Vintage Shabby Chic backyard wedding

Hello everyone! Well it has been quite a long time since I have posted anything on my blog. Life has been like a roller coaster for me but I am thrilled to say that I've "left the ride" and now cruising thru life smoothly, calmly and finally truly happy and at peace. I thought that I would share with you the latest crafty things that I've done and hope that you get inspired or at least give you some ideas for your own wedding or event. In my true form, I did all of the below on my own set shoestring budget because if you've been following me for very long you know that I love to challenge myself and see just what I can do for very little money. Now needless to say, all of the little things did add up but I'm proud to say that it wasn't nearly as much as it would have been had I not made these things myself. Yes, it is a lot of work but you can do these things yourself as well and don't have to be a master crafter to do so. Just arm yourself with a hot glue gun and paint brush and you're off.....! By the way, if you have friends close by that can help...ask them for help. Maybe you could have them come over and have a night of doing nothing but crafting and creating. My best friend lives many many miles away in a different state but yet she still managed to help me long distance. I will show you what she was able to do for me and mail to me as we go thru the pictures. I do hope you enjoy and get inspired.

I suppose that I will start with the centerpieces that I made. For starters, I bought round plastic silver coated platters from Dollar Tree along with their reindeer moss and regular moss to make my base. Then I bought the glass vases, a glass candle stick and 2 cracked glass votives along with their burlap and lace ribbon. I did what you've seen I'm sure many times of using the E6000 to glue the glass candle stick to one of the tall glass vases and then at the lip of that I used some lace trim that I found at Tuesday morning. At the bottom of my flower vases, I grabbed some of the white rock that you can find in Dollar tree in the floral section just to give the bottom of the flower vase a little added touch. I'm extremely grateful and blessed to have had my mother in law and dear close friend of the family help me with the floral arrangements. I've never been very good at arranging flowers but did learn a lot from the two of them as we were making these. Then for the two plain vases, I simply added the burlap and lace trim along with some pink string pearls. All of the candles were purchased thru Amazon where I found a much better deal than I could locally. So I highly suggest that you bargain shop online to find the best deal. All the little things do add up so anywhere that you can save a dollar or two my suggestion is that you do so. In the bottom of the two cracked glass votives, I just added some plain epsom salt that yes I found at Dollar Tree. This not only gives it a little something extra but also will help make it easier to remove the melted candle wax. The final touches to the centerpiece were little white and silver birds that I found at Dollar Tree as well along with a random tea cup from 4 sets of different china. I'm estimating but I'm positive that I had under $20 for each centerpiece and that includes the flowers. By the way, we utilized the things we had growing in our own yard anywhere we could. Such as the vinca and ivy. If you have those things in your yard or a friends yard who will allow you to cut and use, do so!

Since this was an outdoor wedding, we did rent a tent just in case it decided to blow up a storm. Plus even though our wedding was at sunset, we still needed to keep our guest out of the scorching sun before the ceremony started. So I should tell you now the things we did rent at our local party rental store. One being the tent of course and that was the largest expense. Then we rented the round tables, tablecloths, pink napkins and the utensils. Now our rental store also offered rentable mixed china but we were so very fortunate to have several sets of china and they just so happened to all have pink in them. So we mixed them all up making sure that each place setting did not have matching pieces. The gold chargers were found from where else? Yes, Dollar Tree and our champagne glasses were found in the clearance section of Tuesday Morning. Always check these places....Tuesday Morning and TJMaxx have some really good finds you just have to be consistent and check on a regular basis. Even enlist your friends and family to help you look for deals when they are out shopping.
So you've probably already noticed that I do not have the seating in place in these pictures. That is because instead of renting chairs which is something you might should consider if you have a large guest list, we used the same chairs for seating at our tables as we did for the ceremony. What we did was ask our siblings and children to move the chairs from the ceremony area to the tables for the elderly and the ladies attending. And no we didn't rent those chairs either, we instead used mixed matched dining chairs from inside our home and from whoever else would allow us to use theirs. What pulled all of those together and made them seem to blend and work was the fact that I had placed on each chair a white lace sash ribbon. I had found this and bought it on sale at Hobby Lobby in the wedding section. For each chair, I was able to get 3 sashes from one roll. Regular price for these are $12.99 but DO NOT pay that! If they aren't on sale the week you are looking wait a week and they will more than likely have them on sale for 50% off. That will break down to only paying a little over $2 per chair. Plus if you're crafty, you can easily reuse those for other projects. At least that is the way I looked at it and certainly have saved them to reuse. Below is a picture of the 6" lace ribbon.

