Cupcakes are a growing trend in both the wedding and the bridal shower circuit. So, it is imperative to have an elegant way to display them. Whether you want one tall tower to display your little treats or individual towers to act as centerpieces, there are simple, affordable ways to construct the custom design you want.
At my wedding, I got lucky finding seasonal wire cupcake towers at Walmart. I waited until they went on sale on Valentine’s Day, and got them for $5 a piece (normally $10). With the cheapest centerpiece I could find running for $15 (and looking really lame at the same time), I was determined to make functional, cupcake centerpieces that were both elegant and affordable. With some silk flowers, leaves, and some hot glue, I got exactly what I wanted.
But if you can’t find these wire cupcake towers on sale like I did, there’s another way to have affordable cupcake towers at your wedding (and it’s even cheaper than what I did).
Here’s what you need:
Various sizes of cardboard cake boards
Silk flowers of your choosing
Hot glue
Glasses/wine glasses (you can find these at the Dollar Store for about $1-2 a glass)
Tape/sticky tack
Pearl strands/Ribbon (optional)
Total Cost: Average around $5 per centerpiece
Instructions:
Deconstruct your flowers so the leaves are separate. If you’re into more garden-y/springy looks, then glue them around the border of your cake board. If you want ribbon or pearls, glue them in the crevices on the side of the cake board.
Arrange how you want the top tier to look with your silk flowers, and glue them.
Tape or sticky-tack the bottom of a glass or wine glass and attach to one of the tiers. When assembling, place a flower underneath the glass/wine glass. If you ‘re using both glasses and wine glasses, use the broader glass as the base.
Other things can go inside the glass like beads, photos, etc.
And voila! You have a custom made cupcake tower/centerpiece that took minutes to make (Note: if using them as centerpieces, do not make them too tall).
Today’s feature is brought to you buy MIDORI. Khris has used MIDORI’s products in her DIY Bride books, and she is a faithful fan of this company. It brings us great joy to talk about Midori on the blog today!
Midori has long been a popular name among crafters worldwide, and now, Midori is getting involved in the wedding industry like never before. Check out Midori Bridal. They have beautiful gift wrap and ribbons to match. As I browse through the MIDORI website, I find myself thinking, why use paper when you can use ribbon?! Take this wedding pennant banner, for example (pictured below). Using ribbon instead of paper makes this craft much more elegant and sophisticated, don’t you think?
There a lot of beautiful ways to incorporate ribbon into wedding crafts – flowers, invitations, jewelry, centerpieces, favors, decor, and so much more. Ribbon bouquets are becoming quite popular, and MIDORI Bridal offers a selection of luxury ribbon, gift wrap, and wedding accessories. Browse the 2012 bridal collections featuring hand-picked gift wrap and ribbons for seven different themes: choose from shabby chic, preppy, beachy bride, and others. These collections take the guesswork out of planning, allowing each couple a fun, simple way to add their own unique touches to their décor, favors, and DIY projects.
MIDORI recently introduced a great blog with loads of wedding inspiration: Midori Ribbon Bridal Blog The blog offers images, tips, DIY tutorials, and real MIDORI weddings. Pop on over and look around. I thought the DIY ribbon backdrop idea was pretty neat!
Another favorite and super simple wedding craft is the spray-painted champagne bottles embellished with ribbon and gift wrap (pictured below). These fancy bottles can really dress up a table and work with any wedding theme from bling to elegant to shabby chic. If you only want to make a few of these, place them on your gift table, cake table, or at the champagne fountain as an accent piece.
Here’s how simple these are to make: choose your favorite spray paint colors and spray the bottles with 2-3 coats, and once they’re dry, use swatches of your favorite MIDORI ribbon and gift wrap as accents. The ribbon and gift wrap can be secured with tape, hot glue or fabric glue.
And….
MIDORI has a fantastic DIY tutorial for a silk flower – made entirely from ribbon – just for DIY Brides to use for decor, bouquets, gifts, or anything else!
