NEW! Doggie DIYs – Let’s start with making your own dog toys!

DIY Dog Toys by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY Dog Toys by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY Dog Toys by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY Dog Toys by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Dog Toys by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Hello everyone! I’m really excited about this:

There’s a new category on Thisblogisnotforyou.com: Dog DIYs!

There’ll be some really fun doggie-related projects coming up! We’ve got a new pup in our home right now and I’ve been busy making lots of cool things – toys, leashes etc.! If you’re not into dogs, don’t worry. Of course, there’ll be new fashion projects coming to the blog in no time!

Having a puppy in your home is an exciting time! There’ll be many new routines to get used to, a lot of work and worry, but also a lot of joy. And some time on your hands while you’re puppy sitting in the first days and weeks once your puppy is ready to come home with you. Time to sit on the couch, watch some Netflix and make some stuff! You’ll soon notice that toys are very useful things as they keep your puppy’s mind distracted from going after your carpet or favourite pair of shoes. And puppy goes through them in no time! Puppy teeth are very sharp but sensitive. You’ll need a lot of different toys of different textures, soft and hard ones, and of course toys that aren’t made with harmful chemicals or hard plastic which can break.

I tried a lot of different techniques to make some dog toys, leashes and treat bags for our puppy, while mainly recycling fabrics and materials I already had at home. These projects are perfect for recycling fabric scraps and your old pair of jeans.

DIY Dog Toys by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Dog Toys by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Dog Toys by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Dog Toys by thisblogisnotforyou.com

If you’re curious about learning more, watch Dog DIYs. There’s more coming up soon! And check out my first project tutorial on making some eco-friendly, washable CHEW TOYS from fabric scraps (as shown above)!
DIY Dog Toys by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Dog Toys by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Dog Toys by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Last but not least: Meet our adorable, crazy but super cute new puppy, Aslan! He’s 10 weeks now and we’re in love!

xx

Charlie


Have a great week!

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Our DIY Wedding

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com (Click through for more pics & info)DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com (Click through for more pics & info)

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com (Click through for more pics & info)
DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com (Click through for more pics & info)

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com (Click through for more pics & info)

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com (Click through for more pics & info)
DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com (Click through for more pics & info)

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com (Click through for more pics & info)

OUR DIY WEDDING

When we got married in May we tried to make as many things as possible ourselves. This included most decorations, flowers, music, some of the food and last but not least, my dress (and hair & make-up). This allowed us to create everything exactly as we envisioned it and also save a lot of money. It took a lot of time and nerves. Although we had the help of friends and family, I did most of the projects myself, which was exhausting at times, I’m not gonna lie. So here are some of my favourite DIY projects for our wedding.

*Sorry, this is a very picture-heavy post! I didn’t want to split it up into a couple of posts, so if you have any questions about anything, leave me a comment below!*

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

TABLE DECORATIONS

Our wedding venue was a modern barn which didn’t need much decoration, so I could focus on decorating the tables. We went for a rustic, vintage look: burlap, wood, paper, lace and a pastell colour palette.

We and our mums collected jars for a couple of months which I turned into flower vases by decorating them with lace, doilies, twine and burlap. Although I used a couple of different shapes and sizes I tried not to use too many different ones, but collected sets of the same to make it look a bit more consistent. I used the larger ones as centerpieces and smaller ones to fill in gaps and to use as candleholders.

We printed off our drinks list on white card and ordered blank place cards matching our invitations. The handlettering of the placecards took ages, but was a lot of fun. We made the placecard holders from branches, which we sawed to get cylindric pieces of wood (roughly 4x4cm). We then cut slits into the top to stick in the placecards.

The table number I designed with Photoshop and printed them onto white card. I glued pegs onto twigs and put them with the flowers in the centerpiece vases.

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

FLOWERS

Early on in the planning process I decided to do all the flowers – including my bridal bouquet – myself. (I’m a bit of a control freak I learnt during that time!) It was much more difficult than you’d think to organise the different flowers, because it’s something that has to be done JUST before the wedding. It’s nothing you can tick off weeks before. So that was stressful, because up until the very last day before our wedding I had no idea whether everything would work out the way I wanted. It was sooo much cheaper than having a professional organise everything, though.

So this is what we did: I ordered blush pink and white roses and well as baby’s breath from a local flower shop which we picked up the day before the wedding. Since we only had to pay for the loose flowers, it wasn’t too expensive. It was much more complicated with the hydrangeas. They’re pretty expensive if you get them in a flower shop and they wilt VERY quickly if you’re not careful.

