Christmas Clearance for the the DIY Addict!

Who can say "no" to an After Christmas Sale?  Certainly not me!  As I was perusing the Christmas Clearance at Walmart, I came across these in all different color combinations:

They had had them in a black-white-silver combination that I figured, "Hey, I'll try something with them.  And if it doesn't work, I'm only out $7.50!"  They are the plastic kind, so I wasn't worried about them breaking.

You've seen those wreaths made out of Christmas balls, right?  I know those of you on Pinterest have!  They were all the craze a couple weeks ago.  You know, like this:

Pretty in Pink from the blog In His Grip

Multi-Colored from Eddie Ross

The basic idea behind them is that you take a wire hanger, bend it into a circle, and string the balls onto it.  Simple enough, right???  So I thought I'd try my hand at it.

So right now you're probably thinking, "I thought this was a wedding blog, not a home decor one."  Well, you're right.  a wreath just wouldn't fit with our wedding.  But I thought if you could bend the hanger into a circle, maybe I could bend it into a B and use it as wedding decor!  So, I went and got 3 wire hangers (from Jason's closet... I just have color-coded plastic hangers).  I started trying to bend them into a B-shape.  Bending them was pretty easy... but attaching them to each other wasn't.  There was a lot of excess wire that kinda stuck out.  And cutting a steel hanger is near impossible.

Plan B: I had some left over wire from my first attempt at making the name hanger.  It's green, but I figured it would be covered up.  So the first step was to make the B out of wire:

I used a twistie-tie to hold it together for now.  I started stringing the balls on and quickly learned I had made a mistake.  All of the online tutorials for the wreaths had said to hot glue the tops onto the balls.  I figured since mine were plastic, I could skip that step.  WRONG!  They kept popping off like crazy.  I'd be lying if I said I kept my cool, but a few lot of choice words may have come out of my mouth.

So, I decided to take a much needed break, then gule the tops on.  I just put a little glue around the top of the ball, then stuck the cap back on:

It really didn't take that long... but it was frustrating to have to start over again!

Well, I started stringing them on again.  I tried to do it randomly at first, but it didn't look very good.  It was all un-even and drove me crazy, so I decided to go with the pattern:

I got the idea from the package, actually.

Well, I got the straight part of the B about three quarters of the way done with one package of balls, so I went back to the store for another 2 packages.  $24 isn't bad... right?  Well, that only got me most of the way around the bottom B curve, so I went back for another package.  I could've made it work, but I would've had to change the size of the B to make it all fit.  That seemed like a project for the next day.

Jason had been making all of the Walmart trips with me, and was getting a little frustrated at this point.  What had started out as  $8 project was now $30.  I decided that I didn't want to make the B smaller, and that I needed another package of balls.  I might have brought them inside while Jason just happened to be taking Oss-Man on a walk.  :o)  (Side Note: He noticed them a couple minutes after returning.  Don't worry, he's not mad!)

The hardest part was working around the curves and the connection points.  The sets I bought also came with some small silver and black balls that worked great to fill some of the spots.  It was a lot of trial-and-error to find out how they all fit together best.  I ended up just wrapping the wire around itself and cutting off the extra.

Here's the finished product:

 And so you can see how big it is:

Don't judge... yes, we STILL have our tree up!

I still need to figure out a way to make it sturdier.  I used a lighter wire so I could actually cut it.  Unfortunately, that means it's not as strong to stand up on it's own.  I'm thinking I might hot glue the balls together.

A couple of hints for anyone wanting to try this on their own:

• Twistie-ties are your best friend.  I started with the straight part of the B and the balls kept sliding down onto the curve.  Once I put a twistie on, it held them so I could just focus on stringing the new ones on!
• Just hot glue the tops on from the beginning and save yourself the stress.
• Trial and error works best to see what kind of pattern/arrangement you want.

Don't know where it will go yet.  My original thought was on the door to the reception (people will walk by it on the way to the ceremony site.  Then maybe move it inside later?  Do you have any ideas???

