Tuesday Tutorial #7: Upcycled Sandals

Today's tutorial was very much inspired by a shopping trip. The other day I was out looking for wedding shoes at Macy's. But, being the shoe fanatic I am, I obviously got side-tracked by all the other cute shoes. I came across these flip flops and wanted to try them on. 

 [source]

Sadly, they didn't have my size. And truth be told, I didn't have the money. Even if they were on sale. So I went about my hunt for wedding shoes. And didn't find those there either. Although, I did end up finding some later. But that's irrelevant. I got home and it hit me that I had some super old T-strap sandals that I hadn't worn in a while and I had fabric to make some bows. So, using a technique I had used before, I set out to make my own version of these sandals. Here's how mine turned out.

I obviously could never take photos for Macy's online shoe department. But whatever. I think they turned out well, despite the dirty label and visible foot print from being worn so much.

Here's what I used and how I did it

Old T-straps
Fine glitter
ModPodge
Paint brush
E-6000 glue
Fabric

First, I mixed together a little ModPodge and about half of the bottle of Martha Stewart glitter into a small bowl.  I then painted on four coats of the mixture and let each coat dry in between.

While the coats of the ModPodge mixture were drying, I made my bows using the same tutorial I used for my bow shoe clips.  Once all my coats had dried and my bows were made, I used a little E6000 to adhere the bows to the front. And viola! My own version of the Macy's sandals. I think they turned out rather charming (even if they are a little beat up!) 

Well, that's all I have for today! Hope everyone has had a wonderful Tuesday. Thanks for stopping by! :)

Tuesday Tutorial #6: Personalized Acrylic Tumblers

I mentioned in my last post that I would have a tutorial post for you soon. Well "soon" meant not even 24 hours later. That's a surprise, huh? I know I missed last Tuesday's tutorial post but I'm back with a bang. Well, sort of, not really. I want to show you how to make the acrylic tumblers that I personalized for all my girls at my bachelorette party.

These were a perfect way for all of us to know where our cup was at all times. And, since they aren't glass, we were able to use them at the pool and the beach. Even more perfect, they didn't get sand in them. I got the inspiration from some I saw on Etsy and my original plan was to make them as part of my bridemaids' gifts. So, I started searching for cheap, clear acrylic tumblers and found that I could buy 6 somewhere else for the same price as 12 on Amazon. So, since I might as well get my money's worth, I bought the ones off of Amazon and decided to use them for the bachelorette party instead since there were more girls going than are in my actual bridal party.

Here's what else I used:

9 Clear Acrylic Tumblers
Black Vinyl
Teal Vinyl
Silver Vinyl
White Vinyl
1" Circle Hole Punch
A roll of ribbon
Cricut, Font Cartridge, and Sweethearts Cartridge

*All of the vinyl was purchased at a local sign shop. It's so much cheaper than buying Cricut brand vinyl.

First, I washed the cups with soap and water. Then, I cut each of their names on the black vinyl using my Cricut and the font I so desired.  Next, it was a matter of placing the letters of their names in the correct position. I really need to learn how to use transfer paper with the vinyl. I'm sure it would make my life much easier. After I had the letters down, I punched out a bunch of 1" circles using my hole punch. I used all four colors for the dots and filled them in around the rest of the cup. Then, I used my ribbon and tied a bow around each of the straws.

For my cup, I cut a 3" engagement ring using my Sweethearts cartridge and placed it on before putting my name on. (I know, I'm a huge nerd.) Seeeee.

Ta-da! There you have it, the finished product. That's all I have for today dear friends. Have a wonderful week!

Bachelorette Weekend

Sorry for being MIA last week. I spent most of last week assembling invites and getting ready for my bachelorette party this past weekend. Needless to say, my sister did a great job and we had a nice, relaxing weekend. Oh, and thanks to the future in-laws for letting us borrow their condo in PCB. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend! 

Our door sign

 

My sister's beautiful cupcake display

Oh, and the cups in this picture I ended up making as a gift for all the girls that came. Tutorial post to come!

The pretty banner she and a friend made! Also make note of my creepy friends in the bottom right corner. 

Of course I had to take a picture of the pretty napkins and my card

 

 

Chips and dip, chicken and cheese crescent roll-ups, and buffalo chicken dip. It's making my mouth water just to see this picture. It was all so delicious.

 

Our chocolate fondue we had for dessert the second night. Noms.

Told you she did a fabulous job. I couldn't ask for a better maid of honor!

Pool time

Hanging out on the beach the first night

My sis also made that sash!

 

Sisters

 

Our condo neighbors and all my girls

 

She loves me

 

My Auburn loves

 

Lingerie ;)

 

My awkward palm-tree. I'm truly the most awkward person ever

 

They wrote down my silly quotes while opening my lingerie and read them back to me as "What I'm going to say on our wedding night." So funny. Everyone should do this.

 

This was my reaction. I mean seriously people, you cannot make this up.

 

Beach day!

Drive to dinner

 

The group at Spinnaker's

 

Helping me make a crown out of toilet paper to cross off my list

 

The finished product

 

So there you have it! A little glimpse of my bachelorette weekend! If I post anymore, it'll give too much away ;) Now if October would just get here already! Hope everyone had a happy Monday!

Thrifted Frame Makeover

Like I said before, I have been wedding crazy lately. Therefore, I've been running lots of errands and popping out lots of projects. As one of my wedding stops, I decided to try the thrift store to see if there was anything I could make something from. My main idea was to look for frames that I could use to hold our engagement photos and have them sit around the venue. And boy was I in luck. I found a bunch of different sized frames that had cool detail and all I had to do was spray paint them brown. I'll have pictures of those eventually. 

As I kept searching the shelves, I came across this super cool frame! 

It was pretty dingy and dusty, but nothing a little spray paint can't fix.  Plus, it was only 3 bucks and I had the perfect idea of how to use it.

Like I've said before, we are having a photo booth at the wedding. (Thanks to dad!) Not to mention, I've already shown you some of the props I've made for it. Here and here. I decided this frame would be perfect to use as a chalkboard to just "display" the photo booth. 

Kind of like this one. 

Except, this is mine 

It really doesn't look like I did anything to it, but I promise I did. It desperately needed a new coat of paint.

 Before I did anything, I took off the back and the glass. I was slightly taken aback when I saw I needed a screwdriver to take the back off. I have never seen that on a frame. Maybe I just don't get out much. 

I then took some ivory spray paint and went to town on the frame. 

To make it a chalkboard, I cleaned off the glass piece and used 2 coats of my chalkboard spray paint. This turned out to be disastrous on the first try. While it was drying, the wind decided to blow really hard causing all of my newspaper to fly up and hit the freshly painted glass, leaving streaks and chunks of paper stuck to it. Epic fail. However, I accidentally found out one time that Goo-Gone takes off spray paint. Who knew? So, I decided to start over. I took my messed up glass, soaked it with Goo-Gone, and started scrubbing. (FYI, this was done over the bathtub). It worked great getting it off the glass...but then I had another problem. It was now all over the bottom of the bathtub. And my hands. And my arms. I felt like I was in the Cat in the Hat. You know that scene, where the kids can't get rid of the pink junk? Yeah, that. It was miserable. But thankfully it eventually all went away and I was able to try spraying it again. In this case, the second time was a charm!

I also absolutely adore the detail on this frame. And I could not be more excited that we are officially down to the double digits! Happy weekend!

Tutorial Tuesday #5: Wedding Favor Tin

It's Tuesday and you know what that means! Another tutorial. As the wedding creeps closer, there are 1000 more things added to my to do list for every one I scratch off. I feel like I'm drowning in all things wedding. As many times as people have volunteered to help me with my extensive list of wedding crafts, I should have already jumped on that. I'm finding that my A-type personality and my crafting OCD are hindering my ability to take up peoples' offers. I really need to let go of my perfectionist personality. It doesn't seem to be working for me anymore.

As for this week's tutorial, I had some inspiration. It's something I saw on Pinterest that I thought would work perfect as a favor holder at the wedding. It's a monogrammed galvanized tin. :) 

We decided to do bubbles for our "getaway" and I figured a tin bucket would work perfect to hold these babies! I'm so excited with how it turned out. And like I mentioned before, this had some inspiration. I'm sure you've seen it floating around Pinterest.

Here's what I did to make mine.

Supplies:

Cheap galvanized tin

Spray paint in color of choice

Wired ribbon

Vinyl in color of choice

*Cricut

I found this cheap tin in the party supplies at Wally World and I used Krylon Dual Paint and Primer so I didn't have to prime it first. It worked surprisingly well! Have I mentioned how much I love spray paint. It pretty much fixes everything. I spray painted it with two coats and I did the outside and inside. 

I used my wired ribbon to tie a bow to each handle. I'm really not the best bow-tier. 

The last thing I did was cut a monogram "K" out of my vinyl with my Cricut. Making sure I put the K on straight was the hardest part. I required an extra helper to make sure all the loops didn't stick together before I got it all the way on the tin. 

And there you have it. Another Tutorial Tuesday has come and gone!

Happy crafting!