MIDORI Dupioni Silk Flower
Supplies:
Desired length of 2” MIDORI Dupioni Silk Ribbon
Safety pin
Needle & thread
Artificial stamens, beads buttons etc. to decorate the center of the flower
1. Lay the ribbon out horizontally and smooth it flat. Take a close look at the ribbon and notice the direction that the prominent threads run. These threads will create your fringe. Place your ribbon so that these prominent threads run from the lower right to the upper left. *Mark the direction of the threads with a safety pin for future reference.
2. Hold the ribbon with one hand near a ribbon edge. Use the fingernails of your other hand (thumb and index or thumb and middle finger) to gently pull at the prominent threads. Gently rake your nails over the edge of the ribbon pulling from left to right, separating the heavier, prominent threads from the lighter-weight, cross-grain threads.
3. Using a double-threaded needle, sew down the un-frayed side of the ribbon by overlaying it in a circular motion until you reach to the center.
4. To accent the center of your flower, add little trinkets of your choice with fabric glue or thread.
We want to thank MIDORI Ribbon for sponsoring today’s feature. This company is a great source for DIY wedding craft supplies, instructions, and inspiration! We want to see what neat things you can make with MIDORI ribbon, so please get creative and share your work!
This is a sponsored post, meaning we have been compensated by Midori for writing this review. We firmly stand behind our review and recommendation and are committed to promoting only those companies we feel offer our community excellent products, ethical business practices, and outstanding customer service.
Event designer, Tara Wilson, shares with us this lovely – and easy – edible centerpiece idea. This is perfect for a cozy, casual outdoor wedding, your bridal shower, or a brunch for your wedding party.
Steps:
1. Wrap each of the wreaths with the red ribbon, making certain that none of the Styrofoam is visible. NOTE: if the ribbon is too thick it will be challenging to push the pins through. Selecting a ribbon that is not tightly woven will make this process easier.
2. Attach the (2) largest wreaths together using the floral cleats to form the base of the cake.
3. Remove the stems of each Driscoll’s strawberry, making sure to create a clean even cut. Then cut the each berry in half length wise.
4. Begin to cover the outer edges of the (2) largest wreaths with berries in a circular pattern until outer ring is covered.
5. Attach the (2) medium sized wreaths together using the floral cleats to form the second layer of the cake.
6. Repeat steps 3 and 4.
7. Attach the (2) smallest wreaths together using the floral cleats. This will form the top layer of the cake.
8. Repeat steps 3 and 4.
About the Expert: Tara Wilson is the owner of Tara Wilson Events, a full-service event company committed to providing creative, well-executed and memorable events for individual and corporate clients.
Our first Project Makeover comes from frustrated (and newly broke) DIYer Mindy. Due to downsizing at both her and her fiance’s companies this summer Mindy is in a bit of a budget bind when it comes to her decor. Mindy adores bright green kermit mums and had hoped to make her own wreaths for pew and reception hall decoration. Her initial budget had been $30 per wreath. It is now $9.00 to 10.00 per wreath.
I wanted to give Mindy a kermit mum feel while using materials she could pick up at her local big box craft store. My solution? Kermit mums made out of yarn! Using modified yarn pom poms, pearl-headed pins, and a styrofoam wreath blank, I whipped up a super duper easy wreath that’s easy on the budget. Mindy happens to be an avid knitter so this was a fun surprise for her.
Supplies:
Blank foam wreath, about 12″ in diameter
1 skein of green yarn, about 256 yards
1 package of pearl-headed pins
Scissors – make sure they’re sharp!
Instructions:
1. On the middle three fingers of your non-dominant hand (if you’re right-handed, use your left), hold the end of your yarn down with your thumb and begin wrapping the yarn around and around your fingers, about 32 – 35 times.
2. Cut the yarn when you’ve finished wrapping.
3. Cut a length of yarn about 3″ and tie it tightly around the middle of the yarn wrap you’ve created on your other hand. It sounds trickier than it is. I’m confident you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly. You’re smart cookies.
