DIY | Two Delighted

Entries Tagged as 'DIY'

Little Letter Cupcake Toppers {DIY}

Monday, May 6, 2013

I like to refer to April as “the month of cake.” It seems that at least twice a week in April each year, I find myself indulging in some form of cake. Mostly this is because of the various individuals in my life (including myself) who have April birthdays. This quite obviously makes it one of my favorite months. I always try to get things back in order as quickly as possible once May begins so as not to have to buy any new clothes. This venture has been a dismal failure this year as I am happy to report that I have eaten cake every day in May thus far save one. That, my dears, is truly ridiculous. One of these occasions was my lovely friend Lauren’s birthday get together. I bought her some cupcakes and found myself feeling sad that I had no toppers for them about an hour before I left my house. This simple little idea (that I already had all materials for) popped into my head and took a grand total of 10 minutes all said and done.

What You’ll Need:

1. Chipboard letters- Mine are from a company called Paper Studio and I got them at Hobby Lobby. You can probably find something similar at Michaels

2. Paint and brush

3. Lollipop sticks

4. Glue gun

What You’ll Do:

1. Paint your letters and let them dry. They usually dry in a few minutes.

2. Glue a stick to the back of each letter. Let dry and pull off strings that glue guns make. You could use any other type of glue for this as well.

That’s it dude.

Super quick and super easy. Can’t say the same about my current state of cake withdrawal.

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Birthday Place Cards & Banner {Free Printables}

Hocus Pocus Book {DIY}

A Love Brunch

Confetti Balloons {DIY}

Thursday, April 25, 2013

I had pinned a confetti filled balloon on Pinterest in preparation for Megan and Caitlin’s party a pretty long time ago as another easy DIY idea. When I finally got around to making them, I discovered a couple of problems. First, I realized that I would need helium in order for the balloons to float, which I didn’t feel like I wanted to give people money for. Second, when I actually put the confetti in the balloons, it all sunk to the bottom, which was really pretty unimpressive looking. The first problem was solved by deciding the group the balloons together with twine and hang them from the bistro lights. Corey solved the second problem by being a craft genius and telling me to put glue inside the balloons so the glitter would stick to the sides. Duh. I hung them onto the bistro lights over the table as a sort of “balloon chandelier.” I thought these were super fun, even if my hands did get covered in glue while I was waiting for the cake to bake.

What you’ll need:

- White balloons

- Confetti, or use card stock and hole punch to make your own (husbands or friends are particularly helpful in this task)

- Craft glue (I used the Martha Stewart glue in the white bottle with the blue top)

- Twine

What you’ll do:

1) Prepare confetti and figure out how many balloons you want in your “balloon chandelier”

2) Pull the inside of the balloon out and put glue over as much of the surface as possible.

3) Use a teaspoon to fill the confetti into the balloon. You can also get someone to help by holding the balloon open a little more. I was able to fill them by myself whilst watching Crazy, Stupid, Love. That movie gets me every time. Shake the confetti around inside the balloon so the glue can spread.

4) Blow up the balloon.

5) Once you have all of your balloons prepared, use a knife to cut an opening in the end of them (the part below the knot) and thread twine through each of the openings. Tie the balloons up on a tree, a chandelier, bistro lights, or basically anything hanging overhead. Admire the beauty.

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Metal Can Bud Vase {DIY}

White-washed Jewelry Holder {DIY}

Megan and Caitlin's Birthday Party

Dip-Dyed Tablecloth {DIY}

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

I have been wanting to make a dip-dyed tablecloth for at least a year, and felt that the birthday party was the perfect opportunity to try it out. Even though I’ve seen them everywhere, there actually aren’t that many DIYs on how to do a dip-dyed tablecloth, but I figured it couldn’t be too hard. I went to Michael’s and picked up some dye and then went over to Blackhawk Hardware, which luckily had a quite reasonably priced tablecloth, and then I went to work. This is really easy and actually looks even better if you mess it up a bit. The hardest part is waiting for the thing to dry. Like all week long. It was still a great little project that I got quite a few complements on. If you have a white tablecloth that you don’t love hanging around, I say go for it.

What You’ll Need:

- Large pot

- Tablecloth – I used a round one I found at Blackhawk Hardware but there is also a super reasonable rectangular tablecloth at Ikea that I considered

- Dye – I used Rit Dye Tinte in the Teal color because it got the best reviews online

- Patience

What You’ll Do:

1) Figure out which part of your tablecloth you want to dye. I just wanted to do the bottom edges, and I wanted it to be pretty even. So I kept folding the tablecloth in half until it looked like a pie piece.

2) There are some pretty specific instructions on the Rit Dye box for several different ways to dye your fabric, but I went with the good old boil hot water in a big pot and dump in the full packet of dye method. Because measuring seemed like too much work.

3) I mixed the dye/water mixture well and let it liquid get hot, and then dipped the tablecloth into the dye for about 15-20 minutes. I think the time all depends on how saturated you really want the color to be. I also left the bottom edges in longer because I wanted it to have a bit of an ombre effect.

4) Once you are done, run the dyed cloth under cold water until the water running down the sink stops turning blue (or whatever color you are using). Be very careful when taking the dyed cloth from the pot to the sink – I had crappy towels all over my floor and made Corey carry the pot underneath me when I moved.

5) This is where I strayed from the instructions because I thought that they were wrong. It said to wash the fabric in warm water and then put in the dryer to dry, but I kept reading this that said washing the fabric made the dye bleed, which did not sound like the ticket to me. So I let the tablecloth air dry just to be safe. It took about 5 days. Since the party is over, I am now going to wash the tablecloth per the instructions, and will let you guys know if there is any bleeding.

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Paper Wreath {DIY}

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Lately I have had wreaths on the brain. But I always think the ones I see at stores are a little bit unattractive. I still super love the boxwood wreath that I bought at Target at Christmastime. The sad news about a real boxwood wreath is that you have to keep it inside because if it gets too hot or cold, it will turn brown and that’s ugly. I was trying to think about how I could make one that wasn’t so sensitive. I debated using felt for leaves but that seemed too complicated so I thought I would see what I could do with paper. I determined this would work for me because my front door is behind a storm door so it doesn’t need to be waterproof.

What you’ll need:

1. Several colors of green paper

2. Scissors

3. Tacky craft glue or hot glue gun

4. Wreath frame

What you’ll do:

1. Cut out a bunch of little leaf shapes of each color. Mine were less than an inch long for the most part. These do not have to be perfect at all. You will never even notice if you have wonky leaves.

2. Take your glue (I used Tacky glue) and start glueing the leaves to each row on the frame. I made mine fold up a bit to look more like tiny boxwood leaves and they were all aiming in the same direction for the most part.

3. Work your way all the way around each row, glueing them however you like. I will be truthful and tell you this will most likely take several hours all said and done. Make sure something good is on tv. Maybe watch through some “New Girl” that is saved on your DVR. Let glue dry.

You could totally stop here, I wanted to put a little message on mine. I drew a little scrolly shape on some pink paper and added a little “Welcome” and then hot glued it on.

I even glued some polka dot paper on to look like the back side of my scroll for a small accent of cuteness.

If you are putting this in a vulnerable spot, you may want to use some poly acrylic spray to protect the color on it. Also, it is slightly fragile so don’t go flinging it around. In case you had the urge to. That would be a little silly anyways but to each his own.