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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

DIY: photo booth props

For months, I have been seriously obsessed with the idea of having a homemade photo booth at our wedding. As you can plainly see here. For weeks on end, I spent time trying to figure out what I wanted for our backdrop only to decide that a quilt was probably more work than I wanted to take on and that buying how ever many yards of fabric we'd need would be too expensive.

One day, I was sitting in our living room absentmindedly looking out the window when I got a most unexpected burst of inspiration. Curtains. Yep, that's right, I said curtains. I love the curtains in our living room. They're just simple, boring curtains as far as the shape and style goes, but the lovely sea foam color is one of my favorite things in the world. And the more I thought about using them as our photo booth backdrop, the more I liked it. The color works great with the green surroundings of the cottage, since they're curtains they have a built in method of hanging and best of all, they're free!

So there, backdrop... check.

Now, onto props.

I considered purchasing some, but obviously I had to take a crack at making them myself first. Like tons of couples before us, we were obsessed with the mustache idea. And with a little help from Martha, they were easily accomplished by using a template which can be found here. In addition to those in the template, I crafted a few of my own as well as some lips and glasses.

Turns out, this was a simple DIY. I printed off the template a couple of times and cut them out on card stock. For some added flair, I added felt because it's fuzzy and tickles like a real mustache. And the glasses were made even fancier through the addition of some beads and/or pearls. Then I hot glued each 'stache to dowels which I found at a local dollar store.



Total cost for this project was ridiculously cheap:
  • 12 pack of dowels : $1
  • Felt, card stock, hot glue and beads were all free because I already had them
  • two hours of my time
Total cost: $1

A dollar! Combine these with the chalk board and we have got ourselves a serious winner. Holy cheap and easy DIY project, batman. I would highly recommend it to any couples interested in photo booth props. I know there's tons of people selling them online, but they were ridiculously easy and would be do-able even for the crafty handicapped.

As an added bonus, here's Mr. FP's favorite. He models it all the time. In doing so, he ends up looking like a combination of Tom Selleck and Colonel Sanders.


Oh Magnum P.I., he's so dreamy.

EDIT: After lots of reader requests, I figured I should include the link to my own templates in this post as well. You can find them here. Click on each image to get a full size file.

18 comments:

Loulabelle Kent said...

They are brilliant Miss Fancy Pants! They are very professional looking and very budget-friendly :o)

SMK said...

wow! What an amazing job! These all look so fantastic

Lisa said...

I am in love with those glasses! Awesome job

Chocolate Lover said...

You did a fantastic job!

Addie said...

These are by AMAZING. Great work! Any chance you'll post your templates? You beat Martha by a mile!

Miss C said...

$1?? That is my kind of DIY. They look great!

Mrs T said...

Love the glasses on sticks. So cute!

Lace.and.Likes. said...

turned out awesome!
can't wait to see this come to life

miss fancy pants (the bride) said...

@ Addie: I can absolutely post the templates that I made for them once we're back from the honeymoon in a week!

Born to be Mrs. Beever said...

We had so much fun with our photobooth and the props were a huge hit! I highly suggest getting some hats if you can. Try cheap costume stores or party supply places. The guests loved it so much! You did great with the idea of the curtains. Super fun

Kellie said...

Please Please Please post the template for the glasses.... I'm making mustaches on a stick for my photo booth and I have been looking everywhere for a template for those cats eye glasses (cause I wear them myself!!). I would be very greatful..... otherwise I'll buy them on etsy.... but rather make them myself... love they way your props came out!

Robin said...

They look great, it's just the kind I'm looking for! I'll be watching for the templates :)

Spoonfulofchocolate said...

ooh! have you posted the templates somewhere yet?? I Love these!!

Anonymous said...

This is just what I was looking for! I am adding a photo booth to my business and needed some props. This will be our next family night activity. See how I use them at www.creaphotography.com

Anonymous said...

Great idea! Love you blog. Glad I found it... (in a google search :))

cassylately.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Hi,
do u know what is the best digital and portable photo booth machine?
thanks
Ashwaq

Amy Welch said...

Forgive me I am new to your blog (and all other blogs, LOL) I can't find the templates for these?? I so wnat to use them!! Please help!! Thanks in advance!

miss fancy pants (the bride) said...

@Amy

No worries, the link to the templates actually wasn't included in this post originally. I've included the link below and if you go to it, you'll find the templates towards the bottom. Just click on each image to get the full size for each set. Hope that helps!

http://missfancypantsthebride.blogspot.ca/2010/08/diy-photo-booth-templates.html

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