Peacock Fascinators for the Bridesmaids- Tutorial

The peacock theme is coming together nicely!  I just love the colors and I love how each one is unique. 

I made a veil (you can see it later) with peacock feather accents, and I wanted the bridesmaids to have little fascinators as well. 

Here is my inspiration, an etsy store that sells them if you don't want to go to the trouble to make them yourself:  (Click on the picture to go to the store)

But since I did not want to pay $20 to $40 a piece for them, I made my own!!!  I bought peacock feathers on eBay from this seller : http://stores.ebay.com/naturesfeathers

They were $20 for 50 feathers.  I am going to use them in the bouquets too, so it was worth it.  The "stems" are not really long, but they are perfect for what I need.  You can get them cheaper if you order them from China or Hong Kong, but I wanted to get started right away, and did not want to wait for the shipping. And boy, was Nature's feathers fast!  I ordered the feathers LATE on a Friday night, and they came on Monday!  I started crafting immediately.  I made something for the flower girl, which I will post later. 

Today, I got around to doing the bridesmaid fascinators.  All six of them done, three months before the wedding!  I am feeling pretty good about where I stand, so that I will not be rushing.  I know that sounds niave even as I type it.

First, start with a felt triangle:

Next, trim the peacock feathers.  I just eyeballed it, and found a peacock feather with a large eye and one that was a little smaller.  Make sure you have sharp scissors and a steady hand.  This is like giving a feather a hair-cut. 

Here it is all trimmed up:

 Next, you need the "sword" feathers.  I did not have them, so I went to JoAnn and bought these in the floral department.  These are $5 a piece (but I had some kind of coupon, I can't remember how much I saved) and come with the sword feathers, some peacock feathers, and some little turquoise feathers.  I DID NOT use the peacock feathers from this floral thingy because they are much smaller than the ones I bought.  But they will be fine in the bridesmaid bouquets.  I needed 3 of these because they had two "sword" feathers each.  (the one picured has only one because I had already cut the other one off. 

I used one "sword" feather and two skinny turquoise feathers for each fascinator.  I arranged them on the triangle.  The best way to do this is to hold the feather and triangle up to your head and make sure that it is not sticking way way out and then hold it in place, bring it down to the table, and glue it. 

Next, I placed the peacock feathers down to get the arrangement just right.  After that, I squeezed out a pretty good amount of hot glue.  I gently placed the feather down and patted it into the hot glue.  I used this technique so the feather would not become separated while it is being worn.  

Glue both feathers down, and..... voila!

Some of the sword feathers curve to the left and others curl to the right.  All of my bridesmaids will be wearing them on the right, so I just made sure that no matter which way the sword was swooping, the fascinator looked right when I held it up to my head.

Now you need to attach the hair clips.  I hot-glued part of it, and I am also going to attach part of it with thread and needle. 

 I am probably going to add something sparkly to the tip of each one.  The next time you see these, it will be on my bridesmaids!



Centerpieces

I just got a quote from a caterer for the wedding.  It is TWICE what I told them my budget was.  So I am freaking out.  So when the going gets tough, the tough get crafting, at least that is what my "aunt" Karen used to say.  Or maybe it was "the tough go shopping."  But since I have to spend three years of my future child's college tuition on a dinner and some chairs, I decided on cheap crafting instead.  I have been googling and spying etsy and everything I can think of for cheap centerpieces.  It seems that everything that looks cheap really ends up being 8 to 10 dollars a table.  That's not cheap.  13 tables x 10 dollars a piece is $130.  Silliness.  For something that is just going to get thrown out. 

Could I make a cool centerpiece for like 2 dollars?  Have you met me?  Of course I can! 

I love tissue paper poms, but I thought just placing those on the table would be lazy.
Here is a pretty one from etsy:

But some other things I thought of doing started looking like more work than building The Great Wall of China, like these beauties.  I could do them, but that started looking like a TON of work to have a cluster of these on each table. 

 So I made a tissue pom and then added one more step- a light from Dollar Tree.  Voila!  Now I am going to throw some votive candles around it... but not too close..... and maybe throw some flower petals on the table and its done.

Here is the one that I made today, sitting on the coffee table.  It is a little wonky because I was playing with it a lot, adding tissue paper, removing tissue paper, just all-around experimenting with it, so it is a little beat-up looking. 

This one workds because I can make it for a few cents worth of tissue paper (fewer sheets actually let the light shine through better) and a Dollar-tree light. 

Here is the Dollar-tree light.  The tissue paper is just resting on top of the light.  For the real one, it will be affixed with tape or something.  Or perhaps the bottom layer of tissue will just be wrapped under the lamp.    The lights are battery-opperated, but Dollar Tree has inexpensive batteries too. 

What do you think? 

I really shouldn't post until I make a pretty one.  I have a fear that people are going to steal my idea, take a better picture, and post it to their blog and get a million hits and take all the credit.  But then I remembered that no one really reads my blog like that.  Lol. 

