January 2019

This is not a sponsored post nor am I affiliated with any advertising/promotional deals.

Hello folks! I’m going to start a series of DIY guides for wedding-related craft projects. As you may know, Pinterest is such a wonderful source of inspiration and I’m forever looking at posts for ideas for our wedding. I started a board years ago and it’s been such a great tool for art and craft projects. However, sometimes I get way too carried away and go off on a tangent for several hours!

My main task for the wedding reception is that I wanted to create something quite opulent, flower-inspired since my invites are along that theme, so I’ve decided to make paper flowers as a start and from there use them to make a chandelier as well as garlands. I started off cutting out circles and then making them 3D shape so that they can sit nicely once they’re all bunched together. My only issue with this method is that it does takes ages and you need to have patience/music in the background to keep you going. I also found that it’s very difficult to get the flowers all looking the same, not like I wanted them to, but I was unable to to anything intricate due to the time factor.

I came across a die-cutter thanks to my aunt, who has kindly let me borrow hers, and I’ve honestly not looked back since I’ve been using it! It’s saved me so much time and I’ve been churning loads of flowers out like a pro! I think there are numerous brands of die-cutters but I’ve been using one called the Sizzix. It’s pretty straight forward to use and so far I’ve not encountered any problems with it. There are loads of options of different dies too so I’ll buy a few more so that there’s variations in the types of flowers. For me, it feels really durable and the die cutter has some weight to it- so it feels super sturdy when you’re holding it.

What You’ll Need

  • Die-cutting machine (you can by them online or in craft shops)
  • Paper (lots of it!)
  • Pencil
  • Heavy-duty ruler
  • Scalpel or scissors
  • Cutting mat
  • Glue (I like to use super glue)
  1. Prep your paper so that it sits nicely between the plastic board and the die. You’ll want to cut it so that it can fit through the die cutter- so I tend to measure up all my paper and cut them to the right size.

2. When your paper is sandwiched between the plastic boards and the die (the foam side facing upwards like in the photo above), you’ll want to leave at least a 1cm gap when you’re feeding it through. Gently push it through and start to turn the handle. At this point, you’ll be able to feel the rollers grip onto the plastic boards.

3. Done! Well almost. I usually keep going at this point, mixing up the papers until I have enough to keep me going.

4. Once you’ve cut out all your layers you’ll want to start layering up the bits of paper. I fold the petals inwards so that they’re 3D-looking and using different types of paper/card will give you different effects.

Note: try using plain paper and washing it down with light water colours or spray paint to get different effects.

And that’s pretty much it. I’ve found that the more you try out different types of paper, the variations are limitless. There are lots of helpful online tutorials if you get stuck but personally once you start using it’s really so easy to use.

I hope I’ve inspired you to create your own paper flowers; even with or without the dit cutter you can still make simple paper flowers even it’s cutting out the petals and arranging them on a circular paper disc, continuing to layer them up as you go.

Happy crafting folks!

Happy New Year everyone (is it still too late to be saying it at this time of the month now?!). I hope you’ve all had a restful Christmas; even if it means doing nothing, just chilling, spending time with family, and eating loads of chocolate. I did all of that including more wedding-admin which never seems ending right now.

So in terms of wedding related things, what have we done so far? Bearing in mind it’s about seven months now and right now I’m feeling rather elated and slightly stress-y just because there’s so much to do.

  • I bought my wedding dress! YES it’s done! Am I going to reveal anything about my dress? Nope!
  • Thanks to Sam he’s made an online RSVP form for folks so it’ll making the process of collecting information much quicker.
  • Invites are printed and we’re currently in the middle of writing the rest of them up. Hopefully they’ll be done by the end of the weekend. (Separate blog post about the invites will be up once they’re all sent out).
  • Honeymoon to Japan is now booked and I’m currently freaking out about it. I bought a Lonely Planet guide a while back so now I’m book marking all the pages and there’s a long to-do list, the most important one is to eat our way around Japan. Bring on the noodles.
  • Dresses for the flower girls are done plus accessories. This was a bit of a tricky one as it’s actually quite hard to find formal wear for children. My mum and I went to loads of shops around Doncaster and in the end we had to go to further afield to Sheffield but I’m happy with the dresses and so are the girls.
  • Bridesmaids dresses are also off the list.
  • The order of the Tea Ceremony has been written up. Again, I’ll write up a separate blog post about the Tea Ceremony for those that aren’t familiar with it.
  • We’ve got our caterers sorted out, all we need to do is to finalise the furniture and tableware.
  • We’re currently finalising potential florists so this should be dine either this week or the following week at the latest.

My current project at the moment is making paper flowers, thanks to my aunt, she let me borrow her die-cutting machine and it’s saved me loads of time. If you don’t know what a die-cutting machine is there’ll be a how-to-guide in the next couple of days as I highly recommend getting your hands on one if you’re planning on making paper flowers for whatever project you are doing.

I’m going to leave it here as I need to go back and write out more invites. I’m really eager to show photos of them but unfortunately I can’t do that just yet.

In the meantime though hope you have a lovely January (bye January, you were cold and it’s still dark!). Take care of yourselves and have a great evening.

Jo