The Rest of the Bridal Shower Decor

Happy September fellow crafters! I cannot believe September is upon us. Soon I'll be diving into fall decorating. I'm two weeks into school and it's taking me a bit figuring out the balance between my school duties, home duties, and finding time to craft blog. My apologies up front if the posting is a little sporadic!

I'm combining the rest of the bridal shower decor I used for my soon to be sister in law into this one post. I've shared before about banners, guestbooks, and towel cakes, so I'd hate to bore with you with three separate posts on the same things!

I thought this bridal shower round they turned out even better than before.

First up....the banner.

I used muslin for the stenciled letters and then glued a dark teal fabric behind the muslin. I put my Silhouette to good use creating the stencils to trace on to the fabric and then hand cut each letter. I topped off the banner with a satin lime green ribbon. It definitely looks more amazing in person. Lime green can come off kind of weird on different monitor resolutions.

Here are some close up shots of the process and the individual pieces.

The muslin I cut at 5"x7".

The teal fabric I cut smaller at 5"x6".

Traced the stencils on backwards on the back side of the muslin.

There's the letter all pretty and cut, no black ink.

I sprayed the back side of the muslin with elmer's craft bond glue,

and then (very carefully) placed the teal fabric on the muslin.

I used a vintage pearl button in the center of the teal rosette.

Second up....guestbook.

The rings and Guestbook are scrapbook stickers.

I purchased the book of plain white pages at Hobby Lobby in the scrapbook album section for $3.00 during a half off sale. The last guestbook I made myself. Purchasing a plain book and decorating it is WAY easier.

Third, and finally....the towel cake. This was my FAVORITE piece at the shower. The white towels just looked so good with the dark teal and lime green accents. And, I got to use a vintage clip on earring which I've been wanting to incorporate into a project for a while now.

I clipped a vintage pearl earring on the black rosette.

It is by far the coolest element of the whole thing.

I'll be linking up to these great parties this week. Go check 'em out. Plenty of great ideas out there to see!

We Can Do Hard Things Muslin Banner

Well, after another unsuccessful attempt at painting the wooden plaque I finally gave up and moved on to a different medium. I imagine I'll go back to it later, because I still think it has great potential. I've just got to figure out the right method for painting. Live and learn right? :-)

Truthfully, every time I make something I feel like I go from seriously inexperienced crafter to at least a novice crafter. Generally, when I finish a project I'm ecstatic to have 1) finished it. and 2) stoked it actually turned out good enough to actually give to someone. They're never perfect, but I've not once yet had a recipient turn their nose up at my work. At least not to my face anyway.... Haha!

The project I'm sharing with you today is my fourth rendition of a muslin banner and I think my best yet. I'm getting more and more comfortable with my sewing machine, which I've only been using for a few months. And, I'm still pretty obsessed with the ease of fabric rosettes, so of course those are included too. And, for this project I got to play around with my Silhouette some more. It's getting a lot easier to use. And, I've learned there are two different levels of sticky on the mats. I was using the very stickiest with the lightest paper. Whoops.

Some very good friends of ours are packing up and moving eleven hours south. They've no doubt got some trials ahead of them, so I thought by making this banner I could encourage them in knowing they "can do hard things". I presented it with a letter about all the things I admire about them and it was the perfect going away gift and something they can use in their new home.

I started out with a large piece of muslin (14" x 40").

Then, I designed a stencil on my computer and used cardstock to cut out the stencil. So that the stencil would stay on the fabric as I painted, I sprayed a little stencil adhesive on the back. You can find these little aerosol cans in the stencil section of major craft stores. It worked perfectly. There was zero moving around and zero leakage around the letters. I folded the piece of fabric in half before I placed the stencils and then stuck a sheet of freezer paper between to keep the paint from bleeding though to the back piece of muslin. Because I started painting at midnight, I just allowed the paint to dry over night. I used a cheap acrylic paint, so if it had been the middle of the day, I'd have given it an hour and then went to work sewing.

The next morning I folded the fabric the opposite direction (so that the paint is on the inside) and then sewed up the three open sides being sure to leave a two inch gap so I could turn it right sides out. After turning it out I folded the top over approximately two inches and sewed a fun zig zag stitch across the top to make the loop to hold the dowel rod. Be sure and back stitch a teeny, tiny bit on each end so it won't unravel over time.

