goofy valentines to download

Remember when valentines were all about silly puns and not licensed characters? I have fond memories of them from grade school. The sillier the better.

My parents always made them. Dad would think of the pun and Mom would do the art. The last couple of Valentine's days, they've revived the tradition with the help of Photoshop. I'm filled with nostalgia whenever we get them, and the kids think they're pretty funny too. Mom, also known as collage & mixed media artist, Rosemary Luckett, has agreed to let me offer 8 valentines for free downloading  here! Just don't go trying to make a million dollars selling them- they are for personal use only, please. They are arranged 4 to a sheet, just print on card stock, and cut them apart with an exacto to make flat cards. Enjoy!

 Happy Valentines Day!

a swedish christmas

I'm not Swedish, I've never been to Sweden, but I love the idea of a Swedish Christmas. I imagine clean, bright colors + rustic straw ornaments all popping off of a whitewashed background filled with a mix of chippy Gustavian antiques and IKEA furniture. I imagine modest but well-designed handmade gifts, simply wrapped and the smell of gingerbread in the air. I imagine clomping around in some red clogs, wearing a ragg wool sweater. I have no idea if I am accurate in my fantasy, but I found a few things on the internets that fit my vision...

vintage red & white wallpaper-from smilemercantile
illustration of Stockholm- by annasee
traditional pepparkakor cookie recipe (thinner, crispier version of gingersnaps)- by The Wandering Cook
dala horse pillow- by LittleputtStudio
dala horse appliqué onesie-by chirp & bloom
Swedish clogs by Troentorp- from shoebuy
traditional Swedish straw ornament- similar on ebay
vintage dala horse- similar on Etsy

I find the dala horse especially charming, so I made up an appliquéd onesie for the shop. I always like an excuse to use my floral ribbons.

God Jul!

making sewn valentine's day cards

We are officially ready for Valentine's Day. For once I got a jump on a holiday and  had the kids make cards a little bit in advance. We tried something different this year: sewn cards. You can sew perfectly fine through card stock, so that's what we did this year. I found these scalloped flat cards at Staples (sorry, couldn't find the cards on their website). They come in maybe 8 colors with mix & match envelopes.

I am nothing if not well stocked with fabric scraps, so the kids went to town picking fabrics to cut into heart shapes. I tried not to interfere with their choices. The more naive, the better with these cards.

I had them cut out hearts freehand, some with pinking sheers and some with standard scissors.

Both of my kids like to use the sewing machine. There is nothing special to sewing on the paper and any crookedness makes them better, I think.

I'm not a scrapbookin' type, but I recently got this set of vintage-style alphabet rubber stamps from Etsy. Lots of supply shops carry them, but set your search to "shop local" (ie. USA) if you don't want to deal with overseas shipping. They are perfect for finishing off the cards and, well, scrapbooking too ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

block printed christmas wrap project

This week, I don't know what happened, but I was seized by a fit of craftiness à la Martha Stewart. Maybe it was residual inspiration from my trip to Galbraith & Paul a couple of weeks ago. I corralled the kids and put them to work on making some Christmas wrap. I had a couple of rolls of kraft paper and some other supplies, it was raining, and I just didn't feel like going out to Target for the store bought stuff. The kids wound up having a blast with it, so it was a win-win. And I do think it adds a nice handmade touch to our gifts.

To do this project you will need:
-package of sticky-back foam sheets
-scissors
-pen
-washable kids' paint such as Crayola
-paint brushes
-plastic plates to use as palettes
-small foam rollers (optional)
-wood scraps such as from a 1x4 board
-roll of kraft paper

The foam self-stick sheets we picked up at Michael's were on the thin side, so we doubled them up before cutting our shapes. Thicker is better for clear prints. Simple shapes work best (the bell/toilet plunger shape didn't make the cut). The most complicated shape was the Santa had because it requires 2 colors of paint.

