A Beautiful Bridal Shower DIY Style

Once upon a time in a kingdom not so far away, a beautiful girl met a handsome guy, and they fell madly in love.  A ring was bought.  A knee was bent.  A question was asked.  And soon the kingdom prepared to celebrate a wedding!

In this story, the girl is my sweet sister, Allison and the guy is now her husband, Peter.  (The cutie on their lap is mine) And I, as one of two older sisters of the bride, conspired to throw a shower my sis would remember forever!

I wanted to share with you the projects I worked on that made the most impact for the guests, but didn't necessarily mean dropping a lot of money.  Here's how I did it:

1. Use their colors on thrift store items for a cohesive look.  Our bridesmaid dresses were teal, and the flowers were purple.  So I went with that.  This is obviously not a new concept - but here's how I improvised and included them.  I grabbed thrift store items I could use to decorate my mantel (the party was at my house) and gave them all a coat of spray paint to unify them.

One of the items was a charger - the kind that are always hanging around the thrift store and dollar store.  I personalized it with their names, initial, wedding date, and location of their ceremony.  If you aren't the painting type, use a stencil, stamps, or vinyl.

I also did a vase that I'd fill with fresh flowers for the party - the words I added with a white paint pen.

And an added bonus?  All these lovely items made another appearance at the wedding as decor, and then were keepsakes for the happy couple!

2. Use nature.  This was an autumn shower, so when we went to the pumpkin patch to get pumpkins, gourds, and such for our house, we got a little extra for the front porch where all the guests would come in.

I set everything up nicely on the porch.  And I added some flair - again a little paint and some ribbon.

I crafted a few other things for the front porch.  You can see hiding in the background above a peek at one of my most favorite thrifted finds EVER.  It's a giant stand-up chalkboard like you see outside restaurants on the sidewalk.  I think it had a beer logo on the front.  I spray painted it white and added some neutral bunting across the top, and we use it for everything!  Shower, Thanksgiving, Christmas... so much fun.  I looked online for ideas to make it a really fancy drawing... it turned out really cute.  I wrote, "Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue.  Allison's ready to say I Do!  Welcome to the shower!"

People said they loved it!

I also used a plain grapevine wreath I had, and bought two black wooden letters for the bride and groom's initials at Michael's. I painted some white designs on them, and just tied them onto the wreath with black thread.  I added a teal ribbon...and done.

3. Hit the Dollar Store, baby!  I found spools of white tulle there, and grabbed some of my fancy champagne flutes.  Tied tulle bows around the stems and added them to the mantel.  I also used some jewelry I found at yard sales and stuck those on the bows.  Looked wedding-y and cost almost nothing.

4. Make it personal.   I was invited to the groom's hometown - shout out to Owensboro, Kentucky - for a shower and while I was there, I went looking for something from Owensboro I could use as favors.  I found it at a fantastic local orchard where they make their own Apple Butter, which is divine.

I bought 6 big jars, and ordered small favor-sized jars online.  I also ordered printed labels, and the day before the party, I decanted the goods into the jars.  I loved having a piece of Peter there - it was so sweet.

I also did a quick sign to sit next to the favors, explaining what it was and why we were giving it out. It read, "Allison found something great in Owensboro, KY and so did we! Apple butter from Reid's Orchard. Please take one!"
The large jars the butter came in made perfect flower vases, and looked adorable.  EEEK!  I loved this!

The day was memorable, full of family and friends, good food, and LOTS of presents.

But most importantly, it was filled with love.

I'm so happy for my sister, who made a stunningly beautiful bride, and I hope you can use some of these ideas to shower someone you love, too.

XO,
Anne

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Cowgirl Up! Link Party

Easy DIY Printable Valentines with DK Eyewitness books

Hi everyone!
I'm shocking myself a bit with this post, because while art, design, and writing are my areas of expertise, technology and math are not!
Nonetheless, this morning I was able to make printable valentines for my son to pass out at school, and it didn't cost me anything.

My son got this DK Eyewitness book as a gift this past year.

It came with a Clip-Art CD, but until now we haven't used it at all.

He has been asked to write out a valentine to each member of his class, and he wasn't looking forward to it (or anything resembling homework). I figured if I could make some valentines he'd like, he might be less resistant to getting this project done.

So I sent him off to school, got out the book and CD, and got to work experimenting. We use Open Office's free software (find it here) not Microsoft Word, so if that's what you have, this process may differ slightly, but you should still be able to do it.

