Wedding craft: Lace tea light holders

The problem with finishing all of your wedding crafts early, is you start looking for new ones...

Mr S sensibly suggested we finished all the wedding projects before my hen-do (which was last weekend), so my heirloom bouquet, stationary, and several other little surpizes for the guests have all been finished  ... but now I'm seriously twiddling my thumbs with 10 days to go.

After 2 years of planning the only thing I felt we were seriosuly lacking were table centers for the evening do, as our day reception centers are too big for the evening tables. Mr S wasn't convinced we needed any, but it's been playing on my mind a lot lately and was thinking maybe a simple tea light. A while ago I saw THIS cool jam-jar idea by annaboo's house, loved it and filed it away on pinterest for another day. Fast forward to today, searching bargin basement shops for candle holders, and instead I found packs of four glasses or 99p and decided to get creative.

This is such a simple craft I did it in one afternoon (including time to go and get the lace). It doesn't really need instructions, but here is my technique:

All you need is:

Glass jars, cups or vases

 A selection of lace

PVA glue

A paint brush

Tea lights

1. Simply lay out your lace on your glass to work out position and spacings, cut your lace to size (allow a little overlap).

2. Paint the outside of the glass where you want the lace to go.

3. Wrap the lace around, patting it down as you go.

4. Trim away lace if there is a large overlap.

5. Dap more PVA between and ontop of any overlaping lace.

6. Finish your pattern and leave to dry.

7. Put a tea light inside, light and enjoy.

 Above are mine, drying on the windowsil. I've not told Mr S about them yet, verdict when he gets home from work, but hopefully the fact that it only cost £7 for all 12 will win him over ;)

Obviously I can't post many of my finished wedding projects, without spoiling our guests reaction, and I've been dieing to share, but this quick project was soo simple and effective I just had to post!

Invites: Minnie Mouse Theme Tutorial

My little girl's 2nd birthday is coming up and I'm planning a Minnie Mouse Party, but hoping to do as much of it myself and avoid the commercial partywear as much as possible, so keep your eyes peeled for a party special. But first I need to send out the invites, they're so simple to make I thought I'd share a quick tutorial on them for all you crafty parents out there - in fact this one is so simple older children will be able to help too.

* Friends and family please spot the 'deliberate mistake' with the date on this first batch of invites, lol

What you will need:

 White A4 paper

Black Card

Pink dotty ribbon

Scissors

A circle cutter (optional)

Adhesive (eg- high tack tape)

5"x5" Envelopes

The below template (click to get original size)

Firstly print the mickey mouse template (click on image to get original size and then save or copy and paste into word). Then on a new word document use the 'insert shape' tool to draw 6cm circles and the text box tool to add your party information and print. I can recommend the fun Disney style font Walter. Alternatively, cut 6cm circles with your cutter and write the information by hand.

Next use your circle cutter to cut out the party information panel. Cut out your mickey mouse outline, and use a pencil to draw around it as many times as will fit on each piece of black card (I think I managed 4 per A4) alternatively use your circle cutter to make one large and two small circles and overlap slightly.

Now take a length of ribbon and tie into a bow (I ended up getting them to the right size and then adding a single stitch to hold them in place but this isn't essential). Now simply take your three elements and stick together, I used a high tack tape roller mouse to attach the information panel and glue dots to attach the bow. Now just repeat the process as many times as required.

[For the full party details CLICK HERE]

TUTORIAL: How to make a personalised bracelet.

With an unusual name like Rianna, growing up I used to look for hours trying to find my name on the 'personalised' keyring/pen/badge/bracelet carousels. Of course these days having an unusual name is a lot less 'unusual' but finding said name on the branded items can still be quite tricky.

So why not use this quick and simple Tutorial to make yourself or you loved one a personal keepsake, no matter how unusual their name? Great for a birthday, communion, special occasion or makes a great flower girl gift.

What you'll need:

•  Alphabet beads - enough to spell out required name, check out craft shops and eBay. I've used silver coloured acrylic circles (6mm with 1mm holes).
• 2 x Spacers - Here I've used metal butterflies (1mm hole) but you can use anything you like: flowers, barrels, even skulls.
• Beads - this is entirely your preference, you can use any colour, or even a mixture of colours and sizes (here I've used white acrylic 6mm pearls)
• 4 x Seed beads - These aren't strictly necessary but here where I used the butterflies I would have had exposed elastic, and they add a nice break between the spacer and letters.
• 0.6mm clear elastic - You can pick some up at your local craft shop.
• Scissors - Nothing special just for cutting elastic.
• A ruler - To measure the bracelet
• A tape measure - To measure the wrist

Start by measuring (or estimating) the wrist of whoever the bracelet is intended for, I normally aim to make the length of the bracelet (when laid flat before knotting) 1-2 cm larger than the wrist.

Now lay your ruler flat (preferably in a tray or something with sides so the beads won't roll away) and begin to lay out the beads. Preferably you should always start with the bead with the biggest hole, as this will hopefully hide your end knot, in my case this was the main pearl beads. Next add your spacer and 2 seed beads either side (if using), followed by the letters that will make up the name. I know it seems odd starting at what is essentially the middle but this will mean you can add more or less beads at the end to alter the length without having to balance either side out. Keep adding beads until they line up to your wrist size plus a cm or 2.

When you are happy with your layout unravel a little of the elastic from the reel, but do not cut it just yet. Begin threading beads onto your elastic, one by one, starting at the first bead you laid out. Pay careful attention to the direction/orientation of the alphabet beads, as its very easy to get one back to front and have to start again.

Once all the beads are in place, this is your chance to test the length by wrapping it around the intended wrist and checking the fit. Add more or less beads accordingly.

Feed the bead string towards the end of the elastic (leave about 2 inches), and now you're ready for the first knot. I use a basic 'overhand knot' (well I think that's what its called) basically crossing the two ends over one another and then double knotting, but if you know a lot about knots go ahead and use whatever you think suitable. After this first knot you're probably safe to cut the elastic from the reel without everything unravelling. Now take the two ends and make another knot over the top, feeding the elastic through again to make a more secure knot.

At this point some people like to do third and even fourth knots and then superglue for even more, however unless your beads have 3-4mm holes a knot this big is going to  be clearly visible and superglue can end up sticking to the beads and spoiling all your hard work.

Give the two ends a good tug and now use the scissors to cut the ends as close to the knot as possible. Now gently pull on the bracelet elastic and slide the knot into the hole of the first bead where hopefully it will remain hidden from view.

And that's it, its really that simple :) Stand back and admire your new bracelet or get it gift wrapped.