Awesome Artist Find: Tsai-Fi

So... I know this blog is suppose to be about MY crafty-ness and my art... but I couldn't help but share this fantastic artist I recently came across Tsai-Fi. I was browsing the products on Shana Logic and adding cute stuff to my wishlist (in case anyone reading wants to buy me presents... hint hint, nudge nudge), when I cam across an adorable necklace of an octopus with a heart shaped eye patch.

With my love for anything pirate-y and cute... I was naturally drawn and had to look up the artist for more information. Turns out ALL of her stuff is cute (but not in a so cute it makes you sick kind of way). Here are some examples of her prints.

I love paintings on wood. They just have a certain quality that really catches my attention. If you have a minute, swing over to her website or etsy shop... I will most definitely be buying prints as soon as I have a wall of my own to hang them on. For now, I will admire from a-far :)

blog makeover

hey all-

my blog just got a little make-over. I have been all about the color grey lately and so it seemed fitting to add it to my blog.


and speaking of grey... have you checked out this awesome band seven shades of grey? If you haven't... its time :)

more crafty-ness soon....

blogging from the beach....

ok ok so i haven't been a very good blogger lately. but that doesn't mean i haven't been busy. its been a crazy june and now it's over.
whats been going on you ask? lots. in may i went to a wedding where i made all of my accessories....(pictures to come). it was fun and all started with a pair of shoes that i had to have :). in june i decided to sign up for my first craft fair. my application was accepted and the fair will be this september. i am looking forward to it, be need to get my craft on for next couple months so i have enough stuff to bring with me. this weekend we headed to the cape for the 4th.it is the first chance i really had to relax in a while...yet i still brought craftyness with me :) i shall keep you all updated on my craft fair progress. also...look for an etsy shop update sometime this week. happy 4th everyone.

PS...
jacki...this post was for you.

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Happy Mothers Day!

My adventure in flowers went slightly further than I had expected... but these did make great Mother's Day gifts. One for D's mom and one for my mom. They were loved by both :)

I made them multi-purpose... by putting a pin AND a clip on the backs.

I see a couple more flowers in my future.

Fabric Flowers Part Two: Rosettes

Let me start by saying this whole obsession of learning how to make flowers started with a bag I wanted that had zipper rosettes on it....

Since I am trying to save money and all... and the cost of this bag was uber expensive... I sadly did not buy the bag... but decided instead to figure out how to make zipper rosettes. Of course finding a tutorial on the best way to do that sent me spiraling into an internet whole of finding everything on how to make every other flower EXCEPT the ones I wanted. But... that didn't seem to be a bad thing since I clearly liked the other flowers enough to basically drop what I was doing and go and buy supplies to make them. (i bought zippers to... but sadly no zipper rosettes have emerged from them yet).

ANYWAY... the flowers I did make were super cute! With all the colorful fabric I had laying around from various projects (uh hmmm... my pillow making obsession from back in the day). I decided to play around with what patterns would look good when they were all folded and twisted up.

Here's what I cam up with:

I had no idea what I was going to do with any of them... I just kept trying different fabrics until I had little pile of cute things. Hair clips? Perhaps. Bag pins? Sure. A necklace charm? maybe...

And in such convenient timing... D's twin nieces turned 10 this week. I decided to make a few into hair accessories for them. What a perfect gift.

And while I was at it... an awesome yellow flower for Jacki's cute black and white bag.... AND matching headband:

 So there it is... my adventures in flowers. Maybe someday soon I will get around to the zipper ones. We shall see...

In the meantime. You can expect to see some flower merch in my Etsy shop. Check back in the next couple weeks.

Beachy Magnet Gift Set

So I was asked to make a custom set of magnets for a gift for a friend with a beach theme. And I was pleasantly excited at how they came out so I thought I would share.

 

It was a set of 12 that I packaged nicely into a matching tin.

Like em? Check out my shop for other uber cute magnet sets. birghtandcloudy.com
Have a theme in mind but don't see it on my shop? Email me!

Fabric Flowers Part 1.5

So I know I said that I would be working on different kinds of flowers.... but upon showing off the flowers in the previous post I got a request. I love requests, so naturally I had to fulfill....

The request was for one dozen pink flowers for a team of walkers to wear during the Avon Walk for breast cancer. Something to make the team feel unified and stand out.

They came out great!

Each flower had a snap clip attached to the back so the walkers could either put it in their hair or attach to their clothing if they'd rather. I forgot to take pictures of the backs... next time.

WHAT I LEARNED:
The second time around, I did not use a candle. I used a lighter... and I think the result speaks for itself. The lighter was much easier to control and I didn't have any random brown burn spots on the edges. Going forward, I will definitely use this technique. I also added more layers of petals to make the flowers look fuller.

At some point this weekend, I will finish my flower rosettes. Post coming soon.

