to have your ceiling tested for asbestos before you try this.
We lined our walls in plastic because we foolishly painted them before the popcorn removal adventure. The walls are optional, but covering your floors with heavy-duty plastic or fabric drop cloths is highly recommended (for obvious reasons).
The device the hubs is using is his very own, jerry-rigged popcorn-sucking tool. Basically it was a shop vac with a putty knife duct-taped to the hose. Again, this is optional – I preferred to let it plop all over the floor around me. There was something immensely satisfying about the mess this created.
Until I accidentally stepped in it and dragged it across the kitchen floor.
C’est la vie.
After the popcorn removal came the real work. We were lucky because the drywall on our ceilings had already been taped, puttied, and sanded fairly smooth. Often builders will neglect to do this and use the popcorn as a cover-up for unfinished work. Even so, the hubs we still had a lot of sanding and painting. The sanding created a LOT of dust, so you will want to wear a mask if you try this yourself.
Unpainted drywall sucks up paint like crazy. We ended up with one coat of primer and two coats of paint.
Once we had a nice, smooth ceiling painted a slightly lighter shade than the walls, our 8′ ceilings looked substantially better.
Before (with the old, crusty popcorn):
After (with the smooth, creamy ceiling):
Has anyone else taken on a project like this? We thought it was worth the work.
Material Girl
Material Girl
How to Decorate a Toilet