So in the pictures above you will see my "aisle posts" and floral arrangements. You also get a little sneak peek at the mismatched chairs with the ribbon on them. Oh I did rent the pink sashes from the local party rental store here in my area. I only used those sashes on the chairs lining the "aisle". And then those chairs were all placed at the wedding party table. We went ahead and placed the MR and MRS signs on the backs of the chairs that our mothers sat in then those were the ones of course that we sat in for the reception. Yes it was totally planned that way and felt very symbolical. Now onto those aisle posts. We just happened to luck out at our local habit store. We found several things we could use for our decorations, one of which were these stairway posts. They were already white so that was a plus for us. Then we already had the little metal hangers that we just spray painted and added to each post where I then hung the little floral arrangements. Those were super simple but added so much to the overall look. Once again from Dollar Tree I purchased the small glass vases with the fluted tops and added some wire that we already had to give the ribbon that they hung from good support. Then I added some of that same burlap and lace trim from Dollar Tree along with some string flat back pearls that you can purchase at just about any hobby shop to the lip of the vase and added our flowers. As you can see, we utilized the vinca that was in our yard along with some fern leaves to fill in the vases.

So now I'll show you the entrance that we created to our backyard. I might add just in case you spot this in other pictures further on down this post, that we had some really strong winds blow in and our organza panels didn't stay exactly in place on the "entrance". So for the "bones" of the entrance, we found these mismatched doors at our local habitat and I painted them and then distressed them to give them that shabby look. My soon to be husband had made bases for them using plywood and 2x4's. Then also at our local habitat he had spotted the piece that we used across the top of the doors to connect them together. What that originally was is a wooden "apron" that had a florescent light behind which I believe originally probably hung over someones kitchen sink. He disassembled it and we only used the pretty front. So here is one of those spots that I was telling you my best friend jumped in to help from long distance. She printed out the wording on this side on a special printer paper that I could then simply decoupage on the front of the sign and I then free handed and painted the roses to bring some more pink into the entrance. Of course before doing all of that I painted the connecting piece white and used the same process to shabby it up. I found white organza window scarves online for $5 each and used those as draping as well as swag "roping" around the backyard. I unfortunately do not have a close of up that but will try to see if I can find a picture somewhere with that in the background and take a close up of the posts we used for those. So we also borrowed ferns from friends that were already well established in pots to sit around in different spots.

 Now for a little more close up shot. First off the pole in the middle of the tent was removed for the ceremony but was replaced during the reception. The above picture is the view from the entrance all the way down to the arbor where my soon to be husband was waiting for me. The wreaths I made myself. I believe that I paid less than $5 for a grapevine wreath and then simply used inexpensive white spray paint on them. Making sure not to give them full coverage for the shabby look I was going for. Then the silk flowers I found on clearance at Michaels. They actually were premade bouquets where I disassembled a couple of them and added more of the moss from Dollar Tree as well as some eucalyptus from Hobby Lobby (at 50% off). I paid less than $10 for each wreath. You can see in the distance more of the borrowed ferns and white hanging lattice lanterns that we found once again on clearance at TJMaxx. They were so beautiful when they were lit after sundown. The arbor was one of our larger purchases and you can certainly rent an arbor but we plan on using it in our garden so that was an expense that didn't go to waste.

 Here is a close up of the front of the entrance sign. Once all the guest had arrived and everyone was seated the draping curtains were closed so that I could make my way around without being seen by my awaiting soon to be husband and guests. My brother waited on the other side for me and he and a friend opened the curtains as I approached. I will show you what we used to hold the curtains back at the end of this post.

