How To: Recruitment Edition!

This month’s craft project comes straight from our formal recruitment. Our recruitment chair decided that because of the mold incident (our campus decided to turn off the AC in our Greek Village resulting in mold growing EVERYWHERE. It ruined everything) we would have to make all the preference night decorations. She passed around sign up sheets at the meeting and I thought that making “puff-balls” couldn’t be too bad. Well, I thought wrong. We had to make 30 of the suckers. In all honesty, they are actually super simple to make, just not when you’re making 30 of them in one sitting.

To start, you need a package of tissue paper in whatever color you want (we went with white), a stapler, scissors, and lots of patience. Grab the package of tissue paper and count out 8 sheets.

Take those 8 sheets and fold them accordion style. When you’ve got it all folded cut off any excess, if there is any.

Next, staple the middle of the paper. I folded it in half to figure out exactly where the middle was.

Then, cut the edges. The ‘puff-balls’ look weird if you leave the edges uncut plus they’re easier to fluff later.

 

HUGE CRAFTING TIP: if you can do a little extra work now to make it easer later, DO IT. You’d be surprised how easily things go when you get the hard work out early on.

When we cut the edges, we made them either pointed or rounded. After you cut the edges it is time for fluffing! And yes, I mean exactly what you’re thinking when you hear ‘fluffing’.

Once you get the ‘puff-balls’ fluffed you can hang them by tying a piece of rope around the center part to whatever you want to hang them from!

 

Website Spotlight: Craft Cuts

Hey ladies! How have we all been the past few weeks? I hope recruitment has been going great, and I want to give a huge congratulations to all of the new member classes that we've all had the chance to take on this Fall semester!

Today, we're doing something a little different from my usual how-to. Since initiation is just around the corner for some of you, I'd like to share with you a great website that my mother found while browsing the internet one day. She had been looking for a present to get me over the summer, something she knew I'd appreciate and would last me a while to come.

Wooden Greek Letters.

If you'll remember correctly, most of us have large, Greek letters, something creative and cute to show off at events and rituals. You may remember that they look a little something like this:

Aww, lookit how cute, letters~

I'm sure that jogs your memory. I'm sure we've all posed in front of our letters and held them up, proud to display the letters that we wear across our chests and across our hearts. And, though many of us may have gotten these done by a carpenter, or someone we know, or some other hole-in-the-wall place that many of us, collectively, may have never heard of, I'm here to tell you that there's a place where you are get all of this and more for a cheaper price than you'd expect.

It's a website called Craft Cuts.

My mom should have been particularly proud of her self when she found this one. Craft Cuts is a division of a company called Woodland Manufacturing Inc. that specializes in craft lettering and shapes, small Greek letters, custom stencils, and decorative vinyl designs. Of their products, which specifically include unpainted and painted wooden letters. When ordering, you can specify a size and a width, ranging from  6inches in height to 48inches and 1/8inches in width to 2inches. They're incredibly easy to order from and have a lot to choose from. Their customer service is fast and friendly and they know what we want.

Shown below are various examples of purchases that my sisters and I have made over the past couple of months since using their website:

A set of portable letters my roommate made for tables and club fair.

A small set of letters, 6inch height and 1/4inch width, for a crate for my Little.
There were painted by the manufacturer and sent to me this way.

1 1/2inch thick and 9inch high, these are perfect for the window of my suite.

Each set of letters has been a great addition to my crafting collection as a whole. They're so convenient to have around (I buy them in sets at a time), and they're sturdy and made to last. I cannot tell you how often I've dropped the bottom set, or how often the letters on the crate get shoved into a wall while hiding it from potential littles.

As far as pricing goes, they're reasonable and cheap. Including shipping, I paid $15 for an unpainted set of 6inch letters, similar to the ones in the middle picture. My roommate paid $35 for the ones on the top, a 14inch height with a 1/4inch width.

Not only does Craft Cuts sell Greek letters, they also sell the English alphabet, stencils, vinyl wall decals, and carved monograms. On top of their painted, patterned, and unpainted finishes, Craft Cuts also sells letters made specifically for the outdoors, starting at $12 before shipping.

Craft Cuts is one of the best finds I've made since sliced bread. It has everything I could need as a demanding sorority girl and has given the answers needed to every #sororityproblem I've ever had. This site, along with Little Problems, has been the answer to many "What Am I Gonna Do For My Little?????" themed questions.

I hope everything has been going well for us all, and I hope you'll continue to follow us here at the Little Problems Blog! We love to have your smiling faces here everyday, and nothing will stop us from bringing you the best of our best. Again, congratulations to all of the new members of Greek life and a happy Bid Day to all of those to come!