As I mentioned in my last post, hats were commonplace in Victoria magazine. In fact, every issue included at least one woman wearing a hat. Here’s a look at some of Victoria’s many hat ladies…

Photo credits (left to right, top to bottom): Toshi Otsuki, Geoffrey Gross, Toshi Otsuki (3), Tom Hooper, Toshi Otsuki, Luciana Pampalone, Toshi Otsuki

I love high-quality simple straw hats in summer. When I lived in New York City, cozy felt hats were a must for winter. I especially love the big black fur hat, though I doubt I’d have the courage to wear it. It’s too bad we don’t wear hats much on the West Coast. Which one is your favorite hat?

Photo credits (left to right, top to bottom): Pia Tryde, Thomas Hooper (2), Barry Dunne, Stefano Massimo, Steve Randazzo, Toshi Otsuki (3)

All those hats inspired me to make some paper art using their fabulous shapes. I titled my silhouettes “The Hats of Victoria.” All four are made from one of the hats pictured above. Can you find all of them?

I’ve included pdf downloads of all four patterns after the jump for you to make your own paper hats. I thought it would also be great to mix in other feminine accessories: sexy stiletto, small purse, bright umbrella, etc., so I’m planning to make another set soon.

“The Hats of Victoria” silhouettes

Supplies and tools

• patterned scrapbook paper or wallpaper
• black paper
• 4 picture frames
• scissors
• glue stick
• computer, printer, and white paper
• pencil
• 4 patterns (see below)

1. Print out 2-3 of each hat pattern: red hat, orange hat, purple hat, green hat. You can resize them as necessary to fit your frames.

2. Cut out the hat on one sheet, and the hat stand on another sheet.

3. Place the hat pattern on top of your decorative paper, and cut out both pieces of paper together. You might want to use smaller scissors for some of the intricate cuts.

4. First cut the hat, then the bow/band, then the inside of the hat. Then cut out your hat stand in black paper. There are two reasons to cut out the entire hat as one piece: 1) It’s easier to put all the pieces together in the end, and 2) It gives your art more of a three-dimensional look.

5. Make sure your paper isn’t too busy or doesn’t contrast enough. This was my first try, which turned out to be too busy.

6. Glue the pieces together. Use your third printout as a guide, if necessary. Only apply glue to the top part of the hat stand.

7. Trace the cardboard backing piece of each frame onto your background paper and cut out. Glue the hat to the background paper, if desired.

8. Insert the hat and background paper into the frame, and reassemble the frame. Don’t forget to clean the glass.

9. Hang your frames. For an easy way to get a perfect grid of frames the first try, check out my framed doilies post.

Just a quick decorating idea inspired by Kathy’s lovely framed “K” at Creative Home Expressions. My framed “hope” was fun while it lasted, but I needed a change, so here’s to “faith.” Adding the red-and-white striped scrapbook paper in the background gave it a whole new look. If you want to make your own, download the letters here and click here for the tutorial. One guess what my next word will be. Bigger project coming next Monday.

Hi everyone! Bet you thought I fell into a hole somewhere. Nah, just job hunting now that I’m done with school. Anyone want to hire me? :) Anyway, I attended the San Francisco International Gift Fair last Saturday, and I ran across these flower-covered paper lanterns at the zappobz booth. I begged to take a picture so you can see them. I still like mine best, but I thought the bright colors were fun too. By the way, my favorite booth at the fair was roost. Love, love, love their stuff.

I planned to make a flower-covered paper lantern for months. Not until I found a white poinsettia garland at a Michael’s after-Christmas clearance did it become a reality. Normally, I’m not a fan of fake flowers, but I think this is a great way to use them. I had some leftover pom-pom fringe, so I festooned the second lantern with pom poms. Now I can’t decide which one I like best. I bought these white 12-inch paper lanterns at Ikea years ago. Raise your hand if you hate the cheap white paper lanterns that Ikea and World Market sell these days. Me too.

Paper lanterns, two ways: flowers and pom poms

Supplies and tools

• white paper lantern and cord kit (try this one or this one)
• hot glue gun and glue
• fake flowers
• scissors
• pom-pom fringe
• compact fluorescent light bulb

Flower-covered lantern:

1. Start by removing the flowers from the garland, remove the plastic pieces, and tear the petals apart (some are hot glued together).

