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Link Love: Wedding Season

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Wedding season is upon us! Whether you’re a bride, a bridesmaid, a mother or grandmother of the bride, or a crafty wedding guest, we can all use these gorgeous DIY wedding ideas. Weddings with handmade touches are always more special than cookie cutter weddings. Even if the bride isn’t the crafty type, infusing your wedding with personal details can be so enjoyable for the bride, groom, and guests. These craft ideas range in skill level, but there’s something for every bride below. And don’t forget to check out our homemade centerpieces, DIY bouquets, and crafty wedding favor ideas. Happy wedding!

  1. Kissing Clothespin Cake Topper from Brooklyn Bride
  2. Glitter Cake Toppers from Etsy Blog
  3. DIY Tulle Garter from Johnna Lynn Johnson Blog
  4. Scratchcard Wedding Invitations from Rock N’ Roll Bride
  5. Dixie Cup Garland from Hey Gorgeous
  6. Seating Chart Garland from Ruffled Blog
  7. Rag Banner from Apple Brides
  8. Chalkboard Flower Pots from Emmaline Bride
  9. 10 Ways to Make a Garland from A Beautiful Mess

Meet and Make: Latrice Murphy

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Today’s Meet and Make designer is Latrice Murphy. Latrice is a busy crafter who loves to use bright colors and anything that’s unexpected! On her blog, Any Occasion, you will find a mix of photography, scrapbooking, card making, and cooking.

Ready to meet Latrice?

10 Fun Facts About Latrice Murphy

  1. I trained for the 2004 Olympics, but school took priority and so I made the VERY hard decision to give up that dream. I hope to get back into training shape one day.
  2. I have three tattoos, all of dragons. One resembles puff the magic dragon a little.
  3. I eat almost no vegetables. This makes it hard to get my kids to eat them too!
  4. I secretly love being a stay at home mom, but it’s seriously stressful at times.
  5. My dream job is to work in the scrapbooking industry creating yummy goodness for all to see.
  6. My family nickname is Tricie. Pronounced Tree-see (short for Latrice) and the “U” in my middle name stands for Unique. Seriously it does.
  7. I have three fabulous kiddos and plan to have one more. (Don’t tell my husband)
  8. I’m a baker extraordinaire and hope to have a bakery/craft store one day of my own.
  9. I’m an Architect and elementary school teacher. Weird I know. I love both fields so much.
  10. I’m a sports crazy wife who thinks her husband is so lucky because I could watch Sports Center 5 times in a row and not get tired of it.

Here’s Latrice’s Project:

Whimsical Tissue Poms

 

Materials:

  • Pipe cleaners
  • Tissue Paper (sheets for gift wrap)
  • Scissors
  • Ribbon

Video:

Instructions:

  1. Accordion style fold the paper. Crease with each fold. Use about a 14″ piece of tissue paper and about 5 sheets stacked.
  2. Gather the folded tissue paper and bend in center.
  3. Fold a pipe cleaner in half, and slip wire over center of folded tissue; twist tightly. Tie ribbon or wire for hanging, if desired.
  4. If you want you pom pom to have the rounded edges like above trim the ends so the they are round before moving on to the next step.
  5. Separate each layer, pulling away from the center.
  6. For best results, pull away layers from the top and bottom of one side before moving on to the next side.
  7. The end result is a fluffy Tissue Paper Pom Pom Ball!

Link Love: Cake Topper Party

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There are so many cool DIY cake topper ideas out there! You can go traditional and put a homemade bride and groom atop your cake, or you can get creative and use your initials, romantic hearts, or whimsical bunting. These cake toppers are all really cheap to make too! Which one’s your favorite?

