Design your own computer wallpaper

If you enjoy a grunge vibe and have some time to kill, you can create your own desktop wallpaper online. Unleash your inner graffiti artist right here at X3 Studios.

Paper heart garland

A simple DIY Valentine's Day paper project: hearts on a string.

Cut colored paper into 3/4" strips. Fold them in half, or if you want some hearts that are twice as big, splice two strips of paper together at the bottom of each heart with double stick tape. Curl the loose ends around a chopstick or pen.

String the heart garland together from the bottom up. I used Sulky clear thread, available at fabric stores. It's curly and hard to see so you have to fight with it a bit, but it turns out nearly invisible. Push your threaded needle up through the bottom fold of each heart, then use double stick tape to sandwich the thread between the two halves of the curled tops.

Printable all-in-one card and envelope

Natalie Jost has designed some printable floral "cardvelopes," a genetically engineered card-envelope hybrid. You know, like a liger, only not as sad. Just print on cardstock, trim, write your message on the blank interior, and fold. They're free for the downloading right here.

How to make flowery things

As Valentine's Day approaches—or as you grow increasingly tired of gray skies and snowbanks—pretty, flowery projects sound like a good idea. Here are some tutorials from around the internet:
Felt flower clips by A Hoot and a Holler (pictured above)
Rose barrettes at The Purl Bee
Crochet flower pattern by Salihan Crafts
Crochet flower pattern by Attic24 (pictured below)
Flowers made from zippers at Martha
Floral embroidery pattern at Vintage Transfer Finds (as well as how to use it)
Flowers made from ribbon at Make It Do

Cast your vote for How About Orange

I have discovered by accident that How About Orange is among five finalists in the 2010 Bloggie awards for Best Art, Craft, or Design Weblog. Kind readers, thanks so much for the nomination! (And if you, like me, wondered precisely what the Bloggies are, see here.) If you want to vote for How About Orange, click here and scroll to the right. Voting ends Jan. 31.

Update: Congrats to The Storque, the Etsy.com blog and winner in this category!

Mini bunting birthday card

My latest quickie DIY project: a birthday card with a tiny bunting of miniature flags. If you want to try one, here's how to make it.

Fold a sheet of cardstock into thirds, accordian style. If you want a printed message on your card, run it through your printer before folding.

Cut out strips of colored paper and fold them in half lengthwise. (My strips were about 1" wide.) Cut the folded strips into tiny triangles; they should look like little hinges. Make a few strings of bunting by folding triangles over a cord and gluing both halves together.

With an X-acto knife, cut tiny slits in the folded edge of the cover of your card. Thread one end of each bunting cord through a slit and secure the cord end behind the cover with a piece of tape. Wrap the opposite end of each cord around the cover of the card and secure it in the back with more tape. Then place double stick tape around the edges and center of the back side of the cover and stick the cover to the adjacent panel, hiding the taped ends of your bunting. Round the corners of your card if you like, and you're done.

Printable Valentine goodie bags

Kathleen of Twig & Thistle has done it again! Beautiful graphics to print on Valentine's Day treat bags are yours for the downloading, free. Get the floral bag image here and the brownie bag here.

(Images from Twig & Thistle)

How to be a fabric designer

Everyone wanting to know how to get into the quilting textile design industry: listen up! Designer Lizzy House has written an e-book called How to Enter the World of Textiles: For the Quilting Industry. It covers what to design and how to present your work to a manufacturer. So now, everyone who has ever emailed me and heard me essentially say, "Duh, I dunno," I happily send you over to Lizzy to get the real answers. The e-book is available Feb. 1.

Update: The book is now available right here.

Free, well-designed fonts

Free, well-designed fonts? You suspected it was an oxymoron, until now. The League of Moveable Type presents to you a variety of typefaces you may use for personal or commercial use, as long as you credit the original creator. You can read their interesting manifesto here.

Printable paper dolls

If you know some little girlies who might enjoy paper dolls, here are links to download and print a couple sets. This is a more kid-centric post than usual, but I bet it will stir up happy memories for a lot of us.

Meet Clementina. She even comes with bee and raccoon outfits, because you never know when dressing up like a bee might be a good idea. (The charming site Kireei.com is in Spanish; I've linked to it through Google Translate. When the page loads, click "Cuts" to see the dolls.)

Update: For those having trouble downloading, go to the untranslated site, click "Recortables", then "English," and finally "Descargar".

The May 1951 issue of McCall's magazine introduced Betsy McCall paper dolls. Download ten years of Betsy and her wardrobe right here.

Giveaway: Ginko Papers gift certificates

I have a terrible weakness for Asian paper goodies, so I'm really excited to post this giveaway from Ginko Papers. Shop owner Garin Hussenjian flies to Japan, hunts for the very cutest stationery items, and brings them back here for us to drool over: cards, stationery sets, stickers, erasers, and decorative masking tapes that everyone is going nuts for. Garin has also visited Japanese designer Shinzi Katoh, who is becoming increasingly popular in the U.S. If you love his style, you can snap up lots of Shinzi Katoh products at Ginko Papers. Would you like some free goodies?

