From my sister's lavender-y wedding

Lots of weddings.

I love doing custom orders; they force me to think outside my box and play with colors (and color combinations) I wouldn’t otherwise have worked with. And that’s what it’s all about, right? Plus, since I like to make every single flower unique, larger custom orders drive me to come up with my own folds and designs. Win-win!

A smattering from different orders…

The back of said sister's head. She's pretty from the front, too.

Haircomb. You thought it was all about bouquets around here, didn't ya?

Teal with silver accents — this was a fun one

Teal boutonnieres for the gents

I'll admit I was a little skeptical on this order, but I think it turned out pretty awesome!

I was also skeptical of the pearl accents this bride requested, but I think she was on to something.

This bride wanted bright colors. Fun!

Classic white bouquet

A little toss bouquet, safe for throwing!

A bird put that bird there.

Apparently, even Austin’s birds support Portlandia’s “put a bird on it.” The image above is proof. A bird decided to leave that bird-shaped art on my windshield the other day. That image was taken from outside the car, but the best angle is really from inside the car:

I'll be damned if I could get my iPhone camera to focus on that bird.

You know, that bird looks familiar…

The evidence...

The culprit??

Amy, what have you to say for yourself?

For those of you who (possibly live in a cave and) missed the video that sparked this phenomenon, have a look:

And for lots of fun, you can put a bird on onlyverysmall.

*This post is for Cammie, who understands.

For Christmas this year, Dennis and Amy bought me a Tinysaur.

Let’s just pause for a moment and marvel at how fantastic a gift this might be for a girl who loves dinosaurs and runs a craft website/shop called onlyverysmall.

That first picture is deliberately vague on scale. I felt it was important to take in the details before I blew your mind with how tiny Tiny is. Tinysaur came in a package not much larger than a matchbook. In fact, until I figured out what I was looking at, I thought Dennis and Amy had sent me a pack of matches from Prague, and I was confused. And when I realized what it was, I turned giddy. I went straight home to build him.

I didn’t take any in-progress pictures because I was too excited to get him done. I’ll tell you what: If you’re not extremely patient, building this litte guy will make you insane. I am the type of person that can sit for impressive amounts of time doing very tedious tasks. I forget to eat, forego sleep, etc. when I’m engrossed in a project. But by the time I finished Tinysaur, I wanted to poke my eyes out with the tweezers I’d been using. All told, he took about 30 minutes, maybe a bit more, which is really not that long. It may have been my excitement that made this so unbearable; I’m not sure. Regardless, it was worth it.

Finished Tinysaur and tweezer-weapon

You can start to get some scale here. That little card contained all the pieces of the Tinysaur, and the tweezers and toothpick in the background look huge. Relatively, they are. Tinysaur is about 7/8″ high.

He may be tiny, but he can still be vicious. Tinysaur is going to eat this pin.

Om nom nom

I love snow.

This is, no doubt, partially due to the fact that I live in Austin, where everyone freaks out because no one knows how to drive in snow and/or ice, and the entire city pretty much shuts down. I’m working from home today, and I’ll tell you what: I needed to build a tiny snowman. Because we had a decent snow last year, and all I could do was lamely look at it and curse my recent knee surgery.

Anyway. To commemorate the fact that half the country is under a soft, frozen blanket today, I made this snowman on the back of my car. I would have gone to a prettier location, but this way I only had to go about five feet from my front door in my PJs and slippers. Venture out more than that? Are you crazy? It’s 23º.

You may be wondering… Is that paper? And yes, yes it is. I’m the only person you know (probably) who thinks to incorporate quilling (i.e., paper) with snow (i.e., frozen water). His eyes are tiny tight coils. His carrot-nose is a tight coil with a toothpick glued inside (genius, I must say). His scarf is thick paper with fringed ends. He also had pretty buttons coils, but I packed him too tightly and kept destroying his mid-section trying to get them to stick. This led to rapid freezing of my bare fingers and poor little snowman having a tiny tiny waist. Oh well. He’s still pretty cute.

