Sweetheart Anniversary

One of our dearest clients requested us to design her anniversary party. She and her beau were celebrating 10 years together. We created a Glamorous Hollywood event that included this sweetheart table set-up that featured this fabulous lighted sign. We got the idea from 100 Layer Cake. You can check them out here:
http://www.100layercake.com/blog/2011/09/23/modern-sparkle-party-inspiration/

Materials needed:

30 bulb strand of lights (Cost Plus World Market) They have lots of varieties, we went with frosted white, but they also come in a wide array of colors.
Black foam core board
Wrapping paper
Exacto knife
16 feet of ribbon

Instructions:

1. Draw out design on back of foam core board, then mark every four or five inches where each bulb is supposed to go, making sure every bulb is used.
2. Use the exacto knife to cut out holes that are the size of the screw threads on the light bulb, no bigger.
3. Plan out the path of the bulbs in your design, so you don't back track and run out of wire length. This is particularly important if you are using two boards with one strand of lights.
4. Unscrew first bulb, placing the socket on the back side of your first hole. Re-screw in bulb with foam core board sandwiched in between the socket and bulb.
5. You have to tighten the bulb extremely tight in order to make full contact with the socket or else it won't light.
6. Repeat until all the lights are screwed into their sockets through the foam core board.
7. Decorate with paper and hang with ribbon.
8. Congratulations, you've created a beautiful one-of-a-kind sign that everyone will be asking you about.

Danielle's Dream Day in Pink & Black

Our wonderful client, Danielle, had a beautiful pink and black themed wedding in Moraga, CA that we were thrilled to be a part of. Danielle asked for lots of pink and black hanging lanterns that we placed under each reception table umbrella.

We designed champagne bottle wrappers that served as table numbers for the guests.

A custom made sign, painted in the theme colors, directed wedding guests to the ceremony site.

We crafted over 30 paper rosettes to adorn the fireplace at the wedding venue. Rosettes even made it onto the mason jars above to tie in the theme.

We had a wonderful time working with Danielle on her gorgeous wedding day!

Signs of the Time

Before Honeycomb was even a twinkle in our eye, we would never settle for mass-produced parties. When it came to creating our welcome signs, Jeff always got a little carried away and spent weeks on crafting mini-masterpieces. Here are some of the best of the best from the past few years.

This was Arden's first birthday. The theme was a backyard garden party. Let's face it, for the first few years, a child's birthday party is really for the grown-ups. Are the kids getting any of this, are they even going to remember it? No, so why bore the adults with Dora or Calliou. We were going for country chic, so I thought that doing something handcrafted would fit right in. I started cutting out strips of different patterned papers in our colors. Then I wove the strips until I had a big enough area to bend them around a square frame I built. I repeated this for two other frames and then put it all together. Not as complicated as it looks, but very time consuming.

This is from Jennifer's baby shower for Grayson. It was a 50's robot themed party with orange, sky blue, and gray as the colors. I wanted the sign to look like the inner workings of a clock, showing the exposed gears and cogs. If I had a few more weeks, I think I could have made the parts move, but I'm only human. The circular pieces are wreath forms, spray-painted steel. The other miniature parts are from train and car model sets, finished with nuts and bolts from the hardware store. I polished it all off with spelling out Grayson in gears and a nice computerized font.

This was the latest insane creation for Arden's fourth birthday, Japanese-style. The colors were chartreuse,  lavender, and violet. I knew that I wanted to start off with a shoji screen since they scream Japanese culture, but are not thought of immediately. The screen is made up of a wreath form, balsa wood strips and translucent shimmer paper, spray-painted ivy leaf green. From that point, I wanted to assemble other bits of Japanese culture. I painted that famous cresting wave in front of Mt. Fuji on a nice piece of pine. I would have loved to burn that image onto the wood, but again, I'm only human and didn't have the time. The fan is accordion style cotton blinds. The "A" was very tricky to paint because of all the folds. The key is to trace it out first so it looks correct and not warped when it's fanned out. Then tie it all together and add some cherry blossoms in lavender to top it off. And no, I don't think those Japanese characters on the bottom spell out anything but garbled nonsense. My apologies.