ribbon wands

so i had a few of the supplies needed for ribbon wands but not all.  the other day i found the rest of the supplies i needed here on this diy:  http://www.intimateweddings.com/blog/diy-ribbon-wands/

i went to home depot and bought 4 ft 7/16" rods and some screw eye hooks.  i had to saw the rods down to 1ft each.  then sand the bottoms so no one would get splinters.

i did things a bit backwards in the i strung the ribbon through the split rings first.  then i attached the screw eye hooks onto the split rings. 

then i screwed these onto the dowels.  ive been thinking about adding bells. but i havent gone to get the bells yet so not sure if i will add those. 

ok adding the bells after i had already screwed the hooks into the dowels was a bad idea.  i had to open the hooks and when i did that some of the screws came loose.  the dowels are not that solid and a bit brittle so i think messing with it opened up the hole.  i ended up screwing it into the other end.

signage one

so i guess its pretty popular to hang signs on the backs of bride and grooms chairs during a wedding.  ive seen bride groom, im with him im with her, just hitched, just married.  we decided to go with just married.

i made another one of these yarn wrapped wire words before but this time i did it a bit differently.  i wrote it down on paper first so i knew how to form the words.  then i formed the words in wire.  i then started wrapping with just a white string.  it helped stabilize the form and also add some thickness to it.  i then wrapped it with the hemp.  the hemp was dirty and stuff kept falling from it.  i also didnt get enough.  i thought 10 yards might be enough but i ended up using just a bit more.  it sucks when you dont estimate enough string because then you have ends sticking out.  the parts where the word circles back are a bit difficult.  for some of them i actually didnt go up and wrap those parts.  in retrospect i shouldve just wrapped it lightly up and then tightly back.    there were some white spots sticking out so i went back with a hot glue gun and some hemp ends to fill them in.

im going to hang some felt ball garlands off of this so its not quite done.

cake stands

i had originally planned to do something kind of shiesty for cake stands.  i was going to buy them from ikea and then return after using.  i decided against that when i saw some diy cake stands on some blogs. 

when i went to goodwill in search of candle holders and plates,  i wanted a mix of clear and milk glass wares.  there were was no milk glass to be had so i went with all clear.

i then took a hot glue gun and attempted to assemble all the pieces.  i wanted the larger, heavier plates lower to the table.  hot glue is a terrible way to adhere one piece of glass to another.  the two pieces snap right off so i was back to square one.  i went to the hardware store and bought some glass adhesive. 

upon finishing this project, i realized that i took for granted that all the candle holders etc were level.  in the end, two of the cake stands came out slightly slanted.  i think the surfaces were not level.  it doesnt matter so much when its a candle sitting in there but when its a plate balancing on top, i guess its a different story.  glass is pretty unforgiving and most other DIYs usually use other mediums ...