DIY: Bedazzler gone wrong!

Remember how I wanted to bedazzle my flip flops for the wedding instead of paying $60 for the real deal? Well I visited Michaels today and was totally stoked to use my 40% coupon too!! I couldn't wait to get home to start another project.

I have my crystals, tweezers, hot fix crystal tool, and flip flops!

I bought 5mm swarovski crystal flat backs, 4 packages of 22 pieces.




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I even went on YouTube to see how to use the hot fix tool properly. Sounds so easy but it isn't! You heat up the hot fix tool for 5 minutes, then place your crystal on the surface of the object you want and hold down for 30 seconds. Then VOILA!

Unfortunately my DIY project didn't work the way I wanted and started melting the flip flops!
As you can see I tried 3 times and still no luck.

No bueno! I was frustrated and bummed.

So here is the breakdown of my unsucessful DIY project:

Old Navy flip flops: $2.50

5mm flat back crystals: $3.49 each 30% off (22 pieces) x 4

Jolees Hot Fix Crystal Tool: $11.99 ( with 40% coupon)

Tweezers: $3.49

Total: $34.10

So I will be returning the crystals and the tweezers since I won't be using them now. And it's now on to Plan B. I discovered these bad boys in J.Crew the other day for $36.

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So in the long run I spent almost the amount I didn't want to spend. Oh well. You win some and you learn some.

Anyone have luck using the hot fix tool on flip flops? Ever have a DIY project gone wrong? If so, I'd love to hear!

Doodle this!

My FI loves to doodle and most of his notebooks for school are filled with them. So it was no surprise that he doodled one day a symbol of our love. Or so he tells me. I came home one night and he showed me what he drew and how it reminded him of our love. I nodded and said, "that's nice babe" and didn't think anything of it. What? Might sound a little mean but its true.

When we decided on our invitations and purchased them he asked if we could incorporate the symbol somehow into the wedding. I knew that our pocketfolds would need a seal to close it and what better way than to custom make them and use his drawing?!!! It will be the first thing our guests see when they open the invitations. He was thrilled with the idea and said he would draw it out on plain white paper for me.

That was 3 weeks ago. And I'm still waiting. I remind him almost every day and I keep getting, "no problem love, I'll do it today!" Yea. Ok. The invitations have arrived and we can't wait much longer!

FINALLY he came through with his promise and drew it today. He met me at work and this is what I get: What the heck is that??? For some reason I thought it was more detailed. I looked at him and said, "this is it?" and he replied, "yeah not sure why you bugged me about it ha ha." ::ugh:: I am not very artsy or creative and I could have drawn this!! So I took to PowerPoint to try and recreate it since I wasn't satisfied with his drawing.

It was pretty easy to recreate but I wanted it to be thicker and more bold.

Once I made it a bit thicker it was time to upload it to Zazzle so we could customize our stickers. This website absolute rocks and it was super easy to navigate and create the circular stickers.

The problem though is that they look so plain! I tried adding circular dots, initials, our names, the date but it just didn't look right. I couldn't find the right font. Then I questioned if I even wanted circular stickers since our envelopes are square. Back to the drawing board and stalking google search for someone who can do this for me in square stickers instead. To no avail but a company called Online Labels has the 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 square labels I'm looking for. The only downside is that 150 labels would cost $52! That's just whack!

So I sucked it up and decided to stick with the ones I created on Zazzle for $37.

This is one of those details I'm going to have to compromise and let the FI take credit for. I may not be entirely sold on this idea BUT I'm OK with it and not dead set against it.

Have you had to compromise and let you FI take the reigns for a bit on the wedding planning? Were you thrilled with his ideas or did you just nod and smile?

*all photos are from personal camera

Inspired By A Baby Shower

This past weekend I attend my sisters baby shower and it was a huge success! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and a high of 72! I dusted off the flip flops and let my toes enjoy the fresh air. It was such a great feeling!

I got inspired though when I saw my Mom knitted a decoration to put with the flowers. Little outfits with booties hanging from a clothes line. It was absolutely adorable and I wanted the same thing! Well except wedding themed. I figured that would adorable for the bridal shower in August!


The picture got cut off but the top of the sticks are pink hearts which are adorable. Isn't this just so cute?!?!

Family picture time! My mother, my oldest sister, me, and my middle sister. Both my sisters are my MOH's.

It's funny how a baby shower can inspire me! I wasn't expecting it but I'm so thrilled.

Have you ever been inspired by an extremely unexpected situation or place?

*Pictures are from my personal camera

Do YOU like to Do-It-Yourself: Part 2

Let's set the mood shall we?! So thanks to Marth Stewart I ordered vellum paper last week and received it in the mail in just 2 days. Speedy delivery and I highly recommend using Paper and More if you are looking for tons of paper options as well as envelopes.

Anywho, I printed the templates today at work in light blue, dark blue, and gold (since my invitations are not incorporating this color). I was extremely giddy to get home and put it together and see how it looks.


I got all my supplies ready and started to think about which sizes I thought would work. I then realized that I most likely will need to buy bigger paper instead of 8 1/2 x 11 because the circumference was pretty small and not many of my candles at home would fit in it. Boo! I also need a bone folder which I neglected to buy this past weekend but I decided to fold one myself and see at least how it looks.


I used 3/8 inch Glue Dots adhesives to hold them together; about 4 per sheet since 3 wasn't enough. I cut two of them to show the versatility you can get with these sheets. I acutlally like the smaller vellum candles over the big ones. The big ones seem a bit odd and out of place.


As you can tell the one folded CLEARLY shows the crease and the paper is delicate enough to create marks too when folding. But I like the square look though.
I realized after the 3rd picture that my camera has a special feature for taking pictures of candles HENCE why this picture really shows them in their true glory. =) I really like the concept but I want to play around with the design a bit since I thought the colors didn't pop much. Also going to get larger paper so that I can fit candles inside comfortably.

What do you think? How was your first DIY project? Did it go as smoothly as possible or were there many tweaks?

*all pictures were taken on my camera*

Bottle It Up!

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Don't you just love when all of sudden an idea pops in your head and the light bulb goes off?!?! Well I just had that kind of moment. Since I'm obsessed with stalking wedding blogs I was captivated by this one from Style Me Pretty.

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The entire wedding is just absolutely and elegant and fun! And what sparked the idea is the wine bottle table numbers and that's when it HIT ME. 1 + 1 = 2. I remember reading on weddingbee
about a contest they're having with a company called Bottle Your Brand. And so I checked out their website to see all the different kinds of labels you can create and even customize!



Wouldn't it be perfect if we could create our own wine labels for the at home reception?? Oh the excitement swarmed my body and I started to create a label online.

A little hard to see buuuuuut those labels are only .99 each! Whhhaaaat? Yes. That made the excitement even more intense and I had to instantly text my FI to see what he thought of the idea. And of course he thought it was a clever and creative idea. BINGO! We have a winner ladies and gentlemen! Although now it's figuring out how to either A) get wine bottles with no labels. Is there such a thing? Or B) Buy a bunch of bottles and get a wine label remover and practice!

Have you ever used custom wine or beer labels before? If so, how did you get the on the wine bottle? Was it a sucess?