Free printable invitations

Download & Print offers invitations and RSVP cards that you can open in Microsoft Word, customize with your own information, and print at home or your local print shop. (If you're taking your file to a printer, you'll be best off saving it as a PDF. If you bring them the Word file, you'll need to supply them with the fonts, too, since they might not have the ones you've used.)

Block figures by Ingela P Arrhenius

While glancing through Grain Edit, I came across the work of Sweden-based illustrator Ingela P Arrhenius. One of her pastimes is creating characters from painted wooden blocks. Completely charming! A bag of blocks...

...becomes little animals and people transported through a mid-century time machine. To meet more of Ingela's characters, visit the wood figures section of her blog.

(Images by Ingela P Arrhenius)

Today only: awesome deal on photo books

A friend just sent me a link to this deal on Groupon.com: buy a $20 coupon that gets you $60 worth of photo books from A&I Books. I impulsively bought one. Maybe you want in on this? You'll have up to a year to use the coupon. The company manufactures custom books you design yourself—make an album of your own photos, maybe a little portfolio book of your artwork, you name it.

Here are some options you can create. I'm totally attracted to that perfed postcard book, a fun gift idea. The deal ends at midnight central time, so don't spend too long mulling it over!

Clock screen saver

Help yourself to this lovely time-keeping screen saver at Real Simple, designed by Alan Dye. Turn your monitor into a clock! Love the simple, clean design. Via iDIY.

(Photo by Craig Cutler)

DIY felt projects for the weekend

A list of cute felt tutorials from around the internet...
Felt-covered tape measure at Poppy Lane, above
Mini teacup pin cushion by Tasket Basket Crafts, above
Felt business card holders at Smila's World
Felt waffle cone by Hannah Hoosier
Felt floral wall mural by Mariana Leung at Design Sponge
Felt bows at Sew Gorgeous
Felt rosettes at Mrs. Priss

(Images from Poppy Lane and Tasket Basket Crafts )

Wool felt sample packs

My mom was hunting online for wool felt the other day and ordered herself a one-pound "grab bag" bundle from Joggles.com. She reports receiving 7 different colors in great condition — just what she was hoping for. These are leftover scraps so you won't know ahead of time what you'll get, and supplies are limited, but this might be a good resource for the person who likes working with good felt. You can also choose from a number of samplers with set colors, or order individual pieces in your favorite color. Which I assume is orange.

Free printable folding card

Download this little flower explosion, designed by Susan Connor of Susy Jack. Very nice. I could use a flower explosion right about now.

Time-waster: make music with raindrops

This has nothing to do with anything, other than I kind of liked it. The Raindrop Melody Maker lets you compose and record a song by clicking raindrops. (The question mark at the bottom will tell you how.) Lovely. It's for kids, but I never let that stop me. Thanks, Ellen.

Essential life skill: money origami

Essential life skill #3: folding a shirt and tie from a dollar bill. In terms of usefulness, I rank this right up there with the ability to parallel park. This is my first-ever money origami attempt, which was much more successful than the parallel parking section of my driving test, which I failed. Granted, nobody needs to parallel park in rural Minnesota where I grew up, so the incentive to learn was not great. A more useful skill is avoiding animals in your path, such as my math teacher's escaped pig which was loitering in the middle of the road one morning during my lesson. Mr. math teacher came to the door in his boxers when we knocked to tell him his hog had gotten out. But I digress.

You can fold yourself a drawerful of shirts by following an instructional video. I used this one and then referred to this one when I got stuck.

Essential life skill: toilet paper origami

Essential life skill #2: folding toilet paper into pleasing shapes. This might be even more essential than making paper straw wrappers into flowers—just imagine all the joy you could spread during your countless opportunities to do this. Leave a surprise in the bathroom of your dinner party host. (No! I mean a nice surprise.) Or delight the next visitor who enters that public restroom stall. In just 60 seconds, you can make someone else's life worth living.

To learn some easy toilet paper folding techniques, go here. I tried this one, above. And when you've mastered these, you can get this book. Note: my thick Cottonelle worked okay for this design, but cheap, crisp public restroom tissue would be ideal. Now go forth and beautify bathrooms everywhere.

Essential life skill: making roses from straw wrappers

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.

Free font: Matchbook

Design studio One By Four has created two slim, retro typefaces: Matchbook and Matchbook Serif, free for the downloading right here. Thanks, guys! (Via Benign Objects.)

How to make leather jewelry

Recently I got my hands on a copy of Nathalie Mornu's book Leather Jewelry: 30 Contemporary Projects. Leather isn't something I've ever worked with, but this book makes me want to start. It's like felt in a lot of ways: easy to cut, doesn't ravel, and comes in pretty colors. You can rescue thrift store bags and coats and recycle them into bracelets and earrings and all sorts of goodies. Special supplies like snap setting kits are needed for some of the projects in the book, but others don't require anything fancy. Some of the pieces are too far out there for my taste, but many of the bracelets, cuffs, and earrings are very wearable.

To download a free PDF tutorial for the stamped earrings on the right, head over here and click the corresponding photo.

DIY paper medallions

I felt like making something pretty.

