DIY I Do : Decor, Quotes and Fun for our Guests

Here's a fun Wedding detail that Robin and I put together for our guests. We all know that the wait between ceremony and dinner can be quite long for the guests so I thought it would be sweet to frame love, marriage, friendship quotes and scatter them around the venue. The guests could then come upon them (or hunt them out if they wished!) and try and guess who said each quote. Answers were written on the backs. 

We had great fun searching for appropriate quotes and gathered up a collection of both romantic and funny (about 20 in total I think). I knew Robin wouldn't be too keen on the overly soppy quotes so I had to keep it balanced…I even managed to include a quote from Star Wars! The frames were all sourced from car boot sales and then painted white, which made this a very frugal Wedding decoration/game (always a bonus!).

Audrey Hepburn

Winnie The Pooh

Bob Marley - read the full quote here

I also thought it would be fun to create a hashtag for our Wedding so that friends and family could share their photos of the day on Instagram. So I made a couple of little signs for it: 

However…my top tip is to check that your venue either has WIFI or is within signal range. Our lovely country Manor House was in the middle of nowhere so no one could get the internet!! Whoops!!

DIY I Do : A Sign for the Ceremony

 

Oh dear, I realise that we are now coming up to 5 months after the wedding, but things have been a bit hectic around here (and I lost the use of the letter 't' on my keyboard - don't ask! lol), but I still have a few more DIY I Do posts that I really want to document before I move on. The biggies are out of the way though, so most of these posts will be short and sweet - feel free to pass if it's not your thing, I realise they won't be very 'sewing' orientated.

So, for this post I just wanted to share a sign that I made for the ceremony. Since I have a very small family and Robin has a very large family I was a bit concerned that the ceremony would be a bit one-sided…literary! Then I happened to see a sign on Pinterest that would pretty much solve the problem. It read: "As two families are becoming one, we asked that you choose a seat and not a side". I thought it was perfect. We really wanted to have a relaxed and informal day, and this sign would also get us out of the issue of not wanting any ushers.

I scoured car boots sales and eventually came upon a large framed 'painting' in a gaudy gold frame. It looks pretty rubbish, and was missing it's glass so I managed to get it for 50p! At home I took out the print, which was on a wooden board and spray painted the frame white and gave it a rubdown to get that 'shabby chic' effect. Next I painted over the painting (don't worry, it wasn't an old master, it was a print reproduction) with navy blue paint from a sample pot (bargain!).

The next part was the tricky part. How to get the writing looking less shabby and more chic! I used the font (which is called Sail by the way) that we had used in all of our wedding stationery and printed out the words across several sheets of A4. I then roughly cut around each word/line and decided on their positions. Then you use a soft pencil and shade the back of the letters, put them carefully into position and use a sharp pencil to go over every line. This leaves a very slight imprint onto the blue and allows you to follow it when painting. I used a medium thickness white paint pen to do the job. It was really relaxing and I loved doing it.

I have to say, we were both really happy with how the sign turned out! And since the frame turned out so nice we have plans to reuse it in our home, perhaps painting inside with chalkboard paint?

 (oh yes - mustn't forget obligatory cat pic!)

DIY I Do : Favours

Over the last year I have been sharing a few snaps on Instagram of Robin and I working away at making our wedding favours so it's really exciting to be able to finally share the full details. Incase you missed the Instagram shots here's a reminder:

I decided that I wanted our favours to be functional as well as follow the theme of the wedding. A good while ago I came across the video tutorial on how to make fabric peonies on the Creature Comforts blog (which, if you haven't heard of you should totally check out because it's a really great blog full of lovely images and inspiration!). Peonies are my absolutely favourite flowers and I was planning on having Coral Charm peonies in my bouquet, so I thought it would be a lovely idea to give all the ladies peony brooches for their favours. As well as being really cute and useful (I bought brooch pins that also had a clip - so the flowers can be worn on your clothes, on a bag or in your hair!), they also added a fun pop of colour to the tables:

Although I would happily have filled all the tables with pink peonies, I had a feeling that the men might not be so enthusiastic to receive them! So that meant thinking of a different favour for the male guests. Since our overall theme was 'tying the knot' I thought it appropriate to give the men knots, and keeping it functional decided to turn them into key rings. Again I found an online video tutorial explaining how to tie a monkey fist knot and started practising. They are a bit hard to get the hang of, and do require a bit of patience, but are totally worth the effort. My husband was really nagging me for a wedding related job to do so I tasked him to make the 60-odd key rings. Once he got the hang of the knotting (it took him quite some time, especially since he thought he could make a 'tool' to help him…why do guys do that?! lol) he chipped away at that number and managed to finish all his knots before I was even halfway through my peonies (I love the photo of him working away surrounded by knots at the top of the page!).

