Paper Peonies

I saw this project on pinterest and just had to try it out. I am however, sorry to say that I am unsure of the original project pinner or featured page but remain grateful of the 'project share' nonetheless. My wedding roses were made of coffee cone filters {check out some of the earlier blog posts!}, so when I saw that these beautiful flowers were made from traditional coffee filters I was pretty excited. 


Super easy project that turns out beautiful - here is how:


Count out five filters (this make one set).Fold in half, in half again, in half again, and in half one last time. Cut the "corner" out of the folded side. Open one fold and round the two outside "corners". Crumple. Open all the way up and separate the set. Below is a photo that shows all the stages for direction clarification.

Crook a floral stem and insert through middle of one of the filters. 


Add a bit of glue and twist the filter. Insert the stem through the next filter and twist. Continue with the rest of the filters in the set. Secure the middles/bottom of the filters to the stem with floral tape.

 

Create a second set of filters and add them to the steam in the same manner, taping when you have added the last filter. Fluff and enjoy!

Ya'll have to act surprised and be sure to shout out some "oohs and ahhs" 

on the big day when you see them again!

But until then, try it out - make something beautiful to enjoy this spring :)

My Apologies

I feel like I should apologize for not keeping up with this blog. 


My intentions were solid, I was going to keep everybody up to date with all the wedding planning; however, I have failed to post frequently enough for anybody to feel really involved. Today I downloaded an app on my phone that is basically a fancy to-do list. The app makes sure to remind you to do the things you list (Brilliant! I tend to make endless lists that end up lost in the bottom of my purse and never get completed). I made sure to put blogging on there, along with a million other things that I think I need to get done- setting up the app to give me a weekly reminder. So, the bad news is that weekly updates aren't all that frequent, but the good news is that at least I will be updating everybody! 


Six months til the wedding day  -   I plan to catch everybody up on the projects from the past three weeks and projects that lay ahead of me still.

Get ready ya'll, here we go!

Ties for the Men in My Life

I had never made ties before, but I LOVED the way these turned out. I picked up cotton fabric at Joann's, both for the bridesmaid dresses and these ties (that way our beautiful gals match the handsome men they are paired with) I used a pattern from Puking Patterns, called The Best Men's Tie Pattern to make these. You need 5/8 yd of both your patterned material as well as the lining material of your choice and 1 yd of a lightweight interfacing. As I already said, I chose cotton patterned material that was the same as the bridesmaids' material, added a satin apparel lining for the back lining, and fusible featherweight shirt interfacing. The cost of making these was about 7 dollars per tie thanks for the great coupons and sales at the fabric store.

The pattern was able to be downloaded and printed off on my normal ink jet printer then pieced together. The pattern needs to be placed on the fabric at a 45 degree angle for cutting, this is called cutting on the bias. The pattern below looks pretty big in comparison to the scissors and CallieDog's chewed up tennis ball (she likes to help me work on projects) but this is to give allowance for all the folding that needs to be done. 

Callie sitting in front of my cutting table waiting for her tennis ball to be tossed 

After the three kinds of fabric are cut, iron the fusible interfacing to the back side of the lining material. Next, with right sides together, place the cotton and lining on top of each other and sew the tip of either end of the tie together (this is just the arrow {pointed} section of the tie). Turn the right sides out, being sure that the points are crisp. With right sides out, sew the side seams of the tie. I like to start on what will be the bottom of the tie, the largest part, and sew about half way up on one side and then repeat on the other side. Going back to finish the rest of the length after that - this ensures that the tie doesn't move or become uneven at all.  Once the seams are sewn it is time to press, so get out that iron!

I use a few rulers and pins to make sure I get my folds as crisp as I like them. Start by folding one side's edge into the middle, then press flat. On the other side you have to fold over the edge, just a small amount, only 1/4  inch or less, and press. The new edge then gets brought to the middle and pressed. Below is a picture of the front and the back tail of the tie. You can see the pressed folds there. 

Once the folding is complete and you are satisfied with how your tie looks, you then have to hand sew a blind stitch up the back of the tie to hold the folds in place. After blind stitching, you can add a ribbon catch for tucking the tail of the tie into for wear. 

I have all the ties I need for the wedding made, with exception to adding my own label and the ribbon. Oh, I do enjoy crossing things off of my to-do list!

Tea Cup Candles

All those $0.59 tea cups I picked up at the thrift stores are finally boxed up with their matching saucers, fully re-purposed as candles for part of the reception decor. Sweet relief as another project is crossed off of the to-do list!