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

In the end I decided to get potted hydrangeas from a garden centre and cut them the night before the wedding. I had practised all the bouquet-binding and vase-filling a couple of weeks before, but filling between 30 and 40 vases took A LOT of time. We spent the night before the wedding in our hotel room with the Mr’s best man, the whole room covered in roses, hydrangea pots, greenery and boxes full of jars and other decorations. THAT was exciting. Luckily we had some wine to calm my nerves. I think we finished 1.45 AM, which is not a good thing if you’re getting married in the morning. It was worth it anyway. Thinking back, the flowers are one of my absolute favourite things to remember from that day.

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

BRIDAL BOUQUET

I used blush pink hydrangeas (about five large heads), baby’s breath, and pink roses in two different sizes. I created the bouquet shape by first binding together the hydrangeas with florist’s tape. Then I stuck the baby’s breath in, again, fixing everything with tape. After that I did the same with the large and then the smaller roses. I bound the stems with peach satin ribbon and some pins.

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

CANDY BAR

One of the best things to organise was our Candy Bar. I left the ordering of sweets to my mum in law who’d outdone all our expectations by getting us about 18kg of mostly gummi bears and other jelly candy. It was crazy awesome. For the candy bar I made paper bunting from doiles and ordered paper bags and tiny ice-cream shovels. The candy jars are from IKEA for the most part.

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

OTHER PROJECTS

Here are some other DIY projects I did: some activities for the guests such as a lottery, alternative guestbooks, a photo booth backdrop made from napkin pompoms, a confetti basket and more. It was so much fun to get inspired, create and make up new ideas for projects in the months before the wedding. I’m almost sad I won’t be doing that anymore!

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

We asked our grandmas and mums to bake the cakes for the day. They came up with a massive amount of different cakes, cupcakes and pies, it was incredible!DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

These garden decorations are simply Regolit lampshade from IKEA (2.95€ each) to which I tied long strips of scrap fabrics.

I also made our ring pillow from some scrap wedding dress fabric and made a case for it from an antique book which I bought on the holiday during which we got engaged last summer.DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

OUR WEDDING CAKE

One of my favourite DIYs of the day wasn’t done by me. I asked my sister, who’s very talented when it comes to baking, to make our wedding cake. I wanted to have a ‘naked cake’ decorated with fruit and flowers, and what she came up with really outdid all our expectations:

DIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Wedding by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

It was a perfect day and we had so much fun preparing for it and now sorting through all the photos taken on that day.

Wow, that was a lot of pictures! Well done, you, if you were patient enough to stick through to the end! If you have any questions about any of these projects let me know in the comments!

xx

Charlie


Happy sewing!

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DIY Bridesmaids Gift: Bridal nail polish earrings

 

DIY bridesmaids gift: earrings in bridal nail polish colour. (Click through for tutorial)DIY bridesmaids gift: earrings in bridal nail polish colour. (Click through for tutorial)This is a super simple but also super cute and personal DIY project for all brides-to-be!

I spend my hen do with my sisters and BFF at a spa hotel and wanted to give them a little something to say thanks. I also wanted the gift to be a little personal, something that would remind them of the fun weekend we had just before the big day.

Jewellery is always a good choice, and to add a personal and wedding-related touch, I chose to make the earrings in the colour of my bridal nail polish.

I wore “Worth The Wait” from Essie’s bridal nail polish collection, which matched my blush pink dress perfectly. DIY bridesmaids gift: earrings in bridal nail polish colour. (Click through for tutorial)The project is super quick and easy. You’ll need earring settings (which you can order online on Etsy or Dawanda) and glas cabochons. I got mine from Average Pony and they’re really cheap.

I painted the back of my glas cabochons with two coats of nail polish and left them to dry. Once the colour was set, I used E-6000 glue to glue the glas stones into the settings. You really only need a tiny drop of glue. The glue dries within a few seconds. It’s very strong, so make sure you’re careful with the positioning.

Eh, voila! Done! It’s that simple.

DIY bridesmaids gift: earrings in bridal nail polish colour. (Click through for tutorial)

I used some wine corks and satin ribbon to have something to attach the jewellery to and it looked super cute! The ladies loved their gifts, and lucky me, all had matching dresses to wear that night.

DIY bridesmaids gift: earrings in bridal nail polish colour.

So if you’re looking to make something personal for your bridesmaids or friends, this is the perfect project to try!

