Zach’s Dinornaments

Zach loves dinosaurs. So, I decided to make some non-traditional ornaments as a thank you for helping me out with my blog contest a couple of months ago. I had to do a little more research than usual for these (what color is a stegosaurus? What does a brontosaurus’ feet look like?) but I think they came out pretty cute!

Kristen’s Finished Ornaments

I loved having the challenge of the “ice blue” theme when creating this collection of ornaments (check out the beginning of them here), and the resulting four look great together! They all share similar colors (light blue, bright blue, silver, white, and glitter, of course) but each definitely has it’s own personality, so they can be displayed separately or together. Check out the finished pieces!

Kristen’s Blue Themed Holiday Ornaments

My good friend Kristen is having a fabulous ice blue themed Christmas tree this year and wanted some ornaments to compliment her colors: light and bright blue, silver and white are going to work perfectly! Here are the beginnings of two of her ornaments, the snowman and the sled. I wanted my traditional snowman to have some of the blue accent we are working with, so I added a festive scarf to his garb for the first time. The sled’s previous incarnation had been a more rustic burgundy and black combination, but the new blue and brown combo is working just as well!

All the pieces will also have accents of iridescent paint in places (the snow and details on the sled, the snowman’s scarf’s stripes) to add a bit of glamorous whimsy to each piece. Stay tuned for more pics!

Rachel’s Finished Ornaments

I just finished Rachel’s ornaments, which I spoke more about making here, and I thought I’d post some pics! Even though ornaments are among the smaller pieces I do, they definitely take the longest to make. Each ornament is double sided, and the same amount of detail is provided for both front and back (at least three coats of paint per color). After I paint each side, I pick the ribbon and use wood glue to fasten each side together. Once dry, I go back and paint the edge around the ornament and do any little touch ups. Lastly, I apply a varnish that gives it a great sheen which will reflect beautifully with the lights on any holiday tree!

Contact me here for more info!

Rachel’s Holiday and Alaskan-themed Ornaments

My good friend Rachel is living in Alaska at the moment and needed some ornaments to fit the setting So we decided on a moose and a bear to represent “The Last Frontier” and then some traditional ornaments as well: snowman, sled, and mitten.

They’re not completely finished yet but I decided to put up a preview of the stages each double sided ornament goes through. Finished pieces to come!

Contact me here for more info on custom ornaments!

‘Tis the Season…

Time for me to share some of my absolute favorite items to make- ornaments and all things holiday related. Ornaments can be custom crafted to your liking, from the ribbon to the color scheme. They make great small gifts or party favors. I have a couple of favorites that I’m used to doing, the snowman, for example, but I have a feeling I’ll be adding some newer designs into the mix this year

For now, I’d like to share some of the past ornaments I’ve created!

Small Ornaments (Gingerbread Man, Wreath, Snowflake, etc) $7

Large Ornaments (Santa, Tree, Snowman) $10

All ornaments are double sided and coated with a layer of veneer to keep them shiny. Here’s a little “behind the scenes” picture of the creation process:

Contact me here for more information or to order an ornament!

More Wedding DIY

A great thing about weddings (or any party really) is that they are an opportunity to put your personal stamp on every detail involved- from the cake to the flowers to the music. While vendors are often hired to take care of of the big ticket items, smaller aspects can have just as big of a visual impact when done thoughtfully.

I’m going to write here about some of the things I made for the guest table, entrance table and main reception table for our wedding in October. I had already completed the invitations months earlier, so I did have a thematic framework set, though I didn’t want to just make repeats of what everyone had seen.

I did utilize the same combination of Paper Source paper (Super Fine Soft White, Night and Opal) as the invitations but I purchased varying widths in the same burgundy ribbon and then also in a burnt orange to play with. I did test several combinations of  layering with the translucent blue ribbon and the thick satin ribbon until I decided on how each card would be presented. Though the idea behind each card was the same, the final look for each was slightly varied.

Instead of making a bunch of programs that would invariably be lost or forgotten, I decided to make one large program that I put on an antique-inspired stand. Since this was a focal point, I used a beautiful floral patterned burgundy ribbon that I layered under navy satin. It was definitely different from the other plainer ribbons I had used, but coordinated perfectly.

