Friday, January 30, 2009

Boutonnaire Tutorial

I've been wanting to post about this for awhile now, but it got so busy that I totally forgot about it until a few of my blog fans asked about it. So here it is. The cupcake tier tutorial will be definitely be next!

I created a tendril for a felt template. Printed it out to fill up a whole A3 size paper. You can email me if you want my template. Just print as many as required. Cut the template into manageable sizes and pin felt pieces to each tendril. (Do plan your colour theme as well, luckily for my bro, I could find similar plum and purple coloured felt for this little project.) Begin cutting, use a pointed sharp pair of scissors making sure you leave enough stalk at the end of the felt so that you can floral tape the ends to the floral wire.

Arrange the felt pieces that were cut and sandwich each with a floral wire with a strand of ribbon at the back. Use the 'twist and glue' UHU glue. Hot guns will be messy here as you'll need something with a thin spout. This method ensures that your felt will be sturdy enough to be bound together with the rest of the buttons. A line of glue before you place the wire and the ribbon right on top. See picture above. Let dry overnight. UHU glues take more time. Don't use epoxy or super glue for this. Once dry, you'll notice that the ribbon is quite stuck to the felt piece holding on to the wire.

Using floral tape (colour of your choice, you can find them in pinks, browns, whites and even many shades of green in the craft store) wrap the ends firmly and slowly twirl downwards, making sure you secure the wire, ribbon and the felt together and the tip. A tip with using floral tape : It feels not sticky at first, but when you begin to tighten and stretch the tape, more glue will be released and you'll feel the tape working it's magic.

Prepare the rest of the buttons with floral wire and tape. See the underside of the button featured here. I've securedly wrapped the floral tape around the button, it takes practice, but once you do a few, you'll find it quite a breeze. Don't mind the sticky fingers, you can just wash them when you finish. Becareful you don't stain the buttons, dirty workspaces will make sticky fingers a nightmare to work with.

Compile all the elements. Start composing little bundles and set aside. Like a bouquet of flowers, you'll have to select a focus point (being the biggest piece of button), and small little ones to surround and finish the bundle.

Use floral tape and bind all the elements together and finish off with ribbon of choice. Here I used leftover felt ribbons from the invites. Tie the velvet ribbon, downside upwards! and finish off with a bow at the top securing the bundle one last time.

Every bouttonaire is different. A mix and match of buttons, accessories, pearls add glamour to the whole ensemble. You can also add fresh flowers to this, but keep it simple.

I've used up my stash of purple buttons.
The groom's boutonnaire is slightly different. I had a coordinating locket that matches the ring pillow attached to his boutonnaire.

And don't forget to provide a pin for each boutonnaire you've created on that special day. All you need is a pearl headed pin long enough to pierce through the velvet ribbon, the wearer's lapels and back to the velvet ribbon of the boutonnaire. To see how you should put on one, head over to martha stewart for a step by step how to.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Happy New Year & A Merry Christmas Post

We celebrated Christmas on the weekend before and here are the long awaited pictures. We all missed our overseas families and those who couldnt make it in time for the celebrations. It was a really fun time despite me having a bad case of tonsilitis (Did I spell that right?)! Here goes...our mega christmas celebration.

The many many Christmas presents under popo's little tree!

The food preparation going on in the kitchen. Uncle David frying his famous fried chicken!

The glorious food being served!

Lucy, mom and Marina.

Elizabeth and Auntie Grace.

Melissa, Uncle Johnathan & Shen-ni.

The frolicking before the contest time!

Me briefing everyone about the rules and regulations of the game.

Everyone receiving their materials to build Mr. Frosty the Snowman.

Auntie Grace having fun.

Alistair's snowman 'Edward Scissorsnowman!'

Eirene trying out the wee scissors.

The Lim Team. The winning team!!

Kenneth & Melissa building a herd of snowmen!

Meow and Victoria's funny creation! They could have at least won a small prize!!

Working hard with their snowman. 2nd prize winners.

Auntie Gin and Alistair creating a mess! They were very very close to winning the 3rd prize.

And if you're wondering who is Justin's partner - That's Gin Wee everyone! Justin's sweetheart!

Something brewing in the kitchen. Nigel's team trying very hard to win a prize this year! They did! 3rd prize!!!

Shen-ni & Jonathan with their rocker creation!

Meow & Victoria's creation.

The winning team. The Lim's won 1st prize!

Auntie Grace and Elizabeth's creation. Looks like Mr Pillsbury?

Melissa & Uncle Johnathan's creation. 2nd Prize!

Auntie Gin and Alistair's 'Edward Scissorsnowman'!

Kenneth and Melissa's cute creation. It looks like Gumby and friends gone wrong!

The judging.
Here's Kenneth enjoying another year of 'MAKAN-MAKAN'!

To all family and friends - A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year! Keep in touch for next year will even be bigger and better! (Hint : Next year's contest prize will be the biggest ever - we are looking air tickets and holidays for a family of four!!!!)

Our Singapore Trip 2008

Singapore was our last holiday for the year and incidently it was Meow's honeymoon destination too. They were here a few days before us, but we didnt want to intrude into their holiday so we went right after them. Christmas season is a nice time to visit Singapore. All the streets were decked out, it was christmassy all over! We did some christmas shopping and some serious 'makan' session with Uncle Johnathan and the family.


We had lunch at the White Dog at Vivo City with mom's buddies. Thankyou Carol and Allison for a beautiful lunch!

All of us ate almost everything on the menu. It was a full western course with spectacular views of the doulos right outside!
Dad with highlight of the menu - Pork Knuckles!

Mom enjoying the pizza! Really delicious pizza sandwiched with lots of layers of ham and cheese.
Nigel had the 1 foot long hotdog. Look at the presentation!
Every kid in Singapore has a handheld toy and Nigel made friends really fast. Here you can see the Doulos docked right outside.

When in Singapore - Must visit the zoo. It's a mini zoo compared to the Malaysian zoo, but nevertheless a beautiful attraction. It was a really long queue but it was really fun. Nigel had a chance to go for a pony ride at the Kid's Kingdom corner, a new addition to the zoo since we were here 2 years back.

Tram rides around the zoo.

Stan & Nigel on the tram.

The malls and the streets were all decked out in Christmas splendour. 1st class deco all the way!


At Bugis Junction you'll see fancy rickshaws and street performers!

On the double decker bus!Nigel was so excited to get on a double decker bus, we were snapping photos like a bunch of 'ulu's!


Uncle John took us to a nice local chinese seafood restaurant for salt baked crabs! Alistair you were right, it was really really really good!



Thanks Unlce John for 2 nights of dinner! We must buy you a good dinner this Chinese New Year. Looking forward to taking you makan-makan soon.


One of the reasons why I like Singapore is the stash shopping. I'll always stop by at Spotlight for crafty things like this big bag of buttons I got for the NNC anniversary stash exchange!

I found this craft shop in China town called the Golden Dragon. They sell clover brand things and mom paid for the stash here for my Christmas and Birthday presents!!! How lucky!!!

Daiso is a must visit in Singapore too. I think The Curve also has a Daiso but apparently they don't seem to have half the things the Singapore Daiso has. Everything was 2 Singapore dollars!

More yarn from Spotlight! I've already started my crochet with these yummy yarns.