Could you tell me a good source for purchasing nostalgic party supplies, such as retro Halloween treat bags, paper peanut bags and plastic cupcake toppers.

This is a great question, Nancy! We have a lot of great sources for these types of party supplies. We're excited to be able to share them with you. Because Halloween is just around the corner, I'll mostly show themed packaging here, but all of these sources have a large selection of items, I urge you to browse their sites.

One of our first stops for vintage & vintage inspired paper goods is always D. Blumchen. They have a huge selection of nostalgic holiday ephemera including dresdens, garlands and  decorations. 

I just love these crepe paper party cups. They are so sweet and delicate, and easy to decorate for the season. 

These cupcake toppers are also just the right combination of spooky & adorable. They're perfect on cupcakes, but you could use them with any of your Halloween party hors d'oeuvres. 

Bake it Pretty specializes in quirky & fun supplies for decorating & packaging your baked goods. These treat bags have a real nostalgic flair.

They also have a lot of fun toppers, including these for halloween. 

Viking Importing has the largest selection of baking cups I know. You could use these pumpkin patterned ones for Halloween treats.

Finally - if you're looking for something to make yourself, the Martha Stewart Crafts online store has a ton of great kits and supplies to help spook up your holiday. 

I absolutely love this kit, inspired by this story from the magazine. You can add any decoration you'd like on the outside - adding faces to make mini Jack-O-Lanterns or just decorating with a punched decoration. Either way, the packaging is just as sweet as the treat itself!

Do you have any favorite shops for food packaging?

* Do you have a craft question you'd like to ask the experts? Please click here for more information! Remember - all queries must be sent VIA EMAIL to be considered. Thanks! 

I so loved the decorations and crafts that Martha had for one of her shows a few years back when she was dressed as a cat for Halloween. . . I have searched the website high & low for the decor, but with no luck. We give a big party each year for Halloween and I would love to replicate this theme for our party - can you help?

We searched high & low as well, and still had no luck. Finally, we got in touch with our web team and asked if they could help in our sleuthing. Luckily, they are much better web searchers than we are and we had success!!

The whole show was black cat themed - Joey dressed as a mouse and the audience was even encouraged to bring their black cat pets to the show! Here is Martha with guest, Andy Dick. She really does make one of the most glamorous black cats I've ever seen.

Here is an overall shot of the set with the black cat theme. I love the little paw prints going across the counter - it's very That Darn Cat - one of my favorite movies from childhood.

Actually - come to think of it, this shot from the film of Dean Jones covered in paw prints could be great costume inspiration for a male accompaniment to a female feline .

Here is a close-up of the cat border and one of the cat silouhettes diving for candy. We found the templates for the dancing cat garland and a great variety of cat silhouettes. 

Also part of the theme were these fishbone cut-outs hanging in the kitchen window. We found the templates for these here. 

For a gallery of this and other Halloween shows from the past, click here. I can't wait to see what they come up with this year!

* Do you have a craft question you'd like to ask the experts? Please click here for more information! Remember - all queries must be sent VIA EMAIL to be considered. Thanks!

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Marcie's birthday with an autumnal dessert party. The weather has changed suddenly from what felt like a nice late summer to a chilly early fall. We thought we would embrace the change and bring out some old fall favorites. Nick & Blake brought farm fresh apples, Silke made apple muffins and a delicious apple chutney, and I made chocolate gingerbread cookies with a recipe from the Martha Stewart Cookie Book. 

As you may know from her profile, Marcie's favorite color is red, so we used red patterned napkins, plates and cupcake liners along with large pressed maples leaves to decorate the table.

To personalize the affair, Athena had the great idea to stamp an "M" on our cups that were later filled with apple cider.

She was able to get a nice, even print every time by rolling the cup over the letter stamp. This is a great technique to use for any rounded object you'd like to stamp.

Happy Birthday Marcie!

Thank you everyone for all of your great questions for this new section - We were  really overwhelmed by your response! We will definitely have to make this a weekly feature to get as many of your great questions in as possible!!

