DIY Friday: Lace painted bottle vases

In yesterday's post, I created a tablescape using some neon pink bottle vases. The process was very easy, so I thought I'd share it in a few quick photos.

I have begun a habit of saving nicely shaped bottles after the condiment or drink is consumed. In my world, you just never know when a craft idea will hit. One must always be prepared and be sure not watch hoarders to feel guilty about this need to be prepared.

First, take off the label by soaking it in water and then scrubbing it with your fingernail until the label is clean off.

Then, wrap a 10" paper doily around the top of the bottle and secure it tightly with a rubber band.

Stick a dowel into the grass and place the bottle upside down onto it and spray with spray paint. I do not recommend that you have your daughter hold the dowel as she is very unreliable and will drop the bottle in the grass. And clearly you have noticed that I did this one in gold, which I later decided to spray over again with the pink. The gold photos didn't look good at all.

Et voila! A super cheap, kind of pretty little vase!

Neon Pink Tablescape

I keep wondering if 'tablescape' is an actual word, or one that I made up. Anyone know?

I've been interested in the neon trend and had some ideas brewing in my head for several months now. Since I had a little free time this week I thought I'd try to get one of the ideas out of my head and into reality.

My approach to this trend is that a little neon goes a long way. I kept things simple with tiny touches like the slim neon pink bow (it's lanyard actually!) tied around the linen napkin (purchased from Crate and Barrel here) and placed on a table of white and linen textures.

I decided to contrast the fabricated aspect of the neon pink with very earthy and natural elements. The 'place card' is a strip of neon pink artist's tape (similar tapes found here) with raw ripped edges. The repurposed glass bottle vases are painted with neon pink accents (I'll do a tutorial on Friday on those) and filled with pastel field flowers like zinnias, queen anne's lace and green hydrangeas. (An aside confession for those who think I spent money on the flowers; these are the only flowers I have in my garden right now that haven't died from drought and I snagged the queen anne's lace from a roadside patch while walking the dog.) The vases are interspersed around a piece of drift wood (thank you, Ohio River). Overall, I'm diggin' this look!

I'll also be posting some cute shower and birthday party invitations to go with this neon pink theme. Stay tuned!

DIY Friday: Dip Dye Bottle Vases

I've been saving some nicely shaped bottles from the recycling bin lately because I'd been wanting to try painting a color on the bottom. The neon pink spray paint I bought at an art store in Savannah is patiently waiting for me to pull the trigger. What has been stopping me? Well, I just wasn't sure I'd like to see the stems of the flowers. Having written that out just now, it sounds like a really pathetic excuse, doesn't it? I am so visual (dare I say I have visual A.D.D.?) that those things really stick in my craw. And I cannot start any project that I don't have a clear vision for, either in my head or in a photo.

So, I was super relieved to see (literally) that I could possibly eliminate the distracting green stems by simply using one flower. How simple and understated! My muse was Stephanie Bond from her blog Bondville. There are some more dip dye projects on her blog here if you're feeling the crafty urge this weekend.

And by the way, is everyone on vacation but me? It seems like that! I'm all working so hard in my studio basement and everyone's Facebook pages are showing beach pictures.

Best. Event Supply. Website. Ever.

Well, my party throwing friends, you are really going to be excited that I shared this site with you. I stumbled upon it last night at the end of the day and before I knew it, I was clicking all over and saying things aloud to myself like "Oh my gosh!" and "Pin that!" and "holy crap! THAT'S where you get those!"

The site is called SaveOnCrafts.com and it is truly the most comprehensive event planning supply website I've encountered thus far. Someone described it as Oriental Trading Co. for adults, but I think that the quality and style of their products is so much better.

Here is the photo that got me to the site. I just purchased some great antique bottle boxes and saw those cute bottles that might just be perfect inside them:

Source: save-on-crafts.com via Margot on Pinterest

Then my little adventure took me to the moss page and "Oh my gosh!" there were choices of moss balls, moss poles, moss covered rocks (fake and real) and this fabulous find. I'm going to be wrapping it on a huge letter for a wedding decoration.

Source: save-on-crafts.com via Margot on Pinterest

I started to feel anxious and overwhelmed because at this point, I knew there would be great discoveries in every category and I wondered if I would ever be able to see it all. I checked out the linen and burlap favor bags I was researching for a client and not only found several styles and textures of the little bags, I found this cool silverware bag.

Source: save-on-crafts.com via Margot on Pinterest

Then I discovered these wood flower beauties. Aren't they gorgeous? I can see them in a simple wood vase on a cream and white table setting. Or mixed with a touch of Scandinavian red.

Source: save-on-crafts.com via Margot on Pinterest

I just sent one of my clients there and she reported to me this morning that they had literally EVERY thing she was looking for from flower petals to wagon wheels. What do you think? Are you going down that rabbit hole today? You know you want to...

