Prints!

Fun things are happening in m Etsy shop! Check it out- My Shop

Pillows!

I finally finished this crazy pillow. I am going to try to sell it in my Etsy shop and I will post the link as soon as it's up!


Leafy side

Birdy side

Can a ninja get a jump break?!

Am I the only one who can't get Blogger to do anything I want? All I am trying to do is add jump breaks to my posts, and apparently that just isn't possible, even after hours of research. So I'm sorry if my blog is a little wonky right now and the posts seem kind of long, but I can't for the life of me get it to clean itself up. My apologies!

My Business Card Everest was all worth it!

I made it on Paper Crave! So excited! I check this site religiously (and maybe a little obsessively) so to see my work on there is just the coolest. It's probably the best site to find inspiration from anything ranging from package design to beautiful fonts. It's my favorite! Thanks so much Kristen! Check it out:

http://papercrave.com/even-more-awesome-business-cards/

Woohooo!

Art n' football

To commemorate the Saints game last night, I made these:


Framed my bird print:


And then made these! Roast Beef po boys, using the authentic recipe that Parasol's uses (only the best po boy place in Nola, no big deal). I had to use my Bulldog glass to drink my ice coffee while berling the meat.


The closest I could find to actual french bread...



2 -0 babies! Bless you boys!

Other arty things I made this summer

Here are a few projects that I did before this blog existed.

This cute personalized canvas:



Painted our bar when we first moved in using a stencil from an awesome book called Stencils 101.




Screen printed these shirts and poster (and about a million other things but these are the only ones worth showing):




Embroidered this pillow, which took FOREVER.



Hurley just loves to lay on the special pillow any chance he gets...


And that's about it! Summer is over... -sigh-

Who Dat!

That's right babies, 1 and 0. We're gonna do it again! Bless you boys!

Project for the month: Matching chair and bench

So I finally got around to refinishing this god-awful chair that I had laying around. I forgot to take a before picture of the cushions, but trust me they were bad. The body of the chair is gorgeous, but the paint was all chipped and it needed a new life all together. So I broke out the spray paint and sealer.

Before:



After:



And here it is finally with the cushions that I had already reupholstered next to the bench that I also refinished and reupholstered earlier this month. Now they match!

Can't stop shrinking dinks!

I finished these yesterday, after lusting after this tutorial: Shrinky Dink flowers, and they came out so cute! If you want to see better photos, I'm selling them in my Etsy shop. These are SO addictive!

My Etsy

My business cards, or "My Everest".

So after months and months of researching, planning, and agonizing about what I wanted in my business card, I finally was able to decide on exactly how to do it. I knew that I had a few important criteria to start out with:
1. They had to be on the CHEAP.
2. I wanted to use a multitude of different techniques by hand, and
3. The final product would have to be so beautiful that no one would ever want to throw it away.

With those in mind, I set out to find my paper. Luckily in Austin there are so many resources and friendly people that will help you, that I actually got my paper for free! They gave me so many samples I didn't even have to buy any. Out of all the samples I got I couldn't resist the cream of the crop, the fanciest of fancy papers, Crane Lettra 220 lb. I knew I wanted paper that I could screen print on, and I knew that this cotton paper would take pretty much any ink that I threw at it like a champ, which it did.



So I started out first screen printing one side with a custom pattern that I planned:


Then it was time to letterpress. This was definitely the most laborious, intense part. I ordered polymer plates from Boxcar Press, and cannot recommend them enough. I ordered 3 plates, but unfortunately only ended up using 2, for various reasons. I got some ink, mixed up 2 colors and got out my etching press that I bought from a local artist for $100.


Someone didn't like that he wasn't getting any attention.


What followed could only be described as hours and hours of trial and error, but they turned out pretty great in the end.
First pass with 1 spot color:



2nd pass with a blind plate:


Final:


If you want to see the whole process, I made a video:



At this point I had 3 out of 6 steps done. Now I had to cut them all out, by hand. This was my least favorite part, but I only cut my finger once!



I still needed to print the information side of my card, which was really nerve wrecking because they were so precious after all that letter pressing. I was not happy with how my third plate was printing, so I scrapped it all together and decided to Gocco print the last side. This part is always fun, Gocco-ing is the best!




Now on to the 6th step, painting the edges. This part was a little tricky, but I think the final pop of color really ties the whole card together.

I can't be happier with the final output, and can't believe how much money I saved by doing it all myself! This project was definitely not a time saver, but the wealth of information that I learned made it more than worth it.



There you have it! Coming up, my matching self promotional package.