Decor: Balloons & Balloon Ceilings

The venue that we are leaning towards is going to be inexpensive and somewhat of a sentimental value, as it is in the very small home town of my fiance. Unfortunately, it is going to take some very clever decorating to make it look good. It is a curling rink, built into a quonset type structure. It has a concrete floor, but it is not finished inside so all you see is the tin of the structure. I have found somewhere to buy polyvinyl plastic rolls large enough to cover the walls, giving us 10 feet until the "ceiling". But I wasn't sure how to hide the tin roof, and still make it look good, until my mom thought of balloons. Here are some pictures of balloon ceilings I found from Google Image Search...

I love the long streamers. They make it look so whimsical. I especially love the streamers in the next set of pictures. I love how they hung stars or moons on the streamers. Some look to be just cut outs, and some are actually small mylar balloons for a 3D look.

The next pixctures are other various ballon decor that I thought was cute. The first picture is of a balloon column where they used a balloon and set each balloon at a different level to fill the column, topping it with a large mylar star. In the second picture, they filled the balloons on the floor with helium and used balloon cups and sticks to have them look as though they are dancing along the floor.

The first picture is a huge balloon drop, imagine that on the dance floor at the last dance of the night... The second picture shows the large 3 (or more) foot wide balloons. I thought they were intersting. Picture 3 is an arch, and Picture 4 is a balloon centerpiece (shown from top view).

DIY: Square Lanterns

I thought these were gorgeous! I can't remember where I saw them, but I figured that they would be super easy to make. I haven't done one yet, but I did a quick paper mock up with looseleaf and some pencils and it worked just fine. So here are my instructions:

Materials:
Fabric / Paper / Ribbon / String
Wooden Dowels / Straws / Something to use as legs and supports
Glue (or Tape lol)

Instructions:
Okay, here is what I did in my Mock Up...

First:
I made the frame by taking 4 sticks for legs, and (taped because it was a mock up and it was all I had available) glued 8 supports in squares, one at 1/2 inch from top and one from one inch from bottom of legs, to form an open rectangle. Something like this horrid quick MS Paint example:

I suppose if you are using a rigid cardstock paper or something that you may not need the support sticks (shown in red), although still recommended for strength.

Second:
Wrap fabric, paper, or whatever around the legs and secure with glue (or tape, or staples).

Third:
Decorate with string, ribbon, beads, etc. Picture above used red fabric and yellow string for accent.

A couple of ideas:
A friend of mine thought it would be cool to just use ribbon and wrap it so it intersects and weaves and crosses and eventually covers most all of where the fabric or paper would cover, except for small holes that one would leave open, that way you could put a candle in it and have the light shine through the openings.
Which gave me another idea, and that was to layer paper underneath with a design cut out so that you could have a design that would show when there is a candle or light inside.

DIY: Veils

I found this online in my travels and had it saved to my computer. I cannot remember where it came from.

"The wedding veil is an essential part of your ensemble. Rather than paying hundreds of dollars for your bridal veil, you could get creative and make one yourself! This is not as difficult as it may sound – with the right supplies and a little creativity anyone can craft a beautiful wedding veil that will remain an heirloom for years to come. Imagine how special it would be to hand the bridal veil that you made yourself and wore at your wedding to your daughter on her special day!

Supplies Needed:
First, you need to gather your supplies. Here is a list of things you may need to make your veil. Most of the items on this list can be purchased at your local craft store such as JoAnn's or Ben Franklin Crafts.
* Button hole thread
* White, or clear headband
* Velcro
* Batting
* Wide ribbon in white
* Floral wire in white
* Clear plastic hair combs
* White tulle
* Adornments like beads, pearls, crystals or rhinestones
* Hot glue gun

How to:
Lay your tulle on a flat surface and decide what length you want your veil to be. Then, fold the veil in half and weight it down so it will lay flat. Use chalk to draw a curved shape for the bottom of the veil then trim accordingly with fabric shears.
Now you'll want to unfold the tulle and gather the straight edge, or top of the veil. To accomplish this, you'll need thick, button type thread and a running stitch across the top of the tulle. Then, push the tulle together to create crimping. Now the top of the veil is smaller so that it can be attached to the headpiece.
Using your hot glue gun, attach the crimped end of the tulle to the headband. Once dry, use hot glue to attach the adornments such as satin or lace ribbon, miniature silk flowers, pearls, or stones to the headband.
For some expert guidance, check with the craft stores in your area. Many of them hold classes on making veils. At the least, they may be able to give you some helpful advice or direct you to a book of patterns so that you can see photographic examples and ideas."

DIY: Studded Candles

You can easily customize your candles with the wonderful assortment of Scrapbooking Brads. Use the directions below or just design on your own. Add a personal touch to your table with decorated candles.

Materials:
Candles Making
Scrapbooking Brads
Single Hole Punch

Steps:
-First you will need to print out a spreadsheet with ½” size square boxes covering the entire page, or use graph paper, or free hand your design on plain paper.
-Cut the paper to size so it fits the same height as the candle and will wrap one time around.
-Use a Hole Punch to make 1/16” holes in the paper where the lines from the spreadsheet intersect, forming a pattern, or where the lines of your design should be.
- Wrap the paper around the candle and fasten with tape.
-Stick brads through the punched holes in the paper, inserting them ¾ of the way in.
-When you are finished placing all the brads, carefully tear away paper and push the brads the rest of the way in.

This would also look great for a DIY Unity Candle or just as decor or favors.
Found at the Save-On-Crafts Website

DIY: Paper Bag Luminarias

Creating Paper Bag Luminarias (Adapted From: Holiday Decorating For Dummies)

Traditionally, luminarias are made of votive candles set in paper bags weighted with sand and placed in rows along walkways, driveways, and even rooftops. You can use them in new ways, however, to light paths, a mantel, or a staircase. Because they're so simple to make, you can use them as projects for children. Light up your nights for the holidays by making some luminarias for your home and customizing them for a specific holiday.

You can decorate, punch, or cut designs from lunch-size paper bags to make holiday luminarias quickly and easily. Use bags in holiday colors (you can find them at party supply stores) to give your luminarias a holiday look. For instant decorating — no embellishments required — use the preprinted themed bags that are often used for holding goodies.

Place one to two inches of sand in the bottom of each paper bag. Nestle a tealight or votive candle into the center of the sand. When you're ready to use your luminaria, just light the wick of the tealight or candle.

Stamping, stenciling, or drawing designs
You can customize plain bags by stamping, stenciling, or drawing designs on them with craft paint or markers. Stencil stars for the Fourth of July, or stamp shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day. A simple drawing of a jack-o'-lantern for Halloween or a stenciled Star of David for a dusk celebration can provide a beautiful way to welcome guests and make any occasion special.

For a simple way to make a luminaria with a complex design, use a computer to print clip art in black ink on plain copy paper. Trim the copy to fit just inside one side of the plain brown bag, and then glue or tape it into place. When you light the luminaria, the black lines of the design show up on the outside of the bag. With this little trick, you can quickly make luminarias that look as if you spent lots of artistic energy on them.

Try to find designs that look like silhouettes or are completely black: They show up better when the luminaria is illuminated.

Perforating designs
When you perforate outlines of designs in your paper bag luminaria, bright pinpricks of light shine through the paper. Perforating outlines of designs in paper is easy. Just follow these steps:
1. Place several layers of folded newspaper on a cutting board.
2. Tape your paper bag, with the bottom flap unfolded, to the newspaper with pieces of masking tape or removable tape.
3. Take a thumbtack and prick evenly spaced holes along the outline of the design, making sure you prick through both layers of the bag.

Cutting out designs
Cutting small designs out of the paper bag will allow a little more light to shine through your luminaria. But remember, when you cut more paper from the bag, you also allow more wind in, making the candle flame more likely to go out.
When cutting out designs, use shapes that are 1 to 1-1/2 inches in size. Anything larger will weaken the structure of the bag, making it more likely to sag.

1. Place several layers of folded newspaper on a cutting board. Tape your paper bag, with the bottom flap unfolded, to the newspaper with masking tape or removable tape.
2. Draw or trace the outline of the design on the bag.
3. Cut out shapes with a craft knife.

If you want to use cookie cutters for patterns or larger motifs, you can use two bags (with one serving as a liner) to give the cut bag strength. This layered effect is very pretty when you use a contrasting colored bag for the inner liner.

Found at the Save-On-Crafts Website

Invitations: Research and Development

I posted before about my favorite type of invitation style. I've done a little research, and I've figured that I'll need probably (aka... so far) almost 200 invitations. To order them from the company that offers that particular style, I am looking at $799.00 for 200, with envelopes. $126.00 if I want them to print 200 RSVP cards for me. Now, I priced it out to buy all the supplies and them print and make them myself. I priced out cardstock, envelopes, and ribbon, enough to make 200 (plus extra) invitations and reply cards. I got a price of $80.00. Now am I the only one that is absolutely shocked by this difference? $80.00 compared to $925.00. It sure made my decision to invest the time into making them much easier, plus by making them I am no longer restricted to their colors and options. I can print whatever I please and use the bold colors that I want.

My Mood: Shocked

DIY: Wine Charms

I made these last night as part of my mom's mother's day present. She and Dad are wine people, they enjoy a glass every now and then, and they like the expensive stuff... okay, Dad likes the expensive stuff that tastes like grape (although that's debatable) nail polish remover, and Mom likes the fruity stuff with slightly less alcohol content. But we all like going over to Mom and Dad's, sitting around a bonfire and having a glass of wine, whatever type we all prefer.

How to Make Wine Charms:

Materials: Fig 1.
- Earring Hoops (also known as manipulating hoops) OR Ring Sized Memory Wire.
- Beads. Whatever you want, just try to be sure before you buy that they will fit over your hoops/wire.
- Charms and Split Rings (a.k.a. Jump Rings). If wanted.
- Pliers, needle nosed are the best.
- Wire Cutters, if using memory wire these could be handy to trim the excess.




Steps:
1. If using memory wire, make a loop or hook at one end (I just made hooks and was sure that my beads couldn't slip off). Fig 3 & 4.
2. String on your desired beads / pattern of beads that you wish. Fig 2.
3. Close the open end of your wire / hoop. For memory wire, trim any excess wire if necessary and create a second hook. For Manipulating/Earring hoops, bend the end of the wire to a 90° degree angle so it sticks straight up and will fit into the receiving end. Fig 3 & 4.
4. If Charms are desired: Attach a small jump ring to your charm and then attach the jump ring between the selected beads. This can be done during the stringing process as well, that's when I put mine on.
5. To put the wine charm on a glass, simply slip it around a wineglass stem and close it by putting the stopper piece of wire into the eyelet or your hook into your loop/hook. Fig 5.

Note: If it doesn't want to hold, gently pull the hoop open so that it will have some tension when closed.

I found some very cute (and very tiny) photo frame charms and my local WalMart. I picked these up and printed 1.7cm x 1.4cm photos of the family for Mom's mothers day presents. I put the tiny pictures in and they look gorgeous. I know she'll love them.

Here are some pictures for inspiration:



My Mood: Pleased

DIY: Garland Signs

I saw these on Martha Stewart Craft. She sells them on her website for a really reasonable price, but unfortunately her colors and messages are limited. As gorgeous as they are, they are very simple to make. I'll post my creation as soon as possible, photo unavailable right now.

Materials:
- Colored paper
- Ribbon or other string
- Scissors (or crafting circle cuts, paper slicer, etc.)
- Utility Knife (Xacto Knife) - Not needed, but handy
- Markers, Stickers, Computer and Printer, whatever you want to do to make your letters.

Instructions:
Step 1: Print your letters onto your colored paper first if using a computer and printer for your project. This will take some preplanning as far as your color variations. I wrote mine out with colored markers first to get it planned out right.

EXAMPLE: _ J E N _ & _ D A N _ S E P T _ 6 th _ 2 0 0 8 _ (Not my exact color scheme I used, but a good example of what I did.) All underscores in orange are orange blank spacings in my garland.

