As promised in my last post — here’s my design process for the favor boxes we gave to the guests at our wedding a couple weekends ago. These turned out to be quite a bit more work than the Save the Dates as you’ll soon see…

Raisin was on quality control duty as I rubber stamped the flap of these kraft boxes purchased from Uline

I wanted some text on the flap that sealed the box and Jill wanted some sort of  ”love vibe” somewhere so I knew pulling lyrics from a well-known Elvis song would do the trick — and it did indeed.

Poster paint was used once again on the inside of the box and was applied with a sponge brush to eliminate any streaking that occurs from using a normal paint brush. Originally I was going to fill the inside of the boxes with just red shredded paper but I felt it really needed a big pop of color & contrast when the guest opened the box up for the first time — so painting the inside it was.

The production line of completed boxes.

The cards that would be placed on the top of the box were printed on my Epson R2880 after I burned the edges in Photoshop to give them subtle texture. I had two rubber stamps made (one for “24″ and one for “Alan + Jill 10   09″) that needed to be lined up manually because of the two different colors we used — it was a bit tricky to line them up, but if they were off a bit it added to the handmade feel.

After all the cards were rubber stamped Jill then hole punched them so we could thread them to match the sewn-on style that the Save the Dates had — I thought this was a good way to tie the two projects together.

Red hemp jewelry cord from Michaels was used for attaching and threading the cards onto the box. Most people tend to use bakers twine but it seems to only come in striped colors and liked the texture of this cord better.

…Hand threading…one by one…hole by hole….

Jill wanted a small bag of candy inside the box so we headed over to Powells Sweet Shoppe in Belmont Shore to fill up on Jelly Bellys.

Jelly Bellys were mixed in, wrapped up and tied with red hemp jewelry cord as well.

1/16th” kraft chipboard was purchased once again and cut down to 5″ x 2″ rectangles so gambling chips could be affixed to them via fugitive glue. The tagline “Take a Gamble” was rubber stamped onto the chipboard next to the gambling chip. Homie on the left cut down all the chipboard — he works at Lyon Art Supply in downtown Long Beach — homie on the right is Jeff from Jeff’s Press in Huntington Beach who made all the rubber stamps for me — thanks guys

The sides were painted with a Sharpee Poster Paint Pen to yet again tie in with the Save the Dates.

Although I enjoyed playing Martha Stewart for a few weeks, I’m fine with not going into a craft store for a while…

Each guest received a $5 chip they could gamble with after the amazing dinner we had at Border Grill inside Mandalay Bay — awesome place to eat FYI + a  place for group events, highly recommended (Thanks Katie!! We got into the club later too ). Our friends Jared & Lauren bet both of their chips on “24″ at the roulette table after dinner and won $340!!! Now that’s a way to start off the night!!!

Elvis shades were purchased from a costume store in Belmont Shores — we wiped out their inventory in 1 minute LOL!!! At dinner we had the Photographer take portraits of everybody wearing the shades — needless to say they were nothing short of AMAZING!!! The more people drank, the better they got!!! More on the photos in another post…

This is what guests saw when they opened up the box.

And there you have it, my design process for our Love Me Tender Boxes (only 17 made). These boxes, just like the Save the Dates were a blast to do and it was very interesting going through the trial and error phase to see what works and what doesn’t. Although I enjoyed playing Martha Stewart for a few weeks, I’m fine with not going into a craft store for a while LOL Take care.