Ministry of Craft Tutorial - Colour pop photo booth props!

Wedding season is upon us and every modern wedding needs a photo booth. And what better than to have fun and frivolous photo booth props to go in it - especially when they're handmade in colours that pop!

Choose your weapon from over sized moustaches, 50s style specs and hot lips, using simple decoupage techniques and add felt for extra fun and texture if you wish!

Ingredients: 
(Nearly all available from Fred Aldous!)

Decopatch paper - with three patterns
A4 (or larger) Cardboard
Decopatch glue
Decopatch brush
Washi tape 
Craft knife or scissors
Double sided tape or glue gun
Chop stick (from all good Chinese supermarkets)

Draw out your prop design (for this tutorial we have chosen an oversized gentleman's moustache). You can do this free hand if you're confident enough to, directly onto the card - see the picture below - or you can use tracing paper.

For the tracing paper method, fold your paper in half, draw just half of your prop and then trace it through onto the other side. 



 

In an old school style, rub your pencil hard over the moustache design on the reverse of the tracing paper. Then place your paper with the pencil rubbed side face down on the card and trace over your design again to leave a pencil imprint onto your cardboard.

Cut out your prop using scissors or a craft knife for a more precise finish. 

If you're cutting away the middle sections of a pair of glasses, a craft knife is easiest.

Cut away a 5-10 cm strip of decopatch paper from your sheet.

Cut the section into thin strips approximately 0.5 to 1 centimeter wide and then cut into smaller sections.

Using your Decopatch glue, coat a small section of your prop. Lay your paper pieces over each other. You can do this neatly or adhoc - it's up to you!

Turn over your moustache and coat the back with glue, in the same spot as the front. Fold over the edges of the paper from the front, sticking them down to the card and then put a final coat of glue over the top on both sides and leave to dry.

This brand of glue is great not only for sticking, but will also add a glossy top coat to add shine to your prop or project.

To make your prop handle take your chop stick and a roll of colourful washi tape - the more colourful the better - and roll it securely around the end of the chop stick.

Move the tape onto a diagonal angle and continue rolling the tape along the chopstick, finishing with tight wrapping of tape around the end.

Using the scissors or craft knife trim away and detailed areas to create a clean shape.

Using double sided tape (or a glue gun) stick your moustache to the heavier end of the chopstick.  

 Fun!

Fun! 

Fun! 

Tell The Bobbin Who's Boss - And The Winner Is...

HANNAH CLARK!

Hannah's patchwork knitting bag and matching needle case caught the eye of our judge Diane Grimshaw, Editor of Simply Homemade magazine.

'I adore all of the entries for different reasons...but I keep being drawn back to Hannah's knitting bag and needle case. The colours and designs of the fabric work fabulously together and I love the idea of indulging in a spot of sewing and quilting to create bags to house knitting materials and needles. Simply Homemade is a multicraft magazine and my readers would love this too!'

I love everything about this adorable duo: the monochrome with pop of yellow, the bow and arrow styling of the patchwork. There's something a little bit Hunger Games about it. I think Jennifer Lawrence would love it too, she could put her bow in the bag and her arrows in the knitting needle 'quiver'.

So very well done to Hannah who is one of our most enthusiastic and dedicated supporters. She has been on a number of our courses including our Beginners Quilting course, and as you can see her skills are now awesome. You can (and should) follow Hannah's crafting exploits on twitter @theboxerdogspjs.

If you’d like to enter our competition this month all you have to do is send me a picture of your sewing project (it can be hand sewn or on a machine, anything goes), or tweet me a picture of it using the #tellthebobbinwhosboss hashtag. Also let us know your name and which Ministry of Craft course you attended. Our superstar guest judge for August is Zoe Arch from awesome crafting community site, Craft Candy
Sign up to their newsletter and download their craft finder app so you know what's going on, wherever you are. (Ps - they are totally amazing on Pinterest!)

Now get stitching! I look forward to seeing what you’re made of!

If you want to learn how to sew, we can help! Check out our courses for beginners here.