Wedding Series 2: Starfish Buttonholes

To co-ordinate with my beach theme bouquet, we needed to create some buttonholes that reflected the same theme. From ideas I had seen on Pinterest, I knew I wanted the main feature to be a starfish with some decoration included behind.

We used the same starfish from the bouquet which were sourced from Amazon. We also got the buttonhole backs from Amazon - these were actually leftover from my sister's wedding, back in 2015.

We used some ribbon to wrap around the buttonhole back and this was dyed with Tim Holtz Alcohol ink in Tranquil so that it matched the same blue in my bouquet.

We used the same beading that was used in my bouquet, which had also been dyed with the same alcohol ink. We then finished off the buttonhole by including a shell at the top, which was from our own stash.

I think these buttonholes matched in brilliantly with my bouquet and made the perfect groomsmen accessory for the wedding. Of course we made enough for the men in the family, so everyone co-ordinated with the theme (apart from Eddy the dog)!

Wedding Series 2: Beach Bouquets

Next up in our wedding series are the beautiful bouquets. Since our wedding is themed around the beach/seaside, I wanted to incorporate a beach theme into my bouquet. Also as a crafter I knew that I wanted my bouquet to be made from artificial flowers/fabric, rather than having real flowers. This way I get to keep my bouquet forever and it allows me to get very creative!

Mum took the lead in making these for me as she also made the bouquets for my sister's wedding back in 2015 (click here to read that post). We decided to incorporate some of the same style of fabric flower in my bouquet as well, but aside from that, we needed to find different types of flowers that would work well with the theme. I also wanted to include some shells and starfish in the bouquet to elaborate on the beach theme.

We sourced nearly everything from online retailers (mainly due to UK lockdown) and played around with quite a few options before things started to click into place.

We got the bouquet holders from eBay - but you can get the same ones from Floracraft, which is a US retailer. Unfortunately the ones we got from eBay still needed to be shipped from the US but they arrived quite quickly. These bouquet holders were the prettiest ones we could find and they feature a beautiful clear plastic handle that looks like fine crystal - much nicer than a white plastic handle. Also the size of these were larger than others we found in the UK.

The large blue flowers on the bouquet came from a flower arrangement we found on Amazon. Unfortunately we couldn't use some of the other flowers that were included in this arrangement as they were too large.

The blue beading we included was sourced from eBay. This came as cream coloured pearls but we managed to colour them using some Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink Pearls in the colour Tranquil.

You may also be ale to see in the picture above that we included pieces of artificial reef. This helped to expand on the beach theme and once again we coloured this in the same blue alcohol ink so it matched in with the colour scheme in the bouquet. We sourced these from Amazon and they are normally used for fish tank decorations - however they make the perfect decoration to use in beach bouquets.

The small starfish that we used came from Amazon as well and the shells we used were from a collection of shells that we already had at home.

For the base of the bouquet we wrapped around some seam binding ribbon in a cream colour. We also included a shell locket that had two pictures of my dad in. This is such a beautiful way to incorporate loved ones that are no longer with us and kept him close to me on my wedding day. 

The shell locket came in a gold brass colour which we turned shabby chic by dabbing on some cream coloured paint.

For my sister's bouquet, we included most of the same elements, however since she had some pink in her dress, we decided to add some pink flowers to her bouquet.

I think the bouquet complimented my sister's dress perfectly!

These bouquets turned out exactly how I imagined they would and they make great floral decorations that I can display around the house! 

Stay tuned for our next blog post in this Wedding Series which will feature our handmade Starfish Buttonholes.

Wedding Series 2: Invitations

Next up in our Wedding Series we are featuring the main Wedding invitations and these definitely are the star of the show!

Once I had created my Save The Dates, I had set the scene for a seaside/beach wedding theme and I started brainstorming ideas. As a crafter, creating my own wedding invitations was a must and it has been something that I have been looking forward to my whole crafting life. However with the challenge set out in front of me, it became quite a daunting task and I knew I wanted to impress - therefore adding extra pressure.

I had thought up quite a few ideas, but nothing seemed to be ticking all the boxes. Until one day I was searching on eBay and the perfect die cut appeared and I knew there and then that this was exactly what I was looking for. Now I never ever buy my metal dies from China (through eBay sellers) - however I had searched all other die cutting brands and companies and nobody had what I was looking for. As you may be able to see from the design below, the edging die I used to create the fold over flaps was the perfect design to incorporate the shells and the starfish that I needed for my seaside/beach theme. 

Once I had the edging die cut, I was able to create the main insert for the invitations. I designed this on the computer using a combination of fonts to create the desired look that I wanted.

I also created a band for the main part of the invitation to keep it altogether. For this, I used a piece of gold card (the same card I used to die cut the edges) and then I added a die cut shell. This is from the Tim Holtz  Seashells Bigz Die with Texture Fades. I edged the shell using a dauber sponge and a gold metallic watercolour paint.

If you have previously read my post about designing invitations during a pandemic, you will know the dilemmas I faced when it came to including all the necessary information for our guests. We decided to include a introductory letter to our guests that addressed the issue of Coronavirus and how we would stay in contact with them as the situation changed. We also included a brief outline of what the menu would entail, as well as accommodation information and a little poem about what we would like as a wedding gift. All that was left was to include an RSVP that our guests could fill out and return in the post.

To decorate these pieces of wedding stationery, I used the same starfish and sand dollar stamps that I used for the Save the Dates and also the same technique of embossing the designs with gold embossing powder.

I am so chuffed with the end result, which perfectly captures the design I wanted to create - a beach themed invitation with a touch of elegance! I am hoping to include this design in my Etsy store in the future, so watch this space...

Wedding Series 2: Save The Dates

Welcome to the start of a new Wedding Series on the blog, where we will be sharing some inspiration on lots of different wedding makes, including invitations, buttonholes, bouquets, table decorations, favours and more! This series will be split into two parts, with some posts in May and then the rest will be in November (after our wedding party - don't want to give away too many sneak peeks!) If you haven't already read our first Wedding Series on the blog, then make sure you check it out here. In the first series, I recapped a lot of wedding makes we created for my sister's wedding back in 2015.

So let's kick start this series with the Save The Dates...

So before I even got to the designing phase, I needed to come up with a theme for our wedding. The Save the Dates are an introduction to your wedding for your guests and are also a sneak peek into what the theme will be. We decided for our wedding that we wanted a beach/seaside theme which gave me plenty of scope to play with!

I often start researching ideas by looking on Pinterest and Etsy to see what kind of things I could come up with. We liked the idea of giving our guests something like a magnet or a badge that they could put up somewhere to remind them to "save the date".

In the end we decided to go for a magnet that our guests could put on their fridge (or anything magnetic). I played around with a few different ways of creating the magnet but in the end I ordered some clear plastic badges from Amazon and then simply took off the pin at the back and stuck a disc magnet on the back. The clear badges allow you to put your own design inside, so I therefore designed the text of the badge on the computer and cut them out using my Silhouette die cutting machine. I left enough room between "Tying the Knot" and the date at the bottom so that I could add a stamped image of a rope. I stamped this using a clear embossing ink and then used some gold embossing powder.

I designed the backing card in a similar way, by designing the text on the computer and then once printed out I added some stamped starfish and sand dollar designs to the top of the card and embossed them. Once they were all complete, I just used a small sticky dot on the back of the magnet to adhere to the card.

 Stay tuned this month for more wedding inspiration in this series, including invitations, bouquets and buttonholes...