design. wash. rinse. repeat.

freebie: holiday card

 
I've been working on various letterpress looking Holiday photo card designs (for a fantastic client!) since mid summer, so with my head brimming full of ideas i was determined this would be the year our family postcards would actually make it in the mail... um, sure, talk about overestimating myself. here we are mid-December and still nothing. no address list, no stamps, no card design, and no photo. yipes! luckily magic was in the air today and all three children decided to nap at the very same moment. happy Christmas to me, i actually got something done! and when they all woke up cheerful and well rested i tortured them with an outdoor photoshoot (it was only mildly unbearably cold in Utah today... luckily they love an excuse to sport their winter coats). hallelujah, i feel so accomplished! now if only i could master the "focus" button on my camera... but that's probably too much to ask for one day.

happy holidays everyone, thanks for all your support and kind comments over the last year. click below to download this 5 x 7 card template (or click here for last years design!)... and if magic is in the air again in the coming days i'll post some coordinating gift tags. xoxo

gobble gobble

While getting little Kate ready for her preschool Thanksgiving feast i found myself reminiscing about my childhood. Suddenly i recalled crisp Thanksgiving mornings, the smell of roasting turkey filling the house, and sitting at the kitchen table creating gumdrop turkeys with my Mom and siblings. Bright, cheery, tasty gumdrop turkeys! what a great memory. how could i have forgotten to pass such a treasured tradition on to my own little ones? I quickly called my mom, but unfortunately she only vaguely remembers how we made them. so i took my foggy recollections to the grocery store with me, snapped up a plethora of candy options, and LK and i spent the better part of the afternoon playing with gooey candy. the result? adorable turkeys! we had so much fun with this last minute project i thought i'd share. everything we used is readily available at the grocery store.

supplies: 1 large gumdrop, 7 small gumdrops, 6 toothpicks, nerds candy, gummy worm, marshmallow, scissors

instructions: 

1_attach a small gumdrop to the end of 5 of the toothpicks, and poke into the large gumdrop to form the turkey's tail and body. 

2_cut a gumdrop in half and attach to the turkey body as wings.

3_create the turkey head by first cutting two small pieces of marshmallow and attaching them to a gumdrop as the whites of the eyes (the sticky marshmallow adheres quite well!). push a small candy nerd into the center of each eye. poke a larger candy nerd in the center to form a beak, and then trim a small chunk of the gummy worm to form the snood (red flap that falls along the beak).

4_cut the last toothpick in half and use it to connect the head to the body of the turkey.

voila! if you're a spontaneous last minute crafter like myself there's still time to give these a try! happy thanksgiving all.

103

Renowned artistic genius, and mother, Eva Zeisel turns 103 today... 103! and she is STILL bringing inspired designs to the world. can you imagine? blows me away. Her sleek modern style has an expressive playful twist that makes my heart go all a flutter. love it. If that isn't incredible enough her life story is unbelievable (she was actually imprisoned for 16 months by Stalin, 12 of which were spent in solitary confinement). As an artist juggling motherhood myself, she is an inspiration. Even in her 80's she ventured into a whole new career: furniture design. The coffee table she designed at the ripe young age of 87 has been on my wish list for years. 

Eva's timeless work is on display at the MoMA, the Met, and the V&A, and you can purchase her creations through Crate and Barrel, DWR, and many more. To learn more about her, check out the charming interview on NPR, her talk at TED, and the new documentary Throwing Curves—Eva Zeisel (view a trailer here).

what will you be doing at 103?

Eerie winners!!

thanks for all the nice comments about the new Eerie halloween line, it was fun to hear from so many different people and connect with some new blogs. the random number generator selected three winners who will each receive a selection of products from the Eerie line! the winners are:

1} Leslie: I love the eerie doilies!! They are so fun!

17} Tracy: Wow, that's a tough one to choose a favorite? Gotta luv those adorable skulls Eerie Do Me A Favor...but I truly luv 'em all! Thanks for the opportunity to win Ü

21} Becky: How cool that you got the chance to do this! and how extra cool your designs are!!!

winners, i will email you to get your mailing address.

happy halloween!

freebie: halloween labels!

I'm of the opinion that no soirée is complete without custom labels for your beverages, and since the Halloween party season is upon us i thought some creepy labels would be the perfect freebie. 

These three designs were created to co-ordinate with the new Eerie line, so if you're feeling creative you could easily whip up matching invitations, place settings, food picks, name tags, and any other party décor you can dream up. the Skull Favor Boxes would even be the ideal parting gift. plus, when all is said and done, you could create scrapbook pages to match! (and don't forget to enter to win your very own samples of Eerie, i'll be picking some winners on saturday!). bottoms up!!

whooooo loves fabric?!

