St. Patrick's Day Banner

Okay, so I'll be honest here. I would've had this post up about 3 hours ago, but I got sucked into Pinterest. Every. Single. Time. It's a complete time suck. But I love it just the same.

In fact, this project wouldn't have happened without Pinterest. I made this project based on merging things I liked about three different banners made by: Rebecca at Simple as That, Tanya at twelve O eight, and Kim at The TomKat Studio for HGTV.

In my quest to increase our holiday decor, the goal for this year is to make a minimum of one new project per major holiday. (I'm not counting things like President's Day or Arbor Day here.) I've already met my one minimum for Valentine's Day, so St' Patrick's Day was next on the list.

Making a paper banner (or bunting, if you prefer) like the one I made for Halloween was the easiest of the options, so it was a natural choice for the first project to tackle...especially since I just got done being sick.

The supplies are simple and inexpensive. You'll need: scissors, book pages (I had some tea stained pages left over from the wedding flowers), green paper, chipboard letters or stickers, some form of adhesive, jute, and a stapler.

I'm all about making things easier on myself, so I used my Pazzle to cut out my shamrock shapes using a clipart file. If you have a Silhouette or Cricut, this is totally the way to go. If you don't have one of these handy machines, print yourself a template from a similar file on the internet and simply trace and cut as many cute little shamrocks as you need.

I trimmed the sides and tops of the book pages to keep the page mostly filled with words rather than blank space. I then trimmed out a triangle shape from the bottom of each page (use a template to keep your shapes similar).

Layer your shamrocks on top of the pages and adhere using your preferred method (I used a tape runner), then adhere your letters to the center of each shamrock. I spelled out "lucky", but you could easily pick whatever term you'd like. This stage took me the longest because I am terribly indecisive and went through four different lettering options before I settled on the black sparkle ChipChatter.

I made one extra shamrock page for each side of the banner as bookends, so to speak. I decorated these with two minibuttons each, again adhered with the tape runner.

Side note: Check your pages before you start gluing them together. I caught a lovely piece of profanity right in the middle of one of my pages (directly below the shamrock stem) just before I stuck everything together. That would've made it interesting.

Lastly, you'll need to string up your individual pieces. I folded the top 1/4" of each page to the back and adhered the jute in between the back of each page and the folded section. To make extra sure they didn't come undone, I placed a staple diagonally at each top corner to hold the jute in place. (I used a box of staples to help me keep the distance between each flag at a standardized length.)

Now just find a nice spot to hang it up and you're all done! Easy peasy. I love crafts like that!

Fold ALL the Things! Origami Flowers & Kusudama Balls

So remember how I kind of disappeared for a little while in the summer and early fall of last year? Ya...that was because of this project.

One of the first things I decided on for my wedding was that I wanted to do all paper flowers. I think they're pretty, they fit in with the vintage theme (not to mention the DIY idea) and it saved me a TON of money by not having to purchase flowers. Added bonus? They can last forever.

And that decision led to months of me doing nothing but folding and gluing paper while Netflix played in the background. Whee!

The best part of this project is that you don't need a lot in the way of supplies. You just need a lot of time, some patience, and maybe some awesome friends and family who will help you out. Though I did most of the folding and assembling on my own, I got some hours of help from Patti, Krista, Annie & my mother. And lucky them, they all learned how to fold flowers in the process. That will totally turn into a worthwhile skill you guys.

Anyway, back to the task at hand (pun kind of sort of totally intended).

If you're looking for the basics, look no further. All you need is some paper and some glue. In my case, I bought a couple of books from the thrift store (I used four full paperback novels costing me a total of $3) and some glue. I also used some tea, some mini clothespins, and some binder clips. Total project cost: under $20.

If you want the tea stained/weathered look, brew up some tea (I used three tea bags per 8 cup batch to keep it dark) and pour it into a pie plate or casserole dish. I used my 9x13" glass pyrex casserole.

Submerge the individual pages for about 3-5 minutes depending on your tea and how dark you want the paper. You can put multiple pages in at the same time, but make sure each page is fully submerged and soaked before you put the next one in, otherwise you end up with white splotches.

