Giveaway: Win $100 from Staples Copy & Print

Staples

When I think of Staples, I tend to think of items for my home office. It’s the first place I’d go for a new printer, but I only recently learned that they have party supplies too!

Staples Copy & Print has customizable postcards, invitations, banners, posters, stickers, and more to help you throw a beautiful personalized party for any occasion. The company recently teamed up with lifestyle expert Annette Joseph, author of Picture Perfect Parties, to offer inspiration and tips to create themed events and personalized parties for small businesses.

Here are Annette Joseph’s tips on how to create a great party:

Pick a theme. This can start with a graphic on an invitation. Staples Copy & Print invitations offer an amazing array of beautiful images. Pick an invite and you’ve picked your theme. It’s a great jumping off point.
Use banners and posters to create a festive entrance to the event.
Make the event memorable with goodie bags and takeaways – a little gift to take home at the end. Create a personalized tote bag with Staples Copy & Print.
Use fresh flowers or branches from your garden to create a beautiful table scape that reflects the season.

Visit Annette Joseph Style for the links to the Staples products used in the breathtaking spa themed bridal shower featured in the photo accompanying this post. (If you don’t know anyone getting married soon, I think most of her ideas could easily be adapted to create a pampering birthday party or a special “girls night” celebration.)

For more information about Staples Copy & Print, visit www.staples.com/copyandprint.

Want to plan your own party? Staples has generously offered to provide a $100 gift card for one lucky winner to spend on the Copy & Print products of their choice. To enter, leave a comment sharing what type of party you’d plan if you were selected. I’ll choose one winner at random on May 29^th.

Update: Our winner, as determined by Random.org, is lucky #2. Thanks to all of you who entered and I wish you the best of luck with your party planning! Another giveaway will be posted in a few days.

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

Have you read?