Guest Blog: Brittany 

Materials:

• Mod Podge Glossy
• Paint Brush
• Jar of Water
• Glass Cleaner
• Paper Towels
• Scrapbook Paper (thin works better)
• Glass Plates
• Recycled Jar or Cans to Dry Plates on
• Scissors
• Pencil

Instructions:

1. Clean the bottom of the glass plates with glass cleaner.

2. Trace around the plate on the scrapbook paper.

3. Cut out the circle.

4. Snip four slits into the circle but NOT all the way to the center.

5. Snip four more slits centered between the first set of slits. You should end up with eight cuts equally spaced.

6. Cover the bottom of your glass plate with mod podge

7. Center the cutout circle onto the bottom of the plate, pattern side down. Gently press the paper onto the plate allowing the paper to overlap slightly at each slit.

8. Liberally apply mod podge over the scrapbook paper.

9. Use your finger to smooth out the wrinkles in the paper. But, be gentle or the paper will tear.

10. Lay the plates upside down on the jars and cans until dry. Add more mod podge if needed to seal the scrapbook paper and glue it down.

Turn them over and enjoy your unique decorative plates.

Note: Do not fully submerse the plates in water, wipe them off and wash the tops so as not to mess up the paper side. Stack them with a paper towel in between so they don’t stick together.

The possibilities are endless with these plates. Think about personalizing them with photos or monograms. What are your ideas for making your own plates?

* Style & Photo Credit: Pretty Handy Girl

My husband Matt likes to joke that I am an Etsy addict and I must admit there is smidgen of truth to that fact. I just love hand-made jewelry as it’s unique, and made with lots of love. So when a friend of mine started an Etsy shop called  Apparel 1977 I was so excited for her I wanted to share it with you. 

I think hand-made jewelry would make fun personal bridesmaid gifts. Best of all it’s very affordable so it won’t break your budget. 

Here are some of my favorites…

                             Chinese Ceramic Heart Bracelet

                            Silver & Gold Charm Bracelet

                              Rhinestone Flower Necklace

                       Blue Peacock Ceramic Heart Bracelet

                         Woman’s Bead & Charm Bracelet

You know I’m a huge fan of mason jars, but there is something really cool about vintage bottles.  You can group them together, or just use a couple for a minimalist look.  They can make a wedding vintage or modern depending on the way you use them and the type you use.  And they can be decor on their own, or floral containers.  Here are some great ways to incorporate them in your wedding:

Monochromatic bottles with monochromatic florals 

Vintage bottles as photo display

Bottles alone as vintage decor

Bottles stenciled with table numbers

 

I will be posting a DIY Tutorial soon on how to make these stenciled table numbers. : )

Multi-colored bottles with different single stems

 

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!

Hope these pretty flowers brighten your world.  

LIVE THIS DAY WITH PASSION!!!!

DIY clip-art candles are a fun way to personalize your wedding parties. They are also great for bridesmaids gifts, guest welcome bags, or hostess gifts.

What You Need:

• Store-bought glass jar candles (any size)
• Clip-art images
• 8.5″ x 11″ white vellum

Hints: When shopping for jar candles, look for ones with very straight sides, if they taper, you’ll need to make curved labels and that’s pretty tricky.

Unscented is best for burning candles in quantity and during a meal, but be sure to keep their wicks trimmed short to keep the flames low. 

I use images from clip-art books that can easily be found at libraries and book stores. You can also use your own art or computer-generated text, copyright-free artwork found online, and even a copy of a cherished handwritten letter.

For this project, most images can be either scanned to your computer or copied straight from a clip-art book and printed to size using a graphic editing program (such as photoshop, Gimp) or at your local copy store.

Once I measure my candle for wrap size and place my artwork centered within the appropriate dimensions, I print the images on 8.5″ x 11″ white vellum.

Vellum is a frosty, translucent paper that easily feeds through a desktop printer or copy machine and can be found at most craft stores. This type of paper wrapped around the candle allows the flame’s glow to show through while burning for a great effect

Although color images work well, I love the look of black and white art. From one book, I chose images of old product brand graphics to use on the small white candles. Once the images were printed on the vellum and cut to size, I wrapped and secured the vellum with glue at the overlap. 

