Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Crafty Corner: Paper Flowers? I Do.

Hi. It's been quite awhile since I've written a blogpost...sometimes a girl just needs a break from all of life's responsibilities, ya know? (even though blogging is totally a self imposed sudo-responsibility and nothing horrible actually happens if a week goes by unblogged. Except for the fact that my type A brain feels a little itchy and scratchy when I allow myself to not follow thru on a task I had previously set myself to complete...long story short, it's time to blog.)

At the end of July, I had the honor and pleasure to be a member of Team #forevermathews. My lovely friend D was wed to her lovely husband T. I had many important duties to uphold for this blessed event such as Bridesmaid #3, hairstylist for a cutie Junior Bridesmaid, wedding details consultant (as I am currently a Wedding Coordinator by trade), ceremony worship song singer, flower pinner, random errand runner and most importantly a passionate vocal declare-er of D's radiant bridal beauty (and man...was she ever beautiful!)





I also had the pleasure of creating some of the decorations for the ceremony and reception. As many of my best crafting thoughts come to me in sleepy dreamland (or the fleeting moments between awake and asleep), my first idea came to me in the midnight hour....seeing some big fabric flowers with ribbons draping down that could be attached to the ends of the pews and the staircase. I wasn't exactly sure of how to accomplish this, so I headed to the craft store to see if the plan could unfold with some fabric-y inspiration. Well, I got there and there were ZERO suitable fabric options to choose from within the color scheme that D had chosen (orange and grey). Hmmmmmm. 

Ok, no need to panic....I just had to think of a new gameplan. And that plan was paper! In a sweet coincidence, I happened upon a big old stack of orange  clearanced cardstock on an endcap and bought it all (along with another stack of different orange patterned paper that I would figure out what to do with at home). I got to work and came up with a prototype that I was satisfied with and presented it to the Bride for final approval- she gave me the thumbs up so I moved forward with mass production (we needed 20 total for both ceremony and reception).

The Process- Part 1

I cut out 3 cardboard flowers of varying sizes and traced them out on the orange paper, alternating the paper patterns by flower size:



Then cut some strips of vellum to place in between the petals (attached on the back with double sided tape):





Flipped it over and rolled each petal inward with my handy sharpie marker rolling tool:



And repeated the process with the next sized cut out: 





And finally the largest cutout (no vellum strips on the back of this one):



Stuck them all together with more double sided tape:



And added some 'accessories':







The Process- Part 2

Now, for the ribbons to attach to pews and railings. Thought #1- Sewing them onto the paper flowers somehow? 
Thought #2- Or hot glue?
Thought #3- MAGNETS!

Yesssss! This was going to work! I could feel it in my bones! I cut the ribbon to size (after measuring out the needed length at the church on an actual pew):





Marked out where the ribbon would cross to make a loop that fit around the top of the pew:





Sewed 3 of the edges where the ribbon pieces met and then slid a round magnet inside:



And then sewed up the final side, along with a grey accent ribbon sewn to the bottom edge:



Next, I taped another round magnet to the back of the paper flower so the two magnets would stick together and be best friends:







Worked like a charm!



For some reason, I don't have photos of the rest of the flowers all set up along the pews or down the staircase railing....or at the reception (probably because we were having so much fun on the wedding day and were too busy to document such things)...but you get the idea. They turned out great and the Bride was a happy camper:)

Also, I forgot to mention that on the wedding day, a cute fuzzy cow was ever present- there's a story but it's complicated. So instead of explaining further, just enjoy the cuteness- his name is Moos:






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