DIY Hostess Gifts

Duck Dude and I are very lucky to be loved by so many people in our lives. There's just one problem with that. Hostess gifts. We had three magnificent showers (see the recap here) and they were so much fun... but with those three showers came 28 hostesses. Yikes. And while there is absolutely nothing wrong with giving a candle.... I did not want to give a candle. 

Heck, even a Tyler candle is still 20 dollars! 20 times 28.... that's 560 dollars on candles!!! So pretty soon from the beginning, I knew I wanted to make my hostesses something. And on black Friday while shopping with my mother and sister in law, we found inspiration. 

In my new favorite store, Altar'd State, there were these pretty crosses on a ledge.

Ohhh, a monogram is way more personal we thought out loud. They were $30 a piece. (of course I'm going to do the math again).... 30 times 28 = 840 dollars. YIKES. There's no way I can spend that much on hostess gifts alone!! So we went home and got to thinking. 

My mother in law knew that they had a family friend's barn door that we could use for wood... but it wouldn't make us enough.. and how could we do the monograms... and surely, Hobby Lobby has a ribbon that would be perfect for this. 

We let my father in law get his creative juices flowing, and we were able to make a hostess gift that was 283 times better than the 30 dollar ones. Here's how we did it!

Start with a template on the wood. Get a sexy wood-cutter. Have said, sexy wood cutter, cut the wood into cross shape with a saw.. I'm relatively sure it's not a circular saw.. so I'm just gonna say fancy saw. I, clearly, was not in charge of this part.

 

Bevel the edges of the cross and get saw dust all over yourself. Papa-Hawg-father-in-law was excellent at this part.Then burn the edges of the cross to give it even more character.... and because fire is cool.

Then Papa-Hawg-father-in-law bent barbwire with his own brute strength into the letters of the initials we needed for our wonderful hostesses. 

All while mother in law and I picked out the perfect ribbon and made the bows for the crosses. 

Then take a break to have a blind taste test over which white wine to serve at the wedding. This is an essential part to the process. You have to do this part or the crosses will absolutely not turn out correctly.

Put the barb wire letter on with a little hot glue. Put the ribbon on with one nail in the center of it. 

And you have a one of a kind hostess gift! We definitely enjoyed making them and were so proud to hand them out after our beautiful showers!! 

Countdown to Trollie Wedding:

17 Days!!!!