I haven’t written about wedding planning in awhile, though not because the planning’s come to an end. Not even close. Actually, I’ve been so busy with all this wedding stuff that when I sit down to write a post, the last thing I want to think about is weddings. I’m weddinged-out. I told my caterer today that I want to meet about the menu so I can “get it out of the way.” Not your typical cheery bride, huh? I’m tired. I need to sleep more.

One of the biggest projects I’ve had on my plate lately is the embossing of all the seals to go on the invites and thank you cards. I didn’t have the first clue how to emboss – or what embossing even meant – until a fellow bride whipped out her fancy invites with raised stamps on them, sort of like a wax seal. I was instantly smitten, and harassed my local craft store employees until someone thoroughly explained the process to me. Here goes.

Supplies Needed:
Paper
Rubber stamp
Embossing inkpad
Embossing powder
Heat embossing tool
Small paint brush or Q-tip

I ordered a custom stamp with a fancy ”S” (from RubberStamps.net) since our new last name starts with the letter “S.” Since then, a couple people have told me it’s technically bad luck to use our future monogram on anything prior to the wedding, like invites. Oh ok. Guess what? I technically don’t care.

So I wet the stamp on a special embossing ink pad (available at any craft store) and stamp it FIRMLY onto the paper. A couple times I didn’t do it hard enough, and it didn’t transfer enough ink to emboss properly.

After removing the stamp, dust embossing powder (available at any craft store), onto the wet ink.

Shake the powder around the enitre stamp to cover the whole area, and then lift the paper and shake the excess powder off. Flick the backside of the paper to get off as much excess powder as possible. Be sure to keep this excess powder – you can funnel it back into the container for re-use later.

Brush away any excess powder with a small paint brush. Powder should only be sticking to the stamped design, and not to anywhere else on the paper.

Using a heat embossing tool (it’s like a super-concentrated hair dryer – available at most craft stores for about $30), heat up the powder until it liquifies.

The powder will dry into a slightly-shiny, raised stamp. Voila!

One day I will learn to sew. It’s on my list of things to do before I die, along with milking a cow and riding in a hot air balloon. In the meantime, however, I’ve learned a lot of handy tricks and devised some odd ways to avoid sewing machines, including (but not limited to) using the stapler in unconventional ways.

Here are the materials used for my staple throw pillows, along with one of the completed pillows. I did also use a needle and thread to finish one side on each of the pillows. You may recognize the fabric from my Hide Your Shelves post awhile back. Nate complained that the fabric was too “baroque” for a valance over a plain white drape - which launched an ongoing debate about whether or not he really knows what baroque means, but that’s another story.

I had an extra full-size pillow laying around, which I cut in half and stapled into two smaller pillows. I simply took the two open ends that were left after cutting the pillow in half, placed them into my stapler, and stapled just like I would with paper. I did this repeatedly along the edge until the whole thing was securely closed.

Then, I cut rectangular shapes into the size needed to cover the two pillows. I put the outside of the fabric pieces facing inward toward each other, stapled the two long sides shut and one of the shorter sides shut, and then flipped the thing right-side out so that it looked like a proper pillowcase. I inserted my pillow, folded the remaining edge inward, and sewed it shut with a hemstitch. While I really can’t sew anything extensive, learning to do a quick stitch here and there is a) totally necessary for a lot of craft projects and b) so easy a monkey could do it. Trust me, I HATE sewing machines and have an odd aversion to thimbles, but sewing this one little stitch by hand is totally doable. I just tie a knot at the end of the thread and weave it in and out of the fabric, then tie off the other end. Not perfect, but it’ll suffice for a throw pillow.

Please note, since this involves stapling in place of sewing, it will really only work for throw pillows. Please don’t do this with pillows you actually intend to use/sleep on, as I don’t want to be responsilbe for someone getting jabbed in the jaw with a rogue staple.

I’ve been needing a bookmark for weeks now (my copy of The Memory Keeper’s daughter will never recover from all its folded corners), but I haven’t managed to get over to Hallmark to pick one up. I did, however, get to the mall and buy more new pairs of jeans than one person could wear in a lifetime (I’ve mentioned a slight obsession I have with shoes and accessories in a previous post and I may have a similar penchant for skinny jeans, as well). Anyway, while wearing said jeans and reading said book, I had a genius idea. Sale hangtags had been looped through the belt by pretty faux-suede ribbons. These ribbons happened to be the perfect size bookmark. Problem solved!