Done and...

...done.

Or, not....

It just looked unfinished to me.

So, I added a grouping of fabric rosettes.

Ahhhh....much better.

So, what do you think? Have you used this "we can do hard things" phrase with any of your projects? Be sure and leave a link if you have. I love seeing how others incorporate it into projects.

I'll be linking up to these great parties this week. Check 'em out!

Hope you all have a GREAT weekend!

Stenciled Muslin Welcome Banner

First of all thank you to everyone who stopped by last week to view my first craft post ever!

This week's project was inspired by my recent obsession with fabric rosettes. I see them on a variety of projects as I survey the craft blogging world. They can be that extra added pop of color, or texture depending on the type of material, that takes a project from okay to really great.

Of course, as luck would have it, I do not have step by step photos of how I make fabric rosettes, but after a quick Google search I found a tutorial that is similar enough to the way I make mine. You can view the step by step tutorial here at NatSprat. I definitely consider myself to be at a beginner stage level and her tutorial is very easy to follow, even for me! I encourage you to browse the blog world for a fabric rosette tutorial that fits your needs or skill levels. And, maybe some day I'll make my own step by step photo tutorial on making fabric rosettes.

On to the Stenciled Muslin Welcome Banner...here's a photo of the finished project.

Supplies:

• Muslin (your choice on size, I cut mine to approximately 9" x 18" and then did a smaller version too)
• Fabric strips and felt (to make rosettes)
• Ribbon (your choice on color, size, and style, I went with a 1/4" wide grosgrain)
• Stencils (I purchased the letters at Hobby Lobby and then also improvised with transparency paper and made a custom stencil on a cricut machine for the flower branches)
• Acrylic Paint and round foam paint brushes (coordinate your paint color with your rosette fabrics)
• Dowel rod (size dependent upon desired size of banner, you can find these precut in various sizes at all craft stores)
• Hot glue gun (or another form of adhesive to attach the rosettes and ribbon)
• Sewing machine (or a mother who sews and is willing to assist)

 So, do most supply lists you see on other craft blogs have so many explanatory parenthetical statements? Haha! Probably not. :-)

Instructions:

1. Create fabric rosettes to size of your choice. See link above for step by step tutorial. Mix and match with fabrics and sizes for more fun (or stress as the case can be sometimes). Here are two close ups of mine.

2. Cut two pieces of muslin the same size (9" x 18" is what I used for my first banner).

3. Paint stencil patterns on to muslin and allow to dry.

4. Put muslin pieces together, wrong side out. Your painted design should be on the inside.

5. Sew a simple straight stitch almost all the way around the muslin. Leave a two inch gap to turn the sewn muslin pieces right sides out. After you turn the piece out, hand sew the two inch gap together using a hidden stitch. (Here's a tutorial on hidden stitches in case you aren't familiar with them. Hidden Stitch Link)

6. At the top of the banner fold back about an inch and a half of fabric, then run the folded portion through your sewing machine using any stitch you please. This stitch will be seen on the front and the back, so play around with your settings on scrap fabric until you find one you like. When the flap has been sewn on, place the dowel rod through and hot glue your ribbon to the rod. Here's a picture of how the back will look when finished.

As you can probably tell, mine is not perfect by any means and is heavy on the back stitching. However, I'm a novice, and it is handmade with love.

7. Hot glue fabric rosettes to banner.

Here's the view of the banners from the front.

Isn't it amazing what lighting can do for fabric color? Both banners are made out of the exact same material. The banner on the left was shot in mid day with only natural light from the window. The banner on the right was taken around 2 am in my dining room using the flash on my camera.

As I'm looking back on this post, I'm thinking it's short on tutorial, but hoping it's long on inspiration. Take the idea and run with it. The bride and the two high school graduates I made the banners for asbsolutely loved them. I'm sure you're loved ones would too, and it's a fairly inexpensive way to gift them with something that's from the heart and something they can actually use!

Thanks for stopping by, and leave a comment if you please. :-)

I'm linking up to the following great link parties. Be sure to visit the sites and check out all the other cool projects!

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