Tutorial Tuesday #10: DIY Napkin Holders and Christmas Tablescape

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! I can't believe it's already December. Holy cow. But I'm so glad it is because with the month comes Christmas movies, drinking hot chocolate in excess amounts, the justification to pig out on every dessert imaginable, and all things red and green. Oh, and penguins. I love penguins. Obsessed is probably the better word to use. Today I want to show you my Christmas tablescape and my super easy and festive DIY napkin rings.

I mean, these were seriously easy and they make such a big impact on my table! Here's what you need to make your own. They literally take like 3 minutes. 

 Supplies:

Hot Glue Gun

Bouquet of small poinsettias 

(I got mine at Old Time Pottery for $1)

Elastic Hairties

To put them together, I cut the stems off the flowers and hot-glued the flowers to the hairties. The gold balls were actually on another bouquet of poinsettias that I bought at the same time. I thought they added an extra pop. I just cut them off of their original bouquet and stuck it through the holder. And there you have it. Super easy 3 minute napkin holders for your Christmas table!

I pretty much love them. I ended up changing my placemats to the ones in the picture below because I had forgotten I had them and I liked them better than the ones in the pictures above. Pardon the terrible picture quality of my tablescape. I ended up taking these on my phone. Also ignore the mess in the background!

The tablecloth was one of our wedding gift card purchases and we will be able to use it year round. The chargers and napkins were from Old Time Pottery as well. OTP is the best. So cheap. I bought the votive holders and the glass Christmas tree a long time ago. Pretty sure I got them at Wal-Mart after Christmas one year when everything was on sell.  It's really simple but as a poor medical student, simple is really all I can do. That's all I have for today! Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Tutorial Tuesday #9: Bridesmaid Totebags

I am so excited I can finally sit down and blog again. I am also super excited I get to share my first tutorial in forever today! I still have a lot of wedding projects that I never got to share, so don’t be surprised if that’s what most of my tutorials are for a while. Oh, and Christmas crafts. 

Today I want to share with you one of my favorite projects from the wedding. And funny, it wasn’t even a decoration. These were actually my bridesmaids’ gifts.I made a lot of handmade things for my gifts to try to keep it cheap. Because let's be honest, weddings are a rip-off. 

How I did it was really easy but a little time consuming. 

Here's what you need to make your own tote bag

Supplies:

Blank linen tote bag (Hobby Lobby)

Fabric Paints or Acrylic Paints (In whatever colors your heart desires) and Fabric Medium

Masking Tape

Ruler

Freezer Paper

Cricut or X-acto knife and Monogram Template

Foam Brushes

Instructions

1. I taped my bags front and back to make stripes. I used my ruler to help guide where I put the tape and I made my stripes an inch long. You could do any pattern you wanted really, but stripes seemed easiest to me. *Also, make sure you put paper inside of the bag to keep the paint from bleeding through.

2. I mixed 1 part fabric medium and 1 part acrylic paint (brown) and painted my stripes. I ended up doing two to three layers. But be careful, because the tape likes to buckle once you start painting. 

3. After the stripes dried, I took all the tape off. 

4. To make my monogram, I used the same technique as in my Muggle T-shirts and my Keep Calm T-shirts. 

5. I tied a large ribbon around each of them and a stamped "handmade for you" label. 

6. I filled the tote bags with a homemade pumpkin body scrub (recipe found here), a pair of brown flip flops, a hanger I made for each of them, and a makeup bag I had monogrammed with each of their initials. The makeup bag had some of my favorite things in it. Examples - Lipgloss, Essie nail polish, sunglasses (the ones we wore in the pictures), nail polish remover, a small candle, and some other stuff I can't remember. 

And there you have it. My bridesmaid totes. And just for the record, these would be great gifts for any occasion! Not just weddings ;) Hope everyone had a great Tuesday!

Tutorial Tuesday #8: More Upcycle Frames

Hey again! Today's post isn't anything very special. In fact, I shouldn't even label it a tutorial. I've been working on more wedding stuff, mainly gifts, but I can't post about them quite yet! I'm pretty sure I mentioned in my last upcycled frame post that I had a bunch of other regular photo frames to use for the wedding that I wanted to spray paint brown. Well, I finally am getting around to posting pictures of those.

Basically it started with a bunch of $0.39-$0.59 thrift store frames that looked like this

I tried really hard to pick out frames with some sort of detail around them because it just looks a lot nicer to me. I first sprayed them with gray primer. Notice how spotty it looks? Yeah, well that's because I ran out of the primer. I'm pretty sure I used up every last drop.

The last thing I did was spray them with 2 coats of Krylon "Brown Leather."  I added some of our engagement photos and I now have some more decor for the wedding!

Just 66 more days to go! Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week!

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!

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!

Tutorial Tuesday #4: Guest Book Pens

Hi friends. It’s another Tuesday which means I have another tutorial for you! I wasn’t able to post last week’s favorite things, and for that, I am sorry! But, I have a good excuse – I’ve been in Orlando/Disney World since last Wednesday and ended up not having wifi like expected. But, this morning we had to stop by a Starbucks for one of my fellow travelers to do some schoolwork. So, I decided to take advantage of the free wifi (and an iced mocha – mmm!)

This week’s tutorial is wedding related, but it can be used for most anything, really. I’ve started focusing on the details I want and I started with the easiest thing I could think of. Guest book pens. 

 

Kind of lame, but slightly important. I knew I didn’t want the store bought guest book with the fancy pen that sits in the base, but I don’t really know why I decided to make them the way that I did. I just figured it would look pretty. So, this is how you make your own.

Supplies:

Twine

2 Papermate black ballpoint pens

Hot glue gun

Two floral stems

E6000

*Before I began, I ended up spray painting my twine so it would be brown (to match my wedding colors) instead of tan. The tan twine gave them a “rustic” feel, which, at this point, isn’t exactly the look I’m going for. I don’t even know what to call my wedding style, honestly. DIY? Crafty? Make everything wedding related on Pinterest? I don’t know. And I don’t care. As long as looks decent, I’ll be satisfied. 

Anyways, after spray painting my twine and letting it dry, I dabbed a spot of hot glue on the side of the pen at the very top. I stuck an end of my twine in it and began wrapping the twine around the rest of the pen. Easy, right? I dabbed a few more spots of hot glue as I wrapped it around and then finished it off at the bottom of the pen. Then, I cut the entire stem of my flowers off so that I was just left with the bloom. I then used the E6000 to glue the flower to the top of the pen. (E6000 holds better and doesn’t risk pulling off easily like hot glue does). And, there you have it. The easiest wedding project ever made. 

 

Hope everyone has a great week! Happy crafting!