Finished Buttonholes & Wedding Props

I've now finished the buttonholes that were featured in my last blog post. I'm pretty pleased, they're possibly not the neatest buttonholes in the world, but not bad for someone making them up as she goes along. For anyone thinking of using hessian (burlap) in such a way, it falls apart so easily round the edges, I've painted the back with a thin layer of pva glue. It stiffens it, but secures those fraying edges really well, (unless you really start tugging at it). 

We've had these mini easels, for our books to sit on, on for a while now, but I've decided to paint them white, so that's what's been going on in our garden in between these darn showers!

 

Now, lets start talking about ebay! I've been collecting the books for our author inspired table names. Even though the tables are authors, we are trying to get the same titles with the same covers just to create a bit of visual cohesion, and make it easier for guests to find their tables. Who knew it would be so hard to get books with the same covers, companies using stock images of books are a land mine! Thank goodness for sellers that take their own pics on ebay.

We bought these mdf speech bubbles from ebay too, along with some matt black paint, so they are now all painted up, and tucked away in the dressing-up/photo booth suitcase ready to be scribbled on with loving messages, and the odd rude word (probably).

Another ebay purchase for the dressing-up suitcase. Funky glasses, because everyone looks like a rock star in heart-shaped glasses right? Right?

A Hobbycraft purchase, I saw the cow face and I liked the idea of a cow face. I liked the lion too, but I was only allowed to buy one (boo fiance) :) Anyhoo, the cow is all painted up (the black lines were in place but the rest was plain wood) and in the suitcase. 

Finally, I've been buying nail varnish to try and help me decide what I'll do with my nails on the wedding day. I'm sure there will be more on that to come, but for now I just wanted to share some excessive packaging from Avon with you, delivered by courier no less. I mean I ask you, do you think it was really worth it for a pot of nail varnish, a very small pot of nail varnish at that?! 

Flowers, Bouquets, Posies & Buttonholes

Wedding preparations continue. I spent a week surrounded by growing snippets of organza, slowly spreading around the house like a carpet of confetti. It wasn't ideal, it sticks to everything, but the boxful of flower shapes at the end was worth it.

I've now put together a couple of posies and my bouquet. I'm not going to lie, I winged it completely. My bouquet is a little more mushroom shaped than anticipated, but I'm still really pleased. Originally, I had an idea in my head that the flowers might have some kind of organisation, but it turns out that thin copper wires have their own ideas, and will go where they wish, regardless to how much Blue Tac you use to try and hold them in place. Yup, that's right I said Blu Tac, it's crafter's gold I tell you, it's a bit of a bum to cover up, but it does the job! 

I've been experimenting with arrangements to hang from nails on posts. This is the first unfinished prototype, and I also have a hanging, half polystyrene ball prototype too. We plan to visit the venue in a few weeks time to help decide whether to go for bunches or balls. 

 

To hide the Blue Tac and Sellotape holding the flowers in place, I have sprayed a little gold paint (but it's nice to know that I'll have something blue with me on the day), and wrapped the bases in hessian (burlap). I've also wrapped ribbon around the wires, which is possibly the hardest thing I've ever had to do! Well maybe not ever, but it made me swear a fair bit. It moves all over the place, kudos to florists everywhere that have to wrap ribbon around things all the time.

 

I've made a start on buttonholes too. I've only completed the one above so far (it now, after some more swearing, also has ribbon wrapped around it), we are going to try it on Rob's suit, then if we are happy, I'll continue with the others.

I've also been making ribbons on forks. It's such a neat and easy idea, heaven knows what people did before the internet though! I can't remember which tutorial I used in the end, but there are loads. 

 

I had about twenty jars left to decorate with hessian or paper cut-outs, and when they were done I went through them all and finished a majority off with little bows. With just over eighty jars complete, I think I probably have enough! 

The next step will be yet another box of organza flower shapes, as I need to make sure I have enough for the eight post arrangements. I've actually stopped counting how many flowers I've made so far, but I guarantee that is now comfortably over a thousand. 

Cards I've Made: Jackie, Liz & Archie

 

There were a bunch of birthdays at the end of April which I decided to make cards for. The first was for my sister's 40th. Then the following two (for my friend Liz, and a little boy called Archie) were my first attempts at painting cats (I prefer mice and bears). I seem to know a lot of cat people, but up until now I haven't gone near any with paint. I think they are going to be something I need to work on a bit more, not as scary as drawing bikes, but I still need more practice.