Monday, October 14, 2013

Floral and Polka Dots







Dress: H&M | Tights: France | Shoes: Target | Clutch: Target | Hair Clip: Puerto Rico 

Hello Dinosaurs!

I hope everyone had a lovely and relaxing weekend! Yesterday, a friend of CJ's was getting married, so we had a great evening out, catching up with friends and just enjoying time together. Most of the dresses in my wardrobe were more casual, so last week I set out for a more appropriate dress for the occasion, where I stumbled into this little gem! I loved the color and shape of the dress and thought it was perfect for any special occasion. The best part? I was all ready to pay the $35 the dress was worth, when after a surprise discount and sale brought it down to $7.50! Though I'd love to take credit for a smart find, it was just a happy accident! To complete the look, I added some tights with personality, a great clutch, and a touch of sparkle with a jeweled hair clip. I really enjoyed getting an evening to dress up and getting out of my usual daily rut!

The rest of the weekend was spent drooling over Pokémon X & Y! CJ & and I picked up the games Friday night at the midnight release and I can't get enough of it! So don't be surprised if you hear me talking about multiple times in the near future - but don't worry, I'll never post spoilers!

I hope you all have a happy Monday! Thanks for reading!

<3

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

The Fashion's a Lie







Top: TeeFury | Skirt: Target | Jacket: H&M | Tights: Target | Shoes: Payless | Hair Bow: Japan

Hello Dinosaurs! 

It's been quite a while since I've posted an outfit, but I'm so excited to be bringing the style back! I had a lot of fun styling this one. This is one of my most favorite shirts, depicting great colors and my love for Portal. I wanted to play it up and extend the feel of the game, so I found this great skirt to pair it with, grabbed a light jacket and tights to keep warm in the cooling autumn weather (yes!!), and then added the finishing touch of a bright orange bow, keeping in with the Portal colors! This outfit was so comfy and perfect for a day at school. 

Shortly after getting back from our honeymoon, I finally found a much needed part-time job. It's been interesting adjusting to the new job and balancing 3 classes, plus the new married life, but I am so thankful for all of it! It's been a bit crazy around here, but I'm enjoying every moment of it! :)

Thank you for reading! 

<3

Friday, October 4, 2013

A Few Personalized Wedding DIYs


Hey Dinosaurs! Today I'm sharing a few more DIY projects I used to personalize my wedding. I really wanted to take ownership in turning my wedding into something I would love and cherish forever, so really tried to make it a unique event with many personal touches. I love the feeling after working hard on a project and seeing the outcome.

So here's some of my personal touches and descriptions on how I did it!

Manzanita Centerpieces


It was actually my mom's idea to use manzanita branches for the centerpieces. She thought it went well with the Asian influence we were going for and I couldn't agree more! She found this great video tutorial which helped give us the basis of the centerpieces. We bought the branches and bases at Blooms & Branches.


But I of course had to add my own little touch when it came to decorating the centerpieces. I used this tutorial to fold over 200 origami flowers (no joke). We just hot glued these all over the trees and they came to life! The last touch was tying some loose beads on clear wire, adding a touch of sparkle to the trees. I tied in some teal and tulle by adding a bow to the base, threw in some mini fans in the pebbles and the centerpiece was complete!


Pokéball Garter


I really wanted to make my garter unique, so I decided to make my own. I'd been told that they were fairly simple to make and that definitely turned out to be true! I found this great tutorial that I only varied slightly, by using two different trims for the top and bottom, instead of just one really wide piece of lace. Tip: when cutting the length of your ribbon and trim, measure your leg where you want the garter to rest, then multiply that number by 1.5. This will give you enough extra material to bunch it. For a different style or more garter help, I recommend checking out this video.

This was the ultimate nerdy garter, I was super happy with how it turned out! I made two so that one could be tossed and I could keep one, since I was just so proud of this project!

Boutonnieres



To continue incorporating Pokémon into our wedding, I decided to use them for the boutonnieres. But I couldn't just have the guys wearing them, so us girls also wore them on our waistbands! ;) I asked each member of our bridal party who their favorite Pokémon was, then made each one out of felt. It was a slightly tedious process, but I was absolutely thrilled with the result! Everyone loved their little Poké-pal and they added such a fun touch to the wedding! See them on each of us here.

Escort Cards



For our escort cards, I wanted to do something fun and cute, something that would make people want to keep their card or get excited about it. And what isn't more fun than Gameboys?! My maid of honor, Heather, drew out the Gameboys for me in the 8bit style that I love, even cutomizing the button colors to match the wedding! I then proceeded to add each guests' name into the "screen" as well as the table where they would be sitting at. Each of the tables were named after a city or town in the Pokémon world!


I had such a great time making all of these DIY projects for my wedding! It really gave it a personalized touch and the satisfaction of seeing your hard work pay off feels great! Also check out my hair bow and ribbon bouquet tutorials!

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of these personal projects and can be inspired to personalize your own events! Thanks for reading!

<3

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Ribbon Wedding Bouquet DIY




Hey Dinosaurs!