2. Then cut the pom poms off the fringe. You can also buy loose pom poms, but I liked these off-white ones better than the white ones they sell loose.

3. Hot glue the flowers and pom-pom centers onto the lantern. Glue them so they overlap to cover the entire paper surface. The garland I used provided just enough flowers for one 12-inch paper lantern. This one required two 4-foot spools of pom-pom fringe.

4. Insert the cord kit and hang from the ceiling. If you use a compact fluorescent light bulb, you’ll never have to worry about the hot glue melting.

Pom-pom lantern:

1. Apply a thin line of hot glue along the paper lantern’s ridges, a few inches at a time. Adhere the fringe to the glue, then repeat. DO NOT follow the ridge all the way around because the frame is constructed as a spiral, so your ends will never meet. So, when you get six or so inches from the end, start directing the line to connect to where you started. I spaced each line of pom poms six lines apart. This one required three 4-foot spools of pom-pom fringe.

2. Insert the cord kit and hang from the ceiling.

Here’s a last-minute idea for us last-minute gift wrappers. I felt guilty about discarding those round, sturdy cardboard canisters that hold nuts, cocoa, and other foods. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think they can be recycled (aluminum + cardboard?). But they definitely can be reused! Here, I covered them in gift wrap and tied on ribbon—and they can be reused year after year to hold anything from cookies to socks. Or you could wrap them in everyday decorative paper and use them as pencil holders or storage containers. I just thought they were too cute to toss. (The blue and green is for you, Carolyn!)

Reusable wrapped gift canisters

Supplies and tools

• wrapping paper
• scissors
• glue (I used rubber cement)
• ruler & pencil
• round cardboard food canisters
• clear cellophane tape
• ribbon
• paper towel

1. Clean out the empty canisters with a dry paper towel. Measure the height of the cardboard portion of the canister. (You will not cover the metal part of the can.)

2. Cut a piece of wrapping paper that height, roll it around the can, and trim to fit—leaving a couple inches of overlap.

3. Apply glue to one end of the paper, then stick it to the canister. Pull the paper tight as you wrap it around, then apply glue to the other end of the paper and press down. If you wish, you can apply glue to more than just the ends.

4. Reattach the lid and tie a bow around the package. For an awesome video tutorial on how to tie ribbon to packages Hollywood style (without knots) click here. Just tape the ribbon to the bottom of round packages first—it makes the process so much easier. By the way, thinner ribbon looks better and is easier to tie around small round packages.

5. Adjust the ribbon and cut ends as desired.

6. Tape the other side of the ribbon to the bottom as well.

7. You’re all done!

I had a box of 1000 craft sticks and no idea what to do with them. I wasn’t about to start building 1980s Popsicle stick jewelry boxes. I eventually came up with some Christmas ideas. This advent calendar is my first craft stick project. I’ll post my other ideas next week. The advent calendar is easy but time consuming. I suggest you enlist some helpers to fold the “origami” boxes and tie ribbons and string. Technically, the boxes aren’t origami because they involve a few cuts, but they are assembled without tape or glue. Each box holds a piece of chocolate. The beauty is, you don’t have to remove the ribbon to open each box, so the calendar is reusable.

Craft stick advent calendar with “origami” boxes

Supplies and tools

• 24 craft sticks
• spray primer and spray paint (or any craft paint)
• hot glue gun and glue
• 25 sheets of letter size paper (or 13 sheets of 12×12 paper)
• box template (see #4 below)
• scissors
• 2 spools of 1/4-inch red grosgrain ribbon ( $1 each at Jo-Ann)
• 1 spool of red baker’s twine
• number stickers (I used three packages of Colorbök “Marshmallow Wacky” alphabet stickers from Jo-Ann)
• 9 round 12mm rhinestones
• thick red Sharpie marker
• double-sided foam tape
• candy

1. Glue craft sticks together end-to-end, overlapping about 1/2-inch in the following lengths: 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2. A trick to keeping each of them straight is to turn them sideways against the table while the glue cools. Then glue four sticks together in the center in a star shape.

2. Glue the “branches” of graduating lengths at each intersection along the longest strip of craft sticks, then glue the star to the top.

