DIY Map & Junk Mail Envelopes

I never paid attention to the inside of the junk mail envelope until I started working with EcoMonster.  She showed me the beauty of the inside of the junk mail letters and how to use them for scrapbooking paper or designs for cork coaster.  Today I'm posting some quick photos on how to convert your own junk mail into fun and beautiful envelopes.  I recently used this envelope to send to my pen pal.  :)  Yup, you heard me right, my pen pal.  I joined the Post Mark Society via www.postable.com earlier this summer and have been exchanging letters with my pen pal.  It basically a pen pal group for bloggers created by bloggers.  :)

One thing I love about pen pal letters is that you don't see too much of it anymore since we have the internet, emails, Facetime, etc.  Another thing is that you can let your personality shine through your letters and envelopes!  So after so many camping trips this summer I have a nice pile of park brochure maps stacking in my room.  The quality of the maps is pretty durable so I decided it would make the perfect envelope!

What you'll need:

• Junk mail envelope
• Park Maps (or any other sturdy scrap paper you have laying around)
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Pen

EcoMonster's Opening Night Event Recap

Last Friday I had the pleasure of working with EcoMonster to help out with her Opening Night & Silent Auction Event.  It was also the kick off event for the Cat Walk - a new vending opportunity in San Jose. It was super busy and a little hectic leading up to the event, but it was a fun filled night and great times with good company.  Here's a photo recap of the event.  (I linked the vendors' Pintrest pages where I could.)

Etsy Craft Party Event Recap

How was everyone's 4th of July? :)  Fun with family & fireworks I hope.  For me it was a nice break from everything and I was finally able to write a blog post.  I have to admit though, I haven't been able to write a blog post partly because I was busy, but also because I was really heart broken after the Etsy party.

The event itself was really fun, but the turn out was a little disappointing.  We had 40 people RSVP online and only 3 people from that list showed up, and 7 walk ins (One was a family of 5).  It was a little difficult to process the feeling because although we had people show up and we had fun crafting, a part of me wondered why 37 people RSVP online and were a no show.  We had a huge stage room reserved for the party and put in a lot of time and effort to do the marketing, prep the stations, and shop for supplies for 40 crafters.  After putting so much time and energy into preparing for the party and only having 10 people show up I was really sad.  We were charging $5 at the door to cover cost of materials which wasn't an odd thing to see since other parties were also charging, so I'm assuming that couldn't have been the reason people didn't show up.  We also mentioned the $5 on the event title when people submitted their RSVP online.  (We couldn't charge customers directly because it would have gone directly to Etsy's eventbrite account.)

Before the party was started I was really excited about the number of people signed up and I guess I built up the party in my head that the night was going to be amazing.  We even had a box of supplies sent to us through Etsy with amazing craft materials!  A box of craft supplies is such an amazing thing so you can see why my level of excitement was up there.  But the night turned out to be a small gathering vs. a huge crafting party.

On a more positive note, we had great stations set up and also had cupcakes donated by my future sister in law - The Buttercup Baker.  :)

Mini Cupcakes graciously donated by The Buttercup Baker .

I love the details that she put into each one.

Chocolate w/ strawberry preserves

Lemon w/ blueberry buttercream

Chocolate w/ peanut butter frosting

I spent my time at the craft party mingling and making my own merit badge.  Materials were included in our box of goodies from Etsy.

We purchased some overstock of blank cards and had them available at the card making station.  My close friend also donated some Hero themed scrapbooking stickers for the event too and they looked great on the cards.  This had to be one of my favorite stations.  Crafters made the cards for troops to use to send home and were able to also leave a message to the troops.  I loved the cards that everyone made.  Unfortunately since there were so little of us, we only 7 cards made at the end of the night.

The following week since we still had supplies from the craft party still laying around I decided to take the time to create more cards so that I can drop off a larger donation with Operation Care and Comfort.  After an hour I had made 30 cards :)

Happy with my fat stack of cards.

I wish I took more photos of the event, but I spent most of the time chatting and crafting with others.  Overall I since I enjoy crafting in general, I had fun making and creating with new faces.  However, lesson learned is that if you're planning a big craft party and need to charge for material cost you should probably charge up front.  It was hard for me to digest the feeling but I think I finally got my craft spark back.  I was walking around Harbor Freight with my boyfriend last night and got so many ideas so hopefully more consistent blogposts to come.  

Bart Blue Sky Festival

Continuing with some ecofriendly blogpost in honor of Earth Day, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend and work with some wonderful people at the Bart Blue Sky Festival last Friday.  Don't forget to take public transportation whenever you get the chance.  Keep the sky blue. ;)

3 girls and all of our items packed into this cute little Mini.

My snug seat on the way up to SF.

We arrived to a beautiful day!