A very simple tutorial for: Inscribing Titles onto Books/etc

I return from (another) long hiatus to show you how to personalize...things! Photo albums, etc. I saw this idea on Pinterest quite a while ago, used to personalize a stool, and figured I could use it to jazz up a photo album I'd put together of a trip Spencer and I had taken to Germany.

Basically, you type up your desired text, print it, and tape it to your surface:

Then trace around each letter, pressing down firmly:

Peel your template off, and fill in the letters!

Et voila! (Or "wa-lah," if you're a flaming moron.)

Tips: first off, obviously choose a simple font, and make it BIG. This was a bit hard for me to outline and to fill in accurately. Secondly, PRESS HARD when outlining. Mine's obviously not perfect, and part of that is because I didn't have clear enough indentations on the book cover. Beyond that, it was the work of minutes! Good luck!

All that glitters is not gold: sometimes it's a wreath.

At a post-Valentine's Day sale at Jo-Ann Fabrics, I picked up a shiny, pink, heart-shaped, heart-tinsel-laden wreath for something like $4. Now, some people might think that those are already enough adjectives for any wreath, but I've been following the Aunt Peaches school of design: ALWAIZ MOAR GLITTER.

So, with a free afternoon this last weekend, I dug through my craft supplies and jazzed that wreath up another notch. BAM! (Don't get that reference? Here ya go.)

First up: bows. Bows are always good. I made a bow from some ribbon I had laying around and then tied it to the wreath with a piece of heart-printed ribbon. (Sidebar: does anyone have any ideas for how to use thin printed ribbons? I LOVE those ribbons, but I never really have any uses for them. Help me out here. Ribbon ribbon ribbon. Now it looks like it's spelled wrong, doesn't it? Ribbon.)

I had a pack of felt hearts, left over from an attempted Valentine's tree a few years ago ("attempted" meaning that I meant to decorate my little Christmas tree with Valentine's stuff, but then all the pre-strung lights on the tree died and I didn't want it anymore), and a roll of sparkly red and white heart tinsel, plus some ribbons and a heart charm from an old necklace. I trimmed a few of the hearts off the tinsel and with and some Krazy Glue, I made an ultra-Valentine's-y dealie to hang in the center of the wreath.

And here's the finished product. Et voila! Enough hearts for you?

It's now proudly hanging on our living room wall, despite the season, simply because I don't have a box big enough in which to store it. And you know, I'm not sure that huge pink sparkly heart-shaped wreaths AREN'T all-seasons appropriate!