Baby, it's cold outside!

While I love the beauty in the golden color of the gingkos and the crunching of the cranberry and sienna tinted maple leaves under my boots on the Georgetown cobblestone sidewalks, I just can't bring myself to like the cooler temperatures that came along with the start of October.  It happens every year, Summer just slips away too fast and the holiday rush is here at Haute Papier!

While I haven't made this Make-it Monday project yet, I can't wait to find a snuggly fabric to adorn in little pom poms to cut the chill in the air!  I found it on one of my favorite blog, the purl bee.  You can find the full directions here and next time you're in NYC, be sure to stop by their store in SoHo for some amazing fabrics and yarns!

photo from the purl bee blog

Make-It Monday from Colorado!

Greetings from Breckenridge!  I'm here on a little get-away at our friend's beautiful home before the holiday rush begins at Haute Papier!   Yesterday we went for a great hike and then visited the Summer Fun Park at the bottom of the gondola where we panned for gems.  Yes, panned for gems with all of the kids.  I did ask and we weren't the first adults to take part!  Once we saw the gorgeous pieces of granite and quartz that the youngings were uncovering, I couldn't resist the urge to make a necklace from them. The process was simple.  I purchased some silk cording, thin gold wire and a bead to act as a fastener at the end of the necklace at the bead store in town and then went to town on wrapping our findings.  I left a loop at the top of the stone to tread it onto the silk and tied little knots at the end so I could adjust the length of the necklace. Isn't it pretty?

Welcome Back Students!

Well it's that time of the year again!  Haute Papier's youngest friends are headed back to school.  Awaiting many of them are boxes of our paper scrap!  It's truly a trash to treasure story around here, folks.  One of our favorite ways to give back is with pound & pounds of paper scrap donated to area first grade classrooms.  We know the budgets can be tight for the little extras in a classroom so we try and bring a smile to student AND their teachers by providing wonder paper scraps for classroom projects throughout the year.  Do you know a worthy first grade class?  If so, let us know and we'll get a box right out to them!  Happy crafting & learning this year, little ones!

Featured in: Mollie Makes!

I was so excited to get a copy of the British publication, Mollie Makes in the mail yesterday featuring the rustic mason jar lanterns we made for my parent's 30th Wedding Anniversary party (see more on the party here, here, and here).  The magazine, which by the way is currently running a contest where you can win a subscription (here), is fabulous for craft lovers.  The tutorials are thorough and the ideas are fresh and inspiring!

Make Your Own FONTS!!!

Today for Make-It Monday, I wanted to share my experiences in making your own font!  For our new Bold & Beautiful line, we had to create a couple of our own fonts since some of the metal type we purchased does not have a corresponding computer font.  So, to do this, we foil stamped each of our letters and then scanned them into the computer and fiddled with them as best possible in Illustrator to make them look pretty (and by pretty, I mean straight lines and the same height). This was a tedious task and the letters aren't perfect, but it will allow us to proof your orders in our foil stamp fonts to be sure you like the look before we print! Then we places all of the little letters and glyphs in the template from yourfonts.com and then clicked create font and they did the rest!  It was $9.95 for their services (well worth it, if you ask me!)

Here is our first go:

And this is our new monogram font:

and my favorite (and reminiscent of my wedding reception venue):

You can make your own font here! Let us know how it goes!