Things I Heart ♥

Is there anything more exciting than a super-cool piece of mail?  Even looking at images of fun mail gets me grinning!

Here are some of my favorite images at the moment:
What an adorable way to invite people to an event!  From Design Love Fest.
Repurposed old shutter = fun place to put letters and envelopes!
 Hehe…snail mail 😛
Receiving packages with little personal touches like this…..is the best.
Wonderful packaging, cute, clean and smile-worthy.
 A worthwhile walk down an idyllic lane for some fantastic-looking letters…
We have a Pinterest account especially for Snail Mail, check it out here!

Masquerade Mask DIY (holiday craft idea, masquerade diy)

Ok, so here’s a fun Masquerade Mask DIY I came up with.  Every New Years for the past 4 years I’ve tried to do something slightly different than normal. This year, it involved going to a proper Masquerade Ball—in San Francisco, with the symphony orchestra.

The invitation said that masks were supplied, but we decided we didn’t want to fit in with the crowd…so we made our own.  I used Christmas ornaments to create mine, and Chris made his out of paper mache, paint, and hot glue!  Check it out!

Masquerade Mask DIY

What we started with:

Masquerade Mask DIY
What we ended with:

Masquerade Mask DIY - from Fairivy.com (subscription gifts for women)


Chris’ manly mask:

He altered the shape of the cheap plastic green mask by adding hard paper, then paper mache to the outside.

 A paint layer next, to get rid of the newsprint!

The finished product!  I didn’t capture the in-between steps, but he used hot glue to make the swirls, then metallic silver and bronze paint to make it look like metal!



Lucy’s somewhat more-feminine mask 
I started with a couple of Christmas ornaments we picked up for free at a thrift store the day after Christmas.  I smashed them (carefully—they are sharp!) and then flattened out the top gold hanging part.  Each one was different—they are very handy craft items!
Masquerade Mask DIY - from Fair Ivy (unique, monthly boxes for women)
Next, I got a cup of tea (important step), and hot glued the ornament pieces all over the mask in a mosaic style.  I added a couple of the awesome gold hanging pieces as embellishments, and a few vintage buttons (courtesy of my mom) on top of the feathers.
 
Me happily crafting away (it was a rainy day, even better!)
The finished product!
And here’s us posing before the ball 🙂

I’ve added a little single image tutorial for making masks out of Christmas ornaments, in case anyone wanted to repost or add it to Pinterest! 

Enjoy!