{Special Party} Flower girl Bucket

Hey lovely lover friends!!

Hope you are having a glorious day! Spring seems to have finally sprung here in Central Oregon, and I am loving it!! We don't really have seasons here, just winter and summer with blips of fall and spring, but this year we are getting a real treat!

Today I present to you, another wedding DIY, a bucket for my little sister/flower girl Sophie! This is sooo easy to do folks, and the result is do effing adorable I want to keep it for myself! Or at least make a matching headband...

First we need some supplies. How bout a metal pail from the Target Dollar section, a length of coordinating ribbon (purple for our wedding of course), some fake flowers (hydrangeas from the Dollar Tree), beads of your size and choice, and a needle and thread!

note: I spraypainted my bucket Oil Rubbed Bronze, I like that color better than galvanized metal.

Begin by removing the flowers from your stem. No need to worry about centers we will sew them on using beads, which are much prettier.

Layer flowers to your liking, and sew onto ribbon, adding a bead to the center of the flower on each pass.

Oooh pretty!!

Continue the process until you have a desired look. I added seven flowers clustered together, and a leaf and flower bundle where the seam lined up on the bucket.

Attach ribbon very carefully using a hot glue gun and you are done!

Simple, sweet and coordinating! And dirt cheap! This project was under five dollars (I already had the spray paint and I have about 200 beads left over...), so definitely budget friendly and one of a kind.

I can't wait to see my sister walking down the aisle tossing petals for me... Less than five months till the big day!!

Have a beautiful day!

DIY Save the Date Postcards

Hey hey lovecats!!

From today, our wedding is exactly six months away. Holy moly, where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday this happened...

 

And now we are halfway there already. Crikey. 

I didn't plan it this way, but we mailed out our Save the Date postcards a couple days ago, and they will be arriving exactly 6 months ahead of our wedding. What natural timing I have. I'm not sure what proper etiquette calls for in terms of getting save the date cards out, but since we are having a destination wedding, I think giving guests an early heads up is helpful. 

Anyhow, back when we first got engaged, I set up a bare bones budget. After a few brief chats with my parents and James, we set our budget, which is in the neighborhood of 13k, about half as much as the national average for a wedding.   So far, so good, but when it came to planning wedding paper products, I realized how easy it would be to blow the budget here. 

After playing around on Microsoft Publisher for a couple weeks, we were able to design our own Save the Date postcards, and get them printed locally for $55! Thats whats up! Here's how we did it... 

Pinterest browsing led me to create a paper products 'board', which all of my early inspiration landed on. I discovered an awesome website called The Wedding Chicks, which has free templates to create entire wedding invitation suites! Amazing right? So we played around with that for a while, and eventually circled back to our early wedding inspiration... 

The Aspen tree we carved our initials into back in 2008. So I googled Aspen tree clip art, and found a lovely image that reminds us of a drawing.
Here is how the front turned out...

So many Save the Dates are the same. A photo of the couple, which doesn't necessarily reflect what the wedding will be like. James and I really wanted our guests to get a little sneak peek of what our wedding day will look like, and we feel that this shows it.

Without further ado, here is the back.

We did make a wedding website, which is that lovely blur on the bottom right. Sorry stalkers. Love you all.

My suggestions here are play around with layout and format until you find the right look. Under Page Setup on Microsoft Publisher, you can set margins and custom layouts. This is also where you flip between Portrait (long page) or Landscape (wide page). I also suggest having a glass of wine or two, it makes the successes sweeter and the failures (you KNOW I have lots of those) easier to handle.
Overall, just do what makes YOU and your fiance' happy.
Lately, I've been struggling with too many hands in the wedding basket. I am an approval seeker, and am also surrounded by people who mean well, but offer too many opinions. After a couple minor meltdowns, I have decided to stop asking for so much input, and just do what makes me happy. And it is making wedding planning sooo much easier.

So that's where we stand folks! Coming right along. Have a wonderful weekend, and lets pray for some spring-like weather!!

Extra Large Ampersand

I feel like I start so many of my posts by stating I am a bad blogger. Yes, it may be true that my posts are somewhat sporadic but HEY! I have a real life people, one that consumes at least 40hrs a week, plus nurturing my relationship and raising my furry babies. But enough excuses.
I made something. And its pretty freaking awesome. And I will make another one, that is even better.

Its a giant Ampersand (you know, the AND sign, this one - & - )

Finally, a picture that shows the wall color as it looks in real life!!!

Perfect, no. Good for a first attempt, YES!! Here's the breakdown.
Whilst browsing Pinterest and blogland for wedding inspiration, I came across many pictures where the couple holds an ampersand between them. I love it!! But the pre-made sizes at Joann's and Micheal's just weren't bulky enough for my larger than life style. So I took matters into my own hands. With all the new construction at work, we have been swimming in giant pieces of cardboard, perfect for creating large projects.
I thought I knew how to draw this. A few million attempts, and I kind of got it right.

 

I freehanded the ampersand onto a piece of cardboard, and cut it out with a utility knife. 

 

Roughly following the technique laid out by Becca over at from GARDNERS 2 BERGERS, I did a faux zinc finish. 

I laid out two pieces of tin foil, shiny side down, and cut off the excess, and used scrapbooking adhesive to adhere the foil to my symbol. 

 

After smoothing out most of the wrinkles, I dry brushed black acrylic paint over the symbol, lightly and randomly to give it a tarnished look. I got a little heavy handed near the top, but because of the slickness, I was able to wipe it off and mostly fix my error. 

 

I'm out of Mod Podge, but when I get some more I will be giving this baby a few coats for extra durability, but in the meantime, I think it turned out awesome!!! Its little tail is kind of stubby but I like it that way. Its unique. 

Check out this other handmade ampersand by Living Savvy!! I'm loving the texture she achieved! 

Lots of other changes have been happening around the house here, including a new rug that gave the living room a new lease on life, and further de-grannyfying with an updated light fixture!!! Stay tuned!!