DIY Cake Stands

For the shower I knew that I wanted to add some height to the centerpieces and I thought that cake stands would be a perfect way to do that. I am someone who likes things to all be a little different so I knew I wanted to come up with a way to make the cake stands all a little different. 

I picked up different plates, glass goblet type cups, and a few candle sticks, at a few different yard sales, and also a local thrift store. 

Here is the variety of different plates and bases that I found! 

Using this glue that I found at Home Depot I glued the plates to the bases (the glasses or candle sticks) The glue's directions said to let it set for 30 minutes, but cure for 24 hours, so I did that to make sure that the glue was good and dry.

 I let them dry just like this for the full 24 hours, making sure to check them after about an hour to double check that everything was straight and hadn't slipped around. 

I picked up this super pretty metallic spray paint in "Pearl Mist" to spray some of my cake plates and the rest of them I painted, I'm sure you guessed it, GOLD.

 Here is a picture of one of the tables before the flowers went on, with a gold cake stand in the middle.

Here is a picture of the cake stand with the flowers setting on it! 

Only ONE more DIY project to go and I will show you around the entire shower all put together!

XOXO, Whitney

GOLD.

It is no secret that I love anything that is sparkly especially if it is GOLD. I knew that I wanted to add in pops of gold throughout the Bridal Shower, because who doesn't love themselves a little or ok a lot of gold!

I bought some gold spray paint and my first project with it was spray painting some glass bottles gold. I took beer bottles, wine bottles, other glass drink bottles, and jars and I cleaned and scrubbed the labels off of them.

 After all the labels and sticky residue was cleaned off I wiped down each bottle with lacquer thinner to remove any of the oils. 

 This is the gold spray paint that I used and I purchased it at Home Depot. I absolutely loved it and wanted to paint everything with it! :)

 I LOVE how the bottles and jars turned out! The looked so good! 

 Here is a group of them all finished!

The next thing that I painted gold was these picture frames that I bought at the $1 store. I dusted them off well and then used Tack Cloth (that you can buy at Home Depot or Lowes) to make sure to get off any extra dust and oil and gets the surface ready to paint. 

Here is how the frames turned out! 

 I bought these giant letters from Joann's Fabrics, they are made out of cardboard and I also spray painted them gold. I will show you what I used them for in a future post! 

Check out my next post this week to see how I made cake stands, out of old plates, cups, and candle sticks. 

 Until next time! XOXO, Whitney

Coffee Filter Project

I had seen this idea on the 31 Bits Blog and knew that I just had to make them for the shower. Also, please check out 31 Bits and you can see their adorable DIY ideas, but also read about all the incredible things they are doing and all the lives they are empowering and changing through the sales of their gorgeous jewelry!

For this project all you need is:
A package of coffee filters (I bought 2 large packages from Smart and Final)
Food Coloring
Rubber Gloves
A bin or container (To put the water/ food coloring mixture in)
A spray bottle (To mix the color mixture in)
A clothes line (To hang the filters to dry)

 I bought 2 large packages of coffee filters. I made one whole package in mint green, and made the second package in a pink/coral color. To start out you need to mix up your desired color with food coloring and water. I mixed mine in the spray bottle you see in the picture and then poured it in to a dish pan. I then dipped stacks of about 10 coffee filters in the water/ food coloring mixture at a time and then hung them up on the clothes line to dry.

 Here are some of the mint green ones hanging to dry.

 Here are the coral/pink ones hanging on the line to dry.

  Once they were dry I took them down and put them in a large trash bag, until the day before the shower when I was ready to string them on fishing line.

I hung the coffee filter garland above the food table and it truly was one of my favorite parts of the shower. With the help of so many people we crumpled the coffee filters, and then strung them onto fishing line using a large needle. This was the food table before the food went on.

Here is the food table, with the coffee filter garland, after the food was all set up! 

I absolutely love how this turned out! 

Make sure to check back to see the next DIY projects!

XOXO, Whitney

Wooden Signs and Bridal Shower Directional Signs

These were one of the projects that took up the most time. I am not sure if I am just too much of a perfectionist, but I know there HAS to be a much more efficient way of getting wooden signs painted more quickly! If you have any tips or tricks please leave them in the comments below.

My Dad helped me put together the signs.

The middle sign is made out of old barn wood from the property that I grew up on, and the two pallet type signs I purchased the wood from Home Depot.

 

I used letter stencils that I had, and I used a sample of Behr paint that I got from Home Depot.

And painted "We're so glad your you're here!" to put by the front gate at the shower.

This one I freehanded. This is the first quick coat of paint, and then I went back to fill in the letter  and made them darker.

Here is the other pallet sign that I painted. I used the same letter stencils that I used for the "We're so glad you're here" sign, and the same paint. 

Here is a sneak peak from the shower. This is how I used the two pallet signs that I had painted!

My Dad and I also made directional signs for the Bridal Shower to make sure that people knew where to go. I used my Cricut machine to make a stencil that said Bridal Shower. I used some off white spray paint,  and using the stencil that I had cut out from the Cricut, I painted the pieces of wood for the signs! My Dad cut out the arrows from a piece of bead board. 

One of my favorite parts of the signs was the we added an eye hook on the back to attach balloons to! 

I loved all of these signs, and because they took so long to paint, I was so excited when they were finished! :)

Next up I will show you a project I made with coffee filters and food coloring!

Bridal Shower Invites

For the bridal shower we had established a coral, mint, and pink color scheme with hints of gold. We also had decided that we were going to have some rustic aspects as well. I spent so much time searching for invitations online and when I found these ones on www.zazzle.com I knew they were totally the ones!

