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

What Kind of Sexy Girl Are You?

You Are Bad Girl Sexy

Girl, you are nothing but trouble. And that's hot. You've got the classic bad girl sexiness mojo going on. And your badass attitude makes men fear you - and crave you. Don't give into people who say to tone it down. You're perfect as is.

What Kind of Sexy Girl Are You?

What Color is your Lucky Underwear?

Your Lucky Underwear Is Red

You're confident and bold, and your lucky red underwear will only make you more sure of yourself. You have a great zest for life, and you tend to take on impossible goals - and succeed. When it comes to love, it's hard for you to take the time to open up. You're too busy conquering the world. So if you're looking for a little more romance, put on your red underpants. And see where their passion takes you!

What Color Is Your Lucky Underwear?

Bridesmaids

I've been trying to pick Bridesmaids. I have a general - note that, VERY general - idea of who I would like. Unfortunately, due to everyone's very busy and contrasting schedules, I don't know a couple of these girls nearly as well as I'd like, but I love them to death. If we hung out even just a tiny bit more I'd go so far to say, as far as girl friends go, they would be my best friends. But can I pick them? Would it make them uncomfortable? We try to get together and whatnot but a lot of the time our schedules just clash. Or should I just pick some family members that I'm not really close to, but would seem to be a more traditional/family pleasing option over the girls I love to death and think are the greatest women in the world, but don't get to see as often as I'd like? Oh the horrid choices when planning a wedding.

But I did get a cute idea for jewelery for the bridesmaids to wear. Since we're having a more casual wedding, and I'm leaning towards giving the girls color options and letting them pick out the dresses themselves, we might have all the girls wearing something slightly different from one another, and possibly different colors or shades... So how to tie them all together and give them a uniform look? I figure to match all their bouquets and set them up in matching jewelery. I saw a very cute bead necklace that is stupid simple, but really quite pretty in it's own simplistic way. Just buy your beads and your ribbon and tie them all together. I'm not sure if I like just how big the beads in the picture are, I may pick a different size... Cute & casual, but we'll see what my girls say, plus it can be worn shorter or a bit longer depending on each girl's preference.

My Mood: Awake

Offbeat Bride: Taffeta-Free Alternatives for Independent Brides

I've finished reading one of the two books that I picked up on our weekend to Saskatoon. I've finished the book "Offbeat Bride: Taffeta-Free Alternatives for Independent Brides". I highly recommend this book for any bride who is struggling with peer family pressure in creating the wedding of her dreams. This book even teaches you some methods for kindly telling people to get their fingers out of your pie and how to direct those fingers to where you want/need them.

This book is divided into sections such as:
Part 1: Otherwise Engaged
Part 2: Vanity, Fashion, & other things we shouldn't care about
Part 3: In The Thick of It
Part 4: The Trifecta of Wedding Conflict: Loved Ones, Ceremony, and Sanity (My personal favorite section)
Part 5: The Wedding Itself
Part 6: As The Dust Settles

Check it out and view the chapters broken down in every section here. You can view Ariel Meadow Stalling's Official Offbeat Bride Website and Blog or her MySpace for Offbeat Brides.

My Mood: Awake

Flower Girl Baskets

Call me cheap, call me cost conscious, just don't call me someone who throws their hard earned money away. I've been thinking again, this time about flower girl baskets. Now, I couldn't even comprehend it when I saw prices ranging from $10 (very reasonable, but typically very plain, almost blah) to $40 + for anything relatively ornate. My God who can justify that? I've searched the internet for DIY instructions, but really didn't come up with anything other than find a small basket, wicker, cloth, plastic, whatever you want, and decorate it with paint, cloth, lace, ribbon, flowers, charms, beads, whatever you want. Aye Aye, Will Do, No Problemo.

Now I just have to brag for a moment, because I found a real steal, and really didn't even realize it immediately. Lol. We were out and about doing some shopping and decided to look through the Easter clearances to find some cheap toys for our puppy. Jessie will go through a stuffed toy in roughly 45 seconds, from fully intact to mountains of fluff and slobbery "stuffed animal carcass" pieces, but they are her favorite things and long after the fluff is gone to the garbage, the "carcass" lives on for quite sometime. But you don't want to buy her anything that costs more than a buck or two.

We found a few ranging from $0.24 - $0.89 in the clearance bins. Including one Bunny which was attached to a small colorful wicker basket for $0.65. So once we were home we cut the string tying the bunny into the basket, and the dog loved her new toy... briefly. But what to do with this damned basket... LIGHTBULB!! Into the closet it went and I'll decorate it at a later date for my flower girl basket.

Bingo Bango. And now I can have a basket that looks however I want it to look.

Here are some cute ones I've found in my searches for a little inspiration:







My Mood: Blank

DIY: Guestbook Pen

For anyone who wants one of those gorgeous feather topped pens, but - like me - chokes at the price of them, here are some ideas to DIY and create a beautiful pen for your guests to sign with. Plus if you're like me in other ways, I enjoy crafts and find them to be a relaxing way to work on the wedding, while taking my mind off the wedding.

Ribbon Wrapped Pen:

Materials:
- Regular Straight Pen: try to avoid clips or any fancy pieces, the straighter and smoother the better as not to have bumps under your ribbon.
- Ribbon: whatever color, pattern, etc. that you desire. Say 2 feet, but the wider the ribbon, the less you'll need and vice versa.
- Feathers: if desired. You can use individual feathers and layer them up to get a poofy pen, or cut chunks off of an old feather boa, or a single long feather, or whatever you come up with.
- Hot Glue Gun: if you hot glue your ribbon down you're more sure that it won't shift or unravel. My mother has used pens before that come apart and she simply takes both ends out and winds her ribbon inside the pen and caps it off with the ends of the pen.
- Scissors: To cut your ribbon.
- A Friend: To help if you're not craftily inclined, or just to pour the vodka... if that's a regular in your crafting routine.


Directions:
- This is easier if done with a friend, but not necessary, but one could do the gluing and the other wrap the ribbon for a quick and smooth procedure.
- Put a dab of glue at the end of your pen and attach the ribbon at an angle... OR... remove the ends of your pen, start wrapping your ribbon once, and then trim and insert your ribbon into the end of the pen and put in the cap end.
- If gluing, or doing both glue and making use of the end caps, you may want to put a dab of glue after every (every other?) wrap.
- Continue to wrap and glue until the pen is covered.
- Cut the ribbon at the bottom of the pen. Put an extra dab of glue and secure your ribbon down at the end, or take the tip of the pen apart and insert your ribbon and recap again like at the start.
- Put a dab of glue at the end of the pen and attach your feathers, or whatever you want to stick to the top.
- Stick more feathers or whatever to the top until you get your desired effect.

NOTE: You could start at the tip of your pen and work your way to the end (top) and when you get close, wrap the tip of your feather (or whatever) into the ribbon close to the end of your pen for a smoother transitional look. Continue to wrap up the base of your feather or whatever you need to do to achieve the look you want.


These are a little different, but I though someone may be interested. It involves weaving your ribbon, and although beautiful, very beautiful, it's not something I'm going to try anytime soon. Too much time for me, I like quick and easy with a bottle of vodka and a friend.

Instructions for these can be found here.


My Mood: Artistic

Various Ideas from The Knot .com

I've been spending a fair amount of my downtime looking through the Real Weddings section on The Knot website. Here are some cute ideas I just had to save and come back to for reference.

My Mood: Okay