Wedding Partybooth

BFF Kristina made this fantastic backdrop for our wedding Photo Booth. We were super pumped with the outcome of it. It's amazing what 700 tassels and some glitter can make. These Partybooth photos turned out to be pretty epic. There are about 200 more where this came from.

{Pictures by the talented duo Caroline Fontenot and Ben Massey}

DIY: How To Paint Your Own Monogrammed Cornhole Set

Last weekend I spent the weekend in Georgia with my family, and my mom and I went into wedding DIY frenzy mode. Our largest project involved making our own cornhole set to use during cocktail hour at the wedding. I snapped a few photos on my iPhone (sorry for the poor quality!) throughout the crafting process, if you'd like to see. 

What You'll Need:

-Drop cloth

-Saw horses or something elevated to balance your cornhole set on while you paint

-Paint tray

-4'' or 6'' paint roller

-A few extra roller covers

-1 high quality paint brush

-Frog tape

-Con-Tact paper

-Eggshell paint & primer in white. We purchased 2 of these tintable samplers (we didn't add any color), and it was the perfect amount to paint 2 boards, paint the monogram, plus paint any touch up areas.

-1 qt. of paint tinted to whatever color you want to use. We used Behr Premium paint. 1 qt. is more than enough for multiple coats of color on each board.

-1 qt. of clear, fast-drying polyurethane. Again, 1 qt. is more than enough polyurethane for this project.

The first step is to make or buy an unfinished cornhole set. If you're handy, you can find several tutorials online to build a regulation cornhole game, including this one. I also suggest searching on Etsy and Craigslist for vendors in your area.

Before you start, make sure that you fill in any holes and then sand the surface of each board so it's smooth and ready to go.

I suggest putting down a drop cloth outside and placing the boards on sawhorses or something elevated to do your painting. You should definitely apply a layer primer to the boards before attempting to apply any color. We used samples of eggshell finish paint and primer in one, which worked perfectly. Make sure to apply a few layers of the primer to any areas that you'd like to tape off and leave white. We did this around the border and around the circle. Feel free to use a roller for the priming and painting but NOT for the polyurethane step at the end. More on that later! :)

The next step is to tape off any areas that you'd like to leave white. My favorite painters tape to use is FrogTape. We also used Con-Tact Paper that we had on hand to tape off the area around the circle. This step is completely optional, but I like the way the white contrast looks. We used a 9" paper plate to trace a circle on the Con-Tact Paper and then carefully pressed it down on the board to get all of the bubbles out. We later decided to add a "P" to the board - looking back, it would have been much easier to put Con-Tact paper down for the letter before painting the entire board orange. You live and you learn!

Next you should paint your entire board with whatever color you decided to use. We're using bright fall colors like orange and coral for our wedding, so we went with this bright, tangerine color. 

After we painted 2 coats of orange and it got nice and dry, we cut out two "P" letters out of Con-Tact paper and placed the stencil in the middle of each board. We painted three coats of the eggshell paint/primer combination inside of our stencil, waited for it to dry thoroughly, and then peeled it off gently.

At this point, you might want to take a small paintbrush and touch up any areas where the orange bled onto the white. It's pretty easy to touch it up, but I recommend using a really tiny brush!

Finally, you should take a high quality brush and paint on a layer of polyurethane. You should let the layer of polyurethane dry for 2-3 hours before painting on the next layer. The board should feel very smooth and dry (not sticky) before you paint your next layer. I recommend painting 4 layers in total. After 4 coats, you should take some very fine sand paper and lightly sand the entire surface of the board - make sure to go with the grain! Paint one final layer of polyurethane and let it dry completely. Once you do this, the boards should be sealed and very smooth.

