Crafterateur

It’s officially one year until my wedding so I thought I’d give you a peek into my wedding life with a DIY. Like many modern brides, asking your best ladies to be part of your entourage is a big deal. And being a bit on the crafty side (ok, maybe a whole lot on the crafty side), I wanted my ladies to be asked the craftiest way I could think up. Behold: my bridesmaids ask boxes!

I included a clever card, wedding day info, bridesmaid info, color palette, floral clip, and an official tote — all handmade!

Let’s build one!

The first step is to decide what you’re going to put inside. Then you can gather supplies and find the right box to put it all in. This was quite a process, but every time I decided on another piece I got super excited!

My box was an 8″ x 8″ x 4″ kraft container, generally used for decoupage. I went for au naturale and gathered some crinkly filler paper.

Fill your box with filler. If you’re placing larger items inside, e.g. a tote bag, make a nest.

Get that item in nice and cozy. Pull out some of the filler around the edges. This will make the packing job look professional. 😉

A sneak peak at the bag:

To make five bags, I bought 2 yards of canvas-like fabric and 5 yards of strap material. Since I’m not big on patterns I free hand cut my materials and had a sewing fest one night. The images were designed using my Silhouette cutter and I used iron-on vinyl in black glitter to easily and glamorously attach the design.

Next up is a color palette.

I stopped at Home Depot and grabbed a few paint samples, cut out a strip of gold glitter paper, and used two super strength magnets to hold them all together. I’ll admit I felt a wee bit strange getting multiples of paint samples, but it was totally worth it.

The most time consuming part were the info cards. I used Comic Life to get the sizes just right, printed on thick & shimmery cardstock, and cut each page down to size. The top page includes wedding day details, the middle a list of bridesmaid duties, and the bottom has short ‘why I love each lady’ stories.

Stack the info cards and tie with coordinating ribbon. Place this in the box.
Tip: tie the knot three times to get this polished look.

Next, I made some floral clips inspired by a flower I’m hoping will be available for bouquets and centerpieces next year — anemones. I make similar clips for my crafty side business; perhaps I’ll add these to the product list. 🙂

Find (or make) yourself a cool card. I got mine from Finch and Hare on Etsy. I had my eye on these cards even before I got engaged because they are so awesome. Here’s the outside…and the inside is posted above. Clever!

The cards came with matching red envelopes, but since red doesn’t match my color scheme I saved the envelopes for another project and used yarn to tie it all together.

I wanted opening the box to feel like opening up a party so the last piece I included was a handmade tassel garland.

To make the tassels, pick out some fabric. For five tassels you’ll need about 1.5 yards of fabric, cut into 2-4 inch strips. For string I used nylon cord (I love this cord for all of my garland projects!) and I picked out some decorative, but functional buttons.

Using an awl (or pencil, etc) poke a hole in the center of the lid. Fold your string in half and tie a knot to form a loop at the folded end. String one button on the two strands and feed the strands through the lid. The buttons will prevent the string from going through the hole. String on the second button and tie another knot. Tie on your various fabric strands of different lengths until you are pleased.

Place in the box!

I added some finishing washi tape touches which were probably unnecessary, but the washi was so cute.

Now it’s ready to be gifted! I loved watching my (then potential and now confirmed) brides ladies open their boxes up, but it also kind of made me nervous. What if they said ‘no’? Awkward…

What do you think? Would you squeal with excitement if you were asked to be part of a milestone life event with a party in a box? Share below!