  1. No-Sew Cake Bunting from Intimate Weddings
  2. Doily Heart Cake Toppers from Project Wedding
  3. Clothespin Cake Topper from Craftstylish
  4. Pinwheel Cake Topper from La Belle Bride
  5. Silhouette Cake Topper from Killer B. Design
  6. Sparkly Monogram Cake Topper from Weddingbee
  7. Lego Cake Toppers from Model Building Secrets
  8. Amigurumi Bunny Cake Topper from Lion Brand Yarn
  9. Fabric Heart Cake Topper from OnceWed

How to Make a Save the Date Fabric Banner

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I recently had my engagement photos taken. I figured using them for our Save the Dates would be a great way to show off the professional photos taken of us while also keeping our Save the Dates relatively quick and easy. I’m planning on using Vistaprint to have a photo made into postcards to send to our guests. I’ve been known to go a little nuts with my craft project ideas, so I wanted to remove the DIY aspect from our Save the Dates as much as possible…

…but of course I had to turn it into a craft project even though I wasn’t actually hand crafting the Save the Dates. Enter the fabric banner! I thought it would be cute to have our date actually in the photograph (because typing it in later would have been too easy). Here’s how I did it:

Here’s what you need:

  • Fabric for the numbers and the background
  • Felt
  • Some sort of string/rope/ribbon to hang it all from
  • Printed numbers
  • Scissors
  • Sewing machine (or you can sew by hand)

Here’s what I did:

Step 1: First select a font you like, either one from Microsoft Word or a free font website. I can’t remember which one I chose, sorry! Type out the numbers you need in the font you like, scale them so they’re the right size, and print them out. Tip: Print it as a “draft” or with a lower quality to save ink, because you’ll be discarding the printed numbers later–they only serve as a template.

Step 2: Cut out your number templates, lay them flat against your chosen fabric, and cut them out of the fabric. Note: Make sure you lay the numbers face down on the wrong side of the fabric so that they face the correct way when you’re done.

Step 3: Now cut a rectangle to go with each number. I just measured based on the size of my numbers. You can change the size (or shape) of yours. Have fun with it!

Step 4: Once you have all of your rectangles cut, it’s time to attach the numbers. I decided to use Stitch Witchery so I didn’t have to worry about sewing around all those curves. You can learn how to use fusible fabric tape in this post about making a no-sew hem. I cut the tape to fit in my numbers, laid the tape on the wrong side of each number, set the yellow rectangle on top, and ironed it on.

Step 5: I cut rectangles out of felt that would be attached to the yellow rectangles, just to give the banner some sturdiness. I knew it would be billowing in the breeze, and I wanted it to lie flat in our pics (it ended up billowing much more than I thought it would. If you’re taking your engagement pics by a lake, don’t assume things will billow in the breeze; assume they’ll flail maniacally in the wind gusts). The felt rectangles should be longer than the fabric ones, because you’ll fold the top over to make a loop, which is where you’ll string the ribbon/rope through. Then sew the fabric to the felt.

Step 6: Make the loop I just mentioned (it’s more of a tube, really) and sew it down. Then make your spacers. I chose to cut hearts from my fabric and attach them to felt. I cut two little holes on the top of the hearts for the string to go through. Once you’re done stringing your rope/ribbon through all of the number loops and spacer holes, you might have to tie knots and/or employ your trusty glue gun and/or give up your first born in order to get the spacers to not bunch up under the weight of the numbers.

And here they are in action! Note: Heads have been decapitated to protect the innocent.

Photo by Jennifer Shaffer Photography

Craft Trends at CHA

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The FaveCrafts team was at the Craft and Hobby Association’s Summer Conference and Trade Show last week, and we had a blast! I saw so many new and innovative craft products (some of which we’ll be giving away to you guys this year!) and met some up-and-coming craft designers. My favorite part of the show was checking out the creative booths and decorations that all of the different manufacturers had set up. I noticed a lot of trends among the booths as well.

The first trend I noticed was the prevalence of the Ikea Ung Drill frame (which I also have in my room at home!). Somehow I didn’t manage to take a picture of it at the show, but I saw it at 3 or 4 different booths! Here it is at the Hambly Screen Prints booth–I found this photo on their blog:

I saw a lot of faux flowers made from tissue paper…

…coffee filters…

…paper…

…and cupcake liners! (these are from Martha Stewart. I’m drooling with excitement!)

I also saw a cool wreath from what looked like cupcake liners or maybe coffee filters from Canvas Corp:

And of course lots of pinwheels! These are from Canvas Corp as well. (Psst: you can make pinwheel hair clips with this tutorial):

You can’t write a post on craft trends without including mustaches! Hambly Screen Prints had mustache scrapbooking paper:

Hambly also had washi tape! Can you tell I loved their booth the most?

