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Confetti Snow Globe Business Cards

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You like my business cards?

The issue of business cards has come up several times in the past few months.

And by several times I mean twice. But saying several makes me sound much more in demand.

The minimum print quantity for business cards (500) would be ridiculous, and since handmade business cards are quite The Thing these days I thought I would give it a try.

Then I remembered an image of an invitation in a graphic design book — a transparent yellow envelope stuffed with confetti (See Left: New Millenium Greeting by Nassar Design, as featured in One-Color Graphics: the Power of Contrast, Rockport Publishers, Inc. 2002).

I couldn’t find transparent yellow envelopes in the right size, but the Paper Source sells a glassine variety. They are so cute and precious. They make me want to start a stamp collection!

The confetti is just some cut up shreds of tissue paper that are sealed in the envelope with a smear of a glue stick. The envelope is transparent and there is no need to ever open it –the recipient can read the text through the glassine as is. No mess. The confetti moves around when you shake the card, but it can take a little effort if the envelope is overstuffed. Next time I’m sticking to sequins.

 


Fun with Birch Bark

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High winds and a recent cold snap have ruffled up the bark on my neighborhood birch trees. It’s gorgeous. I can’t get enough of it.

The bark is every bit as beautiful as the foliage, and best of all, it peels off like paper! Honestly, you can grab yourself a hunk of birch bark and write your grocery list on it. Try it! The clerk at the check out line will look at you like you are crazy, but let’s face it, the holidays are here and you probably are kinda crazy. So let’s have fun with it 🙂

In addition to grocery lists, birch bark can be a great material for making art projects or dressing up your table. Here, I just hot glued to an empty ice cream bucket and Ta Da it’s a rustic vase for a Thanksgiving centerpiece! Or glue on to cardboard paper towel tubes and you have some nifty new napkin rings. What about pictures frames? Or candle sticks? Or Christmas ornaments? The possibilities are endless!

Remember: Only grab the loose bark off the birch trees. Don’t damage the tree by leaving big bald patches all over the trunk. That’s not nice!

Tip: Birch bark carry dust and teensy weensy bugs. Generally nothing to worry about, but if you are going to use it on something used near food service, I suggest you dunk your loose bark pieces in a big bowl of water with a cap full of bleach, then let it dry out before gluing to your surface container. I used this all over a table service a few years ago and never noticed a problem, but you can never be too safe with it comes to tree critters.

Tip: Birch bark will eventually dry out and crack. To enfuse durability, soak your part pieces in a mixture of 3 parts water to 1 part Mod Podge (matt finish) or Acrylic Matt Medium for 1 hour, then use regular white glue to adhere to your your base. It’s messy but that sucker will last for years!


Egg Carton Flower Thumbtacks

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There are two types of people in life: Bulletin Board People and Magnet People.

Bulletin Board People tend to be creative, spontaneous, and struggle to keep things organized. They like having everything in tidy rows but rarely have time to maintain such a lofty goal. They surround themselves with diverse, eclectic, exciting environments that stimulate thoughts and feelings. They build nests like muskrats and smell like fresh fruit strudel. 

Magnet People tend to be organized and efficient. They streamline their daily activities in effort to get things done. They thrive on feeling accomplished. They are methodical, conscientious, and constantly remove clutter and waste from their homes and minds. They excel at creative endeavors that do not generate mess, like interpretive dancing, knitting and playing the calliope.

Sometimes magnet people have bulletin boards, or visa-versa, but deep down, we are all one or another. There are no two ways about it. Which one are you?

I am a Bulletin Board Person. There is one in every room of my house, even the bathroom. Sometimes they are just a simple old frame or foam board, but I can’t go without one. I need my slush pot! A visual, vertical junk drawer, if you will. This photo is all nice and neat and empty looking, but give it ten days and this thing will be loaded. Have you ever seen the bottom of an old boat that’s covered in ten years of barnacles and sea weed and hairy sludge and somehow and old shoe got stuck in the crud?

Yeah, that’s what my bulletin boards look like.

With that in mind, knowing that this board will soon fill with visually unappealing items, I thought I would dress it up a bit with some flowers made from egg cartons. Cute, huh?