Although this ended up being quite a task to take on (we had 110 guests!) I'm so glad that we made our favours - they added another personal element to the day and were a great source of conversation too. I loved looking through the photos when we came back and spotting the brooches on some of the ladies and I love the fact that everyone now has a cute and function gift that will remind them of the day.

Tuesday’s Tutorial Treat–Handmade buttons

Have you ever heard of shrink plastic? I hadn’t until I saw this amazing tutorial. Kimanh from Paper.Scissors.Wok shows us how to make our own buttons, with our own designs, out of shrink plastic. I’m in love! OK, perhaps they might not look quite so impressive if I were drawing the designs…but I guess you could trace clip art images? Or do know what would look great? Chevrons – and those would be easy to draw. Right…off to buy some shrink plastic!

Link HERE

P.S. These would make very cute personalised cufflinks (just don’t punch out the middle holes and then attached to cufflink thinga-mabobs!)

Tuesday’s Tutorial Treat–Glitter heels for NYE!

Glitter is everywhere this year but this DIY has to be one of my favourite. Geneva (A Pair and a Spare) kills it once again with gorgeous glitter heels, perfect for adding last minute bling to your NYE outfit! Get the low down HERE.

Tuesday’s Tutorial Treat–Christmas Edition 4

It’s the FINAL WEEK before Christmas – who’s excited?! Has everyone got all the Christmas shopping and/or crafting done? I think I’m done…or should I say I hope I’m done!
Anyway, for those of you who may need a little final flourish at a Christmas related craft before the big day, I’ve got a few quick and cute Christmas accessories you could try:


How about this festive half apron from Jona of Stop Staring and Start Sewing? As Jona says, this apron can be whipped up in an hour – so, as long as you have the right festive fabric, you could easily make this in time to wear while passing out the mince pies on the 25th! Link HERE


And while on the cooking theme, why not make a matching oven mitt to go with your new apron? Cindy from Skip To My Lou shows us how. Link HERE


I just love this poinsettia brooch from Lisa of Lil Fish Studios, I’m very tempted to make this for myself (...off to find gold thread!). Link HERE


And finally – I hate trying to wrap awkward shaped gifts and usually end up putting them in gift bags instead…so I was really chuffed to find that Jessica from How About Orange shows us how to make our own (these are very eco-friendly ones made from newspaper, but you could make yours more festive by using wrapping paper). Link HERE

Tuesday’s Tutorial Treat – Christmas Edition 2

The second installation of the Christmas themed Tuesday’s Tutorial Treat is all about Christmas Decorations – if you haven’t made any decorations this year, perhaps these might tempt you:

A quirky twist on the typical Christmas stocking – Disney Family Fun (lol, not a website I frequent too often, I found this on Pinterest) show you how to make an Elf style stocking. Love the curly toe! Link HERE.

Isn’t this cushion a stunner?!!! Centsational Girl (if you don’t follow this blog and love home DIY you should!) shows you how to make this beautiful poinsettia cushion. I want this cushion in my life, NOW! Link HERE.

Finally you can’t have a post on Christmas decorations without having a tree ornament. This one comes from Kirsty Fish off That Crafty Fish, via  Bugs and Fishes (two really lovely UK based crafty blogs, do check them out!). Link HERE.

Tuesday’s Tutorial Treat–Christmas Edition 1

Well it’s back! Did you miss your weekly instalment of Tuesday’s Tutorial Treat. Yes yes, I know you did!

For the next 4 weeks I thought I’d focus on tutorials that celebrate this festive time of year. Today is all about handmade presents – there’s still time to whip one up. Perhaps these might provide some inspiration for that person who you just can’t find the right thing for!

Starting with quite an epic one, this is a tutorial from Chez Beeper Bebe for the most adorable sewing box. I just love it! The tutorial even includes details on how to make the very cute lady pin cushion (although I do feel sorry for her having pins stuck in her forehead!) and a needle book. Link HERE.

Next week have the cutest little zip pouch from Keyka Lou. I get all my bag patterns for Keyka Lou as I love her designs and her instructions are excellent. This is the gorgeous Dumpling Zip Pouch which she very generously offered up for free on her blog. It would make the perfect present for a little girl, filled with cute pink sparkly make-up! Link HERE.

Here we have the sweetest little iPhone pouch from During Quiet Time. I think I should make one of these as a present to myself as I have an iPhone, but no cover…and it’s starting to look a little worse for wear! Link HERE.