A lot of the booths had handmade garlands too, which got my wedding gears turning.

Speaking of weddings,wouldn’t these rose pomanders from the Sizzix booth look so elegant at a wedding?

The Martha Stewart set-up at the EK Success booth also had some adorable wedding crafts. I love the escort card with the teeny tiny tissue fringe.

And here’s the whole Martha area:

See those paper rosette decorations in the photo? Those were also all over the show floor! And for good reason–they’re so pretty and whimsical! This is probably my favorite photo of the bunch, from the My Mind’s Eye booth. We stopped over just to check out their awesome booth decorations!

I’ll be posting more about what I saw at the CHA trade show, so stay tuned! In the meantime, which of these is your favorite craft trend? Which are you sick of seeing?

How to Make Glue Yarn Balls

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You can see this project and more wedding ideas on FaveCrafts.com!

If you can remember about a month ago, I alluded to a Part 3 to my centerpiece saga. If you’re just joining me, read about the paper globes and the crepe paper pomanders I made for my wedding centerpieces. And for all of you who waited patiently for part 3, here it is: Glue Yarn Balls!

I’ve seen this idea all over the place, and I decided it would be a cute addition to my centerpieces, to give them some variety. So half of the tables will have paper globes, and half will have these yarn balls.

To be honest, this project was a little bit of a craft FAIL! But I’ve learned a few tips and tricks that I’ll share with you, and hopefully my next round turns out better.

Materials:

  • Yarn (I bought a skein of gray and a skein of yellow. I’m not sure how many yarn balls this will yield because I haven’t finished yet.)
  • Elmers Glue
  • A tray to mix the glue and water in
  • Balloons

Instructions:

  1. First mix some glue and water in a tray and stir it (I stirred with a straw so I could throw it away when I was done.) I’m not sure of the preferred glue to water ratio, to be honest. I might have used too much water, because my yarn wasn’t very stiff at the end (see? Craft FAIL!).
  2. Then blow up a bunch of balloons to your desired size. Here’s another failure: I first bought water balloons, but they were very difficult to blow up and ended up making egg shapes instead of balls. Then I bought regular balloons but some of them deflated over night. I’d say either type of balloon could work. Some of my balloons didn’t deflate, so I’d probably go with the regular ones, since they were easier to work with.
  3. Next, wrap some yarn around your hand (I did about 50 times).And soak that yarn in the glue mixture.
  4. Then ring out the yarn and start wrapping it around a balloon in a random pattern.

    5. Here’s a tip: When I popped my balloons at the end, I noticed the yarn was stuck to the balloon, so my yarn balls deflated a little bit. I’ve heard that if you cover your balloon with Vaseline before hand, this won’t happen.

  5. When the balloon is sufficiently wrapped with yarn, cut the yarn from the rest of the skein, tuck the end in, and roll the entire balloon around in the glue mixture again to make sure the yarn is coated.
  6. Then lay the balloon on a piece of wax paper to dry overnight. Tip: I had to dry mine for about 2 days, flipping the balloon over after the first day.
  7. When you’re sure the glue is completely dry, go ahead and pop the balloons and pull them out from the inside of the balls. You should have round, hollow yarn balls when you’re done.

Here’s how the yarn balls look inside my “vases”:

So that’s all, folks! How do you like my centerpieces? Do you have any tips on how to make this craft work a little better? What should I do about my deflated balloons problem??

Wedding Centerpieces Part 2: Crepe Paper Pomanders

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You can see this project and more wedding crafts on FaveCrafts.com.

For those who were riveted by my edge-of-your-seat cliffhanger wedding centerpieces part 1 post (about the paper globes), here’s part 2! In my last post, I talked about finding the perfect “vases” to use for my centerpieces that were both large enough to give the reception venue some drama but also cheap enough for this budget bride to afford. The vases ended up actually being hurricane candle covers, which I filled with DIY paper globes. For part 2 of the centerpiece saga, I topped the hurricanes off with some homemade pomanders. (P.S. read my question at the bottom of the post and let me know your ideas!)

