Archive for the 'Art' Category

Happiness

Published on March 12, 2010 in Art, Life and Photos. 2 Comments Tags: happiness, Life, Mother & Baby, photography.

I’ve been feeling a little bad about the last post. Some days are just harder than others, and I realize that there are a lot of people that would happily exchange their problems for mine. So today I’m just concentrating on happiness and I’m finding a lot to be happy for.

Happiness today is…

Chloe going back to sleep after waking up early
Spending that extra time snuggling with my honey
Watching Chloe’s happily explore during her art class
Driving downtown to pick up my professionally printed photo for the Living River juried art exhibit. Can you believe it?! My photo was one of 80 works (from textiles, sculpture, photography, paintings, etc) selected out of over 350 submissions. I’ve never “shown” my work like this before, which is kind of thrilling.
Treating myself to a mocha and bressane from the Pearl Bakery.
Chloe falling asleep on the way home, and then taking a second nap later in the afternoon.
Finding out my mother-in-law is coming for a visit!

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Published on January 19, 2010 in Art and Photos. 1 Comment Tags: Art, choosing, decor, frames, interior, Nature, photography, Photos, wall.

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(1) Maple leaves in the forest (2) White flowers, Smith Rock
(3) Indian Paintbrush at the grandparent’s (4) Miniature Rose in our yard

I’m thinking about putting new photographs in the four gallery frames hanging in our living room. Over the years they’ve held illustrations, photos, artwork, magazine pages and right now they’re displaying fabric. However, you’d think with all the photos I take, I’d easily fill those four frames with new photographs. But, no. The issue? Finding four vertical shots to make a set. Since I don’t often photograph vertically, there is a limited number to choose from. Choosing a matched pair is easy. A set of three, fine. Finding four that look good together? That’s a challenge.

I briefly considered doing four shots of Chloe, but it seemed too shrine-like in our little house. Then I considered texture shots, but now I’m thinking about the four nature scenes above. I think what ties these together is the sunlight and glow of color, plus the combination of crisp foreground and softer background. I also like that Chloe and David are represented in one of them, but not overly so.

Someday I’d like to shoot a set of nice black & whites – maybe architectural in theme – bridges, buildings, cityscapes. I like the set of three France photographs donated to Craft Hope’s Etsy shop (they sold!), but they are all horizontal, too. Or maybe I just need to scrap the current frame layout and turn them all sideways. Hmm… there’s a thought.

Love this image

Published on September 4, 2008 in Art, Design and Humorous. 0 Comments Tags: chicken, cow, egg, humor.

There is just something about this image that makes me smile. I wish I could find it again, so I could give the artist credit. I think it is a screenshot originally from threadless.com, and I just thought I’d share it.

Modern Wall Decals

Published on August 21, 2008 in Art, Baby, Design and Home. 0 Comments Tags: Art, decals, decor, wall.

I am really loving the new look of wall decals. They add an artistic touch with such a minimal amount of work, and are often customizable in colors to match your existing decor. David and I have talked about getting one for the living room, but I’m almost sure I’ll get one for the nursery. Here are just a few of my faves:

Cherry Blossom Branch with Birds (singlestonestudios.etsy.com)

Birds in Birdcage Grouping (singlestonestudios.etsy.com)

One or Two Color Tree (holly.etsy.com)

Birdhouse (holly.etsy.com)

Love Birds on Flower Branches ( decorette.etsy.com)

Easter and My First ATCs

Published on March 23, 2008 in Art, Home and Life. 6 Comments Tags: ATCs, Life, pressed flowers.

Happy Easter everyone! I’m sorry I’ve been such a blog slacker this week.

David and I had a pretty mellow day at home today. It was rainy and grey, so we mostly stayed in. This morning I made a special breakfast of Eggs Benedict and later we ate fresh from the oven Swedish cinnamon rolls from a package mix that I got the last time we were at Ikea. Very yum! Otherwise, we bought more dirt/compost to fill our new raised garden bed and went for a nice walk to our neighborhood lake with the dog. Pretty relaxing.

