Wedding Card Album Pin.013

Me and the hubster will have been married 6 years this July (which feels a little bit mad!). Soon after we got married I decided to make a wedding scrapbook of all our favourite photographs, including things like our order of service, nameplaces and table cards. So off I went to Hobbycraft and splashed out on craft paper, ribbon, decals etc.

5 1/2 years later I am sorry to say that we still don't have a wedding scrapbook, or a photo album! I told myself that it was because I was too busy and didn't have the time to just sit down and get it done. Weekends and holidays came and went and I realised it wasn't that I didn't have the time. I just didn't want to do it! It held no appeal for me at all!

Anyway, while forcing myself to start putting it together, I came across all our wedding cards, which are such a lovely reminder of our day. I realised I wasn't going to be able to put them all in the scrapbook and I didn't want to throw them away either.

Then I remembered something I'd seen on Pinterest a while ago - a wedding card album! Desperate to avoid working on my scrapbook I decided to give it a go.

This is the pin below. Click on it to go to the tutorial:

Here's my version:

A couple of tips if you want to try this:

• Use cardboard for the covers (stronger the better). I didn't have any so I used heavyweight painting paper but it is not as sturdy.
• You don't need to use a 'croc-a-dile' hole punch as described. Instead draw a dot where you want the hole to be, take the bottom cover/tray off of a normal sturdy hole punch. Turn hole punch over and line up the dot so it is in the middle of the hole. However make sure you don't hole punch another piece of your work by accident (like I did!).
• The 'brads' described are paper fasteners. I couldn't be bothered with this so used glue dots instead to fix on the ribbon. It worked fine, though you can see the glue dots through the ribbon, depends how fussy you are!
• Consider using hole re-inforcers (whsmiths or similar)

Verdict: A good tutorial and a nice way to keep all your wedding cards. Because my wedding cards were all different sizes it doesn't 'sit' as nicely as the original but I'm still happy enough with the way it turned out!

I suppose I better get on with that wedding album now...

Jazzed Up Fairy Lights! Pin.006

Hello and Merry Christmas! Forgive the shortness of this post but hungry husband and I are currently on holiday and have hardly any phone signal/internet!

Anyway onto this short post. Though I decided to do 2 pins this week.. I so far have only been successful in doing one! This is a great way of updating your fairy lights. So here goes:

'Jazzed Up Fairy Lights!'
Another super easy pin. When I clicked on the pin it said 'blog not found'. Boo.

You will need:
Fairy lights (I used 2 sets of battery powered lights from Wilko's and joined them together). You ideally want lights with a clear or white wire, a green or back wire doesn't look so good. Battery powered lights have the benefit of being able to be used anywhere.
Organza Ribbon or 'Tulle' fabric

And that's it!

I tried two different ways of using the lights, I'll put both here and you can decide for yourselves which you like best!

Method 1: Find a nice sized vase and wrap the ribbon around the outside of the vase. You'll find if the ribbon has been stored on a reel it will easily fit into the vase. Secure the ribbon with sellotape and put the lights in, making sure any switches are accessible near the top of the vase.

It will look something like this:

Method 2: Cut roughly small strips of Organza ribbon and tie round the lights at regular intervals. Continue tying ribbon all the way down the lights, the more ties the better. (This was the method I liked best).

Personally I prefer the second way but I think both look nice. 

I like it, it was simple, quick, cheap and effective. The lights I used weren't actually as blue as the picture, they were white lights. Warm white lights and/or cream ribbon may have worked better, but I couldn't find any! It's nothing to write home about but it has a nice effect...

Soon to come....  'Roly Poly Mince Pies!'

Christmas Card Holder! Pin.004

I was looking forward to doing this pin, as one of my favourite parts of Christmas is decorating the flat and making it Christmassy! We don't have a tree because we haven't got the space (and I dread to think what would happen to it if our kitty Pandora got her paws on it!)... So we decorate in other ways!

Mrs Dinner Therapy gave me my first Christmas card last week (yes she is eager!) but what to do with it? I know I'll make a Christmas card holder!

I pinned this about 6 weeks ago, thinking 'I bet that's easy to do'. When it came to doing the pin I clicked on the link and it took me to 'The Anderson Crew' which featured a picture of the card holder. Charming blog but shock horror! Where is the tutorial for this pin?! There was none!

So yes.. consider this post a tutorial for 'Make your own Christmas Card Holder', or rather.. 'How not to do it!' I made it up as I went along (as I do with most things!). I did it from scratch, but feel free to find a nice Christmas sign and use that instead!

You will need:
Wood/sturdy cardboard
Sandpaper (if using wood)
Patterned paper
Clear varnish/PVA glue
Pritt Stick or similar
LaserJet or InkJet Printer
Good quality ribbon (2-3m)
Superglue
Pegs

I decided to use another leftover piece of wood as I thought it would be more durable than cardboard. I sanded down the wood first so it was smooth:

And I bought some red spray paint and thought I'd try stenciling on the letters for 'Merry Christmas':

But it came out all blurry like this:

The paint bled into the wood.. I don't know if I should have primed it or something first? Needless to say it didn't look good :-( I sprayed it all over with the red paint, but it also didn't look good! Plus the red paint was reeeeally messy! It also looked a little too much like blood which freaked me out!

I tried stencilling the letters onto silver card, which I would then stick on the wood...

But as you can see this didn't work out either! So I tried painting on the previously painted red wood...

This didn't look good either... so I started again. I used a different piece of wood and I used a template from 'Today's Fabulous Finds' and used the method from one of my previous posts: Paint Stirrer Signs.

I printed on patterned paper, put it in the fridge for about 20 mins or so to dry. I then stuck it onto the wood, and varnished it. The printed ink blurred a little, probably because I didn't let it dry long enough. It looked much better than my previous attempt though!

UPDATE...

Okay so I left it overnight for the varnish to dry and today I added the ribbon...

My original plan was to use my hot glue gun but I found that the glue didn't attach to the ribbon very well, and would peel off if you put too much pressure on the ribbon. So I used superglue instead. I left the ribbon really long, so that I can cut as much off as I need to when it's hung up.

I'm planning on attaching a hook so that I can hang it on the wall, but I need to pop to B&Q to get some. So for now it is sitting on my bookcase. I'm hoping that it will still be there tomorrow morning after Pandora has had free reign of the lounge!

This was tricky... especially if you try do it the way it looks in the picture. Using spray paint and stencils is really time consuming and messy as you have to wait for each letter to dry before you move on. It worked much better printing the image and sticking it onto the wood.. OR even better.. BUY a Christmas sign and attach the ribbon!

It was okay, it didn't help that there was no tutorial, and I really didn't know what I was doing! I think I will attempt stencilling again when I've done a bit of research! I'm fairly happy with it though, and looking forward to hanging it up, and filling it with Christmas cards!

UPDATE... It took a while but here it is hanging proudly on the door, I love it!

Click on the image below to see Pin. 005 'Oh Sew Simple Gift Tags!'. Simple but cute gift tags, suitable for Christmas or Birthdays or whatever!