We're going on an official date tonight, so to set the mood, I've stuck these in secret places for Mr. Jones to find when he gets home from work. Granted, he's not the sort of guy to get wildly excited about small, cute paper things, but I hope he will at least appreciate the sentiment. I don't have the ability to handmake him an iPad, so this will have to do.

To make make a mini medallion:
1. Cut a 3/4" strip off a piece of 6" origami paper and accordian fold it to create tiny pleats.

2. Join the ends together with a bit of glue or double-stick tape.

3. Cut a couple sizes of cardstock circles to layer for the center.

4. Press the pleated circle flat and glue your center circles onto it. It will want to pop back up, so set a quarter or something lightweight on top until it dries. Or hold it down with one hand while you surf the internet with the other, my chosen method.

5. Cut more paper into ribbon tails and glue them to the back.

To make larger medallions, cut wider paper strips and splice several accordian-folded pieces together.

What to drink

I'm working on a brochure this afternoon and wanted something nice to drink with it. Is it iced coffee weather? I was told no. Bummer. So I put up this desktop wallpaper instead, and now I'm going to make myself a hot latte.

(Image by Jess Neil from Simpledesktops.com)

Ribbon sighting

I came across one of my ribbon designs at The Modern Dog recently: the Christmas version of my camper ribbon, in the form of a dog collar and leash. I believe the dog is sold separately, which is too bad, since I really love the whole set.

If buying holiday ribbon in April doesn't sound too peculiar to you, this one is available here at Fat Quarter Shop.

(Images from Bella Bean Couture)

I'm a lucky girl

Look at the fabulous things I got for my birthday last week! Alex took my non-subtle hint and tracked down that Pantone mug at Chicago's Sprout Home. Awww. I'm also now the proud owner of this gorgeous lasercut wooden pendant by molly m designs and this comfy graphic shirt by SkunkFunk. If you like clothes, check out SkunkFunk's collection. They use eco-friendly fabrics, and their website makes me want everything. These last two items are from P+L Boutique in Chicago, a friendly shop I discovered recently. They tie up their packages with orange ribbon and slip them into orange polka-dot bags, so of course I was charmed.

I also received exotic gifts from the orient: the Japanese movies Dolls and Departures, and a kitchen sponge shaped like an orange. Life doesn't get much better than that.

How to make your own deodorant

My weekend of celebrating with the folks was excellent. And sure enough, my mom (known to many of you as Grandma G) embarked on a DIY deodorant project. She came across someone selling homemade deodorant nearly a year ago, tried it out, and found that it actually kept stinkiness away better than store brands. Plus most popular brands of deodorant contain aluminum, so if you can avoid stuffing metal into your pores, that seems like a good idea. After using a few types of natural deodorants and figuring out which ingredients she prefers, Mum decided to make her own. Here's the recipe we arrived at this weekend.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup baking soda ($1.19 for a box)
1/4 cup arrowroot powder ($5.99 for 20 oz.)
4 tablespoons coconut oil ($6.00 for 15 oz.)
10 drops/shakes grapefruit essential oil ($9.99 for 0.5 oz.)
A tin or jar with lid

In a bowl, stir together dry ingredients, then add oils gradually until you like the consistency, mixing with a fork. Store in a closed container at room temp. (If the mixture seems too soft, try refrigerating it for a bit to firm it up.)

To apply, scoop up a bit with your finger, hold it against your skin for a couple seconds so it melts a little, then rub around.

The recipe above should last 4 or 5 months. We bought all the ingredients at Whole Foods. A jar of coconut oil is shelf stable for two years, who knew? So this stuff ought to provide a couple years' worth of deodorant. Try using any essential oil scent you like, but pick something that smells good mixed with coconut—the coconut oil contributes scent, too.

Update: Mum sent some notes to address questions in the comments. Click here to read them at the end of this post.

From Grandma G:
"IT WORKS! Best deodorant I've ever used... beats store-bought hands down. Needs only be applied once/day. In fact, I once went 3 days without reapplying (don't ask why), and still no odor.

One recipe I found did not include essential oil, but essential oils have antibacterial properties, and bacteria is what causes the odor. You could try leaving it out and see how it does, if you want. The baking soda is also to absorb odor.

The coconut oil scent is very light and fades fast after applying. I don't smell it at all on my underarms... just a light grapefruit oil scent. I don't know how much you'd smell the coconut oil if you didn't add essential oil, however.

You could try cornstarch in place of the arrowroot powder, which is mainly to thicken and absorb moisture. I don't know if there'd be any difference or not. A commentor brought to our attention that cornstarch may contribute to yeast infection, so I would recommend using arrowroot powder if possible.

I have never had a problem with this deodorant leaving marks on my clothes. The oil is pretty much absorbed into your skin. You could try waiting a bit before getting dressed for it to absorb, if your underarms feel oily. Just remember... it doesn't take much for it to work.

As for adding vodka, I have no idea! I don't sweat heavily, so it's kind of hard for me to say how well this recipe works as an antiperspirant, but the description of the original stuff I'd bought said that the coconut oil is water proof, helping to seal in the sweat. I kinda have my doubts on that. But you "heavy sweat-ers" will have to let me know.

Please post back with comments on how well it works for you. I'd love to know!"