DIY Wedding, Do It Yourself Weddings

23 Feb

Guest Blogger: Mika 78, DIY Menu Tags

I have a fun do-it-yourself project for you today that you can use for practically any occasion from weddings and bridal showers to engagement dinners and backyard barbeques.

Materials:
1. Fabric: with patterns (make sure fabric design isn’t too busy if you plan to print your graphic on it)
2. Simple cotton canvas fabric (if your fabric design is too busy, you can use this side for your graphic)
3. Fabric Spray Glue or Xyron Machine (with Permanent Adhesive)
4. Scissors (I like to use picking scissors, but straight scissors will do)
5. Ribbon/s
6. Hole Puncher
7. Optional: Eyelets & Eyelet Puncher
8. Iron-on Transfer Sheets for LIGHT fabric (at your local crafts store or Staples)
9. Dinner Napkins
10. Iron
11. Home printer

Let’s get started:
Prep: Create your menu design (there’s an Illustrator and Word template, as well as a JPG of the design I’m using, at the end of this post). Set up your printer to print as a “Mirror Image” (very important, otherwise, it will iron on backwards). Then print your design onto the iron-on transfer using your home printer.

Step 1: Cut both pattern and canvas fabric to a little larger than your desired tag size making sure there’s enough room to trim.

Step 2: Adhere the 2 pieces of fabric together with fabric spray glue. I like to use a Xyron machine (with Permanent Adhesive). Either way works!

Step 3: Iron the fabric to get wrinkles and any extra moisture out.

Step 4: While your fabric is cooling off, trim around the menu design that on the iron-on transfer.

Step 5: Then place the trimmed design (graphic side down) on the desired side of your fabric. Be sure to leave enough room around the sides and top to trim the shape of your tag later on.

Step 6: Iron the graphic for 45-55 seconds with strong pressure.

Step 7: Carefully and slowly peel off the graphic starting from one corner. Make sure to do this while it’s still hot – if it cools down, you might end up with bubbles.

Step 8: Using scissors, trim around the border. Be sure to leave extra height at the top of the Menu for the ribbon and tag shape. I like to do this by hand because I like the rustic feel, but if you want something more exact, you can make a template and trace the shape onto the fabric.

Step 9: To make the slanted sides of the tag, I gently fold the top of the tag in half and cut diagonally (this keeps both sides even).

Step 10: Cut straight across the top of the tag to desired height (if needed).

Step 11: Fold the top of the tag just like you did in “Step 9” and punch a hole about half an inch from the side (it should punch two holes since you folded the tag in half).

Step 12 (optional): I like to add eyelets to finish off the look, but it’s not necessary if you don’t have any eyelets on hand.

Step 13: Place ribbon through holes on each side.

Final Step: Tie around napkin, and Voila! You’re done!

I love using all different fabric patterns, colors, and ribbons – it brings the whole thing to life! The great thing about this project is that you can apply it to practically anything: escort cards, program covers, favor tags – just let your imagination run wild! It’s also a great alternative to expensive printing methods that you can do at home.

Enjoy and happy crafting!!!

xo, Mimi

Download Mimi’s template here.

22 Feb

Guest Blogger: Mika 78, Bespoke Save the Date

categories DIY Wedding, Guest Blogger, Pretty Paper

Hi everyone! Mimi here from invitation design studio Mika78. I’m super excited to be with all you lovely 100 Layer Cake readers! I’ve got a few posts lined up for the week and can’t wait to share them all with you. First up – I thought it would be fun to take you through a Mika78 Bespoke design process from concept to reality. Most people only see a finished design, but there’s a whole fun and creative process that we take to get there. I’m going to share a recent project I worked on for Joy + Frank, two of the sweetest people on earth (yay for awesome clients!).

The Inspiration: Joy + Frank were planning a destination wedding in Jamaica, but they didn’t want a beach or island theme. Instead, they wanted a design that was classic, chic, and elegant. For the Save the Dates, they loved the idea of something unique and really personalized that would “wow” their guests, but nothing overly ornate or overdone. They loved the idea of streamlined design with a bit of the unexpected. Their colors were beautiful shades of amethyst and silver.

The Design Phase: I always start every project with a mood board and sketches, then translate my ideas to the computer. Here I’ll take you through the sketches and digital renderings of each concept.