4. Hold the pom-pom yarn bundle and use your scissors to cut through all of the loops on the pom pom – be careful not to cut through the piece of yard that’s holding all of the pieces together.
5. Fluff up your pom pom with your fingers.
6. Now, trim it up with your scissors, making it even and pretty.
7. The last step is to attach the “mums” to the foam wreath with the pins.x
Cost Breakdown: $10.00 (note you’ll have leftover supplies to get started on more wreaths)
Wreath: $5.00
Yarn: $3.50
Pins: $1.50
Notes:
For a 12″ wreath, I used about 60 pom/mums of varying sizes. I did 2-finger and 3-finger mums to keep it interesting.
The lighter the weight of the yarn, the more wraps you’ll need.
The size of the mums will vary from person-to-person as our fingers are different sizes. I have chubby little fingers. Your digits may vary.
Mum-making took about 1.5 hours for this project.
I used about 3/4 of the skein of yarn.
If you’d like to make yarn pom poms, increase the number of wraps from 30-ish to 70-ish.
Wouldn’t these be lovely at a beach or garden wedding? MSN House & Home offers 3 different beaded lanterns made from steel wire and, well, beads. All materials are readily found in home warehouse stores and craft shops.
This is kind of a simple project but probably one of the things I am most proud of! Our wedding colors are black, white, and green so I wanted our ring bearer to carry a pillow with a little flare. After looking around at a few pre-made options and coming up empty handed, I decided to make one myself! The supplies I used are:
• Fabric (1/2 yard at most)
• Sewing thread to match fabric
• 1” satin ribbon
• Polyfill stuffing
I wanted the pillow to be about a 9 inch square, so I cut two pieces of fabric into 10 inch squares. A word to the wise – make sure that if your fabric has a pattern, it is centered on each of the squares as you’re cutting them out. I learned the hard way that you don’t want things to look off center!
So essentially, you cut out two squares, turn the fabric so that the right sides are facing each other, and sew them together. Leave about a two inch gap on one of the sides and use that to pull the fabric through so you can turn the pillow right side out. Then, stuff away! I found that a pencil worked well to push the filling into the corners but I honestly can’t tell you how much stuffing I used. I kept putting it in and then feeling the consistency until it seemed right.
Once the stuffing is complete just use a needle and some more thread to sew the gap together. Then make your ribbon as long as you want it (depending on how much length you want to hang off the pillow) and put the middle of the ribbon in the center of the pillow. Take another needle and thread and gently sew the ribbon into the middle so that it’s attached to the pillow. Then all you have to do is tie a bow!
Today’s project uses rub-on transfers and a clear glass vase to create a fun, simple decorative piece. Perfect for centerpieces, a wish bowl, toasting flutes, or even votives this is a quick ‘n’ easy project ANYONE can do. Don’t think you’re crafty? No problem! The rub-ons provide all of the creativity. All you do is … rub.
What you need:
Clean glass vase with a smooth surface.
Glass cleaner, paper towel
Rub-on transfers (available at scrapbooking shop and craft stores.)
Scisscors
Rub-on tool. (Most rub-on sheets come with a little popsicle stick to do the transfers with…that’s perfect.)
How to:
1. Clean the outside of the glass with the glass cleaner. Dry the glass completely. Rub-ons don’t work well when there are body oils or dirt on the surface.
2. From a sheet of rub-ons, cut out the design you want to transfer to the glass.
3. Place the cut design, face (sticky-side) down on the glass.
4. With one hand, hold the transfer paper in place. With the other hand, use the transfer tool (popsicle stick) to rub the back of the design. Firmly pressing down as you rub will transfer the design to the glass. Sometimes it takes several passes to get the transfer to stick. Don’t worry. That’s normal.
