One of the coolest people I know got married recently. She lives on the other side of the country so I wanted to get a gift in the mail before her wedding day. A normal person might have selected something off of their registry…but I’m pretty sure we established long ago that I’m not normal.
Brandi is fairly famous for her hatred of flip flops. Naturally I decided a custom pair of wedding flip flops would be the perfect gift. There was even an elaborate scheme to figure out her shoe size just for this gift. (I wonder if she’s figured that part out yet?) Now keep in mind I had weeks to make these flip flops. So of course it’s suddenly the week of her wedding and I haven’t done anything except think about what I wanted to do. Oops! It was a mad dash to Michaels and Old Navy and then some warp speed crafting to make it to the post office in time.
All you need is a little ribbon, a bridal floral pick, some bling on a roll, a hot glue gun and a pair of flip flops. (I was totally planning to buy white flip flops, but…you see what happens when you wait until the last minute? You have limited options and silver has to step in…)
The bling on a roll is by far the easiest part of this. You can pick up bling on a roll in the stationary aisle at your craft store. It comes in so many cool varieties including glitter and rhinestones. I opted for pearls. You’ll actually need two packages. (But you will have some left over for a future project!) All you need to do is apply the bling around the edge of the flip flops. It goes on just like a roll of tape and is surprisingly secure.
The next step is ribbon-wrapping the thong of the flip flop. The ribbon you select will make a huge difference in the final product. I used a thin ribbon which was a little more time consuming than a wider ribbon. I have seen flip flops made with wide satin ribbon and the results are gorgeous.
You don’t need to apply the glue at every wrap, but you do want to put a dot of glue every few wraps as you go along just to keep things in place. Don’t worry about being too neat where the sides of the thong meet-you’ll actually be covering that up.
Trim off the part of the floral pick you want to use and secure to the center of the flip flops with a generous amount of hot glue. Your wedding flip flops are ready in under 30 minutes. (And just think what you could create if you actually took your time!)
Thankfully the rushing paid off and the flip flops arrived in time for the wedding. (There’s even a rumor they might have been worn at some point…although I won’t believe that until I see pictures!)