A few things to note for the coming weeks:

1. Though we LOVE your comments, unfortunately it is too difficult to keep track of your questions in that forum. If you would like to have your question considered in the future, please send them to us VIA EMAIL to thecraftsdept@marthastewart.com with the subject ASK THE CRAFTS DEPT.

2. Pictures help! If you have a photo to go with your question, it is a huge help to us. It can really help us to understand your problem better and to give you a more specific response. If you do not want us to post your photo with your question on the site, please let us know. 

3. Questions not answered here are not forgotten - we will keep all questions on file for the coming weeks so yours may still come up again in the future. 

And now - on to the good stuff!

Susan asks:

I have a three tiered glass serving tray that is peachy colored. . . I want to have this pink instead for a baby shower. Is there a way I can paint these serving dishes and then after they are used for serving food, take the pink color off and use them as a peachy glass again?

We thought this was a great question - and timely considering that the holiday season is fast approaching. I'm sure many of you will be looking for ways to update old serving dishes for the new season. 

Unfortunately, we couldn't think of any type of painting technique that would work in the way you described. Many paints are too toxic to use with food, and those that aren't are usually permanent. A safer (and probably easier) option is to decorate your stand to mask the peachy color, rather than painting over it completely. It's easy to add tissue or ribbon around the edge of the stand, and use paper, tissue or decorative serving papers to cover the top.  

For this cupcake tier from our Weddings magazine, we added a paper doily border and a thin satin ribbon. 

For more ideas, click below

This paper chain border is another sweet way to to decorate your display. This table is Easter themed, but I can see these same motifs working very well at a baby shower - and the decorations can be carried to the table settings with the adorable egg cups. You can use yours for candy instead! 

We used seam binding to cover this stand, but any light-weight ribbon will do the trick. Use your extra ribbon to create a hanging decoration for a festive atmosphere. 

For this stand, also from weddings, we created a tiered border using tissue paper cut with decoratively edged scallops. The tissue paper table cloth is also a fun way to add color without spending a ton of money. 

And finally, though this probably isn't quite the look you're going for at a baby shower, we thought we we add this Halloween themed party buffet as well to show how versatile this border technique can be. These spooky spikes are created in much the same way as the tissue scallops above, but give a much different look - one you may want to use on halloween night!

 M & J is always one of our first stops when shopping for trims. Be it ribbon, sequins, or leather , they have a fantastic selection. It's always fun to stop in and see what kinds of treats you'll find. 

Recently many of my friends have gotten engaged and are planning weddings. They each came to me looking for a specific type of ribbon, in a very specific color palette. I sent them all to M & J and everyone came back successful. It's no wonder. Check out these walls of color!

In addition to ribbons, they have a huge selection of decorative appliques, tassels, lace, even feather boas. To make matters better - they have a great website to peruse the selection online, but if you ever have a chance to visit the store in person it's worth it.

We know that no matter how many articles we write, or how many blog posts we put together, there will always be information that you want and we miss. For this reason, we are very excited to announce a new section to our blog: Ask the Crafts Dept.!

This is where you chose the content. Just ask us a question, anything, and we will do our best to answer. Are you having trouble getting a hem just right on your recent sewing project? Looking for a tip on the best glue for your glitter? Want to know what inspired your favorite good thing? Ask us here and we'll let you know. 

Here's how it will work:

Send your question (with photos, if relevant) to us VIA EMAIL at thecraftsdept@marthastewart.com with the subject ASK THE CRAFTS DEPT

Every other week we will put our heads together and choose one question to answer here on the blog (frequency may change with the amount of questions we receive).

We look forward to hearing from you!

Clip-art ideas for transforming a simple plastic album into a memory book you'll be proud to display. Download the artwork here.

I love this idea for using your photos (printed on vellum) as a glowing summer centerpiece. Get the full how to here.

I've always loved the sophisticated look of this accordion frame. The photos are printed out on matte inkjet paper and glued to art boards. It's so simple, but looks like a real work of art. See the how-to for attaching the hinges and mounting the photos here.

How are you preserving your summer memories this year?