Here is how we did it - Scotty used his hatchet (a special Christmas gift from his sister that he insists on using whenever possible, which of course has a back story for another day) to cut up large soy candles that we picked up at a markdown sale. The pieces had to be small enough to fit inside a tea kettle that I found at Goodwill for melting. Some craft stores have metal pitcher-looking melting pots for candle making, but I liked my tea kettle better because of how easy it was to pour from.

I picked up a thermometer to keep track of the heating process for this project. When the temperature is between 160 and 175 degrees F, I get ready to pour. I did all the initial pours and found that about 20% of the candles poured needed to be topped off because of the minor cosmetic cracks that happened during cooling. For re-pours I heated the wax up the same way, being even and slow in my heating as well as moving the kettle around to stir the wax up inside.

Before I even begin heating up or pouring the wax into the tea cups I had to cut wicks (be sure to add an inch and a half more than you need-this will be for wrapping around something that holds the wick upright and in place while pouring).

I had never made candles before, so I wasn't very prepared - I ended up using wooden spoons to wrap the top of the wick around.

After the candles are poured, allow them to cool as they are. Once they are cooled completely you can do any re-pours that might be necessary.  
Ta-da! Easy as that, now you have really cute candles that are not only beautiful to look at but add a classy and vintage feel to any room you put them in :)

A New Duvet Cover!

Another non-wedding craft post -

This was my weekend off of wedding prep (kinda) Sometimes a break is nice

Well, the back story on this one is interesting... when my dog Callie was a little puppy she decided that the down in the comforter would be nicer outside of the blanket - so she ripped a little hole in the corner. I repaired the corner of the comforter and continued to use it, but when she reopened the hole I said enough was enough and put the blanket in the closet until I could afford to purchase a duvet cover (have you seen the price tag on those?!) Friday night, ten months later, I cleaned out my closet and found the coverless blanket waiting on me to use it again. Saturday afternoon I decided I did in fact want to use the blanket again and made a duvet cover for myself. No more waiting! I used two sheets, ties, and buttons- all of which I had at the house.

I had bought a two pack sheet set at Marc's for $15 previously and never used the patterned flat sheet; I liked using the patterned fitted sheet with the solid colored flat sheet on my bed. I also had another white cotton flat sheet in box that I picked up on discount to use for fashion sewing (white cotton sheets are great for making into blouses and tank tops - you can easily dye the white cotton to whatever color you want and you can't beat the volume of material at that cost) Anyways, I paired up the sheets and sewed the edges on either side and the top (right sides together - didn't have to worry about using french seams as the edges on both sheets were already finished). In each corner I added two ties (just two finished 8 inch by 1/2 inch strands of fabric- need 8 total of these). The bottom edge I flipped the patterned sheet over the edge to create a nice folded "hem". I sewed 12 button holes and added 12 medium sized buttons.

bottom edge of the cover - patterned sheet folds over and buttons to stay in place

Voila! There you have it, a nice new duvet cover

Boot Socks

Okay, so this isn't wedding related but I figured I would put it up because it was a fun project.
Last weekend on the way back from the ranch we stopped at Tracker Supply Co. and I picked up a pair of rain/muck boots. I love these boots; however, they aren't the warmest in the wintery slush. So, on Friday I made fleece and flannel boot socks for my muck/rain boots so that I could wear them in all seasons (I'm pretty excited about these!)

I used a patten I found on Sew, Mama, Sew! blog - it is a PDF so it was super easy to print off and use right away (link will take you right to the blog and the pattern I used)
http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2011/04/fleece-boot-socks-free-pdf-pattern-from-studio-cherie/

This only took 2 hours max - this includes pattern printing, cutting, and sewing time. Great project for Friday night when there isn't much time left in the day after work.
I don't have a serger, so I used a reinforced zigzag on the edge which worked just the same. For the foot and leg portion of the sock I used anti-pill brown fleece and for the cuff I used the same fleece on the underside and patterned flannel for the top. Pretty cute, right?



Thifting

After giving some thought to reception decor, I decided simple and vintage might be fun. I had been mulling around the idea of the paper flowers in vases on the tables but clear vases (which is all we had at home to test this out with) gave away the wire stems and took from the overall attractiveness of the flowers leading me to that decision in the first place. My next thought was to put candles out to set a relaxed, romantic mood but then I thought pillar candles would be too blocky looking on the tables by themselves. After my initial ideas (notably my favorite ideas to date) were written down and crossed off of the list of potential decor, I added another dozen drawings of things to design and construct for the tables- which unfortunately were also crossed out.
I ended up coming across candle making supplies while looking at the free section on craigslist - And that is how craigslist started the solution to my problems. The post included molds and dishes to pour the wax into (why hadn't I thought of that?). With that thought, my best girlfriend and I headed to Michael's Craft Supply Store to pick up some wicks

Roughly $25 for a roll of wick that should be enough to make about 45 candles

as well as the metal clips that hold that wick in the bottom of a mold/containter

Following the craft store, since we were successful and on a roll, we headed to the closest thrift store and found the solution to the vase issue - Colored glass

/

There were so many beautiful vases in blue, white, green, and brown.

