Bridal Shower String Art

Straight out of the “that was easy” DIY vault comes another piece of string art. This one was made for my sister in law Julie’s bridal shower that we held last Sunday.

This project was altogether cost effective; in fact it was free. I had all of the supplies around the house: the wood and ceiling paint were left over from our kitchen renovation, the string from our wedding, and the nails courtesy of Ben’s tool box. The total assembly was about an hour aside from the time it took for the paint to dry (I left it over night).

This project would work well with any graphic shape, monogram, or number for a birthday or shower. As a large-scale piece it adds a fun pop of colour and could also be used to hold escort or gift cards.

I used the heart on the welcome table to greet guests in the front entrance. 

More details from Julie’s shower to come!

DIY cake toppers

I plan on doing some baking (of the cake variety) for a special birthday and a wedding shower in the next few months and I wanted a fun way to jazz them up a bit. I love the idea of reusable cake toppers paired with or in lieu of traditional candles; however, every option I found came with a price tag. In the interest of keeping it simple (& cheap), I printed out two of my favourite words in Arial Bold font on regular computer paper, cut them out with scissors and used the cutouts as tracers on the back of some sparkle cardstock I had left over from this project.

Once the letters were cut out (I found an exacto knife worked best to cut through the cardstock) I attached baking dowels to the backs with a hot glue gun.

That’s it. A simple + fun Saturday project in preparation for birthday and wedding season!

happy love. the best kind.

wedding project [eight]: gilded place card holders

I'm in still in catch up mode so please bear with me as I feature the remaining details from our wedding. 

The collection of gilded animal place card holders on our head table was the smallest element of our wedding decor and one of my favourite details. I wanted the head table to feature a few unique details and decided that gold would be the perfect accent to our palette of coral + neutrals. I love the look of the bold chevron on the traditional white and gold tablescape. 

The gold chargers were a great addition but they needed something to tie them in. Enter: gilded animals. 

I purchased a tube of safari animals from Michaels and spray painted them gold. To hold the place cards, Ben sawed a small indent with an old steak knife. The plastic was quite hard to saw into and the cards didn't sit quite right. To keep them in place I added a drop of glue from my hot glue gun to affix the place card which worked quite well. Since the glue chipped off easily they can be used again. TIP: If I were to make these again I would saw the notches into the figurines prior to spraying them as the pain chipped off a bit. 

These are way too fun; I can't wait for the opportunity to use them again. Two of my bridesmaids have theirs in their homes and they look awesome just sitting on a shelf or dresser.

Top photo by Adrian Photography.

Halloween Cat Bunting

This week I was inspired by my new dress and Rubyellen's string lights and decided to create Halloween cat bunting for our entryway.  Even though I'm not a "cat person" this fun project is a homage to the year 6 years I went trick-or-treating as a black cat.  

supplies: 

- black felt

- string/ ribbon/ rik rak

- dressmakers pins

- fabric scissors 

- sewing machine

directions:
- create a template of the cat head. I drew mine free-hand but there are many clip art images online that would work, too.
- pin template to felt and cut out. Don't be too concerned about making each one perfect; felt holds its shape really well (& I'm partial to variations of the same template).
- sew to string/ ribbon
- hang!


Once I hung the bunting the cats looked lonely and needed something more so I sewed a string of triangle bunting out of the left over felt and hung them together. The result is more whimsical than spooky but that's fine by me. It was a cost effective project (less than $5 to complete) that I assembled in a couple hours. Bonus: it's a holiday decoration that will be easy to store!


Have you crafted anything for Halloween? 

wedding project [seven]: the L-O-V-E sign

As promised, here are the details of our LOVE sign, one of the most well-received (and well-photographed) elements of the reception. 

It must be noted that this project was a last minute a decision but a decision I am very glad I made. After seeing this tutorial, I became obsessed with incorporating Jordan's fabulous Marquee letters into the reception. "LOVE" was the opportune word. 

details: 

I assembled the supplies and enlisted the design talents of my friend Angie and the fabrication help of my amazing aunt Cath and creatively-inclined cousin Nico. We cut, scored, folded, and taped in the August sunshine, adapting Jordan's tutorial as we went based on the tools we had available. We ended up using the following supplies:

- a string of 25 globe lights

- poster board (x3)

- foam core board (x3)

- exacto knife/ steak knife/ scissors/ pen (for shaping the holes for the lights)

- duct tape

- scotch tape

- rulers

- cutting mat

- spray paint

Once I printed out Angie's template (which printed on 24 letter-sized pages) we taped the letters together and used them to trace onto the foam core board with pencil. There is a "front" and a "back" of the foam core board (one has a slight grid pattern). Once it's spray painted the grid pattern will still be visible; this may or may not be a big deal to you. Consider yourself warned. 

Once the letters were cut out with an array of cutting tools (we got creative) we were left with letters that had somewhat sloppy edges. This is OK as they'll be covered with the strips of poster board. 

Folding the poster board to wrap cleanly around the letters is the tricky part. We followed Jordan's steps which were very straightforward and logical (scoring is KEY). That being said, I recommend that you not attempt this project alone as the logistical/ mathematical/ fabrication part (this includes but is not limited to measuring, determining what part of the edging is the front vs. the back, scoring, folding, holding-in-place, and taping) is a feat in and of itself. Cath and I bounced ideas off of each other, laughed at each other's confusion, and - in the most general of terms - kept each other sane. I couldn't have done it without her.

Another modification we made had to do with the placement of the lights. The string of lights I ordered off of Amazon didn't come with the template that Jordan refers to; therefore, Cath and I divided the total number of lights [25] by the number of letters we had [4] and spaced them out accordingly (the "E" received two extra lights).

Once the letters were sprayed and the lights added it became an instant piece of art. Initially I planned on using the lights in the backyard but I've since decided to keep the letters intact for C Star Headquarters. I love this sign so much and I can't wait to experiment with this project again in the future. Anyone up for craft night?

up next:

Incredibly fun place card holders.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... Go!