The pages will need to be laid out individually to dry. I literally had hundreds of pages strewn across my kitchen counters, nook table and dining room table for days on end as I stained batch after batch.

Once you have your pages, it's time to start cracking.

The majority of the flowers I used are a basic flower known as a kusudama. The kusudama is a flower historically used in the Japanese culture for potpourri and incense. The flower is an origami flower, but not in the strict purist sense, since you will use glue in addition to folding to hold all of the pieces together.

First, cut your pages into squares depending on what size you want your final flowers to be. I used 2", 3", 4" and 6" sized squares. Why so many sizes? Well...I had a lot of projects. You'll see what I'm talking about later. The 4" size is the most manageable and still produces a decent size flower (It's the size that I used to make all of the example photos.) Each flower will require a minimum of five squares, with each square eventually becoming a single petal.

Once you have your square cut out, fold it in half diagonally to form a triangle.

Now fold the out side edges of the triangle up to meet the center.

This will form a small diamond.

Take your two folded edges and fold them halfway back on themselves towards the edge.

Now it should look like a tulip. That center point is your original top point and the two half spears are your original sides.

The next step is a little tricky. Undo the last fold you did, moving back into the diamond shown above. Now slide your finger inside each half one at a time and flatten them to the side. The crease that originally ran at the center of the diamond is now the center crease of each petal in the above tulip.

Fold down the tops of each side to create a small triangle.

Now fold each side back in half, tucking that small triangle into the center of the newly formed flap.

Line the flap of one side with glue and lightly pinch together. You want those small triangular sides to be on the inside to form the center of your flower. Use a binder clip, paper clip, or small clothespin to hold the seam shut while it dries.

This is what it should look like from the top of the petal when you're done. Take care not to fold the whole thing flat. You want the petal to stay full.

Once the glue has dried, assemble your flower using five petals.You'll assemble this by gluing the outsides together and holding them with the clips until dried.

My flowers became multiple items...most notably, my bouquets.

©Broken H Photography

At the center of each bouquet is a foam ball. I stuck a couple of wooden dowels into the center of the ball to form my handle and then wrapped it with floral tape followed by ribbon. The flowers were attached using some floral wire and glue. Each flower is glued to its neighbors to keep the whole thing stable.

The centers of the flowers are either left open or stuffed with a glued in pearl, adhered jewel or glued on button. The spaces between the flowers are intermittently filled with a silver glitter tulle ribbon. There was literally glitter everywhere.

I used a few other types of origami flowers to add some dimension in my own bouquet. My matron of honor's bouquet and my tossing bouquet contained only the origami flowers demonstrated above.

The flowers were also used to make corsages for the mothers and boutonnieres for the men. In the case of the corsages they were paired with paper roses. For the men, they were paired with paper lilies. Both the lilies and the roses can be seen in my bouquet above.

Remember how I said I used 2" squares? This headband is why. It is the headband that I made for my adorable little flower girl.

In this case, the flowers were all glued together to form a bridge. The flowers were then sewn (yes, with thread) to the headband to keep them in place. It held up pretty darned well because I trussed the crap out of it. Other than the purple flower, each little mini flower was decorated with an adhesive jewel.

©Broken H Photography

And there it is on the cutie patootie.

I also used the flowers for decoration. Lots of decoration.

©Broken H Photography

I did this primarily through the use of kusudama balls.

A kusudama ball is a ball made up of twelve of the origami flowers. You basically make them by gluing the sides of the original flowers together just like you did the individual petals. It requires a crap ton of paper clips or clothespins, but they're super cute when you're finished.

I used mine to hang from my canopy as well as the ceiling decoration. I tied them to multiple strings of white twinkle lights and hung them at different lengths.

For a good visual tutorial on how to make your own kusudama ball...check out this step by step one on Wikihow. I couldn't make a better one, it's pretty darned good.

It took a TON of time and patience and the helping hands of a few friends and family members, but I literally made all of my wedding flowers out of paper for only a few dollars. Plus I caught up on more than one Netflix series in the process. 

