Candy Sticks

Yes! I am still alive! The summer is nearly over which means I can breathe life back into my blogs. So here is a little start.
I made some vintage looking candy sticks for easy Halloween decor if you like that sort of thing. Toss them in a black goblet or apothecary jar. Top them with puppet heads (or shrunken human heads). Here's how to make your own:


I used 6 long dowels from the craft store that were just under 1/2" thick and cut them in half, making them about 12" long and sanded the ends a little (Thanks, Dad). Then painted them with craft acrylic paint.
TIP: It's easier to paint dark colors on light vs. the other way around. So I painted all the sticks orange and white.

Do it with a smile, folks! Here is my accomplice, Jess, in crafting cahoots with me.

Next take a long strip of masking tape (I used 1" width) and lay it on a cutting mat. With a ruler and an Xacto, cut the tape in half length wise. Remove one half of the cut tape and wrap it around your stick. This will mask the current color and create a stripe when you paint the second color. In this example, my second color was black.

Once dry, remove the tape to reveal your stripe. Fabulous!
TIP: Experiment with different tape widths. I would cut my length into 3/4" or 1/4" widths to create some of the variety you see here.
ANOTHER TIP: Wrap your tape in alternating directions so you don't end up with all your stripes going one way.

FUN TIP: Note the far right stick with three colors. I did this one last and wish I had done more like it. It was a white stick with two strips of tape close together that I painted orange (like the stick next to it). Then I painted that thin area between the tape with black.
They could have been finished here but they were a little to bright for me so I watered down some brown paint and put a dirty wash on them. Naughty little sticks....now they are perfect. If you click the bottom picture here you can get a closer look.

My Mom had some mica flakes that I tried out on some. Could work with glitter as well. Many options. Do experiment. It was fun!

Neck Lines

Weeks ago I saw this Armani ad and tore it out because I was interested in this scarf she was wearing. Ever since then I've been looking for a cool knit fabric to try this with.
Then recently I found this website, SAAKO that also makes/sells them. I don't know... I just think they are cool.
Have you seen any others for sale anywhere? I have a feeling we'll see more of these in the coming months.
They don't look too difficult to try.
I see some ghetto sewing in my near future!

White Out

I absolutely love these images from Shannon May (via Design Sponge). They inspire me to pull out my watercolors again.
I love the faded washes and especially the masked areas of white. This one with the airplane is my favorite. The crisp buildings resting way at the bottom is fab. Look at how the sky darkens.
Oh. If time grew on a tree.....

Erin Berrett

My friend Laura just posted a painting by artist Erin W. Berrett on her blog and I love it. I already have a soft spot for the graphic awesomeness of peppermint candies so this painting of them really caught my attention.
I went to Erin's site and looked at the rest of her work. I love how it's almost a paint-by-number look. Shapes make the image but nothing is blended, it's all clean strokes. Look at the shadows in this one with the ornaments. So modern. And her use of color value is impeccable!

Cariboutiful

I love Caribou's Album art.
Here are a few to check out.
I think the one with all the glass is a particular fave.


(New album in April- Nice!)

Genuis

Absolute...
Pure....
Genius.

Look at this idea on how to create beautiful round perforations in your paper artwork. Oh yes. I am this crazy and will try it.

Xact-O-Mazing

Here are some more amazing paper sculptures.
This artist is Daniel Sean Murphy. The watch in the ad below is entirely composed of paper. See the close up. Crazy!
You can see more detail pics on his blog.

via Twig & Thistle

Heart Me

Just in time for zee holeeday of luuuv...
I saw these at a little shop while visiting SF last year and thought the idea was cute. As you can see by the price tag, it's a pretty investment to possess a cluster. So I swiped a pic with my phone and decided to try and make my own. Sometime.
Well, that 'sometime' arrived. It's called February. And I decided to just go do it.

I bought half of a yard of good linen and went to work. I liked the look of embroidery, but if you don't have a way to do that, I think a stencil or stamping would look cool also, just like classic Necco candy hearts (even white lettering on pastel linens would be charming!). I went along with traditional phrases and then realized some more satire would have been fun. Um, next year.
It's pretty obvious how the rest of the procedure goes... but in case you try it out, some deets regarding the process:
Cut out a paper heart template for tracing, roughly the size of the desired finished product (factor in a small seam allowance)*. I then cut out the middle of this template so I could see through it to center the placement of the words as I traced each heart.
Once traced, cut them out. I kept the plain fabric for the back layered behind the top and cut each heart out together- it saves you time and effort. Doublemint fun!
Start sewing near the bottom point, go all around, and stop along that same side leaving an opening for the batting. Snip the curves, turn inside out, fill and sew closed. I used my machine for this part because I am lazy. Oh, you didn't know that? Well, I so am. I suppose you could hand sew them closed... but who has enough love for that?
Then... voila! Ahhh... L'Amoré.
And if you're not that fond of Valentines Day, put something mean on there, fill them with rocks, and throw them at people**.
*I know. No accuracy here. Do not forget where you are. I told you I'm a ghetto seamstress.
**Not really. If you feel that way then someone needs a hug.

Typography Banners

I can't remember how I found this blog but I loved her post about this Christmas decoration her husband did.
He cut out all these reverent Christmas phrases and terms and made long garlands to hang for their holiday decorations this year. As you can see, they aren't perfect letters or uniform in size. I like that about it.