These flower thumbtacks are made form cardboard egg cartons and were inspired by these flowers by Michele Made Me (if by chance you have never been to her site, you really have to check it out. It’s one of the few blogs that gets my creative juices flowing every single time and I’m pretty sure it will have the same effect on you!)

So, as you can see, Michele’s flowers are far more impressive and complex than these, but I’ll cut myself some slack as a first timer. For ten minutes and zero dollars, these came out mighty cute!  Cutting the egg cartons was not as easy as I thought, although the cardboard took to the paint very nicely.

Egg cartons are the now officially the newest member of my club of waste/rubbish based art materials. I’m confident our first encounter will not be our last.

Does anyone else know of other fun things you can make with old egg cartons? I’m intrigued!

This project is linking to Craft School Sunday at www.creativejewishmom.com 

Friday Flowers: Centerpieces for $3 in 5 Minutes

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When I started posting about these coffee filter flowers, I got a lot of questions and feedback from brides-to-be looking for alternative centerpieces. Thanks to all y’all who reached out and showed interest –you made my day many times over 🙂

Ladies: this one is for you!

It’s also for everyone looking to make some specials accents for a party or shower, or even just an arrangement for your home or office. I keep bundle of these on my desk at work and you wouldn’t believe the attention it gets. People see it in my office and stop in their tracks to come in and touch it and feel it and ask how it was made. Granted, these arrangements aren’t everyone’s taste, but they sure are a conversation starter!

Today I’m showing one centerpiece, “the Shirley Temple” that is super economical and easy to make, plus two other options that are similar in cost, with a couple extra special flourishes. Never can have to many flourishes. I’m hoping you will see these as a starting off point for your own design. Don’t just copy mine –get down and dirty and design your own! That’s the fun part!

Now, before we get started, I need to introduce you to my little friend: THE CRIMPER. My #1 Gizmo of Choice. They have been around forever and even sell them at larger craft stores, but outside the trade, I don’t know anyone who owns one. It’s a shame. There are oodles of cool things to do with them (more on that down the road!)…essentially, the crimper wraps each ‘tuffet’ with a ‘tooth’ that you can jam into Styrofoam or foam board or screen mesh. You ever watch the rose parade and wonder how they got those flowers to stick to the underside of that dragon’s belly? Chances are a crimper had something to do with it.

Handheld crimpers go by many names, and you can get them three ways:

* Buy one on line. Note: according to that amazon link there were only 5 left today, so, you may have to hunt a little.

* Buy one at a craft store with a decent floral supply section (30% success rate on this method).

* GET ONE FREE by taking part in my first giveaway! I’m giving away a brand new Handy Pick Crimper kit with 200 steel pix. Shipping free within North America. And because every box needs a little box padding, I’m including a random assortment of coffee filter flowers to get you started. Can you tell these tutorials are leavin me with a WHOLE LOT of flowers hanging around the house?

Sooo, are you interested? All you have to do to win this beauty is:

  1. become a follower 
  2. leave a comment on this post.

I just added the follower gadget yesterday –for the few of you that were already followers (y’all are the best!) don’t worry, you are in the running, just leave a comment 🙂

One comment per follower, please. The winner will be selected randomly by Lola, on September 23, 2010, at 11:59pm EST. Please be sure to leave your email in your comment so I have a way to contact the winner. Note: If the winner is comfortable sharing photos of something they make with the crimper, I would love post them at a later date. Cool? 

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED.

$3 and 5 minutes: Shirley Temple

Someone once told me they once met Shirley Temple on an airplane and she was a mean old coot. I find that hard to believe when I look at those wonderful old movies of her all precious and frilly in her polka dot dresses. And, have you noticed, Shirley Temples are just about the loveliest cocktail running! All pink and sparkly with a maraschino cherry. How could anyone with a cocktail that pretty turn out to be a meanie-head? Sigh.
I digress…the container on this came from Mardi Gras beads hot glued to an empty can and spray painted red. Fact: a house isn’t a home without a few Mardi Gras beads hanging from the rafters, so don’t even try to tell me you need to go out and buy some. Worst case, you can use some old Christmas garland for the dollar store, but my beads are abundant so that’s what is here. For the “cherry” effect, I spray painted some dried bachelor buttons, but just about any dried wild flower or seed pod would give the same effect.