Instead of wraps, for the pink candles, I printed decorative border frames on standard office paper, trimmed them out and wrote names on each before wrapping them around candle. With tall jar candles, a monogram, a typewritten name or a vintage image are just a few of the ideas for personalizing your guests’ place settings.

When giving candles as a gift, it’s also nice to give a little matchbook that can be used in the wrapping!

Have fun!

Okay. Calling this cake is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, it’s cake-shaped with stacked layers made for slicing and it’s even frosted, but there’s nary a crumb to speak of.  It’s 100% mousse, in cherry chip and pistachio flavors, surrounded by vanilla whipped cream - my take on spumoni.

Since this cake was inspired by its ice cream counterpart, it can be served as a  frozen dessert - and it’s delicious as such. I could see this served  at a summertime gathering in place of a typical ice cream cake. After the half-slice I tested as a frozen dessert had sat on the counter and thawed somewhat, I tried it again. It’s just as delicious at room temperature, and much softer with a true airy mousse texture.

I found that using instant pistachio pudding to flavor the top layer created a pretty green hue, and the flavor is easily recognizable. It also has just the right amount of ground pistachios in the mix to keep the mousse texture nice and smooth. If you don’t have access to instant pistachio pudding, you may omit the pudding from the recipe, add a handful of ground pistachios and use pistachio flavoring.

The cherry layer is my favorite because, well, I’m just a cherry lovin’ girl. There’s something so wonderful about getting a bite filled with cherry chips. It tastes like happy. 

Spumoni Mousse Cake Recipe

Cherry Layer

• 1/4 oz. package of powdered gelatin
• 2 tbsp. maraschino cherry juice
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup whole milk or half and half
• 8 oz. high quality white chocolate, chopped
• 1 tsp. almond extract or 1/4 tsp. almond oil
• Few drops of pink food coloring
• 24 maraschino cherries, chopped into “chips”
• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream

For the cherry layer

Lightly grease the bottom and sides of two 7 or 8-inch spring form pans. Line the bottoms with a parchment paper round. Set aside
.
Place the 2 tbsp. cherry juice in a medium saucepan and sprinkle gelatin over water.  Let stand for 1 minute.  Whisk in egg yolks and sugar; mix well.  Stir in milk.  Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly.  Cook until thickened considerably 7-10 minutes. When done, it should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.   Stir in chopped white chocolate and blend with a whisk until chocolate has melted and has an even color.  Let cool.

When mixture is cooled to just barely warm, whisk in almond extract and pink food coloring.  Stir in cherry chips.

Whip cream until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold whipped cream into the cooled cherry mixture until well blended.  Pour into a prepared spring-form pan and level the top with a rubber spatula.  Pick up and drop the pan once or twice to settle any gaps that may have been created when the mixture was poured.  Place in freezer and freeze until firm.  Wash and dry your saucepan, bowl, spatula, whisk and beaters for the next layer.

Pistachio Layer

• 1 tsp. powdered gelatin
• 2 tbsp. cold water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons egg yolk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup whole milk or half and half
• 4 oz. high quality white chocolate, chopped
• 3 tablespoons instant pistachio pudding
• Drop of green food coloring (if desired)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

For the pistachio layer

Place the 2 tbsp. water in a medium saucepan and sprinkle gelatin over water.  Let stand for 1 minute.  Whisk in egg yolk and sugar.  Stir in milk.  Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly.  Cook until thickened considerably 5-7 minutes. When done, it should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.   Stir in chopped white chocolate and blend with a whisk until chocolate has melted and has an even color.  Whisk in instant pistachio pudding mix.  Let cool.

When mixture is cooled to just barely warm, whisk in a drop of green food coloring to intensify the green color, if desired. 

Whip cream until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold whipped cream into the cooled pistachio mixture until well blended.  Pour into the remaining prepared spring-form pan and level the top with a rubber spatula.  Pick up and drop the pan once or twice to settle any gaps that may have been created when the mixture was poured.  Place in freezer and freeze until firm.

Vanilla whipped cream and assembly

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream  
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. clear vanilla extract
• Pink food coloring
• 12 whole maraschino cherries, rinsed and patted dry

Remove pans of mousse from the freezer. Use a dish towel soaked in hot water then wrung dry to warm the outside of the spring-form collars and then gently unlatch and remove the collars. Turn the cherry layer onto a serving platter or cake stand and peel off the parchment round.  Stack the pistachio layer on top of the cherry layer and press down until layers are even.  If you have gaps between the layers, use an off-set spatula to smooth the two layers together.  Peel off parchment circle.

