Pom Poms Galore!

I am super excited to share some DIY/DIT craftiness with you today! Not only is this project complete - like totally done and I don't even have to think about it anymore - but this is probably going to be the only project that I've had in mind since the beginning. Months and months ago I became enthralled with little lovely garlands... which looked easy and all but turned out to be the project from hell! I only managed to make one tiny little dumb poof ball based on that tutorial before I was throwing things. Not the best...

But I was determined! So I found a new way - inspired by my aunt and based on Martha's know how. So, ladies and gents, I have for you today....

Quick and Easy Peasy (Plus Super Cute) Garland Tutorial!

Materials

• fabric
• cutting mat and one of those roller cutters work excellent (thanks, Mom!)
• good fabric scissors
• pins
• wire - 24 gauge is what we used
• wire cutter
  
• ribbon
• needle big enough to fit ribbon
  

First things first... by a crap load of fabrics in your chosen colors! Wait, maybe don't buy as much as us. We bought a LOT! My mom kinda freaked out and we ended up with 10 yards total! holy geeze. Um, and we maybe used a third of that for garland making? But we have used it for some other projects and its definitely better to have more than less. And we had coupons. Anyway. Ok, get fabric. I'd say something stiffer like taffeta is best, but that can be expensive. We actually have three totally different types of fabrics for our pom poms and they all turned out ok, but the stiffer stuff definitely poofs up better and stays in place better.

Now that you've got your fabric, cut it all up into rectangles. Ours are six inches by five inches to in the end make a pom pom of about four inches wide, but play with the sizing to find what you like! You can also play with how many layers you use in your pom poms. At least three are needed to make a nice poofy pom. We used four layers. Here are my lovely rectangles...
Also, take your wire and cut a bunch of segments approximately five inches long. You'll use these in a bit but its good to have them all handy and ready.

Take your four cut rectangles, line em up, and pin them together. Now, you are going to cut the edges to give the pom pom the desired texture. I've seen them with pointy edges or rounded edges - we rounded ours. The nice part about this step is that you don't have to be too picky. Make sure the corners are nice and round and kinda make a nice wave along the edges, but any oddities from this step are not too noticeable. Here is a funky looking bunch as a good example:

Now you are going to take your four layers of fabric (take the pins out! ouch!) and accordion them. As small as you can get the accordions without too much work. And accordion them the long way? short way? Um, start with the shorted edge towards you and then accordion that way. I dunno what to call that!

Then, when you have it all accordioned up, take one of your pieces of wire and wrap it tightly around the middle of your fabric bunch. It should look roughly like this:

Now poof that sucker! Pull and yank and squish it - don't be shy - until its a lovely little poof ball of a pom pom! Like zis:

Beautiful!

Now make a bunch more. I think we had roughly 70 poms of each color? Or something ridiculous like that. With your ribbon and big needle (get a strong one! I broke a little puny one after two poms!), string up your lovely poms into an even lovelier pom pom garland! With all the pom poms I had, I used up three rolls of 10 yards of ribbon. Aka I now have 90 yards of garland. Holy balls, batman, thats a lot of garland!

But I can't wait to hang them up and see them brightening our outdoor space!

(sorry for the poor lighting on these photos)

So there you have it. The garland tutorial that was months in the making!

Peace,
Jen

PS those are our colors! I don't think I've actually shown you our colors yet! I've become adept at describing them and they are as follows: "Granny smith green, robin's egg blue, and magenta/fuschia/pink/purple/berry color." See? adept.

Finals Time

I feel like I'm back in school. Like its the end of the semester and finals are looming close. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited for the wedding and I never know what to say. Yes, of course I'm excited, but I also have a little heart attack every time I realize how soon its coming up! Its like when people would ask me if I was excited for summer. Uh, yeah, obviously! Everyone loves summer, but first I have to go through finals first and not lose my sanity!

My goal here is to get stuff done and NOT procrastinate, dammit! and then have a week before the wedding where I can actually be excited and anticipate the upcoming day and enjoy the ride. I dun wanna be a stress ball!

And its actually coming along great and I'm super excited because I have two lovely crafts that I want to share with you all! They are all finished and they don't look like a child did them! Unless Martha Stewart has a child...then maybe they look like her child did them. One of the best parts too is that the mister has been involved in lots of them! He made pom poms, he pretty much did all the work for the tree cookie escort card holders, and I even had him decoupaging! awesome!

There are more crafts coming too! Like the flower that I'm making out of the cut off train from my dress to rest on the hip of my dress. And the lighted trees that we are making. And the mason jar lanterns that might not qualify as 'crafts' but I'm going to include in our DIY section.

huh...I never really thought of myself as DIY, but maybe I am? who knows. and who cares! :)

August 28th is only 25 days away! and I have this feeling that time isn't going to stop. So the 28th is only going to get closer and then BAM! be here!

DJ vs DIY

One of our bigger decisions has been to forgo a DJ and do our own wedding playlist on either an iPod or a laptop. There have been lots of nay sayers who tell me Why Using an iPod to DJ Your Own Wedding is a Horrible Idea (um, biased much?) but then there is Meg at A Practical Wedding who describes their self DJ experience and gives some great advice (I feel redundant for how often APW and the word "great" appear together).

I've been doing research and have some serious doubts about whether doing our own music is a good idea or not. Yet at the same time I don't really feel like adding another budget item to our list. So here is a pro/con list I've come up with of the biggest factors. Please feel free to weight in.

Pro Doing Our Own Music

• Free! Yeah, we are going to buy some songs and that does cost money, but most of it we have already. Plus, buying more awesome music doesn't sound that bad!
• No worries about a crazy DJ. Yeah, some are great, but some are nutso! And how do you know unless you have a good referral?
  

Cons of Doing Our Own Music

• Without someone to really watch the music, we lose the ability to adjust the music for what the guests are diggin and dancing to.
  
• The sound system at our venue. Its only one volume for the entire room. And when I'm dancing I want music pounding! So either music is pretty quiet or people can't talk on the seating side of the room. :(

So on one side I'm cheap and don't want to spend more money on a DJ. This wedding budget is a monster and keeps growing and growing. All these unexpected costs are coming up and are always more than I expect. I do have an old friend who is willing to do it for a reduced rate if he is still available. Reduced from 1000 to 600, so yeah, a good deal but still a lot of cash! On the other side, the music/dancing are the entertainment for the night and I'd like to do it right.

How do we manage the playlist without having to work our wedding? There isn't an obvious musical person to ask. My brother would be great for the role but he is hesitant and doesn't want to 'work all night' - which I don't want either! And what do you think about the sound levels? Does it really matter?

What are you doing for your wedding? Advice for DJing your own? Opinions on which works better?

Image from Hans Woltering

Projects: Tree Cookie Escort Card Holders

Its that time in the planning where I actually have to do stuff. Yeah, I've been planning a lot, but so far that has seemed to mean lots of conversations, googling, reading lots of blogs, stashing away of ideas, e-mailing, meeting with people, standing in one place as they make my dress fit, swiping my money card, oohing and ahhing and that's about it. Now its time to bust out all my crafty ideas, pick and choose, and DO them! Yay!

And I'm going to pay it forward. Since most of my ideas have been in some way based off blog land amazingness, I'm going to post my own DIY posts to share what those inspirations have led to.

First up - some really adorable (if I do say so) and really easy (honestly!) and really cheap (best part!) Tree Cookie Escort Card Holders!* This particular project was inspired by an awesome escort card box from The Brides Cafe. I loved the look of the mossy box but am generally creeped out by styrofoam, so I took the idea and tweaked it just enough to work for us.

Behold our tree cookie escort card holders!


Our cookies are fresh cut and not sanded at all, so they are still rough - and that's the way we like them! Natural and cute! And totally vibing with our quasi tree theme for the wedding.

To make your own** adorable tree cookie escort card holders, here is a quick and easy tutorial:

Materials needed:

• Tree cookies! and lots of them! We found a baby tree in the woods, chopped it down and then used the mister's dad's circular saw to quickly buzz off a bunch of cookies. The size can really vary. Some of ours are 2 inches in diameter while some are 1 inch. I'd recommend at least 3/4 inch thick.
• Wire - Choose any color (we used copper) around 18 gauge. You can find this in craft or hardware stores. We got two packages to equal 50 feet for roughly five bucks.
  
• Wire cutter
• Round nose plier - other small pliers can be used, but the round is extremely helpful in twisting the wire (both the cutter and the plier I had gotten from a craft store for pretty cheap)
  
• A drill with a tiny drill bit to match the gauge of the wire - Err on the side of small when it comes to the bit. You can use glue to secure the wire, but its better if its snug. OR instead of a drill - just use really soft wood. Our cookies were half basswood and I could easily push the wire into the wood for a secure fit.
• Sticky icky glue. Even Elmers will do.
  

Step One: Cut wire to length. I cut ours to approximately 4 inches long. I like the look of varied lengths, though, so I was nowhere near exact.
Step Two: Use the round nose pliers to twist wire into curly head. I found it easiest to curl it into a conical sort of shape (see picture below) (Its easier to maneuver and twist the curve while its spread out instead of flat) and then smoosh it flat with your fingers. The 18 gauge wire is still really malleable and easy to shape with your fingers. When shaped in a nice twirl, test that a piece of paper will be securely held - tweak as needed.

Step Three: Drill hole in wood cookie. Put a little bit of glue at the end of the wire and put in cookie hole. Leave to dry. Or, if you were able to find a soft wood such as basswood, simply push the wire into the cookie.
Step Four: Sit back and admire.


Easy, right? I put together the first five in less than five minutes, so give me an episode or two of Bones and I'll be set! I love projects that look way craftier than they really are! And cheap! In total, this cost us a whopping five bucks - that's just for the wire since we already had the other tools that we used. Score team us!

One DIY project done. Next is making some fun and colorful garlands!

Peace,
Jen

Note from the editor: this is now a totally DIT (do it together) project. The mister cut the cookies and just finished twisting all the wire into cute lil' curls. And then he made this awesome heart version just for me! :) awww


* OK, I felt kinda douchy writing that. "escort card holders" ew. That sounds like some sort of totally unnecessary thing the knot would push for a eight bucks each, doesn't it? Well, we do need escort cards to indicate our guests' meal choice. And we were originally going to just do plain tent cards, but this is so easy and so cheap that we're doing it. High return for our investments! score!

** or if your wedding is after 8-28-10, let me know and I'll ship them