DIY Life

You've done it again. After writing your long letter to Aunt Martha -- on your homemade fabric flower cards, perhaps -- you've sealed the envelope, only to realize that you've forgotten to include little Harry's latest school photo.

You could either rip open the envelope, pop in the picture, and tape it closed, or you could try a sneaky way to open the envelope -- an undetectable way.

There's always steaming open the envelope, TV detective Veronica Mars' method of choice. This is wet and messy, though, so you may want to try putting the envelope in the freezer instead. Just a few hours in the zero -- or subzero -- environment, and the envelope should open on its own. You can reseal it after you put in Junior's picture.

I hope you aren't getting any illegal ideas, now that you're an expert at this....

I don't know about you, but I like to keep my money on me at all times if I can't or don't carry a purse. For some people I understand that this might be difficult if they carry large sums of cash. Since I don't have that particular issue, let's talk about where you can keep your cash stash when you are at work.

AT at Instructables has written a nice article on making a quick and easy office safe. While I don't know if I would do this for large sums of money, I probably would do it for $20. Hiding cash in a taped to death envelope might make a thief work harder to get the cash out of the envelope.

I do like the idea of putting money inside the computer cabinet. I don't think many thieves would walk away with your computer cabinet. Good luck to them if they tried. Anyway, the more I read AT's article the more I thought it useful. What about you?

Have you ever been on your way to a party, then realized that you didn't have a card or a gift box for the gift you'd planned to take? Are you getting married, and want to make your own invitations? As long as you have printer-ready card stock, a craft knife, and a bone scorer/folder around the house, you're covered.

Ruth Ann Zaroff's Mirkwood Designs is a site that was once known for its excellent hand-carved rubber stamps (no longer made), but is currently known for its wide variety of printable card, box, and envelope templates.

Among the 50+ templates you'll find: the center-tie card shown above, a heart card, a butterfly card, a paper doll, a trapezoid box, a library card book pocket, faux postage, a milk carton box, a take-out box, a mug card, and much more. Instructions for using each template are included. Most projects can be completed in under half an hour.