And finally, something for Dad! I find my Dad the hardest person to buy for at Christmas and Birthdays. He just doesn't need anything. But sometimes presents aren’t about need, but more about a wee treat! How about making the man in your life a rather stylish tie – this tutorial from The Purl Bee should be just the ticket. Link HERE.

Tuesday’s Tutorial Treat: DIY Pearl Collar

I’ve just spotted this brilliant tutorial on how to make your own Pearl Collar on Pintrest. It’s from the blog Because I’m Addicted, which I hadn’t heard of before…but I’m off to investigate because it looks brilliant!

Link HERE

Tuesday's Tutorial Treat: Faux Fur Peter Pan Collar

This is an old tutorial from the Colette Patterns blog, now called The Coletterie, which most of you will no doubt have seen before. But it's that time of year again when thoughts turn to warm cozy things, so I thought there would be no harm in sharing this one anyway (plus I'm seriously considering buying some faux fur to make a collar for myself!). Has anyone made this collar? Do share the link if you have.

Link HERE

Tuesday's Tutorial Treat - Wrap Bracelets

This tutorial is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, but looks fantastic. I would love an arm loaded with these in loads of different colours.

From Honestly...WTF, which has a tonne of DIY's and inspirational images worth looking through, find out how to make your own wrap bracelets:

Link HERE

***

In other news - I've got my sewing machine back! Thanks for all your great comments to my last post, it was fun to see I'm not the only overly organised sewer out there (my 'excuse' is I'm a project manager...but I was like this before I started working!).

The down side is that, although I've got my sewing machine back, I might not get to fire out a tonne of projects straight away. My boyfriend and I are trying to sort out our house so that we can put it on the market, and as much as I would like to say that sewing is my top priority, I have to be realistic and dedicate more time to the house. BUT - I do have a few housey sewing projects that I want to do to spruce the place up for potential buyers, so I'll definitely share those with you. Bottom line - there won't be as many posts on my blog as I would like...but I'll try and update as much as I can!

Tuesday's Tutorial Treat: Covered Notebook and matching Pen

My boyfriend will hate me saying this (he's a teacher), but it's now August and there's really only a month left 'til school starts again (for Northern Ireland anyway!) - still enough time to whip up this cute covered notebook and matching pen set as a wee 'back to school' present (or for yourself of course!). This tutorial comes from By Small Means:

Link HERE

Tuesday's Tutorial Treat: Monster!

OK, today is a fun tutorial - but still sewing related. Check out these stinkin' cute monsters from White Waxflower:

Go. Make.

Tuesday's Tutorial Treat: Felt Dahlia Brooch

I have had the tutorial for this gorgeous felt dahlia brooch bookmarked for a loooong time, and have yet to try it! But it's definitely high up on the To Make list - I think it would lovely on one of my bags!

This tutorial comes from the website Holidash which focuses on crafts and things to do for the holidays!

Link here

101 things to do with a tea towel...

...OK, just two things to do with them, but 101 sounded better!

Last week I shared with you the camera strap cover that I made for my holidays. Today I'm sharing another couple of quick things I made to take away with me. 

For myself, I made a bag to store my undies in in my rucksack and make sure they all stay together:

The easiest thing to make - it's a tea towel folded in half! I added a big button and some chord which I had in my stash for a fun closure. Not overly necessary, but I thought it was cute. I also decided to sew on a little bit of lace that I had, just to add a nice detail - after all, my undies deserve no less!

I also whipped up a bag for my boyfriend. No cute lace details on this one - I kept it as 'manly' as possible. This is just two tea towels sewn together and a large shoe lace is threaded through a top loop to close. This is for his dirty laundry while we are away:

Camera Strap Cover - and see ya later guys!

Well this is the first of a few scheduled posts for this blog as I am off on my holidays! I'm off to travel around Thailand for three weeks and I cannot wait! So while I'm away I have scheduled a few posts - Tuesday's Tutorial Treat will still be here and I've done a few posts on future projects I'm planning and also a couple of posts on some of the things I've been making for my hols.

Which included this one! I am apprehensively bringing my DSLR camera with me to Thailand - and will be guarding it with my life!!! One of the things I thought might deter thieves, if only very slightly, is a strap cover - hiding the giant 'CANON' logo that runs along it!

I have seen a few tutorial for this on-line, mostly quilted or padded versions. Since I decided to make mine out of the same upholstery weight fabric as my travel bag I thought padding was unnecessary. So my cover is basically just a big tube with the ends hemmed!

Really love how it turned out though: