Recently I took part in the first inaugural Chicago Craft Social hosted by Amanda Edwards, Megan Hall, Megan Heep, and Jessica Jones. In addition to meeting tons of super cool crafty Chicago ladies, I made these fun retro Paris notecards out of old time-y black-and-white France vacation photos. Table leader Lisa Haskin of Faux Transformations …
Canning has been a theme the past few weeks so I’m excited to share these free printable canning labels with you. My pretty floral printable canning labels come in five colors — red, blue, green, purple, and yellow — for your jams, salsa, and relish. You can print my free labels for mason jar lids, …
I am totally in love with these DIY sewn fabric wedding invitations that I designed for recent bride Natalie Fayard. Thanks to Google, Natalie and her mother found me and my sewn fabric poppy wedding invitations that were featured in the The Knot’s 2007-2008 Fall/Winter National Magazine. Natalie had found this lovely yellow, black, white …
So my niece Madison’s 3rd birthday is in April. What a big girl! I work near Madison Street in Chicago and couldn’t resist taking a photo of a street sign to top her package. The sign perfectly fit with the theme of the handmade present I made her (I’ll be posting her gift soon). Madison …
Za Vas! Heather Crosby and I continued the Upper Crust Social Club event series by co-hosting a Russian-inspired vodka infusion party. Guests brought their own homemade vodka infusions …such a range of tasty concoctions from Watermelon Rosewater Vodka Infusion to Skittles Vodka to Cucumber Mint Vodka Infusion to Bacon Maple Vodka Infusion to Apple Cinnamon Vodka …
This is one of those craft projects that I just love. A little throwback, a little whimsical …and totally original. The idea for Shrinky Dink rabbit’s foot napkin rings that double as keychain favors sprung from a creative volley between me and Heather Crosby. I was hell bent on wanting to use Shrinky Dinks for …
This free printable urban graffiti thank you is perfect for your everyday thank you needs. Every time I drive over the Chicago Avenue Bridge I look forward to seeing the “thank you” graffiti spraypainted inside a heart on the northwestern side of the overpass. First there’s that nervous moment of anticipation when I’m afraid that …
Download this free printable save the date wedding announcement inspired by The Giving Tree. How sweetly romantic is this save the date wedding announcement for Cristin Witcher and her fiance Adam Siegel’s fall Chicago nuptials? Adam designed the whimsically simple letterpressed save-the-date announcement and matching tree branch mailing labels using The Giving Tree as his …
My favorite Chicago mommy blogger Janna Devylder, sons Gus and Eli, and husband John are moving to Savannah to teach at SCAD. So I decided to make them a goodbye gift. These handmade, bright, urban notecards and coordinating lined envelopes that depict the iconic Chicago skyline are the perfect size for keeping in touch old …
More decor for our upcoming Fourth of July – slash – Shane’s birthday BBQ. I took Martha’s Fourth of July parasols and turned them into a neat matching Fourth of July waterproof coasters. Supplies: Fourth of July waterproof coaster template (PDF) lovingly adapted from Martha Stewart’s drink parasol pattern White paper Clear contact paper (get …
Shane’s birthday is the Fourth of July so today I started to make some fun decorations for him. Martha Stewart has a super cute Fourth of July paper napkin ring template on her website. I printed her template, cut out the rings and …well, I had a few issues with her template. So I decided …
So today is my adorable niece Madison’s second birthday. I made her a super cool gift that I’ll post in a few days with instructions once she’s unwrapped her gift. In the meantime here are instructions for her cookie jar wrapping paper. Supplies: Kathy’s cookie jar template (page 1, page 2, page 3) Avery White …
I made these three kitschy CD mixes to thank my friend Amy for letting me stay at her place for the first few days of my week in NYC. Back when I was a kid, my dad handmade wonderful miniature farmland model worlds. I can still remember him individually painting figurines and gluing on grass …
Time consuming, yes. Overkill, perhaps. But I think wedding menus are totally worth it. Wedding menus are that extra detail that helps add anticipation while guests wait to be served at their tables. But unlike invitations that often go to couples and families, you will need to make one menu for each and every guest. …
Here’s a detail that I thought of late in the wedding planning game. We put these reserved cards on front-row ceremony chairs intended for our families. It was easy to make them and they coordinated nicely with our sewn wedding invitations, ceremony programs, table numbers and other printed materials. Supplies: 8 1/2 x 11 luxe …
I had a ball designing our ceremony programs as small, handsewn booklets. Our non-denominational readings that Shane and my friend Liz found were super cool and so I wanted to our guests to be able to follow along. Supplies: 8 1/2 x 11 cream luxe text-weight textured paper A2 size chocolate folded cards Yellow thread …
Here’s a simple placecard design that’s equally at home at weddings and showers or the Thanksgiving dinner table. Fabric edges are intentionally left raw to enhance the Holly Hobbie, handmade vibe. Supplies: Kathy’s free place card template (PDF, open in Adobe Illustrator CS3 using Spoleto from Novel Fonts, not Monotype. If you can’t find this …
If you’re like me table numbers are probably one of the last details that you’re thinking about. But they can be a key way to dress up and personalize your tables. I sewed the table numbers for our wedding in the same style as our guest place cards – brown and cream paper with orange …
