How To Get Tissue Poms (AKA Stupid Puffs Of Cuteness) To Open More Easily

Why is this post necessary you may ask? You don't ever have problems opening tissue paper poms? They already ARE easy for you to open?!

Well, goooooooood for you.

But, right now I totally have a love-hate relationship with tissue poms!!! (And this little tip may have just saved my sanity.)

They are beautiful when they're open and hanging, but I must be party-decor-challenged or something because they take me FOREVER to separate the layers {without TEARING them!} to get them to open up.

I have twelve of them hanging in my dining room this morning, looking all cute and innocent like they were no trouble at all.

Hrmph, ya, right.

This morning, after spending most of yesterday opening my poms for an upcoming party, it occurred to me that if I cut juuuuuust ever so slightly into the inside edge of the fold, close to the center, that maybe they'd open up more easily.

Well, dontcha-know, it worked...when I only had 2 left to open.

Now, this tip has only been tried by me on an 8" pom because I already opened up all of my 18" poms before I got brave enough to try it. Don't go ruining your poms and come running to me for advice, cause I don't know what it will do to larger sizes or even other brands than the ones I bought. But hey, if you are throwing your hands up in desperation like I was last night trying to open those stupid puffs of cuteness, you may want to give this little tip a shot.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Remove the hanging string (or wire, or whatever your poms came with) and cut a small curve out of the center of the folds on each side of the tissue paper. The widest part of my cut is between 1/8th to 1/4 inch. Tie your hanging string back on and be amazed at how a pom that previously took 20 - 30 minutes to open will now open in under 5 minutes. Tada! (And, um, please excuse my low-quality cellphone pic, I really wasn't sure if this was going to even work!)

Young Women Gifts 2014 - Depend On The Savior

For our young women gifts this year to somewhat go along with the mutual theme "Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness," we decided to do a polka dot themed gift, with DOTS standing for "Depend On The Savior".

At first we wanted to find polka dot scarves for the girls. When we couldn't find those within our budget we looked for just the right material to make scarves. Well...we couldn't find that within our budget (or timeline) either so we opted to get polka dot socks (from the dollar store), even though we did socks last year, too.

I made a bookmark and got some Dots candy to go along with them and packaged them up in a 5x11 inch treat bag with a cute little Happy Birthday tag. The sock design shows on the back so the girls can choose their favorite polka dot pattern when it's their birthday.

Of course, so the candy stays fresh, we'll only package them a few at a time as birthdays come up, but it's quick and easy. The girls actually loved them and didn't care that they were getting socks again.

For the bookmark, I printed 5 to a page on white cardstock. Just open your word program, set your page layout to landscape and leave your pages set to the normal 1" margin. Insert a table with 5 columns and only 1 row. Then insert the bookmark jpeg (rotate it to the side after you save it so it will be vertical as you insert it into the document.) It is sized at 6.5" high and 1.58" wide. Copy and paste so you have 5 to a page. Remove the table borders so you don't have black lines, and then print and cut. Afterwards I punched a hole in the top, center, and added a cute polka dot ribbon (can't see that in the photos, sorry).

This is how I printed the tags 12 to a page on white cardstock: In portrait page layout, with margins set at a custom setting of 0.2, insert a table with 7 rows and 3 columns. Insert the tag jpeg and then change the size to 2.49" x 2.49". Copy and paste it into every column, but only every other row (so you have a space for cutting). Remove the borders. Print and cut.

So, this isn't the best photo of the gifts all packaged up because I snapped it in a hurry on the way out the door to church, but you get the idea.

Visiting Teaching POP Quiz

I know it's totally the end of the month but here's a fun printable to attach to a 2-liter bottle of soda pop. (I was born in Ohio where they call it "pop" and raised out west where we call it "soda" so I have always said "Soda Pop". Sue me.) ANYWAY, it's a "POP Quiz" about self-reliance for the September 2013 LDS visiting teaching message. I got four to a sheet when I printed them.

Redskins Fans

It's no secret we are Washington Redskins fans. If you are too, then here's a swell printable for your wall, or your facebook profile photo, or Twitter (#HTTR), or your Pinterest feed. :) Enjoy. (But do not sell my design as your own.)

Treat Gift Tag

Here's a simple little gift tag printable for cookies, fudge, brownies, popcorn...anything, really. I printed 6 to a page, cut them out in rectangles, rounded the corners to make them a little more spiffy and just tied them onto plates of cookies that we delivered tonight. :)

(Again, for a full-size view of the printable, right click on it and then open in a new tab.)

Find Your Purpose

"You are not on this earth to be entertained." We're here to love, to serve, to dream, and to learn.

Find your purpose, and then live your life on purpose.

Can you imagine how wonderful life could be for everyone if we stopped expecting to be entertained all the time and took some time to serve, instead?!

For Times of Trouble

A quote from this fantastic talk: For Times of Trouble.

Pain is Temporary

"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever." -Lance Armstrong

(8x10, in pink and green)

Agency

"Mortal challenges allow us and our Heavenly Father to see whether we will exercise our agency to follow His son." ~ Robert D. Hales (5 x 7)

The Empty Jar

I recently gave this framed (5x7) quote to my son and his new wife along with an empty jar. It really helps to understand that the temple covenants we make are just the beginning of the happily (for)ever after!

Also in 8x10:

Familiar

A favorite quote.
"Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar His face is to us." ~ Ezra Taft Benson (5x7 print)

Being in Love

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better that your dreams." ~ Dr. Suess

I printed mine on white metallic paper. It's lovely! (8x10)

Influence

“There is one thing the power of God and the power of Satan have in common: Neither can influence us unless we allow them to.”- Sheri L. Dew

8 x 10 printable

Also in black & white:

 

Turn Your Face to the Sun

I started this rooster sign about 2 years ago, finished the rooster, got sick and never got the lettering painted on because my hands were always so shaky while on Prednisone, I couldn't paint anymore. Well...I am proud to say that I am finally finished, and it's hanging above the entryway to my kitchen, in a spot that gets a lot of sunlight to reflect the metallic paints.

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. ~Maori Proverb

The inspiration comes from a photo I clipped (years ago) out of a catalog of a rooster watercolor painting by Susenne Telage called Hope Dawns. Her rooster is A-MA-ZING! I can't paint like that. I just don't devote the time to it.

But I will share how I painted the letting.

I followed this tutorial. I used an embossing tool instead of a ballpoint pen (can you see the indentation?) and I printed my font (Lobster 1.4) in light gray to save ink. It was fairly easy!

Creative Knee Patches

I've added fabric to the bottom of cut-off jeans before to make them cute when the holes are too large, but that always requires making shorts out of them. If you want to save the pants...give this creative knee patch idea a try. I promise the hardest part was ripping out the seams in the side of the jeans so you could get in there with a sewing machine.

Since I was patching my daughter's holey jeans, I made her monster a girl monster. I should have made the eyelashes black so they'd show up better, but she likes the aqua blue color. I layered a piece of pink fabric and a piece of jean material (because I KNOW she'll rip right through that cute pink polka dot print,) pinned it in place, sewed around it, and then I cut off the excess material in the inside. She says they are really comfy, which is a plus since at her age, everything is "itchy."

This star patch was another great idea, and my daughter loved picking the fabric.

One of the knee holes is pretty bad, the other is just starting, so I made a quick star pattern, making sure it was large enough to cover the existing hole, and traced it onto the jeans with a white colored pencil. Then I pinned a layer of fabric and a layer of denim to the inside of the jeans (with the side seam ripped open, of course.) Make sure that the patch is larger than the star shape.

Then sew around the star on the pencil line. (I'm thinking as hard as my daughter is on pants that I should have sewn a double seam around the star, but I'm too lazy to rip out that side seam again.)

It was really easy to sew around the star and THEN cut it out about a quarter of an inch away, instead of trying to cut out the star first and then sew it.

Remove the pins, flip it inside out, and cut away the excess patch materials inside the jeans. Then sew the jeans side seam back together.

Ta-da! An adorable "new" pair of jeans!

(Update: For another really cute idea using pockets as patches, click here.)