 So as we were looking around in our attic, we came across a wood twin size bed frame. Instantly I thought.......easel sign!!! BINGO! So I got to work giving it a coat of paint and then distressing it up. I bought a black mat board at Michaels and used a 50% off coupon for it. You can find these in the framing section of your local Michaels or probably from Hobby Lobby as well. I then hand painted what I wanted it to say and cut out roses from some scrapbook paper I had and decoupaged it in the corners of the sign. Then using some left over lace ribbon (the same that I used for the sashes on the chairs) and a bit of pink ribbon that I already had (which came from Dollar Tree) the sign was done.

 Now we HAD to add a touch of our humor to the whole thing. So my best friend had also printed off our funny little saying which is a story on its own mind you. But I added that to this wood sign that I already had after I painted it up pink, distressed it and added some more of those fussy cut roses to it.

 So this is another little sign that I hand painted and added more of the fussy cut roses too. That is a chalkboard sign that I found at Dollar Tree and I already had an easel to put it on. This sat on top of my grandmothers old singer sewing machine that acted at the sign in table for guests. You can see the guest book laying there as well that I made myself.

 This stack of books acted as decoration as well and was totally an inspiration from Pinterest. I used the same materials to decorate it as I've used throughout the entire wedding. The majority of those materials came from Dollar Tree.

We used a plate that my best friend sent me for my birthday this year to place our champagne glasses on and I will use it in our home somewhere. If you're looking to save money on your wedding...look around your home. See what you already have that will go with your color scheme and overall theme and utilize those things throughout your wedding. Or if your parents or friends have things that you can borrow then by all means use those items.

 So onto my favor table. This table was placed just inside the garden entrance. I used a antique typewriter that I've had for years and use during Christmas with a letter to Santa in. I thought that it fit well with the vintage feel. The "letter" in the typewriter, my best friend made for me and then I just placed one of my grandmothers crocheted doilies on it along with one of the clearance floral silk bouquets from Michaels.

For one of my actual wedding favors we used these little glass jars bought from Tuesday Morning on clearance and added honey to them. My best friend made our labels for us. Then I simply added a little pink ribbon along with a honey dipper that I found on Amazon for pennies on the dollar. 

 We used signs that we had bought one another or that were bought for us as gifts throughout the entire decor. They were not only meaningful to us but helped keep our overall cost down. Such as the sign you see pictured above. Also in the background is a basket filled with fans that I made for the guests in case they needed a little cooling off before sunset. I'll show you a close up of those below.

If you are having a wedding outdoors. I feel you should always be mindful of your guests. You want to do everything possible to make them as comfortable as you can. After all, they are sitting there waiting on your arrival. So with that said, think about the little flying and biting critters and make available to them something to combat that. In this little metal bucket I also had small OFF towelette packets that would keep those pesty little biting things away. Before the decorations were out we also sprayed our grass to kill the mosquitoes, fleas, ticks and all those unwanted critters. The sign I had seen on Pinterest and knew this was a must! 

Here is a picture of the fans I made. We used paint sticks for the handles and thought our families would get a kick out of that since we did so much painting this time last year remodeling our home. The poem is a special one for us and I just knew it would be the perfect thing to put on one side of the fans. On the other side is just some of the same scrapbook paper I had used on other signs for the wedding.

 This was our drink station set up to keep everyone hydrated and so they could help themselves. I was so pleased with how attractive this turned out. So the dispensing jars came from Walmart, the chalkboard crates are from Michaels (70% off), the little silver platters to catch spills are from Dollar Tree along with all of the glasses shown here, the florals are more of those clearance bouquets and one of the signs I made myself and the other one is one we had bought one another. The tablecloth was purchased at Walmart as well and the table was borrowed.

 This was one of two galvanized buckets purchased from Walmart that we used to chill our champagne.

 Just one of our meaningful signs we have given one another and incorporated it into our wedding.

 So for our bar top. I took another picture that I had found for inspiration off Pinterest for these decorations. Since I had already decided to use the honey for the favors I thought it would only be appropriate to use these for the bar top. Which comes from one of favorite country singers Blake Shelton. So using an empty wine bottle and an empty whiskey bottle I created these shabby chic bottles. And added some eucalyptus that I bought at Hobby Lobby (50% off) as well as a couple of mirrors that we already owned and more leftover lace ribbon.