$3 and 10 minutes: Jan Brady

Jan Brady was easily, The Best Brady. Don’t even talk to me about Marsha.  Jan was the one rockin orange and pink bell bottoms when Marsha was complaining about her maroon velvet prom dress. Grossamundo. This arrangement has a soup can base with some fabric hot glued around the circumference. This container was free because I always have empty cans and black and white stripe fabric around the house. Yeah, I’m weird that way. In case your not weird like me, I made you black and white stripe paper that you can print at home. Wrapping paper would work nice too. The time on this one goes to cutting multiple batches of shapes and colors; a combination of hot pink with rounded edges, and these sunny ones made from orange, yellow, and brown star shapes.

$3 and 20 minutes: Truly Scrumptious

Inspired by the marvelous hats of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s heroine, Truly Scrumptious, this arrangement is very easy and economical. She took 20 minutes because I insisted on making a few cream colored roses, and attempted to add height with some curly willow with jagged scraps hot glue to the tips to look like blossoms. It was just about impossible to photograph in my apartment, so you will have to take my word for it: she is gorgeous.  I can only imagine what it would look like to see ten Trulys scattered around a large room. Talk about atmosphere! It has taken me a long time to learn that the key to good looking white flowers is to rinse them with a hint of color. Here the jagged mums have a whisper of pink and the cream roses were made from filters rinsed with Diet Coke. Yeah, tea would work, but I am big on Diet Coke.

* Note to self: need to learn the trick to photographing white stuff.
* Note to self: need to do a post on ways to make art with Diet Coke.

And here is how you make them. Fast!

Time:
When I say “five minutes” I expect you already have your filters dyed and dried. The flower making and assembly honestly took me less than five minutes each. I timed it. All three of these were assembled before I went to work yesterday. That’s the power of the crimper! That also explains why some of the photos are dark and orange colored…sorry y’all, it was an early start.

Cost:
Besides a few cents spent on coffee filters and paint, the vast majority of the $3 goes to Styrofoam. In my neck of the woods, anything bigger than your hand runs $2.50 and up. Bahhhh! I hate paying retail!
* Alternative: If you are making dozens of these, you can cut your spending even further by substituting Styrofoam for insulation foam spray like this. A $4 can fills 15+ large soup can containers. Read the directions carefully and remember it’s designed to fill small spaces, so you will need to partially fill your container with rocks/sand/crumpled paper, then just tape off the top to allow the foam to do its work…..24 hours of dry time and you are good to go!

1. Take 4 pre-dyed filters. I left the ends white to add texture, but you just go hog wild when it comes to color.
2. Fold in quarters
3. Cut edges.
4. After you cut all the flowers  (I estimate 6-10 flowers per centerpiece), separate and scatter randomly. This will ensure each layer of petals looks different and will add an overall richness to the final piece.

5. Choose 4 filters. If some of your filters are darker, put one on top (it should eventually end up on the inside).
7. Fold in quarters.
8. Twist the end slightly to form a stub.

9. Insert a steel pix (that’s what they are called, it a single stell pix a steel pick. Hmmm. Ponder…
10. Insert the twisted stub in the gripper jaws of the crimper and squeeze together.

11. Take a peek to make sure the teeth gripped around the stub. The first few times you use it, you might have an extra tooth or two sticking out, in which case a pair of pliers will do the trick.
12. Fluff to your heart’s content!
*Note: If you don’t have a crimper and want to do this anyway, I suggest you tape the stump to a plastic knife like this. It’s slower and doesn’t give the same fluffy results, but it works. 

13. Insert Styrofoam in your container.
14 Fill any gap space between the Styrofoam and the container with extra filters, making a ruffled color.

15. Insert flowers into the Styrofoam, working from the outside inward.
16. TaDa!!!!!

Hope you like it. Again, the crimper takes a little practice but you will get up to speed in no time!

Check in next Friday for more coffee filter fun with Daisies and Dahlias!  

