Back in January, Hostess with the Mostess posted this photo from Anders Ruff. The hanging polyhedrons caught my eye, so I added this idea to my DIY decoration toolbox. The balls are just paper plates stapled together, made from this tutorial at Family Fun. Nifty! You could use colored plates or spray paint white plates orange. (Or some other color, if you must.) A nice idea for parties or shop windows.
I've created a downloadable file for making compliment bunting. When you need to tell someone they're super, this might be just the thing. Use it for birthdays, promotions or when your friend is sad. Everybody likes compliments. By the way, your hair looks very nice today.
If you happen to have a Silhouette digital cutter and Adobe Illustrator, it's fun to cut out the letters. (You'll need the Cutting Master 2 Craft ROBO plug-in, available here for Mac and PC. Install it, then open the bunting PDF in Illustrator. Delete the extra pages, then go to File > Cutting Master and cut your triangle of choice.)
Or just print your favorite PDF pages on cardstock and cut them out. Punch small holes in the corners and string the bunting.
The PDF contains six pages—three designs in two colors each. Download the complimentary compliment bunting file right here.
After washing all the dishes late last night and cleaning up the mess, all that's left of our Oscars shindig is a cupcake stand and plastic martini glasses to take apart and pack away.
That and a bunch of Black Swan dinner leftovers, including cupcakes, black olive tapenade and goat cheese, tortilla chips, black bean and white cheddar soup, chocolate mousse, and a pitcher of white chocolate martinis. Alex left on a business trip today, so what's a girl to do but drink the whole thing herself? I wonder what time is too early to start. 
This chair is wearing Alex's new do-it-yourself tuxedo t-shirt for our Oscars party. It's the reverse of last year, when I printed the tux graphic in black on our inkjet and ironed it onto a white t-shirt. This year I happened to have some white flocked iron-on material, so I cut out the pieces with my Silhouette cutter and applied them to a black t-shirt. My white stuff was only 9" wide, so it still required cutting out the graphic in two separate pieces. But if you don't look too closely, you can't see the splice. Get the tuxedo template here.
Update: Looking for 2013 Oscar bingo? Get it right here.
The Academy Awards draw nigh! Due to popular demand, I've updated Oscar Bingo for 2011. Download and print twelve different bingo cards. Give one to each of your party guests and race to see who can mark off five squares in a row on February 27. The annual disclaimer still applies: My psychic powers are weak, so I have no idea if it will be possible to win ten minutes into the telecast, or if there will be a winner at all. Good night, and good luck.
If you're hosting a cookie exchange this year, head to Joy Ever After. You'll find an entire set of printables to download, including an editable recipe card, gift tags, and more.
The blank folding cards might make nice labels for the food at a Christmas dinner buffet, too. Not that there's anything wrong with Post-its. What began as an effort to differentiate the sausage from the non-sausage stuffing turned into label mania at Grandma's this Thanksgiving. It can be hard to tell gravy from carrots, so it's best to label absolutely everything.
A handful of sweet items to sew or craft:
For Pleat's Sake tote at U-Handbag
Storage cube by Obsessively Stitching
DIY cardstock cupcake stand at Bird Crafts
Recycled roses wreath from Alisa Burke
Real Simple magazine offers an assortment of free invitations to download and print. Mom, I'll be waiting for one of those Thanksgiving invitations in the mail. With a ribbon, please.
At Invys.com, you can choose a stationery design and change the colors and fonts online to make it your own. The site is extremely easy to use—I tried it out—and you can download your files to print at home or have them printed for you. They offer a few free designs to try. Get an invitation set with pretty flourishes right here, or check out their Christmas and holiday cards right here.
There's no end in sight to the current cupcake craze. And these days no self-respecting cake would be caught dead in just a liner, the cupcake equivalent of going out in one's underwear. Cupcake wraps often cost a dollar a piece, so if you feel the need to dress up your cakes, try these DIY versions with printable templates:
Doily cupcake wrappers at Intimate Weddings (top). Check your local craft or dollar store for doilies.
Decorative paper cupcake wrappers at Snow and Graham (bottom).
