Smitten With~ DIY Headbands

Seriously head over heals for Project Wedding's headband tutorial! Awesome photo styling aside, the color and fabric combos are so delightful! Perfect gifts for bridesmaids, flower girls, Christmas, or ones self. I'm so crafting my ass off this weekend!

Custom Menu DIY

Happy Friday everyone! With Thanksgiving only six days away (I almost fell over this morning when I realized it) I got to thinking about custom menus and their many uses. The one I have here is based on my dinner this year.



You don't have to be a graphic designer to do this. Just be sure to use a good cardstock or heavy resume paper in ivory.

Frame: The Graphics Fairy. You will have to resize the image slightly to fit on standard 8 1/2 by 11 paper.
Menu Font: Kelly Ann Gothic
Script Font: Angelica from New Revolutions Designs
Headers: Copperplate Gothic Light (standard on all programs)

If you feel the menu is too large, turn the page to 'landscape' and make two menus side by side. Again, you'll have to shrink the frame image, but that's fairly simple. Also consider your color palette when doing the text. If you have any questions, send me an email and I'll try to help.

Whether for the holidays, dinner for two, or your wedding, custom menus add elegance and personal detail.

DIY Love: Button Tree

My love of buttons comes from visiting my grandmother when I was a little girl. She had jars and jars of colorful buttons, all shapes and sizes, from vintage to new. She was a wonderful seamstress and like most granddaughters, I regret not learning all I could from her. But I digress. I came across this darling do it yourself button tree from Makin Projiks and thought "what a great way to get those buttons out of the jar"! A little time consuming, but easy peasy and oh so pretty. I really like the combination of pastels as shown here. If you found enough buttons (yards sales are gold mines for them), these trees would make great wedding centerpieces, or decoration at the guest book and/or cake table.



For instructions, click here.

Sneak Peek: Crochet Neck Warmer

Here is one of the projects I worked on today: a cozy little neck warmer with scalloped edging. I am not a whiz by any means when it comes to the art of crochet and knitting, but this was super simple and took me less than an hour. I'm working on the pattern right now and hope to have it up soon and available to you for FREE! Since I did it off the top of my head without counting, I know have to go back an re-create it.


Very Anthropologie, no?

Free Monogram Download: Gray and Yellow

I have a sweet monogram collection for you guys tonight in this season's popular wedding color combination of yellow and gray. Use the two inch images for thank you cards, envelopes, stationary, napkins, escort cards, you name it. Click on the image to enlarge, save as a picture and cut and paste as necessary. If you need a letter after 'P', leave me a comment and I'll be happy to email it to you.

Butterfly Table Numbers

I love the use butterflies in the fall. Their wings are truly in the season's palette. Butterflies also represent new beginnings, the perfect symbol for a wedding date. Here's an easy way I Incorporated them into table numbers:



Other than your ink and card stock, this project is free. Here is what I used:

Free butterfly clip art from Wordplay. You can also find vintage botanical butterfly clip art at Antique Clip Art.

Darrian's Frames is a terrific dingbat collection. Since you can change the size and color of the twenty plus frames available, it's a must-download for anyone planning diy wedding projects.

Remember the collection of fonts I gave you to download 2 days ago? That's where I plucked this calligraphy number from. In case you need it again here's the link.

Play around with the size and color until you find something that really strikes your fancy. With just these three simple downloads, you have hundreds of possibilities. Happy diy-ing!

DIY Paper Flowers from Lillyella

Not only is this diy tissue paper flower project from Lillyella easy peasy and light on the purse strings, it's end product is so perdy and eco friendly! Can't you think of a million and one uses for these?



What you'll need for one 5" flower:
4 pieces of tissue paper, 10" x 5"
18" piece of thin wire, floral or any other type
Scissors


Stack the four sheets of tissue on top of each other. Make 3/8" accordion folds, creasing after each fold. I find it easiest to make one fold, flip it over, make the other, and repeat, so you are always folding up away from you and it's easy to see.


Fold the 18" piece of wire in half and slip over the center of the folded tissue. Twist the bottom closed. Using sharp scissors, trim the ends of the paper into rounded or pointy shapes. I chose rounded for this one.


