Cards by Paper Therapy

As much as I love handmade anything (as long as it’s well executed, obviously) I love supporting local artists even more. My friend Ashley just started selling the (amazing, adorable, nowaytheyrehandmade) handmade cards that her mom Karolyn creates. I consider myself a very crafty person, I even dabble in the art of card making myself, but I see her designs and I really can’t figure out how she comes up with her ideas. They’re incredible. So of course I bought three the day she opened her Etsy shop. Check out the rest of them here.

 

DIY: Holiday gift tags!

This isn’t really a ‘step by step’ DIY. It’s more of a ‘get a bunch of supplies in front of you, use the tags I made as inspiration, and go for it’ DIY. Some specific items I used that made it easier were scissors with a scalloped cut (not necessary, but fun), a hot glue gun, a mini hole punch (just because it’s cuter), a corner rounder punch, and double sided-tape. If you’re going to use glitter, I’d say the double-sided tape is a necessity. I had no idea how easy it could be to make things sparkle. I tend to peruse the Martha Stewart website a lot (shocker, right?) and picked that little tip up along the way. Thanks Martha!

DIY: 3D Snowflakes!

I was taught how to make these a few years ago at a design internship I had. I tell you, it might be the most valuable thing I’ve ever learned.

You’ll need:

1. Scissors
2. Writing utensil
3. Tape
4. Stapler
5. Ruler (or straight edge of some sort)
6. 6 pieces of square paper – all the same size. It doesn’t matter how big they are, but to make things easier for your first one I would make the paper around 8″ X 8″.

Supplies.

Fold all 6 pieces of paper in half like so.

Using a pen/pencil and a ruler, draw lines that are evenly spaced apart. Make sure they don't meet in the middle. I made mine 1/2" apart, with a 1/2" space down the middle.

While still folded, cut along the lines - being sure not to go beyond the line that's down the middle. Unfold your paper.

Curl the center sections together and tape.

Turn over and do the same thing for the second section (they should be curled and taped on opposite sides).

Repeat until all sections are curled and taped, then do the same thing to the other 5 pieces of paper.

Take the points of three pieces and staple together.

Then staple the outside sections of those 3 pieces of paper together like so.

Repeat with the other three pieces of paper.

Staple the middle sections together.

Staple the remaining outside sections together.

Easy as pie.

Hang and enjoy!