A lot of our shoots are done with digital cameras these days, which means we get to see the final outcome of the shots right there as we work. When working on film, you have to take a series of polaroids to get the lighting, props & setting just right before you take the final shots. Frank Heckers shot the needle felting story on film. I shot these pictures of his polaroids on digital. It's a mixed up, crazy world.

Once we are happy with how all the pieces are coming together, we trim down our favorites and tape them up so we can see how we're coming along. As you can see, we had a lot to chose from for the scarf shot. 

Photo by Frank Heckers

Here's how the final turned out. I think you'll agree it was all worth it. 

Around Town:  This is where we'll post about events going on around the city & around the country. It could be a fundraising event in Manhattan, a super-size flea market in Massachusetts, or an art sale online. If you have a craft fair or event you'd like us to consider for this section of the blog, please email us at thecraftsdept@marthastewart.com

Behind the Scenes: We know you like to see all the work that goes into the projects that appear in the magazine - scouting shots, prep work, and just us getting silly on shoots. You can find it all here.

Contests & Prizes: We hope to continue to bring you contests & giveaways - and will be sure to congratulate winners here!

Inspiration Board: One of the things we are most excited about sharing with you on this blog is the inspiration that we collect in order to build the stories that you see in the magazine. This can come in strange form - the color of a vegetable, a vintage paper clip box, or a traditional craft. We hope the the items we share here will inspire you as well!

Make It: This is where we'll post projects and how-to's. We know this is content that you are all excited about, and we are also excited to watch this section grow!

Meet: We are inspired everyday by the amazing work of other artists & crafters. We will introduce you to these creators & their work here. Some of them you may know already, and some will be new. We hope all will be inspiring!

On The Web: There is so much great stuff happening on the Martha Stewart Website we don't want you to miss. We will keep you updated with links and info here.

Open Studio: Look here for any posts about our Chelsea studio, our work spaces at home and the studios of other artists. Big or small, cramped or tidy, we know it is always interesting to see how & where others work. 

Our Library: Books are another great source of inspiration for us. Over the years, the department has amassed an impressive collection of books on every craft topic you can think of. We are excited to share these with you!

Our Sources: Living in New York, we have some of the most unique and diverse shops available at our doorstep. In addition, working at Martha Stewart has filled our rolodexes with the best sources for anything from clear plastic bags to blown quail eggs. We'll let you in on our trade secrets here!

Celebrate: As I'm sure you've learned - we love an excuse to have a party here, and usually can't let one go by without an artfully displayed desert or a punched paper decoration. You can celebrate with us here. 

Tools & Materials: A bad worker may blame his tools, but everyone knows that the right tool for the job can make any work better. We'd like to share some of our favorites with you!

TV Crafts: A behind the scenes look at what goes on with the crafters at the tv studio.

I thought it would be fun to show you some of the prep work that went into the projects for the needle felting story in the September issue (which should be in your mailboxes now!)

These shots are from the early stages of picking the palette and patterns for the opening pillow shot. As you can see, we started off thinking of it with very different colors than we ended up with.

This grouping is closer to the final, probably taken just a couple days before the shoot - we still had some big decisions to make!

photo by: Frank Heckers

Here's how it ended up. I think all the hard work paid off - we really wanted to get a sample of how the technique worked with yarn, roving and felt all in the same shot. The adorable cat helps too!

To help decide on the colors for the blanket, I made test swatches of 3 different combinations. We liked the way all three of them looked together, but thought the golden yellow was a great choice for the early fall. To get the pattern just right, I took a series of over-head shots of the blanket as I worked. It really helped make sure the dots made a nice, even pattern.

photo by: Frank Heckers

Our model, Laura (who was also the writer for the story!) snuggles into the final product.

For the how-to, we really wanted to convey how easy & versatile this craft is. Stephen, our art director, had the great idea to put everything on one full page. To make sure we could fit everything together for the shot, we printed out a mock-up of the page layout and did some test shots before the shoot. The shot on the right is the final product (sans text), shot by our amazing photographer, Frank Heckers.

I hope you all get a chance to see the story in the magazine - and give needle felting a try!