Hi guys! I know it has been a while since my last post, but the ball is really starting to roll on the hand-made stuff now so hopefully my posts will be a little more frequent! My next post is on my Save-The-Dates.
Now if I'm right, Save-The-Dates are more of an American tradition and we Brits don't tend to send them out. However, they do seem to be growing in popularity throughout the UK now. With our wedding falling on a bank holiday weekend, I thought this would be an ideal way to let my guests know early on and I could get in there before the thought of any weekend getaways!!
Right. Now the idea for my Save-The-Dates was again country garden - to compliment my evening theme. This immediately brought bunting, floral patterns and pastel colours into my head. With this to go from, my mum took a trip to Hobbycraft after work. Here she found a few bits and bobs for me to work with, and come up with a final design.
The Design Idea
Bunting - Four different flags strung together with pretty craft string and 'draped' across the front of the Save-The-Date.
Florals - Floral-print paper to trim the interior.
Pastels - Metallic pastel paper to mount the information onto.
Mini Calendars - A handy calendar card to the inside of the Save-The-Date for the guests to keep hold of.
The Front
What I really like about this design, is that each and every Save-The-Date is different - due to the different bunting flags and string colour.
The flags came with pre-cut holes which was handy for neatly threading the string. Once threaded, the flags were held in place by the use of mini square 3D foam adhesives.
I love these because it prevents the design from looking too flat. The double sided foam adhesives can be picked up from most art shops and are very cheap.
The blank cards themselves fitted the theme perfectly, as the bottom edge represents lace and also features rose motifs. These cards, the bunting flags and the string were all picked up from Hobbycraft (which recently has become my second home!!).
The Interior
These 12x12" papers were used for the inside of my Save-The-Dates and worked really well - especially for covering up the string from the bunting! I got them from an online craft suppliers I found called Daisy's Jewels & Crafts. The papers are very good quality and come in a 32 pack (16 designs, 2 of each) and have come in really handy for other wedding related projects - shhh! I'm not spilling just yet!
Here is a sneaky of the inside. The information and the mini calendar were printed on good quality, textured card. The information was mounted on metallic, pastel blue/green paper. All were fixed with the foam adhesives.
The card and the metallic paper are from my recently acquired second home; Hobbycraft.
The Finished Product
Again, I love the personal touch. The fact that each one is different, causes me to like this even more. To be honest, I have spent many evenings making these. However, having other projects to work on and leaving myself plenty of time to do them, I have really enjoyed creating them - it has been fairly therapeutic!
I have added an extra personal touch by investing in a stamp that reads 'Handmade By Zoe' which I absolutely adore! If you are into making Christmas cards etc. and like this idea, then personalised stamps like this are available from NotOnTheHighstreet (love this site).
If any of you are thinking of creating your own Save-The-Dates, invites, order or service sheets or anything like this... I would definitely say go for it! Yes, it takes a little time finding all of the materials, but the outcome is so rewarding. Not only this, but the guests seem to appreciate them too!
I would love to know what you think, and if anybody has made anything similar to this... I would really fancy a nosey!
Keep watching this space,
Zoe..x
So the first chapter for my very first craft blog is my own wedding. Reason being, I would like to hand-make a lot of it (making it the perfect HBZ blog project).
Although stationary is probably the first thing I should have thought about, it was the second. The wedding favours were the first.
Okay, so the idea was to give my guests a country garden gift to go with the theme. My thinking was jars filled with yummy preserves. My mum's homemade jam is delicious and, luckily for me, she also has a friend that keeps bees. Hello Honey!
I then decided that jam would be the ideal gift for the ladies, and honey for the men.
This was my starting point, so naturally I started looking for further inspiration.
I love the way the jars have been laid out in this photograph. This is a good idea for the evening guests as the day guests will have theirs at their place setting.
The fabric toppers are traditional and cute and would look lovely if they were all different patterns.
Image found on Pinterest.
I love the personal touch, and even though homemade jam and fresh local honey is personal, it wouldn't be something I had created. To add that extra touch to the favours, I have decided to cross stitch the jar toppers.
The Idea:
Ladies - A cross stitched butterfly for the jam
Gents - A cross stitched bee for the honey
Young Children - A cross stitched ladybug
3 down, 117 more to go! Okay so there is a lot of work to do to get approx 120 toppers done it time. You find though that the more you do the faster you get and it is quite therapeutic.
Tip: It may sound like common sense, but if you are planning a crafty wedding, start waaaay in advance (around a year or so). Only because the deeper you progress into your plans, the more you struggle to find the time to keep on top of things. If you have friends or relatives that can help you out, let them! My mum is cross stitching in every spare minute she has!
The Process
After cross stitching my first bee, I decided the topper needed to be softened and made slightly bigger by the use of fabric. I picked up a couple of meters of cheap white cotton fabric from my local sewing shop and hit the sewing machine!
Tip: If you would rather use different patterned fabric for your jar toppers instead of cross stitching, alot of sewing shops should give their scrap fabric away for free (which would be ideal). Penny Saver!
So here it is. My first finished jar topper! I can't wait to see what the others look like.
The jars I am using are 4Oz / 120ml round glass jars from Amazon.co.uk. and are an ideal size for wedding favours (smaller ones are available).
FYI: When using jars for food such as jam, they will need to be sterilised. When ordering, I found out that a lot of jars are not sterilised because of the manual handling they go through, in which case you will need to sterilise them in the oven yourself.
I feel the perfect finishing touch to these favours, would be personalised labels, which I have yet to sort out.
I have found some gorgeous ones on notonthehighstreet.com which would fit the jam and the honey perfectly. I love the colour and finish of the labels too. They are so simple and would fit the theme like a glove!
There is a bit more work to do on the favours yet so keep watching this space! I will update it with further images as the project progresses.
Jam jars not float your boat?? Other ideas that fit the theme include:
- Personalised packets of seeds
- Miniature pails of sweets
- Floral scented Yankee candles
- Floral cupcakes
- Small vintage gift-wrapped boxes of sweets
- Mini jars of strawberry bon-bons
Check out my boards on: Pinterest
