1. Our first guest blogger! Introducing Andrea Boudewijn…

    We reached out to you recently for guest blogger submissions and received many great stories about how you use your favorite crafting essentials. We’re thrilled to introduce our first guest blogger, Andrea Boudewijn, whose creative inspiration is simply delicious! Here’s her story:

    Hi PS Fans! My name is Andrea Boudewijn and I’m a baker of wedding cakes and confections who loves to shop at Paper Source in Pasadena and Beverly Hills. As a cake maker, I’ve often looked to Paper Source for tools I can use on my cakes. I know what you’re thinking: What could a paper store offer that could be used at a bakery? More than you can imagine. Everything in the shop is an opportunity to get a creative edge on my cakes, but today I want to talk about a tool I reach for and use every single day: The bone folder.

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  2. Easy wedding table cards

    I’ve never planned a wedding, but when I do, I’m calling Linda (my colleague and regular blog contributor). Look at this easy wedding table card idea she shared with me – just a table tent with a beautiful rubber stamp and an expression note attached with eyelets. We have expression notes printed with wonderful sayings, but you could print your own with words or numbers and use the same design.

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  3. Cake box centerpiece – baked with love

    Paper wedding cakeFor the past several years, I’ve been making “cake boxes,” putting chenille fabric, lace trims and other vintage baubles on craft boxes to resemble frosted confections. When I came across our Flocked Cream Fine Paper, I instantly recognized it as a perfect “frosting” for a cake box. With a few other PS embellishments, what a beautiful cake box it would make!

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  4. PS Real Weddings: Laura

    Sometimes a bride goes above and beyond to create something truly magical for her wedding. With the help of friends, family and her 5th grade class, Laura brought a theme with personal meaning to life. Here’s her real Paper Source wedding story:

    Jon and I had a long-distance romance between Seattle and Chicago, thanks to mutual friends who thought we would make the perfect match. The first time Jon came to visit he left behind a paper crane with a message written on the wings that summed up our wonderful weekend together. I left shortly after for a trip to Greece and took the crane along. While on the trip I decided to unfold the crane and discovered a secret message written on the inside as well! After 3 weeks of traveling, I came home to a mailbox full of letters; each letter contained a crane with sweet messages on the wings and secret ones inside. I knew he was a keeper!

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  5. How to bake a paper wedding cake

    Paper wedding cakeHere at the Charlotte store we were so inspired by this year’s Paper Wedding and the pictures of cakes featured on our sample invitation wall, we decided to put our culinary talents to the test and create a paper wedding cake! The best part — going shopping and finding all the “ingredients” right at Paper Source.

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  6. Affordable wedding favor packaging

    With wedding season just around the corner, we thought we’d share some cute ideas for using our cellophane bags to package up wedding favors and gifts for your bridal party and guests. Clear cellophane bags work great because they’re both affordable and flexible, making them ideal for a wide range of stuffers… and you’ll have money left over to spend on the important stuff – what’s inside!

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  7. Wedding menu ideas

    In addition to centerpieces, wedding place cards, dinnerware and custom wedding napkins, wedding menus are staples of a wedding reception table. Not only do they wet your guests’ appetites by listing the culinary elements of the meal, menu cards offer another opportunity to present your wedding style and enhance your overall table setting. In the sample wedding menus below we’ll share a few products and techniques that are wonderful for making menu cards for wedding receptions, but can also be used as wedding shower menus, baby shower menus and dinner party menus.

    Often times a wedding menu card will be featured at each place setting and is therefore worked into the design of the dinnerware and napkins. In this example, the napkin was folded so the menu card could be tucked inside along with a pair of chopsticks. This menu card is made with three layers – a black #10 flat card as the bottom layer, pool cover weight paper (you can use cover or text weight) cut to fit just inside the black #10 card, and white text weight paper with the printed menu cut to fit just inside the pool layer (text weight is the easiest paper to print at home). When layering a good rule of thumb is to leave 1/8” border around all four sides. To add more visual interest to this place setting, Flora & Fauna Tiny Print Pool Wrapping Paper was cut into wide bands and folded over the charger. A small piece was also cut to wrap around the chopsticks.

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  8. PS Real Weddings: Lauren

    Wedding invitations

    Here at Paper Source, the beginning of each new year means it’s wedding time! We start to see lots of brides in our stores over the holidays and come January the ruffles and cupcakes of wedding season are full on!

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  9. How-to: wedding cake wish box

    Wedding wish box

    Brides are always looking for unique wedding ideas, and we think we have just the thing! This wedding cake wish box is the perfect addition to a wedding guest book table or to display on the way into the reception area. Guests can write well wishes onto small slips of paper, then open the lid of the wish box and drop them inside. What a treat it will be to open the wish box when you return from your honeymoon! A charming keepsake for you and your groom.

    We used the three smallest Scallop Edge Kraft Boxes to make our wish box, which creates a cake that is about 9″ tall (excluding the ribbon loop) and 5 1/4″ in diameter. You can create a larger cake by stacking larger box sizes or even add more tiers. The boxes can be decorated in colors and patterns to match your wedding decor. A wish box also makes a wonderful bridal shower activity!

    –Annie
    PS colors: gravel & beet
    Latest fave: Tree Trunk Tea Light and Japanese 8 1/4″ Scissors

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  10. How-to: sweet treat keepsake

    Paper cake slice decorationsMake this zero calorie dessert as a delicious party favor for your next dinner party, ladies lunch or tea. With scallop icing trim and chocolate curls, they are lovely to decorate a place setting or stack them on a cake platter for a centerpiece. Also wonderful as bridal shower favors or decorations.

    Use our PDF template to cut out each cake shape for easy assembly, and choose any colored paper to create your own combination of “flavors”…red velvet…strawberry…dark chocolate!

    Sweet!

    –Annie
    PS colors: gravel & beet
    Latest fave: Tree Trunk Tea Light and Japanese 8 1/4″ Scissors

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