Coffee Filter Roses

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Back in my failed former days as a window dresser, I got some good advice from Tanja, the Grand Dame of the cosmetics department. Originally from Romania, Tanja was widely renowned for her eyebrow waxing skills and had arrived at a point in her career when she only had to take one appointment a day, then happily dragged it out all afternoon. Most of the time was spent smoking and laughing and singing gypsy folk songs about beet salad, then more smoking and dispensing advice about important things like men, business, and unwanted hair. Of the many things I learned from Tanja, there are three golden nuggets that stand out;

  1. Never brush your teeth with blue toothpaste.
  2. Men with excessively bushy eyebrows are likely to cheat on their wives.
  3. Women will buy anything wrapped in roses.*

             *Women married to men with excessively bushy eyebrows should expect a lot of roses.

A week after Tanja dropped that old chestnut, my new boss gave me the task of revamping a central display table. Huzzah! This was a big deal for me, as all my previous tasks had been corner shelves and side boards in the men’s underwear section. After weeks and weeks of fanning out acrylic trouser socks, this was my big break. Mr. Ross walked me over to the table in question.

Good news: it was premium real estate.

Bad news: the product was rubber boobs.

Technically speaking, they were silicone brassiere inserts (you know the ones that look like chicken cutlets)…back then they were new to the people and no one knew what to think of them. They were universally unfamiliar, unattractive, and not the type of thing customers wanted to be seen ogling in public. The buyer had overstocked and they needed to clear inventory, but who was going to buy these things?

No one wants to buy ugly rubber boobs in public, especially at a high end department store. No wonder they slated this project for the new kid. Disappointed and bewildered, I remembered Tanja’s advice: Women will buy anything wrapped in roses.

SHAZAM! Faster than you can yank a unibrow, three of us grabbed some scissors and stayed up half the night making paper roses out of lingerie packaging tissue (thank you again Jeanie and Shayna!)…we swapped in a black and white striped table cloth and wedged the roses in between the boxes. The end result resembled a car sized wedding cake dimpled with chicken cutlets and the inventory cleared in less than a week. LESS THAN A WEEK. It had stood there for over a month and hardly anyone ever peeped, and now they sold out in LESS THAN A WEEK.

Roses, y’all. Don’t underestimate them.

All flowers have the ability to highlight their surroundings, but there is something about roses. We are attracted to them like no other. It’s distinct and special and makes no sense whatsoever. I’m not sure if it’s genetic or cultural, but it is ingrained in us women folk something fierce.

I know a lot of brides will look at these roses as potential centerpieces, but ya’ll have to think bigger! These roses are for YOU.

Do you sell stuff at art and craft shows? Consider making them to tuck in the corner of your display unit, or cluster around the base of a pedestal.

Do you design clothes, run a boutique, or sell vintage apparel online? Pin a few roses at the neck of your mannequin or model. Those items will get attention like you have never seen before!

Do you sell jewelry on Etsy? Poke earnings through the petals, or, weave a  necklace around the stem before you take the photo. If you are afraid it will distract, keep the rose and background the same color.

Do you need to sell your house? Once your house is thoroughly “dĂŠcor neutralized” make 3 dozen of these in yellow and put them in a vase located within eye-sight of the front door. Even people who hate flowers will get the distinct impression happy things happen in this place, I want to be happy, I want to live here…and suddenly BOO YOW, your butt is moving in no time!

Materials:

*Coffee Filters
*Acrylic or Latex craft paint
*Plastic fork
*Drinking Straws
*Masking tape (mine is green, but any color will do fine) 

Dying Filters

  1. Take 3 tablespoons of pink latex craft paint and mix with a smidge of yellow. Note: the yellow is not necessary, but I find mixing a dab of an earthy/neutral tone in any color paint always helps the end results look more organic.
  2. Mix in half a cup of water and stir with a fork until lumps disappear. Add more paint or water until it’s the consistency of milk.
  3. Add 2 cups of water and mix again
  4. Submerge your filters, up to 20 at a time. Squish until paint is well distributed.
  5. Wring out excess paint, and if color is too bold, rinse with cold running water until you achieve the desired tone. Dry thoroughly.

Level 1: Simple Spiral Rose 

1.  Take one previously dyed filter and cut a spiral shape, roughly 1” from the outer edge. The result will be a long strip, roughly 1” wide by  36” in length (don’t worry if it’s longer or shorter, just know you’re going for a long skinny strip).