Paper Balls and Margaritas!

No, I'm not referring to my bachelorette party... but a get-together for wedding crafts!

Last Saturday, some of my favorite ladies came over to help me 629 of these:

What are they?  Well, a flower petal, of course!  It takes 5 petals to make a flower, and 12 flowers to make this:

My "Pew Markers"

So we made about 10 and 1/2 flower ball's worth of petals... and I'm thinking I need around 30 balls.  Yay for being a third of the way there!  Those of you that couldn't make it need not worry... there's plenty of folding and glue sticking opportunities ahead!

Thank goodness my teacher's aide enjoys cutting pink paper into 4 inch squares!  That saved me a lot of work last week! :o)

And Thank You SO MUCH for all the help I got on Saturday.  It was fun to see everyone, catch up, watch some college football (including victories by both Nebraska and Pitt State!), and drink some margaritas!

Man, I wish all my wedding to-do's were that much fun!

Mail Time!

There's nothing better than getting some honest-to-goodness REAL mail (intermixed with the bills, junk mail and credit card offers)... Unless it's getting a package delivered!  And look what was waiting for me at home!!!

Ignore the camera cord... sorry!

 What's in this box???  Well, besides all of this fun:


There's 2 smaller boxes... containing what???  These beauties!!!

Colors look funny in the picture... it's a dark gray with metallic pink print

Pink with silver metallic print

We ordered 200 of them... I figured I'd use these and intermix them with some solid ones (black and/or white).  Don't know yet if I'll put them out on the tables, or at the bar, or where... but we got 'em now! :o)

See how awesome they look together???

...swoon...

The Winner for the Runner-Up (our aisle)

Well, ask and you shall recieve.  Thanks to everyone for your advice on the Aisle Runner debate... what was the winner for the runner up our aisle:

Yep!  We are reaching for the stars!  Now I just have to figure out how to get them to stay put outside.  Glue a rock to the bottom of each?  Glue them down to an aisle runner (and roll it?  fold it?)?

Any ideas?

Wine Glasses and Polka Dots: The Waiting

Tom Petty knew what he was talking about... "The waiting is the hardest part."

This is the last chance for my wine glass and Jason's mug... I'm letting them "air-cure."  For 21 days.  Yes, 3 weeks.  Every day I go up to them and use my fingernail to "check" and see if the paint stays.  And everyday I'm disappointed when it chips off.

If this doesn't work... well... I don't know.  Just say "screw it?"  Buy some actual glass paint and re-do it?  My googling of "food-safe sealant" (and things similar) doesn't really yield any results.

Grrr... Guess I'll wait a little while longer.

Runners... and I Ain't Talkin' the Marathon Kind!

Forgive me blogging world, for I have sinned.
It has been over a week since my last post.

(side note: I'm not Catholic, so if I messed that up or offended anyone, I apologize!)

...whew... The first week of school can pretty much be summed up in two words: Chaotic Blur.  There's just SO much to get done.  I feel like I could work for a solid 24 hours and still wouldn't feel "done."  And with that hyper-busy first week of school, I threw one of my friends a baby shower this past weekend (maybe a NWR post on that later this week???)

I've been so crazy-busy, I haven't even turned on my home computer in over a week!

Despite not being on my computer, I'm still attached-at-the-palm to my iPhone.  And (thank goodness!) there are some apps that have helped with the wedding.  As I was browsing through wedding ideas on Pinterest, I came across an idea that made me re-think my choice of aisle runners.  Remember my original idea?  Here are some pictures to refresh your memory:

Well, as much as I absolutely LOVE that look, it's going to be a TON of work.  I can't decide if I want to do it or not.  After doing some research, it looks like I'm going to be buying about 10,000 petals and a bizillion glue stick and spend HOURS working on it.  Is it worth it?  I can't decide...

Especially when this idea seems to fit out stars theme better:

from The Ritzy Bee Blog

Of course, they would be silver and pink instead.  I just love the sparkly stars!  I'm just imagining how cute they would be in the sun!

Ahh, I can't decide!  I probably need to get started on the flower petal one of that's the one I go with.

So, I need your help!  What should I do???

Option 1: Flower Petals Pattern (probably swirled)

Option 2: Pink and Silver Glitter stars

...or...

Option 3: Flower Petals Pattern down the aisle and around the curved part before the ceremony.  (Too much?)  I think I would end the "aisle runner" where the chairs end, and just do the stars around the curve, so they wouldn't be overlapping.  Here's what our ceremony site looks like:

Our beautiful site: Stony Point Hall!

I'm seriously wanting your opinion... good or bad about these ideas.  You won't offend me my saying you like one better than the other... REALLY!  I just want some other people's thoughts and opinions.  Thanks in advance!

Wine Glasses and Polka Dots... semi-fail

...sigh...

DIY semi-fail...

Remember my cute set of glasses for Jason and me?

Well, baking them (as the directions I found online said) didn't seal in the acrylic paint.  Thumbs downs.

So, back to google, most of the suggestions I found said to get an acrylic sealer.  Off to Michael's I go!  Only to find out that all of the acrylic sealers "contain a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects and/or reproductive harm."  Lovely.  I may not live in the state of California, but I think Kansans would get the same harmful effects.  I'm not going to risk that for a cute glass.  Double thumbs down.

And Hobby Lobby is closed tomorrow.  So I guess my project will go unfinished for another day.  There HAS to be some kind of food-safe sealant.  Right?

I guess I'm really bummed because I was hoping to get this project done and packed away before I started school on Tuesday.  Guess I have another half-finished project waiting...

Wine Glasses and Polka Dots... the manly version

After showing Jason my glass, I got "the look."  You know, the one that says, "Really???  I love you, but REALLY?!?"  Guess it wasn't manly enough for him.

So we went back to Dollar Tree (hey, wine glasses for $1?  Can't beat it!) so Jason could pick out his own glass.  And what do you think he picked?

The manliest one of them all: the Beer Stein!

So not a matching set, but very "us."

Now I need some help... I can't figure out where to put the "Mr." that goes on his glass.  Suggestions?  I tried the handle, but there's a seam on the handle so it looked uneven. 

Ideas on where should I put it?

Just Call Me Bob Ross!

I'm sad to report that this is my last week of summer vacation... and I got nowhere NEAR the amount of stuff crossed off my wedding to-do list as I had planned.  Stupid moving day week month.  Or maybe it was the ever-tempting pool... and nap that came after an exhausting afternoon of braving the heat on my pool float.

Enough excuses...

I did get one thing done this week (well, two actually, but the second will be in tomorrow's post!):

It's kinda hard to tell, but the polka dots are pink, white and silver. 

Here's the basic how-to (with some helpful hints I learned through trial and error):

Clean the glass with glass cleaner.  I couldn't get the price tag to come off very easily, but the Windex took it right off!

I did the monogrammed letter first.  Let me start by saying I cannot draw paint a straight line to save my life.  So I drew it as best I could, then was on clean-up duty... with a toothpick!  You either have to use the toothpick while the paint is still really wet (basically squeegee it off), or really dry (scratch it off)... Don't try to clean if off during that sticky in-between stage... you'll just stretch the paint and make it globby.  I got the majority of the extra paint off while it was wet, then scratched off the rest after it was dry.

My not-so-straight line getting fixed

After allowing it to dry (I did a half an hour or so), repeat a second coat on the letter.  Clean up your mistakes as needed.

Using stencil "spouncers" (circular sponge paint brushes), I made the polka dots.  The hard part of this was trying to get the air bubbles popped.  I found it easiest to push down, then twist the brush.

I'm not going to lie, I didn't get the all placed correctly on the first try.  To erase an entire dot, I sprayed some Windex on a paper towel and wiped it off (being careful to not touch any other dot).

After allowing it to dry (I did about 15 minutes... I was impatient!), repeat a second coat on the dots.

After allowing it to dry, repeat a third coat on the dots.

With a paint pen, I wrote the "Mrs." on the bottom.  After a few minutes of drying, I did another coat.  To erase paint pen mistakes, I used a Windex soaked toothpick.  The paint pen was harder to erase than the regular paint, but never got "sticky" and "stretchy."  You just have to keep scratching it off.

I still need to let it dry for a day, then bake it.  Put it upside down on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven.  Turn on the oven to 350 and allow it to bake for 30 minutes.  Then turn off the oven and leave it in there until it completely cools.  I found various directions for this online, some saying that baking it makes it dishwasher safe, some saying it is hand wash safe.  I'll probably just hand wash it to be safe.

This is one of the cheapest wedding projects I've done...

Wine Glass (from Dollar Tree): $1.00
Basic Craft Paint (acrylic): 4 @ .33 = $1.32 (and I have other uses planned for this too!)
Small Paint brush: already had it
Circle Sponge Brushes (actually for stencils): $1.99 for a 5-pack

Up next: Jason's glass.  He thought the polka dots on a wine glass were too girly.  Check back tomorrow to see what I came up with for him!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's a picture of words worth???

I really don't plan to do too much decorating for the reception.  I'm sure we will do a little table decor (none of those 3 foot tall centerpieces that just get in the way of conversation), but I thought we kinda needed something else.  My new idea: Canvas Quotes.

I plan to take some of my favorite quotes and paint/Sharpie them onto canvases that I can display around the room.  I'm thinking I should be able to use my computer at school and project it onto the canvas (which will be hanging on my whiteboard) and just trace them.  What I don't know is if I could just get a bunch of different colors of Sharpies and just use those, or if I need to trace it with pencil then go back and paint it later.  Any of my artistic friends have any advice on this?

I want some to be serious, some funny... and none that are way too cliche.

Oh, and for your viewing pleasure, here are some of the quotes/art I plan to use!

from tumblr

Jason's Favorite from ReadyMade

Gotta Love Disney!

Totally US!

I'm such a math geek! :o)

My thought is I could keep one or two of these to use as pictures around the house and sell the rest.  I would need quite a few of them to make this work, so I need your help... Do you have any suggestions?  What's your favorite love/marriage quote?

To Top It Off...

Wow, it July really almost over?!?  It seems like it's still JUNE!  Geez... just one more week of summer vacation.  :o(

So, we moved!  Yep, last weekend!  Thus the reason for my absence... No internet = No blog posts.

So what happened during my time away from the 21st century (internet communication)?

Well, I got this little gem in the mail.  Meet, our Groom's (well, Groom's and Bride's) Cake Topper!

LOVE them!!!  They are just so US! :o)

And don't worry... they will be on our Nebraska/KU cake.  We will have a pink/silver/white cake topper (probably a "B") on our regular cake!

Reach for the Stars!

As you know, we're having an outdoor ceremony... really, there's not much we can (or want) to do to decorate for the ceremony.  It's a beautiful site...  See???

We already have the pew markers planned, and I'm sure we'll do some kind of flowers/tulle/decorating with their arch, but I guess I thought we'd stop there.

Then I saw THIS idea!

Decorate the yard with flour stars!

They are super simple... just make a cardboard cut-out, lay it down in the grass, spray it with water (to make the flour stick), then sift flour onto it.  DONE!

My thought is to have a couple different sizes of stars and kinda put them along the sides and behind the chairs.  A random pattern of sorts.

I got this idea from Pinterest... but more on that site in a later post!

What do you think?  Cute?  Stupid?

Pew Markers... well, sorta

What do you get when you cross 60 squares of pink paper and a glue stick???

A Pew Marker! 

What's a pew marker?

You know how weddings at churches always have tulle bows along the pews... Well, it's the same concept, but since we will have rows of chairs, these beauties will line the aisle and mark the rows.  Still don't quite get it?  Well, it'll look like this, but in pink instead of yellow.

