In keeping with the DIY bachelorette theme, this week's post will cover my affordable, cute bachelorette party favors. Many of my friends traveled from far and wide to Healdsburg, and I wanted to give them a DIY favor as a token of my appreciation! Because our weekend was focused mostly on wine, I decided to give each of the girls a set of coasters (to enjoy wine back home without the coffee table stain) and a plastic wine glass (to enjoy wine that weekend by the pool).
The coaster project is one of my favorites we have done for MIHM because although it's a bit time consuming, it's so easy and very fun. I used the same technique back when I made my Harry Potter coasters for my apartment.
I bought tiles from Lowe's. This was the most expensive aspect of the project. A box is only about $5, but I was making 64 coasters!
Favorite supply alert! Good ol' Mod Podge and sponge brushes.
Coppola wine labels, sized 4x4 for the coasters. Printed on regular white paper, cut with a paper cutter to size.
(Behind the scenes fun fact: Our big fancy bachelorette dinner was at the Francis Ford Coppola Winery restaurant, Rustic. On a scouting trip earlier this year, my maid of honor Margo and I decided we'd need to drink 64 bottles of Coppola wine to get labels off of them for the coasters. Thank GOD my artist genius friend Megan was with us. She's a graphic designer and quickly reminded us she could easily get us a perfectly sized label from the internet and send it our way. Our livers are grateful, Megan!)
So while working on 64 coasters, I got a little lazy with the picture taking, so if you'd like a step-by-step lesson, visit the link to the Harry Potter coasters above. Essentially, you use the sponge brush to paint a layer of Mod Podge on the tile, place the image onto the tile, use a popsicle stick to flatten any bubbles, and then add one top coat of Mod Podge. Let this dry, then do a second top coat of Mod Podge for extra seal.
As the coasters dried, I organized them by the color combo I thought each matched each of my friends and their personal style!
The next day, after letting the coasters dry for about 24 hours, I sprayed a coat of acrylic gloss over each coaster. This adds a nice shine for a finished look, and also waterproofs the coasters against any spills or wine drips.
While the coasters were drying in the garage, I cut felt squares out in 3.5x3.5 shapes. The felt serves as the backing to each coaster so the tiles don't scratch tables.
My Girls Team partner has the BEST tools. This was so much easier than cutting with scissors!
Once the coaster sets were dry, I glued the felt to the back and packaged them up with baker's twine. SO CUTE!
Full disclosure, I also made a set for myself, my Girls Team partner and my friend Megan who couldn't come to the bachelorette party, but was instrumental in this project all the way from Seattle! I was so happy with how to coasters turned out. Like I said earlier, they are SO simple to make. The only catch is to allow at least three days to work on them to allow for proper drying in between steps. And, at the rate I was going with 64 coasters, I felt like I was in an Etsy sweatshop...I probably could have broken the project up into a few weekends if I was really organized. But instead I crammed it into one weekend. :)
Once the coasters were complete, I moved on to the plastic wine glass gifts which were much simpler and took about 15 minutes to make. Back on our same scouting trip to Francis Ford Coppola, we bought plastic wine glasses. If there is anything Margo and I know how to prepare for, it's drinking by a pool.
The cups were cute enough themselves, but with 13 of us, we'd need some way to distinguish our glasses. I bought chalkboard stickers at Michael's and used a chalk paint pen to write each girl's name on one glass. Took 5 minutes, plus drying time. Boom! Cuteness overload!
Coppola logo was pre-printed on the glass, chalkboard sticker added by me.
I was so excited to hop in the car and head to Healdsburg that I forgot to take a picture of the gift all wrapped up and ready to go. Whoops. All of my friends loved their gifts and took full advantage of the plastic wine glasses by the pool. ;-) The weekend was so wonderful and filled with everything I love: friends, sunshine by the pool, wine and DIY crafts.
