DIY Wedding Thumbprint Tree

I made my first wedding DIY! Too soon you say? Too bad, I say! I know we've only been engaged a week but I've been waiting on this proposal for a while so lets just say that I have a seriously overloaded secret pinterest board just waiting to be crafted.

We're going to try and do a very low budget wedding so I'm going to need to make/borrow a lot of things. With all of the weddings happening in my life over the next year and a half (5, counting my own) I'm going to start early and do what I can, when I can! My fiance was out having a boys night last night so I went to Hobby Lobby (I should seriously consider having my paychecks direct deposited there) and while I wasn't planning on starting any wedding crafts yet I saw that they were having a canvas sale and I couldn't stop myself!

For the longest time I've had this idea of a thumbprint tree pinned. I loved the idea because a) I knew I could make it myself and b) I think its awesome because it's something that we won't just put away and never look at again, we can frame it and hang it up in  our future home!

 Things you will need:
-A canvas
-Acrylic paint
-Tree Clipart
-Printer
-Chalk
-Computer

A more detailed step by step process on how to make DIY canvas art can be found here. I didn't take as many pictures for this one, but its the same idea, I just used different clipart and designs.

Step 1: Use your computer to make a Publisher document the same size as your canvas (mine was 16x20). Design your canvas the way that you want it. I decided that I wanted to do essentially the same thing as the one you see above, but in different fonts and a different tree. You can find clip art using Google or, if you want to spend a few bucks Etsy has some super cute instant download clip art. I used tree clip art we bought for my sisters wedding programs. The exact one can be found here. You can probably find a cute one on Google for free though!

Step 2: Print your publication. Now obviously you are printing on 8.5x11 pieces of paper and your project is 16x20 so you're going to have to select the "tiled" option under the print set up. This will give you multiple pieces of paper you're going to need to put together with some tape. It seems like a pain, but its definitely worth the extra effort to get it looking how you want it.

My taped together template. Yes I realize I put 2013, but I was just playing around with placement, we aren't sure if this will be our for sure date yet

Step 3: Cover the back of your template with chalk. (I didn't paint the canvas, I wanted to leave it raw but you can paint yours if you want. If you do decide to paint the canvas that should be your first step to ensure its dry by the time you're done designing) I used a light brown chalk and it was almost too light, be sure you take into the color of your canvas into account before you start chalking up the back.... use darker chalks on light colors and light chalks on darker canvases. You might think this seems obvious but you're going to be PISSED if you spend all that time tracing and you can't see the lines! Wipe off the excess chalk from the back of the template with a paper towel.

Step 4: Trace the outline onto the canvas using a pen. The tree outline I used looks really fun and whimsical but let me tell you...... it took a LONG TIME to trace and even longer to paint. Keep that in mind when you're designing a template.

Step 5: Start painting!

You can see how faint the trace lines are, I didn't use a dark enough color

Step 6: Take a Diet Coke/popcorn break and then keep painting!

Step 7: Rinse and repeat! I did a second coat for the tree and then I went and found some birds online I liked and I did the same with those( traced them with chalk on the canvas and then painted them).

 

I did it with the lettering too. We don't quite know for sure when our wedding date will be/if the venue we want will be available on the day we want so I left that off for now, but it will go on the right hand side once we know for sure.

 Now all we need are some thumbprints!

I'm so excited to start making things for my wedding and start getting things together for my closest friends' weddings! I did a super cute DIY "Will you be my bridesmaid?" gift for all the girls I'd like in my wedding, but I can't post them until everyone gets theirs!

Stay tuned! The year and a half of wedding extravaganzas has begun!

My Turn!

I haven't posted anything lately because I've taken a little break from Pinterest projects....It's been crazy busy and I just haven't had the time.

Never fear, my sister's wedding is less than a month away and I've got a few things I need to get done.

That and the fact that I'm going to have a TON of projects in the future! (Not so) Grizley Adams proposed this weekend! (He shaved his beard for the occasion so I'm going to have to find a new nickname for him).

Fiance pretending to be regretful.

I've already started planning a sweet DIY for my "will you be my bridesmaid" gifts. Once I send them out I'll make a post and give you a step by step on how to make your own!

The Proposal Story: He had been hinting around hardcore for a while so I knew it was coming. I was convinced it was this weekend until my sneaky cousin got involved and CONVINCED me he had a big plan for later on. She asked me and Grizley Adams to stop by and take some pictures of her and her fiance for their upcoming engagement shoot because they were arguing about where to have it and they wanted some "samples" at a mansion on the creek (I probably should've seen through this but she is a terrible liar so I totally believed her). We walk up on a dock and I start talking to them and out of the corner of my eye I see him get on one knee. He says "I surprised you! I'm not one for speeches, but you've been my best friend for three years and there is no doubt in my mind that I want to spend the rest of my life with you and I want that to start today.....Will you marry me?" Of COURSE I said yes! Then he turns me around and my bestie and her boyfriend are standing behind us taking pictures.

