make your own wedding favours - seeded hearts

I've seen lots of seeded paper favours, particularly in the US and they have been gaining popularity in England too. I've never been able to work out how to adhere the seeds to the paper without possibly damaging the seeds due to chemicals, glue etc.
Making your own paper mache - while cheap to produce - is time consuming and you need a variety of equipment plus room to leave it while it dries, so all in all it isn't the craft for me but I've just discovered you can make your own paper mache by simply soaking old egg boxes (the cardboard ones of course!) in some cold water overnight, if you want coloured favours add some food colouring to the water, red works well it leaves a pinky tinge . It already contains the "sticking" agents, so all you have to do is mush it up, seive off the excess water and press the pulp in the sieve, then place inside a small mold - I have a sheet of small heart moulds I got for £2 on E-bay. Once you have the paper mache in the mould sprinkle on your seeds and press into the pulp.
Leave to dry and there you have your own seeded favours - if you like you could pierce a hole through the top once the favour was dry and tie it onto a piece of ribbon and add a tag with your wedding details.
And you have unique wedding favours that once planted will live on and on - for the seeds, ask friends and family to save seed heads for you, poppies are great as is gypsophila or mix a variety of seeds for a wildflower effect.
I'll post pic once the favours are completed but give it a go - these will cost you just cents and the weather is perfect for drying the pulp.

Where to buy used craft materials

There are a couple of places that you can buy used craft tools - the most obvious of course is E-Bay but some people don't like the whole bidding thing and it can be frustrating if you try to sell items and they don't sell or sell at a very low price.
In Ireland, Cara Craft supplies has a chat forum and swapshop section. You can place a post looking for items or to sell/swap as well. You can also source your invitation supplies and buy new trimmers/boards etc.
In the UK - UK scrappers has a huge marketplace and is worth checking out - if you are looking for anything at all add a free request post and potential sellers contact you by message. here.
Or there is another chat forum with a buy and sell section here.
On a quick website hop I found the following, that I think are pretty good bargains -
trimmer
card not thick enough for invitations on its own but great for inserts and printing text on.
gold card great heavy weight gold card, nice shine - great price - available in silver too.
half price sale - a bit hit and miss but you might find a bargain.
As for E-Bay there are hundreds of pages but a word of warning - watch out for the rotary blade paper trimmers for less than fifteen euro - a lot of them are useless, been there done that! Brands to look out for include Woodware, X cut and Purple Cows.

Sunflower inspiration

I read a question on a forum about a bride to be having trouble finding something suitable for her DIY wedding invitations featuring a sunflower. She hadn't seen any toppers or flowers she liked and felt they all looked quite childish.
It reminded me that I have a packet of napkins with sunflowers on them & that the napkin technique would be quick and easy for DIY wedding invitations and most importantly cheap.
The idea is very simple and I made 2 cards and a book in literally minutes. You simply unfold your napkin and cut it into four along the fold lines - each quarter is used to make one card. Most napkins have three layers (3ply), although some have four and you peel away the extra ply layers so that you are left with a very thin single layer that has the design printed on it.
Take a square card blank and place the napkin layer- design side down - inside an old shoe box (it saves messing up your table/work area) Now here's the important bit - spray the back of the patterned napkin piece with 3M repostionable spray adhesive. I have tried other brands and they have never worked as well - so make sure it is 3M. Make sure it is all covered but don't go over the top - keep the can moving and you should cover the whole thing in about 3 seconds.
Turn over and gently smooth over the card blank, don't worry about overlaps you can trim them later. If it wrinkl es, gently lift the napkin up and have another go. So what about the bumps? Take a wallpaper seam roller and roll all over the napkin, all the lumps and the napkin edge design will magically disappear. Trim the overlaps and your done.
Honestly that's it.
Add a printed photo with Our Wedding or your names on - a tip, if you add a frame to the photo it means that if you are less than perfect at cutting them out you wont notice it as much your eye is drawn to the frame rather than the cut edge.
Tie a piece of ribbon arund the spine of your card & add your insert.
SO HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? based on 100 invitations I'd expect to pay
1 pack of 25 napkins €3.50 - 4 invitations per napkin - from supermarket
100 square card blanks & envelopes - €25 from craft store or supermarket
1 can 3M repositionable spray glue - €10 from office supply shop
1 pack photo paper - €2 from discount store
1 pack double sided tape - €2 from discount shop
2 packs light weight card for inserts - €4 from discount shop
2 rolls of ribbon - €6 (inc postage) from E-bay
(I'd use a nice half inch satin in brown but I hadn't got any)

TOTAL COST - €52.50
I'd add a paper trimmer too for approx €20 and then sell it if you have no use for it afterwards - it makes inserts look so much neater and professional.
Cost of ink for printing - about €5
So for €77.50 you can have 100 invitations with materials to spare and I'd expect to make at least €10 back on the paper trimmer.

If you don't want an allover design on your invitation then why not try an invitation in sunflower yellow using the same printed sunflower bouquet?
I made the card in an offset gatefold - this simply means instead of folding into the centre it folds more to the right. If you are making a lot of invitations I'd advise investing in a folding board - again expect to sell it on for a little more than half its cost.
Instructions come with the boards and they are available from all good craft shops.
Inside I have repeated the bouquet image as the backdrop for the invitation insert and used a single card glued into the centre. (I need to lighten the image a little but for this demo it will suffice).
Print the image with your choice of text and mat it onto a square of brown card so that just a little border shows and then stick this onto the left had side card flap so that it overlaps onto the right hand flap. Add a pearl heart to the edge of the image.
Tie a piece of brown ribbon around the spine.
SO HOW MUCH DOES THIS ONE COST? Based on 100 invitations
50 sheets sunshine yellow card - 20 cents each - €10
1 pack photo paper - €2 discount store
2 packs self adhesive pearl hearts - €6
2 rolls brown ribbon (with postage)€5 - E Bay
1 pack lightweight card for insert - €2 discount store
100 envelopes approx 12 cents each or again try the discount store €12
Wow! 100 invitations for €36 but to make life easy I'd add
paper trimmer and folding board - €30 - craft store or E-Bay and then sell them on once I'd finished.

Once I had finished the sunflower cards I used the remaining napkin panels to cover 2 pieces of chipboard, I added 20 insert pages and bound it with my Bind it All for a unique guest book.
To finish - making your own invitations doesn't have to be difficult, but I would stress that for a good quality finish you do need a trimmer, good scissors and possibly a folding board.
Next post where to buy and sell your craft items secondhand and the best Irish and UK offers for DIY invitations.