Carnival Wedding

As we started wedding planning we were coming up with different ideas on how we could have an affordable, fun, self planned wedding. I knew one thing. We were going to have a candy buffet. I scoured the internet, and eventually came up with the idea to do a carnival wedding. I convinced the hubs of this, and then we started telling our family and friends our plan. Some jumped right on board, others were a little more skeptical. I would explain that it would involve carnival games and food, such as hot dogs, cotton candy, and popcorn. Eventually they would understand, or they would at least leave it be. :) So, what does a vintage carnival themed wedding look like? Here you go!

My wonderful mother-in-law made these awesome signs to go around the site announcing where we were.

We were outside, with minimal decor. We did basic white chairs and attached pinwheels around on some of them.

And down to the reception...

Long, family style table and seating with red paper table covers, burlap runners, and pinwheels.

The candy buffet, full of vintage style candy and simple paper bags to fill with the goodies.

And of course carnival games. First off, a game of strength, tug-of-war. The bridemaids and groomsmen had a little competition, and my girls won it! (We won't mention that they just let go, and made the boys fall down) :)

Balloon dart toss. There was also toss the ping pong ball in the fish bowl, and sack races

Cupcakes with swirl frosting, and a cake reminiscent of a big top or popcorn tub. 

What is a party without some food? My photographer said he thought it was awesome that there is a picture of hot dogs in our wedding pics. I'd have to agree.

That adorable little candy machine being used as a fork holder is a pinterest project I did a while back.

Don't forget the cotton candy! There was also popcorn, whole pickles, and peanuts to complete the carnival  array.

And last but not least is my in my boots! 

Hope you enjoyed my little foray into a vintage carnival wedding. This would make a great party theme for anytime!

Gobble Gobble

My lovely boss has a window in her office. It looks out onto the backside of  some cubicle. :) Last Thanksgiving our team decorated her office window with hand print turkeys. We have kept it decorated all year long. Sometimes we get creative, and we do some crafted item and sometimes it's just those gel cling things. We didn't have any easy gel clings for Thanksgiving on hand, so we had been thinking about what we were going to put up on the window. One morning, I saw this post from A Girl and a Glue Gun. Have you been over there yet? Love her!!

I was inspired! This was a crafty project that even the least crafty on our team could get behind. I headed into our lounge, and grabbed an assortment of severely outdated magazines. (People magazine from March anyone? It has Kim K's engagement on the cover!) I gave everyone a magazine and assigned them a color. We went through and made a collage of that color, cut out a feather shape, and then created this masterpiece!

Burlap Wreath with Fabric Flowers

What to do with lots of burlap?! For the wedding we did a burlap runner down the tables. For that I bought ready to do burlap strips from Michaels. They were $5 for a 30 feet, and it is about 6 inches wide. It was a great buy, and was exactly what I was looking for. Now that the wedding is over I have lots of burlap and wanted to come up with some good things to do with it. Where to turn for ideas? Pinterest of course!

Lots of cute things came up, and I got lots of ideas, but I knew right away I wanted to do a couple wreaths. There were lots of designs and ways to go about it. I was going to a bridal shower this weekend, and decided this was the perfect opportunity to try out making a wreath.

I adapted the way I did the wreath from a tutorial on Today's Fabulous Find. For the wreath base, I took a tip from The Penny Parlor and instead of buying a foam wreath base for this, I headed over to the Home Depot plumbing department and got a piece of foam tubing for 97 cents! This is a 6 foot piece, and I cut it in half to and used duct tape to attach the ends into a wreath form. Craft fail note, I also bought a piece of tubing with a larger diameter...it didn't create a very nice circle, and I had to give up on it. So, stick with the smallest one. But, 97 cents for 2 wreaths is much better then $6-$7 for one!

This is the bigger size tubing, and it just kept getting kinks, but you do the same thing with the smaller size and it works like a charm!

