Last month I made a crepe paper bouquet for my sister, Sally. She wanted some bright colors that would look good in her living room. I didn’t really like the only orange I had (a too bright Halloween orange), so after I finished the rest of the colors, Sally and I picked out a few…
For this project I cleaned up and tweaked a vintage valentine image I found on Etsy. I’ve never seen a valentine quite like this, so I thought it would be fun to try and reproduce it. The idea of putting a little perfume under the skirt really appealed to me, although Gordon thought it was…
Turning the concept in my head into an actual lamp was actually not that difficult, if you don’t include the part where I accidentally managed to smear glue on one of the panels and had to completely redo it. I am thinking about making a similar lamp for a child’s room, but there are a…
Okay, this project ended up being a lot trickier than I expected. After cutting four prototypes of the Eiffel Tower testing different sizes, paper and glues, I finally came up with a plan that worked. It took almost the whole day to cut these four sides — I had to take breaks because my hand…
This is a fabulous book from Patricia (a/k/a Pillpat on Flickr) who has uploaded the most amazing collection of vintage illustrations. I love these images so much, that I am trying to construct a nightlight using four of the designs. With an X-acto knife, I am cutting the designs out of black card stock, and…
In case you’ve wondered what happened to me, I have been finishing up the 204 crepe paper flowers for Emily’s wedding (plus a few other odds and ends like garters, pocket squares, suit and bridesmaid dress alterations, etc. etc.). Gordon made these posts which will be placed down the aisle, connected by the fabric pennants…
This turned out to be such a fun activity at Emily’s shower. The guests really got into it and the hats they made were all so original. I would highly recommend this as a party craft. The hats take a little while to make, but once you get it down, they go pretty quickly. I…
Emily and her Maid of Honor, Gianna, came up with the idea of having a “Twist-Off” at the wedding reception (think “Pulp Fiction”). Emily was planning to order a couple of trophies, but then she and I found this great stuff on sale at Michaels. I wonder if the company that manufactured these items has…
Today I finished the embroidered wedding napkins and hemmed the cocktail tablecloths. No time to take a break, though, because the bridal shower is Sunday. Most of the work is already done — aprons are made, the pillbox hat craft is ready, cupcakes and flowers are ordered, and decorations are in place. Of course, the…
Yesterday, I literally spent the entire day designing this shower invitation from a sheet of vintage 1960s wrapping paper. Although the wrapping paper is in good condition, there are the usual fold lines and some slight discoloration. The main problem was how to position the little shower girls, who are scattered randomly over the paper,…
For the past few weeks, I have been learning to make crepe paper flowers. Gordon is constructing 12 pvc posts to place down the aisle, which we will use to hang the fabric pennants and then tie one of our crepe paper bouquets to the top. We will have real flowers at the wedding, but…
My niece, Jennifer, volunteers at her sons’ school helping the students create art projects, and her latest idea was decorating clay pots. Her son, Maxwell, made this cute pot and gave it to me for my birthday. Originally, there was a sweet Gerbera daisy in the pot, which I transplanted outside. Now I use the…
Why didn’t I think of this a long time ago? Elvis is always destroying his store-bought collars, which are made with some really horrible synthetic fabric that shreds like crazy when he scratches his neck. I was going to pick up another collar at the pet shop, but this morning I decided instead to make…
Saturday was Elliott’s birthday party, and I know I have mentioned before that my party themes for Elliott alternate between Transformers and GI Joe, which were his favorite toys when he was little (Emily always has a Hello Kitty birthday). Last year I made GI Joe cubees, so this time I wanted to make the Transformer…
A few years ago my sister and I were talking about all the ornaments she and I made together when we were younger, and she thought of these funny ones that she made in the late 60s, just before I moved to Seattle. She said that she had tossed them years ago because they were…