Chinoiserie Guestbook Vignette

Here's a Hot Cocoa-ism: Craptastic (adj.) = full of awesomely cheap knick knacks.

Craptastic is one of the highest honors I can bestow on a place of shopping.  Hong Kong: craptastic.  Bangkok: craptasticler.  Saigon: craptasticest.

Today, I bestow this adjective on the Christmas Tree Store, where I bought the items for our guestbook vignette.

The pagoda birdhouse/candle holder was $9.99.  The planter was $5.99.  The darling porcelain balls were $1 each.  And I used a 20% off coupon, bringing all of the above to about $15.  We'll probably make fabric fortune cookies to use on the day of.

The florals are the pens for the guestbook.  On the recommendation of Angel Swanson, Weddingbee pro and planner extraordinaire, I bought a few Sakura Micron pens from Paper Source.  They are archival quality and acid-free.  I bought some silk florals on sale from various places:  A.C. Moore has all their faux florals on sale for 40% off this week.  I cut the flower off at the stem and attached it to the pen cap using packing tape.

I then wrapped the pen with green floral tape.  You can see the pen cap all wrapped up above. Floral tape, btw, is fascinating.  It's magic how it doesn't turn sticky until you stretch it.

Here's what the pens look like in all their covered glory.

While you're checking out the Christmas Tree Store, you should also check out Homegoods.  They had a ton of beautiful frames, lovely vases (including handpainted mercury glass vases) and stained glass Morocco lanterns, and all types of other decorative knick knacks on clearance today.

Where's your favorite place for craptastic finds?