I am on a mission.

This is fair warning... I am making 2011 my year.

I am on a mission.... good things are coming.

Stay tuned for awesomeness.

"and exactly WHAT have you been working on?"

For those of you who know me, you know that I am a graphic designer by trade, but with a love of crafting and all things handmade. Although I shouldn't say I don't love graphic design as well, in fact, I am sort of a dork about it.


That said... with lack of crafty posts lately- I thought I would share with you exactly what I have been working on.

First... the very talented Seven Shades of Grey have released their first CD (YAY!). For a little bit of time now, I had been working on the cover/disc art as well as a few other minor projects for them.

If you are not familiar with Seven Shades of Grey, I highly suggest you check them out. They are currently #1 on the local music chart on UNregular Radio, and have made their cd available for download via BandCamp. Make your ears happy and go take a listen...


Second... one of my very best friends is having her first baby (another YAY!). With her due date rapidly approaching... a shower is in the works. Just finished the invitation this week.

She is going old school and not finding out what she is having, so neutral colors were a must... PS... its killing me that she doesn't know. I have all these crafty ideas I want to make for the new baby and am having trouble finding "cute" neutrals.... I will figure it out.

I can't say I haven't been 100% non crafty, I do have a project in the works, but will need to wait to post until after February 7th... a birthday is coming and I can't spoil the surprise! Stay tuned...

Remixed by Jacki- Official Shop Opens

I am so excited to share with you that Remixed by Jacki is officially open on Etsy! I have been a fan for a while and actually already own two of her scarves (one fabric, and one knit). Check out a few of my favorites below, then get yourself over to her shop ASAP... they will go quickly, I've seen it happen in person!

Neon Plaid Infinity Scarf

Pumpkin Spice Scarflette

Happy Birthday to ME!

Hey All-

I know there are a TON of January birthdays... I know not as many as November, but still alot. Most importantly... its MY birthday today!

I will have some crafty-ness posted later in the month, but for now I would like to offer you a coupon for Bright & Cloudy on Etsy!

Take 29% off of all purchases in January.

Why? Because I turned 29 today and I am very generous. Offer will end January 31!

Enter coupon code HAPPY29STEF at checkout.

Want one of my awesome flowers but don't see one that suits your fancy? Maybe you prefer a clip instead of a headband? I have many many styles that have yet to make it to the shop and I am also not oppose to custom orders! In fact... I welcome them :) Just send me a conversation via Etsy and I will see what I can do.

Enjoy.

-Stef

Merry Christmas and Happy Drumming

It just wouldn't be Christmas with out some crafty gifts. This years big gift was for D's nephew. Joe is 9 and wants to take drum lessons from his wonderfully talented drummer uncle :) So for Christmas, D thought it would be a good gift to restore his first snare drum for his nephew.


Since the drum was so old, it had some massive cosmetic issues. At first thought, we were going to just sand out all the imperfections and paint. But once we removed all the hardware it looked like a harder task than anticipated.


A new idea was born and we headed to the fabric store. We picked out a fabric that was simple yet fun. Once D sanded the drum as much as he could, and took off all of the original logo plates, I used Heat'n Bond to adhere the fabric to the drum.

I have used Heat'n Bond before to adhere fabric to furniture with great success. It is a great product. You iron the thermoweb onto the fabric, peel the paper off the back and then iron the fabric to your object. This time around it was a bit harder. For what ever reason, not sure if it was the fabric or the curve of the drum, the Heat'n Bond did not quite stick to all areas. We had to use glue for some areas that would not bond (mostly around the edges).

That said, you would never know we had any problems because once D put the heads and all the hardware on the drum, it looked great. If you know D, you know that he loves "custom" stuff, so of course we had to finish the project by adding a custom "D-Rawk" patch to the front of the drum where the old logo plate use to sit. For the patch, we simply printed out his logo on iron on transfer paper for dark clothing. We ironed the transfer onto stiffened felt, and glued the felt to the front of the drum. It looked perfect!



This project was a great learning experience for both D and I. And Joe loved his gift, so all the better. Hope you all had a happy holiday and I wish you a happy new year!

Framingham Auxiliary Police Craft Fair THIS SATURDAY!

Since the first fair was so successful, I thought I would go for round two. With this being my last fair of the year, I invite anyone in the Framingham area to come stop by and support local artists and crafters.

There will be over 100 and/or craft vendors as well as food/beverages vendors. There is also rumor that Santa will be attending the fair from 11-3.

Since the last fair, I have been crafting like crazy to ensure a good selection at this fair. Lots of accessories, magnets, pillows and more. This time around I will also be accompanied by Jacki who will be sharing my space to sell her awesome scarves. She has both knit and fabric scarves available. (PS, they look great with one of my flower clips attached!)