Everything was caught on camera and we have tons of pictures from when he got on one knee to when it finally sank in about twenty minutes later. It was fantastic. Then later we went to dinner at our favorite little restaurant with all of our family and friends. It was the perfect day!








Anyways....we're going to try to stay super budget conscious so that means a TON of DIY projects!  If any of you married ladies out there have any tips or advice please feel free to give it!

How to make  your own chalkboards on the cheap coming soon!

Petal Icing on a Cake and Bachelorette Party!

I've made tons of cakes for a lot of different reasons and I think the easiest way to make your cake look awesome on the cheap is to ice it in an awesome way. It takes a little bit of time and patience, but it makes you looks like a super skilled cake expert and its ridiculously easy!

Here are some pictures of cakes I've done in the past. You can leave it plain and it looks awesome or you can add candles, a topper, bunting.....whatever your little heart desires!

I made one for my sister's bachelorette party this weekend so I took a few pictures so I could show you guys how to do it!

Things you will need:

-2 boxes of cake mix/stuff to make the cakes
-2 Circular cake pans, your choice of size
-Whipped cream cheese icing
- Powdered Sugar
-Food coloring (optional)
-Icing spatula (smaller is better)
-Whatever you want to use to decorate the top
-Gallon Sized Ziplock bags

Step 1- You'll need to make 2 round cakes, you can use whatever size you want, however big (or small) you need. I used 9 inch cake pans and Betty Crocker cake mix because I'm lazy super busy and don't want to have time to make them from scratch. You can make it from scratch if you want, more power to you Martha Stewart! Which ever way you decide to do it, make sure you THOROUGHLY grease your pans so the cakes slide out when you're done, thats really important!

Step 2- Bake your cakes.

Step 3- Once the cakes are done, flip them out of the pan and use a long knife and cut the tops off of the cakes, so that they lay fat once they cool and get stacked.

Step 4-While you're waiting for the cakes to cool, put the icing into a bowl (I use 2 cans on a cake like this) and add food coloring (if you want it to be colored). I also add about a 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, this makes it stiffer and its easier to do the icing technique. Keep the icing in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

Step 5- Once its cooled, put one cake on whatever its going to lay on (a plate, cakestand, whatever) and then put a layer of icing on top of the first layer. Stack the second cake on top. Once you have the cakes lined up how you want them put on a thin layer of icing. I call this the "crumb layer" because there will probably be those annoying little crumblies in it. But that's ok because you're going to add another layer anyway and you wont be able to see it.

Step 6- Take a gallon sized plastic ziplock bag and snip off the corner, not TOO much because you don't want the dot size to be too big. Fill the bag with icing and make one column of dots down the side of the cake. After you have ONE column take your spatula, put in on top of the dot, push down and smear to the right. Do with each dot in the column. Then make another column of dots and repeat.....over and over and over again. Then once you get all the way around do the same for the top of the cake.

Tips:
- After you do about every 2 dots you'll want to keep the icing bowl nearby so that you can wipe the spatula on the edge and get all of the excess icing off. This will make sure you get a clean swipe.

- If your icing starts to get runny its just because its getting too warm. Take a break and stick it in the fridge for about 10 minutes. OR you can keep another bag in the fridge and when one starts to get runny swap them out.

-When you come full circle and get back to where you started there will be a little seam. My suggestion is to use a butter knife and smooth it out the best that you can. Make this the back of the cake so no one can see in photos :)

Step 7- Decorate as you see fit, add your topper, candles, etc and let the icing set overnight.

Step 8- Bring your cake to whatever event you made it for and stand back while everyone compliments you on what a culinary genius you are! You can tell them its Betty Crocker or you can pretend that you belong on the next episode of cake wars....totally up to you!

This was the end product for my sister's bachelorette cake....pretty hilarious if I do say so myself. I call it Hot Mess Barbie.

  

So that's it for making a petal cake but I also wanted to share some fun pictures of the bachelorette party we had this weekend. Its so nice when all the hard work you put in on all these little details come together and pay off!


We got so many compliments on the homemade tee's I made! And we got a ton of attention walking through the park, people shouting at us and congratulating my sister, Epcot was definitely a great place to have it. Everyone had a blast and the food and (many, many, many, many, many) drinks were all delish!

It rained all morning and we got SOAKED, but it cleared up and we drank through the bad weather!

The bride on our way up in the decorated Bachelorette-mobile

 

 

 

You can really see the t shirt in this picture from Germany, where we indulged in several beer flights with new friends

Everyone who came to Epcot on a ride while we we're waiting out the rain

We all got matching ponchos but they we're see through and people were sill loving our shirts through them!

Once the rain cleared it was beautiful and a perfect day for drinking around the world (this was Chinese beer)

The going out photos from that night.... well lets just say that what happens at Disney, stays at Disney.