Concept 1: Mini-Calendar Magnet: This concept was inspired by those cute mini-calendars (you know the kind that you tear off month to month)? The calendar would have a magnet backing, so guests could hang the Save the Date reminder on their fridge. I wanted to sew colored thread to bind the pages of the months, so guests could pull off each page as they got closer to the wedding date. The calendar would then be wrapped in translucent washi paper, and then tied with a thin purple string and custom-made monogram sticker. Everything would be mailed in a clear envelope with a custom mailing label.

Concept 2: Save the Date + Custom Wrapping Paper: This design was inspired by the couple’s cute engagement story. Frank proposed under the most magnificent arch at the Arches National Park in Utah (he even asked a complete stranger to take a photo of the proposal from the distance – how romantic!). When I saw this photo, I knew I had to incorporate it into one of the concepts, so I thought it would be fun to create a modern emblem inspired by the stunning photo. The Save the Date would be printed on super thick cardstock with purple edge painting. Then the card would be wrapped with a custom designed wrap printed on Kraft paper (ties into the natural setting of the Arc) and then finished off with a custom mailing label and sticker.

Concept 3: Vintage Map and Custom Mailer: Since Joy and Frank were planning a destination wedding in Jamaica, I thought it would be nice to create one concept with a travel feel. I found these great vintage maps while at a flea market and instantly knew I wanted to incorporate it somehow. I really wanted this to “wow” their guests, so I thought the map would have more impact at a larger, more realistic size. I came across this wonderfully thick parchment paper that had a great vintage feel that was perfect for the concept. I also created a custom printed tube to mail the map in.

The Final Design: The couple ended up going with the Vintage Map concept. Here are some photos:

I have some fun do-it-yourself projects lined up for later in the week. See you then!!

xo,
Mimi

18 Feb

DIY Bodega Flowers with Blossom & Branch

categories Bachelorette + Shower, DIY Wedding, Flowers + Greenery

Finding a unique and fun idea for a Wedding Shower or Bachelorette party is never easy. Sarah of Blossom and Branch thought of a sweet way to incorporate Bodega Flowers, something you always see on your way home from the office, into a class to cater to us city dwellers. Since Courtney has been guest blogging with us for the week we thought we’d invite her as well as other friends to a class and make it all cute for ya’ll.

From Sarah:

Bodega Flowers: 101″ was dreamed up with the idea that New York City women often feel they are too busy to bring the simple beauty of fresh flowers into their lives. And the savvy consumer is also conscious of the expense of floral arrangements. Meanwhile, We all pass those local groceries with mounds of inexpensive flowers on the way to bus or train. I thought, why not show people how to gather some bunches from the local bodega and create something charming in their home? This class teaches women how to shop for, clean/prepare and arrange flowers, using their own container.

For Courtney and our friends, I selected some basic bunches of roses, tulips and carnations from the local bodega and showed the ladies how to take them from generic to chic.

What’s a party without making it look all cute. Jillian gathered some local talents to help spruce up my apartment for the class. We rolled out craft paper, Love*Jenna used her talents to create personalized workstations, Jillian handmade aprons by using Ikea dish towels and Linda & Harriet donated their zig zag printed note pads for the occasion.

To spice up the party treats and spirits must be present. I enlisted Sasha Smith of Spin the Bottle NY to provide a wine education and tasting for the ladies. Leah my incredible partner in crime and second mom created scrumptious finger sandwiches. And, a Brooklyn party isn’t quite complete without the help of One Girl Cookies decadent sweets which paired nicely with what Sasha was pouring. All the ladies could take some sweets home with those cute craft bags by Nice Package.

I gave all the ladies a little instruction and look at em’ go…then Viola! Perfection.

Sarah offers this service for any group interested in learning simple floral design principles and techniques and she will come to you! To hire Sarah for your next soiree or put your name on the mailing list for her next public floral class, email her sarah@blossomandbranch.com.

She can come alone or bring all of her fabulous friends to make your event truly special.

Styling: Jillian Event Design
Calligraphy: Love*Jenna
Photos: Scott Clark
Cookies: One Girl Cookie
Wine: Spin the Bottle
Craft treat bags: Nice Package
Note Pads: Linda & Harriet

We’d also like to thank Courtney for guest blogging with us this week. It was a real pleasure hearing all her wedding ideas from grooms style to invitations and type accents. We wish you all the best with the rest of your planning and can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

27 Jan

DIY fabric flowers by Michonne

categories Details + Decor, DIY Wedding

Remember Michonne’s super cool vintage rockabilly hotrod wedding from last week? She generously offered to share a tutorial of her pretty fabric flowers she used to decorate her tables. And Jen Rau sent over a few more lovely photos of the finished products.

