Weddingbee

She used the template she created to cut votive wraps from vellum. She was able to fit 4 wraps per sheet. We used beautifully shimmery gold vellum from Paper Source.

Then my mom decided to give the wraps some texture by running them through the Cuttlebug machine. She used a paisley folder to create a gorgeous paisley design on each wrap. Because the Cuttlebug can only take lengths of 6 inches at a time, she had to do the embossing in two parts.

I love the design because it’s a little bit Indian inspired and I think the texture adds such a luxe touch.

Then she set about wrapping each votive with the vellum wraps. She initally used vellum tape, but for some reason, it came apart after a few hours! So she tried an adhesive spray with better results.

And here they are all lit up!

We’re going to have about 5-6 on each table and I think they’re going to look so pretty. Thanks Mom!** I promise I’m not a bossy crafts task-master. My mom loves doing these projects and excitedly volunteers to do them « Hide it

Stands of iridescent clear pearls - purchased at Wal-Mart

White pillar candles in two sizes - purchased at Ikea

bags of tea lights - purchased at Ikea

square mirrors for the base of the centerpiece - purchased at Ikea

Chandelier imitation Hand beaded curtain - purchased at Shop Wild Things

I have 22 centerpieces though I won’t need to use them all. I had purchased more in case of breakage or for additional decoration. I am really happy with the whole ensemble… our reception site will glow. Luckily Mommy Flamingo was there to help me out, with the cutting and placing.

Are you liking what you are seeing so far, even though it’s not much? :) Are you making your centerpieces?

Image source : 1,3,4,5 /2,6

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I have until June 20th to return them if for some reason I change my mind.

As far as what to put under and around the candles? I am still not sure. I will probably go with 10″ or 12″ mirrors from saveoncrafts.com ($2.39/each) for under them and of course the paper roses somewhere. I may also go with Michael’s to purchase the mirrors. It turns out they would be $1 each to ship which doesn’t really save on this craft.

I think there still may need to be another detail like ribbons around some of the candles.

Any suggestions on how to dress up the candles? Something vintage-y perhaps?
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Ooh to the aah aah aah, I lurve it and will keep it to use later on in our home. Mr. CB is really going to hate cherry blossoms after the wedding. It’s super overload! LOL.

I had tons of leftover votives and didn’t want to waste em, so of course, I created another project for myself… insert *Mr. CB shaking his head*. I scoured the net for some easy tutorials to help me in my quest to spice up my votive candles that are tapered. A simple, straight 1.5″x 4″ was not going to cut it, it was going to connect really weird if you wanted it smooth against your glass. But I came up with na - dah. Then genius strikes again! Wah - bam!

I have to say I drool worthy love ‘em tons. I wrapped up all the bunked etched votives, NOTHING goes to waste, and wrapped up all the leftovers too. I left it up to my coordinator to use them in the room for our cocktail hour and anywhere else she saw fit. Lookie, more splash of CB patterns and I put more use to my LARGE rolls of ribbons! Me smoochies.

And girls, because I love y’alls, Imma share my how-to! HI FIVE YO!

HOW TO:
1) I created the template in Word.
2) I measured the circumference of the circle so I knew how far apart I’d need to draw my lines.
3) I drew slightly diagonal lines, tapering inward.
4) Then to get the most difficult curve for the votive, to make sure it tapered perfectly… I just drew two ovals, connecting the two sides of the ovals to the tips of the diagonal lines.
5) Next I trimmed the paper cutting around the top of the two circles and two diagonal lines. And voila, wrap it around the votive, and perfecto fit!

As simple as that!

I changed the lines to a faint gray, so that you could use it as a guideline, it may show a little on the inside but it’s what’s outside that matters! I didn’t bother to go back and try to draw over the line - if you’d like to mess around with the template you can download it here!

Votive Wrap Template

Happy wrapping away!
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A close-up shot. (You still counting?)

Another detail shot…. we have five of these cool big ones (shown in the middle). We might use them for the tables set up in the cocktail area and put floating flowers in them instead of candles. (Last chance to come up with an estimate before I reveal the grand total.)

