Felt Flower Wreath From Purl Bee

Posted by Khris in Decor, DIY Projects & Tutorials

Have I mentioned how wreath-crazy I am? I love wreaths year ’round, for any and every occasion. When I saw this uber adorable felt wreath over at Purl Bee – I admit it – I squealed. Wouldn’t this look adorable at your wedding? Perhaps on the church/venue doors. Or mini ones on the backs of the bride & groom’s chairs? Hmmm….

Check out the full tutorial at Purl Bee: http://www.purlbee.com/felt-flower-winter-wreath/

Fused Plastic Table Numbers

Posted by Khris in Decor, DIY Projects & Tutorials

So you haven’t quite changed over to canvas and reusable bags for your grocery shopping. Now you have, oh, 30o or 400 hundred bags stuffed under your kitchen cabinets and aren’t quite sure what to do with them. If you’ve got bags, an iron, and some spare time have I got a solution for you!

James from Plastic Rapt (etsy shop) shot me an email that pointed me to his terrific tutorial for creating table number from fused plastic bags. I thought it was quite clever and wanted to share this eco-friendly project with you recycling types!

You can find the full tutorial over at Firefly Bachelor & Bachelorette Parties.

Ruffly Felt Garland

Posted by Khris in Decor, DIY Projects & Tutorials

Kristen, over at the uber-cool Domestifluff blog, posted a tutorial for a gorgeous ruffly felt garland. Wouldn’t this be a lovely addition to wedding decor? Tutorial here.

Project Makeover: Yarn Mum Wreath

Posted by Khris in Decor, DIY Projects & Tutorials

Our first Project Makeover comes from frustrated (and newly broke) DIYer Mindy.

Due to downsizing at both her and her fiance’s companies this summer Mindy is in a bit of a budget bind when it comes to her decor. Mindy adores bright green kermit mums and had hoped to make her own wreaths for pew and reception hall decoration. Her initial budget had been $30 per wreath. It is now $9.00 to 10.00 per wreath.

I wanted to give Mindy a kermit mum feel while using materials she could pick up at her local big box craft store. My solution? Kermit mums made out of yarn! Using modified yarn pom poms, pearl-headed pins, and a styrofoam wreath blank, I whipped up a super duper easy wreath that’s easy on the budget. Mindy happens to be an avid knitter so this was a fun surprise for her.

• Blank foam wreath, about 12″ in diameter
• 1 skein of green yarn, about 256 yards
• 1 package of pearl-headed pins
• Scissors – make sure they’re sharp!

Instructions:

1. On the middle three fingers of your non-dominant hand (if you’re right-handed, use your left), hold the end of your yarn down with your thumb and begin wrapping the yarn around and around your fingers,  about 32 – 35 times.
2. Cut the yarn when you’ve finished wrapping.
3. Cut a length of yarn about 3″ and tie it tightly around the middle of the yarn wrap you’ve created on your other hand. It sounds trickier than it is. I’m confident you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly. You’re smart cookies.
4. Hold the pom-pom yarn bundle and use your scissors to cut through all of the loops on the pom pom – be careful not to cut through the piece of yard that’s holding all of the pieces together.
5. Fluff up your pom pom with your fingers.
6. Now, trim it up with your scissors, making it even and pretty.
7. The last step is to attach the “mums” to the foam wreath with the pins.

Cost Breakdown: $10.00 (note you’ll have leftover supplies to get started on more wreaths)

• Wreath: $5.00
• Yarn: $3.50
• Pins: $1.50

Notes:

• For a 12″ wreath, I used about 60 pom/mums of varying sizes. I did 2-finger and 3-finger mums to keep it interesting.
• The lighter the weight of the yarn, the more wraps you’ll need.
• The size of the mums will vary from person-to-person as our fingers are different sizes. I have chubby little fingers. Your digits may vary.
• Mum-making took about 1.5 hours for this project.
• I used about 3/4 of the skein of yarn.
• If you’d like to make yarn pom poms, increase the number of wraps from 30-ish to 70-ish.

Darci’s Table Numbers

Posted by Khris in Decor, DIY Projects & Tutorials

As you know, in my search for some unique table numbers I came across this wonderful idea on OnceWed.  Laurie Cinotto originally created the idea for the blog and I sort of ran with it (thanks, Laurie!)  The supplies that I used are relatively easy to find and I pretty much stuck with the original instructions except to use larger notebooks and white stick-on numbers instead of gold.  Here are the supplies:

•    5.25 x 8.25″ Plain Moleskine Notebooks (sold in packs of 3)
•    Decorative paper
•    Glue Stick
•    Ribbon 1/8” wide
•    4” White Stick-On numbers (I bought these at Office Max and wound up having to purchase 3 packs to make sure that I had enough numbers for all the tables)
•    Double-stick tape
•    Paper Trimmer
•    Make Your Own Rubber Stamp Kit (I’ve already used this for other projects – its so versatile!)
•    Bone folder

The hardest part for me was deciding on paper – after that it’s really pretty easy!  Since we’re using damask runners I decided to keep the paper rather simple and just use shades of green with some polka dots thrown in for good measure.  So first, cut a length of ribbon about 3 inches longer than the book itself, and glue one end onto the top portion of the book.  This isn’t the best picture, but you want to put the ribbon running upwards, so that it will go down through the book as a placeholder:

I just used a glue stick – a little on the binding and the ribbon stuck right on.  Then take a piece of paper and cut it so that it’s the same length as the book and about 2-3” wider.  Lay the design side of the paper down and place the book onto the center of the paper so that there is extra paper on either side that you can fold over like a flap:

I used the tape roller to put tape on one flap of the paper, then fold it so that it would stick to the book.  Then be sure to actually close the book and use the boning folder to make some nice creases before doing the same to the other side – if you secure both sides of the paper while the book is flat, the paper will be too short for the book to actually close.

I went through and covered all the notebooks first, then went back and added the sticky numbers to the front and stamped the inside.  Here they all are stacked and ready to be stamped:

I stamped a few of the pages on the inside of the booklets, one of which was “Advice for the Bride & Groom.”  It’s really easy to manipulate the letters on the stamps, just remember that you have to write it out backwards!

And here is the finished product!

Contributed by Darci L.
Blog: http://www.with–this–ring.blogspot.com/
Used with kind permission from the author.
Copyright 2008 • All rights reserved.

posted by m.s. for k.c.