Chalk Paint

My latest discovery is Chalk Paint. You have to google it and find out what store near you carries it but it's the easiest paint to work with so it's worth the hunt! No sanding the piece before hand, no priming either and it dries quickly so you can easily add a second coat right away. It's amazing and with just two simple coats I was able to revive an old wooden nightstand for my new apartment for that Paris chic look! 

 

Take a look at the before and after. I even redid the handles using gold leaf paint from the hardware store. What a shiny new look to an old drabby piece! Now that I've found Chalk Paint, Martha is on the loose for old furniture to revive! Oh and one more thing, it's non toxic so you won't die of fumes if you paint in small spaces (I painted this Friday night in my apartment and went to bed and woke up fine on Saturday lol)!!

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Valentine Paper Garland

This Valentine garland is so easy to create with a few strips of colorful paper and a stapler. What a nice activitiy to do this Valentine's Day!  

Adorable Party Hats

My sister called me the other day from the party store complaining about the "cheesy" selection of party hats. Have no fear dear sis, Aunt Carrie is here! I ran over to my local party shop and geez, she was right! So I bought a pack of basic cone party hats and ran back home to work on them. I glued on scrap fabric, scrap trim and ribbons to create these adorable party hats. The possibilities are endless and with the help of a glue gun, anything that will stick, will work! So ditch the cheesy party hats and get crafting away on your own adorable hats!

Enchanting Tissue Paper Garland

How enchanting is this tissue paper garland? It gives this tree a whimsical touch for this adorable birthday party. I made this garland out of smaller versions of my paper party balls (see how to make them in my previous post) tied together with pink and white string! This garland is sure to be a go-to party decorating piece for me in the future. Hang the garland in a tree, on the wall or around a light post. The possibilities are endless.

Imagine all white garland for a bridal shower... oooh!

  

How To Make A Paper Party Ball

Ever seen those cute paper party balls hanging from the ceiling at an event? Paper party balls easily transform a space into a celebratory venue and aren't as standard as let's say balloons. If you purchase paper party balls at the store they will run about $5 each. Here's a way to make your own party balls and the materials should come out to about $1 each! You can make smaller ones to put on top of presents too!

What you will need:

- 1 tissue paper packet (the standard size that come folded).

- Scissors

- String

Steps:
1) Start by unfolding the the standard tissue paper pack. You will have about 5 to 10 rectangle sheets laying on top of one another. (If the pack only gives you five sheets you can always double up!)
2) Start folding the tissue paper (on the shorter width of the rectangle) about and inch wide like an accordion until you get to the end of the tissue paper. You should have long strip of tissue paper that fans out a bit!
3) Pinch the middle of the strip and tie a long piece of string around it.
4) Fan out your tissue paper and gently begin separating each pice of tissue paper from one another. Be careful not to rip the delicate tissue.
5) Hang your pretty party ball by the string and admire your work.

Not bad for $1 right? Have fun at the party!

Monogrammed Pumpkin!

Happy Halloween from Caroline's Pink Envelope!

Vermont Apple Crisp

After a weekend apple picking in Vermont, it was time to bake something with my loot! Instead of a pie this year, I decided to cheat and just make an easy apple crisp. I got the recipe from a very special Vermont grandmother :) It was almost as great as my apple pie and it took a quarter of the time! Why not try to make this very simple and delicious seasonal dessert for yourself. Go on and try, I promise it's really easy and yummy!

Ingredients:

5-6 large apples (any apple you prefer!)

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

4 tablespoons soft butter

Cinnamon (enough to sprinkle on top)

Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on the side if desired!

1) Grease baking dish with butter and preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. (The size of dish may vary, 9 x 12 or 8 x 8, it really doesn't matter!)

2) Peel and core the apples and slice them. Arrange slices in the baking dish.

3) In a small bowl mix together brown sugar, softened butter and flour until it has a sticky crumbly texture.

4) Sprinkle sugar mixture over the apples and sprinkle cinnamon on the top.

5) Bake for 45 minutes or until apples are soft.

6) Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

For Cards That Deserve Lined Envelopes

I’ve always loved the look of lined envelopes but I‘ve never known how to do it until now. I received a pretty card in the mail with a gorgeous lined envelope and I decided that my cards deserve lined envelopes too! To teach myself how to do it, I headed over to Paper Source in Brooklyn. The sale girls are great about teaching me new projects and showing me what supplies I’ll need. I purchased a plastic envelope liner template and a few pieces of pretty printed paper. I was delighted to discover how easy it is to create pretty envelope liners at the store and I hurried home to do it myself. Gosh this is so easy!! Here is how to do it!