The final step is to grab some friends, some beers, and test out the boards. We made our own beanbags too - I'll post a follow up tutorial next week. And there you have it - a cornhole tutorial just in time for summer BBQs and weddings. Happy playing everyone! xoxo

Wedding Crafts

Sometimes I get a bit of anxiety over all the things that need to be done for the wedding. The truth is that we still have 10 months to go, we've gotten all of the big things taken care of (venue, photographer, caterer, officiant, band all booked; invitations picked out; dress bought!), and it.will.be.fine. Can you sense that I'm trying to convince myself of that? Still, when I get stressed out, it helps to just do something (anything!) wedding-planning related to make me feel like I'm making forward progress. This weekend I did a few crafts and wedding DIYs and am happy so far with the turnout.

First weekend craft: letters to adorn the back of our chairs at the reception. I was inspired by the bride/groom chairs at this amazing wedding. We're not really going to have a set color palette for the wedding, rather we're just going with Fall colors that we like. Our wedding party will be wearing neutral colors and the flowers will be a mix of bright fall colors and succulents - tangerine, coral, and greenery. For our invitation suite, we're going with craft paper envelopes, ivory paper, and brown, green, and orange accents. Therefore, I decided to paint the letters a harvest orange to go along with our fall theme. I chose a paint that would dry with a matte look and basically painted a few coats on. Total cost of this project was about $10.

This next craft is also far too easy to blog about, but here goes anyway. Our photographer is setting up a photobooth for our guests to enjoy (you can see a few of our photographer's previous partybooth sessions here, here and here!), so I painted a few chalkboard signs to use as props. I bought bare, unfinished wooden signs at Michaels for $3 and some Martha Stewart chalkboard paint for $5. Voila! Total cost for this project is $11!

Finally, I started making pom-pom bunting, which I think I will use to: go around the dance floor, serve as the backdrop for the photobooth, or BOTH! Here is a sneak peek of the finished product, but I'll write an entire post dedicated to this project later this week.

Okay exhaling a huge sigh of relief that I'm making a bit of progress on the "little stuff" for the wedding. Next up: making/painting a cornhole game for guests to play during cocktail hour, making heart banners, and painting a burlap sign. 10 months and about 100 more projects to go! :) XOXO

DIY Fabric Peonies

I love to keep a "gift closet" of goodies so that I'm prepared for birthdays, showers, and house warnings. Likewise, I like to keep a stash of basic gift wrapping supplies like drawstring bags, craft paper, and gift tags. This weekend I decided to make a batch of fabric peonies to add to my wrapping collection. These add a nice touch to a package or to a bottle of wine, so it's nice to have them on hand.

Materials:
-A few yards of Chiffon fabric (I chose a pale pink)
-Embroidery thread (I used yellow)
-Needle and thread
-Fabric scissors
-A small candle

Directions:
Start by cutting fabric circles out of the chiffon. Cut out a total of 5 circles: 4 circles that are the same size and 1 circle that is slightly smaller.

Next, take one circle and hover the edge over an open flame until it curls up slightly. Repeat until you've finished curling the edges of all 5 circles.

Cut 4 slits into each circle, but be careful that you do not cut all the way through. It should look like this.

Now you should carefully hold the newly cut slits over the flame until the edges curl up like the outside of the circles. Repeat until you've finished curling the edges of all 5 circles.

At this point, take 2 of the circles and cut 4 more slits, and repeat the curling process. Leave the other 3 circles as is. These 2 circles will start to look a little shriveled up and not at all like flower petals, but that's okay. It will all come together, I promise!

Now make the pom pom that will go inside your petals. Wrap embroidery thread around 2 of your fingers (I wrapped it around about 8 times).

Slip the looped thread off your fingers and tie a knot in the middle. Cut the loops and fluff the thread out.

Assemble your peony by stacking 2 of the circles that only have 4 petals, then the 2 circles with 8 petals, and finally the smallest circle with 4 petals on top.

Place the embroidery pompom and sew it all together! Leave some thread on the end if you want to tie it onto a gift or a bottle of wine. You can also use double sided tape to adhere it to a package.

Happy Crafting! XO