For a friend’s birthday last month, I decorated a sturdy cardboard box with glitter (to put a necklace inside) and also made a card to go with it.

Her favorite color is purple, and she does like glitter, so the gift box was a simple thing. I ended up with plenty of glitter all over my desk and person, but I like how it turned out.

The card is done in the “quilted washi paper” style made popular by Hanko Designs, and is based on a pattern included in one of their kits.

The annual Maker Faire is going on this weekend in San Mateo, but I’ve decided not to attend this year. I did think about it at first, and even tried to organize some friends to go, but the interest wasn’t really there.

Personally, I went to the 2006 and 2007 shows, and they were ok for what they were worth. I think the 2006 show was best, because it was the first and everything was new to my friends and I. However, when I went last year, it all seemed to be about the same, and it didn’t seem quite as good. They did make an effort to increase the crafty bits, but nothing that compelling. Also, the free goodies from 2006 totally disappeared.

I think the biggest problem with it is that they’ve jacked up the ticket price this year. Last year it was $15 per person for a single day, but this year it’s up to $25; apparently the weekend passes have nearly doubled as well. That would be ok if there was enough added to make up for the cost, but I don’t think that’s the case. And if you’re going there with the aim of buying things at the craft fair part of it, then it’s quite a hefty entrance fee, especially if you include the $8 parking. That’s like having to pay more than $30 to get to shop on Etsy or go to your local craft store, with no added bonus other than getting to see the same old displays of robots and LEDs and steampunk contraptions that were there the year before (assuming you’re even into that sort of thing).

I mean, I’ve been to craft events where you have to pay in order to get in, and then you end up shopping from the vendors for most of it, and maybe only learning a new technique from a vendor instead of taking a class. But the entry price for that is never more than $10, and there are usually coupons available. Plus the vendors are usually only selling in person at these events, and they pay to do so, thus lowering your own cost.

Ultimately, I guess it would be nice to have the “Craft” part of Maker Faire as a standalone event, but without the obnoxious entry fee. Maybe it’s a lot to ask for, especially seeing how much overlap there is between the Make and Craft magazines (which I wish there weren’t). But that’s all a lot of us want to go for in the first place, and it just isn’t worth it at more than $25 a person. More on the craft, less on the geek!

For anyone who is drawn to the small details, the patterns in security envelopes can be quite nice. Here are a few from a Flickr photo set called Security Patterns.

Great for little collages and other things, or try reusing the envelopes by turning them inside out, as shown in this Design*Sponge tutorial.

As you can tell, my craft projects have become few and far between these days, but I’ve had a few little things I’ve worked on in the last two months.

In November and December, I went against my previous decision to quit swaps for a bit, and signed up for a few of the final Coloriffic Swap-O-Rama swaps. I really liked the color combinations, and shopping for other people is fun. Here’s what I came up with for the two swaps:

One of the swap requirements is to include one handmade item, so I made a little card/envelope set for the November swap, and then for the December swap, I put together one of my square collage postcards.

Sadly, the packages I got through these swaps didn’t exactly knock my socks off, so to speak, but oh well. At least I enjoyed putting them together and making my swap partners happy.

Shortly after the second swap, I joined in on a bit of card- and envelope-making at this month’s South Bay Craft Group meeting. I don’t send out holiday cards, so I just made some general ones, based on a cute postcard I have. And some envelopes of course. The paper was just too lovely to pass up.

And the most recent craft project was a shared one for a work holiday party that I helped to organize. We decided to decorate gingerbread cookies as the main event, and of course we had to have a contest for it, complete with varied categories and matching trophies. Our little trophy team came up with these four trophies during two long nights after work hours. It was a lot of fun and I think everyone who attended the party liked them as well.

I don’t really celebrate the holidays, but if you do, here’s a great project related to gift-giving: