Type Humor

Thank you Lars Willem Veldkampf for your typography dorky humor. I love it!

Lacy Pumpkins

Martha's done it again. Damn, her empire is crafty.

Plastic Bag Chandelier

I love how gutsy, feminine, and bold, this chandaleer looks. I saw it over on modern craft, but it originally came from an artical in the New York Times that features students decorating creatively with trash. Very cool!

Michael Cutlip

I saw Michael Cutlip's work over on Aesthetic Outburst earlier this morning. I'm liking his horizontal stripe segmentation approach to the composition. It reads like a story book, the first row unfolds the story to the second row.

D.I.Y. Tee-Shirt Throw Pillow Tutorial

I made another video tutorial for all the crafters out there. Woot!




The trickiest part of this tutorial is knowing how big to cut your front and back panels. My pillow form was 14 x 14 inches, and I cut the panels to 12.5 inches so they fit very tightly. You are going to have to experiment with this to find the right size for your pillow form. The pillow on the left was cut at 14 x 14 inches and you can see it turned out slightly floppy.

Zombie PDX Walk

Yesterday I was out shopping in downtown and I accidently ran into an enormous group of zombies! We were just having an innocent cup of coffee when zombies started walking through the streets. Several made a point to smear a bit of blood on the coffee shop window. It was pretty funny to watch because some of them really knew how to act the part.

I learned, with the help of an iphone, that this is the 4th annual pdx zombie walk.

Google Earth Anomalies

I found these pictures from the environmental graffiti site. It's amazing how scale will completely change the way you look at things.


This is really cute!
For the bootie lovers...

Sad Pumpkin!

I bought this pumpkin last weekend at one of the pumpkin patches on Sauvie Island. And within the week, it has totally molded into something so disgusting I'm too scared to touch it. Does anybody know why it rotted so quickly. I was really looking forward to making roasted pumpkin seeds, but i guess not anymore:(

Fused Plastic Fabric

A big part of my process is making sheets of fused plastic which essentially becomes the fabric for my bags. It is really cool to see what I get out of the bags. Happy mistakes happen often. On the flip side, this process can be time consuming and tiresome. This afternoon I made a big batch of plastic fabric. In fact, I think this is the biggest batch I've ever made. I had a revelation about how to streamline the fusing process.

Not all bags are created alike. When you try to pair two different bags together one shrinks and fuses differently than the other. This creates unpleasant buckles to work with. So I started to only fuse the same bag to itself. Also, I've found out that you don't have to cut the bag handles and sides. It works fine to just fold one bag into thirds, tucking the handles inside of itself. It creates smaller pieces as you can see in the picture with the Fred Myer bags. These will be great to do a patchwork kind of thing.

The results are beautiful! I can't wait to start making stuff.

Fall Morning in Portland

I apologize for cheesy fall leaves photos, but I just couldn't help myself this morning taking a few snap shots. It is such a rare clear blue fall day in Portland.

I woke up this morning and went to Ken's bakery for a latte and ham croissant. Mmmm my favorite! Then I walked over to my favorite hardware store in the neighborhood, Ace Hardware, to pick up some gas masks. I've decided to start using them whenever I make fused plastic for my bags because it can't be that great for my health to inhale melting plastic fumes.

Anyways, I've got alot of work to do this weekend so I gotta go!

Etsy Preview

I've been very busy making wristlets this past week. I will be adding them to the etsy shop as the week goes on. Enjoy!

Homage to Facial Hair

I have to give it to these guys for their creativity. I found this website is a gold mine for amazing pics of facial hair. Enjoy! Giggle, giggle...

Love Anna

Anna James, an artist in London, makes beautiful pieces of custom art out of twentieth century furniture. I like the juxtaposition of formal furniture graffiti.

Swims

These shoes are awesome, and so appropriate for Portland weather. The colors are great, and they add a sporty look to your heels. Even the bottom of the shoe is cool. Nice!

Now, if only I could wear high heels...

Etsy Love

There are so many shops I love on etsy. I found these lovely wall decals from here I really like the designs and the prices aren't too bad either.

In the Spirit of Halloween

Check out these beautiful guilded pumpkins. I saw them on another blog and if you want to check out step by step directions go to CountryLiving.com I think it is a classy alternative to this. I still don't know what I'm going to be for Halloween. Ideas, anyone?

Water Kiss

This is an amazing emotional animation made with water on concrete. If only I had that much patience... Incredible! The sound track by Mohamed Abdel Wahab is really nice as well.

Typography scarf!

I finally found the perfect typography scarf over at Little Factory. It is a dream come true for me, and for only $58. They also have lowercase and number scarfs as well. Sigh....

Sneak Preview of New Etsy Items

I've been working really hard this week on getting these cute little felt cards ready for my etsy shop. They combine 3-dimensional felt with stitching that turned out really nice. These one of a kind cards will be great for birthdays or general purpose cards.

Saturday Morning Doodle Stitch

I was messing around with doodling on my machine and I made this. I love the raw quality of the line work and loose threads. I think the tone of it matches this weather perfectly.

Bleach Stain Inspires New Top

I want to share a clothing reconstruction project I just completed. I got a bleach stain on one of my favorite shirts, and this project was a way for me to salvage it and turn it into something new.
Yucky bleach stain
I cut a scoop out of the front that gets rid of the stain. Then I cup up strips of other scrap material and sew them together.

Yay! I think the finished product is way cooler than the original shirt.

I am not mentally ready for this cold weather! I'm sitting here drinking hot chocolate trying to embrace the new season, but I'm not feeling it. I'm just not ready for another 7 months of cold rainy days.

Inner Body Works New Identity

I wanted to share one of my freelance projects I designed last summer. Inner Bodyworks yoga studio came to me needing a new identity and website. I decided to get out the india ink for this project because the loose organic lines felt right for a yoga studio. After covering my living room floor with india ink sketches, I narrowed down to the best few and showed those concepts with the client. We ended up going with a simple abstract representation of the word innerbody. It can also read as a person with their hands interlocked above their head. I included a bit of my process so you can see what that is like.

The website is designed to be simple and easy to use while evoking the mood of the studio. The patterns used in the collage are from the studio. I also softened the photographs to communicate calmness.