That got me thinking about what other inventive uses I could find for stuff that was laying around the house. Good Housekeeping recently featured a clever craft using a mint tin as a pen holder. Tin + scrap fabric + a magnet = crafty pen holder.

My office is getting prettier by the day! I didn’t actually have a spare magnet on hand, so I straightened a paper clip and looped it through the hinge where the lid had gone, then hung it over a board instead of sticking it on there magnetically. Paper clips have actually come in handy in a lot of crafts recently…and when I didn’t have ornament hangers this Christmas, I DID have paper clips – problem solved!

A lot of the most inventive crafts I’ve seen have featured everyday household items. You can hollow out an old hardcover book to store emergency cash (or pizza money, a top-secret stash of chocolate, credit cards you were supposed to cut up, etc). If you have leftover greeting cards from the holidays, try cutting them into gift tags or folding them into small boxes (see the method for that over at The Bearister Bookcase). What clever crafts have you done with household items recently?

Just my opinion, but…

…slapping stickers on fabric does not make something “personalized.” If it did, I’d stick my name ALL OVER my penguin pajamas. Maybe then, my sister would stop absconding with them every time she came to visit.

If you do feel compelled to claim your stocking (or pajamas/t-shirts/long johns), a much better way is through freezer paper stenciling. Buy freezer paper (available at Wal-Mart) and fabric paint, cut a design or name stencil out of the paper, iron it onto fabric, and paint away. Once dry, remove the stencil and voilà! The whole process is detailed, with photos, over at Neither Hip nor Funky. This will ensure that Santa never accidentally puts daddy’s cologne in your daughter’s stocking (and that she doesn’t spray Drakkar Noir all over your brand new purse. Again.).

A couple years ago, I was browsing through the wood section of my craft store and was inspired with the idea for these adorable penguin ornaments. I made them for friends and family, and they were a huge hit! They were pretty easy to make, just a bit time-consuming to paint all the pieces (I made like 40 penguin ornaments so I had a whole conveyor belt of craftivity going on in my house for several hours!).

Supplies
Wood pieces:  1 large oval, 2 small ovals, 1 medium circle, 1 medium heart, 1 small teardrop
Craft paint: red, yellow, black, white (“Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight”…aaah, good ol sunday school days. Anyone? No? Moving on…)
Pipe cleaners (I did red to be festive, but any color works)
Tiny fabric pom pom balls in a color matching the pipe cleaners
Craft glue
Paintbrushes
String/ribbon (if desired – for hanging) 

Directions
1. Cut the tip of the wood teardrop piece off to form the penguin’s beak.
2. Paint the heart and beak yellow, paint the ovals and circle black. Let dry.
3. Paint a white stomach on the large oval and a white face on the circle. Let dry.
4. Paint two black dots for eyes on the white circle.
5. Lightly dab the penguin’s cheeks with red paint to make them look rosy (I cut a tiny circle in a piece of sponge for this).
6. Brush white paint on the pipe cleaners and two pom poms for a snowy effect. Let dry.
7. Glue the beak onto the circular face, the face onto the front (stomach side) of the large oval, the small ovals onto the front of the large oval, and the heart onto the back of the large oval as shown in the above picture. If desired, glue a piece of string or ribbon at the base of the penguin’s neck, on the back side.
8. Trim pipe cleaners to size desired for scarf and earmuffs. Glue around neck and head.
9. Glue pom poms onto the side of the head, at the base of the pipe cleaner, to complete the earmuffs.
10. Paint the year on the back of the penguin, if desired.

Every year, my office has a holiday decorating contest where everyone decorates their own office/cubicle/desk area (someone has even quietly been decorating the bathroom, but I’m not sure whose office THAT is!). You’d think it might be hard to come up with clever ideas for our (at most) eight-foot by eight-foot areas while still leaving room for filing cabinets, desks, and chairs, but I think we manage pretty well! Here’s a peek into my office area, all done with stuff I found at Goodwill or had on hand at my house:

We sell window treatments, so I like to put various holiday-colored window treatments in a window looking into my office, depending on the time of year (it’s what all the cool kids do!). I cut the letters out of craft paper with a stencil, and I used gift ribbon and a hole punch to complete the holiday banner. I also have windows looking out, which I plan to put some snowflakes or something on.

