Frame and Poem for the Guestbook Table

Another quick and easy one today.

I found some frames from the dollar store that were kind of rustic looking. They gave me the shabby chic vibe that I was going for.... except they were totally the wrong color. Their original color (which I forgot to photograph) reminded me more of an outhouse, which isn't really the vibe I'm going for at my wedding.

So.... last weekend I went to BM Tonja's house and we had a spray paint party. She was nice enough to let me use their deck and help me paint. (It's a little hard and kinda unsafe to be spray painting in my apartment, I guess.)

So I spray painted the frames ivory. They came out pretty good. I am thinking of making them a little more "rustic" by using some sandpaper on them to give them that antique/vintage vibe, but I haven't officially decided yet.  Then I typed up a poem to put in the frame to kind of explain our guest "book".

I've never really been a fan of the traditional guestbook, just because I'd hate to just put it away on a shelf and that be the end of it. So months ago I came across this photo (Sorry, can't remember where or I'd give credit where credit is due.) and knew that's what I wanted to do. We went to a second hand record shop and each bought a record of our favorite old bands. I picked an album by "The Doors" (I Loooove me some Jim Morrison) and the fiance picked an album by "Led Zepplin". We'll have the guest sign them with paint pens and then hang them in some collectible display cases (larger than the one pictured) that I got on sale at Michael's a few months back.

Anyway.... so I typed up the poem and put it in the frame. The first 2 lines I read somewhere on the web (again, I'm bad about remembering where I saw things. Sorry) and the rest I just made up. It's not perfect, in my mind, but I'm trying not to be a perfectionist when it comes to all things wedding. And since this is something that most people may not even read I didn't want to spend too much time on it.

In case you can't read it, the poem says:

Instead of a guestbook

stuck in a drawer,

Alex and Samantha

thought they would do more.

Please sign your name

or leave them a note,

so all their lives

they can read what you wrote.

Thank you for sharing

in their wonderful day,

and for helping to celebrate

in your own special way.

DIY Doily Disaster

I've been wanting to do some sort of craft lately, so I figured I would do a trial of the canvas totes that I wanted to make for part of my bridesmaids gifts.

I have seen this project on SO many blogs lately, but I believe that this is the one where I first came across it.

I thought it seemed cute. I liked that I could still personalize it, and it seemed easy. So today I had the fiance drop me off at Michael's (I didn't make him go in as he has apparently reached his limit on the number of times he can suffer through a Michael's shopping trip with me) and I went in search of the items I needed. I already have lots of paintbrushes at home, so I bought one plain canvas tote, a bottle of brown fabric pain, some 10 inch doilies, and a can of spray adhesive. Thanks to a 40% Off One Item coupon, this cost me about $12.

So, I came home and attempted it. I had read on some blogs that people had had some problems getting the paint to look exactly right. It seems it often creeps under parts of the doily and then you don't get that tidy look that I was going for. Still... I figured I'd give it a shot.

Well.............. It didn't work out. The bag looked like a sad little doily disaster. I thought I did it all right too. I adhered my doily. I made sure it was firmly in place, but yet my paint still got into places I didn't want it to. I read on another blog (can't remember which one right now) about how she found out that if you use an Exacto knife and cut out a freezer paper stencil from the doily and then adhere that freezer paper stencil to your bag it comes out much more precise, but I'm lazy and dont feel like cutting out all those little tiny holes so the doily idea may have to just go into my "DIY Fail" file.

So, here I sat with a messy looking $4 canvas bag. I couldn't let that go to waste. I tried to figure out something else to do with it that would cover up the doily mistake and yet still look cute. I couldn't think of many easy things. I didn't feel like searching for a new project or stencil... so I decided to just wing it.

Here's what I came up with:

Yes, what started out as a bag for the bridesmaids ended up as a bag for me. Lol. Oh well... I had to figure something out to do with it. So I painted it with the brown fabric paint that I bought today and then used some left over acrylic paint I had around the house (after I googled to see if acrylic paint would be ok for fabric, and the general consensus seemed to be that it is... we'll see). I just freehanded the color blocks, then decided to try to freehand the "W". I drew the "W" on the bag first with a pencil and then painted over it.

It came out pretty good. I'm kinda proud of it for a project that wasn't planned and for not letting the "Doily Disaster" get me down.

I found some cheaper canvas bags online today from here. Even after shipping they still end up under $2 per bag.

I hope to still make some sort of bags for the bridesmaids.... just have to rethink my design (and figure out what to do with all my leftover doilies).