And of course more signs that we already owned as well as another piece from one of the china collections. 

 I can't take any credit whatsoever for the floral arrangements on the arbor. I had a vision in my head as well as an inspiration picture and our good close family friend and my new mother in law made it a reality. As good as these pictures are they are no where close to showing just how gorgeous they truly were in person.

 We did however make the pedestals for either side of the arbor. Well we made one actually to match one that his mother already had and we sort of inherited it. I only added a fresh coat of paint to both of them and added the hand lettering to the fronts of them. They were perfect for our sand ceremony.

So this is what I called our memory table. It was dedicated to all those who couldn't be with us on our special day.
I guess that I will just end this post with some pictures that were taken after dark and then a couple of pictures of what it was looking like as we started transforming our back yard. In those pictures you will see more of the stairway posts that we used to drape the sashes for roping off the back yard. Instead of using the little hangers like we used for the "aisle" floral arrangements. I bought black candle holders from Dollar Tree spray painted them and we simply screwed them to the posts. Cant get much more inexpensive than that and they actually worked perfectly! So I hope you enjoy the rest of the pictures and get some ideas for yourself.

Here is a close up of the black candle holders from Dollar Tree that I painted and was turned side ways and screwed to the post. 

Thanks for stopping by.....................I'm off to work on mini albums for all these gorgeous pictures.....

Housewarming Shower

I'm so happy to say that my son has purchased his first home. So of course I had to throw him a housewarming shower! I needed to make sure that I kept it "manly" so I went with a "Moving" theme. The little Thank you gifts were the first thing that I made for the shower. I had seen these on Pinterest and just ran with it. Of course I found the little candles at Dollar Tree and made the little shipping tags myself. I covered a box that I had on hand with plain brown kraft paper and added a sign and added some washi tape for decoration to the sign on the box.

I apologize that these pictures want be in any certain order as to when I made these things and during the party...so please just bare with me as I explain what all that I did for the party.

 These are the invitations that I came up with. I used kraft cardstock for the invites as well as the envelopes. What I did forget to take a picture of was the envelopes in the way that I addressed them. They were so cute. I did a chalkboard font in my lettering each one. I believe that the stamps that I used for the invites are from inkadinkadoo and are a couple of different sets. Then I simply used some bakers twine from the dollar spot at Michael's for decoration.

 

I wanted to make sure that I made a guest book for my son so that he could remember who all came and on the inside cover where everyone was signing in I wrote a request that each person not only sign their name but to also give some homeowners advice to him. For example, "be sure to change your air filter the first of each month and check the batteries in your smoke detectors". To make the guest book I simply altered a $1 composition book from Dollar Tree and added kraft paper for the front and back covers. Then using my die cutting machine to cut out the lettering. I then added some little squares to make "boxes" and I put dimensional foam on the back for dimension along with some bakers twine. I also added some washi tape and then simply added a pen attached with more bakers twine to keep the pen with the book.

 This is how I did the display for the food. Going along with the moving theme I added some kraft paper shred as a base. Then I added some paint brushes in between each platter. I also used some of the dollar spot chalkboard signs from Michael's and labeled the food. In the far back of the food platters you can see where I have the peanuts stored. Those little containers I did make but forgot to take a close up picture of them. I bought Dollar Tree glass candle sticks along with 3 glass lidded jars from Dollar Tree as well and glued them on top using E-6000 glue then spray painted the lids black and found some little clear plastic tongs at Dollar Tree as well in the party section. Oh and I almost forgot to tell you that I had found some chalkboard labels in the dollar spot as well at Michael's and added those to the fronts of each elevated jar.

 This is the burlap sign that I made for his front entry welcoming everyone into his party.

 I had a couple of these tables set up for him. Yet I forgot to take a picture of the one for his gifts. I made another burlap sign that hung on it. The one in the picture above is how I had set up the welcoming table and placed the thank you gifts for everyone to grab on their way in or out the door.