Today I'm bringing you a special DIY project that I absolutely loved making! If you saw some of the shots from my wedding, you probably noticed that my bouquet was not made of real flowers, as it usually is. Instead, I decided to go for a unique, everlasting look and made my and my bridesmaids' bouquets out of ribbon!

This project took some time, but it was totally worth it. I had previously found this tutorial from BurdaStyle, which inspired me to make the bouquet. The tutorial is fairly easy to follow, showing you how to make the individual ribbon flowers. Unfortunately that's all the tutorial offers, so when it came time to putting the flowers together into a bouquet, I was pretty much on my own.

So here is a little how-to into making the ribbon flowers into the bouquet! For my bridesmaids' bouquets, I used around 13 roses each, and for mine, I used around 22 roses. But these can be made however big/small you want!



Supplies Needed: Ribbon flowers (made from 1.5"ribbon), floral wire, floral tape, scissors, hot glue, 3/4" ribbon for wrapping, other decorative ribbon for outside wrapping (seen here 1" white ribbon), corsage pins (not pictured), and tulle (optional)


1. Begin by cutting out wire to a length slightly shorter than the tails on your ribbon flower and insert into the base of the rose. I recommend using the ribbon tail to wrap around the wire, especially if your wire is not very thick (like mine). If you want a shorter stem, just cut down the length of your ribbon tail.




2. Starting from the base of the rose bud, use floral tape to wrap around the ribbon tails and wire, creating a stem for your flower. Make sure to overlap your tape as you wind it around the wire. Continue all the way down until the bottom of the stem.




3. Once you've taped up all of your flowers, gather and arrange the together into a bouquet that you are happy with!



4. Beginning at the top, wrap floral tape around the entire bouquet stem, joining everything together. Tip: It may be difficult to hold everything together, I recommend using a rubber band to hold it together as you begin to wrap the floral tape.



5. Now comes time to add ribbon to the stem! I first began by adding a few strips vertically with hot glue, covering some of the outside stems that might be seen. After that, just wrap the base with your thin, dark ribbon, overlapping it as you go. I secured it with hot glue at the start and end.


6. Next, repeat with a wider or fancier ribbon, wrapping around the center of the stand, where you would hold the bouquet. I chose a ribbon that had dots on it, to go along with the polka dots in my dress!


7. For an extra touch (and maybe to cover up anything that doesn't look so great...), add corsage pins to the bottom of your stem. Warning, it may be a little difficult to push them into the bouquet.




8. Optional: If you want to add a touch of tulle, start by tying it around the top of the stem, then wrapping the tulle a few times around the bouquet. To secure, add corsage pins all around , keeping the tulle in place. For the bridesmaids' bouquets that were smaller, I could use 6" tulle, but for my bouquet that was much larger, I had to use wider fabric.


And you're done! Here is the final product, in action! It takes some time and patience, but is totally worth it in the end! You can play around with whatever colors and textures you want! I used satin ribbon for the teal and pink ribbon, and grosgrain for the purple. For all three bouquets I used a total of 10 rolls of ribbon! And since I could not dare part with my bouquet, I made an even smaller one, using just two colors, for the bouquet toss!

I hope you guys enjoyed this unique twist on the classic bridal bouquet! I'd love to hear if anyone gives it a try!

Thanks for reading!

<3

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Pixelated and Tulle Hair Bow DIY




Hello Dinosaurs! As many of you have probably noticed, wearing bows in my hair is my trademark. So it was only natural that I wanted to include this for me and my bridesmaids at my wedding!

So today I'm showing you how I made our customized bows! It's an easy, quick project that will allow you to customize your own bow!


Supplies needed: perler bead bows or other art, scissors, hot glue, needle, thread, and sharp knife (not pictured)


1. First, create your pixelated art using perler beads, following its provided directions. 




2. Place tulle underneath perler bead bow. Using the bow as reference, cut the tulle in a rectangle, about an inch larger than bow on all sides. (The tulle could be larger or smaller depending on how much tulle you want behind the perler bead bow).


3. Repeat and cut out multiple layers of tulle of the same size. For this bow I used 6 layers. Stack the layers on top of one another.


4. Pinch the stack of tulle in the center to create a bow shape.


5. Using your needle and thread, sew together the layers of tulle at the center where you pinched, keeping it in its bow shape.


6. Using a sharp knife, carefully score the back of the perler bead bow multiple times all over the center area. This will help the glue to stick better, since the surface is normally very slick.



7. Take your hot glue gun and add glue to the center of the tulle bow.  Place perler bead bow on top, pressing the two together firmly until glue dries.


8. You now have one complete bow piece!


9. To attach the hair clip, add hot glue to the clip and press onto the back of the bow. After the glue dries, sew the clip onto the bow for additional support, if your particular hair clip allows.


And you're done! These bows are super easy to make for any occasion! Below is the finished product used at the wedding:


For my bow, I made the perler bead portion white and used both teal and purple tulle, to combine both of our wedding colors. I was super happy with the results!

I hope you enjoyed this fun little craft project! Thank you for reading!

<3