PBS Off Book

If you haven't gotten a chance to check out the PBS' youtube series Off Book, I highly recommend it.  It takes a quick glimpse at a variety topics dealing with contemporary issues in art, trends and culture by means of seven-minute fast-paced videos.  I have found numerous videos to be inspired by, learn from and show my art students.  With a new video being posted every other Thursday, there is a lot to take in.  

To stay on topic to this blog, I've pulled out a video that gives a brief history of etsy and showcases some of it artists.  



If for nothing else, two of the artists I was sure to run to etsy and favorite right after watching. 

Valentine's Day.

Hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's, single, married or the otherwise!  

 

Home addition: ashleyg

I can't tell you via blog how excited I am to have checked my mail yesterday and see that my ashleyg postcards arrived!  I ordered these off etsy not even a week ago.  That night (last night to be exact) I ran to Ikea to buy some frames, framed them this morning and this is the end result.  Couldn't be happier.  So cheerful, colorful, yet simple.  And well for 15 bucks there is no going wrong in this situation.  I recommend you all get off this blog right NOW and go buy some of your own.  It'll make you a better person ;-) 

Painting Chevron.

Have you ever had a project that seems like you may have bit off more than you can chew?  For the past month I have been painting chevron stripes down our hallway.  It didn't take a month to paint the stripes down the hall.  What took a month was, buying the paint, gaining motivation to actually paint, not being afraid to paint, etc.  

There was a lot of video "how-to's" for this situation.  Let me share what I've learned with you.  

1. Pick your colors. I picked two to start.  Two isn't what I ended up with, we ended up with three because the two I picked were too similar that you couldn't tell a difference, I got so mad that the next day I threw a thrid complimentary color in there. 

2. After you pick your colors, I suggest watching this video.  This video made all the difference, prior to this I had NO clue what I was doing and using a stencil just seemed like extra work. 

In the video they suggest using 10" spacing, I used 12" because I didn't want it to seem too zig-zaggy, if that's a word.  I suppose you could use many variations on this. 

3. Once you have all your points marked start here comes the taping!  My word of advice would be once you start taping don't stop!  I stopped several times and had trouble every time I came back trying to figure out where I left off and what went to where.  

4. When cutting the tape use a sharp blade.  A dull blade won't cut through the tape and you end up with rough edges.  You can free hand cut like I did, or use a straight edge.  If you're going to use a straight edge, metal is best so you're not cutting through your straight edge.

5. Press the edges of your tape with your finger. Using something other than you finger doesn't work as well because it won't get down into the grooves.   Not doing this you'll run the risk of having your paint get underneath your tape. I  pressed down my tape twice, once when I first put the tape down and again right before I was going to paint that area to ensure that tape wasn't coming up. 

6. START to paint.  I used this blog to help me.  However, I found some of the directions rather confusing.   The most helpful part was to use a foam brush to paint the edges of the tape before rolling over it. 

7. Once you'd gone over your edges, it's time to bust out the roller!  For each section I did two coats of paint.  It would be awful to spend all this time, peal off the tape and find that you missed spots!  

8. Here comes the fun part!  Start to peal.  Once you paint has dried start pealing away the tape.  This is the tricky part, if you wait too long the tape will take the paint with it, if you don't wait long enough some of the paint can seep underneath it.  I waited until the paint was dry to the touch, about 30 mins. 

7. Touch up any areas you may have missed, or gotten out of the lines.  Luckily by using that little sponge brush I didn't have too many area I had to go back over. 

And that's it.  Stand back and see the masterpiece you've created on your wall!  

Jim Flora

On a wonderful day of thrifting with my good friend, we ran across an old record illustrated by  Jim Flora for a mere buck!  But the worst part, neither of us bought it.  What were we thinking?  Well, the record was in bad shape but that's not the point! The cover was in perfect condition and ready for framing.  Next week we'll go back and see if it's still there. If it is, it was meant to be.

