Reception Entryway

I wanted a few things for the entryway at our reception. I had my bridals done about 2 weeks before the wedding and had one printed on canvas and shipped to us super fast. So I definitely wanted to put that up.

I also framed 3 pictures, one of my parents' wedding, his parents' and us! Then we included some books which we put on the tables as well. We had a lot of lace left over from the bridesmaid sashes so that was used to cover the tablecloths. Ribbon was used as a splash of brighter color.

We also had my bride price which definitely deserves a post of its own probably from my mom. And of course we had a guest book!

Tulle, Tulle, Tulle!

So I really like tulle. The skirt of my wedding dress was a whole lot of tulle. And we bought 400 yards of it...for decorating. Ok so decorating...a lot of times in the Latter-day Saint church wedding receptions are held in the church building's cultural hall and our wedding was no exception. It's big with tables and plenty of chairs. What more could you ask for? Except, well in the church building closest to us, it's not the prettiest thing in the world. I wanted to transform our cultural hall and make it a romantic and elegant setting. With heavy duty wire, Christmas light strands, tulle and some nails, we achieved exactly what I wanted.

We bought a spool of wire, a dozen light strands, 400 yards of tulle (online is far cheaper than going to Michael's or JoAnn or anywhere really) and had some nails handy. We, and by we I mean my brothers in law, strung the wire from the basketball backboard to the other one then on the sides of the wall. Then, starting from one side, we strung the tulle from wire to wire, draping it slightly. We secured some of the sections with nails if it was necessary.

Then, we hung tulle down the wall and tied it in the middle with a decorative bow with wired ribbon. Between the sections of tulle, we strung the light strands. We didn't drape those down the wall though.

We also had a couple strands of swagged Christmas lights from Brooke's wedding that we hung on one wall with Command Strips and hung tulle down the wall from an additional wire. We didn't turn on the cultural hall lights. The Christmas lights offered enough light for a romantic setting. It was completely transformed into the perfect wedding reception hall and it was beautiful!

$2 Ribbon Christmas Card Holder

I was inspired by Pinterest, yet again. I found this pin and knew what I wanted to make this week.

Materials:
Ribbon (From Dollar Tree)
Clothes pins (Mine are from Dollar Tree)
Paint

Tools:
Glue gun
Paint brush

First, paint your clothes pins. I used regular sized ones, but mini would be cute too.

Don’t forget to get all the crevices, you don’t want to see any wood tone.

Measure whereabouts you want each pin and then hot glue them in place. I used a card as a guide.

The finished product hangs over a door nicely.. This was my third attempt at taking a picture of it. It’s in my front entry way and there isn’t a lot of space, so I opened the door to take a picture. It was freezing and 10pm, so I’m happy I got a good one. Thanks Light Scoop. (I did not get paid to say that, my husband got me one for my birthday and I like it)

How do you display your Christmas cards?

Curly Ribbon and Blue Pigs

Last week I posted about the applique part of a quilt I was making. At that time, I hadn't decided how to do the tails. I finally decided it would be fun to use curly grosgrain ribbon. It is super easy to make curly ribbon. In addition to pig tails, it would be very cute in children's hairbows, in fairy wands with netting and other sparkles, and on gifts.

To make it, wrap grosgain ribbon around a dowel. The tighter your wrap it, the tighter your curls will be. I am using about a 3/8" dowell  here, but you can use smaller diameters, too. I secured each end with duct tape. Then I wet it and popped it in a warm oven -- about 250 degrees.. (I suppose you could also use a hair dryer.)  When it is dry, remove from the oven and let it cool off. Remove it from the dowel and use it in your project.

Here's the finished quilt I made. I sewed down the curls so that it could be washed.

Mrs. Pigg loved it!

Fourth of July Candles

In keeping with our patriotic theme, these embellished candles could serve as a great 4th of July centerpiece. They would look nice with Jaime's pinwheel garland. You could even print out Jordan's graphic and apply it around a  blue candle using the same method as used to apply the stars.

To complete the candles, you will need:

1 tall white candle
1 medium red candle
18" of a blue plaid (or other blue and white design) ribbon, and 18" of 1/8" blue satin ribbon
2 star charms
blue tissue paper
hair dryer or heat gun (follow the directions for your gun and don't get burned!)

For the red candle:

It's pretty obvious-- just tie the ribbons around the middle of the candle. Tie the charms on the thin ribbon. Done!

For the white candle:
Cut  stars of various sizes out of tissue paper (I printed some stars from my computer for a pattern.)
If you have a star punch, use it!

To apply the stars, you can either lay the candle on its side and rotate it or stand it upright. Either way, be sure to put something under it to collect any drips. Start heating up one small area with either the blow dryer or the heat gun. The blow dryer could take a couple minutes for the wax to start melting.

Once the wax begins to melt a little, the surface of the candle should get  shiny. While it is shiny, apply a star and gently smooth it onto the surface. Continue heating the star until it adheres. A layer of wax will form over the stars. Continue applying stars on the rest of the candle. Sometimes the heat will blow off a star that you have applied. No worries, just stick it back on!

It's that easy!

Happy 4th of July!

PS-When burning the candles, make sure the tissue paper doesn't get near the flame.

100 Followers, 100 inches of ribbon, and a GIVEAWAY

We're so excited: a few weeks ago we hit 100 followers! Thank you all!

To celebrate, we're featuring some 100-themed posts, as well as an awesome guest post in Brooke's slot while she's on her "maternity leave"--and a very fun new feature coming up Saturday!

My project was inspired by a square table runner I saw at Roberts, a favorite craft store. Their runner was made with two colors of 4" wide sheer ribbon with 4" spaces between each row of ribbon. I made it on a smaller scale to use only 100" of ribbon, so it's a side table runner or a candle mat.

After agonizing over the math, I realized that (as usual) I was over thinking it. For this project, you need 10 10-inch pieces of ribbon in a couple colors (I used two colors, but you could use one or more; also, it helps if your ribbon is slightly over 10" long):

I did five in each of two colors. The red is sheer ribbon--and let me warn you, sheer ribbon makes this much more difficult! It shifts very easily and can skew your project. That's okay; it's wayward!

Arrange the ribbon strips with all the strips of one color running one direction, and the strips of the other color running perpendicular. You can weave the strips if you like that look:

Or you can simply layer the colors:

Leave the ends overhanging a little. It'll make it easier to sew and trim later. Be sure to pin each square in place because they can shift around a lot. I eyeballed the positioning of the ribbons, but if you want to be more exact, you can use a ruler. 

Now sew it down. I sewed around the outside square first, then along the edge of each strip of the red ribbon. I used red top and bobbin threads, but you could also match the bobbin thread to the bottom ribbon for a fully-reversible runner.

If you love the look of sheer, think about using some water-soluble glue to hold each square in place. Let it dry completely and sew over top of it, then wash out the glue.

And as part of our 100 follower celebration, I'm giving this runner away!

All you have to do to enter:

• One entry for becoming a follower of our blog, and commenting on this blog post to tell me about it.
• One entry for following us on Twitter, and commenting on this blog post to tell me about it.
• One entry for tweeting this post, and commenting on this blog post to tell me about it (with a link directly to your Tweet).
• One entry for Liking us on Facebook, and commenting on this blog post to tell me about it.
• One entry for blogging about our new blog, and commenting on this blog post to tell me about it (with a link to your post!).
• One entry for telling us your thoughts on our new blog, or asking me a question in a comment on this blog post.

Just so we're clear: each of these should be in its own comment! So if you like us on FB, comment, Follow us on Twitter, you should leave 3 separate comments.

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED. THE WINNER WAS ANNOUNCED HERE.

All comments must be in by midnight Sunday night (if it's still Sunday somewhere in the world, we'll take it), and the winner will be announced one week from today.