Mint

some great Valentine’s Day DIY projects & recipes from the archives:

Above, Lace Tealight by Danny Hong, Chocolate Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwiches from Lisa Wong Jackson, Love Garden by Succulent Love, and a Cranberry Tart from Fresh365. (Other favorites: Red Velvet Sandwiches with a Valentine’s Day box and a printable DIY valentine!).

These DIY thumbtacks are so cute, and a great way to use that pile of fabric scraps you can’t throw away.

(You have one of those too, right?)

Most of our new-house projects have been of the non-glamorous, non-photogenic variety. We quickly realized that washing machine/plumbing problems and the busyness of the holiday season trumped decorating dilemmas, so our kitchen looks just like it did on the day we moved in, and we’re still working our way through boxes. But! We did make one big change… our dining room, which was inexplicably painted three different shades of white, is now a beautiful light gray with bright white trim. (You guys gave us a ton of great tips on the grey color, and we ended up going with Sherwin Williams’ On The Rocks).

And our ugly chandelier got a quick DIY makeover, which only took us an hour, some new bulbs, and a can of black spray paint. Voila!

You guys loved last year’s DIY Gift Guide, so I thought I’d officially make it a Mint tradition. Here are some of my favorite DIY ideas, so you can skip the malls entirely! Since DIY ideas never go out of stock, here is the 2009 DIY Gift Guide.

Fill this box with special memories, stories, and quotes. Too sweet! The perfect handmade holiday gift for your sweetheart.

Make caricatures for each family member! These DIY nesting dolls are an easy sewing/drawing project that anyone could do.

Using a white paint pen, a chalkboard from the craft store turns into an easy DIY project. It’s also perfect for lists (you could put magnets on the back and hang on the fridge) or as a frame for vintage postcards as shown.

This DIY tutorial links to a hot sauce recipe and provides printable jar labels, too.

This knitted fingerless glove tutorial gives you step by step patterns. I love the stripes!

Made from a water bottle and a sock, this DIY handlebar bag is the perfect bike accessory.

An old frame and a plain pegboard turn into this DIY pegboard garden tool organizer.

Kids love fish! And I love this DIY fish mobile because it’s adorable and the perfect answer for what to do with all those (free) paint chips.

A pair of felt rose barrettes are the perfect little girl accessory!

Wrap some blank journals and good novels in pretty papers with this bookmark & book cover tutorial.

Charles the Plushie is easily customizable, and the tutorial gives 4 cute patterns to work from.

Who doesn’t love caramel and fudge sauces? This is a great way to use fabric scraps, and the tutorial has printable hang tags, too.

Peanut butter puppers!

Recycle some old sweaters or failed felting projects to create these catnip cocktails.

One of my favorite DIY projects of the year! If you’re not handy with a saw, you can purchase pre-cut slices and use the provide templates to make these DIY coasters. It’s the perfect way to spruce up your coffee table before the guests arrive!

Today I’m on the hunt for simple, modern Thanksgiving centerpiece ideas. My goal is to use things that are around the house, in the yard, or can be picked up with a quick trip to the grocery store. Cause the clock’s a-ticking. Here are some of my favorites!

Top: This centerpiece was styled by Joy Thigpen for Once Wed, and I love that it’s simple, rustic, and fuss-free. Photo by Tec Petaja. This one might be the winner for me…

1: Kate Pruitt created this table setting for Design Sponge. Although the modeling clay is a little too time intensive for me at the point, I think pine cones spray painted white would do the trick, and only take a second. I also love the white paint pen on the leaf! For another great example of this idea, check out Sunset.

2: Feathers on napkins and fall colored grocery store finds in bowls makes this one (via Holidash) the easiest of all! Photo by Seth Smoot.

3: If you have healthy plants around the house, arrange them on the table with candles in between and voila, simple and modern. If you don’t have pretty house plants, pick some up and enjoy them way past Thursday. Created for Sunset and photographed by Thomas J. Story.

4: This is another one I might try. Fall leaves, branches, berries, and a few orange pumpkins. This I could handle! Photo by Thayer Allison Gowdy for Sunset.

5: Found on Holidash and photographed by Seth Smoot, this one just requires a branch from your back yard, a can of spray paint, and 10 minutes of drying time.

6: I have a sneaking suspicion that this one is harder to pull off than it looks, but it’s sort of the same idea as #4. Grocery store finds (mushrooms, pears, eucalyptus, fall leaves, carnations, alstroemeria, and paperwhites) are casually combined with a vintage oatmeal tin by the talented Studio Choo for Design Sponge.

Thanks to Seleta for hosting me on Friday with my DIY Halloween Cupcake Topper project! You can read the step-by-step on Simply Seleta, and can download the file right here.

Yes… remember Howdy Do It? Margot’s not here, but she’s been doing a few sporadic Howdy Do It posts of her own on Pitch. I was inspired to write this post today because I’ve been struggling a lot with my own product photography. I think I do an OK job with my West and Plum photos, but when it comes to photographing invitations for Hello Tenfold, I have a hard time getting an end product I’m proud of. I’d like to hire a photographer/stylist at some point, but right now it’s just not in the budget.

I started out with wood backgrounds, mostly because… well, we had just gotten married and there were a few fresh cutting boards lying around. The wood flattered some pieces, but not all of them, and I want consistency in my photos. After looking through a lot of invitation photography that I admired, I realized that many people photograph their work on top of fabric backgrounds. I’d tried this but I always had two big problems: (1) I don’t like ironing, and (2) I don’t have any great upholstered furniture, or even the right fabric scraps to make it work.

So, last week I went to a cheap fabric store and picked up half yards of five neutral linen fabrics. I ironed them and attached them to cardboard in the same way you’d stretch a canvas. I used 13×19″ cardboard cake boards for the base because I had them lying around, but you could also do this with wood and a staple gun. In case you haven’t stretched a canvas before, here are a few steps:

• stretch fabric across the longest side first
• put a staple in one side, then pull fabric taut and put another staple on the exact opposite end
• pull fabric taut and staple the third side
• pull tight (really tight!) and staple the fourth side
• once you have the first four staples, you just start going around and adding more staples. each time you add a staple, move across to the other side, pull taut, and add another staple. In other words, you should have an even number of staples. The more the better, I say! For the purposes of this project, nice and neat corners don’t matter so much. But if you have to have them and aren’t sure how to get them, I’d recommend watching this video.

Now I’ve got five neutrals to photograph with! I think I’ve finally figured out the best spot in the house and time of day to photograph with natural light, and my plan is to get some simple flowers to make the operation look more styled. Wish me luck! Here are some photos from the first attempt:

I think they look much better…