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

April showers bring, well....moisture

Spring, it’s finally making it’s way here to Southern Ohio and along with that comes the rain. And our damp / wet basement where my studio is located. Last year, as I was crazy busy in wedding season I suddenly realized that I had a moisture problem and it was affecting the gum on the back of the envelopes. Everything was sticking together and I was panicking. Luckily nothing was ruined, but knew I had a problem that needed addressed.

I asked my hubby to get a de-humidifier to run in the basement. He nixed that idea because it would use too much electricity, almost like running an air conditioner all the time. He’s the one with the certificate in green energy, so I had to listen to him, although not happily.

So, I had to get creative. And here is what I’m doing. First, I am storing envelope jobs that I’m working on in Tupperware® type containers. Second, along with that I put in little packets of silica gel pellets.

You can buy them in the floral dept. of craft stores. I got this 1 1/2 lb. bag at Hobby Lobby for $5.99. (Use one of their 40% off coupons and get it for less, like I did) The pellets are used to dry flowers, and are clear, but they put colored ones in so you can see when they need refreshed. When they have soaked up all the moisture they turn pink. In their dry state they are blue. I put the pellets into pretty little organza bags, and check and change them as needed every day or two while I’m working on a job. 

This photo shows the fresh pellets in the organza bags and what they look like when they need refreshed. 


When they are all pink, I put them on a cookie sheet in a 250 degree oven for about 45 minutes. They turn blue again and are ready to use, after cooling, of course. 

This photo shows them fresh from my oven and this is almost the entire bag.

Sorry it’s been a while since my last post, I skipped the entire month of March and almost all of April. Ooops. Anyway, gotta get back to work and finish more envelopes.


Evie antics: She is a real outdoor girl. These nice afternoons right after her nap and a cookie break we head outside to play. I try to pull weeds in the landscaping and she helps by giving me handfuls of our landscaping rocks.

Thanks for reading.


Jen

Every now and then...

...you get an envelope job that is problem-matic. I’ve dealt with many difficult issues. Dark envelopes that I can’t use my light box and templates, bleeding envelopes, rough hand-made paper envelopes. Over the years I’ve found ways to resolve all these issues to complete the jobs.

Well, last week I got a job that tested my abilities. I was told that they were ‘kraft’ paper envelopes, so I anticipated them probably bleeding. So, I tested one. It was like writing on a brown paper sack from the grocery store, and yes, bleeding like crazy. My normal fix for that is to spray them with spray fixative, so I sprayed all of them. Still bleeding. Hmmm, sent out a question to a few of my calligraphy colleagues to see if they had any other suggestions.

Someone suggested hair spray and adding a few drops of gum arabic to my navy blue acrylic ink, another couple suggested powdered sandarac. I’d tried the later while waiting for a response, and had no luck. So, I tried the hair spray and gum arabic, luckily we had an old can in our medicine cabinet in our bathroom. I hadn’t used hairspray in years, anyway, gave an envelope a good shot, let it dry and tested it. Viola, it worked! Now, I did go out the next day and buy a new can, and it seemed to work even better. I hope the bride didn’t notice the distinctive scent of hairspray.

Oh, and did I mention that these same envelopes required pointed pen lettering, and the pen would pick up fibers of the paper? And, did I mention that I couldn’t see through the envelopes, so each one had to be ruled? Lastly, did I mention that there was a nice letterpressed image of coral on the bottom front of the envelope requiring my planning the address around it? Whew! 

I guess the only good thing about it was that there were only 50 to do. And thank goodness the table and escort cards are on a nice ‘regular’ paper, as I will be finishing those up in a couple weeks.

Evie antics: She’s started saying and identifying colors. So far, yellow is the clear favorite, but ‘bu’ is a close second. Hey, those are my college colors! Go Eagles!

Until next time, Jen