Going around in circles

Happy New Year! I hope the new year finds everyone happy and healthy. I’ve been recovering from a cold that has kicked my butt, but other than that all is well.

I’ve made a goal list for this year of things I want to do. But first, as I promised, a little more about Evie’s toddler Spirograph© or Spin n’ Spiral Doodler as Fisher Price calls it.

This is the box as I saw it at my local Target for $19.99.

If you use it as it is set up this is the type or art it makes. The youngster can just watch it create while fun music plays.

But, my Evie wanted a more hands-on experience. So, she lets it spin with or without markers in the holder and draws on the paper. I resisted this at first, but soon realized that she was being creative. So, I helped on some of the pieces.

It comes with a template so you can cut more paper, which is a good thing because we quickly blew through all the paper that came with it in a couple days.

I used my circle cutter to cut out more paper, then used scissors to cut the two notches that hold the paper on the spinner. The old drawing paper was a better quality paper than what came with the toy. The markers tended to bleed on the original paper. Unfortunately, the markers are now just about done, and I found some other markers to use that I had in the studio, but soon found they were not as washable as the originals.

This reminded me....A few years ago I got a spiral ruler from Paper and Ink Arts and I had a blast creating calligraphy in circles. This is a piece I created. Three sets of lowercase alphabets and combines Italic in a circle, folded ruling pen inside the circle and script lettering going across and through the circle. All done on a piece of Twinrocker Handmade paper and is framed in a shadowbox type of frame.

Our guild will be bringing Jane Farr, a calligrapher from Indianapolis, to one of our upcoming meetings and I look forward to working on more circles or Mandala's with her.

Until next time.

Jen

Happy Holidays and a cool new toy

Happy Holidays! I hope you and your family and friends are enjoying some down time and togetherness.

Well, I fell way off the blogging band wagon for a while. Sorry about that, life just got too busy.

So, I’m going to tell you about my holiday cards. Yes, I got busy with my Etsy shop, but this year I was a little better prepared, and worked on the cards in a brief slow period sometime in Nov.

The design was swiped from an Archiver’s flyer that I got in the mail, but with my own twist. I rarely ever use the traditional red and green colors for my holiday cards. Mostly because by the time I get around to doing them, all those colors are sold out, so I get something else. I really like kraft paper too, and for several years my cards have had kraft paper used, one way or another. I should do a series on that. Anyway, I found the nice plaid paper and really liked it, and guess what, it was on clearance too.

I’d wanted some sort of gingerbread man image for the tag, but couldn’t find a stamp, sticker or anything else that worked, so, I opted for the star. It was a stencil that I had and I just used an ink pad to ‘stamp’ the star. I experimented with pastels, but this worked best for what I wanted.

All the years that I’ve been doing calligraphy, I’ve been pretty anal about drawing or having guidelines so that I’m sure the lettering is straight. The kraft paper was too thick and dark for me to use on my lightbox, and I didn’t have time to rule each card, so, gulp, I did the lettering freehand.

The lettering is a bit difficult to see what with the pink on the kraft paper, so I’ve tried to lighten it at bit. Some of them look really straight, but some of them went a little crooked. Oh well, that’s life, and I need to practice without lines a lot more, for better results next time.

Evie is almost 3, where did the years go? One of her presents from Santa this Christmas was a toddler version on the Spirograph®. My parents brought me my old Spirograph a few years ago, and I actually used it to create my Holiday cards that year, it’s a fun drawing tool, I wonder if they still make it? Anyway, Evie’s is battery operated and spins for you. She liked the spirals that it made, but then moved onto freehand, letting it spin while she drew. I resisted this, but realized she was being creative and I was having fun with it too. She blew through the 12 sheets of paper that came with it in 2 days, and I’ve been cutting new sheets from some very old, slightly yellowed, drawing paper that my Grandmother had. We’re gonna need new markers soon too, I think.

I don’t have a great photo of it, but I’ll get one to post soon. In the meantime, here’s a little of the Christmas aftermath....

I’ll post some of her artwork soon too. I promise.

Until next time.

Jen

Family reunion T-shirt design

So, we are getting ready to leave for a weekend at Virginia Beach. It's what I have been calling a 'mini' family reunion, since it's just us cousins attending. My sister thought it would be neat to make matching T-shirts for everyone. At the time of the original idea I could have had them printed, but life got in the way and I ended up making them.

First I looked for a clip art design that I could alter and add to. I found a couple possibilities, then I created the lettering.

I did the lettering with a folded ruling pen and a Mitchell #4 or 5 nib. I used the colors that I used in the clip art design and Dr. Martin's Tech inks. Dipping in the different colors so they would blend a little.

Next I had to scan the lettering in and manipulate it in Photoshop. The clip art was an Illustrator file that I saved as an eps so that I could open it in Photoshop. I won't get too technical, but here is the final design.

I had purchased white T-shirts for $2 each at Michaels when they were on sale last week. I also used an iron on transfer paper for light fabrics by Jolee's. I was skeptical but had little time for experimentation. The directions said to use an inkjet printer and then iron them on. It was great to load the design onto the Jolee's Website and print from there, because it automatically reversed the design so that it would be right reading once ironed on.

This is the result.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. The color is great, the lettering and clip art seem to match pretty well, and it was pretty easy to do. Just a little time consuming, but all in all I did the shirts for about $3-$4 each. I can't wait to do our group photo on the beach, oh and thank goodness I only had 18 to do. Ok, 19 since I messed up and got one wrong size shirt. Ugh.