I love him because he's imperfect. Right?

Two pictures is all you get, folks. I couldn’t feel my fingers by the time I got the camera out. I think it’s time for me to find something hot to drink… and then back to work!

For the launch of the new onlyverysmall website!

AND AND

The (official) launch of the onlyverysmall shop on Etsy!

First things first. If you’re reading this in a reader, click through. Seriously, it’s worth it. My web designer, who happens to be my big brother thankyouverymuch, did an amazing job in a hilariously short period of time. Plus, we’ve added a few new things around here. See that top navigation bar up there? You can view all the tutorials I’ve written in one place, send me a message, and view the current items listed in my shop! And if that’s not enough to convince you, you can satisfy your curiosity and check out my mug in the sidebar. If you haven’t subscribed to the blog, you should! It’s the easiest way to keep up with my antics. Just click over there in the “subscribe” section.

Paper flower bouquet in blue whimsy*

So, back to the Etsy shop. Yes, I mentioned setting up a shop on Etsy some time ago. And, truth be told, the shop has been there for a few months, sneakily fulfilling custom orders. But now, after months and months of refining and preparation, we’re up and running and ready for your shopping pleasure. onlyverysmall is selling paper goods of a new breed: paper wallets and paper flower bouquets. And, of course, custom orders.

Go check out the shop – I’d love your feedback!

Paper wallet in Amy Butler - faded china

*Many thanks to Justin Arthur for the delicious product shots!

If you like this, please share it on facebook or twitter!

Blank 2011 calendars, just waiting for awesome to strike.

As if I needed another craft, I’ve taken up quilling.

No, not quilting.* Quilling. Or paper filigree. Fancy-dancy rolled paper strips.

I’ll be posting more on that later. For now, a quilled calendar!

I wanted a nice calendar for my new place. I’m not sure what it is, but there’s something about a nice calendar that gives me a good vibe. And because I have this insatiable need to make everything, I wanted to make this nice calendar myself, rather than purchase one of the many fabulous calendars on Etsy.

There were only two problems with this plan:

1. I wanted to make the pretty part of the calendar but knew I wouldn’t have the patience for the actual calendar part of the calendar (even though this is very easily obtained).

2. Making an entire calendar seems like a huge undertaking. The kind I start at the beginning of one year and finish halfway through the next. Which is, um, a really stupid plan for a calendar.

And the solutions to those problems?

1. PaperSubmarine on Etsy sells these DIY blank printable calendars. It’s genius and perfect. She provides the PDF of the calendar (rather quickly, I might add), and it’s up to you (me) what type of paper to use, etc. And, since the calendar is a smaller scale (each month is half a standard 8.5”x11” sheet), it’s not hugely intimidating.

2. I’ll make the calendar designs one month at a time and post them here on the first of every month.** That way, I don’t have to worry about going on a mad quilling frenzy. Twelve small goals > one big goal. If nothing else, this should be an interesting way to see if I get better at quilling over the course of the year.

I think the theme of this year’s calendar will be… drumroll… creatures! Real and/or imagined and/or extinct. We’ll see what happens.

This month…

January 2011, the month of the puffins

PUFFINS. That little guy desperately wants a hug.

Look at all that depth.

I haven’t quite decided how I want to display this thing, since the group of cards is going to get pretty fat, pretty quick. Thoughts?

For those of you still scratching your heads about this quilling business, I suggest checking out All Things Paper, Quilling with Fun, and the PAPERgraphics by Yulia Brodskaya, to name a few. All have some really amazing things to show you.

Quilling tutorial coming soon. Happy 2011 folks!

*Quilting is my mom’s department. She’s better at it than I ever would be, so I’m leaving that one to her.

** I’m giving myself some slack this month because I didn’t hatch this genius idea until January 1.

Enter the dino plush. Having never made a plush before, and certainly not one that could withstand the love (or hate) of a rambunctious three-year-old boy, I turned to the soft, loving arms of the most forgiving fabric known to me: fleece.