I am not sure where exactly I am located with in the fair yet, but stop by and browse all of the great vendors until you find me :)

Full details below:

• DATE: Saturday, December 11, 2010
• TIME: 10am-4pm
• PLACE: Keefe Tech School at 750 Winter Street, Framingham, MA
• MORE INFO: http://www.artsboston.org/event/detail/440983789/Holiday_Craft_Fair_
  

Hope all is well with everyone, forward this on to anyone you think might enjoy the fair.

See you Saturday!
Stephanie

(i will post more pictures after the fair)

Spin-Yo-Present!

So- this past monday was D's birthday. YAY! I am always looking for something fun to do for him... but you know... as you get older... its harder and harder to come up with new ideas.

When he turned 30- I did a whole theme of "30 presents for someone turning 30" That was a tough one... its hard to come up with 30 presents a 30 year old would like... with out going broke.

Last year, was not as exciting (for me in creative world)- although the gift itself was not lacking creativity... I designed him a new drum head for his new band. This was not the first drum head I had designed for him, so at this point... I am starting to get the hang of designing in a circle :)

And of course a shamless plug for them... if you havn't checked out Seven Shades of Grey yet, you are missing out. They have some new video on their YouTube page.

Ok ok... back to the craftyness.

This year I decided on a game. A quick and easy game (to play... not to come up with :)


So- basically... I made a birthday present spinner. Spin-Yo-Present! The premise is... D will spin to determine what he will get for his birthday. The spinner only had describing words, so- the actual presents were still a mystery (wrapped in sushi-pack wrapping paper). If you have yet to see the sushi pack cartoon, I highly recommend it... mainly because they are sooo cute.

Little did he know that his card that he will open last will tell him that he has won all of the presents... sneaky.

I designed the wheel, and printed it out on cardstock. I then glued it to a thicker piece of cardboard (I used a side of a box I received his presents in). Once I glued it down, I trimmed the edges to a nice neat square.

Then, I added the spinner. I purchased these game piece spinners from amazon.com. The package comes with a variety of sized spinners, and matching brads to attach them. This... was the tricky part. I wasn't really thinking when I mounted the game to the thick piece of cardboard that the brad wasn't going to be long enough to poke through to the other side.... so- with some finagling, I managed to squish the cardboard down slightly in the middle and poke the brad through. I will know for next time to pick a slightly thinner piece of cardboard.

November is always a crazy birthday month. I am apparently surrounded by Scorpios. Sort of scary... But. Happy Birthday to you all anyway.

Cupcakes for a Cause

Although this post is not entirely craft related... it is for a good cause, and with my love for cupcakes... I had to share.

This week is "Cupcakes for a Cause" week. Cupcakes for a cause benefits cancer care for kids fighting the battle.

Check out their website here. It lists participating bakeries in your area to buy cupcakes and/or host a bake sale. And if you can't buy a cupcake... send a virtual one! göt2b will be donating $1 for every e-cupcake sent.


Do your part. Help out when you can. Visit http://www.cupcakesforacause.org today.

Pirates and Weddings

So... if you were not aware. Today... September 19th, is National Talk Like a Pirate day. Naturally... with my love for all things pirate... this holiday MUST be observed.

Today was also the wedding of my friends Jen & Bob.


Clearly... the two had to connect, so check out the card I made for the wedding...

Congratulations to the happy couple... Arrrgghhh!

First Craft Fair... Check!

I know you have all been wondering how the fair went.... and were waiting for a post on Sunday... sorry to be a slacker blogger, but I am happy to report it went GREAT!

The day was sunny, and perfect weather for walking around. Set up was quick and easy... (thanks to all my helpers) and actually I made my first sale before I even finished (yay!) As the day went on, it got busier and busier... at one point, you couldn't fit any more people in my booth!

All in all- it was a great day and a successful craft fair. I received lots of applications for upcoming fairs in the area, and look forward to doing another one. More info on upcoming fairs in a later post... but for now, check out pictures from the fair...

crafty-ness exploded...

so i have been sort of hush in the blog world... but that is not to say i have not been busy. its less than two weeks till the craft fair and im getting sort of nervious. do i have enough stuff? will people like my flowers? its crazy whaat goes through your head. this is my first fair, and i don't know what to expect.

it currently looks like a craft store threw up in my living room. and thats not even counting the dining room table where my sewing machine and cutting mats are set up! which is fine for the moment, i like the crafty chaos. but as soon as the fair is over its priority one to organize all my supplies better. this way i'll be more productive. i am still dreaming of the day where i have an art studio where everything can stay set up with out being in the way... one day...

this weekend: the plan is to pull out all my finished pieces and see what still needs to be done for the fair. so stay tuned for a mini fair preview coming soon :)

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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!