~*Kate*~
11-26-2007, 08:55 PM
To nominate a DIY of the Week, please PM any staff member!
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Our sixth featured Do-It-Yourself Project of the week is....
James and Aramelle's Centerpieces! :coupleheart:
Feel free to post comments, compliments and questions!
I got my inspiration for our centerpieces from the picture frame cardbox that I've seen many brides use. I knew that I wanted to do something incorporating photos of us and candles, and this just seemed like the perfect thing.
Connect four frames together to make a square. It's best to use frames that have several of the little "tabs" on the back so that you can easily secure the picture without using a back. This can be done using either 90-degree brackets or hinges. My dad actually put our frames together for us, and he used hinges. There was a bit more of a gap between the edges of the frames than I would have preferred. However, the hinges make transporting a lot easier because they can be unfolded and laid flat. The hinges were also really nice in regards to getting the candles lit, as we could open the frames to easily access them, rather than having to reach down into the middle of the centerpiece to light them.
The pictures were printed on plain vellum paper. I experimented with using a glossier vellum, as well as one that had a bit of a sparkle effect before settling on the plain stuff. In my experience, the ink didn't stick nearly as well to the other vellums, which caused things to smear and smudge. I chose to print our pictures in greyscale, but one could also do this with sepia or color photos. One thing that I noticed, though, is that the candle light didn't glow as nicely (IMO) through darker colors. So this may be something to keep in mind when deciding whether to use color. To help with a bit of the glow effect, I set our photos at 80% opacity. This seemed to help, especially in getting "through" James' black shirt. I also left about an inch border around the photos, which I found also helped give them a nice glow from the candle light.
To add a little more interest and personalize them even more, we added some of our favorite quotes about love/relationships/marriage. We put our names on one pane, and each of the other three panes contained a different quote.
The best "tip" that I can give is to give the ink plenty of time to dry on the vellum. I only printed one page at a time because I found that even another page brusing against a newly printed one was enough to smear the ink. I then let them lay out and dry for a day before I did anything else with them. After that, you just have to trim the paper down to size for the frame, and you're done! :)
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a252/Aramelle/Pro%20Pics/IMG_1891.jpg http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a252/Aramelle/Pro%20Pics/IMG_2242.jpg http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a252/Aramelle/Pro%20Pics/IMG_2283.jpg
------------------------------------------------------------------
Our sixth featured Do-It-Yourself Project of the week is....
James and Aramelle's Centerpieces! :coupleheart:
Feel free to post comments, compliments and questions!
I got my inspiration for our centerpieces from the picture frame cardbox that I've seen many brides use. I knew that I wanted to do something incorporating photos of us and candles, and this just seemed like the perfect thing.
Connect four frames together to make a square. It's best to use frames that have several of the little "tabs" on the back so that you can easily secure the picture without using a back. This can be done using either 90-degree brackets or hinges. My dad actually put our frames together for us, and he used hinges. There was a bit more of a gap between the edges of the frames than I would have preferred. However, the hinges make transporting a lot easier because they can be unfolded and laid flat. The hinges were also really nice in regards to getting the candles lit, as we could open the frames to easily access them, rather than having to reach down into the middle of the centerpiece to light them.
The pictures were printed on plain vellum paper. I experimented with using a glossier vellum, as well as one that had a bit of a sparkle effect before settling on the plain stuff. In my experience, the ink didn't stick nearly as well to the other vellums, which caused things to smear and smudge. I chose to print our pictures in greyscale, but one could also do this with sepia or color photos. One thing that I noticed, though, is that the candle light didn't glow as nicely (IMO) through darker colors. So this may be something to keep in mind when deciding whether to use color. To help with a bit of the glow effect, I set our photos at 80% opacity. This seemed to help, especially in getting "through" James' black shirt. I also left about an inch border around the photos, which I found also helped give them a nice glow from the candle light.
To add a little more interest and personalize them even more, we added some of our favorite quotes about love/relationships/marriage. We put our names on one pane, and each of the other three panes contained a different quote.
The best "tip" that I can give is to give the ink plenty of time to dry on the vellum. I only printed one page at a time because I found that even another page brusing against a newly printed one was enough to smear the ink. I then let them lay out and dry for a day before I did anything else with them. After that, you just have to trim the paper down to size for the frame, and you're done! :)
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a252/Aramelle/Pro%20Pics/IMG_1891.jpg http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a252/Aramelle/Pro%20Pics/IMG_2242.jpg http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a252/Aramelle/Pro%20Pics/IMG_2283.jpg