Photos taken by She-N-He Photography from Mrs. Cardigan's wedding on Wedding Bee

...swoon...  Aren't those pictures just to DIE for???  ...swoon...


So, let's do the math...

Each flower took:
5 minutes of paper cutting
2 hours of paper folding and glueing
30 minutes of holding it together while the glue dried
1 stick of glue
1 box of small paper clips (could be re-used)

We will need about 25-30 flowers, which means these babies are going to take... a REALLY f-ing long time!  Guess I'll be hitting up the back-to-school sales for some glue sticks!  I see a flower-making party in my future!  Bridesmaids and friends, be looking for an invite semi-soon!

My First DIY

(I've been a bad blogger and haven't posted ALL of break... Hey, I didn't have a computer for the first part, then I was sick.  So I'm allowed to post twice in one night to make up for it... Right?)

I've known all along that I want to do as many DIY (do-it-yourself) projects as I could to save myself some money.

You know my love of stars, so when I came across these, I seriously considered buying them.  However, I couldn't justify spending some $2 (plus shipping) on EACH candle.  Especially since I'd probably need around 50.  And call me anal, but I really don't like the "starfish" shape.  I like the perfect star that is neat, even, and comes to points instead of blob-like curves.

The vision for this project came from a co-worker's (Sarah's) wedding last summer.  I absolutely LOVED the dark tablecloths with the bright pink candles!

(picture from Sarah's blog) Isn't that just GORGEOUS?!?

 I don't know how I ever thought of doing this, but all the sudden I realized I wanted my star-shaped tea light holders (remember?) to be pink instead of clear.  So while watching one of the many bowl games over break, I decided to take the pink Saran Wrap I had and cover them.  Then instead of a candle holder, maybe I could flip it over and put one of those battery-operated lights inside.  I love the idea of a black tablecloth with some glowing pink stars underneath!  The lights were a little too bright white, so I used some pink nail polish to take the edge off of the light (I need a few more coats, I think).  It's not perfect, but this picture gets the idea across:

I had to heat up the saran wrap so it would form to the star shape.  I held it over a candle, then pressed the plastic wrap to the star.  Apparently I didn't do a good enough job.  Jason tried to help while I was out of the room and ended up burning it a little on the back side.  Oops!

But neither of us really liked how uneven and wrinkly the plastic wrap was.  Then Jason had an idea.  Do you remember those Sun Catchers you used to make as a kid?  You know... those things your mom used to buy for you over summer and/or winter break to keep you busy and out of trouble?  You got a clear plastic shape that had the black outlines and you just simply painted in the sections to make it translucent (instead of opaque like most paints would do).

Well, what if we painted all of the stars?  Turns out they make a spray paint for stained glass.  Sadly enough, Michael's only had it in red and blue (no pink).  So I guess I'll just need to order some online and wait for a nice spring day (since you're supposed to spray paint outside when it's between 65 and 95 degrees).

Ugh... I hate waiting.  Oh well.  Onto my next project! 

My First Wedding-Related Purchase!

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been planning my wedding since I was 5.  Of course, some ideas have gone by the wayside in the last 20 years (the Disney World wedding, the destination wedding on the beach, the eloping in Vegas, etc...).

But there's been one idea that's stuck: Stars.

In case you don't know, I have one (and only one) tattoo.  Yes, me who faints every time I have blood drawn.  Here it is:

In high school, I used to wear a rainbow star bracelet.  Everyday.  It never came off.  Never.  And when the elastic wore out (about once a month), I'd go buy a new one.  I saved all the little stars and made myself a belt.

What can I say?  I love stars!  So when I happened to be browsing Craigslist and found these, I just KNEW I had to have them... even if I wasn't engaged yet!  (I bought these back in September or October... well before my November 26th engagement!)

Star Candy Dishes &
Star Tea Light Holders:

I ended up with 8 of the candy dishes and 48 of the tea light holders.  Now I just need to figure out how I'm using them!