Bingo Cards and a Party

The idea of Bingo is fairly simple and because it is a game usually played by adults, I decided to make Bingo cards to use at my work party. My associates have been working so hard all season and I thought it would be so much fun to have a little get together for them. I haven't decided on the food yet but everyone on my team is invited!

So after we play a little Bingo...

The winner will receive a gift basket.

I call it the "Work Survival Kit"

Contents include:

1 Bottle of Yellow Tail wine

1 Pack of rabbit playing cards

1 Pack of Jolly Ranchers

1 Pack of small microwavable popcorn

1 Can of Pringles

1 Pack of multi-color gel pens

1 Lint Roller

Everything you need to survive a work day/week huh? Although I DO NOT allow drinking on the job, I thought the idea was funny!

Water Soluble Paper

I never seen the stuff but i heard its very cool. You can print on it and then it will dissolve in water. The video below has the "Soap Queen" demonstrating this water soluble paper in her soap. What an amazing idea. I wonder what other things you can do with it? If you have any ideas, please comment below and let me know!


Soap Queen TV Episode 9: Water Soluble Paper from Soap Queen on Vimeo.

Lunch Love Notes

I thought of a great idea about putting "love notes" in your children's lunch box. They are a great way to let your child know that they are very special. It can help build self esteem! Just seeing those notes makes them feel great about themselves. Its like receiving a "good job" on their homework. Here is a cute "Lunch Note" I made. Maybe I'll begin with making sets of 5, one for everyday they go to school? Well any way more to come, so watch out!

Baby announcements in letterpress

Letterpress is a great way to add a special touch to stationery. Adventures In Letterpress has a great baby announcement that makes you want to say "awww". Its a jungle theme and using brown and green to keep with the theme, she also uses recycled paper for the envelope to give it a rustic feel. And even the envelope has a giraffe peaking through! How cute! This is such a wonderful way to have your family and friends help you welcome a new bundle of joy into this world!

How to make an easy Mini book

For my daughters first birthday party, I made gift baskets for the kids that came. Inside the gift baskets were these mini books. I made up a rhyme to go with the theme of the party (sweet) and they could of colored it in afterwards.

I will go through the steps on how to make a mini book and then ill show you the final product. There are so many different reasons that you use could use one of these. So grab a sheet of paper and scissors and lets get started!

Step 1. Take a sheet of paper and fold it in half vertically (like a hotdog), then unfold.

Step 2. Fold that sheet of paper horizontally (like a hamburger), then unfold

Step 3. laying the paper down horizontally on the table, take the right side and fold it into the middle crease, then unfold

Step 4. Repeat same process for the left side. Take the left side and fold it into the middle crease, then unfold.

Step 5. Fold the paper in half, like a hamburger and use your scissors to cut down in the halfway down the middle, enough to reach the crease.

Step 6. Unfold the paper and fold again like a hotdog and open the part where you cut, so its shaped like a diamond. Keep opening it until you flatted it.

Step 7. You have a mini book! Just take each section and make a sharper crease.

Below is an image where the folds should be (colored lines) and where the cut should be (dotted line).
This image is also a layout of how you should color, design, print or draw your story for your mini book. So just follow this layout and you will have a short story in no time.

Page 1 - Bisans Oh So Sweet First Birthday Party

Page 2 - Yummy Candy

Page 3 - And yummy cake

Page 4 - A basket of treats

Page 5 - For you to take

Page 6 - Thank you for coming to celebrate

Page 7 - Bisan turning one

Page 8 - Hope you has some fun

Here is the final product:

I put these in the gift baskets that was full of candy. Here is the picture of the gift basket. The kids loved them!

You can use these mini books for many different ideas. They can be great for kids to create for a project, or to put in gift baskets like I did. There is plenty of ideas so get creative!

Stationery on Etsy is more special

You can get mass produced stationery anywhere. But when you buy handmade, you can't beat that quality. I was surfing on Etsy.com and found quite a few designers who make stationery so beautiful it makes your heart sing.

I know designers that make stationery mass produced is also very nice. But how would you feel knowing that this was made especially by hand and made with care. Also knowing that your support small businesses is a good feeling.

Here are a few things i found on Etsy.com that I really liked:

Is there a better way to ask someone to be your bridesmaid than this cute card by Pink Hearts Paperie?

Or instead of getting your self into serious trouble, by dont you use one of Junk Mail Greeting's cards to tell that special person, just how you really feel? Here is a perfect example:

And theres a lot more where that came from.

Now for your next stationery needs, head over to Etsy.com and check out the selection they have. A lot of these designs will also make custom orders! Just type "Stationery" in the search box and then you can sort of lowest price to highest price, most recent post or many more. Now how great is that?

How to improve your handwriting

You would all agree, the art of letter writing is a lost art indeed. But one thing that makes it an art is the handwriting of the letter writer.

We all forget that even without writing letter, we use our handwriting for many other things such as; To-do lists, grocery items, college essays, taking notes etc.., And while it may not matter how your handwriting looks when your going to type that college essay anyway, it had a huge affect on your personality and mood thereafter. It can boost your self esteem if you beginto write better. Im very sure that someone has been frustrated with your handwriting if its bad.