I’ve made other jewellery using glas cabochons before. For more ideas check out this post about how to use paper and prints to back the glas stones.

xx Charlie

 


Happy jewellery making!

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Wedding Accessories: DIY Floral Hair Comb

DIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.comOur wedding was almost 100% DIY, and so was my hair and make-up and some of the accessories. I did not want to wear a veil, but wanted some sort of bridal hair accessory matching our theme and my dress.

So today, I’m sharing a super quick and easy wedding DIY and will show you how I made a floral hair comb in just a few minutes. You can make one for yourself or your bidesmaids or one just to wear to the next summer garden party.

I did my hair myself, so I needed an accessory that was easy to put in/take out/adjust. The hair do is based on the “Double Gibson” – I found a really nice tutorial on The Freckled Fox blog. I had planned to take more time to practise the hair do properly, but as it goes with wedding preparations, there was never enough time to do anything properly, so I had to wing it on the big day.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.comAll you really need for this is a hair comb (you get them really cheap at almost every drug store), some artificial (or real) flowers and some fine gold wire.

I bought artificial hydrangea, same as my bouquet flowers. It’s a bit tricky to find hydrangea that doesn’t look too tacky, but I noticed that it’s not that obvious once it’s in your hair. Here you can see the different colours I got, but I only used the ivory/green ones in the end.

DIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.comTake the wire and wrap it around the comb once or twice starting at one side to secure it in place. Separate the smaller bouquet from the plastic stems of your artificial flower. You can use the tiny holes at the bottom to pull through the wire. If you are using real flowers, leave the stems a bit longer so the wire can get a proper hold on them. I wouldn’t recommend using real hydrangea blooms because they need to stay hydrated and wilt very quickly.

I wrapped the wire around the comb once after each tooth and added a bouquet consisting of three blossoms after every second tooth.DIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.comHere’s a pic of the front and back. You cannot see either comb or wire once it’s in your hair. Feel free to add as many blossoms as you like and mix them up if you want to. I had to play around a bit until I got it right for my taste. Using a wire makes it easier to adjust things as you go and you won’t burn real flower as you would with a glue gun.

With artificial flowers you could obviously also use a glue gun, especially if the blossoms don’t come in small bouquet.
DIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY Floral Bridal Hair Comb by thisblogisnotforyou.com

So quick and easy, but very effective. It would also make a nice accessory for your summer hair dos. What do you think? 

xx

Charlie


Happy sewing!

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Paper Ball Decor: Recycling Book Paper

book paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.combook paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.comToday I thought I’d share a sewing-related craft project which is super easy to make. You can make these paper balls from different sorts of paper and in whatever size you fancy. They are very quick to make and perfect for parties or home decor.

book paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.combook paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.com1. For the book paper balls get some old book from the flea market or your own shelves. Draw a circle onto the paper using a glass/jar/cup and tracing it with a pencil.

book paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.combook paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.com2. Cut it out (you can cut through several layers at once to speed up the process) and repeat until you’ve got enough pieces for the amount of paper balls you want to make. You will need approx. 8-15 circles per paper ball, depending on the thickness of the paper and the size of the paper ball. For bigger ones I’d recommend using more.book paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.com3. Stack them on top of each other and stitch down the middle with a straight stitch and a wider stitch length. My standard machine had no problems tackling 12 layers of book paper. However, if you are using more than 12 layers and they get stuck in your machine, you can simply sew them together by hand or try using a stapler.

Leave long thread tails and knot them on both ends. Cut off the thread tails on one side. You can  later use the long thread ends on the other side of the paper balls for hanging them up somewhere.

4. Gently bend apart the layers with your fingers, distributing them evenly until there are no big gaps left. Now it’s time to hang them up!book paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.comYou can also try and make them using colourful scrapbook paper or pages from old fashion magazines.

It’s also a great project to make together with your kids and for showing them how to use a sewing machine.

You can hang your finsihed pieces up in your home, make mobiles or decorate your garden with them for your next party.book paper ball decor by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Hope you enjoyed this post! I’ve started my new job last week and have been very busy working on my new pattern which I hope to release at the beginning of August. That’s also the reason why you probably won’t see too many new makes this months. Posting on le blog less frequently doesn’t mean I’m not busy 🙂 I regularly post pictures of WIP on Twitter and Instagram, so feel free to follow me there and check out what I’m doing in the meantime (link below).

I still have to figure out how to combine my new work schedule with my favourite hobby. Any advice? 🙂


Happy sewing!

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