DIY Delights: Five Easy Ideas for Handmade Wedding Favours

Hey there, lovely readers! Welcome back to Handmade & Hitched, your go-to destination for all things, whimsical, weddingy, and oh-so-crafty. Today, we’re diving into the wonderful world of DIY wedding favours! If you’re a bride or groom-to-be looking to infuse your big day with a touch of personal charm, stick around for some delightful and (shhh) easy ideas that will have your guests swooning.

1. Love in a Jar: Homemade Jam Wedding Favours

There’s something truly heartwarming about receiving a jar of homemade jam. It’s like a little jar of love captured in sweetness. For this DIY project, grab some seasonal fruits from your local farmers’ market and whip up batches of delectable jams. Personalise the labels with your wedding date and a heartfelt thank you message. Your guests will surely enjoy this tasty reminder of your special day.

2. Scented Serenity: Handcrafted Lavender Sachets

Let’s talk about aromatherapy with a twist! Lavender sachets are not only charming but also wonderfully soothing. Gather some dried lavender buds and soft fabric remnants. Cut and sew the fabric into cute pouches, fill them with the lavender buds, and secure them with a cute ribbon. Your guests will appreciate the calming scent and the effort you’ve put into creating these little pockets of tranquility.

3. The Brewtiful Blend: Custom Tea Blend Wedding Favours

For tea enthusiasts, a custom tea blend makes for an ideal wedding favour, so why not source your favorite tea leaves and herbs, and mix them together to create a unique blend that reflects your love story. Package the blends in adorable tin containers or eco-friendly pouches and attach a note explaining the inspiration behind the blend. A heartfelt gift that will warm your guests’ hearts.

4. Seeds of Love: DIY Plantable Seed Paper

What could be more symbolic of new beginnings than plantable seed paper? Craft your own by mixing paper pulp with wildflower seeds. Shape the mixture into heart, flower, or leaf designs using cookie cutters. Once dried, package these delicate creations with care and provide instructions for planting. As your guests nurture their paper, they’ll be reminded of the love and growth shared on your special day.

5. Timeless Treasures: Hand-Stamped Keepsake Tokens

Unleash your inner artist with hand-stamped keepsake tokens. Purchase metal or wooden charms, and stamp them with meaningful words, initials, or dates. Attach these charming tokens to keyrings, necklaces, or bracelets so your guests can cherish a unique piece of your wedding day magic for years to come.

And there you have it, five fabulous and easy ideas for creative wedding favours that will make your guests feel special.

Stay crafty.

H&H x

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Lego Loving: Lego Themed Wedding

Handmade and Hitched

Calling all Lego geeks! Why is Lego so flipping fantastic, and perfectly acceptable to still play with as an adult? Ahem… *moves lego bricks away*. Lego has certainly stood the test of time and those little yellow men seem to be springing up all over the show, there’s no escape! Are they taking over the world?

I recently watched a video put together by Sugru showing how little Lego hands are a perfect fit for tidying cables away, not just a pretty yellow face hey! Anyway, as Handmade and Hitched was whirring around in my head this got me wondering if anyone had tried out a Lego themed wedding. Yep, you betcha, there’s a lot of Lego loving in the world. Here are some images taken from real weddings to inspire Lego heads everywhere… Oh and here’s the Sugru video, just because I think this is super cool…

First image (top of the page) and bottom two images courtesy of Ian Photography. All other images courtesy of Gemma Clarke Photography.

If you’re wondering where to start looking then Etsy is full of amazing Lego accessories – search for lego earrings, cufflinks, favours and more.

Lego did have their own Minifigure Wedding Favour Set. Sadly this is now a retired product but you can still pick it up around the web by searching on sites such as Amazon and ebay. If you want to go one better and have bespoke minifigures made to look just like the two of you then try www.minifigs.me. I haven’t used this website personally so I can’t guaranty the quality of the products, but it’s definitely worth checking out for yourselves.

Lots of Lego Wedding Love

Michelle
xxx

P.S. If you’ve had your own Lego themed wedding or you’re planning one then I’d love to hear about it. Drop me a comment in the box below.

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Cool Crafting DIY Purse Kit

Handmade and Hitched

Last summer I picked up a nifty little ‘DIY your own purse kit’ from a craft fair in Manchester. The intention was to teach myself the art of purse making and share it with you lovely people so you can come up with ideas for crafting your own purses as cute bridesmaid favours. I’m ashamed to say it’s been staring me in the face for the last six months. It was time to take action, stop being lazy, and get down to giving it a whirl!

This little kit is put together by a business called Cool Crafting and comes in a variety of colour combos and patterns. Just check out their website and pick out your favourite. The kits are £11 each, but considering you can teach yourself a new skill, get a super cute purse, and gain templates and instructions to design billions of your own bespoke purses, I think it’s a bargain!

So here’s how I spent my crafty Sunday, Rita was back out (yes I have named my sewing machine) – it’s been a while and she was pretty dusty, I think it made her day…

There’s no stinginess involved with the kit here, you get pretty much everything you need – extras you will need include scissors, sellotape, pins, and a sewing machine (although you could easily do this by hand if you don’t own one of Rita’s mates).

I found the instructions really clear and easy to follow. This was my first handmade purse and I think the results weren’t too bad at all – just blowing my own trumpet. Ahem.

Getting all the right sides of the fabric facing, and knowing which bits to turn inside out was the most fiddly part, but I got there. Just follow the instructions to a tee.

The final result!