We didn't have any rollers on hand so we used the spread & dunk method. Spread the paint fairly thin with a brush on the plate and dunk the stamp in it.

Coverage should look about like this- not too goopy. If you have rollers, roll on the paint and it will give a similar effect, more even to tell the truth, but we let go of our perfectionist tendencies for this. Or you can use a paintbrush to apply the paint thinly to the stamp.

Then stamp away, reloading between each stamping.

Hours of fun for the kiddos, especially if you have your Charlie Brown Christmas cd playing in the background and Christmasy junk food to nosh on.

in the christmas spirit at terrain

It was a good day to get out of the studio. It was the first sunny day in a while, and a call from a friend to go meet for coffee at the Cafe at Terrain in Glen Mills, PA was all the enticing I needed.

 

I always liked the old Styers, the nursery that Anthropologie bought to transform into their flagship lifestyle garden store, but it was more of a nuts & bolts kind of place. It didn't have a cafe, much of a gift shop, or quite the panache that Terrain has. I miss the plant selection though.

The seasonal displays here are always so irresistible. (Go here to see fall's displays) This winter's theme: rustic & cozy.

A little tartan.

A little woodland.

Time to start some paperwhites and amaryllis.

Winterberries. Yes it's finally December. All we need now is a picturesque dusting of snow!

into matryoshka dolls

I don't know why, but I'm into Matryoshka dolls, also known as Russian nesting dolls, at the moment. I guess I should say I'm STILL into them since I wrote about them a while ago here.

They just seem so festive for the holidays to me. I found these great matryoshka doll items browsing around on Etsy:
Antique Russian nesting dolls from amberfilikins (oh darn, they're sold!)
Matryoshka doll letterpress birthday card from dutchdoor
Mother-daughter nesting doll pendant set from shoplolli
Matryoshka doll bobby pins from MelissaAbram
Kokka Japanese import matryoshka doll fabric from MoonaFabrics
Hand printed matryoshka doll kitchen towels from CuddleCanvas
Matryoshka doll baby quilt from SweetnCozy
Tiny needle felted matryoshka doll from CattaDolls

And I've been working on my own items for chirp & bloom.

I made an applique onesie and big sister tee in time for the last Clover Market of the season two weeks ago, and I think they came out pretty cute. People liked them at the show anyway, so now they are in the shop.

It was fun to finally use some of the floral ribbons from my trip to the NYC garment district and it was my first time using ink jet printable fabric sheets by Jaquard. I really wanted something realistic for the face, so I created the image in the computer and printed it out. I did a wash test and the ink ran some which wouldn't do at all. So I tried again, and heat setting it with the iron, then soaking it in salt water. That brought the color down a bit, but I like the more antique look and when washed  again, the ink didn't run. See? Even in a small business you have to do quality control testing. I'll add to that that I've tested the best way to finish the edge of ribbons and ric-rac. Between Fray-Check and singeing, singeing wins as long as the content is polyester. I use a Darice craft wood burning tool for the singeing and it works great.

Back to those printable fabric sheets- they are so cool, my daughter wanted to try them too, so we had a couple of friends over to do her craft idea here.

mothers day ideas from etsy & beyond

click picture to enlarge

Have you gotten your mother anything for Mothers Day yet? I found ideas galore while searching for my mom's gift online- no time to leave the house while preparing for the Art Star show. Heck, I'd like any of these for myself. I'm a mom too, come to think of it!

clockwise from top left:
-Large recycled coffee bean bag tote- WoodstockBeanbags -an ecofriendly shopping tote with character
-SunBRELLI  umbrella by Pamela Zonsius- MoMA Store -handmade in a family owned factory of renewable, sustainable biodegradable plastic, bamboo, and cotton
-Apple Green Decorative Trivet- AmyGeerDesign -heavy cast iron with a vintage patina
-Spring Bee Letterpress Boxed Notes, set of 6- DingbatPress -designed and made by a fellow mom
-Hills Tea Towel- leahduncan -hand printed on fair trade cotton
-Bushnell H20 10x26 binoculars- EMS -birdwatching anyone?
-Custom Mommy Necklace- peacesofindigo -handmade by a fellow Curation Nation teammate & stay-at-home mom
-Hens & Chicks print- anopensketchbook -just plain delightful next to the potting bench
-Sarah Midda’s In & out of the Garden book- Amazon -irresistible reproduction of a watercolor sketchbook