Fabric Flowers Part One

lSo I got inspired when I saw this tutorial on Sew4Home on how to make organza flowers. I thought, "I could do that." So as my busy-ness continued and getting my shop up and running, I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to try this, but didn't have a chance to do so until now. And so I began my flower making journey...


Tiny mixing bowls make great circle templates.

Took a tip from Erin Bassett and used a scented candle to mask the smell of the burning petals. She has a pretty good video demonstration of how to burn the edges of these flowers. Check it out here.

This is the stage where D said it looked like a mound of colorful jellyfish...

Slightly harder than I had anticipated, I managed to come up with some pretty cute flowers. Instead of beads for the center, I used glass marbles. Could of used a couple more layers of petals though... next time :)

 

My adventure in flower making will continue with fabric rosettes. Stay tuned for part two... coming soon.

Its Official... Etsy Shop is up and running

 

I said to stay tuned... took a little longer than I expected... but my Etsy shop is officially up and running. Currently only displaying magnets for sale, but keep checking back for new crafty-ness :)

Visit my Shop!

Magnet Update

Hey All-

I've been working hard on my magnet project. I hope to reach 200 magnets by the end of the week. Stay tuned for pictures and a complete re-vamp of my etsy shop.

New Find

So. Since I am adamant about getting my magnets up on Etsy by the end of March, I started to work on them this weekend. I decided once I started that it would be great to have a surface to work on that was like a great, so i could glue both sides with out worrying about them sticking. Usually, I end up with bits of newspaper stuck to either the edge, or the back of my magnets.

I figured a baking rack would be just what I needed. So D and I took a trip to Target. Found a baking rack, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I was hoping for something that had smaller wire... and I couldn't describe what I wanted clearly... so we started walking around the store. D kept picking up everything that was "grid like" or was a rack to anything. Then we got to the grill section. Piled up along the shelves were fireplace screens all on clearance. D pulls one out... and YES... exactly the screen i was looking for. Of course... it appeared huge compaired to the small baking rack I was holding... but oddly enough it was cheaper. So... to save money and get the surface I wanted... I went with the fireplace rack. It worked out better than I could ever imagine. I can spary and glue with out worrying that it will get completely stuck to the surface.

Once I have an appropraite work space... I will be able to unfold this fully.... Then there is no stopping me :)

Stay tuned for an update on my magnet process.

Fabric Covered Bulletin Board

So... on a complete whim... I decided I needed another bulletin board. With no intentions of being crafty (except to maybe paint it from its dull cork and fake wood color).... I ended up with this:

How you ask? I had an urge to go through my fabric bin. What I found was this duvet cover I had bought at Ikea about a year ago from the "as is" bin due to a small hole in the corner. It was $1.98 for a twin duvet, and I thought it was cute.... and for that price you can't buy that much fabric!

Once I found the fabric, I thought to myself, I would cover the board with batten, and ribbon and make a french bulletin board like one i have previously made:

Yes... my mind switched directions yet again, like it often does and I pulled out my sewing machine. I cut the piece of fabric the size of the board, and sewed pockets on using some scraps I had found in my bin.

 Once I was finished, I sprayed the edges of the bulletin board with black spray paint. Forgetting that I live in Massachusetts, I thought to myself... "yes if i spray this outside, it will dry in no time" 2 hours later.... it was still tacky because it was so uber cold out. Hello- It's January. Another hour drying inside, a few touch ups and a quick brush over with my blow dryer later... I was ready to apply the fabric. I sprayed the cork with spray adhesive. I used Elmer's Craft Bond, which is not usually my first choice of spray adhesive, but I was quite pleased with it. Anyway... I sprayed the cork, smoothed out the fabric over it and was almost done.

Now, because this project was a complete whim... I didn't think about the edges of the fabric. Good thing I seem to have an over abundance of ribbon left over from previous projects. I glued the ribbon around the edge and voila... I was done.

Of course my mother walked into the house just as I finished and now "has to have one" so I may be re-attempting this project in the near future. This time with a little better planning.


Oh well... sometimes you just have to let creativity take over.
You never know what you are going to end up with.

Band Shirts

I have to say, I am loving my Yudu. I wish I had a better work space for it, but I wish I had a better work space for everything I do. In case you do not know me, I have currently moved home to my mothers house to save some money. Good plan... yes, but there is a serious lack of work space. I currently have all of my supplies in huge bins, all stacked on top of each other, and am working in the basement on a table that is too small. The day I have my own studio space will be a very happy one. Anyway... to the point :)

D's band, Seven Shades of Grey had a big show on Saturday January 2nd (which also by the way was the night I celebrated my birthday). We thought it would get a little crafty and make shirts to sell at the show. The silver Yudu ink worked GREAT! It was so crisp on the black shirts. My only grievance was that the little specs of glitter in the ink got everywhere.

That said, I made 40 shirts. What I learned this time around was that it takes a little bit of time to carefully remove each shirt from the platen. About half way through, I realized I could insert a hanger into the shirt while it was on the platen, for easy removal. I also learned that you need to work slightly quick. I had to rinse and dry my screen in the middle of printing because some of the ink had dried and my stencil was not as crisp as the beginning shirts. All in all, I think the shirts came out pretty good.

