Posts from the ‘DIY with Stef’ Category

Hi everyone! It’s me Stef, your favorite Studio222 Photography Studio Director, and I’m excited to be contributing on a new monthly column here on the blog where I make and review cool DIY projects that you can do for your own wedding (or just for fun if you aren’t planning a wedding).

Basically, I’ll be finding cool DIY projects and trying them out and then reporting back to you about whether or not each project is actually worth doing yourself or if it’s absolutely a disaster waiting to happen. If you have any cool DIY project ideas you want to see me try or if you just wanna chat about wedding crafts, feel free to send them to me at stefanie@studio222photography.com. Let’s get going! For my inaugural project I decided to make these Test Tube Wedding Favors…

THE PROJECT

I found this “Test Tube Favors” project on page 161 of the book Handmade Weddings and thought it was so cute and looked easy. It could so easily fit any wedding theme because of all the possibilities for fillers. The book listed the skill level as “easy” and the budget needed to make 100 favors at $50-$75. After looking up bulk supplies online, I think this is totally on target with that budget. Of course, it could get more expensive depending on what you want to put inside each tube.

THE ASSEMBLY

I wanted to show a variety of filler options so I chose birdseed, potpourri, and jelly beans. But there are so many other options like customizable M&M’s (or any small candy really), loose leaf tea, bath salts, or infused sugar. For a winter wedding you could fill these with hot cocoa mix and for a beach wedding you could put sand and tiny sea shells inside from the beach where you are having your ceremony as a sweet keepsake.

In the book they suggested using muslin fabric or lightweight canvas for the tags, but I chose to use craft paper cardstock because it was more easily available. You could easily use any type of pattered paper for the tags to match your colors. I chose to use tiny letter stamps to spell out the word “ENJOY” but you could have a custom stamp made with your names and wedding date or with any little phrase. You could also hand write them if you have better handwriting than me, and if you have a small guest list.

To put them together, we organized what was going to go into each tube. For the finer fillings (like the birdseed), I made a funnel out of an extra piece of craft paper to keep the mess at bay and then filled each one to the top. I put the cork in and then attached the tag with a small piece of twine tied around twice and then knotted.

THE SUPPLIES I USED

Plastic test tubes, filling (birdseed, potpourri, jelly beans), twine, card stock, stamps & ink pad, hole punch, scissors

THE VERDICT

It’s a DIY craft that ANYONE could do. It was easy, fun, and not at all frustrating. Sometimes crafts start out fun but are so frustrating to complete but this wasn’t at all. I LOVE the way they look once they are filled and tied with the cute tags and I think guests would actually really love a gift like this as a favor. With a small assembly line helping you, you could easily get this done in an afternoon for under $100. My favorite thing about this project is how easy it is to personalize it and make it meaningful for each couple.

So easy right? And super cute. What do you think?

Any ideas what other things you could use to fill these with to make them even more customizable and personalized?