Less than 2 weeks left....

happy saint patrick's day, happy spring!

art by my little boy, age 4

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

- an Irish blessing

valentine's day gift guide

I do a lot of Etsy treasuries these days now that I've joined the Curation Nation treasury team. It's an even more addictive pursuit now that I'm part of a team. It's almost like a sport. This week I experienced a phenomenon with my innocent little Valentine's Day gift guide. Being on the team, treasuries tend to get more views because we all make a point to visit each others treasuries. But this one made its way to page 1 and then all the way to the #2 slot where it stayed for several hours. 5,000 views later it made it's way back down and retired itself to oblivion. I'm afraid the views are mostly from other curators rather than buyers, though. I really think these are good, reasonable gifts for people to consider BUYING.... have a peek!

ins and outs 2011

Letterpress holiday card by DingbatPress

Happy New Year! I'm happy to report that I've already accomplished one resolution for the year which was to tweak the look and functioning of this blog. Thanks to Shalon of papermepretty, I have a new wider layout, a navigation bar (with a home button- I'm giddy!), a background pattern, and new headers. It's the little things! All I have to do now is complete the overdue baby gifts I've promised to friends and lose 20 lbs...

Now on to that quintessential New Year's Day pursuit: gorging on what's out and what's in lists!
from the Washington Post (the mother of all out & in lists)
from the Chicago Tribune
from the Portland Mercury
from George Mason High School (the kids are alright!)
from the Boston Herald
from Peta
from Shine
from Gatehouse News Service (is the Tea Party really "in" though?)
from Buddy TV
from Second City Style
from ABC News
from Global Post

Take care!

grandma's peanut brittle recipe

My grandmother was here on the east coast for Thanksgiving for the first time ever this year. She was quite the cook in her day. She ran the cafeteria where her kids went to school back when the food at school was homemade and tasty. Large quantities were no big deal to her. Besides cooking at school, she made meals at home from scratch for a family of nine seven days a week without skimping on the sweets.

During the holidays, she'd pull out all the stops and make trays and trays of turtles, fudge, and peanut brittle. The whole extended family would receive a large goody box for Christmas. The boxes stopped coming a few years ago when my grandmother's eyesight began to fail along with my grandfather's health, and the two of them retired to an assisted living place with not much of a kitchen.

While she was here, I persuaded her to walk me through her peanut brittle recipe.

Grandma's Peanut Brittle
2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup hot water
1 tsp salt
2 cups raw peanuts, shells removed (with the brown skins still on)
1tsp vanilla (omit if using vanilla flavored corn syrup)
3 TBS butter
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Combine sugar, corn syrup, hot water, and salt in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil & add peanuts.

It will be a scary rolling boil, but don't turn it down. Our first batch was a failed batch because we didn't get the temperature high enough. A little drip of the hot syrup into a cold cup of water should yield a crunchy thread, not a chewy glob. For the second batch, we used a candy thermometer and cooked the mixture until it reached 300° F. As tempting as it may be, DON'T lick the spoon. Any higher & it will burn, so remove from heat right away, add the butter, vanilla ,and baking soda. Stir quickly.

The baking soda makes the syrup foam up, adding air into it making the brittle pleasantly crunchy rather than rock-like. Immediately spread the mixture onto a large buttered cookie sheet to cool.

To release from the pan, twist the pan as you would an ice cube tray.

