Bridal Shower Part 3: Coffee Filter Flower Centerpieces

Hello craftsters! I'm back in action in the blogging world... AND now I am Broke Craftster, M.A. No more grad school for me!

Time to finish up these long-overdue bridal shower posts. If you recall, my wonderful sister-in-law allowed me a plethora of crafting projects at her shower in March. I was able to make use of the coffee filter flowers previously discussed in this post. We made a LOT of them, stuck them in cheap glass vases with some candy as filler, and each guest was able to take a few home as a part of their gift. This was a super-easy (and budget-friendly) centerpiece solution and was perfect for the occasion.

SIL also saw an idea for place settings on Pinterest that ended up working out really well. She went around to some thrift stores and picked up mismatched, very pretty china plates, which she then used as for the place settings. Each guest was able to take home her plate as a memento. Cute!

Bridal Shower Part 2: Tissue Puff Balls

Apologies for my lack of blogging. (Graduate school sucks...'nuff said.) Anyways, on with the bridal shower! Next up: Puff Balls. I am obsessed with these, and would cover our apartment with them if I had the time and energy to do so. My friend Lisa (also an admirable Craftster) helped me make these as I was crunched for time, and because crafting with friends is always more fun.

I made two variations of the Puff Ball, one kind with tissue paper and another out of coffee filters. Both looked great. I spaced them out over the buffet table where the food was served, and hung ribbon in between for a little more flair. I think they would also look awesome clumped together like a faux chandelier. Here is my inspiration photo:

And here are some photos of what we made: 

Puff Ball #1: Tissue Paper

Inspiration:

 

Instructions here, courtesy of good ole Martha. 
Cost: Really cheap-- I think the tissue paper I got was $.99 for 8 sheets and I used about 10 sheets per puff ball. Already had wire.
Rating: Excellent
Comments: These are fabulous. They turned out a little bigger than I expected but I like them. A few notes: these are actually a little trickier than the instructions would indicate. It doesn't really matter if the folds line up perfectly, but you do have to be REALLY careful when you are unfurling them to make the round shape or they will tear. It takes a little fussing to get them perfectly round. I used solid paper for some and a combination of solid and striped paper for others, which turned out pretty cool.

Puff Ball #2: Coffee Filters 

Inspiration:

Instructions here.
Cost: Cheap! Coffee filters, staples, glue.
Rating: Excellent.
Comments: These look great too! I only roughly followed the instructions, and used way fewer coffee filters. If you puff them up and put some dots of glue throughout your puff to close any gaps you don't need to use as many. I used clothespins to hold the glued parts together until they dried.

All in all, puff balls are awesome and hold much potential for events that require a little crafting pizazz.