Separate the four tissues layers, one at a time until the flower begins to take shape. Depending on what you will use them for, you can keep the bottom flat or you can puff them into a ball for hanging.



Be sure to add Lillyella to your daily reading list. Not only is the blog the bees knees, with diy projects and delectable recipes, they also have a sweet Etsy shop chock full of whimsical jewelry.

Vintage Postcard Save the Dates

I love vintage ephemera. There is something about the craftsmanship involved in old printmaking that makes me swoon. So naturally, I adore the idea of using old postcards for save the dates.

Ideally you want to use blank cards that are specific to the region you plan to marry. However, not all of us are lucky enough to fall under that umbrella, so for the rest, there are beautiful generic images that will work just fine. Here are examples of some of my faves:

Vintage inspired save the dates from Oh So Beautiful Paper.


Destination wedding postcard via Style Me Pretty.


Via Get Married.



Assorted Niagara Falls postcards via Vintage Glam.

If truly vintage isn't practical, how about printing your own? Flickr has a large community of members (like Suzie Que) who post images from vintage postcards (and other types of ephemera) which may be reprinted for personal use. So eco friendly (no envelopes needed!) and fun. Cold weather is just around the corner so easy peasy diy projects are a good thing to get lined up.

Real Wedding: May & Brian, by Caroline Tran

I've been a fan of Caroline Tran's work for quite a while now, so I'm happy to feature May and Brian's wedding. The bride and groom took on the charge of doing just about everything themselves (even setting up the reception tables and chairs the night before!) in beautiful shades of green. And of coarse Caroline's sharp eye for detail captured all of it beautifully!









I just love how the bride's green shoes pop! To see more photos of this lovely fete, go here. Check out more of Caroline's work on her delightful blog.

Freebies! Suzee Que's Vintage Ephemera

It's pretty close to finding a pot of gold; Suzee Que's treasury of vintage ephemera and images. Thousands, I mean thousands, of gorgeous freebies, from frames to ads, postcards to paper dolls; all vintage, all fabulous. And did I mention free?





Think of all the diy wedding projects you can do! Check out more of Suzee Que's images here. Remember, for personal use only! Enjoy!

DIY Wedding: Botanical Place Cards & Milk Bottle Table Numbers

Check out Planet Mithi's blog for these DIY projects from her recent wedding:





Don't you love the vintage milk bottles with the circus font numbers!

DIY Project~ {fabric flowers}

I've been looking for a good DIY project to share and struck gold with Laurie Cinotto's blog. Seems that everyone is into fabric flowers these days and Laurie demonstrates how to make them yourself:





Group together and add to a belt, hair clip, or arrange them as Laurie has in little vases. Lovely for wedding decor or bridesmaid gifts. The possibilities are endless! Look for vintage fabric or feed sack material on Etsy or your local flea market. Super cute and way easy!

Preview: Save the Date Printables

While my internet connection was down this morning, I worked on a few Save the Date templates. I'm putting together all of the download information, but thought I'd share a preview with you:



Who doesn't love a free printable? Check back tomorrow for more details.

Real Wedding: Zaq & Amber

I'm posting Zaq and Amber's wedding even though I am beyond lame compared to these two. Their killer style and personalities shine throughout these photos. The details are so original and, best of all, DIY! Thanks to Ashley from AE Photography for sharing this set with me.

To see more (and I guarantee you'll want to) photos from Zaq and Amber's wedding visit AE Photography's blog or check out Amber's wedding blog here, which is loaded with her diy projects and ideas. Girl, you are rad. Seriously.

Keep your eyes peeled for more AE Photography weddings and engagements on brides {bliss}.

Freebie: Printable Matchbook Notepads

I love this freebie from Creature Comforts: printable thank you matchbook notepad favor! Ez designed these for a guest post on Coco & Kelly's blog. The flourishes and font are so pretty in periwinkle blue. Download here or visit Creature Comforts and Coco & Kelly.

Save the Dates: Taking the Plunge!

How cool is this save the date?! It reminds me of a cross between a camp brochure and a vintage board game. The palette, typography, everything about it is delightful. And it spins!

{from diy bride}