OK do it yourselfers, get out your favorite scissors and construction paper, it's time to get going. Everyone knows that the best kind of affordable is the free kind. Here are two great projects that you can do that will cost you almost nothing. I found the pop up Christmas card on Curbly but it is originally from wikiHow. It has great instructions on how to make your very own card that is just begging to be decorated.The 3D paper snowflake is via wikiHow as well and has to be one of the best homemade snowflakes I have ever seen. WikiHow has a ton of other holiday related DIY projects too. DIY Pop Up Christmas card instructions. DIY 3D paper snowflake instructions.

With the Holidays coming up, its time to start thinking about getting gifts for your loved ones, and how to wrap them up. Gift Tags make a great addition to any present. Of course I think the best ones are the ones you make yourself, but if you are looking for something easier, check out these great Letterpressed Gift Tags from Moda Muse. Designed by Lara Cameron these great 4 x 2 tags are a great finishing touch to any gift. Each pack includes 8 gift tags.Available at Moda Muse for $11.

When I think of Thomas Paul, I think pillows, but there is much more to the name than that. Thomas Paul also does rugs, lighting, bags and plates, just to name a few. These great Artifacts Dinner Plates are new to Elsewares, and are a great example of the bold eclectic designs of Thomas Paul put to melamine. In fact, they are almost too good to eat on, and would probably look equally as good on the wall. The classic design follows the emerging trend of "Lux Modern" and puts a print you would expect to see on some fine china on inexpensive durable melamine. Did I say inexpensive? Well maybe not too inexpensive. A set of four will still run you $36, which isn't bad, but it isn't cheap either. Available from Elsewares - $36 for a set four.

I'm not exactly sure what the "Q" stands for, but I do know that this Q tote is a great looking and environmentally friendly little bag at a great price. This bag comes from thecraftpantry's etsy shop and is part of her Mod Naturals Collection. The bag is made of 100% recycled organic cotton and is fair trade/fair market. The print is an original design by Cammie who has her BA in art education. She uses ultra high quality transfer paper to get the images onto the totes. What you use the tote for is up to you... Available at thecraftpantry's etsy shop for $8.

I try not to stray to far from my chosen theme of modern affordable here at Grassrootsmodern, but somethings are just too important, like Finding Grace. Finding Grace is a book that was recently published to raise awareness of America's homeless problem. It was photographed by my friends father and the book contains beautiful portraits of homeless people and families from all over the United States. Included with some photos is a short story about the photographers encounter with that individual. The book not only aims to raise awareness about homelessness to those that buy it, but to help spread the word to everyone. For each copy sold proceeds go to the Finding Grace Homeless initiative, which was set up to increase awareness of homeless issues across the country. And did I mention that it was carbon neutral book? Find out more about the book at http://findinggracehomeless.org Buy your copy from Earth Aware editions for $55.

Tonight is the night. The winner of the People's Design Award will be announced at 10:00 PM EST on their website, or if you are in New York you can go to the gala. For those of you like myself who aren't even close to NYC, Target and Cooper-Hewitt have teamed up to provide free admission to art museums all over the country. Check the map to see if there is one near you. If you just want to browse good design from the comfort of your computer you can look at all of this years nominees here.

Robot Candy cards have been around since 2001, but they just recently arrived over at Elsewares. Each card is hand printed using hand carved blocks and archival ink. The insides are blank for personalized messages and the outside features wonderful simple and friendly pictures of snails, elephants and hedgehogs. Cards measure 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and include an envelope.

Available at Elsewares for $3.

I don't usually venture into the realm of fashion, but these pendants are just too cute and too affordable to pass up. Made by a mother daughter team out of Madison Wisconsin, these pendants are made from origami and other fun papers which are applied, decoupage style, to 1/8 inch masonite. They then receive a layer of sealer on the front and sides for extra protection. They have a wide variety of prints available, and they are all very affordable.Available from the Madison Craft Studio Etsy page. Prices range from $3.50 - $6.50

Wall graphics are all the rage now, and there are no shortage of companies out there producing some great stuff. I was pleased to find that there are several people on Etsy that were making wall graphics as well. Elly Nelly's Tree Hugger wall graphic (shown on the left) measures 29" high and 21.5" wide. It is available in 14 different colors and is priced at $35. One Up Design is responsible for the nice floral Early Bird graphic shown on the right. It includes 20 graphics from 3.25" by 1" to 30" by 6" (botanical) and 1 @ 7" by 7" (bird) and is priced at $45. That is pretty close to the price of Blik graphics or something similar, and you get to directly support the designer. You gotta love Etsy.

My wife and I both love Dahlia's, so much in fact that we tried to grow some in our small (read miniature) garden. Unfortunately we had mild success at best. For those of you who don't have a green thumb but love the look of Dahlia's, your in luck. Sprout home has a pearly white porcelain Dahlia. It is supposed to be a candle holder, but it is so good looking I almost think it would ruin it to stick a candle in it. It is a approximately 2.5"h x 7"dia.

Available from Sprout Home for $26.

