Funfetti Bridesmaids Gifts

Do you remember Funfetti cupcakes?

Mmmm....sugar. Via Preppy Pink Blondie

My best friend, BM Veronica, and I were all about Funfetti in high school, baking up cupcakes for birthdays and Valentine's day and PMS and just because we were 15 year old girls craving a sugar high. Maybe's that's where my not so secret confetti obsession came in. It's this funny side of me that loves all things glitter, polka dots, and of course sprinkles (yum!).

I've been trying to buy little gifts and start DIY projects as I see them and as I have extra money available. I know that if I wait until the last minute, they will never get done! It's also a lot easier to purchase gifts $50 at a time when I see a good deal rather than trying to spend all of that money at once so close to the wedding.

When I spotted these adorable chevron clutches in our wedding colors at Pick Your Plum, I knew they'd be a perfect (and at $7.95 each, inexpensive) gift for my maids.

Via Pick Your Plum

Even though they'd be great on their own, I wanted more. More confetti! More cowbell!

Luckily, I remembered an adorable Etsy find that I though maybe....just maybe...I could DIY.

Here's the original:

Via Twinklebird's Etsy Shop

I love the confetti and the quote! But I also wanted to use my wedding colors, and not have to pay $42 a piece. So DIY I did!

$25 later, and I have 6 of these cute little boxes:

I first gathered my supplies:

1. Colorful card stock. I used shades of aqua, pink, gold and navy to represent our wedding colors and paid between 50 and 70 cents per square.
2. Ring bases. I purchased a pack of 24 for $6 from Etsy.
3. Handheld hole puncher. The office 3-hole punch left the card stock bent and morphed, but the handheld worked great.
4. Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. This stuff is so cool.
5. Ring boxes or small favor boxes. I purchased a package of blue favor boxes for $5 at Michael's.
6. Xacto Knife

Then got to work:

1. Start by punching about a million tiny confetti pieces using your handheld puncher and card stock. My plan was to punch them all during our Thursday night television line-up, but that tiny thing is surprisingly loud so I was limited to commercial punching only. My hands also got really tired by the time Parks & Rec came on.

2. Once you have a sufficient amount of confetti, begin assembling your "jewels." I used some of my scrap booking glue (the same stuff I used for our Save the Dates) to hold two pieces of confetti together. (You could probably also use a bit of the Mod Podge.) I found the best way was to dab some glue on a piece of paper and then run the confetti through it so it gets an even coat. Then I stuck it to a matching piece of confetti because I wanted them to be nice and strong. (This was also helpful for the gold confetti pieces since they had a white back that needed to be hidden)

3. Once you have your double-sided confetti pieces ready, it's time to Mod Podge. This part took a second to get used to, but I found the easiest method was to squeeze gently into a big drop and then to swirl onto the confetti until it was spread evenly across. The Mod Podge begins to dry surprisingly fast, so you have to work quickly.

4. Check for air bubbles in between applications! I set aside an area of paper specifically to drop off bubbles before moving onto the next jewel. If you don't, you'll end up with tiny bubbles in your jewel and it will look like a boob.

5. Wait. And Wait. And Wait. The jewels will be dry in 3 hours, but it's recommended to let them sit for 24 hours before handling. Below are my pretty jewels (I made extras just in case some of them didn't turn out) and an example of what happens when you don't pop an air bubble. (See boob in lower right corner.)

6. In the meantime, assemble the boxes. I created the ring inserts by cutting a square of card stock slightly larger than the lid and then cutting squares out of each corner so that I could fold and fit them into the boxes. The little slit was created using an Xacto knife.

7. When the 24 hours are up, apply your dried confetti jewel flat side down to the ring by using a thin coat of the Mod Podge. (I tried hot glue and failed miserably since it kept drying upon contact with the metal ring and the glue bump it left was too big) Press down firmly for a couple of seconds and it'll be dry shortly after.

I placed my finished rings in their boxes along with some extra confetti for fun and now they're set to go.

They're certainly not perfect, but I think they'll be a fun addition to the bags and the rest of the gifts.

Have you tackled any bridal party DIYs lately?