Golden wedding anniversary crafting - guest name cards x

Hello lovely readers, I am doing a final little post for my parent's anniversary party which was sadly 2 weeks ago now. Time flies by fast. My parents have been enjoying a second honeymoon in the Lake District courtesy of my sister and her partner. I received a postcard today saying they're having a wonderful time.

So onto those name cards. Well in actuality they were name stones. Do you remember the stone I painted with my One Little Word for 2014? Well I decided that for my parent's party, each guest would have something to take home with them.

I went off to Clevedon, my nearest stony beach, one Sunday and sadly the beach was closed because of the stormy weather we'd been having. However, over tea and cake and whilst chatting about books, a lovely local lady told me of a secret beach I could go to and collect my stones. Off I traipsed and collected 30 lovely big stones to take home.

Here is what I did.
First of all wash all your stones with warm soapy water and leave to dry. I then laid mine out onto a sheet of non-stick oven liner which I use for misting et cetera to dry.

Next you need to paint all your stones with 2 coats of gesso which is a primer and is available from most good craft shops and leave them to dry.

I then painted each stone with 2 coats of this specialist metallic paint which I bought from my local DIY shop in Wells. I used antique gold for this project. It also comes in silver. It was excellent paint as it washes off with warm soapy water so no need for extra paint cleaning substances and dried to a really good finish.

 

Leave your stones to dry and then they are ready to decorate

As I was not keen on painting all the stones with each persons name, I decided to cheat slightly and write on the stones with a permanent marker. I tried a Sharpie but it really did not work at all well so I used a basic felt tip pen which was perfect. And here are some of the finished stones.

And here is my name card along with a little bag of gold coloured sugared almonds and chocolate drops all ready for the party.

What might you decorate stones for? 

1 picture, 20 words x

This was inspired by my parent's Golden wedding celebrations this weekend, Agatha Christie and my sister Rachel's speech yesterday. A perfect combination and so worth a share

Golden wedding anniversary crafting - Table vases x

So as you know it is my parent's Golden wedding anniversary in less than 2 weeks now and I have been trying to help keep costs low by making some crafty items for the party. This activity involves poshing up some plain glass vases.

So I bought these vases from The Range. They came as a pack of three designs and cost £3.95. Originally had twine tied at their necks but I wanted them to be more beautiful so this is what I did.

First of all remove the twine and other packaging and set aside. As my mum's bridesmaid's dresses were peach and the anniversary is gold, I chose those two colours as my palette and bought the following items:

3 metres of 1/4 inch peach ribbon
3 metres of 1/4 inch gold ribbon
1 reel of gold coloured jewellery wire
6 gold heart shaped beads
2 packets of small gold beads
20 small peach coloured, heart shaped buttons.

I cut lengths of jewellery wire, bent it in the middle and threaded it through the large heart bead and some small gold beads. I then opened out the two ends of wire and threaded the small gold beads and peach buttons randomly until I had enough to cover the wire.

I wrapped the wire around the neck of the vase and wound the ends together and cut off the excess. I then tied two colours of ribbon in a knot as the top of the vase. And here are the finished vases.

The next task involves a large bag of stones!