DIY Bridal Champagne Glasses

I know this is a home blog, but please bear with me for the next 2 months as my house has been overrun by DIY wedding projects! I promise I will be making lots of time for house projects as soon as our snow melts... I have a garage full of furniture to be redone and accessories to be spray painted once it's warmer.

Anyway...... back to the wedding. I decided to use my silhouette to make toasting flutes for the bridal party.

I just couldn't see spending a ton of money on engraved glasses that say "bridesmaid" when they'll probably forget to keep them anyway! So I bought these plain glasses from Target. 8 for the bridal party and 2 larger ones for me and future mr. hubby.

 I set it up on the silhouette using one of my fonts from here and one of the free frames that silhouette provides you with. It took about an entire 2.2 seconds to finish.... can I just say I love this machine?

 Here's what I came out with. I did not use the transfer paper because I'm not a great direction-follower and tend to skip steps. But it worked just fine!

 Here are the bride & groom glasses. Our colors are black and hot pink, so I think this will look great at the head table!

 Here are the groomsmen. I decided to do their initial instead of "groomsman" or "bridesmaid" because who really wants a glass that says bridesmaid? I mean really, when are you ever going to use that again?

 Here they are with the napkins. The rest of the tables are going to have hot pink napkins in their glasses, so I'm just using paper napkins for these. I don't think it makes much of a difference. These are the luncheon sized napkins for 2.50 at Walmart.

So one more thing checked off my wedding to do list. My goodness ladies, being a DIY'er is stressful when it comes to wedding planning!

Thanks for stopping... I'll be partying here this weekend:

a new camera. please give me your expert advice.

Did you have a good weekend? I couldn't have been more excited to get home from work on Friday to find my new camera toy in the mail! It was a long process to get this camera into my possession {and a long and boring story that I will not burden you with}... but it's here!

 Want to see it up close?

 

Any takers on a camera strap review/giveaway? This thing is an eyesore!!! If only I had the skills to make my own super cute camera straps like this one {swanky camera couture}, this one {melV designs}, or love this one *which totally happens to match my wedding!! It's so pretty I could use it as decoration* {snappy straps design}

I tested it out on lily the spoiled yorkie. Of course, she is a perfect model... because I had a treat in my hand. She only sits for treats. She doesn't know any other tricks.  

{i know, baby girl needs a haircut! I'm a terrible mama}

 This also came in the mail this weekend. I got my wedding band. It still needs to be saudered together, but I've been wearing it around all day trying to decide if I like it or not. It feels awfully big on my little 4.25 size fingers.

{i know... it's against the rules to wear your wedding band before the wedding. please forgive me}

 Oh, and while I was at it, I thought I'd show you my battle wounds from a nasty fight with a baby gate. That's what I get for rushing around in the morning. My inner thigh took quite the beating. {so did my tush! but i won't show you that!}

anyway, I will be back here... behind the camera. playing. learning.

If you have any tips or suggestions for me, they are more than welcome. I'd love to get out of auto and learn some fun stuff. I know there are some good e-books out there, but there are too many to choose from. Any that you've used & love?
 

Monogram M Decor

It seems as though I'm slowly becoming obsessed with M's and monograms. Maybe it's because for the one and only time in my life I'm about to change my last name and become an "M" instead of an "R". Exciting!!

Well, this Saturday Mr. M and I went on our weekly saturday morning starbucks date {because we can't sleep past 6:30.. we have to make mornings fun people!} and he actually went thrifting with me afterwards! CRAZY! I found this wooden "M" for 50 cents and grabbed it... because remember? I'm going to be Mrs. M!

Anyway, let's get right down to it!

First, I painted the "M" with white paint. It took about 2 1/2 coats to get good coverage.

Next, I took distressing ink and smeared it around the edges. I never know how to use this stuff!

Here's the result:

I wrapped a bit of it in jute. But then I took it off because it looked like a bandaid on my poor, beaten up M.

I moved the jute down and unwrapped a bit.. much better!

I thought about where I was going to put it and realized that I needed to make it stand up. So I cut two strips of cardboard and hot glued them to the back of the letter.

I folded it in a triangle like shown below:

Then I hot glued it down. They aren't perfectly even, but I squished them down and it now sits even.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand here it is!

And here it is in it's new home {the master bathroom... Now Mr. M will now he's in the right room :)}

Since we're in the bathroom, want to see the entire display? When I took this picture I realized the entire display was purchased at a garage sale or thrift store {including the shelves}!

The candle sticks were 25 cents each and an ugly brassy color. I spray painted them ORB.

{speaking of ORB, what's your favorite ORB spray paint?? I LOVE the stuff from Home Depot with the fancy sprayer, but I've now had three that got clogged after using them once... I've tried everything and can't get them unclogged. There goes $6.00/piece! I've started using Krylon but I don't think it looks as good!}

This clock was also brass and 2.00 at a garage sale. It had a big case over the front, but I took it off and sprayed it ORB. It even works!

This candle holder was also 50 cents and painted gold. I wrapped the candle in jute and put a bit of hot glue in the back to secure it {fyi- not too much or it just melts the candle and slips all over the place.. not fun!}

The shelves were 2.00 each and sealed in the original bags/boxes.

Well, if you didn't already know, then now you know....... i'm a cheapo. But if you've ever read my blog before then I'm positive you already knew that!

Hope you'll stop by again soon!

baby onesies for 1 month to 1 year

Ok, I'm back! With a posting of my OWN :-) I am super excited to show you because I am  in love with how these turned out!

I originally wanted to make onesies with each month on them for a coworkers baby shower.. but it sounded really time consuming. So I went to etsy to see if they had what I wanted. They did, but it was 75.00 for 12 onesies... umm.. I love babies... and they were super cute, but that is a bit much. Plus, I have "I -can-totally-do-that-myself syndrome" so of course I had to at least try.  You also could purchase stickers with these on, but they don't stay so it's pretty much a one time use only thing and I wanted mine to be durable so she can pass them on or keep them for baby #2. {hello run-on sentence}

Ok- getting to the point. I got 12 onesies in varying sizes so they will fit him all the way through.

I made the heat transfer on my silhouette as shown below.

I get all my cool fonts from here. {super easy to download and they have step by step instructions!}

Then, I flipped the words so it would come out correctly when ironed on. {i know you could figure this out, but i'm a visual person. I may go a little picture crazy at  times.}

The whole thing will look like this:

Then I laid it all out to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I went with blue & yellow because I always use blue & green when making baby boy stuff... I was trying to change it up, people! But I regret it. I think blue & green would have been cuter!

See all those little holes?? That was the time consuming part. Picking out all of those little pieces with a needle on 12 different logos... maybe it would have been worth the $75!

So here's where my tutorial deviates a bit from the silhouette instructions. See, I tried to iron it on like the directions said, but it did not work for me and I ruined the first one. It says to put a cloth in between your iron and the fabric and let it sit for 60 seconds. When I did this, it didn't peel off at all onto the material but it did melt the plastic part around the design. I don't blame silhouette.... I'm just a terrible direction follower. But this method worked for me x12 so I'm sticking with it!

First, I ironed the onesie. I set the iron there for about 10 seconds to get it nice and warm.

Then I placed the design where I wanted it, smoothing it down so it sticks to the onesie.

This is where I got risky. {i know..this is really as risky as i get. lame.} I put the iron right onto the plastic design and pressed down hard for about 2-3 seconds, moving it around so I covered the whole design. When you're ironing, make sure to leave a spot at the top that you don't go over because it will be really hot to the touch when you try to pull it up. My iron doesn't have a temp on it, but it was on the "cotton" setting, no steam!

You'll know it's adhered when it gets bubbly like shown in this picture {the right side shows it best}. Peel it up quickly while it's still hot. If it cools down, you can just run the iron over it again to warm it up.

After I was done with them all, I ran the iron over the top of them on a low setting for a while just to make sure they will stay! It's probably not necessary, but I want them to be durable.. after all, they are for a BOY.

And 12 onesies later, here they are!

I am truly in love with them! I want to keep them for myself and I'm not even pregnant yet! The quality looks great, too. They definitely do not look homemade.

And here they are all rolled up in their gift box ready for wearing.

I'm just in love!  {did i say that already??} I am thinking about making some of these to sell on etsy... what do you think? Would anyone buy them? And if so, would they rather buy the iron ons to make themselves? Or the whole set of onesies? They are time consuming, but they turn out so great! And will make a great shower gift! Wouldn't they be so cute in girly colors?

Anyway, If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me on the lengthiest post in the history of ji@H.

I will be linking up to these amazing parties this weekend:

  

Lolly Jane Boutique