So here we are, the following Items I have made completely from scratch, at little to no cost.....
1. Vintage style vase or candle holder
I am sorry to say that I am a complete coffee addict so this one was a tad selfish, as I got to drink lots of coffee to complete the task! Take an empty coffee jar, or another similar jar (to be fair it doesn't have to be coffee) clean it and remove all the labels.
Raid your craft supplies and find.....
- A length of lace
- length of ribbon
- Super Glue
Cover the outside of the jar with glue, enough to make all sides tacky, and then roll the length of lace round the jar. Leave to dry for around 30 mins, and check it is all secure, touching up if any segments that are loose. Once dry, tie the ribbon round the top of the jar to hid the lid rings.
And there you have it, with a candle inside the light glancing through the lace looks beautiful and romantic, it also can act as a vase if you prefer. Or if you are doing it in an office environment (as I am) a very fancy pen pot!
2. Unique table numbers
This one was a lot of fun, the first thing you need to do is find a girlfriend and split a bottle of fancy wine, the kind that comes from a really nice shaped bottle! This is the hard part, you must finish the whole bottle.....
Once you have an empty bottle you may want to wait until the next day to start the real crafty aspect, depending on how wobbly you feel after drinking the bottle. I did not wait and a happy 15 minutes was spent making an absolute mess, but the end result was pretty good so I wont complain!
Raid your craft supplies and find.....
- Black board paint
- wide paint brush
- chalk
To start with make sure the outside of the bottle is clean and the labels removed, then paint the black board paint onto the bottle, covering it from top to bottom. Wait 30 minutes and then pop another coat on for good measure and leave it somewhere warm to dry over night. Once dry you can literally draw whatever you want onto the surface in chalk, my thought was to use it as table numbers. You could even leave a small pot of chalk on each table and ask guests to write messages or doodles as a keep sake. My only warning with this would be you may get addicted to black board paint, my partner is not impressed by the amount of items round the house and garden that have now become black boards!
3. Quirky vintage style ring holder
This may be my fave craft project although it was quite fiddly and time consuming. I would advice practicing this on a book you don't care about first, and then do the real thing with a book that has a little meaning. The first time is always the hardest and this project needs a little practice.
Raid your craft supplies and find.....
- Old antique style book
- Craft sharp scalpel (be careful please)
- Gold Pen
- Pencil
- A piece of card
- Glue
Once you have all your items, take the piece of card and draw a stencil of your choice, I am doing this for one of my brides next month, so I chose her wedding logo which is two love birds. My one piece of advice would be keep the shapes simple. Once you have your stencil open your book, and go about 10 pages in, pencil round your stencils onto the 11th page in a design of your choosing. This next bit is the hard part, and as I have said please be careful at this stage, take the scalpel and cut your shapes deep into the book.
Once you have reached about half way through the book, stop, and dig in a central line in the remaining depth of the book to create a ridge for the rings to sit in. I added a little hard shape, with a shallow depth and filled it in with gold pen for a little glam. Once all the shapes are finished glue the first 10 pages together, and leave to dry.
And there you have a lovely ring box to present to the bride and groom at that crucial moment. You can also, afterwards, glue into the book your order of service, any readings or pictures as a lovely memory book of the day.
4. Garland
So if you have made the ring box you may find you are left with a lot of shapes cut out from a book, and nothing to do with them. Well I am not a big fan of waste, so I decided to put them to good use. This is a quick and simple way to create a pretty garland.
Raid your craft supplies and find.....
- A length of lace
- A reel of cotton
- A whole punch
- Scissors
Take each shape and punch a whole into a central point, thread a length of cotton through the hole and tie it off cutting away the surplice. Once you have all your shapes on threads, lay out your length of lace, the wider the better for this use. Tie each shape in intervals along the lace in varying lengths, and cut away the surplice.
Now you have a garland, it looks lovely hanging in greenery, which is what I will be using it for at one of my weddings next month. But you can use it as your wish, and that, as they say, is that.
5. Fun chair design
If you are an avid reader of our social forums such as twitter, facebook and pinterest, you will know that I have a slight obsession with wedding chair designs. I recently had my whole team up until sillyaclock in the morning, hand sewing a sash design I dreamed up for a wedding we had earlier this year. One of my organizers asked why I have to make everything so complicated, which is what sparked my thought process for this particular design. I wanted to get an effect that was full of impact, but didn't take a year to make, or and arm and a leg to buy! So I came up with this,
Raid your craft supplies and find.....
- Long scraps of material
This is so simple, but will only work in vintage style wedding with no particular color scheme, more a theme or style. Take a chair with a back made up of a ladder like shape, my fave to use is a Chiavari chair, but it can be any type even a simple kitchen chair. Take each length of material, and thread it through the back of the chair. With each new length of material, thread a slightly different way, to expose the wood at differing intervals. I made mine symmetrical because I cant have anything too haphazard (its a sickness!), however don't let me stop you from making it as mismatched as you like. You are left with a lovely effect, different fabrics will hang slightly differently, and the look would be full of impact with lots of chairs.
Well that is my inspiration for craft projects at its end, I have actually had a lot of fun putting this all together, and its quite satisfying seeing something come from a little effort! I'm not nearly as good as our prop maker, but I surprised myself with my crafty skills. I hope that reading this may inspire you to make something for your own big day, and surprise yourself, on the other other hand, you know where I am if you need help. As that is what we at Theme-Works Weddings do!