3. Paint the tree and star any color you want. (If you plan to paint the star a different color than the tree, it’s easier to paint the star before gluing it to the tree.) Hot glue rhinestones to each tip and center of the star.

4. For the boxes, you will need 50 4×4-inch sheets of paper with diagonal lines drawn through the center. Either use a ruler to measure and draw the lines yourself, or download and print this template onto 25 sheets of letter size paper. (Part of the lines on the template are outside of the printable area. Don’t worry about this. It was necessary to save you two extra cuts on each sheet.) Cut along the solid lines of the template. I used Hammermill 32 lb. color laser gloss paper because it’s what I had on hand. I recommend it because it’s a good weight, durable, and resists fingerprints.

5. Fold each of the four corners into the center and open back up again.

6. Then fold each corner diagonally so the tip touches the center of the opposite fold, then open back up again.

7. Cut (as shown) along four of the folds, stopping at the center square.

8. Fold two opposites sides into the center again (as shown).

9. Fold again along previous folds to form two sides of the box (as shown).

10. Tuck the top and bottom pieces over and inside the box.

11. This is either the top or bottom of your box. Repeat steps 5-10 for each box top/bottom (50 times). Told you this was time consuming.

12. Slide one box bottom/top into the other. You’ll need to pinch in the sides the first time to make it fit.

13. Each box will look like this when you are done.

14. I couldn’t find any packages of just number stickers, so I bought packages of alphabet/number stickers. Three packets gave me just enough numbers (I was one short “1″ sticker but I changed an “I” into a “1.” I couldn’t find red stickers, so I bought white ones and colored them red with a Sharpie marker. Color your stickers and let dry before peeling and sticking them on the boxes.

15. Tie a bunch of little nooses out of the red twine, then tie one noose to each box with a red ribbon bow.

16. Apply a small dot of hot glue under the knot of the bow and the string. This will keep the bow and string in place.

17. Hang each box by the twine noose.

18. Place candy inside each box. Dove Promises (one of my favorites) fit nicely.

19. Hang the boxes on the Christmas tree. Because there are an odd number of boxes and an even number of spaces, you’ll have to choose one branch that has one fewer boxes on it than the other.

20. Stick the tree to your wall with a small piece of double-sided foam tape at the top and bottom of the tree.

I know: Monica, you need to get your seasons straight, right? I’m celebrating Spring in November because I couldn’t wait four months to share these beauties. Besides, red and green makes it almost Christmasy. I’m sure you recognize this window that used to be a mirror. I decided I had too many mirrors in my apartment and not enough art. And one can never have too much white paint, I say. The botanical illustrations are from Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen, a four-volume German book published in 1887. Botanicus.org scanned the nearly 300 drawings and made them available to download for free! © 1995-2009 Missouri Botanical Garden.

Window frame and (free!) botanical illustrations

1. Choose your desired botanical images and download them here (or buy prints here). I chose illustrations that have red in them because they went with my decor, but there are many gorgeous illustrations in a rainbow of colors as well.

2. Open your downloaded illustrations in a photo-editing software program (such as Photoshop) to resize and/or crop the images to fit your picture frames.

3. If you have a high quality printer, print your images. If not, save your files onto a flash drive or CD and take them to a photocopying service. I paid $1.78 for each 11×17-inch print at FedEx Office. Use a paper trimmer to trim to size.

4. Frame each print and hang them on the wall. Easy peasy.

For a step-by-step tutorial on painting and hanging a window frame, click here.

My friend Julie inspired this idea. She framed some fall leaves in a large clear acrylic frame. I loved its simplicity. These Coach picture frames that I received as a gift years ago were perfect for spelling out a word. I had five frames, but I was set on spelling hope, so I added a dove to the fifth frame. (I know: Doves are the universal symbol for peace, but to me a dove with an olive branch—from the story of Noah’s Ark—symbolizes hope.) You could also frame other obvious words such as peace and love—or your name or the initials of the members of your family.

Framed silhouette words

Supplies and tools

• 1 sheet black construction paper
• scissors
• printed stencils (see below)
• magnetic acrylic frames (find similar ones at Bed Bath & Beyond and Amazon.com)

1. Use a computer graphics program to spell out and print the word you’ve chosen. Change your text to outlines to save printer ink. (The font I used was 430 pt Minion Pro Semibold.) Or print the stencils I made. Download the hope stencil here, and the dove stencil here.

2. Place your stencil on top of a sheet of black paper and cut both sheets around the stencil. Discard the stencil when done.

3. Insert each letter into a frame. That was easy!

Inspired by West Elm's capiz shell table lamp

Some of you may remember my first faux capiz shell lampshade that I made for Sunset magazine. It was originally inspired by West Elm’s popular capiz shell table lamp. I was going for the mod look, but I didn’t quite pull it off. Plus I discovered, after two years of use, that the colored rice paper fades badly. The white circles still look beautiful, however, so I decided to redo it in all white. I used a different type of thread this time (white polyester instead of clear nylon thread), which made all the difference. Overall this new lampshade is easier, cheaper, and classier than my first attempt—if I do say so myself.

Faux capiz shell lampshade

Supplies

• laminated 24-inch by 36-inch sheet of white rice paper (I bought the rice paper at University Art and took it to FedEx Office for lamination)
• white polyester thread
• lamp base
• slip uno top ring (the top ring of a lampshade. I bought a cheap lampshade at Target, then removed the paper shade. The sticky residue came off with lighter fluid.)
• compact florescent light bulb (for safety’s sake and the earth’s sake)

Tools

• sewing machine
• scissors
• 3 circle punches: 1-inch, 1-1/4-inch, and 1-1/2-inch sizes (I found these at Beverly’s)

1. You can skip this step: I took apart my old lampshade to salvage the white circles. I discarded the colored circles.

2. First, punch some circles. From experience, I knew I needed 180 circles of each size. Your quantity will depend on the diameter of your shade and the height you want your shade to be.

3. Sew the circles together with your sewing machine. I used a small-medium-large sequence of 18 circles for each strand. Feed each circle through one-by-one. Use your longest stitch length. Let the machine stitch once in between each circle. Backstitch a couple times at the first and last circle in each strand. Trim the excess threads.

4. Fold each strand in the middle and drape it over the lampshade ring.

5. Continue to hang all the strands (I made 30) and space out evenly. You’re done!

My new friend, Heika DeHart, shared these images of her daughter Aspen’s adorable bedroom. Nearly every decoration in the room was created from scratch by Heika herself. My favorite project is the stunning dresser. I loved the result so much, I asked her to share her instructions. She tells how she made her own stencils, how she cut silhouettes of her daughter, and more. Thanks, Heika!

Stenciled dresser

I bought this old dresser at a university auction for $15. It was structurally sound but in serious need of a face-lift. Paint and new knobs did the trick. Here’s how to do it:

Supplies and tools

• sand paper or steel wool
• paint roller and tray (if latex paint is used)
• interior latex paint or spray paint
• polyurethane clear finish (optional)
• stencil adhesive spray
• sponge paint brush
• butcher paper
• craft knife (such as an X-Acto knife)
• overhead projector
• glass drawer pulls

1. Prep
Remove all hardware, and take the drawers out of the dresser. Lightly sand all the surfaces that are going to be painted with low grit sandpaper or steel wool, which will help the new paint adhere better.

2. Paint
Two options for painting furniture that work well:

Latex interior paint: I recommend rolling it on rather than using a paintbrush where possible because the result is smoother. Use a foam brush to get in any tight corners or hard to reach places (dabbing paint on with a foam brush will give the same appearance as the rolled-on paint). For the dresser, place it on 2x4s or anything that will raise it off the ground so that you can easily paint all the way to the bottom. Coat everything twice or until it looks completely covered.

Spray paint: This is my preferred method of painting furniture. The only drawback is a limited color palette to choose from. After sanding, prep the dresser by taping over any surface you don’t want painted. The trick with spray paint is to stand back and try to achieve a light, consistent coat, which will minimize drips. It dries to a tacky phase in about 15 minutes and can be given multiple coats in a short period of time.

3. Make a stencil
Find a picture with simple lines, then transfer the image onto a clear overhead projection page. Tape a big piece of butcher paper onto the wall and project the image onto the paper. After measuring to make sure the image is the desired size, trace the outlines of the picture onto the paper. Then cut out the positive spaces of the stencil with a craft knife. You can also use a pre-made stencil. The Stencil Library has a huge selection.

