Pom Poms & Paper Circles

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Many of you who know me, know that I’m not a scrapbooker. My mom has always been the one with the eye & the patience for scrapbooking. She’s awesome at it. I do, however, have an unhealthy obsession with scrapbooking supplies.

In the last 8 or so years, I’d say the scrapbooking industry has really come into its own. Papers & embellishments no longer boast of unsightly forest greens and maroons and the artwork is artwork, not some automatically generated microsoft clipart on repeat. Ew.

Scrapbooking is all about pretty these days. No? I have a friend who works at We R Memory Keepers in the product design and development end of things. She’s been back and forth from Salt Lake City and China a few times in the last few months in preparation for last week’s CHA. WRM has been very busy coming out with new papers & tools to make our eyeballs pop out of their sockets. What you see above and below is a small fraction of what they’ve been working on. When Jen gave me the samples* to play with, I could tell she was really excited (and proud) of what they’re releasing to stores soon. Aren’t these papers and embellishments fun?

I think I need to host a baby girl shower soon. I think these papers would be so cute cut out into little doilies for serving cupcakes. The stamps would be an easy & inexpensive way to add color & cute to black and white printed invitations. The pink flower lace you see above is adhesive backed. AND Glittery. Isn’t that genius?!? Use that for a closure on an envelope or wrapped gift. Awesome, right?

So, I didn’t have time to plan and/or execute a baby shower, but I did have time to spruce up Penelope’s room a bit. Remember the scalloped border I did a couple of weeks ago?

First, I just want to tell you how much I loved your comments. I loved hearing from you & I really appreciate how nice you are to me. Thank you! Second, the scalloped border was getting a little lonely. A lot lonely. He needed a friend up there by the ceiling, so I made a little mobile for the Nels. This particular arrangement was heavily inspired by this beautiful nursery I saw here. I was just blown away at how gorgeous it was & had to have it. . . part of it, at least.

I made tissue pom poms via Martha Stewart, attached them to ribbon and stapled them to the ceiling. Then, I cut a million and a half irregular circles out of the WRM Hippity Hoppity paper and sewed them together. Sewing paper is tremendously easy and SUPER satisfying. If you haven’t done it, try it. NOW. You don’t need any special equipment, a threaded sewing machine would do just fine. You can’t tell from the picture, but the little circles spin around gently from even the softest little breeze. It’s so mesmerizing.

If you don’t have a sewing machine, or you’re too afraid you’d mess up the paper trying, you could buy pre sewn paper from WRM. I was just a little giddy when I saw the 12×12 sewn sheets of paper. Did I mention that I love sewn paper? It’s wonderful!

Not wanting to cut up this perfect piece of paper, I wanted to do something with the whole sheet. Again, I’m not a scrapbooker, so a pretty 12×12 with pictures of the Nels on it won’t happen. A door sign with almost all of Penelope’s nicknames was just what the doctor ordered. Penelope really has so many little nicknames, and they’re all just so cute, so I did a hand-calligraphed cloud of her nicknames. When I showed Chris, he let out an audible, “ooOOoooOOoo!” That made me feel so good inside.

The above paper is a nice cardstock, so I just needed some double-stick some tape, ribbon and a thumb tack to post it to Penelope’s door. It’s thick enough that it doesn’t look silly all by itself, but I have to admit it would look cute framed in swirly gold.

*note: I received free product.

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    1. AshleyAnn says:

      I love your blog…and was so excited to read this post. Your nursery is beautiful and I love that pom pom arrangement!

    2. Risti says:

      Is it wrong that I want one of those for my bedroom? I loove it to death.

    3. Bri says:

      I saw that same nursery and was so close to making something similar. Yours looks lovely!

    4. Emily H. says:

      Though that project looks way out of my comfort zone, it’s beautiful enough I might attempt it…someday. It looks wonderful in the corner of Nels’ room and really pops!

    5. Naomi says:

      I love Penelope’s room! So sweet and girly without being too prissy. The nickname sign is just gorgeous with your calligraphy.

    6. Hannah says:

      I love the script on your name cloud! And I think that I will put a few of those pompoms up in my daughters room. She would love them.

    7. Jen says:

      I’m 100% inspired! You’re the best!

    8. stacy says:

      so beautiful! hopefully it will give you some extra snooze time if she lays in bed in the morning mesmerized by the colors and shapes! :)

    9. susan says:

      I’m quite in love with your beautiful calligraphy!

    10. marta says:

      absolutely fabulous. the calligraphy and pom poms are tops. just adorable.

    11. nicole says:

      sweet…my daughter has ms pompoms above her bed too…and she is 6!

    12. Julia says:

      That mobile is fabulous! Have any suggestions on how I could make a sailboat one for my son? We have a mix of cartoon and authentic sailboats in his room (bedding, pictures, models), and he just needs a mobile. What would you do?

    13. Khali says:

      Just gorgeous! Thanks so much for sharing.

      I posted about these projects on my blog: http://littlelovely.typepad.com/littlelovely/2010/02/diy-pom-pom-and-paper-circle-mobile-door-sign.html

    14. Priscila says:

      Oh my gosh love this !!! Very cute and well done! I would love to post about it on my blog. May I ? I would also love to exchange links with you!!! let me know!xo

    15. I love the mobile. It’s beautiful and so cute.

    16. Lilly Audrey says:

      You have given us inspiration for a party! We love your color choices and this room is so pretty. We love your blog!

    17. Erin says:

      the paper chain is great! (isn’t sewing on paper so fun?) the colors are perfect, I am jealous that you got it for FREE!

      i see those pom-poms everywhere, i have made them myself even, but i like that you made them fresh again by using 2-3 colors in each.

    18. Melissa! I’m so impressed! I love it! I downloaded the instructions on Martha’s pom poms months ago, but have been too scared to try it! Maybe I’ll finally try it. Can you come over and help? :)

    19. Taylor says:

      I can not believe you did that calligraphy by hand! AMAZING

    20. sarah says:

      really really lovely, good job!

    21. Melanie says:

      I adore the poms and garlands. So fun.

    22. Autumn says:

      So whimsical and perfect over her crib!

      Speaking of stitched paper…I JUST finished stitching my husband’s Valentine’s day card last night–nothing fancy, but I LOVE it and am now hooked. HOOKED.

    23. Heather says:

      I love this idea of pom poms as decor. I just hosted a wedding shower and we used them for the decorations. Afterwards I started thinking about putting some in my baby girl’s room… and I just clicked onto the Design House link and I think I am in love! So much great stuff!

    24. Kami says:

      I love it! What a darling little room for little Pen. and your handwriting… GORGEOUS!

    25. Jenn says:

      Lala-lovely! Digging the “Pen” decal on the wall. Handmade type is the bomb.

    26. Reyna says:

      Her bedroom is absolutely adorable! I just love love love love the paper pom pom ceiling decoration!!

    27. This room just keeps getting cuter and cuter. I love it!

    28. Cute!!! I love what you did with Penelope’s corner!!

      Can’t wait for games tomorrow night! ;)

    29. Susan says:

      Cute paper! What paper was that and do you know where I can get it????? Thank just e-mail me at susanbudge64@yahoo.com

      Also I ordered one of your fonts and I was hoping I could us it on my computer for printing. Is that possible. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks

    30. Kathleen says:

      Oh, how charming! I loved this post, especially that I too have an obsession with scrapbooking paper and am not a scrapper.

      I am in love with the flowers/sewn garland you made, and that sign for Penelope’s door is amazing. I am so jealous of your calligraphy skills…my calligraphy is too by-the-book. I’d love to have some of your flourish.

    31. […] so close, though, I can taste it. I just need to find a lamp, hang the rest of the art & replace the mobile that our annoying maintenance man carelessly ruined. I don’t sound bitter about that mobile, […]

    32. […] Penelope’s Pom Pom Mobile (that got ruined by the awful maintenance guy) […]

    33. Thank you for posting this inspiring blog. See my very own!

    34. Jamie H says:

      I love this nursery! I’m doing a nursery for my little girl I think your room is so inspiring! Do you happen to know what the name/brand is for the color of paint you used for the wall? Paint is so tricky and the color you chose is perfect!

    35. […] the nicknames we call each other and just fill the entire paper with those nicknames (kinda like Penelope’s old room sign -scroll to bottom). I’m still not sold on that idea, so I just did: Chris, Melissa, Penelope […]

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