Happy Blog-day to Me and a Goody Bag Giveaway

I almost missed it.  And then, this afternoon, I remembered that my wedding anniversary (17 years today!) is also my blogiversary, and I figured it would be sporting of me to post something.  So here I am, looking at the big oh-two.  Two years of throwing it all out there, and being amazed and delighted at what's come back.


To celebrate, I've decided to have a little give-away, but I haven't gotten around to deciding what I'm giving away.  Let's call it a goody bag, and assume that there will be some kind of jewelry and an assortment of goodies thrown in, because I'm cool like that.  We'll open it up to everybody---location notwithstanding--- and you can enter by leaving me a comment on  this post.  You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook for an extra entry, blah, blah, blah.  I'll choose a winner in a week---on the evening of the 26th.

Oh, and on an Always Greener note?  My Not Your Mother's Upcycled Giftbox was featured over at Chopstick Lady and Love2Upcycle.  Virtual high five!

Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch.

I'm keeping up with the laundry.  The kids are being fed on a regular basis, and the library books have been getting returned on time, somehow.  The house is reasonably tidy, and the groceries are bought and put away.  And I'm telling you, that's all I can manage at the moment.  I haven't made a singe piece of jewelry in over a month, there are 42-jillion boxes in the basement waiting to be unpacked, and my blogging has hit an all time low.  Because, really, people---do you have an abiding interest in my floor-sweeping, meatloaf-making, or Swiffer-hacking? (Okay, maybe the Swiffer-hacking bit: I bought a pack of car-detailing cloths to replace the very un-green Swiffer pads. Washable.  Cool, yeah?)  I wash, I fold, I put away.  I cook, they eat, I foist the dishes off on somebody else.  And I spray paint stuff.  Maybe the fumes are getting to me?

Tutorial Time: Upcycled Fold-a-Note

I've always been a fan of brown paper bags.  Before eco was cool, my textbooks were sheathed in brown paper covers. When I taught pre-k, these durable delights were the basis of a multitude of colorful projects.  So it's not particularly astonishing that when I forget to bring my oodles of cloth grocery bags to the actual store, I answer the "paper or plastic?" query with a fervent "Paper!"

Today we'll be upcycling a grocery bag into an excruciatingly nifty fold-a-note.  If you thought fold-a-notes disappeared in the late '70's, you've obviously not corresponded with me.  If you think fold-a-notes can't qualify as excruciatingly nifty---read on, Dear Skeptic, read on.

Gather your goodies, people, and let's get this thing moving.  

You're going to need:

• a grocery bag 
• some sort of cut-uppable contrast paper: this could be something as mundane as a piece of scrapbook paper, but can run to the exotic---a take-out menu, some sheet music, pages from a colorful book or magazine...(I'm using a set of vintage children's encyclopedias that I bught at a flea market last year in the buck-a-box section.  Yes, I'm a very lucky woman.)
• Scissors
• a glue stick
• a ruler
• paper cutter (optional, but way more fun than the scissors-and-ruler shtick.)

Okay, so cut yourself a nice chunk of bag.  9"x12" is what I'm using, but you can play around with the numbers if you want to be that way.  I managed to find a plain section, but if you want to go for that edgy, "I shop at Wegmans" look, have at it.  It's your fold-a-note.

Take a gander at your cut paper.  Position it so that your width is 12".

Listen very carefully.  BEND your paper as though you were going to fold it.  See?  Don't crease it.

Now, at the tippy-top, I want you to crease ONLY one centimeter of the paper.  Like so:

See the tiny little crease that doesn't extend the length of the paper?  Good.  Now you do it. (Yeah, that's pizza dough drying on my fingernail.  What can I say?  The little one only naps for so long, and I'm a busy gal.  Gotta make hay when the sun shines---or make pizza and fold-a-notes while the kid sleeps---and all that...)

Now, fold the right side of your paper in to that little crease mark.  Like a door.

Go ahead and do the other side.  Two doors!

Crease both door-folds firmly with your (pizza-dough-less) fingernail.

and....open the doors!

With both doors wide open, go to the top of the paper and fold down about one inch.  You can measure if you want, or just go all wild and crazy and eyeball it.  I'm an eyeballer, myself.  Go ahead and crease the fold with that trusty fingernail of yours.

Ready?  Take the bottom of the paper and bring it up to the crease line you just made.  This way:

When you unfold the whole shebang, it should look like this:

Don't be alarmed:  Your paper won't have dotted lines and snarky suggestions on it.  Mine does, but that's just because I don't want to addle your pretty little head.  And this is the closest we're going to get to a tricky part, so I wanted to use my powers of Sharpie for good.

Take your scissor in hand and remove the sections indicated here.  (For those of you who tend to watch a little too much CSI, I will freely admit that I'm not actually cutting in the following picture.  I'm holding the scissors with my non-dominant hand and using my infinitely-more-capable right hand to snap the photo you're admiring.  But it certainly gives the  impression of cutting, doesn't it?  What with the scissors, and all?  This is a low-budget tutorial, and I couldn't hire a second pair of hands to take snaps of my bag-mangling.  Sorry.)

So.  Time for a little contrast, wouldn't you say?  Choose a couple of pages from your book/menu/sheet music/scrapbook paper.

Use your paper cutting device of choice to cut out two rectangles measuring 5"x9".

Fold (and crease) accordion-style into thirds---that's every three inches.

Do the same with the second rectangle.

Slather glue onto the first section of your contrast paper.

Center it on the top middle section of the brown paper, under the one inch flap.  Center the second folded, glue-slathered rectangle in the section below the first pop-out.