So….. drumroll please….. our grand total iiiiiissssss……

245. Yes. Two hundred forty-five. Pieces. of. Glass! Do you believe it??

We have more than enough for ten pieces per table if we have about 20 tables, and the rest can be scattered on the mantle in the ballroom, the cocktail tables, and random little nooks that need some ambiance lighting.

I am so very excited about this detail. I think it will add some personalized pizazz to the space and a bit of the vintage flair that we’re looking to infuse into everything.

Momma Cupcake and I made a little mock-up of a centerpiece to see how ten candles will look around each floral arrangement. We admittedly did not think this through very well…. we grabbed anything white or green from the two floral arrangements she happened to have in her house, threw them into a bowl, and scattered the glass around them. We didn’t have votives but added some tea lights to get an idea of how everything would look. Even though it was a little haphazard, it still gave me a good idea of how everything will look and I’m quite happy.

Picture a darker room, an ironed linen, a more well thought-out floral arrangement, and a larger table with China, menus and napkins Perfect, right?

I think we have ruled out our original plan of pouring our own candles, because we realized how time-consuming it will be and it really won’t save us much money after all. Votives will do the trick just fine, and we’ll just have to find a few different sizes to work with the varying sizes of the glass pieces. Hopefully, doing this will also save us some sanity!

How are your DIY projects coming along? Are you finding them satisfying and fulfilling, or just plain frustrating and time-consuming?
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This idea originally comes from Country Home magazine, which I have never picked up in my life, but to whom I am now forever indebted for this spectacular detail!

Our venue includes centerpieces, for which we can choose from three recommended florists, but I know that I will probably want more than what is included in their general package. This would be a perfect addition to what my florist can provide, adding both a touch of vintage flair and the eclectic look that kind of defines my style (which is kind of all over the place). Not to mention, Mr. Cupcake and I have a strange fascination with glassware and we always pore over it in stores like Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, and Williams-Sonoma.

I decided to start buying all different types of glassware at around or less than $1 each — which can easily be accomplished by shopping at places like Ikea, Home Goods, Marshall’s, flea markets, and thrift shops — I can dress all of our tables with 5 glasses each at around $100. This does not include the cost of candles, but if I’m feeling super ambitious and want to pour my own wax instead of buying candles, I’ll be able to save a bit of money there. I’ll probably use white or ivory candles, since I’m not a fan of the yellow-ness in the inspiration photo.

Mr. Cupcake and I took advantage of the Yard Sale day that happens in our town every fall, and collected 30-something pieces within an hour in that one Saturday morning. With the help of FMIL, who has been collecting boxes upon boxes of cut glass from the Salvation Army, I have now accumulated close to 130 pieces! We haven’t even stepped foot in an Ikea or Home Goods yet to look for additions, because we’ve found so many elsewhere. I venture to say that I might aim for 200, since many of the prices have been even better than we expected (some for as low as $0.25 a pop, or sold in sets for only a few bucks), and I think more candles can only add to the mood and charm.

Here is a sneak peak at what we’ve got so far!

Laid out on Mama Cupcake’s dining room table… our apartment is too small to store all of these, so I’m using her basement!A little collection of some of my favorites….

My absolute favorite… I think we have four of these.
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Now to accent the boring silver tealights, I thought a bit of pink glitter would jazz it up and give them more pizzazz.

* these by the way are the Cudge.net candles that I ordered 288 of.*

Exhibit A: Spray Adhesive

Not so bad. I was so scared of the flammable substance that I was a bit afraid of lighting them, worrying that they might just spontaneously combust. LOL! The other thing is, I didn’t spray the bottle as far the directions told me to, so it got clumpy and it didn’t give me quite as even a look as I was hoping. The backside is horrendous.

Exhibit B: Double sided Tape

To the left: 1/2″ inch permanent double sided tape
To the right: 3/4″ inch removable double sided tape

As you can see the 1/2″ didn’t quite cover the Glimma Candles that I always have at home, but the 3/4 inch worked perfectly.

