Be my Groomsman?

So technically, this one isn't my craft, it's my fiance's, but I kinda helped, so I'm posting it :P

First of all - did you know that anywhere cigars are sold, they sell cigar boxes for like $1-2?! How has it taken me this long to figure out? Cigar boxes are SO cool!

My fiance came up with this idea to give to his groomsmen to ask them to stand up in our wedding. It was very simple...we just bought cigar boxes, airplane liquor bottles, cigars, cigar cutters, and some filler to go in the boxes.

Everything pictured cost less than $80! 

Once we bought all the stuff, it literally took 10 minutes to throw it all together. I printed out "Groomsmen?" in Old English font to tape to the top of the boxes.

Happy Asking!

Be my Bridesmaid?

Alright, so here's some news - I'm getting married!! So, expect a slew of wedding related crafts within the next year, starting with this one. First step - ask your bridesmaids to be in your wedding. While I don't think that social convention dictates that you give a gift to ask a bridesmaid to stand up in your wedding, I thought this was a great way to take on a new fun project.

As you may have seen in one of my previous posts, I stained a few wine crates to give as gifts. Well, these are the gifts I was referring to. I will have 2 bridesmaids plus a maid of honor. While I realize gifting wine is to bridesmaids is a little trendy right now, I feel my gift has a little more meaning than most - we are getting married at a winery! So, I am gifting wine from the actual winery, which I think it kinda cool.

Materials used: burgundy burlap, hemp cord, dark green excelsior, and decorative gift fill (that is unfortunately purchased at Hobby Lobby since I had a gift card, but I certainly don't recommend shopping there if you support women's rights)

I usually don't go into projects knowing exactly how I am going to put them together, I just collected these items because they all went with the rustic/wine theme I was going for.

Items that would go in the wine crates were tailored to each girl receiving one. Murrieta's Well wine, black stallion cabernet sauvignon chocolate sauce (can unfortunately only be purchased at the winery in Napa!), leaf wine charms, heart wine stopper, vacu vin wine preserver, uncorked champage candle.

The completed wine crates. Links for the specific sizes can be found in my previous blog post. The larger crate is for my MOH, and the 2 smaller ones are for my bridesmaids.

In order to prevent the filler material from falling through the slats at the bottom of each crate, I put a layer of the burgundy burlap down on the bottom of the crates. This could also be accomplished with just a piece of paper or card stock.

I decided to wrap each of the gift items in burlap and tie them with the hemp string. This drew more attention to the wine, which was the feature of the gift. I think all the crates came out really well. I hope the girls like them!

In MOH's crate: The Whip and The Spur wine (white & red), heart bottle stopper, cab sauv chocolate sauce, uncorked candle.

In bridesmaid's crate: The Whip wine (white), vacu vin wine preserver.

In bridesmaid's crate: The Whip wine (white), leaf wine charms.

Happy Asking!

Etched Pyrex

Keeping with the wedding gift theme, this post is all about how to etch a glass 9x12 Pyrex casserole dish. 

What I used: a 9x12 glass pyrex casserole dish, clear contact paper, Armour-Etch cream, an Xacto knife, a foam paint brush, a print out of the words you are trying to etch, and some newspaper to lay down underneath you. 

Unfortunately I don't have more step by step pictures, but I will do my best to explain.

After laying down newspapers under me, I set the pyrex upside down. The etching is done on the bottom of the pyrex, not on the inside. I printed out the last name "McAdam" in the largest size font that would fit on a 8.5x11" sheet of paper. I cut a box around the last name and figured out where on the pyrex would be the best place to etch. I didn't choose the middle since Pyrex put their name smack dab in the middle of the dish. Then, I took the clear contact paper and used it to secure the name cut out to the pyrex. Make sure there are no air bubbles when you stick the contact paper to the pyrex, it could mess with the shape of the letters.

Next comes the hardest part. Take an Xacto knife and cut out each of the letters. You have the paper cut out as the stencil, but the important part is to cut through the contact paper, since this will be what controls where the etching cream goes, and therefore where the etch appears. I think the cut out part took about 30-45 minutes. Make sure you take your time and try to make the cuts as smooth as possible. Once you've cut out a letter, peel away the contact paper so that the glass is exposed just around the cut out of the letter. Letters with middle areas, such as the A and the d in this case, are much more difficult. Be careful to keep the center triangle or circle (A and d, respectively) in tact so the letter turns out.