Until next time. Jen

Escort cards vs. Place cards

Ok, it’s a little embarrassing admitting this, but, lately I’ve noticed brides asking about my doing escort cards. Well, yes, of course I do them, I just have assumed that meant place cards. Then a recent bride had both! I finally had to ask her when I met her what the difference was.

Evidently, escort cards are a card with a table number on it, which is then placed into an envelope with a person or couples name on it. These would be available for pick up at the cocktail portion of the reception.

Place cards are the usual tent (ie: fold in half) cards that are placed at each place setting at the table.

Here are the escort cards and envelopes and place cards that I did for this bride. The font style is Bickham and the lettering was done in navy blue acrylic paint/ink. I love the little pair of gold birds on the escort envelope.

On the agenda for this week: Another wedding job to do, addressing this time. And, I have these creative jewelry ideas in my mind that I need to act on, otherwise, I’ll just keep dreaming about the designs.

Until next time.

Jen

Hair bow hanger #1

It’s been a busy week. Holiday camping for the Indy 500, then out of town family visiting for the week. We have been to Kings Island twice, the zoo and we’re going to Summerfair this afternoon. So, I haven’t had a lot of creative time. I started this a few weeks ago. One of my 2 ideas for a hair bow hanger for Evie’s room.

I haven’t made any more hair clips for her, but I realized that I needed a better way to store / organize / show off the bows. Here are the colors of her room that I was trying to match. Basically, pink and green with lady bugs.

I’ve seen bow hangers at a lot of stores and online, and they all pretty much look the same and easy enough to make. So, I put my twist on the idea and came up with this hanger. 

I have some heavy aluminum wire from my jewelry making supplies so I made a miniature coat hanger, and attached a ribbon to it. Simple. The whole thing is about 18 inches long, maybe a little too short, but I have another idea brewing.

If you need something to do this weekend, I highly recommend going to Summerfair  www.summerfair.org. Lots of wonderful art work to purchase, a kids area, food and music.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Jen

Place cards and a dress for Evie

Just a touch of calligraphy this week. I did some place cards for a client in Baldwin, NY. I love getting work from all over the U.S. and my Etsy shop has helped me do this.

But, I think the project that I’m most proud of is a dress that I made for Evie.

My old hand-me-down sewing machine, circa 1959, jammed last year when I was making a pillowcase dress for Evie. So, Jeff’s aunt gave me a new hand-me-down sewing machine, circa 1969. I moved up 10 years! 

I bought the materials more than a month ago and I’ve been antsy to get working on it. My basic idea was to take a T-shirt, cut off the bottom and add fabric for a skirt to make an empire-style dress.

Preparation was to wash the T-shirt and material. I took the half yard of material, folded it in half, to find the center and marked it with a pin. Then I sewed basting stitches to pull into gathers to fit around the T-shirt. Next I sewed the side seam of the material.

I measured up 7 inches from the bottom of the T-shirt and cut it off about a half inch below that line.

The hardest part was figuring out the inside out, right side, wrong side way of pinning it together so that once sewn, the seam would be on the inside of the dress. Trial and error, and I finally figured it out, but don’t have a photo of that.

So, I sewed it together. Next was figuring out how to decorate the front of the dress. I used a square of the material for the base, which I ironed on instead of sewing. Then, I cut a strip of the T-shirt material and gathered it to make a flower shape. Next, I went to my stash of old/vintage buttons that I’ve had for years and looked for something for the middle of the flower. I found this cute little fish shank button, and sewed it on through the flower.

Next, I hemmed it, and Viola! Here is Evie wearing the finished dress. It's a little big, but I want her to be able to wear it next year too, maybe. If it survives this year.

Thanks for reading, Jen

Whew! All caught up

Whew! I am all caught up on calligraphy work and other freelance work. Quick, do something fun.

So, I did.

My toddler just will not keep a bow clip in her hair. As soon as I put it in, she grabs it out. Only if she is distracted by something else will it stay in for a few minutes. Like in this photo from Easter. Hunting eggs was more fun than than thinking about her bow.

Ok, please ignore the weeds and my hubby video-taping.  I'm slowly working on the weeds, but it has been raining here constantly for weeks.

Since she's so good at pulling the bows out, we've lost a few, one last week was lost at Kohl's. So, I decided to see if I could make some bows. They look really easy and I figure I can make some to match her outfits. After doing some online research, I bought some clips and ribbon and fired up my hot glue gun. This is the result.

Another project that I tried was this flower pin.

I found the directions for this on another blog that I came across. The directions were super easy to follow. Here's the link if you'd like to make one. http://obstinatepursuit.blogspot.com/2009/07/fabric-flower-tutorial_03.html

This week I also made Mother's Day bracelet & earring sets for my Mom and Aunt. This is the prototype that I made for myself. The flat discs are a shell of some sort and I've accented them with silver daisy spacers, and Montana blue Swarovski crystal bicones. My aunt's set was in tones of brown/cream with gold accents, and my mom's was black/white/silver. Now, something for my mother-in-law....hmmm, I'll come up with something.

This ended up being a pretty crafty week. I need to get back to some calligraphy fun, and I'm way behind on Evie's scrapbook. I haven't added any pages in over a year. Next rainy day....

Happy May!

Jen