Here's another free printable, courtesy of Amy Moss at Eat Drink Chic: a mini greeting card, envelope, and stationery set. Help yourself to this quirky little man with a candy cane right here. He says "holiday" in a subtle way. Well, actually it looks like he says "Greetings." But you get the drift.
(Image by Amy Moss)
Sew, Mama, Sew's third annual Handmade Holidays round-up of tutorials is in full swing over on their blog. Every day during the month of November, they'll feature a themed collection of sewing projects from the internet—all gifts you could make yourself. A daily recipe and printable are included, too.
One of the projects at this Friday's Chicago Craft Social will be freezer paper stenciling. I'm helping lead this table, so I needed to give it a test drive and make up some samples. You know how a project usually has four tedious steps you tolerate and one step that's super fun? I think this is one of the few where all of the steps are fun. Or maybe that's just me. I'm now in the grips of stencil mania. I'm stenciling everything.
To stencil your own stuff:
Buy a roll of freezer paper (approx. $3.99) or beg a piece from the guy in the meat department at your grocery store. Draw your design on it and cut it out with an X-acto knife. Then iron the paper, shiny side down, onto the fabric you're going to stencil. Iron another sheet to the back of the fabric to keep the paint from soaking through. You can use the iron setting that corresponds to the fabric you're stenciling.
With a foam brush, stenciling brush, kitchen sponge, or other paint brush, apply fabric paint to the cut-away areas. I used Jacquard brand textile paint from the local art store.
Let the paint dry (use a hairdryer if you're the impatient type, like me.) Peel the freezer paper off. Set the paint by following the directions on the jar — usually ironing will set it. Ta da.
Husband Alex usually makes lattes for us on Saturday mornings, so here's my secret plan to spruce his up. He's out of town at the moment, so I have plenty of time to practice dusting cocoa properly. Right now it sort of looks like this says "I blob you."
I drew the design on a piece of paper, then laid a plastic lid on top. (This one is from a deli container I saved.) With an X-acto knife, I cut through the plastic, tracing along the design underneath. A tip: you'll never be able to cut the shapes out in one pass. Make many cuts on top of each other until you break through.
Lay the stencil on top of your mug and sprinkle with cinnamon or cocoa. Dust the powder through a sieve or strainer to make a very fine layer.
Since cutting your own stencil is a bit of a pain, you could also get some from Amazon or CoffeeStencil.com. And if you totally dig stenciling, don't neglect your cakes and cupcakes!
There's no way for me to know which companies use the fabric I've designed. Since I don't get every catalog or browse every website in the known universe, I'm dependent on kind souls like yourselves who report sightings. Here are a couple of recent ones that thrilled me to pieces. Pieces, I tell you. I'm still picking them up.
At Land of Nod: a limited edition child's Nod Chair. 
At Nordstrom: a Reese Li Baby diaper bag, laminated to make the fabric weatherproof and wipeable.
Consumers everywhere, see how many corporate logos you can identify in six minutes in this quiz. I got 31 out of 36, then came to a screeching halt. Americans will have a distinct advantage in this game; sorry, international friends.
Download and print these pretty paper cup wrappers by Amy Moss at Eat Drink Chic. "La Dolce Vita" is Italian for "The Sweet Life," and you can fill your cups with candy or treats and give them as party favors.
A collection of projects for babies and people who like small cute things. If you like big ugly things, these are not for you. And I should clarify that the recipient of some of these projects might be a baby; it's not that I think a baby could actually make that monkey. I don't have kids, but I'm pretty sure about that.
Felt rabbit keychain (above left) at Daily Cute
Crocheted mini monkey with fez (above right) by Christen Haden
Cashmere baby hat and animal friend at Chez Beeper Bebe
Fleece baby mittens at Canadian Living
Argyle onesie by Lu Bird Baby
Felt stuffed piggie at Dollmaker
Crocheted owls with big eyes by Brigitte Read
Piece of toast keychain at Deviant Art
Felt cake slices at Better Homes and Gardens
(Images from Daily Cute and Chad VanPelt)
While poking around the internet, I came across artwork by Charley Harper, modernist designer and illustrator. Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center has a bio on Mr. Harper, along with a few high resolution images of his work you can download. Not to be used commercially, of course, but you might put a bird on your desktop or make yourself a print. I'm a fan, and use my Charley Harper plates almost every day.
If you've got nothing to do on All-Hallows'-Eve Eve, try out these Halloween papercutting templates from Cindy Ferguson's Scherenschnitte blog. Get the wolf here and the witch here. Cindy does amazing work and generously offers plenty of free templates to download. Some samples are below. Go get some Band-Aids and have fun.
Here's a short quiz that will determine for you which colors and qualities you would most like reflected in your home. How does the magical quiz determine this? By asking you which colors and qualities you would most like reflected in your home. Not rocket science, is it. My completely non-surprising result is above.
Created by Josh McKible, NaniBirds are 3D paper models of birds based on a series of his paintings. "Nani?" means "what?" in Japanese, and it's the word Josh uses to summarize his experience living in Japan. Since the project began, dozens of artists and illustrators have added their own NaniBirds to the collection. Download them all here and construct your own flock.