2.  Think of the strip as a piece of ribbon. Starting at the center point of the filter, stick it to the edge of 12” piece of masking tape, leaving 1” of tape available at the end. Continue down the strip, pleating/gathering as you go. Pleating/gathering, pleating/gathering, pleating/gathering….

3.  Continue to pleat/gather down the strip. Just squish it, no big deal. There is no math involved here. It will take you a while to get a rhythm going, but you will get there I promise! Note: If you reallllllly struggle to get the hang of the pleating/gathering, you can also sew a running stitch down the edge of the filter and pleat that way, but personally, I like the inconsistent results from pleating by hand.

4.    Once the strip is finished, take that first empty inch of tape and wind it around the tip of a drinking straw. Continue to wind the tape around the end of the straw.

5.    Add another 12” piece of tape to the base, on the diagonal.

6.    Wrap the tape around the straw to make a stem.

7.    Ta Da!

Level 2: Happy Ruffled Rose 


1.    Fold three filters in quarters, then trim scalloped edges along the edge and through the center.

2.    Results will be three scalloped circles and three scalloped doughnuts. Cut across the doughnuts to open them up (see, your making strips, just like the Simple Spiral Rose)

3.    Twist one scalloped circle and attach to the end of the tape, leaving one inch open. Take the other two scalloped circled, twist, attach, repeat.

4.    Think of your doughnut shape as a long strip of ribbon. Stick it to the tape, finger pleating as you go. The points of the scallops will help you to develop a rhythm as you move down the tape.

5.    Attach the other scalloped doughnuts, and, if you wish an empty stretch of tape, followed by a couple of leaves

6.    Starting from the inside, stick the tape to the end of the straw and roll your way up.

7.    Ta Da!

Level 3: Giant Ruffled Rose
 

1.    Get your cat to model some giant coffee filters. Isn’t she cute? She has been brushing up on her Vanna White skills. I know, I know, she is so talented! Lola also wanted to show you the scale of these babies –they are HUGE. You can get them online, or at your local coffee shop, pancake house, or even your Church basement. Anywhere that serves large quantities of coffee. Ask nicely, then promise to return with a finished flower, and I bet they will give you a few.

2.    Tip: when you dye the extra large filters, rinse the edges out so the center is a slightly deeper color. This will really help to give the impression of a realistic blossom.

3.    Similar to the Happy Ruffled rose, fold in quarters and cut scalloped shapes (this time there are three levels instead of two)

4.    Because one filter will generate a large flower, you only need one twisted piece in the center. Follow with the inside scallop doughnut strip.

5.    Follow with the outer scallop doughnut.

6.    Attach to the tip of a straw and roll.

7.    Keep rolling. This will quickly thicken up –try to keep your tape in line as much as possible.

8.    Ta Da! One filter will generate a rose as big as your hand, but keep going and three filters will make rose as big as your face. Try it!

Tips and Tricks  
 

  • When you dry your flowers, dry them upside down, clipped to a string or laundry line. This will encourage the dye pigments to settle toward the center of the spiral, same as in nature. It’s a subtle difference, but it really enhances the end result. You can also get this result by rinsing the edges of your flowers with water before they dry.
  • Instead of cutting scallops, cut skinny jagged edges to get a spider mum (more on this next Friday!)

  • To get a two-tone rose, paint the edges a deeper color.  
  • Have fun!

Friday Flowers: Coffee Filter Bouquet

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One day I’m going to write a post called 100 Unusual Ways to use Coffee Filters. They are absurdly useful. The fiber quality on these suckers is so amazing it’s hard to believe they are Dirt Cheap. And I just love making flowers because, besides being beautiful, this is one of those projects where messiness only enhances the final result. You don’t have to be nimble fingered to be proud of what you made.If you have little ones at home, I suggest you check out some of the many similar tutorials aimed at kids. This is also a great project for  parties or as baby/bridal shower centerpieces. Years ago, three of us got an assembly line going and knocked out 15 centerpieces in an afternoon for an event that eventually became known as “The Purpleist Bat Mitzvah in East Jersey.”….but I digress.This project is not new. First time I made coffee filter flowers was with my Grandnanna in the early eighties. They were yellow, to match her all yellow living room, of course. We also made pink ones out of pink toilet tissue to go in her pink kitchen, but that’s a story for another time. All I know is that when we finished those yellow flowers, she put them in her fanciest crystal vase and they went straight up on the mantel.
That’s right: The Mantel.

