Recycled Paper Flowers

I have a thing for paper.  Well, for all stationary products in general.  Paper only tickles my fancy when I can fold it into things - books, flowers, stars, etc.  I found this tutorial a couple years ago and started making flowers from used post-its at work.  Then I fell out of the habit.  This week, however, I have been revisiting my paper flower balls.

My new post-it ball isn't finished yet.

But here's an old one I did.

And my scrap letterhead one!  Well, half of it.  I have yet to make a complete ball.  All I have to do is glue two of these together and I'm golden.  Or I could leave it the way it is and leave it pinned to my wall. 

I'm thinking of finding some green paper or yarn and adding stems to my paper flowers to decorate the side of my cubicle.  What do you think?

Weird things we do at restaurants

I get a little fidgety when I get bored or nervous.  Or when my meal is over and we're still sitting around talking.  I don't know what it is, but we've managed to leave some interesting things for those who had the pleasure, or pain, of serving my friends and I.

The kiddo and I went out to eat with a friend (not romantic) on Valentine's Day.  We brought cards and talked and ate and had a pretty good time.  When we were getting ready to go, my son requested a ninja star.  My friend has recently learned how to make ninja stars and has made a ton of them. 

I, of course, suddenly remembered the second placemat hadn't been used at all.  I couldn't have that!  So I made a Swedish heart by tearing paper.  I'm pretty pleased with it given that I had no scissors and only used my hands.   The kiddo colored the paper so you can't see how it's woven that well.

 Halfway through, my friend was said, "You could just quill a heart instead."

 Not to be outdone, I decided to put my tip money in my woven heart.

More tips for the waitress.

Create: A Book or Two

One of my favorite new crafts is making books.  If you have been following this blog long, you may know that by now!  :)  You may also know that I am a terrible hoarder when it comes to paper.  Some day I will make it to the hardware store and get screen so I can make my own.  Then it will all be worth saving when I make it into new paper, mwahaha... ahem. 

One of the easiest ways to reuse paper, or envelopes, that have only been printed on one side is to cut them up and staple them together.  Tadaa, you have a notepad.  But one of the downsides is that you have to work around the staple.  I make my notepads at work kind of thick so I don't have so many laying around.  The staple always annoys me.  I have to bend the pages around it, hold it open, and then it won't lay flat when I'm done with it. 

I decided to take my elmer's glue to work and make my own, easy notepads.

It could be the (second) easiest way to make a notepad, but it does take some time.  You have to line up the pages, clip them together, brush on the glue, wait for it to dry, add more glue, wait, more glue, wait, etc, up until you get the nice binding that you want.  I only used a few layers on these notebooks but made it pretty thick each time. 

I use binder clips to hold them together and add a piece of cardboard (the thicker the better) along the edge to be glued.  Keep the cardboard back from the edge just a bit or it will become glued to the pad and you may loose a few pages when you take it off. 

You could cut a piece to size and glue it to the notepad as a backing, if you wanted to.

I'm off to enjoy my new, no staple, notepad.  Have a great weekend!

Mused: Snowflakes Snowflakes!

Here at my office, we have been in a bit of a decorating mood.  Last year we barely did anything.  This year, we decided to have a crafting lunch and make snowflakes.  Then they were put up around the office.  Then I went home and the kiddo had made snowflakes at school.  Then it snowed a bit.  We made some more snowflakes later in the week as well.

And today, as I'm getting ready to post this, I hear that we are supposed to get an inch of snow this weekend...

...Maybe if I talk about warm weather, cute single guys, and cash, that will fall in my lap as well...

Ah well, it's worth a shot.

Here are some of the snowflakes that are hanging around my office!  I hope you enjoy!

Mused: Advent stockings

Last year I made a paper chain with events to do with the kiddo each day as a count down to Solstice.  This year I made stockings.  Or am making, they aren't quite done yet. 

I came across a wonderful pattern on the Martha Stewart website, I believe.  I lost the link for it.  But it was a how to on making mini stockings from paper.  And I thought it would be adorable to have a bunch of little stockings strung across my wall for my calendar this year.

Unfortunately, my wall space is odd and I have to search to see where I'm going to put them up.  I don't have a long stretch of wall in this apartment.  My hallway is full of closet doors.  I could put them high up, but I want the young one to be able to reach them himself.  I think there might be a spot in the kitchen/dining room. 

The green slips are going to be what the activities are written on.  I'm going to put a number on each heel or toe and add a little loop to hang them from.  Then I will put them up with a ribbon/string running between them.

Are you counting down the days?