DIY Fresh Flower Crown

Remember the baby's breath hair pins I made for all the guests to wear during my best friend's bachelorette party a couple weekends ago?  Well today's post is about the baby's breath crown that I made for the bride to wear at that same party.  I figure there's no better excuse than your own bachelorette party to get to wear a pretty crown!  

I really did want this crown to be pretty and not gaudy or gross like some bachelorette party accessories can be.  As I mentioned in the post about the floral hair pins, this was a fun, lighthearted, classy party because that's the kind of girl my best friend happens to be.

An easy floral DIY with big impact

My best friend's wedding finally happened this past weekend, and it was even more awesome than I had imagined it would be.  The bride looked stunning in her dress, the champagne was free-flowing, and I danced right out of my shoes.

Before we got to the wedding, however, there was the small matter of the bachelorette party that I hosted and the slightly obscene amount of DIY projects that I got myself into because of it.

First up on that list were some cute little baby's breath hair pins that I made for all the party guests to wear to the bar.  They matched the baby's breath flower crown that I made for the bride, and I felt that they were a classier approach to the whole bachelorette scene than anything they sell down at the local party store.

While these flowers looked great at the bachelorette party, I could also envision them fitting right in at the wedding itself, and that's why I like them so much.

I actually made myself a new one to wear to an outdoor dinner with my extended family this evening, which is what you're looking at in the picture above.  And wouldn't it be perfect to pop one of these into your hair for a summer music festival or a picnic-style date in the park? These are shaping up to be my go-to hair accessories this spring/summer.

Bridesmaid Hairstyle #3: The Double Rope Braid Bun

I tried out another potential bridesmaid hairstyle today, and it very well may be the winner!

It's the double rope braid bun from The Beauty Department.  I love it because it was easy to do (it only took 2 attempts for me to figure it out) and it's super sturdy; I've had it in for at least 5 hours and it's still holding strong without any hairspray.

There will obviously be hairspray involved on the big day, but I just wasn't in the mood for it on a day off from shows.  I try to give my hair a break when I can, you know?

Anyway, this wasn't actually the hairstyle I had meant to try out today.  I was planning on making a bow out of my hair, but it was a lot harder than I had anticipated, and I couldn't get it to work.  I'm going to keep working on that one though, because I think it looks awesome.  I'll definitely be blogging about it if I ever succeed.

Have you done the double rope braid or the hair bow in your hair before?

xoxo
Laura

DIY Confetti Party Invitations

In my head, there is absolutely nothing that screams "party" more than confetti does.

With that in mind, I decided to use some of it to amp up my best friend's bachelorette party invitations.  It turned into a super simple DIY project that I was proud to drop into the mail.  I think these cards convey the idea that the party will be fun while keeping it classy with a lot of personal (a.k.a. handmade) touches.

This is what you'll need if you want to make invitations like this:
1.  Store baught cards.  Mine are made by Greenroom and I bought them at Target.
2.  Hole puncher
3.  Colored paper
4.  Scissors
5.  Plastic sandwich bags
6.  Washi tape

Have you ever made confetti?  It's ridiculously easy and provides a type of satisfaction akin to popping bubble wrap.  Just grab a hole puncher and go to town on a piece (or three) of colored paper.  Gather up all the holes you punched and you've got confetti.

The next step is making little bags to put the confetti in.  To do this, cut 1.5 x 1.5 inch squares out of the bottom corners of a sandwich bag.

Fill each of the little plastic squares with a couple pinches of confetti.

Now position the little confetti-filled baggie on the card, making sure that the baggie is tilted so it looks like a diamond with the two open sides on the top.

Secure the baggie to the card with a horizontal strip of washi tape, carefully placed so it covers most of the opening at the top of the bag.

It's alright to leave a bit of an opening on each of the top two sides of the baggie; this will allow a few of the confetti pieces to escape from the bag while the card is in the mail, which will add extra character to the invitation.

I also added a pinch of confetti to the insides of each card as a finishing touch.

I couldn't help myself.

There are only three and a half weeks to go until it's party time!

Happy hole punching,
xoxo
Laura

Bridesmaid Hairstyle #2: A Crisscross Ponytail

I tried out another wedding hairstyle idea this afternoon.