And also, I turned to the Internet. The soft, loving arms of the Internet.

Pro tip: You’re going to be stuffing this dino (or whatever), and you’re going to think you’ve got enough stuff stuffed in there. You don’t. Stuff it some more.

Materials:
Fleece, optionally in two colors (The amount depends entirely on how big you want your plush to be)
Stuffing (I used something washable to save my sister from some headaches)
Coordinating embroidery floss
Needle

Here we go:
Plan it:

Pin it:

Note that you're pinning to two layers of fabric.

Cut it:

Don't forget to leave a seam allowance!

Spike it:

Call me crazy, but I didn't make a pattern for these.

Sew it:

Flip it:

Pin it:

Pin the spikes between the layers of fabric, pointing down.

Sew it:

I don't know what I was thinking, but I ended up machine-sewing the legs together, too.

Flip it:

Now we're getting somewhere!

Stuff it:

Keep stuffing. Then stuff some more.

Close it:

Blanket stitch. It makes the dino look hardcore.

Done!

Look how awesome! I blanket-stitched the designs on, too.

Perfect picnic spot!

While we were there, Brandon’s parents sent us to Antlers, a fancy and delicious restaurant in Creede, and to see the Creede Repertory Theatre, which is touted as “one of the top ten places to see the lights off Broadway” by USA Today. Both were awesome. If you ever happen to be in or around Creede, I demand that you make an event of dining and theatre-ing.

So, some thank yous are in order? Yep, I think so. Handmade-style.

The finished product

The original idea was to make some cards, but we wanted to incorporate a pretty picture from the trip somehow. So I devised this little number: a card/photo sleeve with brown paper envelope. I think it turned out quite nicely.

This looks like a doozy, but it’s actually not so bad. Stick with me.

Card materials:
Cardstock in two colors
Thread/embroidery floss
Glue stick or other non-liquid adhesive

Envelope materials:
Brown paper (I used a brown paper grocery bag)
Cardstock/paper
Glue

Tools:
Scissors/paper cutter
Pencil and eraser
Needle
X-acto knife
Optional, but nice: corner rounder, paper scorer/bone folder

Here we go:

Card:

Cut your cardstock to size. The size of the photo you’re using and your preference on the size of the border will determine the exact measurements. I was using a 5″ x 7″ photo, so in my case, the white cardstock was about 10″ x 7″ – in other words, double the height and the same width as the photo. (This was pretty sneaky of me — once the card is folded, the white paper will hide the corners of the photos on the back of the card. Yeah, sneaky.)

Anyway… for these cards, I wanted about a 1/4″ blue border around the white, so I added 1/2″ to both the height and width of the photo when measuring the blue cardstock and ended up with a 10 1/2″ x 7 1/2″ sheet.

Cardstock about to become something awesome

Fold the cardstock in half. It’s pretty helpful to have a paper scorer and/or bone folder in order to get nice, clean folds, but not necessary.* Be careful to line everything up — you don’t want to end up with a crooked card, right?

Also, if you have a corner rounder, now’s a good time to use it. If you don’t have a corner rounder, I’m going to recommend you get one. They’re pretty awesome. I got mine from the local craft shop, but you can also find them online (Amazon has a wide range of prices and styles).

It's really hard to see the needle holes, but I promise they're there.

Prep your white cardstock for sewing. The easiest way I found to do this was as follows: write the message in pencil, pierce the cardstock with a needle where you’ll need to sew later, then erase the pencil marks. Just make sure you have a quality eraser that won’t destroy your cardstock. And also make sure you know your handwriting pretty well because it’s not hard to get lost in all the tiny dots.

Almost there...

Stay on target!

Embroider your message. The fun part! Both thread and embroidery floss work, but the thread is easier to use and the floss looks better, in my opinion. (I don’t have any pictures with thread, but I used it for my is-this-actually-going-to-work test.) I was really enjoying the gradient effect of the floss I was using, so I added some little star decals. (I do that, it seems.) Go crazy, have fun! Tie your floss/thread off in the back and set that good-lookin’ thing aside.