In a tin or boxed up nicely, this candy makes a great little gift. I'm thinking this year I'll take a break from my usual granola and give peanut brittle.

fun with etsy treasuries

All of us sellers on Etsy have to find ways to be found in the haystack of it all. One of the funnest ways is through curating your own and being featured in others' treasuries. It's sort of like creating a mix-tape was back in the day. You want to have variety, but for all the choices to work next to each other and together as a theme while at the same time showing off what good taste you have. And you can't include yourself in the group. But that's OK because if people think the collection is interesting, they click on the curator's shop out of curiosity. At least I do anyway!

All treasuries wind up here (or go to etsy.com > buy > treasury) and make their way up or down the ranks as time and number of views dictate. I've never made it higher than page 4. Some treasuries go viral, make it to page 1 for a spell, get tons of views and hopefully sales for the featured shops. Some get selected to be on Etsy's front page for part of a day which is a badge of honor for curators as well as the featured shops. I've never had either happen to me, but I did win a "treasury challenge " this week hosted by Curation Nation, a treasury making team! I'm not on the team, but sometimes I enter their challenges just for fun since they are open to all. The challenge was to make a holiday hostess gift guide of which half of the items needed to be from team members' shops. It was totally enjoyable and got me looking forward to party season. I'm going to buy a few of these too!

Rustic Raffia Wreath Balsam Fir Sachet by bstudio

Pineapple Rhubarb Jam by bovinebubbles
Daring Young Girl Blank Moleskine Journal by marysgranddaughter
Calendula Castile Handmade Soap by Blushie
Personalized wine identifiers by HattieRex
Screen Printed Organic Cotton Kitchen Towel by ohlittlerabbit
Ceramic Drink Coasters by GlazedOver
Recycled Silk Kimono Tree Ornaments by SewnNatural
Vintage Wooden Teardrop Bowl by DovieMoon
Bird with Ribbon Letterpress Cards Set by pistachiopress
Blackberry Sage Soy Wax Candle by aBreathofFrenchair 
Sock Monkey Magnets Set by katieleroy
Maple Granola with Dries Cherries & Spiced Walnuts by marasmaples
Ceramic Bottle/Bud Vase by khphillips
Raspberry Sables by zugarhaus
Betty Crocker Vintage 1959 Entertaining Book by MatildaFairDesigns

Or just click here to view the actual treasury.

I've heard of some people who habitually put together a treasury every single day. I'm not one of those. I like to do a "rough" in poster sketch first. Sleep on it. Tweak. Sleep on it. Start over. And so on. If I made one a day, I'd have no time to actually make stuff for my shop!

On that note, I'm going to head down to the studio to sew something...

how to make a squirrel costume

The household's been crazy this past week with Halloween coming up. So far we haven't had a Halloween with store-bought costumes. It's one of those things I cling to from my childhood in the '70's. My brothers and I would scrounge the house a day or two before and manage to make something with a little help from Mom's rag bag and craft supplies. So we've been in a tizzy deciding what the kids want to be and executing the costumes.

Since we have so many squirrels in our yard and a taming program underway by the children, my boy has decided on being a squirrel. He thought he might want to be a cat again which he's already been twice (and my daughter has been 4 times), but I pointed out to him all the different animals he could be using the same trusty McCall's 8953 pattern. Of course there's no squirrel variation to the pattern, but we can improvise!

I sketched out a tail on some project paper to find the right proportion, keeping in mind it will appear smaller when stuffed.

Then I added a generous seam allowance and cut 2 out of some really squirrelish-looking faux fur. Before you sew the fur, it's a good idea to give the seam allowances a hair cut so they are not too bulky to sew. Have a vacuum handy- it's gonna be a mess!

I quickly realized the tail wasn't going to stay up on it's own. Some kind of suspension system would be required. I thought of fishing line attaching the tail to the body somehow. The hardware store had this clear picture hanging wire that I figured would definitely be strong enough. I sewed some through a button (so the fabric wouldn't tear under pressure) on the inside of the tail

and out through the other side.

