Sometimes ideas can be so obvious. I laugh when it seems to take me forever to think of them. When my wonderful husband and I were married a wee bit over four sublime years ago we had a celestial theme for our wedding.
While we were dating and during our engagement we witnessed so many fabulous celestial events it just seemed a natural choice for a theme. We watched hundreds of shooting stars during the August meteor shower. We both witnessed out first Aurora Borealis together, went to the planetarium to view Mars as it was the closest to Earth it will be for thousands of years, danced in the glow of giant harvest moons, laid on blankets to count stars and put together constellations, strained to see the tendrils of the Milky Way. We got engaged just after the massive northeast blackout when we got to just sit among the stars for entertainment.
I made the invitations, place cards, decorations, my veil, favors and a card box. I made a giant card box. It wasn't that I was expecting tons of cards, we kept the guest list intimate, it was meant to do double duty as a centerpiece. It constructed a star shaped box and decorated with intricately cut stars that my sister and I made. It was gorgeous and of course it is still in my studio because I can't bear to part with it and I just don't know what to do with it. It is just so out of this world!
So if you take a giant card box like this and put it into an incredible shrinking machine you get a bank; star, piggy or otherwise! I have started with a swan. Inspired by the signature swans of Stratford, Canada where Steven and I were engaged and where we have returned every August since. 
A Sweet Cygnet Savings Bank another way to express my cut paper designs.
**As I was gathering links for this post I learned with shock and great sadness that the longest serving artisitic director of the Stratford Festival died of a pulmonary embolism on Wednesday night. Richard Monette is one of the reasons we fell in love with the festival. Just a couple weeks ago we saw his last directoral effort of Love's Labour's Lost. He had an amazing talent and energy. Farewell.**
