Clothespin Chic

Why is it that items larger or smaller than expected have so much appeal?  When I saw the oversized clothespins in the Oriental Trading Company catalog I knew I had to have them. 

I covered them with tissue paper and turned them into stylish little display easels.  They can be used in the kitchen to hold a recipe card or elsewhere to display pictures or other works of art.  The technique for the transformation is super simple and I've written a tutorial with more pictures.  Have fun creating your own.

Strawberry Boxes Forever

I was trying to think of a super quick craft for Valentine’s Day and came across an idea in the unlikely place of Oriental Trading Company’s website.  Their Strawberry Box is a cute and simple paper craft that takes 20 minutes to put together, 30 minutes if you choose to cover the box with fabric as I did. 

The first thing I did was to print out the template provided onto cardstock.  I roughly cut out the two shapes and fused fusible webbing onto the back of each piece of paper.  I then fused fabric to the other side of the webbing and cut out the pieces along the lines.  I found my buttonhole punch worked better than a hole punch to make the necessary holes through both layers.  I used an embossing stylus to score the paper along the dotted lines, and my hot glue gun worked great for securing the tab.  Then it was a matter of threading ribbon through the holes of the berry and the leaf and tying a bow.  I am planning to fill the box with Hershey kisses for a sweet Valentine treat for my 3-year-old.