Wedding Invite DIY

Last year I was maid of honour for my best friend, the day was magical and I was happy to assist her in the preparations in the run up to the special day.  One of my jobs was making the invitations.  We took a trip to our local hobbycraft and began the search for the perfect materials. 

We took a swatch of the bridesmaid dress material and found a near perfect match for both the card insert and the ribbon.  Next up was thinking about the design, we decided on something simple yet effective and I began cutting and scoring (so much fun!)  

Work in progress

I didn't take lots of pictures of the finished invites I kind of got lost in the moment when making but the bride and groom were very happy with the finished results.  I used a heart die cutter for the detailing and later on we added printed text to the card insert for all the important information.  

Have you got any weddings coming up this year or are you getting married yourself?What do you think? 

Laura xxx 

DIY Above the Knuckle Ring

This year I have decided to add a few more posts to the group and I thought I would start uploading some simple DIY posts that you can follow to make your own crafts and jewellery.  I have been making jewellery for a number of years now, most of the techniques I use are self taught or from trial or error.

I thought I would start with some thing really simple yet effective so I decided to make an Above the Knuckle Ring.  

The rings need a minimal amount of equipment.  I picked mine up from The Birmingham Bead Shop which is based in the Custard Factory.  If you haven't been in before you should pop in or take a look at their website as they have a treasure trove of beads and findings and the staff are very helpful. 

I picked up some thick beading wire and a mini set of pliers, you don't need the whole set you can make the knuckle ring with just a set of round nose pliers.   I used round and flat pliers when making the ring as the twisting of the wire is fiddly and I find it easier to do with two pairs but it is personal preference.  To shape the ring I used a ring mandrel, it is not an essential piece of equipment for making the ring I have it in my toolkit for making my other pieces of jewellery.  The mandrel helps to shape the ring but you can also achieve this by using a marker pen or lip balm container depending on the size of the ring you are making.  

Step 1 - Cut off around 3-4inches of wire using side cutters on the pliers.  Wrap the wire around where you would like to wear the ring.  

Step 2 - Slide the ring off your finger .  It doesn't matter too much about the shape at this point as you will be able to fix it later on.  

Step 3 - Use the pliers to pinch the pieces of wire together slightly.  Hold the pliers and twist the pieces of wire so they loop round in an S shape.

Step 4 - Place the ring around the mandrel if you have one or your rounded object.  Continue to twist the wire to make your preferred design.  To make the one pictured I continually twisted the wires around each other in the S from the beginning.  

Step 5 - Using thumb apply pressure around the ring to smooth out any dents and correct the ring shape.  

Step 6 - Place the ring on your desired finger, wear it with style and listen to your compliments. 

If you give it a go I would love to see your pictures.  I am thinking of doing 1 or 2 DIY posts each month.  Is there anything you would like to see?

Laura xx