It’s time for this month’s Cricut Design Space Star Challenge! The overarching theme for Round 3 was Wedding & Celebrations and my team decided to use “Floral + Woodland” as our focus. After brainstorming a few ideas, I decided on the following: a tablescape with a menu and place card design (today’s post!), and a peony and boxwood garland centerpiece (tomorrow’s post); and a few gift ideas, which will be shared at the end of this week.

For the tablescape portion, I teamed up with Melanie of Artzy Creations. Talk about teamwork in action! She made the napkin pendants and her darling chandelier shouldn’t be missed, so be sure to check her site along with the rest of my team as the posts go live this week (#RockThatCricut).

For the menu, I wanted something different than the traditional, rectangle menu card. Needless to say I was very excited when I spied the cherry veneer cardstock, which is a thin sheet of real wood with a paper backing. For the place card, it was a case of waste-not-want-not and used the menu’s leaf cut out. This was super easy to put together – less than 10 minutes from start to finish per setting once the menu was created.

Supplies:

Cherry Veneer Cardstock (12×12-inch, one per menu)
Gold Metallic on Kraft Cardstock
Moss Sheet (14×14-inch, one per menu)
Cricut Standard Grip Mat
Cricut Midnight Pen for Explore
Standard Blade for Explore (comes with the Cricut Explore)
Deep Cut Blade for Explore
Two-Sided Tape
Pen
Scissors

Cricut Design Space Link:
Wood Menu & Place Card (actual menu not included)

Creating:
I created the menu in PicMonkey and used Design Space’s “Upload Image” option. After uploading the image – in this case, the menu copy – I picked “moderately complex image” to review and edit the image carefully. There were a lot of negative space details due to the font (so many loops!). A little tip: be sure to preview the image before leaving the editing tool or you might have to start all over (that might have happened to me).

Drawing & Cutting:
For the cherry veneer, I used the Standard Grip mat with the Deep Cut Blade. For the cardstock, the Standard Blade with the Light or Standard Grip mat works well. I’ve found the Light Grip mat usually means less curling with paper and a majority of cardstock. Just make sure the material is secure so it won’t slide during the cutting.

Assembly:
Once the materials were cut, everything moved quickly along. Since each menu contains two wood leaves, it removes the pressure while writing guest names (mistakes happen!). Once the names are written, I used a small piece of double-sided tape to stick the wood leaf to the cardstock leaf. These leaves were off-set to better balance them in the place-card holder, but it also provided a little more visual interest.

Side note: yes, you could create and add guest names to the leaves in Design Space. I’m just a sucker for having at least one very personalized element at a party. To each their own, right?

The moss sheet was too thick to run through the Cricut, so the corners were rounded with a pair of scissors. This really helped soften the overall look of the place setting (thanks for the idea, Melanie!).

Setting The Table:
It was a lot of fun to see all the pieces come together with Melanie. I’m really pleased with how it all turned out. It felt very fresh. There’s a lot of warmth in the cherry wood and the different textures on the table creates great visual interest without overwhelming.

While it feels perfectly polished for an outdoor event, the menu on the moss sheet and place cards offer a great way to bring the outdoors inside; perfectly ideal as we enter the fall and prepare for the holiday season and winter.

Ultra important footnote! Along with Melanie’s napkin pendant, the place card holder, votive candle holders, and coasters were given to us for the shoot. If you like ’em, please show Church House Woodworks some love!

Please visit again tomorrow to find out how ink pad refills might be my new favorite way to dye paper and how the peony garland came together! I’ll also share exciting news about Cricut’s I Made It contest (trust me, you don’t want to miss out on this one!).

Design Team 14, Round 3 Posts (I’ll update as the posts go live): The Happy Scraps: Paper Bridal Bouquet // Classically Quirky: DIY Instagram Table Number/Advent Calendar Wall // Artzy Creations: Paper Flower Chandelier // Ameroonie Designs: DIY Custom Word Art // Seven Thirty Three: Rustic Invite // Brewed Together: DIY Photo Booth Props // Pencil Shavings Studio: Monogram Favor/Gift Tags // Everyday Party Mag: Woodland Centerpiece Candles

UPDATE: if you happen to be on Pinterest, it would mean the world to me if you could please repin the images from Cricut’s Design Space Star board, and here are the links: the place-card, the menu, the centerpiece and the leather cheers notebook/album! Thank you so much!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I’m also a member of Cricut’s Blogger Network. I may receive prizes in exchange for a winning project with Cricut Design Space Star. All opinions are 100% my own.

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