5. As you rub an area, pick up the edges of the paper just a little bit. You’ll be able to see where the transfer isn’t sticking. Just go back and rub, rub, rub. When you’re done pressing the design onto the glass, carefully pull back the paper liner. Ta da! Now you have a beautiful vase for a centerpiece.
Notes:
Rub-ons are available in hundreds (thousands?!) of different designs.
Most are available in black or white but many manufacturers also have them in full color. Cool, right?
The bummer is that most packages have only 1 sheet per package with several different designs/motifs per page. If you need to have all matchy-matchy vases, you’ll need to buy several packages of rub-ons and that can get spendy.
The package used in this project, from Tinkering Ink, cost $6.99 at my local scrapbook store. Not outrageous, but definitely something to consider when you’re budgeting.
Rub-ons can be used on paper, metal, class, tile, wood … nearly any smooth surface. And they work on any color surface, too.
This is filed under “Why didn’t I think of that?”. Here’s a quick way to add instant impact to your centerpiece vases: cover them with placemats. Home by Sunset has the step-by-steps on how to do this super-easy, super-inexpensive project to take your centerpieces from nice to WOW. (Found via Heavy Petal – a really cool gardening blog.)
I can picture using some really neat beaded or capiz shell mats or how about a gorgeous shantung? Brocade? Start searching at home & bath stores for interesting finds (especially in the clearance bins). So, I’m thinking how awesome the placemats are and … hmmm, wouldn’t vases be cool wrapped with:
The utterly wonderful Ann, a DIY Bride, has graciously shared her lovely DIY guest book project with us. Originally inspired by a Martha project, Ann has developed a simplified version that costs about $8.00 to make.
Directions after the jump.
Take a blank sketch book, hard-bound. Make sure you “crack the spine” of the book by opening it all the way and bending the spine back a little so it will sit open nicely on a guest book table.
I glued a place-marker ribbon onto the spine that can be moved throughout the sketchbook.
Glue on thin felt batting. When you glue, cut out rectangles in the middle that will sit where the spine is. Be strategic with the glue only adding a line to the spine, then the inside covers, stretching the material. This will insure the book can open unrestricted.
When gluing the inside covers, pull the long end first so it is taught and can close. Then I mitered the fabric corners to keep from too much fabric building up which would restrict the closing of the book.
I used the same process to glue down the seersucker on top of the batting
I glued the wider ribbon to tie the book shut.
Using scrapbook craft paper or wrapping paper, I cut rectangles to hide the glued fabric on the inside cover. I just glued that into place and the total project took me about 25 minutes!
When coming up with nifty and unique ideas for wedding projects, I highly encourage you to look outside the wedding industry for inspiration. Visit designer blogs, pick up craft books and magazines, or head out to your local flea markets to search for those fresh and funky finds that’d be perfect for your wedding.
One of my favorite blogs (and I’ll be sharing many, many more with you) is the purl bee, the offcial journal of Purl and Purl Patchwork, a shop full o’ textile goodness in NYC.
A few days ago they posted a project that made my heart sing: Swatch Portraits. Using cheapy embroidery hoops and swatches of gorgeous fabrics, they created a series of wall hangings that’s bright, fun, and totally unique. While I’d love to create something like this for my home, my immediate thought was … weddings!
Wouldn’t this make the coolest seating chart ever? Imagine mounting different sizes of these hoops onto a big piece of poster board or a piece of MDF (plywood) that’s been painted or wallpapered. Print out table assignments onto coordinating cardstocks and pin them (or glue them with spray adhesive) onto the fabric swatches. Or how about using decorative papers instead of fabric?
For fabric swatches how about using your mother’s wedding gown? Vintage hankies? Old dresses and fabrics found at thrift stores? Or make your own custom fabrics with inkjet-printable fabric (found at office supply stores)!
How about embroidering the seating assignments onto the fabric itself? After the wedding you can take all the embroidered swatches and create a quilt or wall-hanging (or have them made for you).
Start looking at fabrics and craft projects with a different eyes and you’ll be surprised by how many things you’re inspired by!