The placemats, decorative dishes and the zig-zag frame all came from Goodwill as well. The frame actually had six picture slots, but I cut off the last one since I couldn’t think of a holiday word with six letters in it. I cut out the “MERRY” letters from craft paper, and the caramels I made the other day are going into the dishes (so that coworkers won’t keep taking the lid off and giving me a disappointed look when they find an empty jar).

One of my coworkers wrapped his cubicle walls like a present, which I think was a really unique idea:

Since I work at a home improvement company, we have tons of crafty-do-it-yourselfers on staff. Someone came up with this DIY ornament display using painted twigs and rocks. It’s become a little lop-sided over the last couple days, but still pretty:

The holiday party (and contest-judging) is on Thursday, so it’ll be interesting to see what other decorating ideas everyone comes up with before then!

Inspired by the handmade accents at our friends’ recent wedding, I’ve suddenly been trying to turn everything into a spur-of-the-moment craft. So when I ran out of gift tags while Christmas wrapping the other day, I was undaunted. Some colored paper, cardstock, and a pair of those wacky scissors that any scrapbooker has laying around…problem solved!

Frankly, I think these are way cuter than most gift tags anyway. Half the time, those things don’t match the wrapping paper (unless you buy them in a set) and they always have some sort of creepy-looking Santa or something on them so you have to sort through to find ones that won’t scare your little niece / daughter / husband. This is a much better solution (and a lot cheaper, too!).

I went to three craft stores yesterday looking for a decorative bench to put at the end of my bed. I didn’t find one. But I did find a 3-foot fake Christmas tree, ornaments, 2 holiday bowls, a set of red placemats, a Bill Bryson book that’s been on my list, a vintage Betty Crocker cookbook, and THIS:

A Winnie the Pooh honey pot “Hunny” lamp. Adorable, right? If I had a baby, his (or her) nursery would definitely be Winnie the Pooh themed, with this lamp as a focal point. But I don’t have kids yet and definitely don’t have storage room, so I left this for some other lucky family. I bet it would be easy enough to make your own Winnie the Pooh honey pot lamp, actually. You’d just need a smooth oval-ish lamp, craft paint, a clear coat, and a steady hand.

One of the stores also had a beautiful bedspread that would’ve matched my room perfectly, but I didn’t get that either. Something about used bedding gives me the heebie-jeebies. Maybe it’s just me…

I recently moved offices at work and found myself with a bit more empty space than normal. Not one for filing cabinets and empty white boards (who needs all that functionality, anyway?), I looked for more inventive ways to decorate my office space. I discovered a magnetic board that’s perfect for displaying some of our company’s marketing work, but the magnets at Staples are kind of an eye sore. I glued some glass rocks to small magnets using basic craft glue, and it worked like a charm:

It’s always nice to have family photos at the office – it gives you something to look at when you’re not staring at the computer screen, while also serving as a subtle reminder to over-zealous bosses that you have a personal life to get back to (preferably in time for dinner!). The below photo board was easily made by wrapping black cloth around a foam board and stapling, then criss-crossing ribbons over the front and stapling in the back. I sewed the buttons on for decoration, but they aren’t actually necessary to hold the photos on:

In case you were wondering, yes that IS a man-head superimposed on a baby-body at the bottom. And yes, that on the right is  a cat whose vital parts have been blacked out. Choose your own photo board pictures carefully…my co-workers fortunately have a sense of humor. Yours might not.

Slightly less-creative decorating options include plants (but go easy – no one wants to work in a jungle!) and framed artwork. A good idea is to hang artwork that relates to the theme of your job – this shows people that you’re passionate about what you do. When I used to work for a travel company, I put up prints of interesting travel destinations, and they always served as good conversation-starters. NSK Wood also has some creative suggestions for revamping an old cork board or reworking tired file folders.

Halloween came and went, and I never got around to carving the pumpkins that have been sitting on my front porch for weeks. I finally got a spare moment last night and this is what resulted:

I drew the checkers on the pumpkin and painted every other one in white and black using some craft paint I had laying around the house. Then I carved the gourd and the mini pumpkin for vases (I used a long, thin knife for the gourd) and filled them with fake flowers I made by simply cutting flower shapes out of black and white paper, layering them, and clipping them together with a clothespin. This is one of the easiest ways to make fake flowers, but there are hundreds of different variations. If I was in an exceptionally crafty mood, I probably would’ve made some like this.

The painted pumpkin won’t melt/turn into mush in the San Diego heat like it would if it was carved, and it’ll make a nice decoration through Thanksgiving!