Big Bang Bazaar!

Freshly back from a "great success" as Borat would say!  The Big Bang Bazaar on September 7th  was my first show and it was really a great experience.  I met a lot of nice people and got some great exposure.  There were a number of brides to be that were great to talk to and I feel like I got a very positive response about my bouquets. The biggest sellers were hair clips and framed sheet music.  I wasn't sure how the sheet music was going to be received but my instinct was correct,  it is cool.  The graphics are amazing and the fact that some are so old is just neat.  Here's a few photos. Some items are still available and you can find them I'm my Etsy shop.

Black Wedding Bouquet Update

Here's the finished product of the all black fabric flower bridal bouquet.  Turned out pretty nice, now let's see if the people who searched for it think so too. It will be available at the Big Bang Bazaar on September 7th.

Sneak Peek: All Black Bouquet

I've noticed in my Etsy shop stats that some people are searching the term "black bridal bouquet", so I thought I better give the people what they want. I think the popularity of the black bouquet rises around Halloween of course and the recent marriage of Avrill Levine could also have some thing do to with it. This is just a glimpse of the bouquet , for the whole shebang you'll have to wait! 

Make sure you visit the Etsy shop Betty's Favorite Things

Steam punk show

This last Saturday Renningers Antique Market in Mount Dora Florida played host to a steam punk industrial show.  Since there has been a serious dry spell of estate sales in my area this really hit the spot. I was really hoping to be able to buy some steamy jewelry but I didn't see anything I couldn't buy online.  What I did see were a lot of people in cool costumes and I'm kicking myself for being too shy to take their pictures. I did take a picture of the boat cycle at the entrance of the market. Renningers is always a good time and having the theme made for a really fun Saturday. 

Back from the dead

        This blog is coming back from the dead. It's clawing it's way out of the dirt and making a big come back. It has been two years since my last post and many exciting things have happened.

     Things to look forward to: haunted wedding recaps, estate sale posts, and crafting goodness. Hold on to your hats cuz shits getting real.

     One particular thing of note is my Etsy shop "Betty's Favorite Things" which is where I sell my hand made bouquets and vintage finds. I'll be updating you on my new listings.

Shake your bouty Part 2

        Last time I posted I told you all about the bouts I am making. To bring things back up to speed I'm making 6 bouts for the men of the bridal party, an all white one for my groom and  black and white for the rest.  These are burnt petal flowers and I will admit I burnt a little more than the petals in this process, ouch!
I will tell you that eventually your tea light will stop having a good flame and instead of powering through that just get another tea light. You don't realize how slowly the fabric is burning compared to when you first started and had a decent flame going.
 
       You've cut out your circles, burned the edges, nested them together and secured them with a few stitches. Now my friends, it's time to embellish. In part one I showed you how I used pearls and black gems for the middle of my fabric flowers but now I reveal the rest. Feathers! Please, please hold your applause, it's exciting I know.

       I've never worked with feathers before and I read the techniques on the back of the bag before I started. They are nice enough to show you like 8 ways to shape a feather, one of which I mastered. I began by ripping of the downy part with my fingers but broke my second one, so I wised up and used scissors for the rest to maintain the long "stem" I guess is what you might call it. I need that part to secure to the back of my flowers. I recommend removing the down over a sink or a trash can as it will go everywhere.

     Once I had my feathers looking good I placed them on the back of my flowers and secured them with a few stitches before adding a finishing touch of hot glue. This is my technique for most things as you'll soon see.  Next step, cut out circles of felt and attach a pin back. Again, I gave it a few stitches and then hot glued that mother on there.  Last but not least stitch these circles to the back of you flower making sure you only stitch through one layer and that the stitches are hidden. I guess you could hot glue them on there but I'm paranoid about them falling apart so I'm making them bullet proof.

                                                    * All personal photos*
      And there you are! It's super easy and more than cost effective! Here's the break down.

Black fabric- free, old shirt from my closet
white fabric- 2$ for half yard, I probably used 5 cents worth in this project.
Pearls-on sale for 2.79
black gems-on sale for 2.79
feathers-used coupon, paid .80
needle and thread- already had
hot glue and gun- already had
pin backs- a box of about a million, 2.99

This all adds up to 11.37, we divide that by 6 bouts and it's 1.89 per bout. Plus, I only used a small portion of all the supplies I bought.
   Have you ever made fabric flowers? What about paper flowers? Think there's just no comparison to the real thing?

Shake your bouty

         Oh the boutonniere, so hard to spell and yet so easy to make. Add this one to my check list of completed do it yourself projects my friends, they are done and done.  How did it go you ask? Well, let me enlighten you. I started out this project with the intention of making fabric flowers and then realized what I was holding in my hot little hand would make an excellent bout.  That's how I start most of my projects, I stumble upon them. 

     This whole thing started when I found some tank tops in the back of my closet that I wanted to cut the lace off of to make lace flowers. I then tried to put the rest of the fabric to good use. I had read about burnt petal flowers and thought it sounded like an easy project. You have to use a fabric that will crinkle up when put over a flame. Now to just check the tags to see what they're made out of... Polyester! Yahtzee! 

                                      

    Above are the tanks and the lace I removed. I then googled "burnt petal fabric flowers" to refresh my memory on how to do it and found this website. It also has some great tutorials on other types of fabric flowers. So i began to cut out circles of fabric and got out a candle and went to work. The pink fabric is a before and after shot and the black fabric is to show the various sizes I began to make. After not being able to fit them all together I started to make just three sizes that I could nest together. it's really a trial and error depending on what look you're going for. 

      After making a few not so great flowers I started to get the hang of it and realized I could make some bouts out of them. Off to the store I went (with coupons, of course) to get some more supplies. I bought a 1/2 yard of cream colored fabric along with some pearls and black gems. Here's what I was able to make. 

                                     I burnt a lot of circles and just mix and matched to form flowers.

       Flowers with black middles had all layers sewn together with pearls added. Flowers with cream middles would get a few stitches through the center and then I hot glued the black gem in the middle.

                                                              * All personal photos

         In part two I will be adding the finishing touches, get excited. Would you have your groom wear a non floral bout? Think it's a bad idea to have black bouts on black jackets?