Right there next to the ash tray and the wax grapes and the painting of a Parisian bridge on black velvet: My Flowers. I never felt so special in my life. 

They stayed there up on that mantel several glorious years, until one winter day in 1987 when Grandnanna discovered “a crazy mustache man with long fingernails and a tambourine!” living in her basement.

Y’all, I’m not even joking. If you have a crawl space, go and check it for people with mustaches right now. You’ll feel better.

Anyway…Mustache Man had been there for months. Totally undetected. Neighbors later reported hearing a tambourine late at night, but by then Grandnanna had taken off her hearing aid and never heard a thing…until one day she ventured down for holiday decorations and found him there in the crawl space, eating pork rinds and reading Kafke (seriously, Kafke?)….so she screamed, he screamed, someone threw an Easter basket, and then Mustache Man went crazier than a blind dog in a meat house, running all over, knocking over furniture, screaming and shaking his tambourine.  He grabbed two things before he reached the front door; Grandnanna’s purse and the crystal vase with my yellow flowers. 

Yeah, in retrospect, I know he grabbed the vase because it looked easy to pawn, but when I heard the story, my ten-year-old ego assumed it was a sign my flowers were in hot demand. Obviously.

To my logic: People who like mustaches + People who like pork rinds + People who like tambourines + People who like Kafka = People who will buy my flowers. Clearly.

An empire was born. 

I  entertained visions of people across the nation, sitting down on their elegant sofas, eating pork rinds, gently tapping their tambourines in praise of the flowers up there on their mantels. I was going to start a decorative movement! The plan for this craft-tastic empire was simple: get Hallmark to sell them in their stores and offer a free brownie with every purchase. All I needed to start the movement was time, coffee filters, and a whole lot of brownies. Twenty years later, I’m still working on it.
Hallmark: call me.

Y’all: grab your tambourine and join in the movement!

color your coffee filters 
1.  Gather your coffee filters (5 per flower), mid-tone marker (orange), light-tone paint (pink).
2.  Use the marker to darken the edges of your filters. Sloppiness is fine. Save time by stacking a few filters as you use the marker.
3. In a plastic cup, add 1 teaspoon of paint to 1/4 cup of water.
4. Crinkle up a wad of filters and dunk in the paint. Let it sit there a minute and take a load off. The longer you leave them in there, the more paint they will absorb. I like to stagger my timing so I get variations on the same color (you’ll see that come in handy in a sec)
5. Remove from paint, wring thoroughly, hang dry in the sun.
 
If you prefer a more muted, ombre effect, check out this alternative method.
assemble the flower

6. From here on in, think of your filters in 3 separate groups
* Tier A, one filter, darkest color
* Tier B, two filters, medium color
* Tier C, three filters, lightest color
7. For a jagged edge like a peony, fold your filters and snip away at the edges. No need for perfection here.
8. Keep them in line!
9. Take Tier A (the darkest filter), scrunch and twist. You’ll want a good inch of twist at the bottom. Notice that the filters stay in place without glue. Magic.
10. Take Tier B (the two medium filters and snip a pea-size hole in the middle.
11. Insert the pointed twist of Tier A inside the tiny-hole of Tier B, and twist it all together. Again, you will want a good inch of twisted stump at the bottom.
12. Yup, repeat the same process with Tier C.
13. Bind with a pipe cleaner and fluff to your heart’s content!

variations
14. Jagged edges.
15. Smooth, ink/marker on edges.
16. Scalloped edges.

make a bouquet
17. Take the heads off a bunch of silk flowers (I found this one at the dollar store)
18. Wrap the base wires around the stem
19. Secure with green floral tape. OK, so I was out of green floral tape and masking tape worked just fine.
20. Bunch them all together in a cool vase or martini shaker. If you made your flowers with little-ones, I suggest you display them in that fancy vase you inherited or got at your wedding that stays in a box in the cupboard. You know the one. These flowers won’t get messy or wet, and your child will feel so proud when they see you making a fuss to display their work prominently.
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