Stepping Stone Charger Plate Tutorial

I have had a few emails on the subject of stepping stones. Is really that easy. Yes! It won't take you forever to make them ether.  Will I need special tools or equipment? No! All you really need is a bucket, water concert mix and a place to put it. You actually don't need to buy a mold you can make an imprint in wet sand and pour your mix in. So technically you can get this done by a simple trip to the beach...if no one complains :)




Materials


Water
bucket
something to mix with
Fast setting concrete mix (I use quick-rite fast-setting mix)
mold or wet sand
oil,shortening or pam
*Styrofoam if making light wight version here

Prep you mold

If you are using a plastic mold then you will need to oil it up.  Personally I use veg shortening just because it is on hand. If you are using wet sand, imprint it with a pan or other stepping stone.



Measure & Mix

I use a 5 parts of mix to 1 part of water...It works good for me. Measure out you mix and pour water in slowly. Stir well try to work quickly the concrete sets fast.

It will look like this.

Pour

Glop all your mix in your mold. Yes, you are going to say I did this wrong. It is so lumpy. Why is it so lumpy!  Don't worry  just spread it out :)

Shake

Now to take care of lumps. Shake the heck out of the mold. It helps remove air bubbles and smooth things out. Most of the lumps will be gone. The stubborn stones sticking far out I remove. Ones that are just above the surface I usually leave alone. 

Wait

Probably the worst step ever the wait. Usually 30-45 minutes. The stepping stone should have changed colors slightly and firmed up quite a bit. If it feels soft and leaves a finger print leave it alone.


De mold

Carefully flip the stone over on the other side and gently tug on the sides you should see it start to lift.

Curing
Place your stone in a plastic garbage bag and forget about it for a week.

Painting
Stone must cure for about 28 days before painting. The surface must be scrubbed with a mild soap solution or vinegar, then allowed to dry before the application of paint. Check out here for more info on painting

DIY Hand Stamped Tablecloth & Napkins

I am so in love with this project. I can now have fantastic printed linens on a beer and hot dog budget. I was practising today with an old apron. I bought a stencil from Jo Ann fabrics for .49 It took me about 10 min to paint with the help of my 4 year old.

You will need
Stamp or  stencil( If using a stencil spray the back with repositionable adhesive)

Round flat paint brush or sponge brush

Fabric paint

Fabric

Old towel(s)

Iron


Step one
Wash and iron your fabric. Don't add fabric softener.

Step 2
Plan where you want your design. No room for mistakes. If you are doing a large piece it helps to work on a big table or even the floor.

Step 3
With a old towel(a little padding is good) under your fabric Stamp or stencil.  Always work top to bottom.If you are using a stencil dab don't spread. For crisp edges when using a stencil, spray the back with adhesive. I did not use adhesive but it turned out good.

Step 4
Let it dry completely for 24 hours...this is the hardest step for me.

Step 5
Iron the back of the fabric. Make sure to use a press cloth.

The possibilities are endless!

New date new venue

After searching like a mad woman. I found the best location for my budget. An arboretum. This place is beautiful and hopefully it will look amazing for my November 5th wedding. Cost free  (my mother paid for it 300 for 3 day rental) Thanks mom :) 

Know when to quit

So, his parents house is beyond our help. The roof has holes that have caused damage to the ceiling and support beams. The bathroom floor is rotted and well needs replaced. Structurally the house is hazardous. On top of everything is filthy...I mean hordes filthy.  We rent a house to have thanksgiving in because it is that bad. What the heck was I thinking?! 

Did I have a massive bridezilla breakdown realizing my wedding may not happen on the date we had chosen ...nope. I now accept defeat.  Off to plan B...which should have been plan A. I have chosen to rent a lodge in a park ....I have no clue if I can find one for the original date or if it will fit the people I need or even a Saturday. I very well may end up with a Friday or Sunday wedding.