Now, cut out six 2.5"x4.5" rectangles from the remains of your grocery bag.  These can be printed on one side, but are not likely to have the handy cutting guidelines seen in the following photo, unless you, too, have gotten Sharpie-happy.

Break out Ye Olde Glue Sticke and go to towne.  Get those edges and corners.

Center one rectangle on each folded segment of your folded-in-thirds contrast paper.  (Hint:  you'll be doing your actual letter-writing on these rectangles.)

Now we're going to fold it up.  First the pop-outs...

Then the doors...

Bring the bottom up to the flap...

And the flap comes down.  Here's how I did the address side...this bit is entirely open to your interpretation.  Just remember to leave space for your postage...

Don't forget to embellish the side flaps! 

And seal it with a kiss.  (Or in this case, a heart cut from a block of  text from the encyclopedia.) When I make these with kids, I sometimes let them use stickers to seal the flap.  My 11-year-old pyromaniac-in-training prefers to use sealing wax, though, so you've definitely got some wiggle room in terms of your closing options.

I hope you found this both useful and painless, and that you'll be sending scads of these off to your kids at camp,  long-estranged penpals, and annoying debt collectors.  Embrace the magic of snail mail, and use your Sharpie powers for good!

Rings on her fingers (no bells on her toes...)

So last night ---late last night...I should have been snoring soundly---I was flitting about the blogosphere when I found this little chunk of fabulousness.

photo (and rings!) by Michelle Stolz, Aisle 3

'Chelle over at Aisle 3 made some gorgeous, fabric and button business-card rings.  She used Fabric Stick--an iron on printable stabilizer---with some scrap fabric and buttons to create an adorable freebie to give out at shows and events.

I mulled this one over for awhile, loving the idea but not keen to lay out the dinero for Fabric Stick, and wanting to tie the whole thing in with my "brand."  Just after I fell asleep---best thinking time for me!---I realized I could probably make a spin-off of' Chelle's goodies with what I already had on hand.  (Hurrah for the skinflint upcycler in me!) I managed to quell my enthusiasm for 6 hours---no small task, that---and woke up ready to cut up brown bags and dictionaries.  Long story short, it took forever to get my printer to behave, but I'm pleased as punch with the results.

And inside...

And the take-ee will have a lasting reminder of my shop---my own little ad specialties on the cheap...and green!

Very, very, happy!

Tutorial Time: Dictionary Sacrifice Rosettes

I'm a little in love with the rosettes I use to top my origami gift boxes.  They come from the humblest of beginnings, but end up looking pretty sharp smart when all's said and done.  Wanna make one ---or sixty-three, like me?

First, gather your materials:

• paper grocery bag
• cut-up-able dictionary page (or other contrasting paper)
• glue stick
• glue gun and glue
• selection of vintage buttons
• paper cutter (or ruler and scissors)

Next, cut your bag crosswise into 1.5" strips.  This is a whole heck of a lot easier if you have a paper cutter, but if you're the type of person who can measure and cut straight, then have at it.

 

Now go ahead and cut your contrasting paper (in this case, some dictionary pages) into 1" strips.

Great.  Now grab one of your strips of grocery bag and snip it on one of the folds, so you have a looooong strip instead of a loop.

Get your gluestick and slather it on the  the back of one of your contrast strips.  Get the edges.  And the ends.  (If you're working, say, on your dining room table or some other surface you don't want fully stickified, it helps to put down a piece of parchment paper to act as a glue-catcher.  Not that I'd know, or anything.)

Okay, now we're getting to the good stuff.  Center your sticky contrast paper on your paper bag strip. (From here on out, we'll refer to your paper bag strip as a PBS because I'm too lazy to type it out anymore, 'kay?)  Repeat this step until your entire PBS has been adorned with sticky contrast paper strips.  (You guessed it: they'll be known as CPS from this moment forward.  Way to keep up with me.)  Burnish the paper with your fingernail or a giftcard to make sure you've got a nice seal.

Important question:  Did you go to kindergarten?  (If not, go find someone who did.  I don't want you trying this next step on your own if you haven't got the necessary skill set.)  Remember those fans you made in kindergarten, then, where you folded the paper back and forth to make a zig-zag?  Reach back in your memory and hang on to that experience.  We're going to do just that with our PBS/CPS combo.  Ready? Fold.

Keep folding till you've got at least 12 peaks on your strip.  Like this, see?

Now comes the fun part. Use your gluestick to adhere the first and last tabs together, like so:

(Sorry about the iffy picture quality there.  I was holding the camera in my teeth.)  Okay, we need to let that seal firm up for a few minutes, so this is a good time to take a coffee break, or check your email or something.  But before you do that, plug in your glue gun and choose a pretty button to use for the center of your flower.  We're that close.

All righty, then...you back?  Good.  Your tabs should be well and truly stuck together (that's a technical term, you know...) and your glue gun should be hot and ready to go.  So here's the tricky bit.  You need to transform your zig-zaggity circle into a flower.  This is something of an origami move.  Here's what it should look like to begin with:

Then like this...

And finally, like this:

All set?  Go for your glue gun (careful--that's hot!) and squirt a drop of glue down to the bottom of the rosette.  Then hold the whole shebang together for a few seconds til the glue sets up.

Now squirt in another dollop of glue toward the top of your rosette.  If you're using a button with a shank, stick it into the glue while it's still molten.  If not, push the center together again and let it set up, then put a blob of glue on the back of your flat button and stick it on the center of the rosette.  Easy-peasy, right?  You're done!

Enjoy!

Not interested in making your own?  Skipped Kindergarten and stymied by zig-zag folding?  Have no fear---these guys will be in my shop on the morrow...