See the corner triangles?

With a pretty photo in it!

Turn the card into a photo holder. You may want to test this out on a scrap before you mess with the real thing — I found it did not happen the way my brain expected it to. Center the photo on the inside of the cardstock, then trace 1/2″ from each corner. Now it’s a simple matter of completing the “triangle” with a swift flick of the X-acto knife (please be careful and do not start flailing about with sharp objects). Erase the pencil marks, and insert your photo! So fancy.

You should end up with something like this.

Connect the two card pieces. You don’t want to use regular liquidy glue here — it does awful things to paper. A good glue stick or scrapbooking glue works. Glue one side at a time. I found it helpful to gently tape one side while I glued the other to keep things in place. When you’re gluing down the side where the photo will be inserted, make sure you do NOT glue down the corners — you need them to be open so you can get the photo in and out. Don’t ask why I know that.

Gratuitous close-up.

OK, almost there! Marvel for a second at how awesome this birthday/thank-you/miss-you/hello-you/whatever-you card is, ’cause it’s done.

Now then, back to business.
Envelope:

So, your template might look something like this.

Be smarter than I was and download an envelope template. There are many styles to choose from, all over the Internet! Who would have thought. Not me, apparently, before I started slicing up my brown paper. No matter; I got it together. But really, use a template. Just make sure you scale it to fit your card!

The lining looks like a little house!

Make an “envelope liner” in coordinating paper. I recommend not using cardstock for this since it needs to bend easily. You’ll want to create a shape that will cover most of the flap of the envelope and the “back” of the envelope, as shown. Glue this in place using whatever glue you used for the card (i.e., not liquid).

Glue your envelope together. Fold up the bottom piece and glue the outside edges. Then fold over each side flap and glue them to the bottom. Make sure you don’t glue anything to the “back,” or your envelope won’t be able to envelop anything.

Yeah, I forgot to take a picture before addressing these. Pardon my blur.

Decorate! I needed to mail these bad boys, so I cut out pretty shapes to write the addresses. Clearly, you can do just about anything here. Once you’re done, slide the card in the envelope and glue shut. Don’t forget postage!

*Brandon pointed out that I should link to a bone folder because “bone folding sounds medieval.” Good point, Brandon.

I love that chair, and now it's more comfy!

Early last month, I moved from a 760-square foot apartment to a 397-square foot studio.* As you might imagine, I went from having a decent-sized kitchen to a tiny one. I love it. (My kitchen sink has a sprayer. A sprayer!!) But in the process, I ended up with a lot of leftover shelf liner. You know, the soft, puffy kind that makes amazing dish-packing material when the movers are coming in 15 hours and you haven’t really started packing yet. Um… ok, maybe I’m the only one that knows that. Ahem. Moving on…

So, after my dishes got unpacked, I had this pile of shelf liner. And because I didn’t know what to do with it but didn’t feel right about tossing it, it ended up on the floor. Fast forward a few days, and there I am, on the floor, surrounded by a small library of unorganized, half-unpacked books. I need to move to make more room for the books, but there’s a pile of shelf liner in my way.

So I sit on it.

A silly pile of lonely shelf liner.

Eureka.

Materials:
Shelf liner scraps (how much will depend on how thick/wide you want your cushion to be)
Fabric (I used home decor-weight fabric for durability)
Needle
Thread

Here we go:

Organized, sorta, by size.

Arrange your shelf liner scraps. I first sorted mine by size, then started with a piece that was about double the length I wanted the cushion to be. Then I placed all the other scraps in such a way that I could fold over the first scrap at the end and not have any rough edges hanging out. I’m a crazy perfectionist about things, even things no one will ever see. It’s not really necessary to go through that trouble; basically, you just want the scraps to be in a flat, cushion-sized arrangement. You can trim down any ugly edges later.

You can see the three tacks, and where I secured the edge of the flap.

Using the needle and thread, tack the layers together. You don’t need to sew in too many places — I did two tacks on the “open” edge of the cushion and one in the middle. This is just to keep the layers from moving around too much.

Pro tip: Use a thimble when sewing the layers together. It can get pretty tough.

Ignore the angled edges. Yours should just be rectangular.

Make an envelope enclosure for the cushion. I sorta cheated here — I had one made from a failed pillow experiment that was about the right size, so I don’t have pictures of the whole process. It’s pretty simple though. You’ll need one piece of fabric that’s slightly larger than your cushion, and two pieces that are slightly larger than half the cushion (they need to overlap). After hemming the two smaller pieces, sew all three together on the edges as shown, right-side-in. I noticed some fraying in my fabric, so I dabbed on some Fray Check before continuing. (If that makes no sense, you can find better instructions online.)

There she is! Lookin' so good.

Flip the cover right-side-out and insert your cushion. You’re done — go sit on something and marvel at the comfort!

Update: This would be a great way to re-purpose that old yoga mat!

* Why? Because I was tired of looking at (and paying for) 1. empty/unused space and 2. things I didn’t love but “needed” to avoid having more empty/unused space. Reduce the space, reduce the things, reduce the things-stress: my new living situation philosophy.

See? I painted an awesome cover. Then I took an awful picture of it: flash fail.

I can spot a good photo, sure, but take one? Goodness no. Long ago I resigned myself to having a crappy point-and-shoot camera and taking crappy pictures because, hey, it never really mattered.

I love it when decisions like that come back to laugh in my face.

So, now I need to know how to take good photos. To its credit, Etsy supports an amazing community of people genuinely interested in helping each other out. And thankfully, some of them are rockstar photographers. Like bomobob, who seems to be some kind of celebrity in the forums — and for good reason. He’s been busy posting very, very helpful information on product photography lately, and he’s been kind enough to compile the various threads over on his blog. (He also provides links to the forum threads, if you’re interested in reading the hundreds of pages — yes, hundreds! — of posts.)

But before I get into all the superbly awesome bomobob info, I need to back up a bit — because all the information in the world does me no good if I have no idea how to put it into practice. And all the advice I found came down to this: Read the manual.

Wait, what? Seriously?

Yes. Read the manual.

Ugh.

You know, just some light summer reading.

Now, folks, in real life, I’m an editor. This means I get paid to read, and I fancy myself pretty good at it. But here’s a true story: It took me over a month to get through the 60 or so relevant pages of my camera manual. Why? Because I am busy taking notes and experimenting with the camera settings? No. Because that crap is boring. Boring and sleep-inducing.

But — sigh — it’s important. So here’s my advice, if you’re thinking maybe you need to pull out the manual (and if you’re still reading this, there’s a good chance you do):

1. Do take notes and experiment with the camera settings while going through the manual. It helps.
2. Don’t attempt to read the camera manual while
1. sitting in bed late at night.
2. curled up on your boyfriend’s comfy couch under the softest blanket ever with a cup of hot tea.

Now then. Even before I started reading my camera manual and the forums for photography tips, I decided to build myself a light box. (Is anyone else wondering why I seem to be writing this post in reverse?) Bomobob proves that lightboxes aren’t really necessary, but since I’m not exactly good at this photography thing, I figure it doesn’t hurt to give myself as much help as possible. I used the instructions over at Drawings in Motion for a simple, “dove-tailed,” collapsible box of foam core. Pretty genius, if you ask me. Add some fabric for a backdrop, commandeer a perfectly sized base from Brandon’s making adventures, and slap on a couple clamp lights, and you’re in business.

Coffee table, rendered useless.

It’s not the most elegant thing, and it does prohibit the use of my coffee table, but I never really go in my living room anyway. Here’s hoping it works. Next time, I’ll attempt to compile all the great photo tips I’ve collected, and we’ll see how close I come to getting some decent pictures.

Meanwhile: I know a bunch of you people are photographer-types. Have any tips for a hopeless amateur?