The
last time you saw our boutonnieres, they looked like this:
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{personal photo} |
I know you've been DYING to see these things finished, so I'm finally happy to be able to oblige :)
I
wanted to attach the LEGO minifigs to the center of these flowers, but I
didn't want it to be permanent- once The Big Day is over, you should be
able to take the little dudes off and play with them! So rather than
reaching for the hot glue gun, I decided to use something I have spools
and spools of around here, leftover from another project: floral wire!
It's thin, light, and malleable, so it'll do a good job holding these
guys in place without looking bulky, and when everybody goes home they
can simply snip the wire and remove their LEGO.
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{personal photo} |
First,
I poked a hole in the center of the flower with an awl (a pointy thing
you use a lot in leather working). If you don't have a pointy thing,
you could always use sharp scissors.
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{personal photo} |
I cut a length of floral wire and wrapped it around the minifig until I was satisfied that it would be secure.
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{personal photo} |
I
passed both ends of that wire through the hole in the center of the
flower. To turn these flowers into boutonnieres, I purchased some of
these pin backs on a craft supply shop on Etsy because I could not find
them ANYWHERE in craft stores. (This is the first time my dear friend
Michaels has ever let me down!) Those holes are a convenient place to
pass the ends of that wire.
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{personal photo} |
Those
holes are also great for hot glue. Once everything was lined up, I
lifted the center of the pin up a little and shot in a bead of hot glue,
then pressed the pin firmly against the fabric. The hot glue smooshes
between the pin and the fabric, creating a connection, but it also seeps
through that hole and eeks onto the outside of the pin back. Once the
glue hardens, you've got not only the sticky bond of the glue, but also a
mechanical link created by the solid piece of glue. Observe this
cross-section:
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engineering + Paint = knowledge |
So this is hardly an unbreakable bond, but it is pretty darn sturdy.
All that's left to do is twist the ends of the wire together tightly, snip them short, and bend them flat against the pin.
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{personal photo} |
Want to see them all together?
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Before I started this project, I asked Mr. Potion to pick out a LEGO character that
represents the personality of
each of his attendants. Instead, he sent a Facebook message to
everyone and asked them to choose a character. *facepalm* Just a heads
up to anyone who wants to reproduce these- you canNOT buy individual
characters at LEGO stores, though they do have little bins where you can
assemble your own minifig with a limited selection of bodies, heads,
hair, and accessories. We scoured Amazon and E-bay for these guys, most
of which were $5 or less- but a couple were upwards of $15, depending
on how "rare" they are.
So we have, starting from the top of the pyramid:
Han
Solo is the groom, because Mr. Potion is just so effortlessly cool :-P
Mainly it's because he has a tendency to respond to "I love you" with "I
know," because Star Wars is awesome, and because if I'm a headstrong
princess, he's the only person that will tell me when I'm being a pain
in the ass.
"Lizard Man" is GM L, because...he has a
pet lizard. This is literally a little man in a lizard suit- there's a
cut-out in the jaws of the lizard for the dude's eyes.
Indiana
Jones is GM E, because he, too, is a pretty awesome teacher- only he
teaches science classes at a magnet high school in Louisiana, and as far
as we know he's never done any treasure hunting. (He does take some
pretty awesome
pictures, though.) It's appropriate that he and Mr. Potion would both be
Harrison Ford characters, as they look alike and could be mistaken for
brothers.
Next we have "Jungle Boy" for GM J
because...I honestly have no idea. This is what you get when you have
goofballs making decisions. I guess that's why he went with this one,
though- because he's a goofball. If you can't tell, Jungle Boy is
wearing a loincloth and holding a monkey. Yeah. (J is a super fun guy
^_^ I'm hoping he leaves the loincloth at home for The Big Day,
though...)
Hermione is Mr. Potion's honor attendant,
which is definitely fitting, as she'll have to wrangle these boys for me
and keep them in line all day.
Iron Man is GM C,
because he's a pilot, and who wouldn't want to be Iron Man? The moment
Mr. Potion asked people to pick their characters, C claimed Tony
Stark- the guy takes his super heroes very seriously :)
The
last row starts with Luke Skywalker as my dad because he, too, is a
pilot in his spare time, and he's been known to save the universe when
necessary.
The nurse (well, technically the character
was labeled a surgeon, but don't tell anybody) is Mr. Potion's dad,
because...he's a nurse. Boom. Done. I love that he's holding a little
syringe and x-ray!
The baseball player is for one of
the tiny attendants, my baby cousin A. His dad, my uncle, played
baseball in college, and A has a good arm on him, too :)
Finally the race car driver is for Mr. Potion's other tiny attendant, his nephew J. Little J loves the movie
Cars-
at least, he did when we bought these. Kids' favorite things change on
almost a daily basis, but I'm hoping race cars are still cool in his
eyes on The Big Day.
So...what do you think? If you had
to pick a LEGO character to represent you, what would you pick? (Check
out the characters on the
official site!) What are your groom and his attendants wearing on their lapels on your wedding day?
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