Hi friends,
Every once in a while, some tiny tidbit of news or a silly little fact shifts my crafty mind into overdrive. It's impossible to predict, but it usually results in a lot of fun, and that's exactly what happened yesterday when my coworker Lisa mentioned that today is National Punctuation Day.
Now, I know that getting excited about punctuation is probably something that only happens to copy editors, but I'm always happy to grab the first excuse for cupcakes and crafting that comes along! In addition to baking some treats, I decided to make some simple crafts to help my department celebrate Punctuation Day in style.
First up, punctuation pins. I couldn't find a button-maker at my local art-supply store, but I did find a sheet of clear plastic self-adhesive bubble stickers in the scrapbooking aisle ($2.10). In the jewelry-making aisle, I found a package of pin backs ($1.75). At home, I experimented with different fonts and sizes of the most common punctuation marks until I found a look I liked, then I printed them on cardstock. I stuck the stickers over each mark, then cut around them. Finally, I glued on the pin backs. Easy!
I had half the package of stickers left over, so I decided to make some fancy paper clips, too. Following the same procedure as for the pins, I created a punctuation collage, this time printing on yellow card stock. I had some fancy paper clips stashed away; a little bit of gorilla glue and they were all punctuated up.
Next, I thought it would be fun to make little punctuation keychains. I'd found a sheet of plastic needlepoint grid ($1.80), a package of needles ($1.10), and a handful of embroidery floss (5 for $2) at Mary Maxim, and I bought a package of cellphone charm chains at the art store ($2.50). I printed the punctuation marks out at 144-point size, then placed the grid over the paper and traced the shapes with a Sharpie. I threaded my needle with a double-thickness of embroidery floss and got to work...and phew! needlepoint takes longer than I remembered! (That keychain is just 1.5" by 2" – and took me almost an hour.) By that point it was almost 11 pm (!), so in the end, I made up little craft kits instead.
Put it all together and what did I get? A little treat bag that brought big smiles to the faces of my fellow copy editors! (And all for less than $12!) I think that with a little adaptation, these would be great things to make as party favours, or on a rainy afternoon with your kids.
Happy National Punctuation Day to you!
