monogram gift box part deux

Remember last spring when I made that monogrammed gift box for one of my best friends? Well, her birthday was last week, and I decided to revisit the monogram idea for her gift, this time with a more modern monogram.

Again, it turned out awesome, it was super cheap, and I still love this project.

Here’s what I did this time around.

Supplies:

Monogram stamp (I made the monogram in adobe illustrator, saved it as a png, and ordered a custom stamp from a wholesaler, the same I used for the stamp from the wedding invites I also did last week. If you can’t find someone to do this for you cheaply, drop me an email. I’d be happy to make one for you.)

Stamp pad (Hobby Lobby was having a sale. This cost me maybe a dollar)

Blank cards & Envelopes (Paper Source, as always)

Watercolors (Prang all the way, baby)

Moleskine

Shiny Paint Pen (I always use Sharpie because the shine is prime, and outline in Micron)

Ribbon to tie it all together

The process was even easier than last year. I first vectored the monogram in illustrator and made it into an image, uploaded it to my wholesaler, and ordered the stamp. Again, if you can’t find someone to do this for you cheaply, drop me a line. I can do this for you!

After the stamp arrived, I super watered down my blue watercolor and edged my blank cards. Once that dried, I stamped them.

Then I sketched out the monogram freehand on the notebook in pencil and colored it in with the shiny paint pen. After that dried I wrote some quotes and Bible verses on the pages and erased the pencil from the front.

Finally, I washed off all the ink from the stamp, double stick taped it to the envelope package, and tied everything together with green ribbon. The whole process start to finish (after the stamp arrived from the wholesaler) took about twenty minutes and cost me less than fifteen dollars (I had most of the supplies lying around, including the notebook). Tada!

Hopefully this gives you some good, quick gift ideas. I have a couple bridal showers coming up I fully intend to use this idea for again. I love quick! I love cheap! (remember that bathroom organizer? And last year’s box?)

Have a happy Friday tomorrow!!

peace + paper

Today I’m loving…

new perspective

                                               courtesy of the voice translation

early morning meetings

                                               because they were actually interesting today

a little life direction

                                               long overdue

creative juices

                                               from a beautiful, creative friend

the international terminal at O’Hare

                                              because mom finally came home!

onion rings

                                              on the porch on a perfectly breezy night

…and these stamps I mentioned on Sunday from the Little Cat Studio. They’re perfect and I want them all. Could I find an excuse for each one? Probably.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Thursdays are my favorites.

Mostly because I don’t have class today, which means plenty of time to do my homework, finish my laundry (read: start my laundry), watch a great speaker in chapel, and go to turbokick tonight (which, sidebar, might be my new second favorite workout [to the Bar Method, of course]).

And so, in honor of a carefree day, I give you this hilarious Paper Survival Guide by Linus. I mean, where else are we going to find out how to get us through the most practical of situations in our lives so creatively…like how not to be forgetful (1)? Or how to engage in a philosophical discussion (2)? Or how to be a renaissance man (3)? Or how to avoid jumping the shark (4)? He even tells us how to celebrate the coming of spring, how to sail the seven seas, and how to look good during the ice age, all using papercuts! Yes.

Busy-ness is finally starting to settle in. It’s quite possible that I’ve bit off way more than I can chew, but what else is new?

I looked up qualities of overachievers and, apart from being appalled at how uppity and goshdarn snotty they sound (I like to consider myself a lighthearted person, I mean, I’ve got a sense of humor and can make fun of myself…right? Right?), it was pretty spot on (case in point: “Don’t tell me what to do!”). Except for the fact that I put everything off to the last minute and kind of like to do as little as possible while doing everything at once…

Is it possible to be an underachiever and an overachiever at the same time?

I’ve always known I was somewhat of an enigma…

So as I pull my hair out and try to plow through 70 pages of Comparative Politics, go buy yourself some incredible stationary. Social Proper, my friends. That’s where it’s at. They’re fairly new and looking to expand their line, so they have limited designs at the moment, but wow. The four they do have? Perfection.

Happy Tuesday!

Operation pack-my-life-into-boxes-take-2 is in full swing. It’s a little more depressing than last year, since it’s kind of settling in that this is my last summer in my hometown until I graduate from college, maybe even after that. Growing up is weird, there are more things for me to have to figure out every year. Good thing I take everything in stride (oh, my confidence is astounding [read: idiotic]). Bring it.

In other news, I am getting absolutely whipped by the Bar Method. I learned about it on a blog about a month ago and decided to give the DVD a try…oh man. Not only am I literally unable to lower myself into any chair, climb stairs, or laugh, but I also give my entire household a laugh. In case you haven’t had a good chuckle today (I hear they’re as good as apples, in some cases), I’ll give you a mental picture of this hilarity:

Picture a 6’2” girl in front of a TV, in a basement with ceilings only 3 inches above her head. Instead of weights, she is lowering and raising huge bottles of Pellegrino while squeezing an old volleyball in between her legs. She is also trying to simultaneously hinge her arms while balancing on her toes (it should be noted that her center of balance is nearly nonexistent, so she’s shaking like a leaf). Finally, it’s hard for her to concentrate on all of this while engaging her abs and remembering to breathe, so, due to lack of oxygen, her face is nearly purple. She falls into the couch and whimpers in pain.

You’re welcome.

And in case you’re wondering about the pictures (funny how absolutely nothing about my posts ever has to do with my pictures…), they’re from the most amazing stationary company I’ve ever encountered. It’s probably a good Scout’s Honor, Co. doesn’t have an online store, yet (though apparently the elves are working on it?), because I think I’d buy them out. Their blog is almost as equally incredible, though, because they have the (coveted) ability to find amazing vintage paper. Incredible. If I could pick a dream job, this would be it. Yes.

Here’s what I hate: awkward situations.

Here’s what I’m the queen of: awkward situations.

One of the more colorful sides to my internship this summer was the stereotypical “real life experience” the college administrators are always preaching: “Get an internship, gain valuable experience for the real world!” “Find out how a real workplace works with real life experience!” Another thing I really hate is corniness of any shape and size, so I was amused when this contrived nonsense turned out to be somewhat practical contrived nonsense. Meaning that I got a lot of hands-on experience dealing with awkward situations “in the real world.”

Example: Today I had to hand deliver 200 shirts to two floors in the building. The problem: I’m a summer intern. I don’t know anyone at the bank (besides my Dad). The awkwardness hit as soon as I walked out of the freight elevator with four huge boxes of shirts and a cart I absolutely couldn’t manuver. I had to walk up and down row upon row of cubicles, whispering (these floors are dead silent) people’s names and waiting for some kind soul to respond to my desperate cries for help. And, on top of that, I’m so tall that my head stuck way out from every cubicle…I’m sure a lot of people had a whole heckuva lot of fun watching the completely freaked out, awkward tall girl sneak around their office. Nice. Hello, real life experience.

In other news, these topographical maps from Crafterall are fantastic. I want one of Lake Michigan to grace the walls of my dorm this year. And, having had many a run in with an Exacto Knife, I can appreciate the extreme health risk (ha) and time she puts into these awesome projects. Love!