Earlier this week, I made my first artist trading cards for a swap. Actually, I wasn’t even sure what ATCs were, but from what I could glean from the good ‘ole internet, they can be whatever as long as they are (a mostly flat) 2.5 by 3.5 inches. This particular swap was for 2 pressed flower ATCs which gave me the perfect excuse to open my press from late last summer. Some real beauties in that batch. The background images are from an American Express booklet I found in our recycling bin, and I just added a couple lines of thread and hole punch dots. Will these count? I hope so.

Artful Photography

Published on February 11, 2008 in Art, Design and Photos. 1 Comment Tags: Art, children, photography.

I recently learned about photographer/artist Al Magnus and thought I’d share a couple of my favorites here. I like their dreamy, magical quality, and how they open up the imagination.

Originally spotted on The Erraticist.

Crafty Giveaway

Published on February 4, 2008 in Art, Crafts & Sewing, Design and handmade. 23 Comments Tags: Crafts & Sewing, Design, free, giveaway, handmade, jewelry, necklace, plastic.

I’ve been having fun designing and making plastic pendants lately. I love combining colors and shapes and patterns into these little (mostly) 1″x 1″ works. You can kind of see what’s been on my mind lately – birds, patchwork, snowflakes, leaves and flowers. I don’t tend to wear much jewelry myself, but I like how necklaces can provide just the right amount of polish and character every now and then. Anyway, I hope you guys like them. To celebrate recently reaching my 250th post and to thank everyone who stops by my little blog, I’m holding my first crafty giveaway!

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. That’s it! On Friday I’ll announce a winner by having David draw a name. The winner will get to chose a pendant from the selection shown above, and I’ll attach it to a leather cord for wearing. Be sure to leave a valid email address so I can contact the winner for a shipping address. Thanks for visiting and good luck!

Custom banner design

Published on January 9, 2008 in Art, Design and graphic design. 2 Comments Tags: Art, banners, blogs, Crafts & DIY, Design and Architecture, Etsy.

I was contacted via Etsy by the talented Sarah Gilreath back in November about doing a custom banner for her blog Sarah’s Studio. Lucky for me she is an incredibly patient person, because it took a while to complete due to the mad holiday rush. I recently sent her three versions, of which she chose this one. Then, because she liked one of the alternates as well, she decided to purchase a second along with an avatar for her Etsy shop, LadyGil Designs. Be sure to check out her adorable 2008 mini coaster calendar, too!

The perfect craft table

Published on January 9, 2008 in Art, Crafts & Sewing, Design, Home and Ikea. 4 Comments Tags: Crafts & DIY, furniture, Home, Life, Shop.

I thought about mentioning my new Norden gateleg table from IKEA in the previous post, but since it is not in actually stored in the office I thought I’d add it separately. David got fed up with not eating at the dinner table because of all my craft and sewing supplies spread out all over, so for Christmas he bought me this.

Although IKEA categorizes this as a dining table, I think it works far better as a utility/craft table. It’s not much of a looker, but as you can see from the image above, there are drop leaves on both sides, which each lift individually. There are also 3 drawers on each side, perfect for storing notions, balls of yarn and knitting needles, and other items that need a home for themselves.

Our 10′ x 10′ spare room is used as the “TV” room, and David uses that closet as his wardrobe (he’s generously allowed me full reign over our bedroom closet. All I can say is that decent closet space was not a priority in the late 1940′s). We’ve squeezed in a futon, a TV stand and two bookshelves into that room, which just leaves the two windows, door and closet accessible. So you can imagine my skepticism when David said we’d find a table to fit.

The great thing about the Norden table is that it folds down to be a mere 10.5″ (x 31.5″). No bigger than a small bookshelf (which we had to take out). When it is not in use it fits my sewing machine perfectly on top with plenty of room to spare. When I want to sew I pull out just one side, and when I want to spread out large sections of fabric or other projects I can extend both sides for a whopping 5 feet (and no, the gateleg does not seem to get in my way with the sewing pedal)

Free Download & Print Holiday Giftwrap

Published on December 3, 2007 in Art, Design and holiday. 5 Comments Tags: Art, christmas, Crafts & Sewing, Design, download, free, gifts, giftwrapping, holiday, print, snowflakes.