I’m planning on putting some of my own ideas together for brides / bridesmaid purses and clutch bags and will post the DIY’s for you here. In the meantime why not grab one of these kits from Cool Crafting and come up with your own ideas. You could add your own embellishments in the form of fabric flowers or sparkly jewels and buttons. Once you’ve mastered the art of this you could choose your own cute fabrics and make any kind of purse you desire! Make sure you come back here and share your handiwork, I’d love to see it!

Lot’s of handmade purse love n’ hugs (you get extra hugs coz it’s nearly Valentine’s)

Michelle x

All images ©Handmade & Hitched – I’m happy for you to reproduce my images but please link back to this post. Thanks 🙂

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Top 10 Quirky Valentine’s Day Cards

Handmade and Hitched

Calling all luurrrvers! It’s almost Valentines day. Oh my gawsh!! Time to get your super thoughtful head on and think of something a little bit different to really pull this one out the bag. There’s nothing worse than a naff card and flowers from the petrol station – seriously, you may as well not bother. If budgeting is the issue then get creative and make your own. In fact I’d encourage this over anything else, it’s the thought that counts. There’s a lotta love in handmade, especially when it’s made by YOU. But for those of you who are less creative and looking for something unique, quirky, not too slushy, not too mushy, and super cool, look no further. Here are my top 10 winning Valentine’s Day cards, in no particular order – because who say’s there are rules.

“I love you like a pig loves not being bacon”. Now that’s a lotta love. I discovered Handmade by Swans this week and there are tons of fab n’ quirky cards to make that special someone smile on the 14th. Definitely worth a look!

If you have a fantastic bottom then I salute you, with this card by Veronica Dearly.

It’s Sunday morning, you’re lying in your pit pretty sure that your legs shouldn’t be working at this time on the weekend. So you call through to the kitchen downstairs and demand a brew, and maybe push your luck with a bacon sarnie too. Sound familiar? This one’s for you. By Paper Gravy.

If I still love someone (or even if I’m remotely nice to them) when I’m really, really hungry then I know it must be serious. I kid you not, I’m a nightmare when hungry. This is by Doodle Love.

Plain and simple, I like your face. I found this one on the Urban Outfitters website.

An absolute beaut’. This can be personalised with the story of how you first met. Simply follow the link and type in your details. This is by This Paper Book.

For all the knitters out there. You Rock My World card by Lindsey Oliver Art.

Cheesy and yet amazing, you can’t go wrong with the original lurve god, Lionel. By Crooked Kat.

I love all Hazel Bee’s cards, every time I go shopping in Liverpool I come home with a new card, they totally crack me up. Check out the range here.

Last but not least, one of my all time favourite phrases ‘bobby dazzler’. You really can’t go wrong with this one, ya little bobby dazzler! By Paper Gravy.

Happy February 14th, you fantastic bottomed bobby dazzlers!

Lots of Valentine’s Day love

Michelle x

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New Years (Photography) Resolutions

Handmade and Hitched

New years resolutions – ARGH! I know a lot of people who will hit their head against the wall when they hear those words. I’m usually pretty good at keeping mine, the trick is not to overwhelm yourself with a huuuuge list and then feel burnt out by the end of January, we’re all guilty of it. If you’re someone who struggles with keeping resolutions maybe just make one simple one and see how you go, you can always increase your list later in the year, or maybe do it month by month? I have a few goals for this year but I’m starting by spending more time on my photography skills. Oh, and blogging, it goes without saying *hangs head in shame*. But lets focus on photography to start with, the other goals can follow.

In a bid to work on my snap happy skills I’ve signed up for Emma Davies’ ‘Photography for Blogs‘ classes, and what’s even better is it’s absolutely FREE! You simply sign up with your email address and every week Emma sends you a challenge to help you improve your skills – awesome! Some of you may have noticed that I’ve made a start on Instagram, working on Emmas’ 30 Day Photo Challenge with the hashtag #make30photos. I’m 2 days in and aiming to make one photo a day for the whole 30 days! You don’t need to do 30 consecutive days either, which is a bonus for those with lazyitis, or simply more important tasks, ahem. There’s also a #1day12pics challenge where you take a photo every hour and post it on Instagram throughout the day. I’ve decided to swerve this one at the moment as I’m not sure an hourly snapshot of my day would be all that exciting. Here I am buying a tin of beans in Tesco, here I am eating crisps and watching telly while picking my nose. You get the gist. I’ll stick to one photo a day, being a novice I need some time for my little brain to acquire inspiration.

So here’s my photo journey so far. Two photos! It’s pretty epic!

With a few filters added in, this went from this to this…

Here's my first #remarkable2015 #pattern #onecolour @emmadaviesphoto

A photo posted by Michelle (@handmadeandhitched) on Jan 1, 2015 at 8:56am PST

Before and after editing.

Day 2 of #remarkable2015 #blackandwhite #selfportrait @emmadaviesphoto

A photo posted by Michelle (@handmadeandhitched) on Jan 2, 2015 at 7:33am PST

I’m aiming to do as many as I can on my iPhone. I’m not a great believer in getting good photos from a phone so it’s more of a challenge for myself. Hopefully I’ll be surprised!

Emma shares lot’s of fab tips for composition etc on her website, making it a great free resource for budding photographers and bloggers alike. Go and have a nosy by following this link.

Oh, and if you like my top, because it’s super cool and I flippin’ love it! It’s from 304# Clothing. They’ve even used my pic for their instagram – I’m feeling super cool now!

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