Wedding Palloza: Card Box and Bride's Maid Jewelery

The first wedding of the season kicked off today! The bride and groom are two adorably quirky kids who decided to declare not only there love for each other that day, but also their love for robots.

 

The crafty groom made these robot heads.

 

The guests signed in on colorful wood gears.

And the cake was topped with a mini robot bride and groom.

ADORABLE!

The bride asked me to decorate a box that they could store all the cards in.  She was hoping for a mini wooden chest, decorated in the theme of the day.  Luckily, I found the perfect chest in Turkey, and was able to get to work far in advance of the wedding. 

I started by sketching out some gears...

And then cutting some out to use as stencils.

Once the gears were painted on, I wrote their names and wedding dates using my most digital looking hand-writing.

And then I decorated the front of the box with pictures of the couple as robots.  Pretty accurate I'd say!

 

She also asked me to make some necklaces for all the bride's maids (8 in total).  I used fishing line and beads and pearls in her wedding colors with seed beads in between, and finished them off with some green ribbon as a tie.

Me and the gorgeous bride. And the necklace. (Beautiful earrings made by my friend Sandra.)

And the whole awesome group... (The best man was a woman, so she got a necklace too!)

We all had SO MUCH FUN at this wedding.  Maybe too much fun.  What a way to kick off the summer of weddings.  Congrats to Greg and Melinda!

Week 27: Spray-Painting Ugly Animals

I have these wonderful friends. Who both have birthdays in July.  They also are both obsessed with a blog called Young House Love. And they force me to be obsessed also.  (Ok ok... no body is forcing anything on me.)  This blog features a super crafty couple, and all of the home improvement projects they tackle themselves.  The wife in this bloggy-duo is particularly obsessed with ceramic animals, and spray painting them bold colors. Like this aubergine rooster, this white frog, and these yellow horse heads.

So for their birthday this year Alan and I hunted through antique shops (my FAVORITE thing) for some animals that they might love. 

We chose these wise and studious owls for her...

And this playful, and dander-free dog for him...

And we picked up some super thrifty spray-paint at ReStore, (a Habitat for Humanity store).

Not only were the animals pretty ugly, but they were also quite dirty. Check out that dirty-birdy-booty.  Then try to say it ten times fast. 

I started with light layers of paint. 

It was difficult to spray so lightly, but according to YHL, a heavy layer leads to puddling and other gross things. 

But after multiple light layers, the owls turned out adorable...

And this glossy, blue dog looks so proud of his new coat. 

Happy birthdays D and B! Can't wait to see you!

Week 26: Apron Maddness

Let's just pretend that I've been regularly posting these.  I HAVE been crafting, I just haven't had access to internet, or time to post anything.  So yeah...

This summer five of my close girlfriends are getting married. I couldn't be more happy and excited for them.  Also, great opportunity to craft! Woohoo!

I decided to make each of them an apron as a wedding shower gifts.  Not because wives belong in the kitchen. But because a cute apron makes any activity more adorable. 

I started with some ribbon..

Some fabric...

I sketched some ideas, and cut some patterns out of newspaper...

Ruffle gathering...

Ironing...

More gathering...

Lot's of pinning..

Folding...

More pinning...

And even some embroidery...

Diana's wearing a bacon themed apron (bacon-like sash and neck) with a Bacon! monogram.  Bacon Day was a blast this year!

 

 Both Jen and Smelli are wearing reversible ruffle aprons with their new names embroidered on the waist band.

Melinda has a curvy silhouette with a rosette, and Bride written on the hip. 

And Molika has a layered ruffle skirt with an old school tuxedo shirt top, and her new name on the waist band.  

Congratulations on all the love in the air girls!  I'm so lucky to be a part of it all.

Week 25: Towel Animals

Last week, I had to get extra creative if I was going to meet my craft-a-week goal.  We had packed up everything we own into 3 suitcases each, and none of my crafting materials made the cut.  Besides that, we spent 7 days on a cruise ship, and touring Europe, which left little time for crafting.  

Oh what's a girl to do? Towel animals.  That's what.

If you've ever been on a cruise, you know that one of the most whimsical bonuses is that your towels get folded into little animals every night while you're eating dinner.  This may have been the thing I loved the most on my last cruise, and I distinctly remember feeling tearful and mopey when I arrived home and all of my towels looked like... towels. 

So this week, I attended a towel folding demonstration, and then headed back to my room with the towel-gami instructions, to make a menagerie.

Kissing Swans

An Elephant?

Monkey

And lobster. 

I didn't make any of these up, so I wont post how I folded them, because that feels like stealing.  But if you too wish you could prepare a guest room with hilarious towel animals, I found some online instructions.  I especially like her hermit crab.

Week 24: Alanya Painting

Before I get started... These past few weeks have been NUTS. Work ended, we packed up our whole home, best-bud-Di came for 6 days of awesome, and then we went on a 7 day cruise.  Then we made our 20 hour journey home yesterday.  Yikes.  I DIDN'T skip out on doing my craft goals. I just didn't post until now, because I didn't have internet access, and because I didn't want to spend any of my time online.  So I'm late.  I'm sure you understand.

Remember Week 7, when I decided to take up painting? I spent the day at the beach sketching one of my favourite views of Alanya. After that. The pencil sketch sat menacingly on a desk waiting for paint to be added.  I stalled for so long because I was really worried that I would ruin it by adding paint.  How was I going to paint such small details without buying a bunch more brushes.  How was I going to add layers of colour without losing the pencil sketch, and forgetting what it looked like?

But time was running out.  So I traced over the whole thing in Sharpie, so that I wouldn't lose the sketch, I packed up my paints and brushes, and we headed out to the beach at 6am (the only time of day one could sit on the beach and not DIE of heatstroke).

The view I was studying...

Two Russian girls watched from this close for the ENTIRE time I painted. 

I don't speak Russian, so I couldn't explain to them, or their mother, that I am not a famous artist, which they seemed to believe.

Finished!

The little fisherman is one of my favourite parts.

If you look closely, you'll see that the wind must have changed direction while I sketched, because two flags are blowing towards the right, and one is blowing towards the left.  Oops.

After painting at the beach, I came back and outlined buildings, structures, and roads in Sharpie again, because I refused to spend $10 on a super fine tip paint brush.

I love how the colours turned out. Especially the sunrise.

Something to gaze upon when I'm missing Turkey...