The shirts were a hit. If you have not done so already... check out Seven Shades of Grey. Awesome sounds for your listening pleasure :)

beautiful.

I love, love, love vintage signs, and this post at smashingmagazine.com just got me thinking.... there has to be a project I can do that is inspired by these....


hmmm....

2009.... I hate to say I am not sorry to see you go. I am however looking forward to 2010. I have many goals I would like to achieve in this coming year. And of course... any reason for me to design a list... I am all for it, so I designed this 2010 goal list sheet, to fill out, hang up and remind myself of what I want to accomplish. I read a great list of resoultions for designers: A Designers List of New Years Resolutions from sixrevisions.com. If you are a designer like me.... you should check it out, I thought it was totally worth reading :)

If you would like to download this list... I have made multiple colors. You can download a pdf by clicking here. I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year. Since once of my goals is to blog more in 2010... you will hear from me soon :)

Christmas and Yudu

So... I was so excited when I saw that Jo-Ann's had the Yudu on sale for Black Friday. I actually got up and waited in line at 6am. Of course, they also had the Cricut on sale...and so every crazy crafty scrapbooker was in line for that. Better for me... :)

I decided I was going to make some Christmas presents. Before I even took anything out of the box... I jumped onto the internet and starting googling Yudu tutorials, tips and tricks, etc etc. I found some of them very helpful, some of them not so much, and some just out-right annoying videos. Once I thought I knew what I was doing, I opened the box.

It was fun, like Christmas come early. I love new toys. And I really have to say, I love my Yudu. With that said, it wasn't out-of-the-box easy... and in fact I am still learning.

I took some screen printing classes in college, and thought it would all come back to me easily... not so much. Basic principles... I remember, technique... needs a little work. First of all couple things I learned....

1. My Yudu DID NOT come with the manual it claims was in the box on the instructional DVD. I had to download it from their website.
2. The emulsion sheets, that come in the box... are awful. I had read that they were not cost effective (and this is correct....), and that most people screwed up applying their first sheet. And so did I. Not only did I screw up the first one, but the second one as well. This is when I decided to take a trip to the Art store and apply the emulsion the old fashion way.
3. I bought liquid emulsion. It works great in terms of burning the screen.... applying the emulsion is where I am still out of practice. For some reason, I remember it being easy in college... pull the emulsion up the screen with a scoop-coater and you get a nice even coat of emulsion. Right now I cant seem to get the nice even coat. I'm slightly drippy. Every screen I coat gets better... so I am thinking I am out of practice.
4. Using inks other than Yudu brand ink... I had read that it was fine to use other inks. This is technically true... however, I did find that the Yudu ink because of its thickness- was much less runny and produced a crisper result. The other brand I found to work well was the Jacquard inks found in AC Moore or Jo-Anns.
   

For Christmas, I made aprons for my mother, and a set of dish towel/pot holders for D's mom. I thought I was just going to print directly onto each thing... but when I printed the first pot-holder wrong (completely off center).... I decided to go in a different direction. I printed my design onto a piece of fabric, then sewed everything. together. The final result looked great.

I printed two designs directly onto aprons for my mother, and then did 1 the way I did the pot-holders/ and towels above. The extra fabric makes the aprons look cute, but I like both ways. She loved them all.

Next Yudu project is T-shirts for the Band... stay tuned for the outcome :)

Trees for Tree

So... it has been a while since i have painted anything. Teresa (my boyfriends sister) had been playing with the idea of painting birch trees on her wall... an idea we had seen first via the design*sponge blog. This room came out awesome. And if you have not checked out design*sponge before, you simply must. There is a wide range of creative ideas that always get me thinking. There was multiple posts of birch tress on walls, this just happened to be my favorite :)

Seemed easy enough, Teresa's room is completely purple... My head started filling with ideas of how to do this, when to do it, could I do it for Christmas? Once the ideas were there, I simply could not wait to actually paint. So... I bought 3 large canvases.... and set up the dining room for a day of painting. After 2 trips to the store for more paint, and covering myself in purple (I accidentally sacrificed a new pair of jeans to art) I had something worth looking at. A row of trees spanning across 3 canvases. Perfect. Not exactly what we saw, something different and original for her room.

Once she hangs them... I will post a better picture... but for now, here's the idea. Also- I'm saving for a new camera, so don't judge the pictures just yet, I am aware they aren't the greatest.

Yudu Experence Coming Soon

So... remember back in 2008 when i said i was going to start blogging? Yea... its now almost 2010 and this is post number 2. I bought a yudu, and since my experiences was greatly influenced by all the blog posts i have read about it before i used it... i thought i would write a post about my experiences. So far... i have made some Christmas presents (pictures to come soon) and soon to make some tshirts for my boyfriends band. You can expect a full post in the near future. this time i actually mean it :)