It's a crisscross ponytail that I saw on A Beautiful Mess.

It turned out to be really easy to do.  I just made a ponytail while omitting sections of hair on either side in the front, then I crossed those sections of loose hair at the back of my head and secured them with a few pins.  I finished it off by wrapping the remaining hair around my hair elastic and curling the ponytail.

If you're interested in trying this on your own hair, you can click on the link above for a much more in-depth step-by-step tutorial.

I love the way this style looks from the back, but from the front it looks a little plain. Maybe it would be nice to leave a few strands loose in the front and curl them?

One thing I really like about the crisscross pony is that it feels secure enough to last all evening at the wedding.  The french twist that I tried out didn't hold up so well; and I think this one will perform much better in that area.

It's certainly a contender.

xoxo
Laura

Bridesmaid Hairstyle Idea #1: The French Twist

My best friend's wedding is less than 2 months away!  I'm very excited about it.

I'm head over heels about being the maid of honor for a million reasons.  One such reason is the excuse to wear a really fancy hairstyle, on which it's perfectly acceptable to spend a lot of time and energy.

I've decided to try several different hair options over the next few weeks, record them here on the blog, then pick a winner on the week of the wedding.

The first style I'm trying out is a french twist.  It's simple, classic, and elegant, and I've actually never succeeded at doing my hair like this until today.

The cause of my sudden french-twisting abilities is the Fine Frenchy tutorial from The Beauty Department.  I didn't have any chop sticks to twist my hair with, so I used knitting needles instead, but this whole concept was a total game changer for me.

Here is my first-ever successful french twist:

I've still got my hair in the twist as I type this, and I'm going to keep it in all evening to see how it holds up.  I want my hair to look chic for the entirety of the wedding, not just the first hour or two, so staying power is an absolute must.

Have you ever tried the chop stick twisting technique?

xoxo
Laura

A DIY Engagement Present

My best friend is engaged to be married.

When she first told me about it, I was so happy for her that I was rendered completely speechless.  When the shock finally started to fade, it was replaced by an extreme excitement to make wedding crafts.  Lots and lots of wedding crafts!

That's how I show my love for my friends, by the way.  Some people show their love through food or through bear hugs, I show mine through knitting and crafting.  How do you show yours?

As a wedding-craft opener, I decided to make my friend and her fiancé a picture collage.

I already had all sorts of great pictures of the two of them because I was a little bit trigger happy when I went hiking with them and my new camera last fall.  Lucky for me, they always act  so adorably around each other that every picture I've ever taken of them is engagement-present-worthy.

To make a photo collage like mine, you'll need the following items:
1.  Pictures of the happy couple.  I used photoshop to make the pictures small enough that two of them fit on each 4"x6" picture that I had printed out at Target.
2.  Scissors
3.  Paper
4.  Pencil
5.  Tape
6.  Picture Frame

Directions:
1.  Cut out a piece of paper that is the same size as your photographs.  Fold the paper in half and draw a half of a heart on it.
2.  Keep the paper folded in half and cut along the line that you drew.  Unfold the paper to reveal a perfectly symmetrical heart.  This will be your stencil.
3.  Place the heart-stencil on the back of one of your pictures and trace around the outside of it with a pencil.
4.  Remove the stencil from the back of the picture and cut along the lines that you drew, turning the picture into a heart.  Repeat steps 3 and 4 for every picture until you have a pile of heart-shaped pictures.

5.  Now cut a piece of paper so that it's the right dimensions to fill your entire picture frame and serve as a backdrop for the picture collage.  I typed up the lyrics to a song that my friends like, printed it out, and used it as the background paper.  You could also use some colored construction paper or some fancy scrapbook paper for this step.

Once you've got your background paper all set, lay out the heart-shaped pictures on the background in the order/shape you'd like them to be in.  Pick up the pictures one at a time, place a piece of (rolled-up) tape on the back of them and stick them back down into place. Using tape instead of glue adds dimension to the collage because the pictures will pop out of the background a little bit.

When all the pictures are taped onto the background, place the collage in the frame, and you're all done!

Happy engagement, Karleen and Matt!
xoxo
Laura