Priced at $0.99-$2.99 meant picking out a bunch wouldn't leave me with buyers remorse :)

 We also picked up some tea cups and saucers - a steal at only $0.59 a piece

Got everything here and more for under $40 - Cups to mke into candles,

vases to hold flowers,

and a kettle to pour the wax (since the wax melting pot was a bit pricey at the craft store)

I will be posting about the candle making process when it happens, but for now I am happy to have everything lined up and ready to go. Total cost was roughly $60 since I didn't have to worry about wax since we already had unused white soy candles that I plan to melt down - nothing like recycling!

Location, location, location...

I am not sure we could have picked a more beautiful place to get married.

White Horse Ranch has the best sunsets around

and in the summer God takes care of decorating the place for us

Satellite view of the ranch -

to the far left, the back of the ranch, there is a big old tree that

we will meet under to say our vows.

The half mile track surrounds the center horse turn out, the field directly behind that is

the perfect set up for the reception

Catching Up & First Project

To get everybody caught up, I'm going to do a quick back story on the engagement so far and share the first wedding project...New Years Eve, just a few days + one year ago, my husband-to-be, Scott, asked me to marry him - where I am pretty sure I said yes about 3 times before he ever got to the "will you marry me" part of his speech. It was a quiet evening, we stayed in because he had been feeling a bit under the weather and I was knitting a pair of mittens - for those of you who know us best, this kind of evening is pretty typical - I was doing something crafty and Scott was coming up with something impromptu.
We immediately began thinking and planning the wedding which changed about 18246876129712 million times as far as location, colors and theme goes; all until we came to the decision that the wedding was for us - we are getting married because we can't imagine growing old without our best friend by our side, we needed a wedding that suited who we are. With that being said we chose to do a thrifty, crafty, outdoor ceremony followed by a family style picnic-based reception to follow. I've decided to make most everything that will be at the wedding and that is where this blog comes into play - I want to be able to share ideas and progress, as well as tell our story as we grow closer to the big day.

My first project began about a week out from the engagement when I found out how much flowers cost (it seriously knocked my socks off when I began to add up costs of bouquets)
I found a DIY flower template and began to cut, wrap, tape and paint. I ended up with beautiful paper roses in an assortment of colors that fit the theme as well as my personality wonderfully.

Here is the original site that I took the template from, I made a few alterations but this is a good base for anybody looking to try it out:   Paper Roses
Going from coffee filters to flowers is easier than you think if you put a little patience and time together. I painted my paper flowers with water color paints, I mixed up my colors myself since I didn't find exactly what I wanted at the store, but you could simply buy a tube of watercolor from a craft store to put a little life into your flowers.
I found that the best part is being able to revive the flowers after they sit around for awhile. It is super simple - you just turn them over (stem straight up in the air) and lightly apply water with finger tips on the petals. They perk right up, it is like ironing out the wrinkles, which allows for flower making far in advance of the event.
So far I have made about 5-6 dozen roses in dusty pink, variations of yellow, and hues of orange. Being 7 months out from the wedding I already have 5 of 7 bouquets finished - What a relief!

These are all the pieces for a rose and

one completed flower before paint and turning

I found that cutting the pieces for a dozen roses is more time efficient - I put all the pieces in sandwich bags, put them together systematically (all stems get piece 1, followed by all stems being taped with piece 2, etc...), then paint a dozen or two. This works well with my ten minutes here and there that I have for making them.

One completed, turned out, and painted flower

On the left is my unwrapped bouquet.

To the right are left over flowers from the first 5 bouquets

I cannot express how relieved I am to have 5 done already!

Blogging Hello

Well, here I am... making a blog (NEVER thought that this would happen); but I guess I just got tired of looking at other people's blogs about how they do cool stuff without contributing anything.
My goal here is to blog along with the next 7 months of wedding preparations to share with everybody - I hate to feel like I might be leaving anybody out of the loop as I create the thrifty and creative wedding of my dreams (for all of the friends and relatives out of town).
And, if this goes well I might continue blogging as my husband to be and I travel and make a home and life together. A life of bliss is nothing if you don't have anybody to share it with, right? :)