A make-shift canvas on the cheap!

After making the photos on canvas for my mom a few weeks ago. I decided that, of course, I want some for myself! I only had one 8x10 canvas leftover and wanted to do some smaller pictures too. I went perusing through the linen closet where I stash all my project leftovers and found a massive stack of cheap unpainted wood frames from Michaels that I bought one day thinking "I'll find something to do with these". And now, who knows how many years later I finally found a use for them.

So here's whatcha need todo:

A cheapo frame{I'm pretty sure these were $1 or less a piece, I have 20 of them so they must have been cheap!} and fabric, canvas would be the obvious and best choice for this but I didn't have any laying around so I used cheap quilters cotton.

Cut your fabric so that it's about 1 inch larger than the frame you're using - as you'll see in the pics below I cut  way more than an inch larger and it was too much!

Staple the fabric on the back side of the frame on one side then the opposite side pulling tight as you staple the second side.

For the two remaining sides you want to fold the edges like you're wrapping a present. If your frame has nice sharp right angled corners this will be easy-peasy, my frame is rounded so I had to play with it to make sure I didn't end up with pleated corners.

After it's all stapled and nice and taunt you can trim away all the excess fabric. Excuse my messy cuts, I couldn't find my scissors and was using a pair I found in the garage - it's the back no one's going to see anyway {except the internet, of course}

As you can see the longer I use the staple gun the more staple-happy I get! 

The last step is to slap some paint on this puppy. I used white acrylic paint but you can use whatever you prefer. Since I'm probably going to use these with black and white photos I'll be painting this one black over the white later. Paint the front and all 4 sides. If you're using something other than canvas you'll want to flip it over and sweep any paint that seeped through off with your brush.

After it's dry you have a super-cheap cute little make-shift canvas!

Pictures on Canvas

So I found this tutorial a couple of weeks ago over at Sassy Pepper and knew that my mom would love it.  I did mine just a little differently but the idea is basically the same and as such I can't take any credit or call it an "original thought". But here's what I did:

 What you'll need:

 

 

photos of the cutest baby EVER

Mod Podge (I like the Glossy), acrylic paint, 8x10 canvases, ribbon

 

Paint the outside edges of the canvases and around the top edge to so the white doesn't show when you trim down pics to fit. I used shiny black since I was using black and white photos.

After the paint is dry, coat the top of the canvas with Mod Podge

 I also Mod Podged the back of the photo but this is probably an unnecessary step.


Carefully place the photo on top of the canvas smoothing out any air bubbles. I've seen some tutorials that recommend flipping the canvas over face down on wax paper and weighing down with books and allowing to dry but I just let them dry as is and they were fine.


After they've had time to dry a bit, you can Mod Podge over the top of the photo. I used glossy MP but you can use whatever finish you prefer.

I chose to do 2 coats of Podge, the first brushing hortizontally across the photo and then again vertically after the first coat has dried overnight - this gives it a bit more of a 'canvas-y artwork' look. 


Once your Mod Podge top coat(s) have dried, I let sit for a full 24 hours but mostly because Mommy-duty took priority, staple your ribbon on the back of the canvas frame to the length that you want. I tied bows in mine only to discover after they were stapled in that the bow wanted to come untied when it was hung so I ended up sewing down the knot part of the bow so it stayed tied.


Here's the end result:

3 totally awesome pics to send to Grandma and just in time for her birthday!

 

Wedding Invitations

My invitations were probably my favorite DIY project for our wedding. I worked for weeks and weeks designing and re-designing, printing, and then starting over again. The knowledge that most people were just going to chuck them in the trash later caused me great pain!

The pocket folders are from cardsandpockets.com in tuxedo (black).

For the invite and inserts, I created the invite & inserts in photoshop and printed onto plain white cardstock. The invite is mounted onto Tropical Pink Astro Metallics 105lb cardstock that I purchased from If It's Paper (this is the same color as the fuchsia metallic cardstock from cardsandpockets.com FYI) The Tropical Pink was $19.99 for 50 sheets. I will only need 20 sheets to create the invite mat since I can get 2 per sheet.  I mounted the inserts on alternating pink and orange cardstock. The orange is clementine from cardsandpockets, I finally found it locally at If It's Paper and it's Stardreams Fuse in Flame and it was on sale for only $14 for 50 sheets!

Completed invite outside:

 I originally planned to make the rsvp a postcard but after deciding to mount it onto the cardstock, I was worried they would get ripped to shreds by the PO machines. So I had to go on a hunt for envelopes they would fit in, I had a bit of a hard time because of the length I would need the envelope to be. I found these at envelopemall.com and ordered before I realized they wouldn't fit in the pocket. Instead of starting the search again I decided to simply tuck them in the belly band on the back of the invite. My favorite part is that they're orange (I may have some sort of orange problem!) I can't wait to start getting orange envelopes back in the mail!

How I made the belly bands: 

I used 1.5" grosgrain ribbon that I cut the exact size as needed to go around the invite without overlapping (10" for my 5x7 invites). I printed our monogram on white cardstock by copying/pasting into word & resized so that they were 1.5"x1.5", after printing I cut them with my paper cutter, for the mats I used metallic cardstock that I cut into 1.75" squares. I ran the monogram squares through my xyron making them stickers, I used a small peice of double sided tape to attach the ends of the ribbon to the metallic mat then stuck the monogram square over top. I started out not using the double sided tape under the ribbon but it's kinda hard to hold the ribbon still on both sides while trying to attach the monogram sticker!

Inside of invite:

The flourish on the invites is a photoshop brush layered in both pink and orange. You can download the flourish for free here it is the first brush in the file. Fonts are Scriptina and Copperplate Gothic

The inserts:

Envelopes with wrap-around labels:

I never planned on doing custom postage but after saying "I don't care what the stamps look like" I went to the PO to have them weighed and discovered it was going to cost a whopping $1.05 ($1.00 if mailed before the increase on 5/11) and the only options for a $1.00 stamp were these NOT what I wanted to put on the invite I worked so very hard to make pretty! Rob's parents had given us a disc they'd gotten from stamps.com when they purchased a printed that had a code for 20 free stamps, I assumed it would only discount for 20 stamps at the .42 rate but to my amazement it gave me 20 free $1.05 stamps!! Thanks to this I was able to purchase the 40 custom stamps for $42, that's the same I would have paid for 40 ugly regular $1.05 stamps.

If you have any questions about how I made any part of these feel free to ask!

It's a nice day for white wedding...

My biggest DIY project ever was my wedding. I literally planned & made everything myself (with the occasional helping hand of my MOH or husband). 

This was my to-do list:

• Save the Dates
• Invitations
  • belly bands 
  • Inserts
    • directions
    • rsvp
    • hotel info 
  • Invite
  • wrap around labels 
• Program Fans
• Card Box
• Centerpiece/Table Numbers
• Photo-share Cards
• Water bottle labels
• Table Runners (thanks mom!)
• Runner w/monogram painted on for cake table
• Seating Chart
• Pomander Balls for ceremony
• Bracelet
• Necklace
• "We Do" letters for cake table
• Bridesmaids Jewelry
  • Necklace
  • Earrings 
• Cake Topper
• Shoe bling
• add waistband to hoop skirt
• getting ready tanks
• Bride
• MOH
• BM
• Cupcake Stand

 I'll be posting instructions and pictures of how I made most of these items. Today we're going to start with Save The Dates, misfortunately abbreviated StDs.

I got the cards & envelopes from Michael's in the stationary section, they can in packages of 10 A7 flat cards & 10 envelopes. Since I didn't send out many STD's this worked out well for me. I purchased 2 packs for $4.99 each and used a 25% off coupon.

Envelopes lined and with a cute little bouquet embossed on the back. To line envelopes, trace the fold of your envelope onto the paper you want to line with then cut out approximately 1/4 inch smaller than your "pattern" I used double sided tape to adhere around the glue line on the envelope and just under the fold.

This is what the magnet looked like - I removed our last names and our website for privacy reasons. They are business card sized magnets ordered from Vista Print. 

They turned out alright, the Scriptina font on the black background wasn't the best idea since the font is so skinny. And I've yet to figure out how I managed to leave "Save the Date" in such a yucky, boring font but I was happy enough with them, they served their purpose and didn't cost a fortune.

After the magnets were attached, I punched 2 holes horizontally in between the cheesy rhyme and "formal invitation to follow" and then took a orange piece of ribbon and tied it in a knot.

For me, StD's were completely unnecessary I had a lot of out of town guests but they were all my immediate family and were well aware that my wedding was coming up. I really did these simply because I wanted to so keeping the price as low as possible was a must. Overall, I only spent about $1 each for these including postage.