After you've outlined and peeled off all of the letter cut outs, it's time to etch! Take your spong brush and the etching cream and start dabbing it over the cut out letters. Make sure you cover all the letter areas evenly so that the etch turns out uniform. Also, be very careful not to get the etching cream on your hands! If you are worried, wear some gloves. Although I can't speak from experience, it is said that the etching cream is very acidic and can burn your skin. You've been warned!

I left the etching cream on for about 20 minutes before I washed it off under hot water. When I first started washing the cream off it didn't look like anything had happened! The etch was very subtle at first, but once you peel off the rest of the contact paper and see the free standing etch, it looks amazing!

This was my first try so there were some small noticeable errors I made in some of the letter cut outs, but as you can see, it isn't noticeable when you look at the dish from a foot or so away. Don't be too hard on yourself, and have fun with it!

Happy Etching!

Bridal Shower Cake

More "wedding season" appropriate crafts: a bridal shower cake!

Essentially, this is the bridal shower version of a diaper cake. If you have to give a gift, why not make it fun?!

For this bridal shower cake, I picked all items on the bride's registry at Bed Bath & Beyond. Here are the items I used: Oxo rotating utensil holder, 9.5" Pyrex pie dish, Bamboo utensil set, Calphalon dish cloth (wasabi), 2 Calphalon plaid kitchen towels (wasabi), purple silk ribbon, and a 4x4 box from the dollar tree.

The box from the dollar store was a blue gift box that came with a sparkly covered top. I had it in my gift wrapping box and it was the perfect size to hold the utensil holder at the second tier. You could use a lot of different things to do this - a cylindrical piece of foam, a few toilet paper rolls rubber banded together - be creative!

To build this, I took the dollar tree 4x4 box and turned it upside down on the middle of the pie dish. I then began wrapping the kitchen towels around the box to hide it. I took all the tags off - I felt confident doing this since the items were on her registry. I really only did it so that the end result looked cleaner, you can choose to leave them on. I wrapped 2 kitchen towels around the first tier and secured them with the purple ribbon you can see in the photo. Then, i stacked the utensil holder on top of the upside down dollar tree box and  filled it with the bamboo utensils. I folded the dish towel like a fan, and propped it up behind the utensils. 

The final thing I did was use a basket bag to wrap this up and keep everything held together. I recommend the one from the dollar tree - it works just fine and it's only a dollar!

I think I spent $40 on this gift overall (with the utilization of some bed bath and beyond coupons) and I think the presentation really classes up the gift. It also made it easier to buy a random selection of some of the lesser priced items on their registry and still be able to pull it all together nicely. 

Happy Bridal Shower-ing!

Wedding Invitation in an Ornament

Wedding season is upon us! I always feel like giving cash is so impersonal. I know that more often than not, that is exactly what the couple wants/needs, but I can't help but want to give a little something else! My cousin received a Christmas ornament with her baby shower invitation in it, and I thought it was a super cute keepsake. So, I thought, why not do this for a wedding invitation! Not only did the ornament turn out really great, but it was super cheap, too!

What I used: a plain glass ornament, scissors, my cutter glide tool, the wedding invitation, and a pencil.

I found this 4 pack of ornaments at Hobby Lobby for $6.99. Plus, I used this 40% off coupon!

The ornaments are about 3 inches in diameter.

Are you ready for the hard part? The first step is to cut about a centimeter in width piece of the invitation and roll it around a pencil. I tried to cut each line of text as 1 strip. This way, you can shake the ornament around and find different lines like names, time, place, etc. 

Once you roll the strip of paper around a pen or pencil, you can fit it through the opening at the top of the ornament (you have to pull the top off first, obviously)

I will note that since many invitations are printed white paper on top of cardstock, you may have to gently pull the printed paper apart from the cardstock. It's kinda hard to see in this picture since the cardstock was silver and the printed paper was white, I did cut strips of the cardstock to put in the ornament, too. This adds some color and variety to the ornament. I also tried to cut slightly different widths of paper to allow for some variety.

And there you have it! A finished product. You can even see the line that shows the brides name and the time of the wedding in this picture! 

Happy Wedding Season!