With today's average wedding floral costs running upwards of $1000, I'd say it was well worth my investment.

DIY Wedding Invitations

I've told you that we worked very hard to keep our wedding economical. The first stop for saving money on our DIY wedding was our wedding invitations.

I've been scrapbooking for about a decade and making cards here and there for about as long. I figured that I could handle the invitations. And I did. It ended up saving me about $200.

 

I chose a gatefold design...I just liked the look. And as much as I despise the task of printing on vellum, I do like the look. So I bit the bullet and designed my invitations to include a vellum overlay.

The printed portion of the invitation was fairly easy. I had to buy my envelopes, so I used them to decide on my size. I picked ivory envelopes to give everything a bit more of a vintage feel and to blend with the tea stained paper that I was using for my flowers.

The card base was a 5x7" piece of silver gray cardstock. I cut these from 12x12 sheets that I purchased for 4/$1. I chose a couple of fonts and a scroll design and built the layout in Microsoft Publisher. They were all printed on my HP inkjet.

I used the remainders of the gray cardstock to make the RSVP cards. They were also designed on Publisher.The maps and directions were designed and printed onto plain white paper.

Once those were done, I printed on that pesky vellum. I used 8 1/2 x 11" sheets with each sheet containing vellum for two invitations. I chose the phrase "Eat, drink, and be married!". It took me a day to whittle that down from three initial choices, but it seemed the most lighthearted and the most like us.

I carefully laid the vellum out throughout my scrapbook and crop rooms in order to let them dry without smudging. I did wreck a couple of them, but overall there was only a little bit of error and waste. It turned out better than I thought it would...one of those things that came from learning the hard way on other projects. The first time I used vellum it was a smudgy disaster.

It was a bit of a trial and error process to get the gatefold design just right. I started each invite with a piece of 12x12 plum cardstock. Just like the silver gray, I bought the paper at 4/$1. I wrecked a couple of sheets of paper before I figured it out.

I cut it down to a 12x7 and marked the width out 2.5" from the center on each side. I scored lines at these marks and used a bone folder to crease the paper along those lines and fold the outside flaps in.

I cut the sides down to 2.5" from the right hand crease line and 2.75" from the left hand crease line. This allowed the two sides to slightly overlap when folded into the center.

Once I had the width of my folds, I marked the center of the height and cut diagonally with my paper trimmer to the points from both top and bottom.

It was a slow process, but it went fairly smoothly once I figured out the measurements I needed to use. I also did everything in an assembly line style, completing one step on all of the papers before moving to the next step. That seemed to keep me on track and reduced the amount of errors I made in measurements.

The printed cardstock was adhered to the center of the purple gatefold with an adhesive runner. The vellum was laid over the top of the printed cardstock.

Once the gatefolds were turned in, I wrapped a pair of ribbons around (one silver, one purple) and tied a knot. The edges were cut at an angle to prevent fraying. The ribbon was tied loose enough to slide on and off the card for opening.

The finishing touch was the paper flower glued to the center of the knot. The paper flowers were fairly simple to make. I used a Fiskars flower punch and tea stained book pages. Two flowers were offset and glued together. I curled the edges and inked them purple. A purple starburst was punched from the leftovers of the purple cardstock and adhered to the center of each flower. An adhesive crystal was then placed on top of each starburst.

The total cost for my invitations and envelopes ended up at about $60. I was very happy with the way they turned out.

Now...to share a little bit of wisdom I learned along the way. Postage can be a headache. If you are mailing invitations of any kind, I suggest you go to your local post office and request a dimensional standards template.

The template will tell you what sizes will qualify for particular postage charges. In my case, the invitations were too thick for standard postage since they couldn't easily fit through the slit cut in the template. That meant that my postage was 0.60 per item.

The template was also handy for determining what postage to place on the RSVP cards. I designed them to fit within the postcard space, thus saving us about $0.13 per item.

And there you have it. If you have a little bit of craftiness in you (and access to a basic design program and printer), you can do this yourself. It's worth it if you're wanting to pinch a few pennies here and there.

Good luck!