DIY Fantastic: Wedding Sock Monsters

You may remember this teaser post from many moons ago? Well probably not! But, this illustrates just how long this project has been in the mix. It is undoubtably my most long-running diy project yet! But, don't let this put you off, it's more a reflection on my lack of concentration than the complexity of the diy!

The full sock monster instructions and diy post can be seen here so we shan't run the whole thing once more. But all you need is some fun coloured socks, stuffing, needle and thread and whatever decorations you fancy, from buttons, gems, ribbons, net etc! You can get creative and make them in all different shapes and sizes.

I find the facial features the hardest and the most critical as they convey the little monster's character! In these I was particularly please with the bride's beautiful long lashes (soooo Lisa!) and the groom's bright green eyes.

These little cuties were made for a friend's wedding gift, to go with the album you've already seen! They were personalised to match the lovely couple and I tried to incorporate as many of their features as possible and even include some items from the actual wedding. The groom's bow-tie was made with ribbon from my bridesmaid dress and the gems on the bride's tiara were made with the decorative gems from our table on the big day!

So given we are gearing up for wedding season why not make a pair of fabulous sock monsters for the special couple? I love how personal they are and how easy to adapt to any occasion. Do you know anyone celebrating something special this year that these would make a lovely pressie for? Then get to it!

DIY Fantastic: Quartz Pear Drop Necklace

I've been wanting to create a fun, bold modern necklace using real materials for a while. After a little perusing on the ol' world wide web I stumbled across these gorgeous honey coloured quartz beads in a tear drop shape and some super cute neon ones too. Don't they look like pear drops? Almost good enough to eat! Erm, I wouldn't recommend it, so lets get right down to work...

These are the ingredients I pulled together:

1. Beading wire
2. Silver plated belcher chain
3. Silver plated lobster clasp
4. Silver plated jump rings
5. Honey quartz pear drop beads, that I found here
6. Green neon dyed beads, also from here
7. Pliers

The best thing about this necklace is that it looks complicated, but is actually super simple! I loved combining the natural colour of the quartz with the neon green colour of the separator beads, but you can go with any colour combo you fancy and then just follow these few steps:

1. Cut the beading wire into two six inch pieces and string on your beads. I opted to make the second strand slightly longer than the first one so that it'd hang slightly lower and created the layered effect I was after.

2. Once you are happy with your stringing knot off the ends and snip the ends off. I knotted the wire strands directly onto the jump ring and used a tiny dot of glue to ensure it didn't come undone!

3. For step three use the pliers to gently open the jump rings. Take your belcher chain and divide into two equal pieces. Try it out for size on yourself regularly so that it hangs just where you want it to!

4. Attach one end of each strand of chain to the two wire strands and gently prise the jump ring closed. Then repeat on the other side.

5. Finally, attach the lobster clasp to each loose strand of chain with the last two jump rings.

6. and tah-dah! You're beautiful necklace is complete! :)

And finally a sneaky little out-take. (You know how I like to end all my posts!) This is what most of our shots look like when Izzy and I get together to take a few photos... :)

Thank you for modelling Izzy, you're gorgeous!

DIY Fantastic: Wedding Album

This is a very special diy that I've been working on for a very special couple. Last year I had the honour of being a bridesmaid for a dear old school friend and I was determined to ensure their wedding gift was as memorable as the day itself. I worked on an 'alternative' wedding album - incorporating all those important days and dates in the lead up to the wedding day that weren't captured by the official photographer and all those silly snaps that might not have made the cut into the official album!

The ingredients I gathered together for the job:

1. Printed photos and any other materials you've collected (I had the wedding invitation and the order of service that I'd saved especially, but things such as ticket stubs, travel tickets etc would be perfect)
2. Album (I chose a very simple plain album with thick cream card pages)
3. Craft knife and ruler for trimming
3. Ribbons, sequins, gems, washi tape and any other pretty bits and pieces for decoration
4. Glue stick/spray mount
5. Black ink pen for commentary, illustrations etc!

The best thing about this album is that you can make it to remember any special day, holiday, birthday,  celebration - it's not just for weddings! But having had our first wedding of the year yesterday I'm in full on wedding mode so the time seemed right!

The actual steps to put this together are very simple, trim all the photos to the desired size using the ruler and craft knife. I mixed it up with lots of photos of different shapes and sizes and some with borders and some without as I wanted it to feel more relaxed and eclectic. But you could also trip them to all the same sizes and shape if you want it more co-herent.

I also drew some little illustrations to add some labels and commentary to the photos, these were simple black ink sketches on white card such as those you can see below:

Finally it just came down to arranging the composition of the material within the album. Sounds simple right? Trust me it's not!!! :p I opted for a loosely chronological order starting with a girly visit to the venue, invitation making, hen do and then on to the big day!

Here are some sneaky peaks of some key spreads:

Illustrated rosette and washi tape add some interest to this spread from our visit to Royal Ascot! 

A small amount of editing prior to printing meant I could add some fun captions to the photos, I love 'The Slow Dance' and 'The Kiss' with the inflatable parrot! 

The original invitation was a little bulky, I was tempted to leave it out but very pleased I worked with it in the end.

Some simple white pearly sequins used to decorate the final preparations of the bride!

I love the interactive 'book-within-a-book' feel of including the invitation and order of service!

And finally, you know you can't resist a fun gif to round things off, so here you go:

You can play with this in so many different ways to add character and interest, go experiment!

The only tip I'd add is if you're planning a similar project is to be prepared - collect as much as you can from the actual events so that you can add those personal touches that are easily discarded but when collated together like this can mean so much more than the sum of their parts!

Congratulations Lisa and Steve and thank you for waiting patiently for your gift! :)

Wishes: for a Fantastic Easter

Howdy All! Apologies for the absence, busy times, but that's no excuse so I'm back and wishing everyone a fantastic, choc-tastic Easter. I hope the Easter Bunny has made it round to everyone and that you're having a wonderful weekend full of family, friends and fun.
 

I'll be back shortly with my next diy. It's been a LONG time in the making, so watch this space! :)

The start of something?

A couple of weekends ago I had the chance to indulge in one of my favourite pastimes ever - a trip to the car boot sale!!! Now, I say a 'chance' but what I really mean is that I was able to drag my sorry little self out of bed early enough, as well as convince a couple of others to do the same, to grab some bargains! :)

These two little gems were the fruits of our labours and aren't they adorable?! Maps were our bread and butter growing up, quite literally! Dad was a cartographer who had the enviable job of climbing mountains, taking measurement and then drawing it all up once back in the office. As kids we'd always argue over who would be chief map reader on a journey and not just because the map reader got to sit in the front seat, although that naturally had it's own appeal! Anyway, suffice to say I'm a map fanatic so when I spotted these two there was no stopping me!

Mr Fantastic has been doing some detective work on these bad boys to try and date them. Based on countries that don't quite exist we've got it down to sometime before '79 (ish)!

They were garnered from opposite ends of the car boot and after some hardened haggling! This is definitely going to be the start of something - either a brand new collection or a maybe even a round the world trip! So, where to guys?!

Knicker Elastic Everywhere!

We're experimenting in all corners of social media over here. Apparently, this is what all discerning bloggers must do! Though we never expect to achieve that status, we can give it our best shot! So, we are now fully up and running on various social media apps all over the t'interweb. If you're enjoying our musings on this blog be sure to check out knicker elastic elsewhere...

I am constantly experimenting with Instagram, I love how instant it is and how you're forced to select a single shot rather than a whole album - it means only the very best photos make the cut!

You can follow here to get directly to the snapwidget of my instagram account or simply follow @knickerelasticfantastic in your app. Happy instagramming!

But that's not it - we also have a facebook page. This is great for keeping folks updated when we've posted to the blog or got any gossip to share! Give us a little 'like' if you like what you see! :p

And last but not least is my Pinterest account. I love Pintrest, having a place where you can save all your favourite images, neatly categorised by subject or moods, to browse for inspiration when you're on the move. Nothing beats it! Have a little browse through my latest inspirations...

DIY fantastic: Star Bunting

I wish I'd come up with this idea years ago - it would have been perfect for my first room in halls or to decorate my bedroom at home. Ah well, better late than never and Mr Fantastic will just have to lump it! This is a super simple diy, it takes forever, but that's just due to the tricky shapes of the stars - once they're all cut out putting it together was pip-squeak. So lets get to it! 

What you'll need: 

1. Coloured card in any colours you fancy

2. A template of the shape for your bunting, I went for stars but other cute ideas could be clouds, circles, hearts etc.

3. Scissors

4. Glue (I used a glue stick)

5. Strong thread in a matching or contrasting colour

The first step is to cut out your shapes, simply draw around the template on the back of the card out and cut out twice as many stars as you want on your bunting. I just kept going until I got bored!

Then it's simply a matter of gluing the stars back to back with the thread going through the middle. You can measure out the distance between stars if you want to keep it consistent or if you want to mix it up a little bit then go freestyle!

And that's it! Then you can go and hang it wherever you fancy, perfect for parties, special days or just everydays! 

Or for garden parties...