Whip heavy cream until soft peaks form, and then gradually add the sugar. Add in the vanilla and beat until stiff peaks form.  Frost the upper half of the mousse cake white whipped cream; avoid frosting the top – we want the pretty green color of the pistachio mousse to show.  Tint the remaining whipped cream pink and frost the lower portion with the pink whipped cream. Use one large spatula to smooth the two colors together on the sides of the cake.  Transfer remaining pink whipped cream to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip.  Pipe 12 pink whipped cream florets on the top outer edge of the cake.  Place a cherry in the center of each floret.  Store cake in the freezer.  Slice into pieces while still partially frozen.  Serve frozen or let slices come to room temperature – it’s delicious both ways!

 * Recipe Credit: Sprinkle Bakes

From Marchesa to Nicole Miller, designers are reminiscing over past dress trends, and I absolutely love it! 

Carolina Herrera

Marchesa

Nicole Miller

Alice Temperley

Luncheons are traditional and brunches divine, but a high tea shower is pure elegance. I love the idea of having the bride’s favorite ladies together for an afternoon tea of crust-free sandwiches, scones and cookies and cakes.  The idea also works well for a birthday or a baby shower!

Note:  Afternoon Tea is usually served between 3-5 and High Tea is later between 5-7 and often accompanied by a small meal.  Learn more here.

(Source: zazzle.com)

Caravan is a shop full of digital downloads created by Alma and Mike Loveland and Melanie Burk. And they’ve just made all of their printable stationery free! Find notecards for teachers, grads, birthdays, and more right here, including a bunch of chalkboard-style designs which are super trendy right now. Save yourself a trip to the store!

Writing the guest list for a small wedding may seem like a huge challenge. So if you’re struggling to cut down your guest list, here are a few tips to help you narrow it down…

Friends 

If you haven’t seen or heard from a friend in the last 12 months, there’s no need to invite them. If you went to a friend’s wedding more than two years ago and haven’t seen or heard much from them since, you don’t have to invite them. A friend of mine’s brother narrowed his friends down by crossing off anyone he hadn’t seen in the last two months. Harsh but it worked for him and his wife.

Assumed Invites

Now this is awkward but it happens… a friend you hardly see or hear from just assumes they’re invited and they pop up in your Facebook inbox asking about the big day. This happened to my sister, she ignored it at first but eventually she had to write back and politely explain that her wedding was a small event for her nearest and dearest. Issue solved and no hard feelings (I hope).

Here’s what you could say: “Thank you so much for your interest in my wedding. Unfortunately we are organizing our wedding on a budget and therefore we’re only able to invite our closest friends and family.”

Hopefully they’ll be mature about it.

Family

If you only see certain extended family members briefly over Christmas, and they don’t know much about you or your fiancé, you don’t need to invite them. Invite family members you like, connect with when you see them, and who will add to your day.

Colleagues

If you have work mates you hang out with over the weekend, they’re friends and you should invite them. If not, inviting the office to your small wedding could be a recipe for awkwardness.

A friend of mine told about a wedding she and a few colleagues were invited to. She said it was awkward because they didn’t know any other guests, were all lumped at one table despite not being accustomed to hanging out together, and as a result most of them left early or as soon it was polite to do so. 

So here’s what you could say when your wedding crops up in conversation: “We’re organizing a small wedding on a tight budget for our closest family and friends.”

Most people will understand.

The Parents’ Wish Lists 

A friend of mine fought with her mother for the first time in her life over her wedding guest list. Her advice: “Don’t discuss the guest list until you have drafted it first!” 

If you’re paying for part or or all of your wedding, maintain control of the guest list and don’t ask your parents who they would like to invite, rather say, “Mom and dad, we have space for X number people, is there anyone in particular you’d like to invite?”

My parents respected that I only wanted to invite people that meant something to either or both of us and to be fair, we invited an equal number of family members/family friends on either side (fair is fair).

There’s no perfect number of guests. I’ve heard from brides who have loved hosting 200 guests plus, and I’ve heard from others who have been happy to have 20 guests witness their wedding day. The choice is up to you and your man. But the bottom line is… it’s your party, invite who you want to. Cheers to that!

Every woman should own at least one pair of knee high boots. Frankly the more you own - the better! No matter how ordinary you may think you are, no woman can look plain or simple when wearing a striking pair of boots.

Knee high boots are no longer restricted to cold weather. They can be worn any given time of the year. They are not only ideal for keeping your legs warm but also give a slimmer appearance to your calves, shape the contours of your legs, cover all the possible leg flaws, and make your legs appear longer than they are.

Sexy knee high boots direct attention and create a variety of fashion statements.

Long Summer Skirts / Dresses

When worn with a longer skirt, knee high boots have a romantic and feminine effect. For a fun summer look tie your hair into a high ponytail and slip into your favorite tank top, long skirt with knee high boots and you can’t help but look cute.

Lace-up Boots

Lace-up knee high boots are ideal for those who want to show off their beautiful and shapely legs. Lace-ups are ideal for women raring to go. They’re perfect for partying and sexy fun.

Short Sexy Skirts

When paired with knee-length or shorter skirts, they’re decidedly sexy and sophisticated.

Black is your best friend

For women who love to dominate, black leather knee high boots are something you just shouldn’t go without. They are a girl’s best friend as they can go effortlessly from day to night. Black leather boots can be worn with casual skirts for a relaxed, breezy attitude or with a pair of your favorite jeans.

So whether you are a mama’s girl or a party animal, sexy knee high boots are sure to suit you. Mysterious and alluring, they will capture your interest and suit every fashion statement. 

Here are some of my favorite knee high boots from the Gipsy Dharma Collection. I love these colorful boots as they are hand-crafted with soft leather and have comfortable flexible soles.

To see the latest updates to the Gipsy Dharma Collection, please be sure to visit them on Facebook

Materials used:

1. Flowers
2. Ribbon of your choice 
3. Flower Shears
4. Floral Tape

Step 1: I started off at a local flower shop. I didn’t really have a good idea in mind and didn’t know how many flowers I needed to get. I just knew a general idea of color and kind of went from there. I picked out one central large flower to be my focus flower and color, a few accent flowers and some greenery.

Step 2: Once I got home, I trimmed off the excess leaves and stems that I didn’t want on my bouquet and quickly saw what I felt was enough flowers dwindle down to half the original size.

I have to say, I was quite pleased with the bouquet and it was quite refreshing to know that I would be capable of making one. Though I think if I were to make my own, I’d definitely get twice as many flowers. This was a wonderful learning experience that I’d recommend experimenting with prior to your wedding if you’re planning to create your own bouquet. It really helped me visualize and plan!

I know it might be a little taboo to say that I love something that has been done a hundred times but I can’t help myself.  I LOVE this ombre cake. It would be so cute for a bridal shower or even a birthday cake.

Covering cake with Fondant

When it comes to covering the cake with fondant, is was actually quite easy. 

Hint: Buy premade fondant, don’t try to make it yourself!

ONE: roll out the fondant to about one eighth inch thickness using powdered sugar to keep the fondant from sticking to the rolling pin. 

TWO:  loosely roll the fondant up on the pin to carefully unroll it over the top of your cake.

THREE: very gently smooth the edges of the fondant.  Your hands’ heat will help to relax and smooth the fondant. 

FOUR: cut around the base of our cake with a sharp knife.

Now that you have a fondant covered cake, you’re ready to ombre! 

I used icing dye by Wilton icing coloring in the ‘rose’ color.  I just barely dipped my clean paint brush into the dye and the diluted it in water. You can use the fondant scraps to test the color prior to painting on the cake.  I started with the most diluted color on the top, and then worked my way down with less and less diluted coloring.

If there is any mess- up, you can just stick your brush into the water and lightly even out the dye. It was quite easy!

* Design & Photo Credit: House of Ernest

Surprise your wedding guests and add a nice personal touch to your wedding favor bags or boxes with these Floral Favor Labels.

These Free Favor Labels and Favor Tags can be customized in Adobe Acrobat with your own initials, the first letter of your (new) family name, or the names of the bride and groom. Another option is to print these Favor Labels blank and hand letter the initials. 

Sizes:

Favor Labels: 3” x 3”
Favor Tags: 2.5” x 3.5”

*Design & Photo Credit: Love Vs. Design