I have the cutest DIY tutorial to share with you today! My friends Kelly Marie from Fleur and Suzy from Lily Red Studio are stopping by to share a fabulous DIY billy ball escort card box how-to with us. Designed by Tiffany of Chicago’s Soiree Events, this sweet display is so easy and cute, and easily adaptable to any event!
You will need:
- Container – these ladies used a wine crate, and Ikea also has inexpensive wooden boxes that would be perfect for the job.
- Floral foam
- Moss (purchase at your local florist or garden store)
- Bunch of craspedia (billy balls)
- Ruler
- Paper trimmer
- X-acto knife and cutting mat
- Adhesive runner
- Bone folder or scoring blade for your paper trimmer
- Heavy-weight cardstock
Instructions:
1) Leave your bunch of craspedia out overnight to somewhat dry out the stems
2) In Microsoft Word, create your name strips (an example table is here; use your choice of font, and remove the center score line before printing). These are 1.25″ high and 7″ wide, folded in half to be 3.5″ in width.
3) Print and use your paper trimmer or an X-acto knife and cutting mat to cut along solid lines. Use your ruler and bone folder or your scoring blade to score along dotted line (halfway point). Run adhesive along the back side of each strip. Aligning the edges, fold the card in half and press firmly. If desired, use your X-acto knife to cut into a flag shape.
4) Use a ruler and place slits at approximately ¼” in from the top and bottom – at the outer edge of the folded card. Completed cards:
5) Fill your container with floral foam. If necessary, cut your floral foam blocks to fit into the container securely. Depending on the height of your box, you may need two layers of floral foam. Cover with moss.
6) Cut stems of billy balls to desired height (vary the heights a bit).
7) Thread the stem of the billy ball through the two slits on the escort card. Arrange the card at the desired height on the stem.
8) Place the billy balls into the moss and all the way through the foam so they’re standing upright.
9) Dress up your escort card table with some pretty coordinating flowers and voila!
Design – Soiree Events \ Floral – Fleur \ Photography and stationery – Lily Red Studio
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such a great idea – I love this. So clever and the crate can easily be used again later by the couple
This is beautiful!
This was so much fun to work on! Suzy & Tiffany are so talented, I can’t wait to see how couples incorporate this into their wedding!!
Oh I love that. I wish I had of discovered this a few months ago. Sigh.
Wonderful idea. I love the way it looks!
Amazing flower, I like that concept to using this flowers.
This is so cute! So fresh and simple – love it!
What a great DIY idea. So simple and pretty.
I cant get the link to the Microsoft Word example table document to open – is anyone else having this problem???
hi! OK looks like it works in chrome, firefox, and safari but internet explorer does something odd to it. can you try in one of the other three browsers? i can easily post it as a pdf but then you wouldn’t be able to edit the fonts, etc. :) also happy to email it to you, just let me know! thank you!
Hi Ami! Do you know how many days before the wedding I can make these and still have them look fresh and vibrant?
Thanks!
Had a blast working on this with Suzy and Kelly! Thanks to Amy for publishing ;)
PS-If you have a lot of guests, It would also look really cute displayed as a trio. If you got 3 wine crates or multiple crates in varying sizes – you could accommodate up to 100+ billy balls – one for each of your guests. If you want to reduce the number of billy balls you need, you can print couples, entire families or households on one flag :)
What a fabulous idea! Thank you so much for sharing the lovely work of these three awesome vendors!!!
This is gorgeous, but I’m not exactly sure what this is for? Could someone please tell me. Thanks.
hi amy! it’s an escort card display. so if you have assigned seating, when people come in to the reception, it’s a way for them to find their name and what table is theirs. :)
Thanks Ami!
This is nice…where can I buy Billy balls in long island and if dried how long do they last? Are they available all year long??
Hi Karen!
they are very popular almost year-round. Farmers markets and local flower shops usually have them (typically large chair grocery stores do not carry them, but I have seen them at Whole Foods before) They’re also called Crespedia – that is the scientific name. So if you are calling around – ask for Crespedia – or Billy Balls. If you are using them for a wedding or event – ask your florist to get them for you. they are usually available to florists at their wholesale flower markets.
You can dry them and they keep their color and shape. But the stems are typically stronger and the color is most vibrant when they are fresh – so I would use fresh ones for the escort cards. Buy extras too – in case one or two are flimsy or break. you want to use the ones with the strongest and thickest stems so they stay up-right in the floral foam.
Good Luck!
I adore this!!! Great Idea
Wow! This is just a stunning idea. I love the style of the display and the color that it adds to the table. This is one of those things that guests will remember for a long time.
Beautiful Idea….thank you for the step by step instructions. I can not wait to make this to display in my boutique and I hope at a spring wedding.
thanks for the step by step photos. Its very helpful.
This is just a stunning idea!
I can’t wait to try it by myself~!
A GREAT IDEA!!
Hello! Thank you for posting this here. We incorporated it into our wedding in October, 2012 as escort cards. Everyone complimented us on it. My husband is also very much into WWII Reenacting so we put some hand painted mini-WWII soldiers into the moss as if they were fighting through the forests. Simple and so easy to make! Quick tip to those wanting to try this: make sure the paper is heavier than the usual copy paper.
such a great idea! very creative and interesting! I gotta give it a try for my friend’s birthday party :)
Love this idea! Even the non-crafty brides like me can pull this off!
So beautiful! The colors are just amazing.