Good morning! Hope you all had a great weekend. I had some fun making cupcakes for Re-Bicycle's going away party. (They are headed off to Portland next week!)

This was such a quick and yummy project that I wanted to share. I needed vegan cupcakes, but I didn't have a lot of time to make anything from scratch. Amazingly, most Duncan Hines boxed cake mixes are vegan, it's just the eggs that you add that make them otherwise. Substitute a banana for the 3 eggs and voila—yummy chocolate (banana-y) cupcakes. The frosting is Duncan Hines, too, just scooped into an icing bag with a large tip.

I had some fun cutting little flags from some scrap paper and gluing them to toothpicks to bid our buddies goodbye.

Anybody else spend the weekend crafting/baking? I'd love to hear about your projects!

I'm signing off a day early this week to get some rest, but I'll leave you with this adorable DIY recycling bin project spotted over on of paper and things.

What a fun way to keep your recycling separated! I love the quick, sketchy drawings, but this could easily be updated to be a colorful kitchen addition. Hot pink, maybe? Or wallpaper on the fronts? Love.

I'm sure many of you saw these over on design*sponge last week, but I wanted to post them here because they are such a cute, useful project. I save most of our jars for use around the house; as a crafter they always come in handy. But I'm not too keen on seeing all the brand names on the lids of what have become my button jars. And I always get a little jealous when I see people's workspaces that are all matchy-matchy.

This is a great, simple tutorial on using paper scraps to dress up all those jars with a pretty, matchy look. Love.

Look what showed up in my mailbox this week: the very first issue of GreenCraft magazine! I had been asked by GreenCraft's Managing Editor, Amanda Crabtree, to send some of my work for the the premiere issue, and I was thrilled to be included! But I have to say, I was really blown away when I opened up the first issue.

Look ma, it's me!

The photography is beautiful, and the whole issue has a very consistent feel—light, airy photos of (mainly) repurposed projects. I haven't had a chance to really sit down and read it cover to cover (I am not a big reader, much to the disappointment of my librarian mother), but just paging through I've seen a number of projects that I definitely want to try out.

From the GreenCraft webpage: GreenCraft Magazine will provide ideas for repurposing trash to treasure by showcasing projects where waste is repurposed into ecologically chic creations. Last, but not least, to maintain the theme of recycling, the entire publication will be printed on recycled paper.

Right now the focus of the magazine does seem to lean heavily toward repurposing projects. I asked Amanda about that (because I'm nosy—I mean, curious), and she said that much of the issue was driven by the work that they received, but also by the fact that most people have ready access to things around the house that can be reused in crafting, like junk mail or plastic bags. She would like to see the focus branch out in the future to include more crafts made with organic or sustainably-produced materials.

You can find a store that carries GreenCraft on their website. They are also still looking for work to feature in their next issue. The submission deadline is September 15, and you can find all the submission guidelines here. I definitely encourage you to give it a shot!

I was going through my bookmarks and came across this roundup of crafts made from the patterned paper of security envelopes over on iDiY. I love how security envelope patterns are turning up everywhere these days—why let a good pattern go to waste? There are actually two big roundups to check out—the second one is here—that show the wide variety of work people are using those ubiquitous envelopes for.

Happy Monday, everbody! I hope your weekend was as fun and productive as mine! I spent an unexpectedly large part of the weekend getting our wedding invitations ready to mail, which while fun and very satisfying, has left me with a sad little claw of a hand after soooooooo much assembly and addressing. Speaking of wedding DIY, I completely forgot to mention the tutorial I wrote last week for Craft on making your own wedding emblem!

It's a simple Photoshop tutorial on how to create a mark to personalize your wedding stationery in a sophisticated (yet inexpensive) way. I love making invitations, and especially the fact that it is so easy to make them yourself at home. Being a graphic designer, I'm of course a huge fan of letterpress, but it just wasn't in our budget. So I printed our invites out on our printer at home instead, which gave me more freedom in some ways in the paper we chose, (100% PCW envelopes! Yeah!) and meant I only had to print as many as we need, instead of an overage in case the guest list unexpectedly expands. (Like it did last night, sigh.)

I'm leaving you with weekend inspiration a day early this week, because things have been crazy busy around here lately and I need to do some catching up both in the real world cosa verde world. (I promise the Selling Successfully column will be back soon! Next up: Branding.)

In the meantime, how insanely cool is this cat bed made from an old side table, some curtain finials, a scrap of trim and a fresh coat of paint? I am in love.

You can see the whole process documented here. Jeff and I once made a hammock & scratching post for our kitties from an old IKEA Lack table, but this just blows that out of the water! I'm going to be on the lookout for elegant tables for the rest of garage sale season.

I love the bright green paint job (it matches Kitty's eyes!) and the pink detailing on the legs. The thought that went into this amazes me—I never would have thought of adding the detail of bedknobs, and the finials are just perfect. Plus, I am, hands down, a sucker for any project that is photographed with a cute cat on it, and this guy sure is hamming it up for the camera.

found via Craft

I'm a little late on this one, but I've only just now had time to check out the latest issue of Readymade. Have you seen their beautiful DIY chandelier made from old bottles? I love the way the candlelight glows through the frosted glass bottles in their example piece, but I bet this would look amazing in green glass as well. Check out the digital edition of the magazine for complete instructions.

We're going the rustic, candles-in-mason-jars route for our upcoming wedding, and if there were more hours in the day I think I would make a few of these to complement the centerpieces. Oh well, not this year. But I think I will file this away to be made for the garden haven I hope to someday have. (Complete with bottle wall, of course.)