I then typed 3 pages of my lettering and printed them out on card stock scrap booking paper. I used 3 inch diameter circles, so I could only fit 6 letters per page, but it worked perfectly for what choices I made during my planning process. When I printed them I designed it all in PowerPoint so I could put my circles in a very faintly colored thin line on the presentation. This helped to space them, and also when cutting them all out.

Step 2: Cut out your circles. Or Squares, Hearts, Stars, Triangles, Ghosts, Eggs, Whatever shape you want. I stuck with the circles just for simplicity's sake, so use whatever shape you please.

Step 3: This is where the Xacto Knife comes in handy if you have one. What you do now is make a 2 small slits in the top of your shape to thread the ribbon through.
Bad Diagram: ( I I )

Step 4: Thread your ribbon from the bottom of your shape, up through the first slit, then down through the second. Thread all your letters on (in order mind you, lol - I had to stop and grab a different letter a couple times). If you're really talented you might want to tie a small bow between the slits. I tried it and it looked good, but I thought it was a pain and only did it on the very first and then the very last shapes.

Step 5: Hang and Enjoy.



My Mood: Giggly

DIY: Custom Aisle Runner

I love the look of these monogrammed aisle runners. Unfortunately, I don't like the prices I find online. But I did find some nice pictures and some ideas from fellow DIYers for making your own.

Custom Aisle Runners

Materials:
- Pre made Aisle Runner. Buy it, or make it yourself too.
- Fabric Paints. Available at almost all craft stores, Walmarts, Kmarts, Target, etc.
- Pre Designed Monogram. Make it yourself or enlist someone to do it for you.
- Printer to print out poster sized monogram, either one large sheet or many 8.5 x 11s.
- Paint Brushes.
- Pencil.
- Paper Towels.
- And from what I hear... Lots of Patience and Time. 2 things I rarely have enough of lol.



Directions:
- Create your monogram using Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, MS Word, PowerPoint, whatever.
- Blow the monogram up to 3 x3 sheets of 8.5 x 11 paper (or whatever size you are using).
- Tape your 9 pages together and tape them to a large flat surface.
- Position your runner over the pages and secure (tape) down.
- Trace the outline with your pencil.
- After the outline is complete, Lay paper towel under the runner before painting to try to ensure the paint doesn't seep through onto your surface.
- Fill in the outline with fabric paint. You may need to use different sized brushes to get the best results.
- After you finish painting, allow to dry, roll back up and get ready for everyone to love it on your big day.

Notes:
For Quotes and Inspiration please visit:
Aisles with Style. They will custom make your runner for anyone who is not into DIY projects, but I found some great inspiration from their site.
Personalized Aisle. She originally posted a DIY Instruction for this, but she has since began taking orders from other brides. Visit her, the top 3 pictures are from her site and she does gorgeous work.
Don't limit yourself to only monograms or names, use quotes, put a quote at one end of the runner with your monogram (if desired) in the middle.
I am thinking of putting our monogram and a quote on ours. I think I'll put the quote in the middle, and our monogram at the top, just a few feet in front of where we will stand.

Other Examples:
These are ones that can be ordered, but may provide some inspiration. The ones above are homemade DIY projects posted by other brides.


My Mood: Surprised

DIY: Wire Wrapped Candle

These are uber cute! I've seen them on many sites and have loved them. Here's what you need to do:

Materials:
- Jewelery wire: How much depends on your candle size and your preferences. The more the better, you can always cut off the extra, or if it's spooled, just start at the loose end and cut the spool off when you have your desired amount.
- Charms, Beads, Sequins, Whatever you want that has a hole to thread the wire through.
- Candle: Whatever kind of candle(s) you want.

Steps:
1 ) Thread your beads, etc. onto your wire.
2 ) Wrap the wire around the candle.
3 ) Place beads in random (or not) places on the candle. You can secure them with a small amount of glue, a crimping bead, or just by manipulating your wire to hold them in place. Once the wire is really tight there's no need to secure the beads unless you plan on moving the candle a lot.

These can be used for gifts, centerpieces, or just to jazz up a plain candle. Use your imagination and let it take you anywhere. These can be great for weddings, baby showers, holidays, birthday presents (thinking birth stones), etc., etc..


My Mood:Dorky