That looks much better, doesn’t it? I’ve fallen in love with pomanders since I became a regular wedding blog lurker, but I didn’t fall in love with the price tag. I’m not sure exactly what the price tag is, but it’s safe to say that I can’t afford it. These faux pomanders, on the other hand, are virtually free–which is good because I need to make 20 of them. Want to make some?

Materials:

  • Foam balls (8″ would work best for my vases) OR wadded up newspaper
  • Hot glue gun and glue
  • Streamers (200 feet per pomander)
  • Glue dots

Note: This project used a lot more supplies that I thought it would! Each pomander needed an entire roll of streamers and about 3 hot glue sticks, and yet, it’s still an extremely cheap project to make!

Instructions:

  1. Start by making the rosettes. I used a tutorial I found on The Idea Room and tweaked it a little. First I cut my streamers into strips about 3-4 feet long. I didn’t measure them first, so of course none of the rosettes are uniform. I think that makes them look more realistic though.
  2. Start by rolling the end of the streamer a few times.
  3. Then you’ll continue wrapping the rest of the strip around your roll in a spiral, except that you’ll twist the strip as you go. I found that it works best to twist it often and randomly, and not too tightly.

    Those instructions probably don’t make a whole lot of sense, so check out this video, which is how I finally figured out how to do it:

  4. When you’re finished wrapping and twisting, secure the end of the strip to the rosette using a glue dot or a dab of hot glue. Your rosette should look like this:

  5. Once you’ve made enough rosettes (for me it was when I finished off the entire roll of streamers), glue them to your ball using a hot glue gun. Most pomander tutorials will advise that you use a foam ball as your base. However, since I need to make 20 of these and I need a fairly large ball, I really couldn’t justify the expense. It would have cost me about $275 just for the foam balls! Instead, I rolled up a few sheets of newspaper and taped them into a spherical shape and called that my ball. Then I glued the rosettes to my newspaper balls.


  6. Once you have the entire ball covered in rosettes, set it on the top of your vase, and you’re done!


And just to keep you guys in even more suspense…there will be a part 3! But first, I need some of your crafting expertise: I need a way to make sure the pomanders stay on top the “vases” all night without falling off, and I don’t want to have to glue them to the glass. Any suggestions?

Got Wedding Ideas?

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You may have noticed that I’ve basically taken over this blog with my wedding craft ideas. I thought you might be interested in seeing other people’s wedding ideas too! I just recently scoured the site looking for more wedding inspiration, and put together an article of 33 Summer Wedding Ideas. Here are some of the best!

Daydreaming about fake flowers is my favorite part of wedding planning so far. Okay, that might be a stretch, but flowers are definitely something that I plan to spend a significant amount of time crafting. I love the Rose Bouquet Ball idea on FaveCrafts:

The roses are actually silk roses, but I think this pomander would look great with handmade paper or fabric flowers too. I think the handmade flower details at this wedding are beautiful, especially the giant blooms on their chairs!

Another cute idea I found was these Button Candles. I’m a sewer (sewist? seamstress? sewing enthusiast?) so including a button motif at my wedding would be so cute!

Decorative votive candles are such a thrifty way to dramatically alter the ambiance at your reception too. I found this cute votive idea at Two Crafty Mules. Check out their tutorial–you’ll be surprised at how simple it is!

Another project I included in my 33 Summer Wedding Ideas article is this Pastel Flower Wedding Invitation. I just love the texture and how the paper flower pops out at you!

What are your favorite wedding projects on FaveCrafts? If you’d like to see more of my favorites, check out 33 Summer Wedding Ideas. I also have a favor to ask you: Can you share your favorite wedding ideas with me? I need all the inspiration I can get!

DIY Weddings: Paper Globes

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You can see this project and more wedding crafts on FaveCrafts.com.

I’ve been sharing my wedding crafts with you guys the past few weeks–check out my charming heart straws and “Will you be my bridesmaid?” cards. Today I have another to share! I’d been searching all over for affordable vases to use for my centerpieces, and I finally found a solution last night. Instead of vases, I bought candle hurricanes. The only difference I can discern is that the hurricane doesn’t have a bottom. But I don’t need a bottom on my vase, because I’m not putting any water in them. What am I putting in them? These!

