DIY Wax Paper Luminarias

Want a fun decoration this Memorial Day weekend? Or maybe you're having a rustic wedding this summer and want to make an easy centerpiece? These wax paper lanterns are so ridiculously easy to make, you could whip together a few before any of your guests arrive! I took these instructions from APracticalWedding and added a few pointers! All you need to make these are:

* Wax paper

* Scotch tape or washi tape

* An x-acto knife or scissors

* Pressed flowers (sorry for my pathetic selection!)

* A ruler

* An iron

* A tea light candle

* (optional) Skewers to help support the lantern

Start by measuring out four 4 1/2" x 9" rectangular pieces of wax paper. Once they're all cut out, fold them in half so you have four squares.

On top of an ironing board or towel, lay out your rectangle with the pressed flowers on one side.

Fold over the wax paper so the flowers are now inside the square.

And using an iron on medium heat, gently go over the wax paper until it has melted together into one panel.

Once all four panels have been ironed, tape them together. Whatever you want to be on the front of the lanterns, have that side face you and not the table. I recommend taping the entire length of the panels, but you could use more if you want.

Once the four sides have been taped together, crease over the tape to form a nice cube shape. Stick your candle in the middle, and voila! Your wax paper luminaria is complete!

You really don't need the skewers, unless you want extra support and weight. If you don't use the skewers and plan to place these outside, be prepared for them to fly away because there's nothing holding them down! One tip? Keep the flowers away from the edges of the paper, otherwise the tape may cover them up!

TOTAL COST: Free!

Flowers from the overgrown abandoned bush down the street

Wax paper, tape, iron, ruler, scissors, and tea light candle from IKEA all on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 20 minutes

I'm sure the more you do it, the faster it'll be, especially if you could get an assembly line going (one person making the rectangles, one person ironing, and one person taping). Most of the time was spent cutting out the wax paper rectangles.

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5

This is very easy - I thought I was going to burn the paper or have it melt and make a mess. If you have a garden and want to display your flowers in a unique way, or just want some simple decoration for a dinner party, I highly recommend giving these a try!

Tissue Paper Flowers

A friend of mine tipped me off to these beautiful tissue paper flowers and asked if I could try them out. Absolutely, I said! This post comes to us from BohoWeddings.com and are very easy, fast, and creative to make. These would be perfect for any engagement party, wedding, birthday, etc. I followed the instructions and wanted to throw in a couple tips I had along the way.

First off, I don't really follow centimeters as well as I do inches, so get 8 sheets of 24" x 20" tissue paper (those are the standard measurements for tissue paper). I figured instead of using colored tissue paper and forcing you guys to remember which were on top and which were on bottom, I numbered the sheets 1 through 8 - 1 is on top and 8 is on the bottom.

Next, fold about 2" on the shorter side so the bottom sheet (#8) is now showing

Then, start folding accordion-style. Once you've folded everything, grab a piece of string (mine was about 12" long) and tie a knit in the middle. At this point, the bottom sheet (#8) should be on top

Now you can cut your petals! There are multiple ways to do it, I've provided examples below.

But I decided to keep with the original post and cut the same way she did - definitely have a good pair of scissors on hand, though, as you'll be cutting through a lot of sheets at once!

Once you've cut both ends, spread out the petals and start lifting the tissue paper one sheet at a time. I lifted up 4 sheets on one side, flipped it over, and lifted up the other 4 sheets.

And voila! You're done! Now this thing is pretty big... to get a sense as to how large a flower it is, I've put my husband's bike helmet next to it. It's twice the size of a helmet.

But if you flip it upside-down, you'll be able to see the excess string (on the #1 side) and can tie it up, if you so choose!

TOTAL COSTS: $2.95
$2.95 for white tissue paper from Vons
String and scissors were already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 15 minutes
You could probably do it in less time since I was trying to take photos, find my scissors, etc.

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
This is a very easy project and one that could turn out beautiful results, depending on the colors you choose, the sizes, and the petal cuts.

State to State Love - A Perfect Engagement/Wedding/Anniversary Gift!

Philly/Kalamazoo Love

A friend of mine posted some photos of her engagement on Facebook and she had decorated her wall with cute sayings, photos, etc. One piece of art that I particularly liked she got from Near and Dear Designs on Etsy. $32 for a very cute piece of art, showing the home states of the bride and groom. I figured, why not try and do it for less?

Of course there weren't any instructions available so I made it up as I went along - feel free to tweak these however you see fit! The original design was all on 1 print so if you have a color printer and Photoshop, you're welcome to print it out there on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet. I, however, wanted to make it pop just a little more:

Step 1 - Pick your states

Since I'm from Michigan and my husband is from Pennsylvania, I figured those would be ideal for this project.

Step 2 - Take outlines of those states and put them onto a Word doc.

I found perfect examples here: http://www.netstate.com/states/maps/(enter initials of state here)_maps.htm. So for Michigan, I put in http://www.netstate.com/states/maps/mi_maps.htm and clicked on "Blank Outline Map". For Pennsylvania, I entered http://www.netstate.com/states/maps/pa_maps.htm and did the same thing. Just click and drag those states onto a Word doc.

After you've dragged them to the Word doc, double-click on them and click on "Layout". Make sure they are "Behind Text". Also, you'll want your document to have .5" margins around the borders.

Step 3 - Decide where you want to place the states and the ampersand sign (&)

This took the longest for me, because I'm so picky. In the original design, the ampersand sign takes up a quarter of the entire page, the states are relatively the same size, they're close together, and not near the borders. For a perfectionist, this proved to be more difficult than I anticipated. Because the states I chose are so awkwardly shaped (damn you Upper Peninsula!), it took a while to figure out where I wanted to place them. After 45 minutes of moving, resizing, and moving them again, I finally got them where I wanted them. My ampersand was Size 450 and Times New Roman.

Step 4 - Print out your states on white cardstock and cut them out

I recommend states like Colorado or Wyoming...

Step 5 - Print out the ampersand only on whichever color paper you like

In the original design, the ampersand is lighter than the color of the paper. I had to go darker because otherwise it wouldn't show up at all. My color printer wouldn't print out white. Who knew?

Step 6 - Tape or glue the cut-out states to the paper with ampersand

Now I used Elmer's glue and I regret that decision. You can see the bumps under the paper where there was too much glue used so the state is not flush with the paper, which is why you might want to use double-sided tape. However, if your state has a bunch of little ins and outs, the tape might not be your friend.

Step 7 - Print out and cut tiny red hearts and tape/glue them to where your hometowns are on the states

Step 8 - Draw on a dotted line between the two hearts. Another mistake I did - doing it freehand, which allowed for my dotted line to look sloppy. If you can follow the curve of a cup or bowl, do that.

Step 9 - Put in frame!


TOTAL COSTS: FREE
I already had these supplies:

1. Colored cardstock
2. White cardstock
3. Glue (though you might want to use tape)
4. A 8x10 Frame
I bought the frame from Target over a year ago in West Hollywood and I think it cost somewhere in the ballpark of $15-$20.

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 1 hour, 30 minutes
45 minutes trying to figure out the layout of the states
10 minutes with printer issues
The rest of the time used to cut out states and hearts, glue them to paper, draw dotted line, and put in frame

EASY-PEASY SCALE: 3 out of 5
If you're not a tech-savvy person, placing the states and getting them the size you want on the Word doc might be a little more difficult for you, but not impossible. You're just putting them on the Word doc to see how big they should be before printing and cutting them out. If you're familiar with editing photos in a Word doc, this will be a piece of cake.