Baby's First Birthday!

Liam is one!  I can't believe it.  My little sister's little baby now looks almost toddler-ish.  Oh well, time for a party then! 

I take NO credit for her super-cute decor, whatsoever. I just thought it was awesome and needed to be shared.

She set up a "smash the cake" photo-shoot a day in advance and had a photo-bug friend come over and shoot pictures. These pictures are the ones I took, and they are not quite as good as her friend's pics, but I do have the rights to these to post : )

Jenni is so clever, It was her idea to tape balloons to the back of the house and put out a blanket and snap away!  Those colors were her idea too!  The green and the blue are her go-to colors for everything (her wedding, the baby nursery-click here to see nursery, home decor...) and she usually just changes the accent colors.  This time, the accent is orange.

Party Table!

Hand-made banner by Jenni!

She spray-painted little dinosaurs from the dollar-tree to math the theme, and I hot glued them to a paper runner for decoration.

We made tissue-paper poms and hung them on the chandelier which my dad raised up with zip-ties so no-one would bump their head.  Okay, some people still bumped their head on the tissue poms but they were cute, so they weren't moving!

My sister has been practicing her icing skills, and even has the frosting tips and everything, like a good southern mama practicing her home-making skills.  Super cute cupcakes!

Here is the birthday boy, seeming happy about the attention. (Or at least the cake)

Jenni, Me, and Liam:

Sometimes, we party as hard as we can, and then we just can't eat one more bite of cake.  Happy Birthday, Liam!

Christmas Decorations!

Here are some of the Christmas decorations I did at Tehran's house:

Here is the "Fantle" (get it- fake mantle?) And thanks to Comcast for the "yule log" from on-demand, it looks like a real fireplace.  The fake mantle is a media shelf from Ikea.

I took the flameless candles off the pillars and set them right on the surface, and placed Christmas ornaments on the candle holders.  The stockings are from the Dollar Tree!  I added a glittery branch from a bunch of glittery branches that I bought from Jo-Ann for 50% off.  Gotta love their sales!

I used equal parts gold and silver glitter and mod podge to make the glittery ornaments.  I placed them in these glass containers which we already had.  I stuck some battery operated lights inside.  The lights looked clear, but after being plugged in, they are different colors : ( I wish they were both white, but oh well.)

Hung ornaments from the light fixture with ribbon- simple and easy.

 Normally, these glass vases have large river rocks in them, and are used occasionally for floating candles.  I put ornaments in them instead.  These are plastic ornaments from Wallmart and I had to pop the top off and fill them with water so they sink.  There is a mix of metallic colors for the ornaments.  Oooo, shiny!

Here is the centerpiece on the table.  This was already there.  It is from Ikea.  Normally, there are small river rocks at the bottom of the candles.  I cut pieces off the glittery branches.  The glitter is a mix of gold and silver glitter.  I glittered up some ornaments to match by mixing equal parts gold and silver glitter, and of course I used mod podge to affix the glitter to the ornaments. 

Oh, and how could I forget the tree!  I can't take any credit for this one though.  Tehran already had the tree and ornaments.

Not too many decorations; just a little bit of sparkle for the Holiday.  Merry Christmas!

River Rock Mat

What do you do when there is no mudroom?  Pile your shoes next to the entrance of course.  

I have seen this river rock runner at a cute store called "Chiasso" and it is next to panera, so I always walk past it.  The problem is that it is $68.  No thank you!  But if you want it for $68, it is available here.

So, of course, I decided to make my own.  First, I bought two "boot trays" at target for $4.99 each.

Then, I headed to Dollar Tree!  I love that place.  I picked up some river rocks.  They have several sizes of rocks, I used the smallest ones.  I found out that it takes 3 to 4 bags of rocks per tray- so I had to make a second trip to Dollar Tree in the middle of the project.

I had some Gorilla Glue on hand from a previous project.  It's great because it glues stone, and because it expands, which is great because stones are odly shaped.   But there are a few things to keep in mind.  It says right on the package to wear gloves or it will stain your skin.  So I thought, well, I just won't get any on my hands.  Yeah.... don't think that.  Get the gloves.  Also, use only a SMALL dot on the each stone.  It will expand, and does not dry clear.  Fortunately, it is not that noticeable because of all the colors in the stones, but any overflow glue will be a beige, bubbly blob that you can see.  Small amount of glue, on the flattest side of the stone, and drop into place. 

Start on the center of the mat and work your way out.  This is how much one bag of river rocks covers:

Keep going, and then you wil have this! ( I made 2.)  One boot tray holds 3 pairs of adult shoes.

This will be great in the winter too, because the stones will hold the shoes slighty off the ground, allowing the air to dry the unerside of the shoes as well.  And the stone mat has an easy clean-up, just rinse off.  Much easier than carpets that get stuck with kitty hair. 

Like my glitter shoes?  I DIY-ed those too, in a previous post.