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The woman who helped usher the interior design industry into full flower in the United States was prolific in putting out ideas that will help freshen up today's interior design business. Look at our latest Designer Monthly, Interior Design: Look Forward by Looking Back to Dorothy Draper.

Did you ever have a problem designing small spaces?  Take a look at how top interior designers solved this common problem in our latest Designer Monthly, How to Design Small Spaces at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House.

 

 

 

 

Entries in crafts (8)

Monday
Apr092012

Easier Weddings: Do-It-Yourself Crafty Wedding Cake Details

If you're thinking of great wedding inspiration for the coming spring season, look no further than 100 Layer Cake - one of our favorite wedding blogs. They cover a variety of weddings and feature top wedding vendors, from the best photographers to the best florists. And we also love their do-it-yourself projects. This one is all about how to create your own craft touches to spruce up a wedding cake. Here are some basics to help you get your DIY project started, and some beautiful inspiration photos. Jillian from 100 Layer Cake came up with these super cute cake decorations to share with you all. 

 

Materials

Gold letters, metallic threat, straws, printed or vintage paper

 

Project Cost

$15

 

You could totally whip something like this up, buy a plain cake from Whole Foods or a local bakery, and voila! You have an adorable little centerpiece for your reception.

 

Click to read more ...

Monday
Feb132012

Make Giant Do-It-Yourself Paper Wedding Flowers

This is a really exciting post.

Remember Brittany and Paul’s super cute, ultra whimsical wedding - the one with the HUGE PAPER FLOWERS?

Yes, of course you do. 

Well, Brittany sent us over a tutorial!

Hooray!!!! Now we can all cover our houses or decorate our weddings in huge paper flowers and we will be happy all the time.

Here’s the scoop from Brittany:

“From the get-go, I wanted large paper flowers to create a Thumblina/Alice in Wonderland-ish effect for our garden reception. My amazing mom came up with the brilliant centerpieces by creating a pattern, which we then duplicated about 30 times for all the centerpieces, walkways, and stairs. The great thing about paper flowers is that we could create them with plenty of time before the wedding without worrying about the wilting. That said, by the wedding day we then had 30 huge paper poppies “growing” in our house and we were plenty ready to get them out! Making the flowers is easy as pie. You’ll need a large surface to work on because these babies are quite large."

1. The base of the flower is 9” wide so you can start by marking the middle of the short end of the paper at the 9” mark and then marking 4½ inches out on either side.

2. Create the shape of the petal. You can either copy this picture and blow it up to the right size or create your own. (I drew it in marker here to so it would be clearer, but use pencil to be more inconspicuous.) It’s roughly the shape of a light bulb or shell with lots of undulating waves (you don’t want them to be too precise ...  they’re flowers!) From the 9” mark on the short side of the paper draw a 5” line up the middle.

3. Cut the shapes out.

4. Create the texture for the petal. We kept it simple by simply folding the paper over the ruler from the widest rim to the center of the shortest side. Space them out about every 1-1 ½ inches. Remember not to be too precise. Then, turn the petal over and turn every other fold the opposite way like an accordian fold. It might look a little too much like a sea shell at this point, but don’t worry, it gets better.

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Friday
Jul152011

Deconstruct Original Jewelry Pieces for Fun & Profit

Photo: Brian Appio
Have you ever thought about turning your jewelry-making skill into an unfinished project? Huh? Instead of finishing off a piece, perhaps you could package the components in a baggie along with a sheet of instructions. Instant craft! The following video shows a simple stop-action process that's very effective in demonstrating how an assortment of beads and hemp form a bracelet. Could you turn one of your projects into an easy-to-make craft? For fun, try designing a piece with packaging as a craft kit in mind. Thanks to clever musicman Christofer Drew (see photo above), aka Never Shout Never, for this great way to further "productize" a jewelry designer's work.

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