Day 22 – December 22nd

Day 22 on my wedding inspired advent calender. The theme today is Sweat Deer, a recipe for Marshmallow Krispie Cakes. A simple recipe to make the childhood favourite decorated with little reindeer.

Day Fourteen – December 14th

Day 14 on my wedding inspired advent calender. The theme today is A Warming Welcome Drink. An easy recipe to make chocolate spoons to stir into warm milk as a welcoming drink for your guests.

If you are planning an autumn or halloween wedding for next year why not think about growing your own pumpkins. They are really easy to grow and not all varieties need a lot of space, some you can even grow up a fence, arch or trellis.

If you do your research into the varieties you would like to grow and purchase the seeds now you be ready to start sowing in spring!

Here are four pretty varieties in muted autumn colours perfect to use as wedding pumpkins

1. Squash Buffy Ball seeds available from Thompson and Morgan. A cute soft muted orange squash, grows to the size of a tennis ball. A heavy cropper from August to October producing around 25 fruits per plant. Great to grow over a fence or arch.
2. Pumpkin Polar Bear seeds available from Marshall Seeds. Beautiful large ghost white fruits.
3. Pumpkin Old Boer White seeds available from Organic Catalogue. A lovely ribbed white pumpkin ready to harvest on October.
4. Squash Autumn Crown seeds available from Thompson and Morgan. Great for small gardens this pale orange squash has a semi trailing habit and can be harvested August to October.

There are just a few things to remember when growing pumpkins:

1. Start the seeds off indoors as they hate the cold.
2. They like rich soil so ensure you dig in either good quality compost or well rotted manure.
3. Keep them watered.
4. Feed them with a tomato feed.
5. If you are growing up a trellis or fence keep the vines tied in to support the fruit.
6. When you have harvested the fruit keep them in a cool place to ensure they store well.

The most important thing is to read the instructions on the back of the seed packet, oh and have fun!

As summer is now a distant memory we are all being inspired by stunning autumn wedding images. This year I am loving muted autumn tones in dusky peaches, blush, rose gold and warm creams.

I have designed a collection of fabric pumpkins perfect as props and decorations for your wedding. They are really easy to make and are perfect to sew on an autumn evening in front of the tv.

If you would like to have a go at making our fabulous fabric pumpkins we have put together this simple tutorial.

Materials and Tools

• Fabric (cotton, sequin, velvet, linen etc)
• Felt (plain or glitter)
• Thread (to match your fabric)
• Needle (standard sewing needle)
• Long Needle (toy making needle)
• Stuffing
• Glue Gun
• Embellishments (buttons, ribbon, tulle, diamante or brooches)
• Velvet/Satin leaves (with wire stem for the coiled vine)
• Beads (seed beads, pearls or crystals)
• Sequins (various sizes and colours)

Step 1

Each pumpkin is made from fabric for the main body of the pumpkin and felt for the stalk, cut the fabrics to the following sizes.

Large pumpkin: fabric 50cms x 25cms, felt 15cms x 5cms

Medium pumpkin: 40cms x 20cms, felt 10cms x 4cms

Small pumpkin: 30cms x 15cms, felt 10cms x 3cms

Smaller pumpkin: 20cms x 10cms felt 8cms x 2.5cms

Mini pumpkin: 15cms x 7.5cms felt 6cms x 2cms

Use the fabric first and fold it in half with right sides together and hand sew, machine sew or glue along the open seam and knot off the seam to keep it secure.

Step 2

Then sew along the top seam using a simple running stitch. You can either sew both layers together or sew around the tube. Pull the thread to gather the fabric up tightly. Knot the thread off to secure the gathered fabric.

Step 3

Turn the fabric the right side out and stuff the pumpkin. No need to stuff to tightly as the pumpkins look best if they are squidgy.

Repeat Step 2 with the other end of the pumpkin.

Step 4

Thread a double thickness of cotton sewing thread onto a long needle, you need quite a long length around 1m. stitch a couple of stitched into the top of the pumpkin to secure the thread.

Now grip the centre of the pumpkin between your finger and thumb to squash it down. push the needle into the centre and out the bottom, pull the thread tight and insert it back in at the bottom and pull out of the top. I repeat this process a few times to really dimple the centre of the pumpkin. When the pumpkin centre is dimpled sew a few stitches to secure the thread.

Step 5

To make it look really like a pumpkin the edges need to be scalloped. You can achieve this by tying thread, string or twine in a criss cross pattern. Tie each length of thread in the centre of the pumpkin pulling tightly to create the scalloped edge.

Step 6.

Use the felt fabric now for the stem of the pumpkin, it is made by rolling the piece of felt along the longest side into a cigar shape. Glue it into the centre of the top of the pumpkin. I always use a glue gun but fabric glue will work aswell, it just takes longer to dry.

Step 7.

This is where you can be creative and decorate your pumpkin with what embellishments you have. I have used velvet and satin leaves, tulle, diamante embellishment, small brooch, beads, sequins, artificial stamen and ribbon.

Just be creative and glue gun decorative items to the stem or bead and embellish the pumpkin. I coiled the wire stems of the velvet leaves around a pencil to created a curly pumpkin vine. Let your imagination run wild.

If you have a go at making one of our pumpkins please share your success with us using #flutterbypumpkins

Here is a quick throwback post from a few years ago. I designed these spooky spiders to hang from branches in my kitchen together with some small fabric pumpkins. They are really easy to make with wire, small glass beads and a few jumbo beads.

The full tutorial can be found here: http://blog.flutterbyweddings.co.uk/archives/389

Beaded Halloween Spiders

Happy Halloween, Blessed Samhain

How to resize a photo For Wedding Bouquet Photo Frame Charm.

I get asked a lot how I resized my photo featured on my wedding charm so I thought I would create a tutorial.

I used a free art package called Paint it can be downloaded for free here: http://www.getpaint.net/

Open A New Folder

Click on the File menu and select New.

Image Size

A box will open in the print size section change the width to 1.4 cm and the height to 1.7 cm.

Page Will Open

Your new page will open to the size of the charm.

Open The Photo File

Click on the File menu, select Open and choose your photo file.

Select Your Photo File

Your photo will open.

Select Photo

Click on the pointer tool and then click on the photo to select it.

Copy Photo

Click on the Edit menu and select Copy.

Select Blank Document

Click On The Blank Document

Select your blank document at the top of the window (it will open) then click on the pointer tool and click on the open blank document.

Paste The Photo

Click on the Edit menu and select Paste.

Paste The Photo

A box will appear select Keep Canvas Size.

Resize The Photo

Click on the pointer tool.

Resize The Photo

Click on the corner and drag the image until it is a perfect size.

Cut The Photo To Size

Click on the cut tool, the photo will then be cut to the size of the document.

Save The Photo

Click on the File menu, select Save and save your photo.

Your photo is now saved to the correct size and ready for you to print.

Each year at Christmas I make  small gifts for my family which I place on the Christmas table as  place settings.

I thought this years gift would make a perfect wedding favour for a Christmas wedding.

Reindeer Wedding Favour Boxes

Material Needed:

• Small round kraft boxes
• Red dotty ribbon
• Moss
• Flocked reindeer
• Glue gun

Step 1

Glue the ribbon in a cross shape on the lid of the box.

Step 2

Glue the reindeer in the centre of the box lid.

Step 3

Glue the moss around the reindeer.

Your box is now ready to fill with christmas treats.

Every year at Christmas I like to add a handmade element to our Christmas decorations.

This year I decided to make some cupcake toppers that we could keep and use each Christmas.

I decided to design some cute festive robins but I wanted to keep them simple so I could make them as and when I had the time.

Robin Cupcake Topper

They are made from a simple circle of brown felt with beaded black eyes a yellow felt beak and three layers of ribbon for its wings. I then wanted a cheery red fabric for his red breast so I plumped for a micro dot red and white fabric and to finish off I added yellow beaded legs.

To emphasise the details I used a black thread and stitched a back stitch around all the robins features and to make him extra neat I added another brown circle of felt to the back of him.

To add him to the cupcake I slotted a cocktail stick between the two brown circles.

I wanted to design some fun wedding favours which are a little out of the ordinary. I came up with three ideas. Here  is the first idea.

Reindeer Wedding Favour Jars

They are simple to make and you only need a few basic materials.

Materials Needs:

• Empty Jam Jar
• Paint
• Glitter Paint
• Plastic Toy Reindeer
• Ribbon
• Snowflake Charm
• Glue
• Crepe paper
• Sweets

DIY Reindeer Wedding Favour Jars

Step 1

Glue the reindeer onto the jar lid. You will need a strong glue for this.

Step 2

Once the glue has dried paint the reindeer and the lid in white paint. You will need a paint that will adhere to plastic and metal, I used acrylic paint. Once the paint is dry paint again but this time with glitter paint. I used a clear paint with irridescent glitter flakes. Leave to dry.

Step 3

Once the reindeer is dry you are ready to decorate the jar. I filled the bottom of the jar with shredded silver crepe paper. I held the folded crepe paper together and then cut strips. Loosely drop the shredded crepe paper into the bottom of the jar and then fill up with sweets of your choice. I used Bon Bons as they look like snowballs but any sweets could be used.

To finish the jar I tied a red ribbon in a bow around the neck of the jar and dangled a small snowflake charm from it.

This idea can be made with a wide variety of childrens plastic toys and of course they can be painted in your colour scheme.

Over the weekend I designed these Spooky Spiders, I thought they would be a fun addition to a Halloween wedding reception.

Spooky Spiders

These spiders would look fabulous positioned in table centrepieces or hanging from candelabras or attached to your wedding favours.

Materials needed:

• 4mm wire
• Large bead (approx 16mm)
• Smaller bead (approx 12mm)
• 2 4mm beads
• 24 large seed beads or 4mm beads
• 24 7mm bugle beads

Tools needed:

• Cutting pliers
• Round nose pliers
• Chain nose pliers

Spooky Spider Tutorial

1. Cut a length of wire approximately 25cms. Thread two 4mm beads onto the wire position them in the middle of the wire and twist the wire to secure the beads in place.

2. Thread the 12mm bead on the two ends of the wire and position snuggly near the two 4mm beads.  Twist the wires so that 5mm of twisted wire is exposed near the 12mm bead.

3. Thread the largest bead onto one wire. Wrap the other wire around the back of the bead.  Twist both ends of wire together and cut the excess wire off.

4. Cut a 10cm length of wire. Wrap the wire around the middle of the spider to form two legs. Repeat three more times until you have eight legs.

5. Thread alternating bugle beads then large seed beads. In total thread on three of each. To hold the beads in place wrap the wire around itself.

6. Repeat step 5 until all eight legs are completed. Bend the wires to form legs.

Your spider is now complete.

Please note the spiders are for decorative use only they are not toys and are designed to be made by adults as they contain small parts which are unsuitable for children.

Please feel free to make as many of my spiders for personal use. Please do not make and sell my spider design.