Wedding DIY: Love Birds

Source (sorry, I had this photo saved on my phone, so I can't find the original source)

Once I saw that photograph, I was convinced I had to incorporate it into my wedding. It's my entire wedding in a nutshell -- lace, twin, and glitter (who doesn't love some glitter every now-and-then?), not to mention, I didn't want to put something ridiculous like this on the back of our chairs. Am I the only one in the world that thinks that's just completely tacky? ..probably, but it's just not my style, to each their own, I suppose. So I did what any normal crafty person would do, I made my own. It was really simple, but took me a couple of days because glue likes taking a long time to dry. So, here's my little tutorial so you can make your own word banner.. seriously, you can make it say anything you want!

I'll post the pictures first, and the directions will be below that.

Steps:

1. Gather the supplies needed: 
• wooden letters (any craft store)
• Regular Elmer's Glue 
• Elmer's Spray Glue (Wal-Mart or craft stores)
• Modge Podge (Wal-Mart or craft stores)
• Hot Glue Gun + Extra Hot Glue Sticks
• Scissors
• Small paint brush (any will do)
• Regular Glitter
• Twine (Hobby Lobby)
• Lace (I found mine at a local store, but you can cut up old curtains from Goodwill)
• Extra Items: Plastic Plate & a Towel
2. Spray the spray glue onto the wooden letter (on top of the towel) - just the top part though, we'll get the sides later. 
3. Place the letter into the plastic plate and pour the glitter on top. Don't be shy about it, be sure to cover the entire letter. 
4. Spread (regular) Elmer's Glue onto the sides of the letter; make sure you don't get too much glue in one place.
5. Sprinkle the glitter on to the Elmer's Glue on the sides of the letter. I patted most parts with my finger to make sure it wasn't too bulgy in one place. 
6. Place the letters on a piece of wax paper to dry overnight (and you can spell out cool words like "blover" if you'd like!) 
7. INSERT: I totally forgot to photograph me putting Modge Podge over the glitter after the letters are dry, so do that with a small paint brush so the glitter actually stays on! After the letters are dry (again), take out your twine, lace, scissors, and hot glue gun. Cut the lace into smaller pieces (all the same length), and fold it in half over the twine. You could also just glue all of the stripes onto the letters and then put the twine through the loops of lace, but I thought this way was a little easier.
8. Take the hot glue and glue the strip of lace down to the back of the wooden letter. I recommend spelling the entire word out before you start glue, I almost put the second letter on backwards -- so watch out for that!
9. Once you get all of the letters and lace glued around the twine, let it dry for a bit (won't take too long..)
10. My letters were really spotty because spray glue is ridiculous, so I mixed some glitter into some Modge Podge and filled in the spots. I also poured on some extra glitter for good measure. Then, let it all sit over night again, and you're good to go! :) 

Here's my final version! I really like the way it all turned out, and I can't wait to put these on the backs of mine and Curtis's chairs at the wedding reception! I'm really glad that my wedding is going to have lots of touches of my handy work in it, makes it much more special in my opinion. 

Hope y'all have a fantastic Friday! I've made it back home (again, gah, I'm not liking this traveling back and forth) to get everything ready for my bridal portraits tomorrow. I'm super excited! 

Wedding DIY: Cardboard Letters all Laced Up

Alright, here's a post of one of my favorite wedding DIYs so far! It's simple, and super cute. Although, I do recommend using a different method of gluing. My fingers are all sticky right now, and its rather annoying. Oh, and I have a beagle staring at me, whining, and putting her paw on my makeshift desk.

 Seeeeee. She's a goof, and always hungry too. I think these early morning classes I have this semester have made her think that dinner time is at 5 and not 7 anymore. Oh well, its pretty cute! (and excuse the messy looking room, it's my fiance's..I can't wait until I actually live here so it doesn't look like a disaster hit. The joys of three boys living together?)

Alright! Let's get to what this post is actually about! Crafty time! :)
I'll show you a picture of the end result first. I planned on putting these either on our table at the reception, or maybe the desert table, not sure which just yet.

I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and picked up most of what I needed for this project, which is not very much. It's really inexpensive, and if you already have most of the items laying around, like I did, it'll only cost you about $5. Awesome?!

Here's the supply list:

• Cardboard letters - $2.47 each (you can do initials, or just your last name initial, or your name..endless possibilities!)
• Medium sized paper doilies - $1.49 (I got a pack of 8 awhile back for another project)
• Scissors 
• Spray glue or Modge Podge 
• okay, here's my tiff. I used spray glue because its what I had on hand. I left my Modge Podge at my parents' house over Christmas break. Although the spray glue did work, it got everywhere and as before mentioned, my hands, the table, and everything else around the area I used are all sticky. Gross. So if I could redo this, I definitely would use Modge Podge.

That's it! Pretty short and sweet. 

Oops, scissors not in the picture...

Here goes!

Step one:  Place one doily on top of the letter you've selected. K for Kristina! Move it around until you get it in a place that looks perfect for you, and then crease the paper on the edge of the letter (just the straight part, not any other section..we'll get to that.)

 Step two: Crease the doily over the back edge of the straight part of the letter. This is so you'll be able to see where to glue the doily in case it moves around accidentally.

 Step three: Next, time for the glue. I'd recommend spraying the actually doily itself so that the glue doesn't cover the entire letter, but you can do it which ever way you'd like. So, spray the glue in the spine section of the letter first, hold that part down, and then do the front in small sections. Hold each section down for about 15-20 seconds so the glue holds on to the letter. Do the same for the back of the letter.

Side Note: If you're going to use Modge Podge, put a layer on the letter in small sections, put the paper down over the Modge Podge until you've got the doily on there. Then put another layer over the top of the doily so it stays! You'll have to wait for the Modge Podge to dry before you can do the back of the letter though.

 Step four: After the glue (or Modge Podge) has dried, cut the parts of the doily that are hanging over the edge of the letter so that you can fold them down and glue them to the side of the letter. Be sure to cut down the middle!

For the backs, I just cut off the edges to give it a clean look.

Step five: Wait for it all to dry, if there are any parts sticking up, just glue 'em down again. Here's my 'K'. Repeat for any other letters you've got. The 'C' was pretty tricky for me because its curvy, and doesn't have anything in the middle.. I messed up the first time, but the one good thing about using the spray glue, I just pulled the doily off and started over.

See, that didn't take too long, did it? I really do like the way the letters turned out, even if I do have sticky fingers. Hope your's turn out just as fabulous, I'm sure they will! :) 

Have a fabulous week rest of the week! I'll probably have more DIY projects up pretty soon. Oh, and I ordered a dress for my Ring Day in April, not what I originally had in mind, but I love it! It should be here today or tomorrow..come on FedEx! I'll post it as soon as it gets here. Cross your fingers it fits..it was in a UK size, so I hope I ordered the right one! Ha. 

DIY: Flower Paper Lantern

Soo, I sort of took this idea from Crafty Nest, head on over there for some more fabulous ideas. But its an adorable way to revamp those paper lanterns that you just seem to be attracted to, but can't exactly figure out why..or what you'd do with them in your apartment/house. I fell in love with the flowered one instantly and had to do it! Unfortunately, well, rather fortunately, its not Christmas or anywhere near it, so there aren't any faux poinsettias laying around anywhere in the craft stores. But I thought white daisies would look just as good, so I got a few bundles of them from Walmart. Also, I couldn't find any of the pom pom fringe, so I just bought little pom pom balls in a baggie from Jo Ann's Fabric. I think the smaller balls look better, by the way. I bought the paper lantern on sale in a pack of three from Hobby Lobby for like $2! All in all, this project cost me about $7, not too shabby if I do say so myself, but I did already have the cord set and light bulb needed for hanging lanterns.

All you'll need for this project:

1. Paper lantern, any size will do. 
2. Faux flowers, white for this particular project, but you can do any color you want! 
3. Pom pom balls
4. Hot glue gun, with glue
5. Scissors 
6. A cord kit
7. Light bulb

Here's some pictures & a link to the website, along with instructions right HERE.

Enjoy!

This would be mine! Excuse the background..I'm made it for my future apartment that I won't be moving to until the middle of August! 

The two that Crafty Nest made, gorgeous!

xoxo,

Kristina

DIY, lovely hair-things, Part I: braided headband

Well, all is not going as planned for the chictopia adventure. I can't seem to figure out how I'm going to take pictures of my outfits. Ah, well, I'll figure it out. By the way, I'm laying in bed and my beagle girl is under the covers, two blankets, and a pillow. I don't know how she got there, but she managed it pretty well.

Okay, now to what this blog's really about! I have a couple hair clip/headband ideas I'd like to throw out there to the world! The first part of this 3 part series is one that I figured out on my own; there was a girl I know that was trying to raise money so she could go to Nicaragua on a mission trip with our church, so she sold these cute little braided headbands to the girls in our church. I personally didn't buy one (I sort of feel bad for stealing the idea and not helping her out, but.. she still got to go and plenty of girls bought some anyway!), but I did figure out how to make them. Its really simple, and takes about 20 minutes to do. Here's a picture of the finished product, modeled by my awesome friend, Denise!

Items needed for braided headband:

• 1/2 a yard of fabric (it'll be more than enough, but you'll have lots of extra fabric to make more things!) 
• Woven elastic (its generally sold at any crafts store near the fabric section)
• Scissors
• Pins
• A needle
• Thread 

1. For these, you'll need about a 1/2 a yard of fabric, choose any color you'd like, any pattern, anything will look awesome! Then, cut three strips about half an inch thick.
2. Pin the three strips together with one of the two pins at one end of all of the fabric, one on top of the other.
3. You might need someone else's assistance for this next part, or a very heavy book; braid the three pieces of fabric together until you reach the end, then pin the other end of the fabric together with the second pin.
4. Thread the needle with the thread and tie the thread so that it won't slip off of the needle while you are sewing, and then take the strip of woven elastic and place it onto of one end of the pinned together fabric.
5. Start sewing the fabric and elastic together; I like to make lots of loops around the outside of both sides to make sure the fabric and elastic are sewn together well. Also, make sure to get all of the fabric sewn onto the elastic. Then, cut the thread that is connected to the needle (leave enough so that you can tie it in a few knots), and then cut the thread that is still connected to the spool, then tie those two strings together in about four knots.
6. Next, place the braided fabric around the top of your head, like you would a headband, and measure how much elastic you are going to need for the back of the headband around the back of your head. I like to pull it tight so that I know the headband is going to stay on my head while I'm wearing it. Hold the place where you've measured with your finger, and then cut the elastic.
7. Repeat step five on the other side of the fabric.
8. Cut off any excess fabric that may be on the ends after you've sewn on the elastic, and you are good to go! :)

xoxo,
Kristina