DIY Customized Unity Candle / Favor Candles

Why should I pay $60 for my customized candle that I am going to burn once?  I never knew you could make them your self for under $5. Yes, for real. Two very easy methods to do this one is with tissue paper an a hair dryer the other is with water slide decal paper and spray adhesive. Watch the videos below ...hopefully you will find them as helpful as I did.

Candles Candles, And More Candles!

I am a craigslist wedding hunter! If you did not get the memo yet I am just a little crazy about bargains. I found 144 used votives and holders for $25. I bought them for $15. I froze them and cleaned out the wax and now have 144 squeaky clean candle holders :)
Now time to get the candles. So, many people use www.candle4less.com I can honestly say that this is a complete rip off! $50 shipping WTF? Even with the coupon coed I found the site sucks.

I found a very unexpected site to have amazing prices on candles (no coupon required for amazing deal) webstaurantstore.com I purchased 288 candles for 47.11 shipped. About .16 per candle not too shabby. I decided to sell 72 candles plus holders on craigslist.. I don't need 144 candles. when I am finished I will sell the other 72 with candles and sell the remanding 72 candles without holders. Will I end up making a profit off my wedding? Crazy!

My Wedding Dress Has Arrived!

After 47 emails between the Chinese dress company and me, my dress is finally here! It is better than I expected it to be. I am sure glad I asked for pictures of the finished dress. I had all the problems fixed before it left the factory. They extended the train by 2 times what they originally made. It was very well made and the fabric...although not as heavy as the high end ones at the bridal store ...it was not a major difference and they looked the same. I do need the top fitted just a little more other than that it is perfect.  Heck $200 shipped and I received an extra petticoat..  I am one happy bride :)



The dress before they altered picture taken with out a petticoat. It still looks good to me. 

My Dirty Secret

We have been engaged since Feb 2010. We have 2 beautiful children together. We share a wonderful home and have been very happy for years.  I see us as already married ...just we are making it official. 

Yesterday, a relative asked me if she could see "The Ring". I don't have one! He wanted to give me his grandmothers ring, but his family has had trouble locating the ring...don't ask.  I am ring less! Part of me feels I don't need one. (We have kids to take care of. It is just an object.) Another part of me feels completely naked and embarrassed. ( It's a symbol of his love. Social expectation.)

We have decided to look for another ring instead of waiting on his parents to remember where they put it. I feel so horrible about sending him links to rings I would like. I told him I would leave it up to him.  His response for my relative was send her a picture of the kids. This is so unromantic!

Tent Chairs Tables: DONE

I just got off  the phone with Ann from Saco Hill Party Rentals. I am all set and booked for Agust 27th 2011. I called 10 different companies! Saco Hill Rental is 50 miles away from Wellsboro. Ann has a very small delivery fee $35. For my  30x45 tent 14  60" round plus 5 long tables and 100 chairs my total for Thursday delivery- Sunday pick up is $406.50 Not too bad hu? Ann was very sweet! She is a single mom who runs the rental biz by herself. She told me she fought to keep it and has owned it for the past 10 years.

Shop around, ask for prices, don't be afraid to mention a competitor price that is lower. Heck, try a different area it may be cheaper!

Zeki The Tailor (the tailor part 2)

We planed on going to the tailor Friday morning. Unfortunately the dear husband needed to finish writing a program. He was busy at the computer all day. I was so disappointed. I wanted to buy my dress so bad. He works so hard for his family :)

We ended up going today. The place was really hard to find. He was getting really frustrated too. I couldn't count how many times he stalled out. I tried my best not to laugh. The place was a little hole in the wall.  The old man had a lot of experience you could  tell and the shop has a ton of good reviews. We had the kids with us. He was happy to see the children and treated them to lolly pops for being good little girls. We spent $20 all together. Hopefully we won't need too many alterations.

I ordered my dress!

Chair Covers Oh my!

