My Handmade Wedding book is in Michaels stores and JoAnn stores. Eek! And it’s on Amazon. I still can’t believe I’m an author. It feel like someone needs to pinch me! It’s all a bit surreal.
Do All Books Make It Into Stores?
Did you know you can write a book and it might never make it to market (aka into retail stores)? All that work and no ones sees it? Just because you write it and someone says they’ll publish it, does not mean that a retailer picks it up and puts it in a store.
That is the risk that a new author takes. So for major craft stores to pick my book up, well let’s just say I feel beyond blessed!
When I was a little girl I wanted to be an author. Of course back then I wanted to write Nancy Drew novels…ha! But God has His own plans and so here I am today with a wedding craft book! Yay!
How The Handmade Wedding Book Happened
This process all started last year when I was just moving into our new house. I got a call from the publisher, she had seen my work here and there, and we just hit it off.
I’ve spoken with publishers before, but I always felt like there was something missing. Either I didn’t love the topic, their timeline didn’t work with my schedule, the money wasn’t right, something each and every time. And since I run my own business off of very detailed scheduling and planning ahead, it just never worked out.
I’m happy to say that this time it did. I was taking a bit of a break getting settled in the house and so I didn’t have a million deadlines already looming. Plus, the people at Leisure Arts were so very easy to work with. I truly enjoyed the process. I didn’t sleep much, but enjoyed the process. {grin}
Getting started was pretty straight forward. We talked about topics, created outlined, refined outlines, signed contracts, talked more, and then I started to craft. From beginning to delivery it was three-and-a-half months, which is a bit fast.
We thought we had a retailer interested right out of the gate, there was no contract, but there was interest. After delivery we had a surprise, another retailer wanted the book. It was exciting… and it brought changes. They wanted to make tweaks, but the deadline for print was still the same. My brain went into overdrive. Could I make it happen, what was I going to do. With the book delivered, I had already committed time to clients and now I had to go back to the book.
I was truly beside myself for about an hour, and then I just stopped and prayed about it. God gave me this opportunity, He would bless me to figure out what to do with this hiccup that I had just been handed. The great news was a retailer wanted the book. Yay! Now I just had to do a bit more work.
Thank goodness my smart publisher had worked in an extra few weeks or so at the beginning of the process for just such things to happen, and we used every single second of it.
In the end, we went to press on time and my kids didn’t starve. It was a win, win!
What’s In The Handmade Wedding Book
When I started the process of writing Handmade Wedding we went in a few directions. We considered taking three or four wedding styles and creating trendy projects for each, but then decided to go more general and touch on each component of the wedding, from asking the bridesmaids to hosting a bridesmaid brunch, to dressing room touches, to reception elements, to the big sendoff.
I actually made 30 projects for the book, and we published 20. That’s the way it often goes!
Here’s a look at a few wedding projects in the book.
Wedding Cricut Cartridge To Go With The Book
For those of you that know me well, you know I love to craft with my Cricut! So it should be no surprise that I designed a Cricut Wedding Cartridge to go with my Handmade Wedding book! All these crafts work well with the ideas already in the book.
This wedding invitation set is my favorite in the Cricut cartridge I think.
In addition to the wedding invitation, save the date and envelope liners, you can also make address labels, placecards, thank you notes, RSVP cards, envelope wrappers and so much more with your Cricut!
The Cricut cartridge also has elements to make cake toppers, bride tees and totes, table numbers for the reception… and all in a classic black and white, or you can add color by printing on cardstock! The options are only limited by your imagination!
You can hop over to Cricut Design Space now to learn step-by-step how to make this POP THE CHAMPAGNE I’M CHANGING MY LAST NAME tee!
I also have several other Cricut cartridges in Design Space, including back to school, fall, Halloween, two Christmas and much more. I’d love for you to have a look!
Kim Byers’ Cricut Cartridges
More Handmade Wedding Craft Ideas
I can’t show you too much of what’s in the book, but I can show you some other beautiful wedding crafts. Here are just a few tutorials here on the blog and YouTube!
- How To Make A Wedding Cake Topper With Cricut Maker And The Weld Tool
- Wedding Sign With Embroidery An Hoop + Free WELCOME cut file
- Wedding Stationary You Can Personalize
- Honeymoon Beach Tote
- You’re A Gem Bridal Shower Cake Topper
As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create with The Celebration Shoppe!
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This post contains affiliate links, which means if you purchase something through this post I will earn a small fee from the retailer at absolutely no cost to you. They pay me for brining you to them and I use it to keep the craft room stocked and the coffee pot working! Don’t worry. All content, ideas, photography and opinions are that of my own and I’d have it no other way!
I’m Officially An Author! The Handmade Wedding Book Is In Stores Now seen on The Celebration Shoppe first.
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