So, using this idea, I created something similar for a baby shower. I bought some pink/white and blue/white striped cotton yarn (looks just like the decorative twine but much cheaper) and taped the letters on using scotch tape. I didn't have a lot of time so could only do a couple of phrases. For the boy (on the blue string) it read 'Little Boy Blue' and 'Snips & Snails'. On the girl: 'Little Miss Muffet' and 'Sugar & Spice'. I made a third strand with twin onesies, shoes and socks.
I really didn't know if it was going to work but I was relieved to find it had the effect I wanted. Next time I do a shower I will add a few more to the stash and soon be able to look like that holiday photo.
Wouldn't these be fun to have on hand for Birthdays and other events?

Gift Idea

Seriously... sometimes the holiday "should give to" list grows beyond the bounds of my limited mental capacity. Case in point: Teachers.
Dance instructors, soccer coaches, school teachers, teacher assistants... blahbleeblah.... what do you give all these peeps? I don't know. Tell me if you have any tried and true winners.
But I can suggest one idea.
I wanted to give something a little sentimental to the twins Kindergarten teacher as she also taught Elliet and is wonderful. I thought of doing a papercut of a teacher so I searched online until I found a satisfactory image which I traced, printed and cut. It's small- fit into a 6x6" frame from Ikea- and was done in less than an hour.
Thought I'd share the idea in case your stuck on what to give someone. It was easy & personal.

G in da Heeouse

Here it is.
The first actual Ghouse I have ever made. Sure, some things turned out pretty cool, but I also bet that those of you who do this more often can see gaping flaws, yes? It is fun and I want to try again next year. Perhaps it will be bigger? More modern?
Luckily I had to finish this after frosting all the cookies from earlier that day, so my creative moxy was a bit low which forced me not to over think and just do. But it was also fun to have colored frosting on hand- I was planning on using white only.
And thanks to Bake It Pretty (and failed ambitions of holiday cupcakes for.... what reason? Do I ever have one when I drop coinage at that great site??), I had cute little dears and trees to complete the side yard.
Here is where I need your help and comments. Please chime in if you have any answers. I'd love to know your thoughts....
1) I tried to avoid a big barfing mass of crazy candy colors and kept to a simple palette of Red/White (the green was an impulsive addition). But maybe I'm missing some fun? What other candies or things have you tried that look cool? (I had chocolate Necco's for the roof and ended up going with the graham cereal in the end- did I goof?)
2) Do you ever use frosting colors other than white?
3) Any other cool tips for these miniature culinary time vacuums?

Feliz Navidad!

Bow Softly

Um.... totally radical. That tutorial I linked to earlier about making bows has now been followed up with an additional post where a girl took that idea and made some with felt. Genius. I love it.
And as cool as these look, I want you to think, people. Think of the rad colors of wool felt out there and how you could make great mustard/olive/greyblue varieties.... think of using monochromatic tones like all greens or oranges...
Time to play!

See the links here

Happy Trees

Another Academe goal accomplished! Remember my recent post to attempt this? Well, I did it and I so enjoyed it that I am here to testify of it's goodness. I'm also here to share what I did in case you'd like to do it yourself because hey, it's Christmas and that's all in the spirit, yo. This is easily done in a night and if you want to embellish, within 24 hours so if you get crack-a-lackin you can enjoy your efforts this year!
Here's how its done:
1) Pick up a bag of Lemax brand trees at Michaels (right now they are 50% off!) in the model train/village section. They come in a bag of 21 (?) assorted sizes. Dark green with white plastic snow all over them (This comes off in the bleaching process)
2) Fill a sink with hot water deep enough to submerge your trees. Add some bleach (approx 1-2 cups per 3 gallons). Use rubber gloves and place your trees in the water. Swish them around and rotate them while the green fades. The process only takes around 10 minutes. Rinse and remove the trees to a towel.
3) Prepare some Rit dye in preferred colors. I used kelly green, fuscia and royal blue. Place the bowls right next to the sink & prepare a towel for the dyed trees to dry. Place one or two trees in the color, make sure you cover all the areas, remove and rinse immediately. I wanted lighter shades so they only needed to be in the dye about 5-10 seconds, sometimes less. Have fun playing with deeper colors or blends.
PS- The trees will take the dye much faster if they are completely dry rather than dying right after this bleaching process. Keep that in mind or your colors may be darker than what you want.
4) Place rinsed trees on towel to dry. Or send them to Belize for a little sun by the pool.
5) I used a glue gun to embellish with some silver accents. If you want to try glitter, I used the Martha glitter glue- just dabbing the brush end of the applicator on the tip of the branches and then rolled the tree on a paper plate with glitter. Ta Da. All sparkles and happiness!

Hope this inspires you to go make your own. Have fun!

GND Holiday Show

The Holiday show this year was so great. It was really fun to get it all ready. I have heard some good feedback and think that overall everyone enjoyed some of the new products and new vendors. There are so many talented artists out there...I love being able to share them with others.

Luckily I had a little time to try a few things out in time for the show. Since I just did all that embroidery for Scott, I only had time to try some some simple designs so I made some pillows, dish towels and patches with that. The leather/silver necklaces were what I was most excited to share and they sold well. And then the bottlebrush trees! I had so much fun doing those that I made a bunch, glittered them and sold them also. I loved seeing those get carried away to peoples homes.
You can see more pictures/read more on the official Girl Next Door site here.
Now I am going to try and clean up my disaster of an office!

Girl Next Door Show 2009

Sorry for the sparse posting yet again... been busy putting on the Holiday show and creating like mad....
Come if you can to see all the splendor...
I'll post some cool peeks at what I've been doing after the event on Thursday.
In the meantime you can check out the new site I've been working on here.