Michonne’s inspiration came from Emerson Made’s line of lovely fabric flower accessories. You’ve seen them around the blogs right? They are sooooo pretty.

Tools:

Craft needles
Fabric (100% cotton and tulle, cut into the shape of petals)
Scissors
Thread (She used a darker thread for the tutorial so you can easily see the stitches)

Now we’re going to let Michonne do the explaining since she’s the expert here:

“A few notes before you get started:

Take the small/bottom part of the petal and make a small overlapping fold. By adjusting just how deep the overlap is, this will adjust how dramatic of an angle the petals will have. When I start out, my initial petals are very perky and stand nearly straight up.

I like to thread my needle with both ends of the thread. This gives a sturdy stitch (two threads thick) AND it creates a loop at the end to thread through for anchoring instead of having to knot which creates bulk and frustration in tiny projects.

Sewing on the first petal. Don’t be afraid of stitching at this phase. The inner ring of petals needs to be relatively sturdy. The structure of the flower is dependent on these stitches, if they are loose, the flower will be floppy and look weird. Besides the stitches are easy to cover up later.

Sew on second petal making sure to overlap neighboring petals.

Sew on third petal, I add petals to the left of the previous petal (either direction is fine, this just works best for me) making sure that each petal overlaps the previous petal.

By the fifth petal, the first row of petals should be approaching a full circle depending on how large of a a flower is being made. I do not like to make the center too small because it gets hard to work around when adding the outer petals.

After the center row of petals is firmly attached, start adding petals to the outside. Place the newest petal on the backside of the flower where the the previous row’s petals overlap. I find that the spiral-wise additions keep the flower round.

It’s ok to add extra petals wherever they look needed. Sometimes the flower will look lop-sided because certain petals are closer together than others.

To add dimension and fullness quickly, use two different fabrics in the same petal. Place them on top of each other (displaced slightly – mother nature isn’t perfect) and then fold the bottom, eyeball for placement, and sew into place.

For the center of the flower (to cover up all that stitching) Take one or two fabric circles and fold them in half and then in half again (you’ll end up with basically a quarter of a circle). I like to use the same colored fabric + tulle.

Then sew the final fold together making sure to incorporate each fabric. The stitches will end up on the underside, so it does not have to be beautiful.

Then with another circle, just place it inside the center of the flower, covering up the stitches. I kind of twist the center. At this point I use a hot glue gun – for covering up my stitching.

And then after many late nights of folding and sewing and gluing, you end up with an entire army of beautiful fabric flowers. So worth it!

Thanks so much for sharing Michonne! And thanks Jen Rau for more of your beautiful photography!

Michonne also has a little blog about all the projects she did for her wedding that you can read over here.

20 Jan

Vintage rockabilly wedding : Michonne + Mike

categories DIY Wedding, Real Weddings, Wedding Wardrobe

Jennifer Rau sent over this adorable, vintagey rockabilly wedding in the Arizona desert that she recently shot. Many cute details to inspire y’all. And the bride’s dress is quite lovely. And fancy. We do love a fancy dress. And a casual one too, but in this case fancy dress + tattoos + converse on the groomsmen is pretty darn cute.

Michonne’s dress is Carolina Herrera… and one that she nearly didn’t try on because she KNEW it would be out of her price range. Except it ended up being the store model that was on sale and she got a killer deal. Sometimes things are meant to be.

As Michonne says, they wanted to have a super rad wedding, with a hotrod/vintage/rockabilly meets family reunion theme. Mike and his groomsmen brought the rockabilly and hotrod elements (most of them build their own hotrods in their free time) and she and her girls brought the vintage flair. With plenty of little DIY projects mixed in.

Michonne’s mom made her little pleated ribbon bracelet. She wanted something that would resemble the detail of her dress, but not detract from it. Mom stepped in and took over that project and also ended up making her veil. Good mom.

The bride is also a quilter and so obviously has an obsession with prints and patterns and lovely fabrics. Naturally, she sewed her own napkins for the reception, which became a perfect little gift for her guests. Some didn’t end up taking theirs so a select few got a perfect 4 piece set. Lovely how it all works out.

She printed the favor tags from Betsy White as a nice addition to her favors. Way to use internet resources Michonne!

Cupcakes made the night before and frosted the day of by Mom, aunt, and another family friend. Michonne made the beautiful little fabric flowers that decorated the tables.

And the cake was a surprise for Mike. They baked his grandma’s banana cake, with professional icing done by Michonne’s aunt last minute. Turns out she used to work in a pastry shop and had kept her handy talent hidden up until the wedding day!