If only I were better at taking pictures (and didn’t craft at night)…Anyway, I found the idea at Sweet and Lovely Crafts, where the photos are a whole lot nicer. I’m so glad I found this idea because it’s thrifty and easy, and it satisfies by affinity for paper decorations. Want to make your own? Here’s what you need:

Materials:

  • Colored Paper
  • Brads
  • Scissors and/or a paper cutter
  • Hole punch (I used my Crop-a-Dile)

Instructions:

  1. The paper I used was standard 8 1/2″ by 11″ so I trimmed thin strips from the short side and then cut each strip in half–so each strip of paper was about 4 inches long and about 1/2″ wide. When I make the rest of my centerpieces, I think I will make the strips of paper even thinner, perhaps 1/4″ wide.
  2. Next I punched holes in both ends of each strip so that I could fit the brads through. I wouldn’t recommend punching several at a time (although you know I did!) because my strips were not uniform widths, and some of my punches went off the edge.
  3. Once each strip has a hole punched on either end, insert a brad through each strip, and lock it in place by spreading the back flat.

  4. Then it was time to spread the strips apart to make a globe shape. This part’s pretty self-explanatory–you just fan the strips out and arrange them evenly, with the brads on top and bottom.
  5. Repeat steps 1-4 until you have made a million paper globes. Then you can get married!


I got kind of artsy with my photos.

What do you think of my paper globe centerpieces? Would you make these for a wedding or party? Stay tuned for part 2 of my centerpiece saga…

How to: Host a Wedding on the Cheap

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If you’re a FaveCrafts blog reader, you’ve probably seen my “Will You Be My Bridesmaid?” cards that I made with the Cricut Expression 2. That was just the beginning of my wedding crafting! I’ve got 14 long months until my wedding, and in that time I hope to make more wedding related crafts (and write more wedding craft blog posts) than you’d care to see. I’m a craft enthusiast to begin with (which is why I write about crafts for a living), so I am crafting for fun. But one major benefit to crafting for your wedding is the amount of money you can save! Here are some ways I’ve found to host the wedding of your dreams on a tight budget with crafting.

  1. Make your own veil, hair accessories, and jewelry. If you’ve never planned a wedding, you’d be absolutely shocked to see how much veils can cost. Why are they so expensive? It beats me–they’re just a piece of tulle or lace! Here’s a video tutorial that will teach you how to make your own veil (and you don’t even need to know how to sew!):

    For jewelry ideas, check out our free eBook, 25 Easy to Make Homemade Jewelry Ideas. These Vintage Inspired Dangle Earrings are my favorite, and they’re perfect for a bride’s “something old.” If you’re not the veil-wearing type (or if you’d like to channel the Royal Wedding), try your hand at a homemade fascinator:
  2. DIY the flowers. Another price shocker that comes with wedding planning is the floral budget. I used the budget tool on TheKnot.com to see what percentage of my (meager) budget I should allocate to flowers, and it spit out $1,600! The good news is that I don’t have to spend nearly this much if I make my own faux flowers! Handmade flowers are super trendy right now, and they can be made of paper or fabric. I’m definitely planning on making these adorable kissing balls from The Idea Room:

    They’re made out of crepe paper! You can also use silk flowers to make your bouquets and decorations. We’ve got a beautiful DIY pomander project on FaveCrafts made of silk flowers, the Rose Bouquet Ball:

    I also love the idea of using vintage brooches instead of flowers for your bouquets. I found this one on Ruffled:

  3. Use handmade centerpieces. For my centerpieces, I’m planning on making these pretty yarn balls from Make and Takes:

    and these gorgeous paper globes from Sweet and Lovely Crafts:

    I’ll fill tall cylinder vases with these inexpensive decorations and top it all off with something else homemade–possibly one of the pomanders from above!

I haven’t gotten all of my wedding craft ideas down yet, but these are the ones I’ll be tackling first.

Do you guys have any other ideas for me? What did you DIY for your own wedding?

Crochet

Jewelry

Knitting

Paper

Sewing

Thrifty