Valentine's Day Card Contest!

Hey friends, have we got something fun for you to participate in: a Valentine's Day Card Contest! As if that wasn't exciting enough, the winners will receive prizes! What kind of prizes, you ask?

First Prize: $50 gift certificate
Second Prize: $25 gift certificate
Third Prize: $15 gift certificate

If you like our swag, and want to win some spending money at our stores, show us your best and most creative valentine!

Here are the rules:

• Cards can be constructed from any material - not just things you find at our stores (but, hey if you want to buy your supplies here, who are we to stop you?) Think outside the box!
  

• Make your cards any size you wish. No need to include an envelope - though it may win you creativity points.

• Entries must be dropped off in person at our TWOSIDED location.
  

• No photos please - we plan on making a fun window display featuring your creations!

• Entries must be dropped off no later than Sunday February 7 to be eligible

• Winners will be judged by Twosided & Foursided's most creative employees and announced via email or phone the week after Valentine's Day

Oh, and for all of you lovebirds who want to enter a card for your sweetie in our contest, we will be happy to have your card ready for pick up on Saturday, February 13 -
just in time for Valentine's Day.

Get inspired and get to craftin' - we can't wait to see your creativity!

Crafty Christmas: More Ornaments!

Anything can become an ornament - have we stressed that enough this holiday season? Little people, blocks, flashcards and more! Drill a hole, string it up, tie a bow, add glitter to something - any method will work, and we can guarantee it will look fun on your tree! Are you making anything fun with the ribbon and do-dads you find at our stores? We want to see it!

Favorite Things

Loyal blog readers, there is nothing we love more than seeing the amazing stuff you create from the things you find at our stores. We are here to inspire you to create stuff that is fun and memorable. Whether you create a memory by giving a fun card, or tangible art that you make with your own hands, we are elated to hear the story and happy to be a catalyst for creativity.

Card maker extraordinaire Amber, from a. Favorite Design, emailed us these great projects that showcase a bunch of our fun ephemera, and we were so impressed we just had to share!

Top to Bottom:

• Number collage assembled from old flashcards, game pieces, house numbers, and other loveliness containing the number 3.
• Anniversary card made from a flashcard, number piece, and folk clothespins. Traditionally wood is given for the 5th anniversary.
• Looking into the magical jar.
  
• Magical jar containing flashcards, scrabble tiles, dominoes, anagram tiles, and tons and tons of other fun stuff!
• Valentine assembled in a frame from letters, cards, a domino, a Monopoly card, doilies, and assorted special do-dads.

Thanks Amber! All we can say is wow!

As for the rest of you, keep the great ideas coming - and if you would like us to showcase something you've made on our blog please do not hesitate to contact us!

One-of-a-kind Cards: How To

We just got hold of an old picture word puzzle and we decided to whip up some cute one-of-a-kind cards. Here is a DIY guide for how to repurpose a similar puzzle, but don't be afraid to get creative and apply these techniques to another retro object!

Before you begin you will need to grab some glue, a cutting tool, a ruler, and have a cutting surface to work on. Also find some blank card stock or paper to make your card.

We want to use the puzzle piece and the surrounding area with the idea of the piece still being removable from the finished card. Using our ruler as a guide, we started by cutting a vertical strip off of the puzzle.

If you have access to a T-square it might come in handy for this next step which involves cutting out the actual object to be affixed to our card. We want the image and its corresponding word so we cut horizontally just below the text and just above the circle where the piece "pops" out of the puzzle. Repeat these first two steps until you have as many pieces as you have cards.

After we are done cutting we are ready to glue! Since we want the puzzle piece to actually be removable later make sure to apply glue ONLY to the area outside the circular piece. Glue it up and stick it to your card. Easy Peasy!

Let your cards dry, admire your work, and start brainstorming about your next crafty project!

Puzzle Cards $4.00 each

Think Outside The Box: Ribbon

We are back with some ribbon tying tips to make your boxes look fab! Again, there are a million-and-a-half ways to tie a bow, and assuming most of you have graduated from velcro and learned to tie a shoelace, the bow tying doesn't seem to be the problem... it's wrasslin' with that ribbon and the box without an extra set of hands that gets you all tied up. Allow us to be of service.

1. Let's start with a generous piece of ribbon - about 7x the longest box length. Place the center of the ribbon in the center of the box top-side up.
2. Move each hand away from the center keep a firm hold on the ribbon until you reach the bottom edge of the box.
3. Firmly holding the ribbon against the side of the box with your thumbs, gently flip the box over.
4. The bottom side of your box (with the tape) should be face up.
5. Give yourself some more slack on the ribbon and with the left piece in your right hand and the right piece in your left hand, cross the left piece over the right.
6. Continue crossing the pieces of ribbon so that the pieces in your hands are perpendicular to the pieces crossing over your box in step 5.
7. Repeat steps 2 and 3.
8. Your box should be facing up with a vertical strip of ribbon down the middle. Almost done!
   
9. Cross the ribbon pieces over each other as you would if making a knot.
10. Ok now the tricky one handed bits come into play... so get ready! Holding the left piece of ribbon with your left hand, pinch the area of the ribbons where they cross each other. While holding this snugly with your left hand, take the right piece of ribbon from the back and push the right piece of ribbon under with your right hand to complete the knot.
11. Pull the right piece of ribbon through and pull to tighten both pieces of your knot.
12. Holding the left piece of ribbon in the left hand, use your left index finger to press the knot of ribbon to the box and hold it in place. Use the thumb from your left hand and your right hand to form the right piece of ribbon into a loop.
13. Let your left index finger off the hook and swap in your right thumb to hold the knot and bow in place. Using your left hand, wrap the left ribbon around the bow in your right hand - just like tying a shoe
14. Push the loop of left ribbon through the knot you have made with your left hand, with your right hand still holding things in place.
    
15. Let the left hand take over holding things, and using your right hand pull the remaning loop of your bow through the knot.
16. Yay! You did it! It wasn't so bad, was it? Tighten up your bow and trim off the ends to make it look pretty. Give your gift and watch your lovely bow get untied.
    

Think Outside The Box: Wrap It Up!

Okay all you wrapping novices, it's time to give this whole gift wrapping with actual paper a try! We promise it will be painless, save for the occasional paper cut, so grab a box and practice! Keep in mind there are several ways to do the same thing, so this is just one way to wrap a box.

1. Organize your materials: paper, scissors, tape, and gift. A solid tape dispenser will make your life easier!
2. Measure enough paper to fit around your gift. Too little paper is a wrapper's nightmare.
3. Center your gift in the paper and gauge where the paper will overlap.
4. Fold over the raw edge and crease if you want a clean look to your wrapping.
5. Overlap the clean edge and tape it down. This is the bottom of our gift.
6. Fold down the paper facing you over the edge of the box, making it flat on the gift's side.
7. Crease the "triangular" flaps on your right and left, making them as crisp and close to the corner of the gift box as possible.
8. If you folded & creased this is what your gift should look like. Take a breather. Pour yourself a nice cold drink, pat yourself on the back, do whatever you need to do to get psyched for the next steps!
9. Break time over. Working on the left, fold the flap toward the center keeping the paper as close to the side edge of the box and the bottom corner of the box as you can.
10. Crease the diagonal fold that is on the table for a smooth edge.
11. Repeat steps 9-10 on the right flap.
12. Fold the piece of wrap up and tape it to the side of the box.
13. One side is complete! Spin your box around to the other side.
14. Fold down the paper facing you and repeat steps 6-12.
15. Whoa. It's all wrapped! That was painless!
16. Flip the gift over to the "top" (the side opposite the taped bottom. duh.) and admire your handiwork! Hooray! Promptly give gift and watch your creation be ripped apart before your very eyes. Welcome to the wonderful world of gift wrapping!

Think Outside The Box: Wrapping Ideas!

We encounter people everyday who seem to be a little intimidated about gift wrapping. We are more than happy to wrap a gift for you or sell you a gift bag, but we would love for everyone to embrace gift wrapping as a fun craft instead of a chore!

Since the fears we hear about seem to revolve around delicately folding paper or tying fancy bows, allow us to suggest a few ideas that focus on other gift adornments:

An easy and eco-friendly option is recycling stuff you find around the house. Comics, newspapers, magazines, kid's drawings, twine, twist-ties, etc can all be used to wrap a gift. We used an old map and some string in lieu of wrapping paper and ribbon, and the result is fun and unexpected!

Ok, but that still involves knowing how to wrap, you say. Well why not try stickers instead? Stickers or decorative tape come in a wide range of colors these days and all can easily be used to dress up a plain box. We used stickers from Waste Not Paper to decorate our box and added our recipiants name for a quick fix to the wrapping conundrum.

Lastly, don't underestimate the power of a witty gift tag! We found an appropriate flash card and tied it to an un-wrapped box with some bold ribbon - no paper cutting or folding needed, just a simple knot as easy as tying your shoe! Photos, cereal boxes, colored card stock, luggage tags, ticket stubs, etc could all be used to make a cool gift tag!

Stay tuned for wrapping and ribbon tying tutorials in the coming weeks, and don't forget to think outside the box!

Crafty Customers

A few weeks back we held a contest to see what cool stuff you crafty kids are making out of the assorted ephemera in our stores.
The votes are in... drum roll please... the winners are as follows:

1st Prize Maribeth Mercer
mixed media art using flashcards and anagram tiles

2nd Prize Jenny Kasun
greeting cards using flashcards

3rd Prize Josie Pickett
scrapbook pages using anagram tiles and flashcards

We are pleased to show off the results and hopefully these ideas will inspire you in new and exciting ways. Please contact us if you want to see your project featured on an upcoming blog post!

Think Outside The Box

Brown paper packages tied up with string will always be an acceptable gift - after all it's what's inside that counts; however, we like to get a little craftier with our gift giving and we encourage you to do the same! We want you to think outside the box - literally! Stayed tuned for posts on wrapping, ribbon tying, and all things in between!
Wrapping Paper $4 per sheet

Crafty Contest!

Hey Foursided & Twosided Devotees!

We want to see what you are making with our fun stuff
and we want to post it on our blog!

It is time to show off those flashcard collages, anagram signs, jewelry, and any other creative projects you have constructed from the ephemra you found
at one of our stores....and it's time to win prizes!

All winners and 10 runners up will be posted right here on our blog (which should be incentive enough!), and the exciting prizes are as follows:

1st Place $75 Gift Certificate

2nd Place $50 Gift Certificate

3rd Place $25 Gift Certificate

1 Honorable Mention $10 Gift Certificate

Contest Criteria:

Make something big or small, flat or 3 dimensional, boring or exciting... anything goes!

Please email a brief description of your project, your name, contact email,

and a maximum of 3 pictures in jpeg format to:

foursidedblog@gmail.com

DEADLINE IS MAY 28, 2009 so get cracking!

Winners will be contacted via email in early June

Pass this along to any friends who might be interested
and may the best maker win!

Amazing Anagrams!

we just received a whole bunch of letters from a to z perfect for creating a dit scrabble game or makinga ransom note with flair. anagrams wooden letters letter tiles scrabble pieces