I thought I would attach the other end of the wires to the body, which I made out of fleece, in the same way with a button.  The tail was too heavy though, it just pulled on the body too much. A harness inside the suit would be necessary.

Harness, you say, too complicated! Not really. Some elastic scraps cut to loop around the upper arms and held together by a short length of tote bag strapping were a snap to assemble. Just measure the pieces by fitting directly on the child. I tried the suit on my boy first to make sure the attachment point was in the right spot. Then I threaded the wires through the body and attached them through a button to the harness and secured with a knot and leaving the ends long for future adjustment.

Some other modifications to the pattern were to the hood part. I changed the direction of the ear placement like I did last year for the bat costume and eliminated the hood lining. I used the smallest ears which are supposed to be for the lion and lined them with contrast fabric. I also don't bother with the spats or mittens that the pattern includes (this saves about 1/2 yard of fabric).

Trick or treat!

brooklyn renegade 2010, part I: fathers' day gift roundup

I've just returned from a successful visit to the Brooklyn Renegade Craft Fair held yesterday and today in McCarren Park in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. My friend Maria and I braved the sweltering heat to go out and support handmade and soak up some of that amazing indie creativity. There were sooooooo many inspiring vendors, that I decided to break it down into two posts.

Since Father's Day is only two weeks away (June 20th), part of my mission was to seek out gift ideas beyond the standard shirt & tie that most Dad's have seen plenty of, and look what I found! I still can't get over how easy it was to find suitable masculine gifts. Since it's too late to run out to the show now, follow the links to the artists' online stores to shop for the daddies in your life.

Shara Porter's booth of screen printed leather goods was Fathers' Day Central. She prints her daddy-friendly images on wallets, card cases, coasters and even reclaimed leather goods.

T-shirts are so much more fun than dress shirts for Dad. Jennie Howard of Handsome Howard shows off her nostalgic Brooklyn water tower t-shirt which is available in her online store along with many other masculine images emblazoned on tees, ties, pillows, and totes. Got this one for my own daddy-o.

More cool daddy-centric t-shirts from Jason Laurits of Paste T-Shirts.

Love this steampunk-style image from Paste.

That Jason's got a dry sense of humor!

For the literary type: recycled book journals from Ex Libris Anonymous.

Couldn't resist this one for my dad.

Interleaved with the acid-free sketch paper are a few pages from the old book it was recycled from. Gotta love 1960's food styling. They had many other manly journals as did Overdue Industries.

Here's something different: blocks of wood with building facades printed on them from Bladon Conner and Eddie Huber of scraptones. These would make excellent desk accessories or library decor, don't you think? My hubby is an architect and would love one of these...

An alternative to the "#1 Dad" mug: hand thrown ceramic tumbler with the image of a noble wolf by Susannah Tisue of SKT Ceramics. She has many other wildlife images available on mugs and tumblers in her Etsy shop and every weekend at Brooklyn Flea.

Too clever: cufflinks made out of vintage typewriter keys by The Weekend Store. They also have cufflinks made out of map snippets.

The mesmerizingly intricate block prints of Tugboat Print Shop would be perfect for art-lover Dad, or even for the dad who doesn't know he loves art yet, but needs to fit out his man-cave or office. I love this fanciful boat image. They also have amazingly detailed map and scenic designs all HAND block printed from HAND-carved plywood blocks. These are original limited edition HAND-pulled prints!

If you get nothing else, you must get a card. A handmade one always seems more thoughtful than one from the drugstore. I couldn't resist the screen-printed underpants card by Gold Teeth Brooklyn. I also got a more sophisticated letterpress card from Sycamore Street Press.

A great selection from Gold Teeth Brooklyn.

These were just a fraction of the 300 vendors exhibiting at the show. Up next: pretty stuff from the Brooklyn Renegade show.