Wednesday, February 21, 2007

February Pampering



Whew! I was glad to see this month's pampering stuff finally get done. I've had clipboards in various stages on my dining room table for at least a month now. Plus 5 of us made 500 notecards. And then there's the 110 beaded pens, and 12 altered clipboards. That was a lot of work! I wouldn't recommend doing so much work, but it certainly turned out looking good. Here are instructions for our "Retro-Chic Office" theme.


Retro-Chic Desk Set
one altered clipboard (see instructions on Nov. 8th post)
one faux leather "in-box"
one plastic magnetic clip holder
one beaded pen (see instructions below)
set of four notecards (see instructions below)

Organize all of the desk items in the center of the table. We stacked the clipboard on the in-box and then placed the clip holder next to the clipboard and the pen and notecards on top of the clipboard (see photo above).


Retro-Chic Correspondence Set
micro "seed" beads
red-liner tape (we used ProvoCraft's Terrifically Tacky Tape)
stick pen
glitter
embossing tool
patterned paper
die-cuts
note cards and envelopes
glue

To create the beaded pen: wrap the red tape around the end of the pen (or you can continue wrapping down the length of the pen to bead it entirely). Remove the outer wrap on the tape and heat both the tape and beads with the embossing tool (take care that you don't melt the pen). Roll taped end of pen in beads, pressing beads in place and manually adding more beads to empty spaces. Dip beaded end of pen into glitter (we used red and black beads and then dipped in red glitter). Tap off excess. Allow to set up overnight before transporting.

To create note cards: Cut squares of paper to fit front of note card (1/4" smaller than note card front). Glue paper onto fronts of some cards. Punch out die cuts and glue to fronts of other cards - we used large retro fabric flower die cuts on some cards and pairs of retro fabric button die cuts on others. We also used flower punches of the patterned paper with brads in the center and on some cards we glued tiny real buttons with the die cut buttons. Be creative (and efficient if you're making 500). We tied sets of four note cards together with ribbon and tucked the pens under the ribbon on top of the note cards.

9 musings:

Llama Momma said...

Wow -- these look amazing! And I know the budget for these gifts is small -- you blew this one out of the park!

Craver Vii said...

Much as I hate glitter, I liked the comment you gave (through the link) about imperfections so much that I have to give this post a thumbs-up.

Did I say I hate glitter? Oh, yeah. Then, I won't repeat it.

Lara said...

Llama-thanks! Makes it worth all the effort to hear comments like that.

Craver-I hate glitter too. Especially in winter. It clings to everything! Whenever I use it I have to assume I'll end up eating a few flakes later in the day because even a good scrubbing can't get rid of it!

To sum up for those who don't follow the link: Perfect=machine made. Imperfect=hand made (with love). It's not a cop-out. It's reality. Correllary: imperfect does not equal shabby. We should pursue excellence, but expect recognize there will probably be an element of imperfection because, after all, we're human.

Lara said...

And if you read the above comment carefully, you'll see the proof right there in my writing.

Anonymous said...

Craver - you hate glitter? Hmmm, didn't I see glitter on your pants at church last night? Oh no, that wasn't glitter, it was but dust.

Anonymous said...

These are so pretty!

Kristal Shaff said...

Beautiful.

Makes me flash back to my rubber stamping days (I sold stamps for 6 years).

Ahhh...glitter. Create with it, and you are sparking for days afterward.

Lara said...

Miss Java - thanks for stopping by. I love rubber stamping too (especially unmounted stamps), but it seems there's just never enough time.

Kristal Shaff said...

I know. With kids, rubber stamping has kind of poofed away (unless they are the ones stamping).

Writing has become my creative outlet now, and still, time is so limited.