Ok, we have established I am a bargain hunter.  I have been searching craigslist for wedding things. 2 weeks ago a woman was selling 100 self tie chair covers for $320. You can get 100 self tie chair covers off ebay for $280 with free shipping. I offer her $175 2 weeks ago. She huffed and puffed  telling me "No I'm sorry The lowest I will go is $300 I paid $3.32 plus shipping and half of the cover were not used."

Last night I saw an ad for 100 self tie chair coves for $280.  It was the same woman. I offer her $175. She said "No I'm sorry $280 is what I'm asking you can't even rent 100 of these for that price!"

I can't???? I contacted a rental company and asked for a price quote for 100 self tie chair coves.  The man told me $450. Oh my! I asked him if that included setup or delivery. He quickly said no. I told him I could purchase new covers for $280.

I could tell his jaw dropped. After a few moments he asked me where I could purchase them.  I gave him the name of the ebay seller cvlinnens.  After a long pause he said "Where can I get china dinnerware?" Hahah! I asked him again how much it was for chair cover rental and did it include set up and removal. He told me $190 and yes set up and removal included. Bingo.

I had no intentions of renting. I would have taken the offer if I did not feel like going through the hassle of re-selling them.

Back to the woman on craigslis. I kindly told her again that I could purchase them new on ebay for $280 . I also told her I could rent them including set up and delivery for $190. I offered her $175 and told her I could pick up asap. I doubt she will respond...I will probably purchase them for $280, but for now I will wait until she offers them again :P

Guest book table and the crystal tree

I have have been collecting rocks all summer for my guest book. I thought it would be super cool if I had a crystal tree surrounded with rocks and moss. OMG! Who knew a branch plastered in a pot with some garland would be so expensive.  I am purchasing some 50lb plaster for another wedding project and I have plenty of tree branches available.  I also have a big flower pot... Crystal. I can go two ways on this one the super cheap way with acrylic... or the more expensive way.  I found acrylic garland 30 feet for $22 or 30 feet of glass for $75.

Wedding Dress Part 1(The Tailor)

Ok... so its like 2:30 am Eamon is at work doing some crazy computer stuff...and I can't sleep.  I tried but I'm just too excited! Tomorrow I order my wedding dress! I am going to the tailor with Eamon to get measured in the morning. He is ordering a tux! I felt bad about it because he really wanted to wear a kilt...but with a 2000 price tag for his outfit it just was beyond our budget. A 100 tux  now thats a lot better!

Lets flash back to last week. I woke up sun morning and just wanted to feel like a princess. Haha not really, but I took a trip down to the bridal shop with my sisters. I had a great time.  I tried on several styles of dresses and figured out what looked best on my body. Ball gown...I figured as much.

So, whats the point? Well, I have decided to order my dress from China. I looked up some Chinese dressmakers and checked their reviews. I figure if over 2000 women the only negative feed back is check for pins. Then I think it will be fine. I also have seen real life pictures of the dresses. Heck $200 for my dream dress why not.

 

buying a dress from china

Check for feed back. 

Ask to see a real picture of the dress.

Time dresses can take up to six months to get!

Get properly measured by a tailor

Shipping cost 

A lot of women have had positive experiences with April bridal they have an ebay store as well as a website, but look around. I found my dress maker on alibaba...hopefully it will be ok.

Lighting and lanterns

Another fantastic diy bloger posted a how to led lantern guide. I love the idea! How ever, I am trying to pinch pennies and I don't want to pay for lanterns....even though I probably could sell them off after the wedding.
If your interested in the diy led lanterns here is the link  and  2dbride
also has a guide.

So...what are you going to do? Pom poms! LED paper pom poms. You need to know how to do two things 1. make a pom pom and 2. make an LED throwie.
It's easy and for .50 a piece I'm sold!

 Led pom table light from not martha

To do this project you will need 
Pom Pom How to vid




LED Throwie How to Vid


1 package of tissue paper 15x 20 or 20x30  (8-14) sheets per pom pom
fishing line
10mm white diffused led (3) for each pom pom
CR-2032 Lithium coin-sized batteries
Duct tape

Optional
Hot glue


Instructions :


Pom poms
Take 8-14 sheets of tissue paper(depending how fluffy you want) and fold it acordan style about 1 1/2 inch.

