Lilliputian Envelopes

Wow Martha!  You’ve really outdone yourself this time.  The next time I get invited to a Lilliputian’s birthday party, I’ll be ready to give them the cutest card/envelope ever!!!

Before you make a snide remark that I probably missed the instructions that state you should “enlarge” the template, I didn’t.  I looked everywhere and didn’t see any. 

Whoops!  I take that back.  As I was writing up my recap, I re-read the instructions and she states that you should “Photocopy a template to your desired size.”  My suggestion: BE MORE CLEAR.  Why not something such as, “The templates provided in this book are for ‘little people.’ You need to enlarge the templates in order to write any other word besides ‘hi.’”

Templates provided in the back of the book

Keep in mind that the grid you see below is in INCHES.  Each square is a square inch.  Hopefully that gives you some perspective because while I learned in Geography class a long time ago, they used to place a pack of cigarettes in the picture to give a feel for the size of the object, I don’t smoke, thus no cigarette packs around.

I'm not too into crafting alone, so Lauren came over, we had a beer and she created some 'Just Moved' cards (since she'll be moving to Cincinnati shortly).  Boo.  What is it with all of my friends moving??? 


Below is the template that she recreated, FREEHAND no less, next to the one provided in the book.

My Lilliputian envelope, and Lauren's "normal"-sized envelope

There were four templates total, and in the following picture, I displayed them in their original Lilliputian size as well as an enlarged size.   

And it wouldn't be a complete blog post without one more Hipstamatic picture of the finished project.

To seal the envelopes, I just used a circle-punch on a coordinating piece of paper and then glued it on.  It's not resealable, but I think it's kind of cute!

Hey, I just thought of a bonus for the tiny envelopes!  You could use the left-over confetti from a 3-hold punch to seal them!  THEY'RE THAT SMALL.

Shake Your Pom-Pom

Okay.  I have to admit that I was a little leery of this project.  My BFF Lauren made some of these for my baby shower and I fell in love with them.  It was one of the first things I noticed when walking into her house... these airy, little, flowery orbs.  So cute, so classy, so what I aspire to be.


When I first mentioned to her that I would be tackling this project, she thought it would be best to do it at a time in which I was a little more "stable."  I was in the process of weaning Peaches McGee and was a wee bit hormonal.  She explained to me that she had broken a pair of scissors while making the pom-poms.  Probably not the best idea to have scissors in the hands of a hormonal woman, right?  Luckily for Peaches, the hubby, and the dog, I heeded her advice and just now did them.


In her book, Martha writes about her paper pom-poms and gives you two separate options - large orbs or napkin rings.  I was still a little worried for the safety of my family, so I went with the smaller napkin rings, i.e., more manageable.


They were pretty straight forward and turned out fairly well!  My first project where I don't really have any complaints (okay, I always have some), but I fear that this post will be fairly boring.


Oh well.


Read on anyways!


I chose a reddish color tissue paper to go with my linens for Mother's Day brunch.

Martha's directions for the napkin rings call for four 10-by-5 inch pieces of tissue paper, and yes I used a ruler:

Then you are to accordion-fold the paper with 3/8 inch folds (yep, used a ruler again):

Then you slip some floral wire (she calls for cloth-covered floral wire, but good Lord, it makes no difference), over the middle of it and twist it.


Next you trim the ends into a rounded or pointy shape.  I didn't take a picture of this step.


Bite me.


Next is the, oh-so-fun part and you separate the layers, pulling them from the center.  The directions are less than ideal for this part, but if you know what it's supposed to look like, you can figure it out.


Below is one with pointy ends.

Again, the directions for creating the actual napkin rings were vague at best, but I just used the same floral wire, secured it around a rolled napkin, and then secured it around the center of the "flower."


Et le piece de resistance: