Good gracious I LOVE getting mail. But dang it if there isn’t a spoilsport in the mailbox here at The Hipster Home. Of what do I speak? Ohh you know, those junk ad bundles with the coupons to Anna’s Linens and LensCrafters! Those things are made out of the cheapest paper, are just terribly designed and don’t arrive without being a half crinked, wrinkly mess. And I’m always a little worried that there is other perfectly good mail caught in them since these ads pass swiftly from my hands into outbox: recycling bin.

I’ve always thought “Wouldn’t it be nice to use those terrible ads to make something? They’re free, we get so many of them and it’d be almost profound to make something useful out of such waste.”

And so my Freshly Blended ornament swap inspiration was born. While it is true that I used a holiday Target catalog for the ornaments I sent to my swap-mates, you can make these little guys for your home tree out of any colorful junk mail you receive. Oh sweet Hipster Home, where even mail spam is craft material!

What you’ll need:

Directions:

Print (or create) a shape template for your ornament. I’ve got a PDF of my shape available to you, but you can make your own. Since you want the ornament to be even all around, you only need half of a template.

If you opt to make your own shape, I recommend folding a piece of paper horizontally  then vertically. You can cut along the open edges and when its unfolded you’ll have a perfectly symmetrical shape that would probably look rad. The remainder of the instructions below are for my ornament shape but if you can use this as a guide if you decide to try a wackier shape.

Cut an approximately 2.5 x 5.5 inch strip of stiff paper. You’ll use this rectangle as a guide for cutting out 8 pieces of junk mail and 1 stiff rectangle (like a catalog cover) per ornament.

Make an ornament sandwich: 4 lightweight rectangles, 1 stiff paper rectangle in the middle and another 4 lightweight rectangles. Secure on 4 corners with paperclips.

Cut a 4-inch ribbon. Fold it in half and slip the ribbon ends into the ornament sandwich. You’ll want to put one end in front of the stiff paper in the middle and the other ribbon end in back of the stiff paper. Secure it with a paper clip. The stiff paper base in the middle of your ornament makes it easier to fold and fan the lightweight paper when the time comes.

Using a ruler, eyeball where the center of the paper is and trace a line from the top of the ornament sandwich to the bottom lengthwise.

Set your sewing machine stitch length to 5.0. If the stitch length is too close together, the paper will perforate right up the middle and you don’t want that. Starting opposite your ribbon loop, sew up the traced line, reversing your stitch a little once you reach the top. This will prevent stitch unraveling. Be careful not to stitch the paperclips and take them out when the paper is secure.

Line up your template with the center stitched line and trace your half ornament template onto the paper. Flip the template over the sewed center and trace the other half of the ornament. You should now have the ornament outline traced onto the top paper of the ornament sandwich.

Cut out the ornament along the traced line. When you’re done, your ornament should look like the above ornaments!

To fold your ornament so it fans out from the center, hold the sturdy middle sheet and use your fingers to fold the first sheet of paper into itself, over the sewn seam. Keep folding the sheets until you reach the middle and repeat on the other side of the ornament.

Chances are that the fans will be uneven but you can bend until evenly spaced.

Repeat until you’ve got a tree full of ‘em!

As you can see, I mailed the ornaments in the calendar envelopes from my first post ever. I don’t think it gets more festive than this! If you make these ornaments yourself, be sure to show me your results. Happy holidays, ya’ll!

Here’s what I’ve made recently:

Spicy Roasted Tomato & Black Bean Soup from Poppytalk and Jeannette Ordas of Everybody likes Sandwiches

This soup was simple, delicious and easy to make. Head over to Poppytalk for the full recipe but it was essentially roasting tomatoes, garlic and peppers set to simmer in sauteed onions, celery and chicken stock with an after addition of black beans. After tasting post-roast, I only used 1 Poblano pepper and substituted the dollop of sour cream with some queso fresco. It was so hearty, the end result was deceptively like was veggie chili. Best part of this recipe? Leftover soup and getting to use a CSA Poblano, tomatoes and basil in it.

Leather chain necklace tutorial by Cucumbersome

For this next project, I sadly don’t have a photo of the finished necklace. My sister had an important birthday last week and in my rush to overnight her a birthday package (featuring almond and orange biscotti dipped in chocolate and this necklace), the camera was left behind in the rush. It turned out fantastically! Sister loved it and I loved it. Perhaps I’ll snag a pic of it in the next few months when I see her. I’d strongly recommend heading out to your local scrap shop (like I did) and picking up some leather pieces to make it.

My only tweak would be to look for thinner leather as it seems my grey was significantly thicker than what Cucumbersome features in her tutorial. The template you print up also was no where near scale that she had mentioned so this necklace so you end up sizing it yourself. That means there are quite a few size variations you could try. I’d like to try making the necklace with both smaller and larger chains. I closed by necklace loop by cutting the bottom looped chain in half at the center and re-gluing it together with the lead chain inside of it.

Both these projects were fun and I’d recommend not only the recipe and tutorial but the fantastic Poppytalk and Cucumbersome as blogs to follow. Enough about me, what’d you make last week? What’s up to bat in your craft room or kitchen for this week?

Once upon a time, I got a Far Side Wall calendar for Christmas every year. It was bittersweet. I’d excitedly read through the freshly unwrapped calendar but was then immediately faced with changing the guard and removing my year-old companion.

At some point, as a means of preservation, the homemade envelope was created. Ever since, I’ve always kept few old calendars around the house to add a nice touch to any outgoing mail.

What’s better than getting a letter? Getting one in a kooky envelope. So let’s get to it!

What you’ll need:
A calendar or extra-large magazine made of heavy paper
An envelope
Double Stick Tape
A marker
Scissors
White mailing labels (nice to have but not necessary)

Directions:

1. Find an envelope whose shape you dig. I’d recommend the boxier shaped one, like the eastern standard envelop without long triangles. Carefully pull the envelope apart at the glued seams until it’s unfolded and can be laid out flat. Try not to rip the paper. TRY. But if you do rip the paper, fear not. You’ve got two options: one, try again with another envelope or two, fold a bit of tape over the flubbed edge.

2. Using the unfolded envelope as a template, place over a spot on the calendar you’d like to feature. Go ahead and pick something nice and pretty or just frame something cool. Since the teapot and cupcake is obviously the most prominent thing on this calendar, that’s what I’m squaring up to look pretty.

3. Holding down your template with one hand, trace the unfolded envelope with the marker so that the envelope shape is transferred onto the calender paper.

4. Cut the envelope shape out of the calendar paper. Make sure to cut inside of the line you traced so that there aren’t any  marks on the finished envelope.

5. Flip the calendar page wrong side up so that the date portion of the calendar is exposed (in most cases there is a date portion but not apparently this one). Fold in the same 4 creases as your original envelope template. Make sure that the side you intended to show is on the outside. You should now basically have an envelope, granted it wouldn’t really hold anything just yet. Go over each crease with something sturdy like the back of your scissors to make sure that it is a crisp fold. Go ahead, dig in. Those stiff papers can be stubborn.

6. Using the double stick tape, cut a strip to adhere the back to each of the side flaps. Those short little arms on the right and left of the above picture, see em? Those are the flaps.

7. Press them together, making sure that no double stick take is showing. If it is, trim them with your scissors! When the time comes for you to mail a letter, you can either use a piece of regular tape over the outside seam to seal it shut or use double stick tape again on the underside flap.

8. If you have a mailing label, stick it to the front of the envelope so that there is space to write the letter name name and destination. If you don’t have a mailing label, write the address on a piece of white paper, cut it out and stick a bit of packing tape over it. That goes on the front of the envelope. Do the same for your return address.

And dude, if you’re not much of a letter writer, there are plenty of other ways to use these envelopes. And if this shape doesn’t fit your purpose, you can make many other types of envelopes. There is nothing stopping you from making them for Christmas cards, to jazz up gift cards, or maybe, JUST MAYBE, you need an award envelope for the Academy Awards. Or to hold your cut coupons. Or to participate in the Write A Prisoner program. Ya’ll get the idea.

Because its natural for one to get bored with oneself and one’s own craft projects, I’m extraordinarily interested in what you do with it. So GIVE IT A TRY! And then LET ME KNOW what you made! Seriously want to see what you did.  Send me to a flickr link or an emailz and I’ll update this post later with your ideas and successful (or CraftFail?) results.