Free Download & Print Gift Wrap

Isn’t giftwrap fun? All the colors and patterns. I love how it looks so festive and promising. I especially enjoy the process of wrapping. If I had a dream house, I’d have a gift wrapping station complete with ribbon organizer. However, in our small house, we have to be more economical and limit ourselves to only a few rolls (not including the enormous one that a friend gave us, that will literally last our entire lifetime). Also, one major perk of being a graphic designer is that printers always give away free sheets of wrap around the holidays. I love that.

This week, I’m providing the two printable designs shown above – Giftwrap 1 – sapphire snowflakes on chocolate and Giftwrap 2 – tiny blue-grey snowflakes. The files measure 11×17″, but will work on letter size sheets. They can also be overlapped (or “tiled”) to create a larger sheet.

Tip: The most useful giftwrap-related item we have is a jumbo roll of white curling ribbon. It sounds pretty simple, but it never fails to look good and work for every single occasion.

See the upper-right sidebar for links to the previously posted goodies.

snowflake giftwrap

Dreaming in Color

Published on November 4, 2007 in Art and Photos. 0 Comments Tags: Art, photography, Photos.

My mother-in-law sent me a link this weekend to a site called Elemental PhotoArt, which I thought I’d share. It’s a little slow getting around (I tend to be impatient with sites like these), but there were some pieces that I thought were really nice. These caught my eye in particular, with their dreamy quality and rich colors:

Sand Stars, Tia Magallon

Golden Puzzle, Tia Magallon

Nevada Monocot #48, Todd France

California Monocot #43, Todd France

Recycled Gift Crafts

Published on October 15, 2007 in Art, Crafts & Sewing, Design, Things to Make and recycled. 10 Comments Tags: air freshener, bags, bowl, chip, Crafts & Sewing, diy, envelopes, firestarters, gift, paint, pinecones, plastic, project, record, recycled, sweaters.

blog action day

In response to this year’s blog action day on the environment, I thought I’d list 7 recycled craft ideas that I really like, including links to their instructions. Besides ending up with a wonderful, handmade gift (for you or someone else!), recycling also conserves energy, natural resources, saves landfill space, and most of all, saves money! So instead of throwing away that moth eaten sweater, scratched record, old candles, and empty glass jars, use them instead to create these useful recycled crafts…

Recycled Envelopes
Make unique envelopes by recycling calendars, magazines, maps, sheet music or any other unused papers that you might have lying around. There are several places where you can download templates, including here, here or here, or you can simply find an envelope you like, unfold it and trace.

Recycled calendar kitten envelopes from kimmzy’s flickr photostream

Recycled magazine paper envelopes from janick’s flickr photostream

Recycled Sweater Crafts
I can’t resist these projects made from old sweaters. Leave it to Martha Stewart (and her staff and guests) to come up with such beautiful handmade items. Here are instructions on her website to make recycled sweater mittens (including video!), pouches, pillow covers, soft toys and stuffed animals, christmas stockings and a felted knitting basket.

Homemade Gel Air Freshener
Air fresheners are a nice way to reuse smaller glass jars from baby foods, jams, and fancy condiments. You can even learn to punch fancy lid designs by adapting this project. Add a little extra flair with descriptive labels or decorative embellishments.

gel air fresheners

Pinecone Firestarters
Cozy winter fires are so fun. I only wish our house had a fireplace! Nevertheless, its nice to use all those pinecones in our backyard for something. According to Orvis’ website, pinecone firestarters are “an environmentally friendly and totally sustainable way to start a fire,” plus “there is no messy residue because the wax burns away completely.” So save those chemically treated firestarter sticks and use these babies instead! The perfect opportunity to use up the wax from old, burnt-down candle ends. Instead of paying a small fortune at Orvis or LLBean, it’s easy to make your own firestarter gift baskets. Try these directions here, here or here.

