Printable calling card freebie

Just for fun I've made you a template for a personal calling card. Apparently social calling cards are making a comeback, so you might want to print up a few to hand out at parties, moms' play groups, to new neighbors, or tuck them into your Christmas cards if you've updated your contact info.

In case you don't like orange because there's something wrong with you, there are two other colors to choose from.

Download orange cards, blue cards, or burgundy cards.

Each design is a PDF file with editable fields for typing. After saving the file to your computer, open the PDF in Adobe Reader (free right here if you don't already have it), type in your information, and print at 100% on a sheet of white cardstock. Trim with an X-acto knife or scissors, using the crop marks as guides. The font used in the name field is Euphorigenic, a free download at MyFonts.com. If you don't feel like going to the trouble of fetching it and installing it on your machine, your computer will substitute a font that might be tolerable to you.

(These cards are for personal use only; please don't try to sell the design, decorate your website with it, etc.) Enjoy!

Simple, printable party invitations

Real Simple magazine offers an assortment of free invitations to download and print. Mom, I'll be waiting for one of those Thanksgiving invitations in the mail. With a ribbon, please.

Butterfly invitation template

Let's call this stationery week at How About Orange. Friends inexplicably keep marrying and having babies, so here are some shower invitations I made with a pal last week.

The mom-to-be registered for purple butterfly things, so I had to hold off on the orange cheetah-themed shower that could have been awesome. I think this one might be more tasteful. I made the design in Adobe Illustrator, then cut the cards out with the Silhouette machine. The party information is printed on an interior sheet. It's stapled inside the card along the spine to form a mini booklet. Chartreuse envelopes from Papersource plus these stamps finished it off.

You can download the butterfly template as a PDF file, a zipped Studio file for Silhouette users, or a zipped SVG file for Cricut users. And folks without a digital cutter will have to make do with an X-acto knife. Eek, that's a little bit daunting.

Valerie's wedding invitation

In keeping with yesterday's stationery post, here's a little wedding invitation I did for a friend. I hope she won't mind, but I have to tell you her story. Valerie and her future husband were college acquaintances in Taiwan. Ten years later, they bumped into each other in front of a Starbucks in San Francisco. Both had moved to the US for grad school, then relocated to California on the exact same day many months before the fated Starbucks meeting. Pretty great, right?

Here are other designs that were part of the process. Congratulations, Valerie!

Giveaway: Tiny Prints gift certificates

Tiny Prints is an online stationery company with gazillions of design options, from party and wedding invitations to birth announcements, thank you notes, and address labels. To kick off their brand new holiday greeting card line, Tiny Prints is offering a $50 gift certificate to two How About Orange readers. Spend it on Christmas cards or anything else you like on their site! International readers are invited to participate, too.

How to win a $50 gift certificate:
By Friday, Nov. 5 at midnight CDT, leave a comment on this post mentioning a stationery item from Tiny Prints that caught your eye. Be sure to include a link or other way to contact you. Two winners will be randomly drawn, contacted, and announced right here.

Update: The giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Xana, commenter 599 and Lexie, commenter 151!

Help for whatever ails you

It's Friday, so let's bring your productivity to a screeching halt with Help I Need Help. Along with pharmaceutical remedies in innovative packaging, they also provide hilarious help for your non-physical ailments. Last week I mentioned the site on Twitter, and the kind folks of @HelpRemedies immediately asked whether I suffered from any maladies they hadn't already addressed. I fear confrontation, I truthfully replied. So they created this exercise to fix me. The more you click, the harder you'll laugh. I'm now happy to report that I no longer dread run-ins with animated, shirtless men.

Glass etching with a punched pattern

An easy glass etching project on a cheap vase from IKEA.

On a piece of self-adhesive contact paper, punch holes in columns. Then with a scissors, cut out little lines to connect them.

Pull the backing off the contact paper and stick the design to the vase. (No transfer paper needed for this one, unlike my other ill-fated project.) Then glop on some glass etching cream. I used Armour Etch, available at most craft stores.

Let the vase sit for the time recommended on the bottle, about 5 minutes. Then rinse off the cream and remove the stencil. Your vase will now be fancy.