This month we asked our blog readers which 2012 trend was set to be their favourite, and watercolour and ombre effects was a clear winner. For some ombre inspiration check out our Novembers blog posts, and we'll be sure to bring you more ideas in the coming months.

So what's been happening on 'i do' it yourself this month? Well, we launched a stack of new designs including loads of wedding menu cards. Here are a few of our latest invitation designs:

Burlap and Lace Invitation

Top Hat Invite - great for a birthday or a bachelor party

Bunny Ears Invitation

Jumping Bunny Invite

We are coming to the end of the month so we're wrapping up our pretty peacock party theme. Earlier this month we showed you Keri and Tanner's elegant and classic peacock wedding. Today we have the second gorgeous event to share, Laryssa and Sharyn's beautiful outdoor country wedding shot by De Nueva Photography.

The setting was calendar house, an historic farmhouse in NY state surrounded by acres of orchards and farmland. Laryssa and Sharyn chose a peacock theme for their day, with plenty of beautiful blue and turquoise shades.


White table clothes were given a rustic touch with the addition of hessian fabric squares in the centre and pretty birch vases filled with wildflowers. A scattering of sparkly blue and green sequins added that hint of peacock glamour.


Laryssa's Ukrainian heritage was celebrated with the custom of a candle lighting and shared bread and wine before the reception. The girls wore the most beautiful floral and ribbon head pieces for this part and shared a bread called Korovai, which is traditionally severed instead of a wedding cake. It looked fabulous decorated with ribbons, but sweet tooth's didn't miss out with a delicious cake being served later too.


Laryssa and Sharyn asked all their guests sign their ketubah by adding a fingerprint to the custom peacock designed by 'i do' it yourself. A lovely way to involve guests in what was a truly beautiful wedding day.

You might have come across fingerprint guest books before, usually they are trees and the fingerprints form the leaves. But we've got a really beautiful alternative - the peacock. In this design guests leave their print inside a feather, or they can just sign. They look fabulous filled in with different colours. Here are a few finished results.

Pics: Patrick Remington Photography, customer pic, Bear and Penguim Photography, De Nueva Photography

Tidy up the edges and it's finished. Sticking all the layers down was the tricky bit, making sure they were done in the right order and getting everything to line up across three panels. But pretty happy with the end result. What's missing from the pic is all the different textures in the paper which looks really nice.

A few things I learnt from this one.

• To get a really smooth glossy finish for the sky I'll probably need to sand the board a few times first. It's a little too rough at the moment.
• Thick paper layers with thin layers over the top need to run the full length of the piece or be added to with paper of equal thickness. Otherwise the thin paper folds over the thick and you can see too much of a line.
• Damar varnish takes a really long time to dry! Don't pick it up too soon. 

Via Poppytalk

Here are a few more peacock cakes to inspire. And if you're feeling extra clever, Decorate The Cake has a step by step for making the most amazing pearl peacock cake!

Betty Crocker Recipes, Pinterest, Wedding Via Color, Anna Elizabeth Cakes

Decorate The Cake

via pinterest

Pam Toll

Here's a super cute idea for a peacock party. Ok so this example from No Ordinary Cake is particularly spectacular and took a very long time to make. But you can still make sweet little peacock cupcakes that look great.
Pipe some bright blue and green buttercream using a star icing tip onto your cupcakes, then make the head and necks from blue fondant. Add a dot of white icing for the eyes to finish.

Pics: Ya Sweet Escape and Cutest Food

Pic: Suziqb flickr

Last week we looked at ethically sourced peacock feathers. So if you're coming up short on the real thing here are a few alternatives to think about.

Synthetic feathers can be a bit, well, synthetic. But in the right place they can add some sparkle. Ostrich feathers that have been dyed bright peacock colours can bulk out floral displays. And there is of course always fabric, this lovely embroidered ring pillow from Comfy Heaven is simple but sweet. And how about this adorable handmade peacock with buttons, via Whitney's Whimsies.

In this month poll we're asking you to vote on your favourite wedding trend for 2012, and the watercolour ombre effect is doing pretty good. So we thought we'd share this lovely idea for a table decoration from Full House. A very simple idea, circles punched out from various shades of card stock, but so effective.

Pic via pinterest

Peacock feathers can be incredibly beautiful and it's tempting to use them in just about everything, from a single feather sent out with your invitation and peacock accessories, to the bouquet, floral arrangements and table decorations. But how have the feathers been sourced, what happened to the peacock?

Obviously the most environmentally friendly and ethical way to source any feather is to pick it up off the ground. Firstly, you'll need to clean and sanitise it, (something we'll look at in another post) but when you're talking about peacocks, just finding one lying around outside your house isn't very likely.

Male peacocks do naturally shed their beautiful tail feathers annually in the autumn, and ethical peacock feathers come from farms where feathers really have just been collected from the ground. Ask your supplier to source you cruelty free feathers, or if you are searching for them yourself a good tip is to look for feathers with their entire shaft intact. Large scale harvested feathers are often chopped or pulled right off the bird before it's ready to fall, so the end will be cut off to hide the damage. A naturally dropped feather tapers to a point with a tiny hole in the centre where the blood vessel used to be.

Ethically sourced peacock feathers may be harder to come by in huge quantities. Later this month we'll take a look at a few alternatives so you can save the humane ones for the really special details. If you have any tips to share on sourcing ethical feathers please do leave a comment.

It was suggested that I take a look at the work of Imants Tillers who produces large landscapes made of of small square pieces.

After blending the photos together in photoshop using layers I've printed that image out and cut it up. Next I've used similar shapes cut from old gift cards, white gel pen on black paper and magazine print glued to card. A few snaps of it in progress:

Credits: Jenny Marie Photography, Belle the Magazine, Jesi Hack Weddings, Belle the Magazine, Justin Marantz