I opened Open Office, and when it asked me to choose a format (spreadsheet, word document, etc.) I chose "Drawing."
Once I was in the document, I went up the "File" tab, and clicked, "Open."
I chose the CD as the source to open, picked a clip-art file, and boom - it showed up on my page!! Yes, people, this is exciting for me. Stop laughing. Really.

I found the option to shrink the art to a size where I could fit three of them on a page, and then copied and pasted it twice to give me three valentines on one 8x11 page.

I added text that went with my airplane theme. Ahem, "You MACH me happy!" Not too girly or anything, so my 2nd grader would be cool with handing them out.

I added a To and a From line, so he can write in his name and his classmates names.
Copied and pasted those twice and printed out my creation.... and it worked!!!

I will probably go print them on cardstock at Staples for a few bucks, and staple it to whatever goodie we end up handing out.

I am so pumped that I was able to use something we already had to make a valentine for my kiddo!

These books are pretty popular, so if you have one, go find it and start playing. You can also find them here.
Happy Valentine's Day!

XO,
Anne

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Making over the world...one little chair at a time

**Update** A big thank you and lots of love to Beckie at Roadkill Rescue, for featuring this little project. You can see it here.
Mwah!









It may seem very small, what we home decor/artist/designer types do. But I have a little chair in my basement that makes me feel otherwise.

This little friend.

She was sad, alone, and definitely had seen better days.

I've had those days myself... anyone else?
I picked her up in parking lot of my favorite thrift store and added her to my collection.

Then I got the chance to go to the Country Living Fair in Columbus, OH last fall.
Check out a video here:

AWESOME, btw.  You should go. I grabbed up some sweet fabric at one of the booths there (darn it, I can't remember the name. I'll update if I do!) - a laminated cotton with a red and white chevron print.  I didn't know where I would use it but who cares?! IT MADE ME SMILE. When I realized it would be perfect to recover my new chair, I went for it. This was an easy peasy project, made oh so simple thanks to the purchase of my electric staple gun. You could probably do it in an afternoon. The chair came apart in two pieces.  I simply unscrewed the back piece and then unscrewed the legs from the seat.  The original label was still attached, and I love that so I laid it aside.

Then I peeled the layer of (paper?) off the bottom.   It was basically disintegrating in my hands.

Next I took off the blue vinyl seat cover and added a new layer of batting for comfort.

Then I laid out the seat on my fabric - be sure to position it the way you want it.  It can be kind of easy to confuse the front of the chair with the back of the chair when the seat is sitting there all by itself. The I started stapling the new fabric on. This staple gun has been a lifesaver.  (I'm not getting paid to say this - just my experience.)

I'm learning that upholstering anything is about art as much as it is about science.  You just have to work with your fabric and see what looks best.  I am absolutely not an expert on upholstering.

Wa-la! Now for the back and seat. They were rusty.  I wasn't exactly sure what to do, so I just tried some fine grit sandpaper.

Worked like a charm!

Almost done... I had some black fabric that covers the bottom of upholstered furniture.  So I cut a piece out and stapled that on the bottom of my seat.

Then I screwed the legs back on. The I knew approximately where the screw holes were, so I just felt around until I found them with my finger.  I put the leg frame in place and started screwing it back on. The only slight hiccup was that the screws would "catch" on the fabric a bit, and it would start to twist and pucker around the screw hole.  To fix this, I would turn the screw in a little ways then unscrew it some to loosen up the fabric.  I repeated this until the screws were all in.  You'll just have to keep an eye on it.

I took the original label and stapled it back on.

I screwed the back on, same as the legs.

That's it!  This would be a GREAT first project if you are interested in tackling upholstery.  There's a ton of good info out there with more expertise about how to do it well, so go take advantage of it.  You can do it!!

Sometimes people tell me they're not creative.  Here's what I think... you don't have to be completely creative. You don't have to figure it all out yourself or come up with something no one else has thought of.  There are SO many ideas, tutorials, how-to's out there... so pick one with a good step-by-step and give it a shot. YOU have to power to make things better... a castoff chair, a thrifted picture frame, a lamp.  Pick something small and start there. It's a powerful message.  That even when something looks unloved, it has the potential to be great.  As do we all. It's empowering. And chances are it will make you smile. I know it makes me smile! This little beauty is going to the home of a friend, where it will be used by her adorable kiddos.  Win. Win.  :-)

XO, Anne