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Preserving The Wedding Invitation

Many of you enjoy doing one craft or another and it's easy to use the technique to preserve the wedding invitation for a most treasured gift.

Cross-Stitch
Make a wedding sampler by duplicating the invitation in stitches with counted cross-stitch. Craft shops carry the supplies and will have a charted alphabet so you can create the names of the bride and groom and the marriage date. Determine the finished size of the cross-stitched invitation and cut a piece of even-weave Aida cloth to size. If should fit into a standard frame. Next center the names and date on the cloth and then surround it with flowers or a ribbon tied at the top with a bow. There are many charted designs to choose from in booklets or kits made especially for this purpose.

Stenciling
Decorate a small piece of unfinished furniture, such as a blanket chest. It can be stained, marbleized or sponge painted, then stencil the names and date on the front and varnish it for protection.

Decoupage
Mount the invitation on a tray, box or plaque. Begin by painting the object. Position the invitation on the item and glue in place. Cut out pretty flowers from greeting cards, a print, wrapping paper or a book. Arrange the flowers so they surround and slightly overlap the edges of the invitation and glue all around. Let dry and apply several coats of Polyurethane. If you've made a plaque, add a hanging brass picture frame hook to the top.

Pressed Flowers
Press some of the flowers from the centerpiece at a wedding and use them to decorate the outside edges around the invitation and set in a frame.

Picture Album
Decorate the front of an album with the wedding invitation. Frame it with a narrow satin or velvet ribbon glued around the edge of the invitation. Start the album with some candid photos of the couple before they were a couple, maybe baby pictures supplied by their parents. But remember, nothing embarrassing!

Copyright Leslie Linsley, author
Reprinted with permission, HouseNet, Inc.

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