So i've done my research and found a few tips on how to improve your handwriting.

When I was young, a relative of my mothers send her a letter. It was addressed directly to her and her name began with an "A". I will never forget how elegant that "A" looked. I was jealous because my handwriting was not like that. Which brings me to my first tip:

Tip #1. To transform your handwriting, chose a script font of  your choice on the computer. Print it out, writing a full sentence that you would like to practice writing. Have a piece of lined paper taped above it, still showing the sentence of the script font. Start to practice writing that sentence, over and over again. Then continue to practice the letters individually and try different sentences. Practice makes perfect! Soon your brain will be trained to write just like your favorite font. Just be realistic, do not pick a very hard font that does not mimic natural handwriting. It can have some personality but not too much.

Tip #2. DO NOT write with your fingers! What does that mean? Well I didn't understand at first until i picked a pen and started to write after that. Then it hit me, it was easy, DO NOT write with your fingers. If you move your finger a lot to form a letter then your writing with your fingers. You must use your forehand to write. If you have been writing with your fingers then it can take a while to break that habit. But as in step 1, practice makes perfect.

Tip #3. Your writing tool is just as important. The pen is mighter than the sword, well definitely in this case. You need to chose a pen that glides easily. It should not require you to press hard on the stationery. You do need a slight grip but if your fingers usually hurt after a while then you might be using the wrong writing tool.

Tip #4. Sit up, back straight! Your posture has a small affect on your handwriting. But it might help push your handwriting to barely legible to decent. You can then work on the rest of the tips to help it improve it even further.

Tip #5. I cannot stress it enough, practice makes perfect!

How to make a Coloring Book - Easy Photoshop tutorial

This idea is great for many occasions. You can use it for a kids birthday party. Hand out several of these coloring books and some crayons and the kids will be kept busy for a while. You can make the coloring book pages out of pictures of anything. You can even use pictures of the birthday kid. Another idea is to make a coloring book for a next door neighbor, to bring along with you on a long car ride, the possibilities are endless.

In this example, i'm going to show you how to make a page of a coloring book for a wedding (great way to keep the kids busy- this would be given to the parents with kids by the maid of honor).

Step 1. Open your Photoshop Program. I have photoshop elements which works just as well.

Step 2. Open a picture of your choice. This can relate to the theme of what your using the coloring book for. You can find images off the internet to use as well. I used a picture I took for my wedding.

Step 3. Go to the menu bar and chose "Filter" - "Sketch" - then "Photocopy". Look at the picture below for a close up.

Step 4. You will see this window pop up. This is the window in which you can adjust the picture to look more like a coloring book. The more detailed the image, the more detailed the black and white outline will be. It might be best to use images with less color or less detail. If you did pic an image like this, thats okay. You can adjust the detail level and darkness on the right side of this window. Look at the picture below for a close up.

Step 5. After you adjust the settings you desire, press "Okay". You should then see your final image ready to go, just like i have the picture below.

Step 6. Go to the menu bar above and choose "File" and "Save as". Save your new image at the location you desire. DO NOT chose "Save" instead of "save as" this will save over your original photo.

Step 7. You are done! You can now repeat this process to have as much pages as you want in your coloring book. You can even get creative and create a coloring book cover from photoshop or microsoft word.

Good Luck!

Wedding Invitation

Sample wedding invitation:

Do children really need stationery?

Well, they don't need it like they need food, milk and naptime, but it would be a great idea for a few reasons.

Social stationery for babies might sound silly, but its quite the opposite. It is used for newborn baby announcements, it gives it a more personal feel when its stationery from the baby (so to speak). You can also get baby stationery as a gift for a 1st birthday party and in return use them as thank you cards.

For toddlers and young boys and girls, its a bit more sophisticated to use stationery. At these ages they can doodle and/or write. It helps encourage them to believe in the art of letter writing, and pushes their imagination. When using it for doodling, its a great way to hang them up on the refrigerator or save them for scrapbooking. They can use it for letter writing for their teacher or use it to write their parents a card for mothers day, fathers day or any occasion their might be (a parent might have to remind them to write mom a thank you card for an amazing 10th birthday party, haha)

So in reality while it may seem silly to have social stationery for children, it actually makes a great gift to give to your children, or makes a great gift to give to someone for their newborn child.

In addition, baby or childrens stationery can also mean stationery that is baby or children themed for many reasons. It doesn't always mean that you must add a name to it. There are many ways you can have fun with that! using them for birthday party invites or baby shower invites. They can be personalized so you don't have to use your own handwriting. The possiblities are endless!

Party Invites & more!

I wanted to plan a party at my home for my fellow coworkers who have been working hard all season so im throwing them a little get together and i thought, why not make some cool invites to go with them.

Here is the front of the invite:

Here is the back:

Here is an outline of some arabic calligraphy:

And here is a name card. Not sure want a name card is but here is mine:

Have a great day!