Book Inspired Wedding Topper

I never in a thousand years would have guessed that I would make not one, but TWO wedding cake toppers in my lifetime. After making a bird topper for my wedding, my friend Amanda asked me if I would make a book inspired cake topper for her wedding.



Of course, I said yes.



The topper is made with wooden books and a small wooden stand (from Michaels) that are painted with acrylic paint. I chose the books based on the couple's favorites and incorporated their wedding date and initials.




If you're interested in comparing, here's a the original cover of Amanda's favorite book and of Peter's.



And for good measure, let's see this baby in action!

(photo by Savannah Lauren Shealy)

The wedding was so beautiful - you can check out all of the photos on fabulous wedding photographer Savannah Lauren Shealy's facebook page here.

(photos by Savannah Lauren Shealy)

Yay for weddings and pretty small handmade things!

2013 In Review

As someone whose never been able to maintain a scrapbook or journal, one of my favorite parts of blogging is being able to look back over my projects. 2013 was a year where I decided to blog less, but love what I blogged more and I ended up with some posts I'm really proud of. Let's take a look!

My Home Office

My office is still a work in progress (all paint color suggestions welcome!), but is the perfect sunny spot to get my craft on.

A Beautiful Mess Feature

A total dream came true this year when the first floor of my rental was featured on A Beautiful Mess, my alltime favorite blog.

Polka Dot Bathroom

Before this year, I had never seriously decorated a bathroom in my rental before. SO worth it!

Reupholstered Counter Stools

I looooove brass and rattan and nearly fell off my couch when I found these stools on craigslist. All they needed was a little new fabric on the seats!

Macrame Plant Hanger

After searching online for a macrame plant hanger, I gave up and just made my own. Sometimes you just gotta get your hands dirty to get what you want.

Ceramic Paper Bag

Because sometimes all it takes is a coat of paint!

My Camera Gear

Taking photos has been one of my favorite things to do in 2013. This is my current gear setup.

Bar Cart

Can furniture make you feel sexy? With this bar cart, the answer is most definitely yes.

Record Console

Sometimes a craigslist find completely transforms the look of your room!

How to Apply Gold Dot Decals

I was always a little scared to apply wall decals, but it turns out it's not very difficult. Here's how I did it.

Tips for Cleaning Vintage Chairs

Caigslisted furniture doesn't always come in the perfect condition, but before you decide to reupholster or paint, try a little cleaning. Here's how I cleaned this green vintage chair.

So there it is - a year of my favorite posts!
If you're curious, here are my reviews for 2011 and 2012.

BUT... Here's the big question, and I would be SO GRATEFUL  for your feedback...

What would you like to see more of on insideways in 2014??

Easy and Affordable DIY Wedding Seating Chart

Because I've been sitting here for 30min trying to find a way to start this post, let's pretend for a moment someone just asked me, "Jen, how in the world would you go about seating 60 people at different tables for a party?!?" Well imaginary internet person, I am so glad you asked! It just so happens I got married a little while back and had to deal with this very question.

So this is what I made (yes, we're going to use the word "made" very loosely): a cute little stack of index cards to nostalgically direct my loved ones to their seats. They went on the table pictured below with our cake (and topper) and family photos.

(Photo above and below by Kaitlin Jane Photography)

But, why little bitty index cards? Well, while I love all of those gorgeous pinterest seating charts made with old windows, chalkboards, botanicals, or vintage keys, at the point I was making our seating chart (coughtwodaysbeforetheweddingcough) I needed something cute and simple.

So I looked at all of the finished elements of our wedding for inspiration. What do we have that I could write names on and display in some interesting but functional way...? Index cards! I'd already used them for our wedding invitations, our wedding website, and they would be making an appearance for our guest book. Done.

Bonus - We already had most of the necessary supplies and everything else was was available at Staples:
Markers (we used black and red Sharpies)
Sticky Tabs
Index Cards
A Business Card Holder

For the "doing" of this DIY, I made three types of cards:
A "Find Your Seat" card - to sit in front and tell people what this thing is
Letter Cards - for organizing the seating chart alphabetically
Name Cards - just a name and table number... done!

