As you may, or may not know (you probably will if you follow me on Twitter) I was bridesmaid at my good friends wedding on Sunday, and beforehand she taught me a quick craft (and I made two for her wedding) and that is making string balloons.

Now this is one of the more messier and stressful crafts I have ever tried, and while I didn't dislike it, I don't know if its something I will do often, although I am considering making a few for my bedroom...so we'll see!

To start, blow up a balloon to the size you desire.

Get a lot of a string (and I mean a lot - you can always use less than you've cut, but would be difficult to add more - but not impossible!) and find a pot that you can use to fill with glue.

Pour a decent amount of PVA glue into the pot, add the string, and make sure all the string is well covered in glue (you're going to need to get your hands messy from here on in!) but be careful not to create knots in the string.

Grab the end of the string (ideally leave it hanging over the edge of the pot when you cover the string in glue) and take hold of your balloon. Hold the balloon by the knot, and hold onto the end of the string, and then haphazardly wind the string around the balloon, until you've got the desired effect.

Peg up by the knot to dry for 24 hours.

When dry the string will have hardened, burst the balloon and you will be left with a wonderful decoration. You can make small ones for balls to put in a bowl, add string to make hanging decorations, you can spray paint them...anything you can think of.

This is how they were used in the wedding...

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Ever heard of a Bridal bib? No, neither had we, but apparently they are right up there in requests that are coming from blushing brides.

So, what do they do?

The idea of a bridal bib is to cover up the brides dress while she eats, it stops any spillages dropping on to the dress and therefore no stains!

So when our good friend asked if we would design her something to that effect it was a first for us. We had a look around at possible ideas and got to work on making something beautiful and unique, just like the stunning bride-to-be.

We decided to make it in an apron format, to give the greatest coverage for the dress. We wanted it to be practical yet beautiful, so while the beautiful dress is covered the bride still looked and felt amazing.

We widened the top edge to fit in with the style of the dress, which was an off the shoulder design, meaning that a large portion of the top of the dress was covered.

We didn't want the bib/apron to detract too much from the dress underneath, and we also didn't want it to appear to 'busy'. We chose simple detailing using colours from the theme of the wedding - Lilac & Sage.

Here is some further detailing on the bottom of the bib/apron.

In the bottom corner we stitched a small cross stitch to personalise it. It says the names of the bride and groom and then the date of the wedding.

This is how it is to be tied at the back.

Our 'Handmade by Blanket Stitch' ribbon inside.



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