One of the most difficult projects I had was making signs for the two different sized birdcages that acted as card box and “wishing well.” Designing the cards wasn’t so hard as figuring out how to affix them in a way that was both sturdy and unobtrusive to the eye. It ended up being a combination of tape, bows, and, if you can believe it, painted brass round head fasteners.

One last thing I want to talk about is something I didn’t make, but I’d like to give a shout out to the awesome Etsy crafter who made our fabulous pen: RubyDollCreations did a great job and one guest even commented it was the most “elite” pen he had ever used

Here is one DIY tip for a makeshift pen holder at your guest table- fill a small glass with pebbles, seeds, or (as in our case) potpourri so the pen has somewhere to stand and be placed.

Here are some final pics of how everything looked together:

Wedding Flip Flops

Greetings,

Sorry my GbD blog has been slow as of late, I’m just getting everything in order after a fantastic wedding weekend and honeymoon! I’m so pleased that I can now share a bunch of the DIY crafts I made for the wedding, hopefully to inspire some other brides out there to grab some glue and ribbon and go for it!

One of my favorite things I made are flower adorned flip flops- an inexpensive, easy (enough), and fun gift for bridesmaids, and a cute accessory for any bride to wear while getting ready for the big day. So many bridesmaids want to kick off their heels and dance after all the formalities are over, so adding these to their gifts works out well for everyone!

I used three types of glue for the multi-day process: Flip Flop Glue, Gem-Tac, and Fabric Gluc (all available at Michaels Arts & Crafts)

Michael’s also sells a good selection of fabric flowers- there are the kind that are used for fake flower arrangements (more about using those further down in this post) and there are the kinds that are sold for scrapbook and specialty craft uses- I bought a glass jar of the latter and had enough for a two layer flower on five pairs of flip flops.

It is important to use at least two layers in the flowers to get a semi-realistic dimension going. The first thing I did with the bridesmaid’s flip flops was to build the flowers independently from the footwear. I glued the fabric flowers together and when that was dry, used the gem tac to glue the pearls on top. I will say that I cautiously waited hours (and sometimes days) to ensure that everything was dry enough before I went to the next step. I used clothespins as makeshift clamps to hold everything together.

And lastly, I glued them with the specialty flip-flop glue onto the rubber of the flip flop… this glue kind of leaked through a bit, and I realized the clothespins were being glued to the whole thing as well. Not exactly the look I was going for. I ended up putting tin-foil between the clothespins and the flowers and it worked out perfectly as a buffer.

As a final touch, I made name tags with paper and ribbon in our wedding colors, navy and orange, to keep the flip flops together:

For my own shoes, I went to the fake floral department at Michael’s and picked out the “flatest” looking white flowers I could find. I knew flowers like roses, for example, would be too hard to manipulate on the flip flop. The flowers were very easy to take apart and separate into the individual layers of petals. After settling on four layers for mine, I basically did the same process. I glued them straight on to the rubber, however, because I thought their size would take to that better.

Nicholas’s Baseball Plaque

Leah wanted a plaque in the same vein as Josh’s Baseball Plaque for her friend’s new son, Nicholas. Thankfully, his name has an “o” in it so I could put the baseball image in it again No two plaques that I make are exactly alike, so I decided to play around with the grass I developed for Luciano’s Golf Plaque to try and create a more textured piece. That, of course, meant I had to bring out my old friend, blue painter’s tape:

I put down a dark green paint, and then layered a lighter green over it with a large dry brush. Once it was dry, I could pull the tape up and start playing with all the pieces that were involved in the baseball theme.

I wanted to make the dirt as textured as the grass, so the blue tape went back on. Again, with a dry brush, I quickly tapped the darker brown on top of the taupe color that was the base.

I love the new look that emerged!

The main look of the plaque is similar to the one I had done before, but there are subtle differences apart from the grass/dirt technique. I decided to add “Home Plate” and give it a little dirt around the edges, just for fun.

And here’s the finished baseball plaque!

The GbD Giveaway Winner Announcement!

Thanks again to everyone for entering the first ever GbD Giveaway! And the winner is…

Click here to see what the winner gets!