You only need three things to do this: gold brass spray paint, wooden rounded sticks, and old newspapers.

Rounded sticks usually come in its natural color. You can get them already golden, but of course, it’ll be more expensive (besides, I don’t know where to get those! hehe). If you’re going to need to make a lot of gold scroll sticks—like you’re going to use them for scroll invitations or scroll calendar give-aways—it’s best that you get the plain wooden ones and just paint them yourself. The little difference that a peso makes can lower the cost of production significantly. So again, yeah. You can get natural rounded sticks in Divisoria as well (at Julie T. Go Native Store at 793 Illaya Street in Binondo, Manila, to be more specific). But if you’re going to make only a few, you might be better off getting the more expensive, already-golden wooden rods.

The process is simple, and a bit self-explanatory. Spread out old newspapers outdoors (in your garden perhaps) on a bench, lay out the sticks with the edges hanging a bit, then spray on the paint. Let them dry for a bit and then spray on the other edge. You don’t necessarily have to coat the entire stick with paint unless the invitation or calendar design you’ll make needs the golden sticks to show.

Simple? Try it then!

I run a small novelty invitations and souvenirs business with my sister, and we’re always on the lookout for cool new ideas. We stumbled upon Madella’s Fossilized Flowers in an exhibit at the Gateway Mall.

I totally forgot what these fossilized flowers came from. And before you ask, no these weren’t made of paper, but of real dried leaves. The leaves are dried and then wrapped around a Styrofoam ball stuck on thin branch. The price for each of these flowers ranges from P3 ($0.06) to P10 ($0.20).

Some people use these flowers as decor, but I find them too dull to decorate our home (no need to water them, but still). These fossilized flowers make great wedding souvenirs though—tie them up with some fancy ribbon with a tag, and you’ll have something pretty to give your guests. They cost pretty cheap, but how would they know?

If you’re into scrapbooking, there’s a great chance that you’ve seen this material (and probably even made use of it). But the ones you’ve probably bought are the teeny-weeny pieces that come in little packages (not to mention quite expensive). I don’t do scrapbooking much (I’m not exactly an avid fan), but I’ve used the abaca mat quite often in my art works.

I get my abaca mat at P100 (approximately $2) from Divisoria. I forgot how many yards that is, but it definitely beats buying those puny pieces from a scrapbooking specialty store.

Abaca, by the way, is a species of the banana plant and can be found here in the Philippines, Borneo and Sumatra. This mat is only one way of how the abaca fibers can be woven and used.