You Will Need:

- Envelopes (I use A2, but any size will do!)

- Envelope liner template (make sure if you use let’s say A6 envelopes that you use the A6 liner template)

- Pretty paper (use light weight paper, wrapping paper works well)

- Double sided craft glue strips, you can substitute a glue stick

- Scissors

- Pencil

Steps:

1) Simply trace the template with your pencil on the back of the pretty paper.

2) Cut it out using scissors, I tried using an exacto knife and I wouldn’t recommend it.

3) Insert the liner in your envelope so it fits snug in the envelope.

4) Place two small glue strips only at the top of the envelope along the edge of the “V”. Press firmly with your fingers.

5) Fold the envelope to create a crease in the liner.

6) The most important step... Admire your pretty work!! Haha!

Soooo easy, right? Now you can create professional looking envelopes with easy to create envelope liners! I think my cards deserve lined envelopes, don’t you?

Mini Tarts For The Working Martha

Oh my goodness, I am almost embarrased to post this recipe because it's kind of Sandra-Lee-esque, BUT it was so yummy and so darn easy that I have to share it with my little working Marthas out there! I took a recipe that I found online and skipped half the steps to create this super easy recipe. No baking working ladies haha!! These fresh creamy tarts look so pretty and taste just as sweet!

Ingredients:Ready made mini gram cracker crusts. I used 6 mini ones from Betty Crocker1 package 8 ounce cream cheese2 cups of berries (whatever is on sale at the grocery store haha!)1/3 cup granulated sugar2/4 cup heavy whipping cream1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions: In small bowl, beat cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar and the vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Next beat in the heavy cream on medium speed until stiff peaks form. Spread evenly into the mini pie crusts. Arrange your berries on top, this is the fun part! Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving or make a day ahead and store covered in refrigerator until you are ready to be Martha!!

A Decorating Tip

How many times have you been in a store and seen a home decor item such as a pillow and purchased it only to bring it home and realize that it doesn't quite match the colors that are already in your room? Shoot this can be so annoying when you are tryng to decorate a room using multiple fabrics and you want everything to blend nicely. Unless you are purchasing your entire living room from page 4 of Potterybarn where everything is pre-matched for you, you are going to run into this problem. If only I had a piece of the couch and chair fabric to tote along... but who has the fabric if you buy something pre-upholstered? 

To solve the issue I went to the paint store and browsed the blues and greens, looking for swatches that matched my upholstered furniture. "This looks like my blue, no wait I think it's more like this...eek!!" I had to bring home several swatches to make sure at least one of them matched up to my blue and green striped living room. In my pile of paint swatches I was thrilled to find a blue strip and a green strip that matched the tones of my fabric perfectly! Woo hoo!!  I marked the colors on the swatch and now I keep these swatches in my wallet at all times so if I see something in a store that I love, I can easily check if it matches my color scheme! I recently just brought the swatches to the fabric store to buy matching solid fabric to make curtains for the room! Thank goodness I had my swatches in my purse or I would have been way off in choosing my fabric!

The best part about using paint swatches is that they give you lighter and darker versions of your shade of color. I hope my decorating tip helps!

Happy July 4th!

The Easiest Diaper Cake

What could be sweeter than a diaper cake for a mom to be? Traditional diaper cakes are made using dozens of pins to hold the diapers in place, as if these moms don't have enough to do! Here is an easy way to create a beautiful and easy to disassemble diaper cake for that special mom to be!

 1) This may seem redundant but find out what diapers the mom to be prefers. Some ladies are picky these days so better to just ask!


2) Fold the diapers in half (do not roll them) and sandwich them together into a large circle around a clear plastic cup using your hands to hold the circle in place. I think it's easiest to build my circle on my lap. If you have an extra set of hands around for help that would be wonderful too!

3) Using masking tape to place a stripe or two of tape around the large circle. If enough diapers are packed into the circle it should stay in place! Place a pretty ribbon over the tape to conceal it. Secure the ribbon with clear tape where it meets its end.

4) Place the large circle of diapers on a flat surface and begin repeating the process to create a slightly smaller circles of diapers as you move up the cake.

5) There is no need to attach each circle together. That will happen at the end. You can create as many layers of diapers as you wish but make sure the circles get smaller as you go up.

6) Once all of your circle of diapers are sitting on top of one another, place the whole cake on top of two long ribbons (about 3 inches wide) in a cross shape.

7) Bring the ribbons up along the sides of the diaper cake and tie very tightly at the top. Use the excess ribbon to tie a pretty bow at the top of your cake.

8) Decorate your diaper cake as you wish! Perhaps try using faux flowers, other ribbons, tule or large buttons!

9) Your cake should be easy to transport and even easier to disassemble! What mom to be wouldn't love to receive the easiest diaper cake!

Happy Summer Cards

 

Looking for an excuse to send a note in the mail? Look no further because it's summertime!  The very best cards to receive are those that are unexpected, so take the time to send a special note just to say "Happy Summer" to someone you haven't seen in a while. Grandparents would love something like this! Happy Summer everyone!

When A Regular Box Just Won't Do!

I recently co-hosted a baby shower for my sister and made cupcake party favors for the guests. I started with my infamous cupcakes in a pink frosting with white nonperils. (She's obviously having a girl!) I ran out of my usual solo cupcake holder boxes and so I hurried over to the box store in Gramercy and bought a dozen plain brown small craft boxes. Shoot these weren't as cute as the ones I buy online but I figured they would do... As I was packing up my pretty pink cupcakes I decided that the brown boxes just wouldn't do and so I did something about it! I created a sweet little party favor box complete with a window to get a sneak peek of the treat inside as well as a little tag to thank the guests for attending the shower.

To make the adorable favor box below it was very easy just follow these steps:

1) Use a paper cutter punch or an exacto knife to cut a window in the top of the box.

2) Cut a small piece of clear plastic and glue it to the inside of the lid of the box.

3) Use a color printer to print out a cute message on heavy card stock. If you don't have a color printer just write a message by hand!

4) Use the same paper cutter or exacto knife to cut a sweet pattern around your message. ("In honor of Jenny's little cupcake! Thanks for coming!", etc...)

5) Decorate as desired!

You can use this window making technique on a variety of different boxes for food and other gifts. These are so cute and are perfect for when a regular box just won't do!

Footprints Of Santa

I am reposting my most popular post ffrom 2009 "Footprints of Santa" Enjoy!

For those of you lucky enough to have little believers around, I thought of some clever ideas to keep Santa's footprints alive!

-Most of you do this but bake cookies for Santa and leave carrots for the reindeer, if Santa comes, there should only be crumbs left on Christmas morning!
-Sprinkle some of the ashes from the fireplace onto the carpet. Whoops Santa made a mess as he came down the chimney!
-Get some red or white polyfil and leave a little on the edge of the fireplace screen. Santa got caught on his way into the living room!
-Take one of Dad's largest shoes and make footprint in either snow or mud. Santa was walking around outside for a little break in between houses!
-Cut a sponge in the shape of a reindeer hoof. Dip it in some muddy water and create a little trail along the driveway or sidewalk. The reindeer must have been frolicking around while Santa was inside!
-Cut some extra ribbon and leave it anywhere around the house or yard, any trace of Santa will excite the little ones!

There are just a few of my ideas to keep your little believers believing!

Wedding Ornaments

In August I attended my cousin Lindsey's wedding. It was a beautful beach wedding and starfish was a theme in the decor. There were starfish everywhere, the bridesmaids even wore starfish necklaces! My aunt who is also very crafty decided to use starfish to hold up the place cards. She positioned the starfish popping out of the sand holding each guests name with their table number. It was really cute. I decided to save a few of the starfish to create something special for the bride and groom. I asked a few people at my table if I could have their starfish too. I carried four starfish home and kept them safe and sound for several months. I would make ornaments for the couple at Christmastime... I just had to make sure I didn't lose them! In December I found my four starfish so I got busy making my ornaments!

I hot glued metal hooks to the backs of each starfish. I tied black and turquoise ribbon to each one for hanging, they were Lindsey's wedding colors! Now I have a set of four pretty startfish ornaments to give my cousin this Christmas. The starfish were straight from her own wedding which makes them even more special. As you attend weddings of friends, think of things you can hold on to a make into ornaments next December. I can't wait to see them on the newlyweds' tree!

2011 Christmas Cards

Here are some of my Christmas cards this year!

Preppy Ornaments

I made these darling preppy ornaments based on inspiration I got from a Lilly Pulitzer designed Christmas tree. It was covered with lots of a adorable tiny Lilly shift ornaments and I thought it was the cutest thing I'd ever seen! I searched for the Lilly ornaments on the web and they were pretty pricey so I decided to make them on my own. I bought inexpensive scrap fabric from the craft store and sturdy craft wire to make the hangers. How darling are these!!! I'm not going to lie they were SUCH a pain to make, but so freakin' cute! They look even cuter on the tree!