 These are the little thank you cards that I made for him to send out to everyone who came or brought gifts. (sorry about the picture turned wrong, I couldn't get it turned around the correct way) I followed thru with the kraft paper "moving" theme on these as well.

 This is how I decorated his fireplace in his eat in kitchen. These were so simple to make using kraft paper and I really love the way that they turned out. By the way, the candle holder that you see in the fireplace is something that I added for him as well for a little decoration. I found the candle holder at a thrift store for $2 and spray painted it. Then the candles came from Dollar Tree.

Last picture for you....I had almost forgotten to show that I did make another burlap banner to hang for the food.
 I'm so happy for my son in the purchase of his new home. It's such a pretty house and I hope that he has many years of happiness in it.
 Thank you all for stopping by and hopefully I'll be able to post and share more with you real soon! Have a wonderful blessed day everyone!

Happy Fall Everyone!

 Happy Fall everyone!! I'm so sorry that I have been so neglectful in posting on my blog. I've had lots of life changes and health issues but seem to be getting things back on track and in order. It isn't that I haven't been crafting, I just haven't had the time to share with you and on top of that I was having serious computer issues. I am hoping to have those issues resolved now and can share with you past projects that I did take pictures of along the way. So back to what I'm sharing with you now.....my fall decorations for outside my apartment door.

 Starting with my wreath. I already had the grapevine wreath and like to fix it so that I can change it out whenever I get tired of it. The florals were purchased at Dollar Tree. By the way, if you haven't looked at their fall stuff lately you should go check them out. Its such an inexpensive way to create beautiful things. I already had the burlap ribbon as well. I couldn't find my wreath hanger so instead I simply took a regular wire hanger, bent it and then covered it with a burlap "sock" that I quickly sewed up. Waaa Laa! By the way, I have straightened my wreath back up. I didn't notice that it was hanging crooked on my door til after I took the picture.

Next is my stacked pumpkins. I waited until Michael's was having a really good deal on their fall stuff. Which by the way is still going on if you would like to run on over and snag some really good deals. They were 60% off plus I had gotten another coupon for an additional 20% off....can't beat that right? I did buy two strands of their fall garland as well to go along with some of the florals that I picked up at Dollar Tree. I used a wooden dowel to stack my pumpkins on and grabbed a ceramic planter from Lowes (on clearance) to put them in. Also, you can't see them but I bought some of the floral foam from Dollar Tree to put in the bottom of the planter to stabilize the pumpkins. I'm thinking that once fall is over and when we head into winter that I can convert this stack into a snowman! Which is why I selected the white pumpkins. Plus I really like the look of the white.
Oh and by the way, the door mat that you see.....I found that on clearance in the "as is" section for $4 at Tuesday Morning. The reason that it was "as is" is because one little corner had a slit in it where they opened the box it was in and sliced thru it. You can't even tell that it's damaged and for $4......Jackpot! The entire ensemble is done on a shoestring budget and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I've found so many really good deals in the clearance section of Tuesday Morning and shopping at Dollar Tree and ONLY buying on either clearance or sales at Michael's. I had seen some similar stacked pumpkin displays in various stores and they wanted at least $100 for them. Well I can assure you that I wouldn't nor couldn't pay that amount. So needless to say, I'm extremely pleased with not only the outcome or how it all looks together but the budget friendly amount that I spent on it.
 I hope that everyone is having a wonderful fall so far and that you find some inspiration here so that you can make your world a little brighter and chipper for the season. Please pray for those who are flooded from Hurricane Matthew. Thank you all for stopping by and I look forward to sharing more with you very soon! Maybe even today!

Handmade journal with fold over closure tutorial

 Hi everyone! I made this journal on a whim and sort of forgot that I was going to do a full tutorial with it but I believe that I took enough pictures that you will be able to follow along rather easy. What I don't have pictures of, I will do my very best to explain in detail what to do. But this is a super simple little journal if you would like to make one for yourself. Also if you have ever covered chipboard or have been following me for a while and saw in my previous picture tutorials then you will have no problem whatsoever to make one. As you can see, I left the front cover plain and that was intentional. It's hard to write in something if you can't lay it flat.

