Origami Box

I made this little origami box the other day out of an old map. I always like to save old atlases and folded maps. They're great for this kind of project. I followed this tutorial. It's very easy and can be adapted to different sizes as long as you start out with a perfect square. The heavier the paper, the sturdier your final box will be, so think about how you're planning to use the little guy before you select your paper.

I cut a piece of scrap mat board to fit and placed it in the bottom of the box to give it more structure and stability (and a little pop of color).

If you don't have mat board, you could use cardboard from one of the many boxes stacked on your stair landing, waiting to be put in the attic. Oh wait, that's me. Sorry. Well, I'm sure you have card board boxes lying around too. Or you could try using colorful card stock or even a photo printed on heavy-weight paper. The possibilities are really endless. You could use card stock or photo paper to make the box itself too.

These boxes are so easy and fun to make and can be used to hold all sorts of things, from note pads to candles and a million other things. If you make one of these, I'd love to see a photo.

At Home: It's curtains for you!

I was planning on making curtains for our bedroom but ended up at Ikea again. Sound familiar? Perhaps you're reminded of the duvet cover that I was going to make but ended up buying at Ikea. It seems like Ikea is zapping my sewing creativity. In reality, it's probably helping me to actually complete this bedroom. Knowing my tendency towards perfection which leads to procrastination, I don't think I'd ever get this room done if it WEREN'T for Ikea.

I ended up choosing the RITVA curtain panels in a lovely charcoal grey. I only bought one pair because I'm cheap I wanted to hang them on the outer side of each window so they would flank the bed. At first I hung them on the two separate curtain rods, but they looked ridiculous (sorry I forgot to take pictures.), so I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to go back and buy a second set. But then I found a bunch of curtain rods in the attic - score! I was able to take two rods and push them together to create one really long curtain rod. It made all the difference because it framed the entire wall and made the windows look like part of a larger picture, if you will.

I hung those little decorative cones (also from Ikea) to add some visual interest and to cover the connection point of the two curtain rods (clever, huh?). I'm not completely sold on them, but for now I like them well enough. I'm wondering if it would help if I put some flowers or herbs in them. What do you all think?

Next up, I need to figure out the artwork above the bed (notice I removed the Matisse print?). More on that soon.

Craft Day: Valentine's Day cards

Well, I must admit I'm shocked that Brook and I have been able to pull off two, that's right, TWO craft days! It's all very exciting, and I'm hoping we can continue gathering once a month to create and chat. For February we decided it would be nice to make Valentine's day cards. Brook found this lovely little tutorial over at Martha Stewart Living. It entailed printing rose-like shapes with the cut end of lettuce heads and celery stalks - simple yet lovely. So we dug out the inks, colorful cards, and decorative paper and started stamping. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and even the skeptic in the bunch got excited about the project (yay!) when she realized we were using block printing ink (not just stamp pads).

Although the veggie stamps played an important role in our card creations, many of us ended up rolling the ink directly onto the card which created some amazing patterns and textures. I showed everyone how to do a rainbow roll (rolling out two separate inks then merging the colors together in the center to create a third color), which resulted in some really lovely designs. Everyone was super creative.

As I look over the photos I took using the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone, I'm realizing I didn't really capture the amazing patterns that everyone created. Evidently I was in artsy-hipstamatic mode instead of document-it-accurately mode. So forgive me ladies for not representing your work properly here! Never-the-less, I think the photos show the basics which I hope is helpful. There's still time to create a few valentine cards using this method, so get stamping and share the love!