Have you seen the printable alphabet-letter bunting available at Ruffled? Download all 26 letters to spell out any message you could possibly think up. Instant party! (Via 74 Lime Lane.)
Late Friday night I decorated a little bit for a Saturday morning reception at our place. I found some tissue paper in the closet and made flowers while watching Die Hard on TV. Pink flowers plus Die Hard = a good time. Here's a tutorial for making similar blossoms with napkins.
In honor of Father's Day, try a little napkin origami. Fold dinner napkins into shirts to create fun place settings. Note, however, that a recent study showed 7 out of 10 dads won't even notice. (Not really; I just made that up. But I think it might be true. Another study showed 100% of dads did notice money origami, though.)
Here's how to fold a napkin shirt. You'll need to press all your creases, so get out your iron. Or just use paper napkins and skip the ironing.
1. Place the napkin face down. Fold all four corners to the center. (My napkin wasn't quite square, so I had to overlap one of the flaps to achieve a square shape with nice corners.)
2. Fold the left edge to the center, then the right edge.
3. Turn the napkin over. Fold about one inch down from the top.
4. Turn the napkin over again. Fold each of the top corners diagonally inward to the center. This is the collar.
5. Lift each bottom flap and fold outward, making a crease that's roughly parallel to the collar fold above it. These are the sleeves.
Look what came on top of the straw in my drink from a local Thai restaurant. Completely charming. So my new mission in life is to get good at making roses from paper straw wrappers. It seems like an essential skill to have, just like tying your shoes or balancing your checkbook. So far I have only practiced on one straw and my rose came out looking like a ball of waste paper, but I'm determined to master this new party trick. I think the process should go something like this video here, minus the thread.
To get yourself in the mood for St. Patty's Day next week, grab some shamrock wallpaper for your computer desktop, compliments of Eleanor Grosch.
Or print some cupcake toppers from TomKat Studio. That looks yummy.
Thanks to the magic of inkjet iron-ons, Alex will be able to attend our Oscars shindig dressed appropriately. If you're going to watch TV for four hours, you might as well be comfortable. I, on the other hand, will be aiming for the red carpet worst-dressed list in a black and gold $5 thrift store gown.
You're welcome to download my version of the ever popular tuxedo t-shirt and make your own. Print it on iron-on transfer paper, available at office stores, and transfer the image to a t-shirt. The iron-on paper I have is letter-sized and of course I wanted the image larger than that for Alex's manly chest. So I printed the design on two pieces of paper, cut out the halves, and spliced them together when ironing them on. To download that 2-page PDF, click here. If you'd like the design as one piece, click here. You could reduce it to fit on one sheet for making kid shirts or baby onesies. For personal use only, please, not commercial. Enjoy.
Update: Looking for the current edition? Sign up for free Oscar bingo right here.
Looking for extra entertainment during the Academy Awards on March 7? Back by popular demand, it's Oscar bingo. I made cards for our party last year, and it was really fun to play. You can download this year's bingo cards right here; it's a PDF with 12 different sheets. My big disclaimer: I have no idea if it will be possible to win at all, or perhaps someone could win ten minutes into the telecast. If it's a bust, please don't send me hate mail. To supplement your bingo game, you can download and print out the official ballot of nominees right here. It's always fun to see who guesses the most winners. And who guesses the least, so you can make fun of them.
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!
I'm pretty sure your next batch of cupcakes needs small orange flags, compliments of Michelle at Little Paper Dog. She designed them to celebrate the first anniversary of her Etsy shop. Download and print the cupcake toppers right here. (Or if you don't feel like printing, I think the insides of security envelopes would make cute patterns on flags, too.)
A few craft projects to try from the magazines...
PVC pipe frame at Do It Yourself
Raffia-embellished tote and hat at Martha Stewart
Beach garden in a pot from Sunset
Fabric roses and peonies from Martha Stewart Weddings
Festive drink umbrellas from Martha Stewart
Chevron pattern painted tabletop from Sunset
(Images from Do It Yourself magazine and Martha Stewart)