pinecone firestarters

Melted Vinyl Record Bowl
This is a project I’ve mentioned before. These bowls are so easy and fun to make, and there are a ton of old records just waiting to be recycled in this way. Because of the hole in the center, these bowls work best for larger items like fruit, or candy, or it can be used as a catch-all for keys and wallets.

recycled record

Recycled Paint Chip Business Card Holder
I’ve also written a post on these before, but I still think it is one of the coolest projects. Plus these could be used to hold more than just business cards – maybe a tiny set of note paper or sticky notes, or a miniature stack of bookmarks made of recycled greeting cards, even toothpicks! The possibilites are endless. Instructions and templates can be found at Designverb.

recycled paint chip business card holder

Plastic Bag Messenger Bag
My husband found this video on youtube for making a messenger bag by ironing plastic bags. It’s a bit more involved, but the result is SO COOL! Check it out:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB1mE8e35UY]

Polar Lights & Swedish Fashion Stamps

Published on October 9, 2007 in Art, Design and Shop. 2 Comments Tags: aurora borealis, fashion, postage, stamps.

polar lights stamps postage

I was at the post office the other day to pick up a new supply of first-class stamps. David wanted the Marvel Super Heroes, but they were out, so I got a sheet of the Forever stamps instead. I also picked up a sheet of these pretty Polar Lights stamps, too, depicting photographs of aurora borealis and aurora australis.

This is what the back of the two stamps say:

The southern lights, aurora australis, are the polar lights as seen in the Southern Hemisphere. Auroras often appear in visual forms that combine aspects of arcs, curtains, and rays; this photograph shows an aurora over Antarctica, where hints of red indicate particularly strong magnetic activity in space.

The northern lights, or aurora borealis, are a common sight in the northern polar region; here they appear over the Talkeetna Mountains in Alaska. During particularly intense magnetic storms, aurora borealis can occasionally be seen in some of the lower 48 states as well.

swedish fashion stamps

Speaking of stamps, I was reading another blog (was it this one?) that mentioned these Swedish Fashion Stamps that I thought were really artsy and cool. I bookmarked the Postal Shop but not the blog, although I was able to find a larger image of the stamps here.

I’ve always liked stamps, but I’ve never been a collector (not counting the random old ones that sit in the bottom of our stamp drawer, like a pair of 32¢ Marilyn Monroe stamps that I can never bring myself to use). David has several sets that his mom has framed from him in the past, some cartoon ones and a nice collector’s sheet of Hawaiian surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku.

And for those of you who don’t already know, you can even make your own postage stamps. I made a set for my sister in-law a couple years back, using a photo of her new baby boy, and they were adorable! Check ‘em out here.

Drawing on other people's creativity

Published on September 22, 2007 in Art, Design, Etsy, Portland, Shop and graphic design. 4 Comments Tags: Art, blogs, cards, Design, Etsy, graphic design, letterpress, paper, Shop, stationery.

“Treehouses” limited edition cards (photo and design from Kirin & Co)

I was thinking today that I should feature other people’s designs more often, especially the ones that really strike me as particularly beautiful, creative, cool or otherwise inspiring. Since I can’t afford to buy anything right now (see this post if you’re wondering why), I thought it would be like “window shopping” using my monitor… or maybe it would be more like curating my own imagined shop? Plus, I’m really hoping to motivate myself to begin at least one of the projects that have been sitting in the back of my mind.

One of my very recent favorite finds is the letterpressed card shown above, a collaboration between Lara Cameron, an Australian designer, and Lynn Russel of Satsuma Press, based right here in Portland. There are a set of three designs: treehouses (above), japanese tree, and birch. According to Lara’s Etsy shop, each card is letterpress printed with a vandercook sp-15 on crane’s 100% cotton lettra paper with hand mixed inks. However, if you live in the US you’d save on postage by purchasing from Lynn’s shop. I love the single use of color, the mixture of thin lines and solid shapes, and especially the little details.