Ribbon Flower Bouquet

So for my wedding I was intent on making the beautiful 
Ribbon Bouquet I saw on the Martha Stewart website, 
but I found the tutorial not very helpful.

You will need:

3/4" Rick Rack in desired colors

5/8" ribbon in desired colors

artificial stamens

floral wire

floral tape

sewing needle

thread (I used nylon thread for durability)

For Ribbon Flowers: Used threaded needle to sew a running stitch along one of the edges of the ribbon for about 6 inches. Once you have the desired length, draw the thread like a drawstring to gather ribbon making the flower. Bring edges of ribbon together and sew. 
Fold a few stamens in half and insert them in the center of the flower.

For Rick Rack Flowers: Count 16 points along lower edge of rickrack;
snip with cut edges pointing upward. Sew running stitch through the points
along one edge. Gather rickrack onto needle as you sew.
When entire strip is gathered onto needle, hold tightly,
and pull the thread through firmly;
then stitch through the first fold and pull tight.
Fold a few stamens in half and insert them in the center of the flower.

Stems: Wrap some floral wire tightly around the stamens and then wrap some floral tape around the stem to reinforce. Gather all your flowers into a bouquet and wrap more floral tape around the entire bouquet stem. 

I didn't actually get to finish this bouquet since I ended up making another one out of burlap flowers to use at my wedding so I don't have a picture of the finished product. The following picture is the one from the Martha Stewart tutorial that inspired me to make this.

Save The Date Tags

This is the second part for my coffee-stained tags tutorial. 
I made these beautiful Save-The-Date tags for my wedding.

You will need:

Coffee Stained tags
Crop-A-Dile (eyelet and snap punch tool)
2000 Plus Custom Stamp Kit with Handle
Inkpad (I used sepia/brown)
Eyelets (I used brass for a vintage look)
Custom stamp (found mine on Etsy)
Stamp embellishments (optional)

STEP 1: Stamp desired amount of coffee stained tags with your custom stamp.
This will be the cover for your Save-The-Dates

STEP 2: Arrange the message you want displayed on the second tag on the 2000 Plus Custom Stamp Kit. Now, remember to write it backwards so that it reads correctly when you stamp it down. The Kit comes with some handy plastic tweezers to pull the tiny letters with ease, but they are still tricky to handle and easy to drop. Make sure to do this in a clear area where you can see the tiny letters in case you drop them. I almost lost two of them in the process.

STEP 3: Stamp your second tags with the custom stamp you made with your 2000 Stamp Custom Kit. The banner you see on mine was done with a stamp embellishment I had on hand.

STEP 4: Now that you have both pages for your sliding booklet, put them together, insert an eyelet through the eyelet hole in both tags and press the eyelet with the eyelet punch tool to secure together.

Now you have a beautiful, vintage-looking and unique message on your tags!

How to Make Coffee Stained Tags

This is a tutorial on how to coffee stain shipping 
tags to give them that beautiful vintage look. 

You will need:

Instant Coffee
Warm Water
Baking Pan
Shipping Tags (or any other paper product you desire)
Vanilla Extract (optional) 

STEP 1: Preheat oven to 225F.

STEP 2: Get your shipping tags ready. If you are going to be using them as price tags or need for them to be hung, string them first so that the thread looks vintage, too. This was not necessary for what I was making.

STEP 3: Make a concentrated batch of instant coffee in the baking pan. I used about 4 cups of water and 6 tablespoons of instant coffee, but you can adjust this mixture to be as dark or as light as you want it. I also use a few drops of vanilla extract which makes them smell so amazingly delicious. Make sure your tags are fully submerged and let them soak for about 5 minutes.

STEP 4: Take your tags out of the coffee, drain the coffee out of them (run two fingers down the strings, if applicable) and place them on a cookie sheet. They will darken as they dry.

STEP 5: Bake for 3-5 minutes. Watch them closely; take them out as soon as the edges start to darken. You can leave the oven a bit open to peek through if you prefer. Be careful not to burn them.

 

STEP 6: Lay them out to dry on a flat surface. Once dry, place them under a heavy book to flatten them. Let them flatten over night.

That's it, it's that simple... enjoy your beautiful tags!

I used this technique to make the Save-The-Dates for my wedding. The tutorial for those is soon to follow. 

DIY Fabric Rosettes

So a while back I found this awesome scarf at a yard sale. I loved the vibrant colors and the texture of it, but I just didn't know what to do with it. One thing you should know about me is that I love hair flowers; I can't recall the last time I did not have some sort of flower on my hair. Going back to the colorful scarf... I finally gathered up some scissors, hot glue, and courage and decided to cut it in three pieces and make some rosettes out of it to make a headband. I have to be honest, I had never made rosettes before so I was a bit nervous, but I'm glad I took on the challenge because they came out so cute!

Materials:  
Fabric (1-2 inch wide by 12 inch long)
Hot Glue Gun
Hot Glue Sticks
Hard Felt (optional) 

Step 1: Roll With It: grab a corner of your fabric and begin to roll it. I find that rolling it upwards worked best for me. You want to keep rolling it tightly until it begins to want to twist into a little ball all by itself.

Step 2: Budding In: Continue to grab the corner of your fabric and roll around it tightly to form a firm little bud. Remember to continue to twist your fabric while you roll around the center.

It should look something like this:

 Step 3: Keep It Together: Apply a dab of hot glue throughout your flower to secure it in place. I found that securing the tail of the fabric between my index and middle finger allowed me to apply the hot glue more precisely and without accidents. 

 Step 4: Keep on Rollin': Make sure you continue to roll and twist tightly until you achieve your desired length or reach the end of your fabric. Just keep wrapping it in circles.

 Step 5: Finish Up: I left a little tail at the end of my rosette to give it a little leaf, but you can just keep going and hot glue the last bit of it to the bottom if you like yours to look a bit more clean.

 

 I made three of these babies in different sizes for my headband. 

  

This is optional, but if you want to have the back side a bit more finished, you can trace your rosette on some hard felt and create a back for it. It makes it easier to attach a pin, headband, etc. to it.

  

 I'm really happy with the way these turned out and I can't wait to get a headband to attach them to. Enjoy!