DIY Bridesmaid Shirts

These were easy and fun to make and my bridesmaids loved them! The girls wore their shirts while we all got ready for the wedding together, which made for fun photos. I bought white, cotton, v-neck t-shirts at Old Navy and found all the below shown supplies at a craft store. 

1.) Wash and dry the t-shirts before sewing to ensure the fabric won't pull weird around the stitching later on. 

2.) Cut a piece of jersey knit fabric and place behind the area you're going to stitch. Place the knitting circle over the area, ensuring the fabric is taunt. 

3.) Use a pencil to lightly stencil on the letter or design you want to stitch on to the shirt.

4.) Thread needle, tie a knot at the end of the thread.

5.) Start stitching from the inside of the shirt. Keep even stitch lengths. I recommend using a stitch that loops back on the inside of the shirt instead of just going in and out. This gives more support to the fabric and prevents any weird pulling on the fabric. If that doesn't make sense think about it like this - You know you're doing it right when you can see the full letter from the inside of the fabric just like on the front. 

6.) Tie off the end of the thread on the inside of the shirt and remove the hoop. 

DIY Bride is a Second Full-time Job!

I'm definitely one of those "why buy it if you can make it" kind of girls, and my wedding has been no exception. I've been crafting like a crazy woman for months, with the help of my bridesmaids and family. It's kind of unbelievable how being a DIY bride can take over your life! Every free evening and weekend seems to be now dedicated to scrubbing the labels off of empty wine bottles, teaching myself how to make fabric flowers, playing travel agent for my friends and family, and on and on. It's a second full-time job!

The most recent DIY hurdle was invitations. All of the invitations I was eying online were going to run between $5-$10 each, and I just couldn't stomach paying someone else to create paper goods that I was fully capable of doing myself. It was a lot more stressful and time consuming than I imagined! Trying to get the fonts just right, then the printer margins for the paper just right, and of course the printer jams every few pieces, then make sure you've got the addresses and number of guests just right, then assembling them in a way that is fun but not too far from traditional wedding etiquette... good grief! Thankfully, my mom and sister were willing to give up their Saturday to help, and we knocked out the entire batch in one day. One very long day.

I can't show you the invitations yet because they just went out yesterday, but here's my first stab at DIY bouts for the groomsmen. I haven't decided what I want them to look like just yet, whether I want them to be entirely burlap and lace, or perhaps a mix of fabric and flowers. My sister, mom and I are all brainstorming and plan to dedicate another Saturday this summer to get these done. Thank goodness for my creative family!

Wine Cork Birdhouse

Sometimes I get these bursts of creative energy, usually after perusing the internet and shouting out, "That costs how much?! I could make that!" Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't, but oh how I have fun trying.

My latest crafty venture was this wine cork birdhouse! My grandmother collects birdhouses, which are mostly displayed along her wraparound porch. All the family will be gathering Sunday to celebrate her birthday, so I thought this would be a fun little gift to bring along. I'm wishing I'd included some sort of wire hang for it, but she mostly places them on the porch alongside her flower beds, so I suppose it's just fine without.

Supplies:

Bag of assorted moss by Ashland

Two 6x6 wood squares by Art Minds

45 wine corks and 1 champagne cork

Hot glue gun

Instructions:

- Line up the corks next to the bottom wood square before you start gluing.

- Try to keep the glue lines toward the inside so it won't squish out and become visible.

- Glue bottom row of corks to wood square, reinforce with extra glue on the inside.

- Leave space for a door on the front.

- Glue second row of corks to first row of corks, reinforce with extra glue on the inside.

- Glue three corks laying down in the doorway as a perch.

- Glue second wood square to the top of the birdhouse.

- Glue champagne cork chimney onto roof.

- Glue as much moss as you'd like on the roof, allowing some to hang down slightly to cover any gaps where the roof wood square is not flush with the corks (this will happen since they're not all going to be the exact same size).

Michael's Coupons

I am by no means an extreme couponer. In fact, I didn't really start using coupons until Safeway began their "Just for U" campaign, which allows customers to go online and attach coupons to their club card. The only store I really hunt down discounts for is Michael's, because being crafty sure is expensive!

I'm not sure if it's the approaching holidays or if they just love me that much, but Michael's is running a ton of great sales in-store and putting out some serious coupons. Yesterday I walked into their Colma store armed with a lengthy shopping list and a "20% off entire purchase" coupon, and walked out an hour later with $90 worth of goodies for $50. Heck yes. Picture frames are 40% off, baskets are 50% off, .59c paper is 4/$1, ribbon is on various %-off sales depending on size and type... and so much more. It's too bad none of my Halloween cakepop supplies were on sale, but I hardly minded spending $8.99 on an edible ink pen set when I was scoring so big on everything else!