Saturday, December 31, 2011

Wedding Dress Hanger

My last post for 2011! :D

I've seen in wedding photographer's pictures, a wedding dress hung on a hanger with personalized wire bent to spell words like "Bride" or "Mrs...(last name)". I looked up the prices on Etsy and found them to be rather pricey. $25ish per hanger. So I decided to try and make one myself! :D

I bought a set of dark wood hangers from Target. I bought the craft wire at a dollar store in Tokyo. (I've also seen them sold at Michael's in the floral section). I wrapped my jewelry pliers with rubber bands so that it doesn't make marks on the wires but it turned out to be easier to bend the wire with just my own hands.

The first picture is grabbed from Etsy. The second picture is the one I made myself. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out. :) Now I gotta find some flowers to add to the top of my hanger!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Wedding Card Box

Our wedding is three and a half months away and this DIY bride needs to get her butt in gear!

I finished our wedding card box with supplies from Michaels. The box is a paper mâché box that I found in the wood and paint section. I painted the bottom with white acrylic paint then coated it with Martha Stewart metallic paint. The lid is covered with thick scrapbook cardstock that was on clearance! The wooden letter "G", which is the initial of my soon-to-be last name, is a wood piece that doesn't require any painting. It had a small hole in the bottom so I bought a long wooden stick that fits into the letter really snug and can fit through the box (for sturdiness). Cutting a hole through one of the polka dots on the lid worked like a charm! The teal flower was also on clearance and it had a sticky adhesive on the back so it was perfect for this project. I wrapped a teal ribbon around the bottom of the lid to break up the seam between the lid and the bottom. I like how this project came out. :)

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Glittery Clothes Pins

Okay, my fiancé HATES what I did with these... He added "I'm serious" to the end of his complaint so I know he's really serious.

I bought clothes pins from the dollar store and I put Martha Stewart craft glue and then poured Martha Stewart crafts glitter in Turquoise on the pins before the glue dried. Apparently, I thought I contained the glitter in my glitter pan but the glitter has ended up EVERYWHERE, on my craft table, on the floor, and voila on my FACE! Still, I heart glitter.

I plan to use these to put up the reception table cards.

Since my wedding is beach themed, each table will be marked by beaches I have surfed at... At least the first 8 tables... Then if I need more tables which I think I will, the rest'll have to be beaches I WANT to surf at! :P

Hand Made, Hand Stamped Jewelry

These are my hand made, hand stamped jewelry for my childhood friend's Christmas presents. The C and T are her children's first initials. The picture in the pendant shown is just a model but she can replace it with a small photo of them. :)

I hope she likes these! :)

Instax Mini 7s Instant Film Camera

I used most of my Amazon rewards points for this new toy for scrapbooking but primarily for my wedding... The Fujifilm Instax Mini 7s Instant Film Camera and 5 packs of film. I did a bunch of research on instant cameras and reviews. I like that this one takes photos that come out "vintage looking". I also like that the size of the photos are credit card sized.

I plan to have this camera on our welcome table with props so my guests can take instant photos. The heart prop is a wood piece that I painted with Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Glitter Acrylic Craft Paint. I'll also have a black paged album with photo corners made to fit these instant photos and have my guests write a message to me and my fiancé in silver ink. :)

I took a picture of my dog with the camera. Cute, eh? :)

Senbazuru - 1,000

Ever since I found out my best friend was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer, which has spread to various parts of her body, I decided to start folding Senbazuru, 1,000 paper cranes.

According to Wikipedia, this is a short history on Senbazuru:

Thousand origami cranes (千羽鶴 Senbazuru) is a group of one thousand origami paper cranes (鶴 tsuru) held together by strings. An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy creatures (others include the dragon and the tortoise), and is said to live for a thousand years. In Japan, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a person's wish come true. (expansion needed) This makes them popular gifts for special friends and family.

I'm not quite at 1,000 cranes just yet. Guess how many are in the picture below?

This is going to be a big wish. I wish for her quick recovery and for her life to be somewhat back to normal again.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Addiction to Heartsy and Etsy

I recently interviewed a local artsy photographer for our wedding. That's when she told me about Heartsy --- it's like Groupon but for Etsy!

I haven't been on Etsy in a while but after finding out about Heartsy, it got me browsing Etsy again... particularly wedding stuff. Of course, since I have A.D.D. it lead me to browse jewelry making ideas. Bad. Very bad.

So my addiction for buying "stamping" supplies begins... I tried not to go overboard with the $pending for supplies so I did a lot of research to try and get the most quality for not a lot of money. I bought a disc cutter on Etsy and for other supplies like metal sheets, stamping alphabets, hole puncher, and silver plated trinkets, I bought them at Michael's using 40% and 50% off coupons. :)

It took a few tries and a few frustrating moments for me (with the help of my fiancé) to work the disc cutter... but I think I finally got the hang of it!

Voila! How's that for my first personalized metal stamped jewelry? I want to make more of these personalized jewelry for Christmas! How cute would it be to make charms for my friends and families with initials of their children? :)

The shag in the picture below is my adorable dog's shag. :)

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Baby Chloe Baptism Present

My fiancé's niece, Chloe, was baptized last month. As a "baptism present", I spent nearly 2 months worth of nights (while watching TV and knitting) to knit this blanket by Lion Brand. I used Pounds of Love yarn. Although it came out a lot bigger than I expected, it still came out totally soft and lovely!

Here's the pattern:
http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L0227.html?noImages=0

Blanket in my picture is folded in 4. :)

Tis the season... Already!

Where has the year gone? I don't really feel the Christmas spirit just yet but my recent holiday card swap with my Close to My Heart ladies had me think of this new idea. 3D ornaments on a card. It can be laid flat when placed in the envelope! :)

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Birthday Blog

I've been letting a lot of my creative juice flow now that I'm about to be a DIY bride in less than 5 months...!!! But WOW! I've been reeeally blown away by the amount of creativity on Pinterest! I'm officially an addict! I'm inspired by the many people who share their recipe for creativity through their blogs and photos.

My fiancé bought me an iPad2 for my birthday which was just a few days ago so I thought I'd give this crafty blogging thing a try (from the blogger app nonetheless)... So here goes...!!!

What better way to start a blog than to post a pic of my knits for a good cause? These knits will be donated to "Scarves for Japan" a charity organized to collect hand made knits for the people who are still without homes in Sendai, Japan. :(

1 shawl, 2 hats, 1 cowl, and 1 wrist warmer (wrist warmer knitted by my BFF Beli). :)