My DIY Wedding part 4 - the Guest book

               

            

I wanted to have a guest book which will also be a photo book and a memorabilia book, so I bought this craft book and start my cover!

This cover is make of original soft Sculpey, (the one you bake), and painted with oil paints. Why oils? because it stays liquid for long and is greasy enough to be "sponged or brushed" and enter in all creases for the cover


For this you would need :
- a book like the one in the pic under (amazon, michaels, joann etc) - with a spiral binbing you can open
- sculpey like this
- oil paints for adding volume and details
-  brushes, sponges, towels..
- sculpting tools (or knife, scalpel, needle etc)
- aluminum paper and your oven
- paper, crayon
- glue gun

First, you need to find your design. you should draw it once on a paper or on your book cover to see how it fits. Then, take your book and open the spiral binding (to do so, return your book and look for the opening of the spiral, they sell machines to open these (cinch tool)  but in the case of a large stiff spiral as this one, you should be able to slightly open them by hand and slide that cover page out )


Then start to kneed some of the dough. Then grab an aluminum sheet or parchment paper big enough to cover the front page. On it, lay a thin layer on sculpey, like a very fine pizza crust. Cut the excess around to match the shape of your cover. That will be the base you cover.

From there, start to add your design to that thin layer.
Tip: add the most important and large figures first, work on the details after.
You can use any tools you like. This sculpey is very solf and easy to shape 









It took me hours to achieve the look that I wanted - but when I decided I was done, I finished by adding the holes for the spirals.
For that, slide your Sculpey cover onto your detached cardboard book cover. With your finger and a pen aim for the holes and pierce through the aluminum to recreate the holes. This is also the time to check if the shape of your sculpey cover still match you cardboard cover. If not, you can cut the excess or reshape what you want better .

Turned the oven on to 275degres and delicately slide the aluminum sheet onto a baking plate and put it in the oven for 12-15min depending on the thickness- 
 & Let it cool down.

After that you can start the oil painting application. In my case I didn't want to much colors but I wanted to add volume to the shapes so I added a layer of brown (burnt sienna) all over the cover, insisting on the creases. When it's entirely covered take a towel, fabric scraps (q-tips!) and start to remove all the paint you just applied. Doing this will let the paint dry only in the creases/depth and get your white color on the parts the more in volume. Let dry at least overnight the brown paint. To add more contrast I did the same thing but reversed with white. With a sponge and a brush I added some light where I feel the light should be hitting.

If you want you could also add hint of other colors like I did for the hair, leaves etc. with that sponge or brush to the areas you'd like using the same technique. (again, wait at least a day between each colors)

To finish glue the cover to the cardbord cover using a glue gun (or any strong glue). The sculpey may have bend a bit at baking time but you should be able to bend it to the page using some weight overnight.
After that you could varnish it if you want, but it is not necessary.
Attach the full cover back into its spiral, add a bow and voila!
If you have questions please let me know!

         

My DIY Wedding - part 3 - bride's bouquet

Inspired by the bridesmaids bouquets I also made my bouquet! I used the same "rolled flowers" technique but also a few other folding paper techniques to get different types of flowers -

Differently to the girls's bouquet, mine was not based on a styroball but had actual wire "stems"  - so one of the difficult part was to arrange the flowers in a proper bouquet shape at the end

What you need:
-card stock paper (in various colors)
-glue gun
-florist wire like this  (around gauge 22) - for tsmall flowers
- floral stem wire like this   - for larger flowers
- florist tape like this
- Ribbon
- cissors
- Paints or crayons id you want to add designs on your flowers

There's a lot of paper roses designs online and I'd like to thanks every DIY-ers for theirs ideas!

For these flowers I used this pattern : roses
It's basically a rose out of 6 flat flower, you cut flolowing the line and use each one of your cuts. You will then roll them and glue them together, for the xterior petal to the heart of the flowers. A rigid paper will work better for these.

For the "rolled rose, you can have a look to my bridesmaid bouquet's post
 https://cafe-croquis.blogspot.com/2016/11/my-diy-wedding-part-1-bridemaids.html

The only difference here is that I glued each flower on a florist green wire stem  (using a glue gun and some patience for the glue to dry! )



For the lily-alike  flowers, you can use as well a 5-petals pattern like this one  or just draw it by hand yourself using a circle as your base. (or use a cricut if you have one)
You will need 4 sizes of that same design, from the bigger petal size you want (4.5 in diameter in my case) to the smallest (1 inch in my case). Each flower will have 6 flower "layers" : 1 large petal - 2 mid-large petals, 2 mid-smal petals - 1 small petal.

Once you cut your flower layers,you want to slightly fold them up with your fingers to give them some volume (picture on the right), like they're blooming from the center. Once it's done, glue the centers of each layer on top of each other, in staggered positions, from the bigger layer to the smaller one (Try to not flatten the flower, glue only the center to let the petal bloom.)
Glue securely a wire stem under the flower with the glue gun.

I used the same idea for the tiny blue flowers but only with 2 flower layers, and a bit of blue crayon to mark the center.
I glued them on thinner wire to look like some kind of blue lilac.
Same for the heart-leaves.
And as I said in another post, fern were punch cut with this
then glue to thin green wire. This takes a lot of time and patience as you can't put a lot of glue . Just a touch, and let it dry!





To Attach the flower together and form the bouquet first place the big flowers the way you would like them in your hand, then add the medium ones and the small ones. Each time you add enough flower, solidify the bouquet by taping the stem together using the florist tape.
 At the end add the leaves. You want the bouquet to be very tight so you don't see the wire under. Them cover the stems with a glued on ribbon. Tulle will hide the seam.

Final result:

My DIY wedding - part 2 - The Boutonieres

In the same idea as the bouquets for the girls, I created boutonnieres for the groomsmen using cardstock colored papers to make them more solid

What you will need :
-assorted cardstock papers or any paper heavy enough
- double prong hair clip or any flat clip similar  to this 
- scissors
- glue gun & sticks
- Optional: a paper punch  like this if you want to add leaves to your boutonierer and some light paper (like printer paper, green or other color ) 

To create the boutonniere use the same principle for the flower as for the girls bouquet projext, here : https://cafe-croquis.blogspot.com/2016/11/my-diy-wedding-part-1-bridemaids.html
But you should use a heavier paper, so it stays in place. I made 9 boutonnieres. I think I used 2 or 3 sheet of each colors . While you do the flowers, keep the paper leftovers for the 2nd step.

Once you have your flowers, take your leftovers cardstock and cut stripes of 2inch x 3.4 inch. (1 per flower)
You can round up the corner (like I did in the picture or not)
Take 3 of your flowers, glue the first one at the top of the stripe. Then place and glue the 2 others depending on your tastes. If your flowers are bigger than mine, just make a bigger stripe)





Once this is done, turn over the flower and glue the flat side of your hair clip to the stripe. Want to make it more secure? glue a stripe of paper over the flat side of the clip and to the paper . In my case I also used a extra safety pin (just glue the paper stripe around it ) for security

Want to add some "fern" around? Use your paper punch in a printer like paper (cardboard will break the paper punch)  and glue them around the flowers (don't put too much glue this time and try to hide it the flowers "petals"

And here you go! Need more info? Please pm me or comment !:)

My DIY Wedding - part 1 - Bridemaids bouquets

It's been so long, yes, but I have a good reason, I got married and did a lot of DIY for the wedding!
I wanted to share some if it  if maybe some other bride-to-be are looking for ideas for their own big day!
So first here are the bouquets I made for the bridesmaids
It was  a destination wedding so I needed something solid enough to be shipped and I liked the idea that the girls could keep them as a souvenir as well

"rolled" paper roses

I bought some polystyrene/Styrofoam balls 

and a Natural white blank  sketchbook  at the craft store 

You will also need:

 -  ribbon,  tulle

- some branches or sticks to make the "stems", 

- watercolor crayons if you want some colors  on the flowers

- cissors 

- a loaded glue gun! 

First, you need to determine the size of your flowers - Mine were out of a approx 4" circle.
Once you have decided the size, use a pattern or hand-draw like I did a spiral (ps: the more "spirals" means the more "petals) You can see the size of my spiral and the reasulted flowers . - It doesn't have to be perfect but pretty consistent - then, cut along your lines. (Except if you have a cricut machine, hand-drawn and cut is the fastest way I think .

After that, take your precut spiral and start to roll it from the outside toward the inside of the flower . Once you arrive at the center of the flower you should have enoug of a "base" to put so glue there and fix all the "petals" there. A lot of glue is always better. 

 

Glue the flowers to the ball once you add the stem 

I've made 8 bouquets, it was a lot of flowers and lot of time! I don't remember how many per bouquet but I guess it depends on the size of your Styrofoam ball and flowers.
Now, take you ball and make a hole in which you can glue on branches or sticks to make a "stem-handle" - again, the more glue the better ! Then cover the sticks with a ribbon of your choice (glue each and of the ribbon to the stick (you will add a bow on it later)


And once you have a good amout of flowers start glue them on the ball. You want them really close to eachother, so you don't see the ball under.


Add a bow on top and that's it!
I added some color to some of the flowers in mine with watercolor pen but it's not mandatory in this project. If you want more info, please pm me!