Materials:

Wreath base

Burlap runner/strip - 10 yards (or you can get a couple yards of burlap from the fabric store)

Pins

Fabric flowers, bows, or other decorations you want to add

First you are going to want to cover the wreath base with burlap.

 You are going to cut your burlap into squares. I just took the strip, and folded it over to get an aproximate square, it doesn't need to be perfect. This was a bit messy for me, and I was doing it on the couch and luckily had a little blanket under me to catch the bits of burlap falling everywhere.

To create the bubbles on the wreath, I created a triangle with the square an put a pin through the corner, then pulled the other two corners in and put the pin through those as well.

You'll end up with this bubble, and it was just a little big for me, so I then pulled each of the corners in again and put the pin through the gaps in the burlap. On the cut sides you have to put it down a little farther so it doesn't thread out,or you put the pin in the threads of the burlap.

You then end up with this bubble.

You then attach it onto the wreath form. With the tubing I used, if the pin was put straight in it would poke out the other side and pull out easily. However, I just put the pin in at an angle, so that it slide right along the foam part of the tubing and it stayed really well. Keep putting them around until you have filled up the wreath!

Here is the back view, I didn't do bubbles on the back, I didn't think it was needed and the wreath form was covered from the initial wrap around.

You could leave this wreath as is, but I wanted to add a little something to it. I did some fabric flower rosettes, and put them on pins. Then, they can be taken off and different decorations can be added to it for different seasons of the year.

Fabric flowers are fairly simple. I don't know if this is the best way to do them, but this is how I've always done it. You can also do this with ribbons and it comes out great!

You'll need strips of fabric and a glue gun. I use up most of my fabric scraps doing this. Your strips can very in length and width. I do them 2-3 inches wide, and whatever length I have. The wider and longer your fabric, the bigger your flower. Pretty common sense, huh? :)

Start with tying a knot in the end of the fabric. You'll use this as the base to wrap the rest of the flower.

Glue down the tail of the knot, then start twisting the fabric, and gluing it down.

Continue to twist, roll, and glue. 

When you get the flower the size you want, you are going to glue the end of the fabric to the back of the flower to finish it off.

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Crystal B Inspired By...

Cupcake Crafts

Each year the Girl Scout council I work for hosts an large fundraiser, called Urban Campout. One part of the event is a silent auction that is held, and the team I work on donates a basket to the silent auction. Last year we did a cupcake theme for the basket, and it was a blast to put together. This year, since I was getting married the next day, I opted out of coordinating the basket for our team. :) Here is the cupcake creation we made last year, and a bit about the crafts that I put together for it.

The first thing I put together were these cupcake stands. I'm a believer in presentation of food. When you get that first impression that is looks great, you do into it expecting the best. I am a fan of cake stands (and just got this one that I love, but haven't been able to get it since I still have wedding explosion all over our 400 sq feet of apartment.) When I saw these adorable DIY cupcake stands in Crafts & Things magazine, I knew I had to make them. They are fairly simple and can be decorated up more or coordinated to match a party theme. 

You need:

2 inch pots

3 inch saucers

acrylic paint

one button for each holder

string

super glue

Start by painting the pots and saucers. Do a double coat to be sure to get it all covered and looking nice.

You are then going to cut a piece of string long enough to attach the button around the pot. I also put a dab of glue behind the button so it was sure to stay in place.

Then glue the saucer to the pot

and you are done! Just place a cupcake in the top for ultra cute presentation!  Be creative with the color combos and buttons. You could also add some rick or ribbon around the saucer.

We were also including sprinkles and cake mixes in the basket, and I wanted to display them in something other than the box or container they cam in, so I did some decorating of jars for them. 

I drew some basic cupcake shapes on white paper for a pattern, and then cut them out of some cute dotted paper.

I then just took some glue and put them on the jars and they were good to go! (and even cuter once they were all full.

And here is our finished product with all kinds of cupcake fun!

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