So who is Jim Flora you may be asking yourself; he was popular in the 1940s and 1950s for his album cover art for RCA Victor and Columbia Records.  If that isn't impressive enough, he wrote and illustrated 17 children's books.  I am in complete awe and lust over his work: simple, bold and beautiful.  If you're lucky enough to run across one of his gems snag it up and don't think twice.  However, if you aren't you can purchase a silk screen or giclée print off of his website at a very reasonable price starting at $25 plus shipping. 


Below are some of my favorites. 

Mambo for cats. 1955 album cover.

Louis Armstrong's hot 5. 1947 album cover.

Ferris wheel fireworks. From "The Day the Cow Sneezed." 1957 book illustration.

Oh, did I mention he's from Ohio?  That might just be the best part.

Best of Instagram: December

Well it's been over a month now since I created my tumblr and believe it or not I've actually kept up with it everyday.  I know for most people this seems rather easy, but for me it's not...at all.  So in order to celebrate my great achievement I thought I would make a "best of" post for each month.  At first I thought I'd pick my favorites, but why not let you--as in social media you, be the judge.  Below are the five most "liked/reblogged" posts of the month.  For the first half I didn't know you'd needed tag lines in order for people to find your posts so it took a while for people to catch on, oops.  Thanks for looking and hopefully in a year I'll be able to print off the best-of's and make one of these cool displays out of them.

This was taken at an antique mall near my in-laws during Christmas break.  I love going there with my mother-in-law when we visit for a change of pace from watching football. 

This was also taken during Christmas break near my in-laws in Findlay, Ohio. It's nice since we live in the city to be able to escape to a more country atmosphere.

Carrot cake. YUM!  My husband asked for this for his 29th. birthday.  At first I tried to decorate the top with cute snow flakes, it was a hot mess.  So to cover up my mistake I added crushed pecans and mini-white chocolates.  A yummy cover-up if I might say so myself.

This was after my husband and I stuffed our faces with huge burritos at the Comet.  A wonderful Cincinnati staple with good food and a wonderful beer selection.

This is one of the first instagrams I ever took.  It was taken during a weekend getaway to Indianapolis.  My husband, though a rather hip graphic designer, has a huge soft spot for racing so stopping at the Indy Motor Speedway Museum was a must.

Look forward to an amazing DIY this weekend!

Displaying your instagrams.

If you haven't caught on, I'm obsessed with instagram.  This past Christmas my husband and I framed pictures (see above) we took at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for his parents.  The price of the gift, a mere 10 dollars for the frame from Ikea--he printed the pictures free at work. This has got me thinking about other way you can display your low tech, high impact photos.  Below are some of the most adorable ways I discovered and the resources you can use to aid adventure.

Resources to print:
1. PostalPix allows you print your pictures from your iPhone for 21 cents to 21 dollars.  The pictures will then be mailed to your house--get it, PostalPix? ha.  So you have NO need to even leave your couch.  Well I guess to get them out of the mailbox.

2. StickGram turns your images into magnets.  All you do is sign in using your instagram, upload your images and boom they're now on your fridge!  You get 9 magnets for 14.99 and the bonus is there is NO shipping cost.

3. Blurb is for those of you that like to make books of with your photos.  This one isn't really my cup of tea as I like my memories out for the world to see.  However, I think this would be nice to use to create wedding albums and such.  The prices range depending on amount, size, etc.

4. Printstagram is one of my favorites!  They have so many options from posters to adorable mini books.  Price points range on what project you want to create. Order online have them shipped to your house.

5. Postagram sends a postcard to your friends and family via your iPhone.  So can send love from your Hawaiian getaway!

6. Teeny tile creates adorable little tiles out of your instagrams for $3.99 a tile.  How great would it be to see an entire bathroom wall covered in these?  Too expensive?  That's what I thought too.

Last but not least...

7. Casetagram turns your pictures into an iPod case.  This would make for a cool present for a special someone.  Each case is $34.95 with free shipping.

Display your instagrams:
1. A grid.  Easy, to the point and well structured.  Sounds like a win-win...win!

2. Picture jars.  These have a lovely shabby chic feel to them.

3. Farmer's market basket from Anthro. I fell in love with this tiny basket after recently buying one for my new years resolution--that's for another post.

4. Artful framing.  I know this one shows polaroids instead of instagrams, but we can substitute and I no one will know the difference.

5. Hooks and wire.  You can pick up the wire and clips at Ikea.

6. Online.Tumblr is a great resource to display your images online and share them with the rest of the world! 

And after you are all done be sure to reward yourself with one of these!  Happy graming.

A picture a day.

So since I have little to no time to be truly creative--mostly because I've been stuck in my house being a little Christmas elf, I thought I'd snap one quick pic a day and post it to tumblr.  This is part of my new obsession with instagram and was spawned as a war of who could take better pictures, my husband or myself.  If you say my husband, you're dead to me!  Ha.  Well if you're bored you can flip through my daily life here.  However, I warn you my day to day is probably not as exciting as yours.  Actually I know it isn't, but that's okay too! 

50 things to do with paint chips!

I love me some paint chips! Anything free and colorful, I'm in.

I actually wanted to make a post about all the things you can do with them, but luckily for me someone beat me to it. Actually there was no race, I was just too lazy to gather it together. So check it out here, 50 things you can do with paint chips. Oh and you can also check out one completely overwhelming yet kinda cool thing I did with paint chips here.

Happy chipping!

It's hip to be square

Who in their right mind thought math would ever be fun again? Well, it's currently all the rage, but not as we remember it from high school. Now-a-days it's hard to not spot those lovely basic shapes we all became familiar with in our geometry books, but now they are adorning our necks, walls and clothes! These shapes are like pod people and are starting to take over. Run for your lives! No don't do that better yet run to esty and join the cool kids.

I have to admit I am all about this current trend. I've never been one for girlie floral prints, and a couple year ago when getting married it was hard to find something that wasn't covered in it! So I say keep on keeping on you lovely geometric shapes... Below are some of my most favorite objects and designs of geometric love.


1. Wrapping Paper: This comes to us from one of the most exciting websites since Design*Sponge, Plenty of Colour. This website is all things color and most things geometric, both of which warm my soul.

2. Poster Design: This one is also from Plenty of Colour, I know I know I'm not being diverse in my choices, but hang with me and we'll get there!

3. Chevron Christmas ornament: While searching for the best felt Christmas ornament to make this year, I ran across this gem. You can pick it up one etsy for twelve bucks, or try and make your own. Note I made one the other night, it's not the quickest process. However, since I need to make about fifteen, I'm too poor to shell out the twelve bucks a pop. Either way, this ornament on any tree would be a win!

4. Triangle necklace: Now this is one etsy object I can't make. But I am absolutely in love with! It's priced at 18 GBP at the current exchange rate (watch right when I post this the rate will have changed) 1 GBP = 1.5 USD. So this necklace would cost you around 27 dollars without shipping. Well worth it if you ask me.

5. Wallpaper: While trying to find something to paint on one of my walls in my office I ran across this and thought it would be perfect! Now if only I could make more hours in the day, or clone myself like a mogwai I'd be all set. Then again I don't know if gremlins could paint such straight triangles.

Or if you have money--unlike myself, you can purchase the wallpaper version from Minakani a studio on Paris.

Last but not least and probably my most favorite...

6. Wooden geometric vase: This one takes the cake. It's on my Christmas wish list. 30 dollars well spent--hint, hint!

So there it is, six ways to be part of the "in" crowd.

...It's hip to be square!

Storage genius!

UPDATE: I have turned my tights storage area into a jewelry/tights storage mecca.  It's becoming so cute I just had to share.  I purchased the hooks at Urban Outfitters on super clearance, like 2 bucks a piece.  They've worked out well for holding all my new necklaces I've accumulated in the last couple months.  I've also started turning old vintage buttons into hair pins and earrings, be on the look out for that DIY post ;-)

Recently my collection of brightly colored tights has grown ten fold, okay not that much but I did go from having about five pairs to now having twelve. That's a lot! With that I was tired of waking up in the morning to have to untangle them out of my sock drawer. Feeling defeated by such a small task, I charged ahead to conquer this life altering problem. The first person I looked to is my role model/secret clothing best friend Kendi of Kendi Everyday. In her "Working Closest" series she talked about organizing your space in order for it to work more for you. I remember seeing her tights all rolled up and color coordinated, pure genius right there! For the longest time I thought the only option for tights was a matted mess in my sock drawer.