Avalisa, one of my favorite makers of wall art has taken her great design sense to a whole new level. Her wonderful graphic prints are now available on wool rugs. There are no prices yet, but they will be available for ordering on Oct 1. They come in 3x5, 5x8 and 8x10 sizes, and a variety of colors and patterns. Check out this PDF in the news section to see all the patterns (Be patient it's a big download).More pictures available after the jump.

I am a big fan of cards, and while my wife and I usually make our own, we appreciate a good card. Good cards is what Modern Printed Matter is all about. Everything from modern furniture to tasty graphic design. There is something about the simplicity of this Barcelona chair card that I really like. It's printed on 80 lb cover stock in black ink and measures 4" x 5.5" (folds from the top). It comes with an A2 shimmery white metallic envelope (square flap) and is blank inside for your personal note. Sold as a set of six cards for $10. Available from the Modern Printed Matter Etsy shop.

Lately I have been thinking about going back to school to get a degree in graphic design. I have been looking for some good blogs that relate to graphic design, but so far I haven't been able to find any. I know there has to be a bunch of them out there and I figure that if anyone would know about them it would be my readers. So if you know of any good ones, please leave a link in the comments to this post. Thanks!

Illustration by ODL Designs.

As one of my favorite artists, and a sponsor of Grassrootsmodern, I keep a pretty close eye on Avalisa. I knew she had been working on some new prints, and it looks like they have finally made it to her website. Her Animal Patterns series takes silhouettes of different animals and repeats them in a pattern that is quite visually soothing. As with all of her artwork, each print is available in different sizes, and different colors. Some of the animal patterns are even available as a zoomed in version such as this Cool Deer Pattern Zoom shown here. Prices are as usual quite reasonable. Available from Avalisa from $59 up.

Our Brown Blue Float print in our nursery.

Here is another great Etsy find. Kim Westad is making some beautiful hand thrown porcelain vases in her Yonkers studio. Shown here is her small pod vase with a Seagrass Slip design and a red interior. I love her eye for detail, and the stark contrast between the bright white porcelain exterior and the deep red interior. It even has a smooth bottom so it won't scratch your furniture. Available at kimwestad's Etsy Shop for $30. Check out her website here.

It seems like wall graphics are all the craze these days, and while I think there are a lot of pretty good looking ones out there, I can't help but think that they would just look tacky in my house. Beearo has a slightly different angle on the whole wall decal market. Instead of making them out of brightly colored vinyl and plastic, they use teak and walnut veneers instead. The result is something that is just as stimulating to the eye, but perhaps a little more grown up. Their kits include all the components you need to create your own wall art, but since there are lots of small pieces, the final design is up to you. Prices are more expensive than their synthetic little brothers, but if you are looking for something a bit more enduring it may be worth it for you. I would love to try these in our house. Beearo Wall graaphics, prices starting at $25.

We did not find out ahead of time the sex of our baby, but wanted to have the room mostly completed before the birth. We wanted a simple, modern baby room that complimented the rest of our home. The furniture is from www.milliondollarbaby.com and with the help of my aunt we designed the bedding and roman shade with fabric from www.tonicliving.com. Once our daughter arrived we added the chick pictures from www.avalisa.com and her name to accent the walls. The mod bear on the rocking chair is from www.pier1.com. The most time consuming item was the rocking chair. After reviewing many posts from this site and searching the web we ended up with an inexpensive one from www.overstock.com. We hope you love our unique room that only cost about $1200.00 – Yes modern can be affordable. And as you can see our daughter is already enjoying her reading corner! - Eric, Darcy, & Gwenivere

Do you have something you want featured on GRM? If so, let us know!

I just wanted to take a quick second to publicly thank everyone who has helped us out in the last couple of weeks. We have had countless people that have been willing to bring by dinners, walk our dog, and just about anything else they could think of to help out. We also have received so many generous gifts for Arri, and they just keep coming! Next week I plan on featuring some of the beautiful handmade gifts that we have received that are both modern and priceless.

The Thank You card shown above is from Moderncard's Etsy shop.

3 Form is a bit of an enigma for Utah. Their factory is just down the road a couple of miles from where I live. While most people around here have never even heard of them, they are known world wide for making some of the most beautiful paneling available. They are also an eco friendly company making it into the AIA top ten green building products. While I adore their stuff, it seems like it has always been too expensive for a tightwad like me. I was looking over their site last night drooling over some of their designs, and playing with the design your own panels when I noticed the Reclaim section. Basically the reclaim panels are 4' x 4' panels that are cut out of a bigger panel that had flaws. Instead of throwing it all away, they sell the smaller panels for a discount. Most go for around $200, and considering I paid $95 for a 5' x 5' panel of 3/8" baltic birch, is really not too bad at all.

Last week I posted about our fantastic Aerial crib from Nurseryworks, and someone asked about our wall hangings. I thought they deserved a quick post of their own, so here we go. These wall hangings are really sliding curtains from Ikea that we hung on our wall. I tried to find the same print on Ikea's web site, but they didn't have it. In fact, it seems like they have lots of curtains in the store that I didn't see on their website. The fabric and the hardware cost us about $25, and looks great in our nursery. We are thinking we might even do something similar in our bedroom.