Sweet Paul’s Last Minute Pumpkin Carving Ideas

So those of us who have been busy with work, it’s not to late to get started on some last minute pumpkin carving. Thanks to my friend, Susan, I’ve discovered a new and terrific blog called Sweet Paul. This past week, this ?ºber-crafty genius featured a number of brilliant pumpkin carving ideas. I loved them so much I had to post on a Saturday.

Sweet Paul's brilliant pumpkins

Here is just one of several ideas from Paul. You’ll enjoy all his ideas – even those not related to pumpkins. Be warned, you might find yourself engrossed in Sweet Paul’s posts that you run out of time for pumpkins.

That’s on my To-Do list today, along with my third assignment for Apartment Therapy’s Kitchen Cure. We’re supposed to do a deep cleaning. Fortunately, I did that while I reorganized. I have one more cabinet to tackle and then all I have left is my kitchen island to style. I’m saving that for my trip to New York in a couple of weeks. Wouldn’t you know, I threw out a bunch of those little trees (see pumpkin, above) last week.

Closet of Terror becomes the pantry

Enjoy Sweet Paul and let me know how your pumpkins turned out.

Alluminare’s Crafty Wallpaper Contest Winner!

We got a lot of nifty ideas for using wallpaper as a craft. Thanks to everyone who entered.

And now, without further ado, the winner of 20 square feet of custom wallpaper from Alluminare is:

Libby U!

Congratulations, Libby! You will be receiving your coupon directly from Alluminare. And your Design Hole T Shirt from me! Yay!

Here is her design, along with her plan for making picture frames and some cool art. I hope I’ve translated the instructions properly. If not, I hope Libby will set me straight. Or, better yet, send me a photo of the finished project.

Cool Picture Framed Art

1. Buy nine – 1 foot square frames and spray paint them black.
2. Carefully cut out a bunch of 1-inch x 1-inch squares of wallpaper – it’s ideal because you don’t need to trim or break the pattern.
3. Tack the squares to the front of the frames (and only the fronts, no wrap-around).
4. Arrange the frames into a 3-foot ?ó 3-foot grid and secure them together (temporarily, carefully).
5. Find a simple, graphic design and paint it in white across all the pieces.
6. Separate the pieces, affix to the wall in the same grid order, but about 1 to 2 inches apart on all sides.

Libby suggests: You could do this in any arrangement. A cool option would be to have several squares in a row, vertically or horizontally, and a long, skinny graphic across them. Perhaps use the same pattern in border form…at an angle, maybe…endless possibilities. Even vector family portraits, Lichtenstein-style, if you’re particularly artistic (that would be rad).

Thanks again to everyone for giving us some great ideas. And thanks to my sponsor, Alluminare for such a great prize.

Last day to enter the Wallpaper Crafty Contest!

Welcome back! Hope you all had a great weekend. I spent my time shopping for home accessories. I’m finishing up a bedroom project. Oh, and then there was dinner with friends at Mr. Paul’s Chophouse, an old restaurant that still makes Caesar Salad and Cherries Jubilee Flambe tableside. Hope your weekend was fun as well.

Candy designed this beauty

Now to the contest. This is the last day to enter for a chance to win 20 square feet of wallpaper from Alluminare. You design it yourself! Just visit the site, design your favorite style and post the link in the comments. Let me know what your idea is for using the wallpaper in a craft project.

You can read all the details here.

I’ll announce the winner tomorrow morning. There’s no time to waste, so enter today.

Alluminare Craft Contest

What would you do with 20 square feet of wallpaper? Come up with your best handmade plan and you could win a gift certificate to make your creation a reality.

Alluminare, the sponsor of this contest, is the place to go to create your own, one-of-a-kind wallpaper. Choose your pattern, colors and sizes. Have fun! Then, scoot back here and let me know what you chose (copy the URL – it’s the easiest way to share)¬† and let me know how you’d put it to good use.

Stumped for ideas? Take some of mine:

• Cover a twin-sized headboard with a cheerful pattern for your child’s room.
• Create Instant Art with a bold pattern cut in two or three pieces. Cover canvases or canvas frames with the paper and hang them on either side of a fireplace. Or side-by-side in a dining room.
• Line envelopes, make greeting cards
• Decoupage a waste basket and cover a mirror frame to create a groovy a powder room

For all the fun details, follow this link to my previous post. Don’t wait! The contest ends this Monday. The winner will be drawn at random. And did I mention the Design Hole T shirt? Oooh!

Alluminare Custom Wallpaper Giveaway

What would you do with 20 square feet of custom, design-it-yourself wallpaper? Would you cover the back of a bookcase to add some zip to a room? Create one-of-a-kind picture frames, storage boxes or planters?

Here’s your chance to put your creativity to the test and turn your idea into reality. The prize? A gift certificate from Alluminare good towards that 20 square feet of custom wallpaper. Plus a Design Hole T-shirt. Yay!

Only three simple steps to enter!

1. Come up with your best idea for a handmade item or crafty application using a 4 foot x 5 foot piece of wallpaper. You can cut it, tear it, soak it – whatever. Just be creative.
2. Scoot over to Alluminare, and design your favorite wallpaper. They’ve got lots of patterns, up to 4 colors on one design, and 4 sizes to choose from. Copy the URL with your design.
3. Hop back here and leave your idea under “comments”, along with the URL link showing your design.

The winning idea will be announced on Tuesday morning, September 29th.

The contest is open to everyone living in the contiguous United States, plus Hawaii, as long as you haven’t won a prize in the last 6 months. Even Martha Stewart can enter.