It does however fit the ones that Mr. CB used for his proposal, so I plan to use the shorter ones for the cocktail hour.

Next I tested the durability of the tape and heat:

I kept them lit until the very end and it worked out awesome! Removable or permanent, they work just as well.

The best part, after it’s burnt til its last drop of wax, I could remove the metal wick, and reuse the holder by replacing them with new candles from the leftover unGLITTERed votives.

a HOW - TO will soon follow.

What do you think? Glitter is tacky? or you like the UMPH? Or hard to picture the overall picture?
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Another one

This is what we’re going to use: the glass hurricane vase, a golden colored candle and rust/gold ribbon (it looks orange in the pics) and marbles. There will most likely be more marbles and the ribbon may be placed differently. Now, I am torn about which votives to get.

Option One:

Clear Round Votives

Option Two

Round Frosted Votives

Option Three

Amber Colored Votives

Which votive do you like? Also on the table will be a mini pumpkin used to hold up the table name. The linens will be ivory, with ivory napkins and chair covers. On the chairs will be a rust colored sheet sash.
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Now picture it next to my other DIY project, my cube votives (I’ll share the details on those next time)…

I plan to glue pink glitter to the tea lights to give it a little bit more umph, and add more sakuras to the votives but you get the overall picture.

The HOW TO?? Here’s how:

Materials:

1.) Armour Etching Cream - I got the biggest bottle available with the 50% off Joann’s coupon.

2.) Carl’s Sakura Craft Punch - I got the Large, Medium, Small, and Mini all off Ebay

3.) Mailing Labels

4.) Qtips

Step 1: I punched out a million sakuras, small and mini, and cut them out one by one. I kept the actual sakura punch outs which I will use for something else. Note: I printed up a cherry blossom pattern onto the mailing labels so that the punched out sakura that I will use later will not be the boring white of the labels. DOUBLE SCORE on use!

Step 2: Apply templates onto votive in the pattern desired

Step 3: Apply Etching Cream onto template areas that you want etched with a Qtip, be sure to be generous on the cream.

Step 4: Allow the etched votive to stand for 5 mins (per bottle instruction), I came back after 15 mins to let it really soak in.

Step 5: Run votive under running water to remove all cream

Step 6: Remove templates

Step 7: Votive Complete! and Voila


Exhibit B: Our favors - to be filled with pink and brown jelly beans

Apply * notice the cherry blossom paper * the Sakura punch out will be put to good use.

The picture is blurry but you can kind of see the part where it is etched.

And VOILA! On the sides are more of the smaller sakura punch outs like the ones for decor above.

TIPS:
Trial and Error: I tried to make the template using a transparency sheet and taping it on, big mistake! This is what you end up with, as Mr. CB would say, it looked like I sneezed on it:

- I also bought a roll of contact paper to punch out the template - it didn’t work because the punch stretched out the sheet, leaving me with a blotched punch out with strands of plastic sticking out.
- Your best bet - stick with an adhesive sheet like mailing labels. My first couple of tries were punched out from old Hello Kitty stickers I have at home.
- Make sure to wear gloves, which I did not do, shame on me. And work in a well ventilated area.

* Unfortunately, I won’t be able to use these straight edged votives because the cheapest I’ve found was 66 cents each before shipping. The ones I ordered from Cudge.net are slightly tapered at the bottom, are about 46 cents each after shipping, and should be arriving on Thursday - all 288 of them so that I can get started on them now since I have over 200 of them that I have to etch.

And to save money, I may consider changing the letter J on the favor to look like this:

Because to buy full alphabet sheets just to use the letter J would run me about $30. I could purchase the alphabet punch from Michaels for $40 that has a skinner J …. What do you think? Or should I use the the J punch above that was so graciously lent to me by a friend.

Hope you found this tutorial helpful. This is may be my biggest project ever and I am super proud of them, so I really hope our guests will enjoy them.
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