DIY Friday: Yarn wrapped vases

These yarn-wrapped vases were part of my Family Reunion decorations. I really wanted to bring in that striped pattern somewhere on the tables and experimented with this technique. I think I'm still on the fence about whether I love it or not. Sometimes I look at them and think they look great in a bold and modern kind of way, and then other times....well, I'm just not so sure. But what the heck, you have to try and not every project wins a Tony Award, right? Right.

I will say that now I've broken the yarn vase seal, so to speak, I can imagine it on other projects. I've seen objects wrapped with twine and rope and those look good. Maybe a combination of white and beige cotton string? Given that this project requires very little in time and materials, it's worth experimenting. If you don't like it, but want to keep the bottle or vase you were using, you can just unwrap the string and start over. No harm done.

I think these bright colored yarn bottles would look cute with some yarn pompoms as "flowers" for a crafty birthday party too.

Here is a photo collage of the basic steps.

MATERIALS:
A bottle or vase (clean, but labels can still be attached since they will be covered up later)
Yarn or string of your choice
Tape gun
Tacky glue

PROCESS:
Use your tape gun to place tape strips placed about every 1 inch from the top to the bottom of the bottle. Then put some tape horizontally along the base and top of the bottle.
Keeping the string attached to the ball, start at the base of your bottle and attach the string edge to the tape. I angled that string tail upward so it would be covered by the next rows of string. This way you do n't have a frayed tail hanging out. Continue along the rest of the bottle, switching colors as desired. You can use the tacky glue to tuck the last tail of string under and keep it hidden. It's super easy and fast.

Family Reunions!

Despite the ridiculous heat wave, we did what all families do and persevered with our family picnic. I will admit that the main event was held in the comfort of air conditioning, but as the breeze started blowing and the clouds held back the dominating sun, we did venture out onto the wraparound porch and talked all afternoon long.

Those are cousins and they still act about 10 years old when together!

As I mentioned in the previous post, I styled this family reunion along with my sister who provided the party's inspirational fabric. Adding to the general family updates, we strongly encouraged everyone to participate in the various photo opportunities set up for them. One such opportunity was a photo back drop with frames for props. Luckily, everyone knew just what to do with this because they'd been at my birthday party a year earlier. That backdrop was a challenging one to create--I'd hoped for a simple sewn version where the lines would be crisp and colors vibrant and perfect. Since I am not the sew-er in the family, my sister suggested that we go for a painted option. While there were several moments of "oh crap, I think this might be a major fail" (actual text from my sister), and LOTS of sweating, I think it looked really great in the end. It was still super bright and cheerful and looked kind of artsy and imperfect (just like our family!) FYI, we created this look by watering down the acrylic paint.

Another fun photo opportunity was a video story booth set-up on the back porch. I had a few cue cards as prompts to facilitate the memories and get them talking. This was a lot of fun, and many people just hung around and listened to the stories. I liked recording the special relationships that were shared. This will definitely be a family gem!

Here are some of the questions on the cue cards:
-What did your mother or father give you that you 1.) Cherish or 2.) Wish she/he hadn't?
-Share a memory of someone in your family that has passed
-How did you meet your spouse?
-What did you do/play with your cousins when you were a child?
-What are the most remarkable inventions that happened in your lifetime? How did you manage before them?
-Who do you think you resemble most in your family?
-My (blank) always said:

Another fun highlight were the ice cream drumsticks my husband and I made. We even put the custom stickers on them!

Inspiration for a Family Reunion Picnic

Our family motto is "It's Better Together" if you hadn't guessed!

Once I got over being 13-17 years old, I really learned to love and appreciate my family. We run the gamut from staunch republicans to wild free-thinking liberals and love to get together and celebrate our crazy selves. This year my cousins in Wales invited us to their Family Picnic in the UK on July 8th. While we still cannot afford to fly 5 people across the ocean yet I thought we should celebrate along with them, even if it's across the pond!

Fabric for napkins that inspired the invitation & party style

Ideally the picnic was going to be at a park but since the temperatures seem to be stuck at 100+ degrees, it's going to be at my sister's house. She had a hankering to sew some cloth napkins out of this colorfully striped fabric, which I love! Once that was established, I created an invitation and we were set to start the styling. I'll give all the rest of the details once we get through the picnic.

You won't trip down the aisle with this cute idea!

My wedding was a LONG time ago, but I still remember the panic about tripping down the aisle. We were married in a field at our farm and the aisle runner was nothing more than a white, free floating strip of nylon placed on fluffy, uneven field grass. I had to encourage my bridesmaids to goose-step like the Russian army so as to not pitch themselves into the seated guests.

Since out door weddings haven't ever lost their charm, I thought this was an adorable idea to decorate the "aisle" without that tripping stress that you didn't know you had to worry about until I just freaked you out with it (thank me later). Two paper hearts are taped to a stick (like a wooden skewer) and pushed into the ground. Super easy and do-able long before the wedding. This idea was featured on one of my favorite wedding blogs 100 Layer Cake. Of course the cuteness for this wedding doesn't stop there. I love their dessert table full of all different cakes because it reminds me of a State Fair Baking contest, you know? And that colorful backdrop is so attractive! You'll probably want to see more so check out the entire wedding here.