March 2014 {From my Kitchen} "I love you" box

April 2, 2014 Samantha Schwikkard

The glorious month of March has come and gone and we are already sending out our April "I Love You" box subscriptions this week. Yipppeeeeeeee! If you have ordered one keep on the look out for our special surprise Elephantshoe brown paper package and don't forget to sign up for our May "I Love You" box here.

For now, it's time to reveal what was in the March box of goodness, a few of my absolute favorite things from my kitchen:

1 x custom cotton full bib apron with front pocket, adjustable neck strap and custom "love lives here" screen print
1 x "made with love" engraved wooden spoon
A pack of 6 x A5 recipe cards with an embossed design
5 x embossed manilla tags, each with black & white bakers twine

Our "I Love You" boxes labelled and packaged up in the studio, ready to be sent off to their new homes.

The "love lives here" kitchen utensil heart design we created and screen printed onto each cotton apron.

Laser engraved wooden spoons, perfect to use to make scrumptious meals in your kitchen or to give as a gift to a friend.

Recipe card packs with 6 x A5 round corner cards and a "FROM MY KITCHEN, MADE WITH LOVE" embossed seal in the right corner of each card. These are coming to the Elephantshoe shoppe soon.

These handy tags are perfect to attach to any home baked goods, from cookies, to cakes to rusks. Simply attach one to a bag of brownies, a glass jar of fudge to add sophistication to a thoughtful treat.

If you haven't seen what was in some of our previous boxes take a little look here,

Our Elephantshoe "Happily Ever After Jar"

April 1, 2014 Samantha Schwikkard

Last week Thursday we had the privilege of having another one of our DIY projects featured over on theprettyblog. Today I'm sharing it here on our Ellieshoe blog incase you missed it.

In this year, 2 lovely ladies in my life will be getting married, my brothers fiancé Megan and my close friend Melissa. (How wonderful!) I have the special honour of being a bridesmaid at both of these significant occasions which has had me brainstorming cute and unique ideas to spoil these bride to be's.

Maybe you find you're in a similarly position, perhaps you are the mother of the bride, or you're a guest at a wedding coming up? This free printable is definitely for you.

Our Elephantshoe "Happily Ever After Jar" is a large Consol Jar filled with 15 days of marriage advice cards, 1 for each of the 15 days leading up to the BIG day. The messages are designed to be small reminders to the bride of the real reason behind her wedding day, to help her take her mind off of all the planning, the stresses, the details and have a moment in the day where she can focus on her future marriage and life after the dress.

What I love most about the jar is you can place extra special spoils in the jar along with the messages like coffee vouchers, spa pampers, earrings and nail polish to personalise your gift. In a way it is like a bridal advent calendar.

DIRECTIONS :

Download your "Happily Ever After Jar"
Print pages 2-7 of the downloaded document onto a white A4 card stock.
Cut out the happiness cards and the labels using a craft knife and ruler or a pair of scissors.
Fold the happiness cards in half, punch through the end of both sides of the folded card with a single hole punch. Thread through twine or ribbon closing the two sides together and make a small bow.
Add additional small special spoils to the jar for the bride to be, e.g. coffee voucher, earrings, nail polish.
Place all 15 happiness cards in a large Consol mason jar and screw on the lid.
Using spray glue, apply glue to the back of one of the circular labels and stick this to the top of the jar lid.
Punch the name label in the centre of the grey spot and thread through your choice of twine or ribbon, write the bride to be’s name and attach this label to the neck of the jar.
Lastly apply double sided tape to the little handmade label and stick this over the lid and the neck of the glass jar.

Purchase the TWINE featured here from our Elephantshoe shoppe.

Recycle a jar you already have in your cupboard. Use our blank name tags to address your jar.

Tie your marriage advice cards up like small parcels with twine and pop them into the jar. This way the bride to be won't see all the messages at once, — Tie your marriage advice cards up like small parcels with twine and pop them into the jar. This way the bride to be won't see all the messages at once,

This jar of happiness will show how much you care and it is simple and easy to put together. I hope that it inspires you to create and be creative.

All the gorgeous photos in this post are taken by Andre from Blackframe Photography.

Happy Ever After

Love Sam from the Elephantshoe Factory

Janis and Pete : Wedding Stationery - 10 March 2012

March 14, 2014 Samantha Schwikkard

Yes, you read that date correctly! The most lovely couple Janis and Pete were married on the 10th of March 2012 and we were so privileged to work on their quirky stationery. In truth I have been wanting to post up all the stationery goodies for ages, (about 2 years). When I looked in my calendar earlier this week I saw their 2 year anniversary reminder staring BOLDLY at me and I realized that I hadn't shared their gorgeous pics. So . . . here is a post dedicated to them in celebration. (Better late than never I guess).

Janis and Pete were married in the quaint town of Clarens in the Free State province of our beautiful country South Africa. Their wedding was photographed by Yvette Gilbert and had a country, farm style feel with the cutest details made DIY style by the bride. From handmade, hand sewn heart pillows in the charming little church to the hanging hearts in their dinner&dancing venue.

I absolutely loved Illustrating their darling stick figure wedding logo as well as their sweet sheep logo, these two drawings formed the base of most of their wedding stationery items. The first place we used these icons was in their digital Save the Date. A cute animation sent out to their guests that pointed them to a website that Janis & Pete had personally put together with all the wedding fun to come.

Screenshots from Janis & Pete's animated SAVE THE DATE.

Their wedding Invitations were a single A5 card, they were embossed and each card had fabric flag and a wooden button sewn into the corner. These were then placed into a kraft envelope with a natural twine wrap, a double sided heart name tag and a small sheep and balloon icon stamped into the corner. Janis also included 2 pink heart magnets in each invitation, guests could then use the magnet to stick their invitation to their fridge.

Stationery Photography by : Blackframe Photography

Paper Pop Table Numbers placed in bottles of flowers on each table.

Photography By : Yvette Gilbert — Photography By : Yvette Gilbert

Each guest of the wedding received an "I survived J+P's Wedding" pack. Such a clever idea by the bride, they included all kind of goodies, e.g. tissues for happy tears, homemade biscuits for a midnight treat, a coke, a button badge, Grandpa powder. They were packaged in a brown paper bag with a tag style label to indicate all the contents.

Pink Heart Magnets, Seating Chart Tags, Survival Packs, Tag Menu

These fill in the blanks "Guest Cards" were used as a smart alternative to a guest book.

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