I was able to customized the colors on the website to fit the colors we had chosen. We also had decided to create Londyn a recipe book with recipes from all the women in her life. I found a recipe card that closely matched the invitations, on Etsy, and was able to download them and print them out. I included 2 recipe cards in each invitation. 

I included a little insert that said the following:

If you are unable to attend the shower, it would really mean a lot if you would fill out the recipe cards with your favorite recipes, to start (the Bride's name's) recipe collection, with the best recipes from her loved ones! 

    

  Please send them to: First Name/ Last Name

                                                       Address of person receiving the RSVPs

                               

                                                 Thank you so very much!

I was the person in charge of the RSVP list, and I was in charge of the invitations. On the invitations I included my phone number as well as me email address for a way to RSVP. I would say that about 75% of the guests RSVP'd through email. This worked out well for me, just an idea if you are working on party invites, maybe you could try that out. Also I live in Southern California, we had invited 75+ people, and the shower was going to be held outside in July. I also felt it necessary to include on the invitation that the shower was going to be held outside, so please dress appropriately!

Next up will be wooden signs, and Bridal Shower directional signs that I made for the shower!

                                                                     XOXO, Whitney

Bridal Shower Planning

This September my Brother is getting married. Him and his Fiancé will be getting married on their 8 year dating anniversary, so Londyn has been part of our family for so many years already and I already consider her my sister. My family had the privilege of getting to throw a Bridal Shower for Londyn along with her family. I worked on so many different DIY projects with my Dad, so I will be breaking them up in to several posts. Make sure to check back to see all of the details.

The first thing I did when starting to plan this Bridal Shower was make a vision board. I gathered pictures from Pinterest of ideas that I had for themes, colors, and projects to be made. We had a planning meeting with my family, Londyn's family, and a few of her bridesmaids. I wanted to have a meeting to go over plans, ideas and visions to make the shower become a reality.

I also made up a document (that I will attach below) that I had printed out for each person attending the planning meeting, that way each detail was ironed out and no one was left guessing what they were in charge of. Seem like a bit much? Maybe, but I feel like this helped make the planning process so much easier!

Below I have pasted in the document that I created for the planning meeting, enjoy!

Name:_______________________

                                                      Date: _____________________

Bridal Shower Planning Meeting

Date:_____________________________________________

Location: __________________________________________

_________________________________________________

Time: ____________________________________________     

Theme:___________________________________________

Colors:____________________________________________

Décor ideas: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Guest List: (Who will be in charge of that?)

______________________________________________

Invitations:

From:

RSVP to who:_______________________________________

By (date):_________________________________________

The Bride and Groom are registered at: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Recipe card (to be included in invite):

From:

Raffle for returning recipe card à

Prize: What’s the prize/Who will purchase it?

_______________________=___________________________

Tables: (8 seats max per table)

How many: _________

Rented or getting from where: ___________________________________________________

Chairs:

How many: _________

Rented or getting from where: ___________________________________________________

Tent/Shades/ Umbrellas:

How many: _________

Rented or getting from where: ___________________________________________________

Linens:

Color:______________________________

How many: _________

Rented or getting from where: ___________________________________________________

Fresh Flowers: (For the tables)

What flowers? Who will get those? From Where?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Table Décor/ Centerpieces:

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Food:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Who’s bringing/making what?

_______________________=_______________________

_______________________=_______________________

_______________________=_______________________

_______________________=_______________________

_______________________=_______________________

_______________________=_______________________

_______________________=_______________________

_______________________=_______________________

_______________________=_______________________

Dessert:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Drinks:

_______________________=___________________________

_______________________=___________________________ _______________________=___________________________

_______________________=___________________________

Plates: _______________________=_____________________

Cups:   _______________________=_____________________

Napkins:______________________=_____________________

Silverware:____________________=_____________________

Straws:_______________________=_____________________

Notes:___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Guest Book? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Activities/Games:

Who has the Groom?

Who will make it?_______________________

Prize: What’s the prize/Who will purchase it?

_______________________=_________________________

Send a card to the Bride and Groom

Write a note of encouragement, marriage advice, your favorite quote or Bible verse to be sent to the bride and groom during their first few months of marriage.

Cards:

What cards should be used? From where?

_________________________________________________

Who will get the cards?

_________________________________________________

Who knows the Bride and Groom the best/

                                      Bride & Groom questionnaire:

Who is going to compile questions (find the best questions from versions online) & get answers from the Bride and Groom?  _________________________________________________

Who is going to make a game sheet for the shower?

_________________________________________________

Prize: What’s the prize/Who will purchase it?

_______________________=_________________________

Favor:

Ideas: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Person in charge of favors: ____________________________

Person in charge of writing down gifts received: _________________________________________________

Person in charge of making Bride’s ribbon/ bow bouquet:

_________________________________________________

I am in charge of the following:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Check back for the Bridal Shower invitations and details about the invites!

                                                            XOXO, Whitney

My Room- Mini Makeover!

A few weeks ago I got a new bed, so I decided that my room needed a little update!

 I found these new pillows at Marshall's! 

The yellow ones were $9.99 each! The grey one is Kate Spade and was ONLY $12.99, I thought is was the cutest thing, and it just had to come home with me!

The "Believe you can and you will" canvas I bought from Burlington Coat Factory! I know right, who would have thought to look there for home goods! But they have some really great things!

 This is the new wall collage I made!
Pictures are also one of my most favorite things, like EVER. 

I love to have pictures of all of my favorite people and my favorite memories all over the place! 

Titus approves of my new bed, and loves the new pillows! I'm still dreaming up what I want to make for a headboard, so keep your eyes out hopefully soon for what I have in the works for that!

XOXO, Whitney