Change it up a bit and go beyond the traditional color palate of Fall. I’m teamed up with SC Johnson and in the Family Economics section of their website, I blog about new Autumn color ideas. 
Go to SCJ to share your Autumn decorating ideas, we’d love to read them!
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Posted in Decorating, Family Economics, SC Johnson, Uncategorized
Tagged Autumn, Decorating, Fall
I found a fun gadget at the thrift store the other day and couldn’t wait to get it home to play with!
It’s a Pot Maker, originally made to form bio-degradable newspaper plant-starter pots for gardening. But being much more of a crafter than a gardener, I thought it would be the perfect tool for making party favor cups. Of course, you could make them for lots of purposes, but not for anything too weighty. And although I lucked out paying only a couple of bucks for mine, these are still very available online retail and on Ebay and Etsy.
There’s really not much to it, you just wrap paper around the wooden cylinder, fold the ends under and smoosh into the wooden base. Since my paper pots won’t be going into the ground, I used tape to reinforce the wrapped end of the paper on the back and another piece on the bottom. These pots form best using lightweight paper. And if you’re going to tie cute string around it, be sure to do that before you remove the paper from the form and secure it with a small bit of tape or glue on the back.
I tried out lots of different papers from gift wrap to vintage ephemera. Then I designed a cute peanut cup graphic for you to use on this project (or you can also print and fold the graphic into flat pouches for snacks as well, or wrap as a label around a can.) Just click on the graphic to access the file. You can size the art to print 2-up on letter stock. Once printed, I trimmed mine along the top edge with scalloped craft scissors.
Here are a few more ideas I came up with today, but there’s really no limit to where you can take a little favor cup!
1. Gift wrap, scallop cut and folded over at the top.
2. Ledger paper and rubber stamps
3. Book cover image that I thought would be a fun idea for snacks at your next book club meeting.
4. A vintage map and gummed office label
5. Scanned photo and salutation graphic printed to plain paper
6. School tablet paper, folded at top and given a vintage gummed star
7. Handle basket made from vintage sheet music and Washi tape.
To make the handle, simply press two pieces of tape, adhesive sides together, with the underside piece being just smaller than the top piece, leaving enough sticky at the ends for attaching to the basket sides.
8. Vintage telegraph paper
9. Kraft gift wrap cut with pinking shears and finished with Divine Twine
And the cup in the very first image is made with handwritten paper from a very old notebook and finished with a vintage postage stamp.
The great thing about this project is that you don’t have to have an actual Pot Maker to make these cute cups, any small, straight-sided jar will do. You can finish off the bottom with a large round sticker or seal.
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We’re celebrating my sister-in-law’s birthday tomorrow, so I wanted to make her a sweet little gift to tell her how much she is loved. So in the form of a unique greeting card, I created a fun pennant she can hang somewhere at home as a constant reminder. (I’m not too worried about ruining the surprise, she’s not a regular reader of JSIM.)
I found a swatch remnant from the fabric store that had multiple color blocks, bonus!
With my rotary cutter and a template cut from cardstock, I trimmed out enough triangles to spell out the message with several additional spacer and end pieces as well.
Using the fun Carnival Alpha rubber stamp set from Pink Persimmon, I stamped out the message “KATIE HOLDEN YOU ARE LOVED” one letter at a time on the different color triangles.
After stamping, I sprayed clear matte spray enamel top coat over each to set the ink just in case.
Off to the sewing machine, using a narrow stitch setting, I first created about a 4″ twisted string section by stitching nothing and pulling the thread as I went. Then one by one in order, I stitched the triangles together at the tops using single blank triangles as word spacers. I began and ended the entire piece with two blanks.
Once all the triangles were sewn together, I made small knots at the start and finish of the string to keep it from unravelling and additional knots at the very ends of the strings.
I printed out a color coordinating salutation on the blank greeting card outside and inside. (Click on the lettering below to access the free JPG file or HERE for the PDF file of the same wording.)
I taped small pins to the inside flap of the card for Katie to use to hold up her pennant. I happened to find some orange map pins I had that coordinated great, but colorful straight pins work just as well. If you mail a card with pins, rather than hand delivering, you may want to place your finished piece in a padded envelope to keep it from snagging up in the post office equipment.
Tucking the last triangle into the signed card, I began wrapping the pennant bunting around the outside of the card backwards, so it will unwrap in the correct reading direction. The card fits snug already within its envelope, so trimming off a tiny bit of the cards sides before wrapping allows a bit more room for the fabric bulk along the edges. I finished the wrapping by taping of the end of the string to the card. I carefully tucked the card and pennant bunting into the envelope and wrote her name on the front.
The message on the pennant bunting is one that is relevant all year long and not just on her birthday. I wasn’t too concerned about not finishing the cut sides of the fabric, as this isn’t a piece that will be handled much, and on such a small scale as this, I think the raw edges only adds to the sweetness. Hope she likes it!
Other fun ideas for this card/bunting project are a card for welcoming baby, to congratulate accomplishments, love messages, weddings, anniversaries, etc. You can also use paper, vintage or new, printed or plain, with text printed from your computer, the sky’s the limit. If you don’t have a sewing machine you can glue triangles to cute string like Divine Twine. If using paper for the bunting, keep in mind that your triangles need to be able to wrap only on the front and back of the card to keep the paper from creasing/folding if wrapping over the side edges. You can also wrap the bunting to the inside/back of the card only.