Next cut ends round or to a point.

Then tie in the middle with fishing line leave enough to hang the pom from.

LED throwies
Take the led and slip it through the prongs. long pin on positive short pin to negative .

Then tape. Tada! you have light.

The led last 1-2 weeks...do a test run with your batteries. Also the led is not dead when the batteries runs out and can be passed on to another bride or buy magnets and make graffiti on some metal objects.

Once you have your pom pom and your throwie just glue or tie it in your pom pom.  Or tie or glue the led before you open the pom pom depending on timing.

My first try at making pom poms... not too bad.

Save The Date PART 2!

So after speaking with Eamon about the wedding we have decided to go with the easy rout. We came across a great deal for post cards (FREE!) well, plus shipping. We paid $6.80 for 100 postcards.  The company vistaprint has a bad reputation. I can see why they are tricky and if you do not read everything just so you could end up sighing up for other services. The cards do have a small vistaprint.com printed at the bottom of the post card on the revers side. The logo will be cleverly covered with an address label. So, not a bad deal we plan on going the same route with the thank you notes. They are a little more expensive than the diy way but not by much.

So, yes we are doing the invitations ourselves. I have found several cheap places to get quality card stock for about $10 per 250 sheets. I will list those later as well as my exciting trip to the bridal shop!

SaveThe Date: Project Begins

Well it is time to get my butt in gear! My wonderful Aunt Jo has gathered together all the names and addressees of the family. Isn't she awesome? I am waiting on Eamon's half. So...Now what? Save the date time! I have a lot of family that lives out of state. I guess the trend is to give people more notice. I'm cool with that.

I looked for a reasonable diy invitations and came across oodles of options. Lots of great temples are free. We have chosen this free temple from empapers.com. It is a full black and white kit and did I mention it is  free? I found a download from weddingchicks.com where you can customize the colors as well as having matching RSVP cards. I just need to print them on card stock and mail them out.

Instructional video: From Wendy Dahl at dahl wedding company

Other contenders in the diy invitation race:


Crown invitation set by Etsy user Camille Chun. Click to view shop.

 Download at weddingchicks.com

Rose invitations and many more choices can be downloaded at downloadandprint.com

Celtic invitation set download at pashweddings.com

DIY Ice Sculptures

So, I really want an ice sculpture on my buffet table. Unfortunately an ice sculpture is not in my budget. Why not DIY? Who has time or experience carving ice? Thanks to my wonderful friend silicone I don't have to! Basically just pour it in...freeze it and peel it off and you have an ice sculpture for way less than 1/3 the cost.  The molds are reusable and come in all shapes and sizes. Heck I can make multiple small ones and have them on each table if I want! I also plan on making ice bowls yep...bowls made of ice. I plan on put shrimp cocktail in. I also was considering picking up blocks of ice from my local ice company and stacking them like the picture below... but lets test this all out before we give this a green flag. I ordered a few molds for $40 lets hope it works out :)


Ice bowl instructions:


***Added note freeze bowls slowly to prevent cracking A sleeping bag works great. Also do not take bowl out of freezer straight to room temp it will crack! Leave in sleeping bag and put in fridge for a few hours to warm up. The secret to crystal clear ice is pure distilled water and boil it.





 So many possibility so little freezer space!

Ice sculpture instructions to come: ((((PLEASE DO NOT USE LATEX MOLDS))))))
Latex molds will explode when frozen with ice. Some sculptor companies will not ship them below freezing because it will ruin the mold. Try to freeze a condom water balloon and see what happens...disaster.

Silicone mold pictures from a a ice sculpture supply company. I personal don't like swans but if you do you can purchase a mold for $20-$60. Your only true limitation is your freezer size(It's helpful if you have a deep freezer or know someone who has one) Just normal sculpture molds that can be used for ice!

Some inspirational photos: