Make your own pop-up card for valentine's day

By Sheila Schmitz, Sunset online editor

If standing in line at the card store doesn't appeal to you much this week, consider making your own perfect valentine. For added pizzazz (with very little effort) make it a pop-up. It's so easy. And all you need is heavy paper or card stock, scissors, and glue.

I love clashy pinks and oranges together, but of course you can choose a more tasteful combo.

To make a card that fits a standard 5 1/4 x 7 1/4 envelope:

1. Cut one piece of paper to 9 3/4 x 7. This will be the background color and the outside of your card. For the inside of your card, cut another piece of paper to a 9 x 6  rectangle. A third smaller piece of paper will become your 3-D pop-up shape.

2. Fold the two bigger pieces of paper down the center. Glue them together with rubber cement or a glue stick. Once they're stuck together, fold again to secure the center crease.

3. Cut out a heart (or other symmetrical shape) from your third piece of paper. Leave a small tab on either side. Fold the tabs against the back of the heart.

4. Add a dot of glue to each tab and press the heart onto the center of your card. The fold of your pop-up will line up with the fold of your card.

5. Press the whole thing flat under a book for a minute or two. When the glue is fairly dry, fold your card closed (the heart should pop out toward you). Press again under a book until the glue is nice and dry.

This is a great chance to play with paper. You can clash like me ...

...or use soothing pastels. Consider recycled and found papers: you can make the heart from a map to a surprise getaway or a page from your favorite Jane Austin novel.

Heartfelt thanks to my friend Camille Korsmo for showing me the magic of pop-ups!

Valentine's Day goodies

By Jess Chamberlain, Sunset Home & Design writer

I've written about this store before, but that's because I'm endlessly amazed at the always appropriately seasonal gift selection at Dandelion in San Francisco. They had Christmas nailed. Valentine's Day awe-inspiring (and drool-inducing) goodies have been seductive for weeks. And I'm certain an Easter spread is just around the corner.

If you're an SF local in need of a quick (but so thoughtful your someone special will never doubt your planning) gift, skip over to Dandelion (55 Potrero Ave; 415/436-9500).

We'd love to hear about your favorite gift shops! Just click the "comments" link at bottom.

 

Starry, starry hutch

By Peter Whiteley, Sunset senior writer

On a recent trip to Arizona, Beth and I bought a number of those three-dimensional punched-tin stars in different sizes. The pointed stars are hinged so you can open them up and put a light bulb inside. We put our collection on top of a hutch where we keep the television, and their angular shapes added interest to that corner of the room. Things got a lot more festive when I added a string of those little Christmas twinkle lights.

I took a  string of 100 lights, wadded them into five groups, and inserted the lights into the star shapes. I spaced them close enough so only one or two connected lights were exposed between the star shapes. Not only do the stars now brighten the corner of the room, but they cast interesting shapes on the ceiling.

You don't even have to make a trip to the Southwest to get some stars for yourself.  Just do a search for "Mexican punched-tin stars" online to unearth a number of sources:

Sunrise Imports
mydanilo.com
Direct From Mexico

The table bites back

By Elizabeth Jardina, Sunset researcher; photo by Thomas J. Story; conceived and created by Jess Chamberlain and Chad Dewitt

As October marches forward, the weather starts to gray and chill, and thoughts turn to the creepy, the eerie, the curious, the weird. Halloween is upon us.

In that spirit, we offer up a tabletop perfect for the season. Plus a deep, dark confession.

Those aren't flowers at the center of the table; they're the tube-shaped leaves of a couple of Sarracenia plants. Gnats and flies beware: These babies are carnivorous.

We recently spotted some similar Sarracenia at Trader Joe's. 

Thinking of picking up a bug-eating beauty of your own? Good news. They're not hard to grow. American pitcher plants, as the genus is called, are native to exotic locales such as the coastal marshes of North Carolina and Virginia. No fussy greenhouse or humidity-monitoring is necessary to cultivate them. In fact, many experts say that they'll be happiest living outside, either in pots or in a containerized bog in your backyard.

DETAILS These plants don't have the jaw-chomping action of a Venus flytrap, but they're deadly to bugs nonetheless. Insects buzz up to the delicately patterned lip of the plant; there they sample the plant's nectar-like secretion. But the nectar isn't the innocent treat it seems. Laced with tiny doses of a natural narcotic, the bugs get dizzy and fall into the slender tubes of the plant, where they're dissolved by enzymes that act like digestive acid. The bugs become a nutrient-rich slurry; the plant creates its own fertilizer. (A neat evolutionary trick, to be sure.)

If your local nursery doesn't carry Sarracenia, you can buy them online at Sarracenia Northwest and both online and on location at the marvelous California Carnivores; the trip to Sebastapol to visit the latter is worth it just to see their wondrous selection. If you're looking for general information, California Carnivores owner Peter D'Amato wrote the book on insect-eating flora.

STORY INFO Sunset writer Jess Chamberlain got the idea to use carnivorous plants as a centerpiece from designer Chad Dewitt; the placemats, bowls, napkins and napkin rings are from the Gardener. The red wine glasses are from Simon Pearce and the lantern is from Fitzsu Society . 

The Sarracenia, poppy pods, cork log and other creepy accoutrements came from our favorite creepy accoutrements source: Paxton Gate. (It is also our No. 1 source for gopher skulls and pinned insects.) If you're ever in San Francisco's Mission District, their store is worth a visit, especially because it's right next door to the Pirate Store at 826 Valencia.

THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES CONFESSION This photo was taken last fall by Sunset photographer Tom Story, intended to be a suggestion for a fresh Thanksgiving table. However, it never ran in the magazine because we discovered that in late November, Sarracenia plants aren't widely available. Like maple trees, they're deciduous, so they stop growing and start getting brown spots as winter approaches. Not very appetite-inducing. So what you, dear readers, saw in the magazine was a recipe for Thanksgiving Star Cider. Which, now that I think about it, sounds delicious right now.

GO DO IT If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, check out Chomp!, the current exhibit at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. The "little shop of horticultural horrors" (heh) continues through Nov. 4.

Your Halloween photo album

Click through a gallery of creative Halloween decorations by Sunset readers, including these impressive carved pumpkin headstones by Jacquie Walton of Rio Del Mar, CA. See more of her designs and others from around the West.  Have your own handmade Halloween project? Send us a photo!

Get the step-by-step to dozens more pumpkin designs, decorations, and Halloween parties on Sunset.com now.

 

Clever pumpkin planters

By Sheila Schmitz, Sunset online editor

Our hats are off to Lori Graham of West Seattle, WA, for sharing this idea for a perfectly Halloweeny (and nicely green) patio planter:

"These are my pumpkin flower baskets," she writes.  "Once I'm done enjoying them on the patio I plant the entire pumpkin in my flower bed. By springtime I have great compost, and depending on the flower/plant I use, it keeps growing!"

Have a great Halloween decorating photo of your own? Send it to us! And check back all month for more clever ideas from your fellow Sunsetters.