Double Bonus - it worked! Everyone found their seat and we had a lovely dinner. Yay for working, being cute, fitting in with other design elements, costing less than $10, and taking less than an hour to finish!

Handmade Bird Wedding Cake Topper

The Wedding Cake Topper... a strangely fun and high-pressure wedding decoration. I mean, you're kind of putting a version of you on the cake right? It's a weird feeling, but also very cool.

After some day dreaming and shopping around I found the. PERFECT. one - an adorable bird couple. Unfortunately it was way out of my price range. Ain't that always the way?

So, I made my own.

For whatever reason this wedding DIY scared me more than any other wedding projects. And how do I deal with scary things? I avoid them. Lame and true! So I put this project off until I was getting really nervous I wouldn't be able to pull it off in time. What if I started and it was a disaster?? Not only would I have wasted time, but money I didn't have to spend. See? I worked myself up a little ;)

But, as with many scary things in life, it wasn't bad at all. In fact, it only took me two days to finish these suckers. And... it was fun.

Some Make-This-Tips for the curious at heart: I couldn't find ANY bird patterns that matched my vision for this project. If you want to make your own birds, I would start with this pattern by lavender's blue and alter it to fit your wishes. Before I started my actual topper, I made a test bird to figure out the basic shape. It seems like making an extra bird would take forever, but it saved me a lot of time in the end.

Also, making the tail separate from the body gave me a lot of flexibility. For the boy bird I used felted wool that didn't need seams, so the tail is literally glued inside the body (with wire supports on the inside to make it stand up). The girl bird uses the same technique, but the raw seams are hidden by a lace aplique.

The legs are long pieces of floral wire poked through the fabric, deep into the bodies, and secured with a little glue. I spoke with my caterer about the legs before finalizing their design, and she told me that the deeper they could go into the cake the better, so I left the legs extra long!

The most fun part of it all was the details. Using leftover materials from the hairpiece and boutonnières I made, I was able to add details that matched our other wedding decorations at no extra cost! The eyes and beaks are made with little bits of leftover felt that I tore apart and rolled into new shapes.

Even though Tim didn't wear one, I just had to give Tim's bird a little felt hat. It didn't even have a top, but no one noticed ;)

So that's it! Facing crafting fears - check. Cake topper ready for crazy-faced Jen during the cake cutting...?

Double check!

(wedding photos by Kaitlin Jane Photography | other photos by insideways)

A Family Photo Wedding Diplay

More wedding stuff!!!! I'm sure I'm annoying with wedding DIYs at this point, but this post actually has to do with home decoration too. Promise.

One wedding decoration I really wanted to include was a display our families on their wedding days; a tribute to the families and weddings that made our big day possible! I'd seen a bunch of solutions on Pinterest (of course!) but I wanted to find a way to display the photos that I could re-use after the wedding.

I've always liked photos hung from string, and I thought I could reuse something like that for notes in the future, so you know what? That's what we made. A simple box with string! Sometimes the best solution isn't very complicated...

Tim made the box in about an hour using cheap fence wood ($1.08 for 6 feet!), nails, and some leftover walnut stain. The photos were hung from a mini clothes line made from twine and little eyelet screws twisted into the wood.

Six family photos and paperclips later - DONE.

And now? The little box lives as a shelf in our bathroom :)

I styled it with a few leftover wedding jars (more on that later), cute wedding cards, and the cross stitch QR code I made last March.

I kind of love it and am definitely feeling inspired to paint and decorate the rest of the bathroom!

And the rest of our wedding photo display? You know, the important part? The family photos? They made it into our hall way framed in the super affordable and pretty Ikea RIBBA frames.

I love the vintage film quality of the photos and it feels SO GOOD to have more art on the walls.

When we get around to printing our wedding photos, we'll hang them in similar frames on nearby walls. I'm so excited to have photos of our family around us - why didn't I do this sooner...?

(All wedding photos by Kaitlin Jane Photography | other photos by insideways.com)