 Your supplies are as follows (1) piece of regular weight chipboard cut at 5 3/8" x 8 1/2" this will be your front cover. (1) piece of regular weight chipboard cut at 8 1/2" x 3/4" this is your spine. (1) piece of light weight chipboard, something similar to a cereal box and by all means feel free to recycle one, 8 1/2" x 8 1/2" this is your back cover that will wrap around and make your front closure.

 I did some close ups for easy reference.

 PLEASE NOTE: I didn't get a picture of this but it's important that you do this at this stage. After you have cut your back cover. Put your chipboard in your trimmer and with a VERY worn out OLD blade start scoring the chipboard so that it doesn't cut all the way thru but more or less just scores it enough so that it will eventually give you a nice bend. Starting at 5 3/8" (score) every 1/8" until you reach the 6 1/8" mark. Remember be sure to lightly score making sure not to go all the way thru. You may even be able to do this using your scoreboard if you press hard enough. But I've done this method before on other projects and know that they work and hold up especially after you put your decorative card stock to cover your journal.

 In this journal I made 7 signatures. However, it may work better with only 6 or maybe I just hand sewed my signatures in to tight. I'm ok with my pages not being perfect but if I make another one I think that I'll only put in 6. Each signature is 7 pieces of plain computer paper folded in half. Once they are all folded and put together in signatures even up the edges so that they will be even in your trimmer.

 This is a step that I wish that I had skipped for this particular project because I actually wanted my spine to look worn and rugged looking. So if you are looking for the shabby look skip this step. If not, continue on reading. I used a piece of 2" x 10" tyvek (or you can recycle a postal envelope) to cover your spine.

 I wish that I had double checked these pictures at this point but what I was trying to show was how I had scored the back cover for you to see what it would look like and unfortunately I hadn't zoomed in enough. But you can see in the above picture and below picture how that section has started to curve naturally.

 The next step is the fun part......finding some pretty card stock and covering it. The paper sizes that you will need are as follows. (1) 6 3/8" x 9 1/2" front cover. (1) using coordinating solid card stock for back cover first 9 1/2" x 9 1/2". (1) using the pretty card stock for back cover, 8 1/4" x 8 1/4" this will go on top of the solid card stock in the back. (1) 3" x 9 1/2" solid card stock to cover the spine area once the other two covers have been completed.

 For the inside "lining", I used a piece of solid card stock and it is as follows. (1) 11" x 8 1/4". Note this will NOT make it all the over the "scored bend" it will stop just short of that area because you will want to use a marker and color that in with something that will match the papers you have decided to use. So go ahead and do that at this point. Then for the front inside flap, using the pretty card stock 2 1/8" x 8 1/4". Please see the pictures below for reference and I will tell you the paper sizes for the pockets under those pictures below.

 I used embroidery floss to hand sew my pages in and made 2 holes and added eyelets in my spine. Just line your pages up and make it as even as possible.

 The above picture is showing the front of the front cover and the inside of the front closure. I used a white hairband and a pearl brad as my closure hardware.

 The above picture is showing the back pocket and the inside of the front flap. The paper you will need for the pocket is 2 1/8" x 8 1/4". Then I used my round punch only inserting it half way to make the little pull area.

 The above picture is showing the front inside pocket and the first page of the first signature. The paper sizes for this pocket is made up from two different pieces of paper that I layered on top of one another. The sizes for this are (1) 2 1/8" x 8 1/4" and (1) 1" x 8 1/4". You will also need to punch a circle out of your solid card stock to cover your brad backing from the front cover if that is the method you chose. You can see in this picture where I have glued down my circle to cover the brad back. This will help keeping things from getting snagged it.

 On every page of the journal I alternated stamping using 3 stamps but feel free to do whatever you would like to do. Or not do anything at all. I did snap a few shots of two of the stamps that I used. I had found these at Micheal's in the dollar bin.

I do hope that I described this in detail enough for you and hope that you have fun making one. If you stumble across something that I didn't describe enough for you or if you have questions please feel free to leave me a comment and ask away. I will do everything that I can to help you.
Have fun everyone and have a Happy Scrappy Day!