A Mini Celebration

This is so adorable I think I'm going to have to try it someday - even if the only 'co-worker' I have near by is my husband in his studio on the other side of our home! Link via How About Orange.

Making Roses out of Maple Leaves

I bookmarked this project a little while ago with plans to try it out, and thought you may like to too! I just love how the completed roses look and badly want to try it out with a material such as leaves or maybe some kind of thick card stock. Link via iDIY blog.

New Wedding Arch - WIP

Today I started on a new wedding arch - I forgot how enjoyable the last one was, I've had a lovely time cutting and pasting tonight. Here's a work in progress shot of a flower I created using second-hand sewing pattern paper:


(Photo above is from my dodgy iPhone camera - yesterday I got to use James' Canon 350D and in contrast, it makes my photos from my phone look a little ordinary)

I got the inspiration from a fabulous tutorial by Andrea of Everyday Beauty who used the same material to make beautiful little flowers to go around her pink lights (pictured below).


Image © Everyday Beauty

I tried doing the same, without lights, with very little success, just due to not having a centre to wrap around, so I ended up fashioning the pattern paper like a big pom-pom. The leaves are just simple cut-outs in black paper. Fun fun fun!

Busy Bee

I can't say Valentine's Day is one of my more celebrated events: I kind of forget about it most years, and I like to think every day is a chance to celebrate your love for another person (or fondness for a friend, a pet, a hobby, etc). And we're super busy at the moment: James is shooting weddings and I'm making stationery like a fiend - both for clients and for the upcoming wedding expo: It's A Date's debut into the exciting world of hired table cloths and general nervousness about being 'out there' as a stationery designer.

But should I feel inclined closer to the date, I'll be taking a whirl at this, once again, Jeff Rudell has come up with the goods:

How to make a Valentine from an Onion.

In other news, I had my eyes tested today for new glasses and it totally reminded me of the episode of "Arrested Development" where George Michael goes in for an eye exam and ends up with glasses that make him almost blind as he was too scared to say the wrong answer.



Optometrist: One or two?
George Michael: Two. No, no, one.
Optometrist: Okay, two... or three?
George Michael: Three. Unless three is too much of an improvement. I’m sorry, is one... is one in the mix still?

A Perfect Bow

It's still so hot! I'm up late as I cannot sleep, even with two fans going! Winter can't be too far away, can it?

As part of my job, something I do almost weekly is tie bows. I wish that read, "Tae Bo" instead, as the infomercials with Billy Blanks always got me feeling quite motivated, but no, I mean of the sit-down/minimal workout, ribbon variety. Everything from invitations to table favours to wedding arches and vases can be tied with ribbons, and you really can't go past a cute, good quality satin ribbon to inject a little bit of colour and whimsy into your decor.



The trick, however, is tying a perfect bow, one that is even and neat and looks like it should. I found some great links today which explained how to do so in a very simple fashion - in a way very similar to tying shoelaces, as a matter of fact. My old tactic always ended up with me tying the bow upside down, but it appears I was looping incorrectly. Silly me!

For your reading pleasure, instructions on how to tie bows (with pictures!)

- Lisa M. Pace's Scrapbooking Journal: Tying a Perfect Bow Everytime!
- The Container Store: How to Tie a Ribbon around a Box
- Bow Making 101: How to make a Tailored Bow (can't wait to try this one out, it looks pretty flash!)
- MarthaStewart.com: Three Perfect Bows

Images above © 2008 Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc.




Image above © Apartment Therapy.

Two other lovely things from Decor8 today: Orla Kiely is designing a line of home accessories for Target in the US, which looks so cute, and as Holly mentions on her blog, is super-extensive . I'm loving the over sized leaf and fruit silhouettes, the patterns are to die for, and I'm really digging the colours - there's lots of inspiration there for some upcoming stationery suites I'm working on.


Image above © Anthropologie.

Then there's mention of Anthropologie running craft classes - as a big fan of their line, I can't imagine anywhere more inspiring for crafting. Oh, to be in the Northern Hemisphere...