DIY Aisle Runner

After seeing DIY aisle runners on Pinterest I decided I had to have it, that is, if the price is right. I searched the internet for fake petals that were not ridiculously expensive and then I found them. Dollar Tree has 300 petals for $1. That's ONE whole dollar! After reading different DIY blogs about how they made their runners, I decided to go with a simpler approach. I didn't want a full aisle cover, just the sides. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on this project so I went to Dollar Tree and bought one 8yd roll of tulle (YES, they have TULLE for only $1!) and a single pack of white and a single pack of pink petals. They only have red, white, and pink, and luckily for me my wedding colors include pink and white. 

I discovered two ways to make this runner: Spray adhesive or hot glue. One gal glued each petal individually, which I thought sounded tedious, and another did spray adhesive. I didn't want to spend a lot on spray adhesive (which I found for around 11.99 but not the one in the picture) but thought it would be the quickest way. I found this Elmer's spray adhesive at Fred Meyer for 4.99 with a 20% off coupon. I laid out some wax paper and a little bit of the tulle and sprayed it and then pressed down the petals on it. Even after letting it dry for 2 hours, most of them came off after I took the tulle off the wax paper. I tried different ways, like laying down the petals first, then spraying, and then laying the tulle on top of them, but it was unsuccessful.

Next up my handy glue gun!

 She may be small, but she was sure handy. I think I may have ended up using around 10 small gluesticks after about 7 and a half yards. I read on one blog that a gal used a baking sheet to glue on top of and then sliding it when adding more. This proved to be the best method. Don't get scared of the next picture because this cookie sheet is the worst one I own and decided it would be used for this project and no more cooking on it after that. 

 I decided to start with the edges first to make sure that the petals were covering the edge of the tulle. I only have two colors even though I have thought about somehow spray painting some white ones into another color. I am not picky about making sure they are pink-white-pink-white-pink-white. I just pressed out the glue and grabbed petals to put on there as soon as I could, trying my best to put the pointy edge toward the middle.

As you can see in the middle petal, it is not the best one because it is not creased like the others. I decided to make sure all the petals that look like this are in the middle and not on the edge.

The process is fairly quick after you get the first few down, and then it ends up looking something like this. And then the (almost) completed project looks like this:

I will be going back and putting more where some have fallen off and where there are blank spots, but I figured there is no rush because my wedding is somewhere around 5 and a half to 6 months away. It was also sitting on my table and I decided to toy with the idea that it could be a table runner if I decided not to use it as an aisle runner. Hope this helps!