Introducing the Eva fabric line, new from BasicGrey and Moda.

Despite the loss of many beloved clients this year due to the economy, i consider myself extremely lucky. Foremost on my list is that Moda picked up the Eva line from BasicGrey and turned it into fabric! I come from a long line of fabric lovers, so to see my own designs available in stores is completely surreal and exciting. I couldn't wait to dust off the sewing machine and start playing with this "new" medium.

Although i love to quilt, i'm admittedly crap at sewing anything else. This became a massive problem last friday when i REALLY wanted to design and sew an Owl RIGHT THAT SECOND, but lacked the necessary skills. Fortunately for my adventurous spirit, i was able to call on the expert living right around the corner. my mother. After a bit of trial and error, we were able to work up a pattern, and in the space of an afternoon we took two lovely Owls from conception to completion. (yes, i confess i had to unpick a seam... okay two seams... or maybe three or four. really who's counting?) The girls were mesmerized by the entire process and couldn't wait to begin smothering their owls with love. Little Kate immediately christened them Ruffle, and Rawffa, and they've been inseparable ever since. 

I figure we're not the only ones who love owls, and thought this would make a fun freebie pattern. my first fabric freebie! now for that serger i've been wanting... any recommendations?

giant pumpkin patch

Little Kate and i hosted our very first playgroup yesterday. nevermind that the kids are all merely 4 years old, this is totally new to me and i was feeling intimidated! (i barely have a clue how to entertain my own little one, let alone eight of them!) however, we thought up a fun project, and the kids seemed to really enjoy making these huge pumpkins, so i thought i'd share.

SUPPLIES: Orange butcher paper, 1/8" hole punch, sticky-backed craft foam (i was hoping for glittery black, but with short notice only found gold and silver, which worked as an alternative), 2 yards black ribbon (1/8"), scrap paper (old newspaper or phonebook pages work well). OPTIONAL: spider rings

To Prepare:

Double up orange butcher paper and trim desired pumpkin shapes (about 18-24 inches large), and punch holes around the outside edges. Then cut various mouth, eye, and nose designs from craft foam, and lastly cut about 2 yards of black ribbon per pumpkin.

Have the children:

1 > Pick a face design and adhere it to a pumpkin.

2 > Lace 3/4 of the way around using the black ribbon.

3 > Crumple scrap paper and stuff the pumpkin until he is nice and fat!

4 > Lace the rest of the way and tie. As a finishing touch, attach a plastic spider to the bow.

voila, a giant pumpkin patch! Afterwords we snacked on cheese and crackers, and finished up with orange Oreos and cute pumpkin lollipops we found at Michaels. too fun!

freebie: Pumpkin Pops!

Trick out your treats with this fun pumpkin lollipop topper (of course featuring the always creepy "freckle face" drawn by my 3 year old). Spooky on the outside, delicious on the inside! Plus the design co-ordinates perfectly with BasicGrey's new Eerie halloween collection. For extra dazzle, i covered the leaf shape with bright green glitter. 

introducing Eerie (and a giveaway!)

This past year i was thrilled to get to work on BasicGrey's first ever Halloween line! If you know me very well you're probably imagining me passing out with excitement upon receiving the call (and you'd be right!). I Love Halloween. I Love bats & skulls. and i Love BasicGrey. The result is Eerie, a double-sided paper line with 36 creepy co-ordinating designs. As if that weren't enough, we've also created tons of wicked stamps and embellishments (view a sampling below, including the spooky Skull Favor Box!)... so many fun treats! Having just received my box of samples i would love to share with fellow fanatics, so drop a note on this post, maybe mentioning your favorite of the new Halloween embellishments or stamps (you can preview the full line here), and on October 24th i'll pick a couple of random winners to receive their desired item plus a few other spooky goodies!

and stay tuned this month for some co-ordinating digital freebies!

buttons buttons

As i neared the final stretch of pregnancy this last summer i couldn't stand the thoughts of purchasing—let alone wearing—another maternity top. so naturally i went shopping at Anthropologie! to my surprise, in the midst of their clearance section i found the perfect top for an unheard of $9. why so cheap? because many of the cute button details were unraveling and falling off. 

Vintage button stash to the rescue! I handpicked a random selection of favorites and fixed the shirt up in no time. Which got me to thinking what an easy project this would be to spruce up any old tee. Pictured below is a plain white shirt that my creative niece Kynzi transformed with a splash of buttons, but even a graphic tee could be rejuvenated with some selectively placed buttons and stitching here and there. the possibilities are endless, and what a great way to re-use and recycle. Who doesn't have billions of buttons laying around itching for a creative place to land?