Photo by Whitney Huynh Photography

With this year’s NotWedding logo, how could I resist bringing that beautiful starburst imagery into the lounge area? Inspired by this starburst mirror made using an old clock, I set out to create a starburst tray to display on our tufted ottoman. I had so much fun creating all of the popsicle fans, it’s quite therapeutic. Who knew popsicle sticks would look so fantastic!

Here’s what you need:

Round Mirrored Candle Tray (Found this one at Hobby Lobby)
Small Popsicle Sticks (Hobby Lobby)
Glue Gun
Gold Spray Paint

To begin, create lots of popsicle “fans”. For this project I created 36 popsicle fans. Each fan as 7 popsicle sticks – do the math and that’s 252 popsicle sticks total. (Remember, the number of fans depends on the circumference of your mirror.)

Once you’ve created the popsicle fans, go ahead and spray paint all of the fans. Doing this step now prevents having to protect the mirror if you were to spray the fans after they’d been glued on. I only sprayed the front of the fans, no need to spray the backsides.

Once the fans have been painted, begin gluing the fans to the underside of the mirror. I glued the fans where only their upper halves would show and left room between each fan for the outer layer of fans.

Once you have secured the first layer of fans, continue by gluing the outer layer of fans, filling in the empty space between the first layer of fans.

Let the glue set up and voila! You’re done!

Photo by Whitney Huynh Photography

I’m not gonna drone on about how busy I’ve been this past month. No, busy doesn’t even begin to describe my life. Let’s put it this way, I’ve only slept in my own bed 4 nights of the last month. I wish I were kidding.

When I look back at all that we’ve done in a month it really doesn’t seem real – created 100 clay ring dishes, crafted lots of paper flowers, meticulously hand-cut a floral logo for BEY, assembled tons of confetti cloud balloons, reupholstered a sofa (in one night), built a hanging bed, glued 2,000+ spoons to a hanging starburst installation, built 20 farm tables, built two gorgeous tufted benches, refinished a china cabinet, collaborated on two styled shoots, produced my own styled shoot and that doesn’t even  include the normal day to day rentals and such. Whew!

It’s been crazy for sure! Mr. BEY and I are looking forward to getting back to a much more normal work schedule these next few months and catching up here on the blog. I have so much to share with you! Hope you guys have a great weekend!

If you’re addicted to Pinterest as much as I am, I’m sure you’ve seen several tutorials for DIY Clay Bowls. With Wedding Day Hooray right around the corner, I thought I’d give it a try as a fun handmade goodie for the swag bags. The concept is pretty simple, so instead of going in depth on the bowl making process, I thought I’d share my tips and lessons learned in case you get the itch to create some bowls of your own.

What you will need:

Air Dry Clay
Scrap of cloth
Rolling Pin
Doilies
Large Circle Cookie Cutter (or recycle a large can)
Small bowls (to help form the ‘bowl’ shape)
Sand paper

The photos above show step-by-step instructions for making the clay bowls. Simply roll out the clay, press the doily into the clay using the rolling pin, cut out in the shape of a circle, shape dish over the underside of a small bowl to form shape. Allow dish to completely dry (approx. 24 hours). Once the dish is dry, lightly sand the edges until clean and smooth.

Ok, so that was the fast run through, now here are some time saving tips and suggestions:

1. All clays are not created equal. My first attempt to make these bowls had me pulling my hair out. As it turns out the problem was with the clay. I bought the cheapest brand I could find and it was really sticky and hard to work with. It was also extremely brittle once it dried. The sweet girls at Loot Vintage shared some awesome tips with me, with the biggest tip being the brand of clay – DAS Air Dry Clay. It’s a wee bit more expensive, but well worth it!

2. Clay likes to stick. After peeling clay from my counter, trying to use wax paper and even sprinkling the surface with baby powder, I finally found a solution that worked – cloth! I rolled all of my bowls on a tightly woven scrap piece of fabric. It was so much easier to remove from the fabric than the countertop. Also, because the fabric was so tightly woven, there was little imprint on the bottom of the bowls. Total lifesaver!

3. Time is not always on your side. With 100 bowls to make and just a few days time, I knew I couldn’t wait on each of these bowls to air dry before removing them from the glass dish. The girls at Loot Vintage saved me once again with this handy dandy tip – microwave! After you have formed the clay dish on top of the bowl, pop it in the microwave for a few seconds (approx. 5 seconds). This will allow the bowl to set-up a little bit and allow you to remove it from the glass bowl a little sooner. This way you can continue making more bowls while the rest air dry on the counter. (Warning: You’ll only want to pop them in the microwave for a few seconds. I totally boiled my first bowl when I put it in there for 30 seconds.)

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Don’t forget Wedding Day Hooray is this weekend at Ambient Studios. Be one of the first 100 through the door and one of these handmade clay bowls will be yours!

Grab your pinatas and start mixing those margaritas, we’re doing Valentine’s Day with a little south-of-the-border flair!

For this fun DIY, Blue Eyed Yonder teamed up with Megan, of Hi, Friend Design, to bring you this adorable DIY Fiesta Banner! For those of you that are regulars here at BEY, you’ll remember Megan; she’s the talented lady that created BEY’s website and we’ve been long-distance buddies ever since!

Megan designed this darling banner and shares her inspiration for this project today on her blog. She’s so creative and has the cutest ideas. She’s busy moving from one state to another, so I decided to bust out a new blade for the ol’ Exacto and bring her design to life! Here’s what you’ll need:

This is one of those projects that requires very little materials (you probably already have all of them), but the end result looks very snazzy! I’ll be the first to admit, it requires a lot of cutting, but don’t be scared. After I cut one, I started to really get in the groove and whipped out four more before I knew it. You’ll have people saying, “Well, ain’t you Miss Fancy Pants?”

Download the Fiesta Banner template for free right here. The directions are printed on the template – simply print, cut and par-tay!

It’s funny the lies we tell ourselves. Whether it was a seed planted in us long ago or an idea that developed from some chance experience, it amazes me how, as humans, we continue to feed our negative thoughts and let them permanently take root in our minds.

If I had a nickel for every time Mr. Blue Eyed Yonder has said, “I’m not creative,” I swear I could retire and move to the south of France. I’m pretty sure you guys could all vouch for the exact opposite of this statement. While he may not be the one to dream up the majority of Blue Eyed Yonder’s projects, I can promise you, he is almost 100% involved in their execution. He never ceases to flat out amaze me with his talents. I often catch myself saying, “Is there anything this guy can’t do?” (This is when my Mom likes to remind me that he can’t have a baby, haha! Thanks for keeping it real, Mom.)

He has such a gift when it comes to creating things – anything! When I was up against a deadline and could not place an order in time for some custom stamps he simply says, “I’ll make them. It can’t be that hard.” (No joke, is this guy for real?)

So Mr. BEY handcarved these rubber stamps to represent some of our inventory categories. It’s little projects like this that make me laugh when he says he’s not creative.

I think creativity comes in many different forms. We each have our own individual gifts that express themselves in different ways. It’s time we all just cut ourselves a little slack. Stop feeding those negative thoughts and realize that we all have our own unique creative stamp. Embrace it, share it.