4. Paint the stencil
When the paint on the dresser is completely dry, paint the stencil on. Lay the dresser on its back and replace the drawers, so the drawers face up. Spray stencil adhesive to the back of the stencil and place the stencil on the drawers. Tape off any exposed parts of the dresser front that you don’t want to be painted, then spray paint over the stencil. (Spray paint makes a much cleaner line than dabbing paint on, which inevitably bleeds under the stencil.)

5. Optional top coat
To give the paint a tougher kid-proof finish, paint a layer of polyurethane clear coat onto the dresser. It will keep the paint from getting scratched easily and will make cleaning  children’s messy fingerprints easier.

6. New hardware
The finishing touch for the makeover was new glass drawer pulls. Replacing hardware is a quick and easy way to update any piece of furniture.

Paper silhouettes

This was a simple, inexpensive project. I thought it would be sweet to have silhouettes of my daughter hanging on her wall but found it impossible to keep her still long enough to trace her outline. I settled on this solution. I found these simple frames at a dollar store. The entire project cost less than $10, but it adds a personal touch to her room. Here’s how to do it:

Supplies and tools

• photographs
• scrapbook paper
• glue stick
• white card stock
• frames
• double-sided tape
• printer or photo copier
• scissors

1. Search your photo collection to find images that are profile or silhouette shots. Copy or print them as large as possible on an 8-1/2- x 11-inches sheet of paper.

2. Tape the photo page and scrapbook paper back-to-back then cut out around shape of the child in the photo.

3. Glue the silhouettes onto white card stock and frame them.

Update: I found an awesome photo tutorial for making silhouettes using this same process at Simple Gifts. Check it out here.

Stenciled wall

This project was quite time-consuming, but the final product was worth all of the work. I made this stencil the same way I did for the dresser. I originally saw this stencil painted on a wall in Domino magazine and fell in love with it. It is such an unusual and fun way of breaking up the wall space in a room. Here’s how to do it:

Supplies and tools

• 2 shades of interior latex paint
• paint roller and tray
• photo paper
• stencil paintbrush
• craft knife (such as an X-Acto knife)
• small tip artist paint brush
• stencil adhesive spray
• edging tools
• measuring tape
• level
• masking tape
• drop cloth
• overhead projector

1. Make the stencil
Photocopy an image (I copied the page from Domino), then have the image transferred onto a clear overhead projector sheet. (I went to Kinko’s, but the sheets can also be run through regular copiers.) Measure the projected image to make sure it’s the desired height, then trace it onto photo paper (it’s thicker paper that holds up for multiple uses). The stencil should be at least 1-1/2 of the pattern length so that it’s easy to line up later. Cut out the negative space (light pink) of the stencil using a craft knife.

2. Pre-prep
Move furniture out of the way and cover with plastic. Cover floor with drop cloth.

3. Create a guide line
Measure up from the floor 3-1/2 feet. Using a level, tape off a line.

4. Painting walls
Paint the top half (light pink) first, from ceiling to the tape line. Use edging tools to make crisp lines at the ceiling and around moulding. Once it’s dry, remove the tape and paint the dark pink (again using edging tools around moulding) up to the light pink. (My stencil is about six inches tall, so I painted the dark pink a little more than six inches higher than where I wanted the stencil to start.)

5. Stencil
When the paint is completely dry, measure again and tape off a level line at three feet from the floor. Next spray the back side of the stencil with adhesive spray (the adhesive spray remains sticky enough to use the stencil many times before having to reapply it). Then line the stencil up with the top of the tape line and stick it to the wall. Using the light pink paint and a stencil paint brush, I stenciled around the entire room, making a border between the two colors of paint.

Tip: It’s difficult to keep paint from seeping under the edge of the stencil (even with adhesive spray), especially when the stencil is used repeatedly. I wanted the lines to be crisp because the two pinks were quite close in color. So, after the stenciling was dry, I took a fine tip artist brush and dark pink paint and touched up any splotches, where paint seeped under the stencil.

Poof flowers

I can’t take any credit for these. I bought a Martha Stewart kit. Of course, once I found out how easy they are to make, I cursed myself for spending $20 on a kit when I could have just bought the tissue paper for $5 and made them entirely on my own. Oh well, live and learn.