Win a $25 gift certificate
Ginko Papers is giving away two $25 gift certificates to How About Orange readers. To enter the random drawing, leave a comment on this post by Tuesday (1/19/10) midnight CST. Make sure you include a link or other way to contact you! Two winners will be drawn, contacted, and announced in this post.

Update: Giveaway is now closed. Congrats to winning commenters #69—Stacy, and #196—Becki.

Practical orange items for the house

Along with my deliciously orange Swingline stapler, there are some other useful orange items in my house. Have you heard of collapsible bakeware made by FoldTuk? It's pretty neat: you can bake in it, microwave it, put a lid on it, freeze it, dishwash it, and flatten it for storage. I just got this container, and it's surprisingly heavy and sturdy. My little chocolate cake baked up just fine and didn't seem to stick to the pan. The only drawback is that I'm a moron; one minute after I took the cake out of the oven, I decided to move it to the other counter. Since the stuff looks like tupperware and I have a very short memory, I automatically grabbed it without a potholder. I didn't get any burn marks. But I wouldn't recommend testing new bakeware this way.

Of course I'm fond of Fiskars scissors, too. Not just because the brand is orange, but because the quality is great. I'll tell you a secret. Someone at Fiskars noticed the sad, generic black scissors appearing in many of my posts. How is this possible coming from someone who claims to like orange, they wondered! I was mortified by my own hypocrisy. So they took pity and sent me a regular scissors for paper and a pinking shears. Awesome. Now I don't have to borrow my friend's pinker anymore. Good news for you, Megan.

I also adore a set of storage tins I got from Ikea awhile back. This one holds my tape and paper punches. I love cool design that's so affordable I can buy it with spare change from my car. Looks like they don't sell this set anymore, but this new one has orange, too.

An explosion of recycled magazine bows

Remember those instructions I posted for how to make gift bows from magazine pages? Yesterday I received an email from Katie Soltysiak, showing all the bows she's made with the tutorial. Fantastic! Each one is like a little work of art. To see more pictures, visit Katie's photo set at Flickr.

Quiz: What's your type?

Pentagram recently invited friends and clients to visit their resident psychiatrist. You, too, can drop by his office to learn what typeface most suits your personality. This descendent of Freud will ask you four questions, take some notes, and then reveal your "type," complete with a history lesson on that font. I was diagnosed as Universal. Give it a try right here. The password is "character." (Thanks, Stephanie!)

Gorgeous felt pillow tutorial

Looky! These felt flower pillows at The Purl Bee are completely lovely. You can make some yourself by following the instructions right here.

(Image from The Purl Bee)

Make your own patterned backgrounds

BgPatterns.com is an online tool for creating customized patterns for websites, desktops, or Twitter pages. You can choose the color, design, texture, and size of your image, test it as a tiled background, and download a jpeg of the image you made. Nifty.

Make miniature gardens

Flipping through the latest issue of Midwest Living yesterday, I found an article about fairy gardens. Apparently they're the hottest new variation on terrariums. While I'm not really into imaginary fairies, there is something appealing about miniature versions of pretty much anything.

Anybody remember The Littles on TV? It was a cartoon on Saturday mornings when I was, well, little, and I loved it and desperately wished some tiny people would come live in our house. So making a mini garden might be just the thing to do with a small girl you know.

Use herbs planted in a container to mimic little hedges, bushes, and trees; then add a gravel path or pond. (Find more info here.) If you want to accessorize, get benches and other goodies at The Garden Barn's Etsy shop. Or make your own chairs from champagne bottle packaging by following today's DIY instructions at Design*Sponge.

(Images from The Garden Barn and Design*Sponge)

Washing dishes in style

A Christmas package came from my friend Megumi in Japan, and one of the goodies inside was this dish cloth/sponge. I'm completely delighted! Designed by Lotta Glave, it's about 6" x 8" and 1/8th inch thick. The only problem is it's so pretty I don't want to get it dirty. Has anyone ever framed a sponge? (Available online in the U.S. here.)

Free Twitter backgrounds by Nate Williams

Welcome to 2010, everyone! Hope you had a refreshing holiday break. I'm still on mine until Thursday, so I'm trying to avoid making eye contact with my computer as much as possible. Heading into Christmas vacation I'd wondered if I had a computer addiction and wouldn't be able to stay off my Mac. Nope. Turns out I can quit any time I want—easily. Yeah, that's what they all say, but I've tested it and it's true. Last week I was hunting through my recipe box for cake and found this Thomas Merton quote printed on a scrap of paper. I have no idea where it came from or when I put it in there. It reinforced my longing to move to a deserted island.

Ironically, before typing that last paragraph, I had set out to write a post about Twitter backgrounds. My island will absolutely not have Twitter access. But if you must spend hours tweeting, you may as well freshen up your page with a cool background by illustrator Nate Williams. Visit his gallery of patterns, click your fave, hit "no" to tiling the pattern, and save the image. Upload it to Twitter and click the check box to tile it.