Unlike Kendi I don't have the space in my closest for such wonderful storage; damn cute, adorable, yet space hindering cape cod houses! Still feeling defeated about my tight dilemma I did what any normal gal would do and went to the mall. Yes, whenever I am sad, angry, or feel as though my bank account isn't close enough to zero I head to the mall. The mall solves 99% percent of life's problems! While there I discovered what may become my third favorite clothing store--behind J. Crew and Anthro of course! It's called Madewell. I can't say I'm totally sold on their clothes yet, but their jewelry is out of this world--if anyone would like to buy me this necklace for Christmas I will be forever indebted to you.

I walked into the store there is was, a wonderful display for socks, white boxes hung on the wall with the socks rolled up and tucked inside. My life problem not only solved, but also a decorative element for my bonus room, double score! I owe it all to them for helping me solving my tight storage problem. Thank you Madewell, thank you.

So below is the final outcome. All it took was fifteen dollars at Target, a level and rolling up all my matted tights. I can't tell you how much better my life has become because of this. Hope each one of you stumble upon such an easy life altering solution to one of your problems!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I know, I know I'm like so 3 months behind the times! However, you should be impressed that I caught up at all! Below are some of my favorite instagrams I've taken in the last week. Have no fear I won't bore you with the ones of my husband and dog!

I picked up these gems at Anthro for a mere 5 bucks at the end of last Christmas season. They quickly became the love of my Christmas life. Anything "vintage" steals my heart without much effort. Tragically when I walked into the house today I found the teal one laying dead on the floor; the cat had batted it to death. Evil cat!

Here is the tree adorned with the lovely Anthro ornaments. Can you see the teal one? Say a prayer for it tonight, it lived a good short life.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

I heart my Ohio!

Whelp, this is what I've come up with! Since I've started this blog I'm wanted to make cool stuff while commenting on the things I've seen along the way. While I have made a lot of great stuff in the last two years, none of it really took me anywhere. A couple of weeks ago I was on pinterest and ran into this really cool string art of California:

My girlfriend and I decided to get together and make one of our lovely state, Ohio-the heart of it all! With this I decided my new quest will be to make all things Ohio. You can track my new adventure here: iheartmyohio.blogspot.com I'm hoping once I get to making stuff I can be apart of City Flea and the Crafty Supermarket. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Until then, there's always Etsy.

Beware!

You never know when your mug shot might come back to haunt you!  Recently I checked out Cincinnati's 513 City Flea  in pursuit of the perfect inspirational print to adorn my nearly complete artist studio—note I say nearly with bated breath as this one week project has spiraled into a 6 months ordeal from hell!  Walking up and down the rows nothing was striking my fancy until the last row, last booth, and then I found it! 

It was unique, inspirational (in its own right) and only 12 bucks to boot!  The print is by Larken Design .  I wish I could tell you a lot about Larken and the origin of this print, but sadly I can not.  I can tell you out of all the booths at City Flea they by far were the most welcoming and interactive.  Everyone had the chance to take their own picture for their mug shot contest!  Looking forward to getting this hung and making some rad art in its presence, all the while counting my blessings that I've never had a mug shot come back to haunt me.  

Pinterest: Like waiting for Christmas!

Oh by gosh by golly!  I haven't been this excited for something since Christmas circa 1985.  As I am writing this I am currently refreshing my yahoo inbox waiting for an "invite" to become a member of a website I stumbled upon today that might rival that of design*sponge.  It's called Pinterest.

Take yourself back to the time when you use to go through all of your favorite magazines, clip-out your favorite stuff: cute boys, clothes, hair-do's, etc. to then plaster them all over your wall and stand back and say "This will one day be my life."  Well some of us are a little bit older now and doing the above may just seem a little bit odd.  While our interests may have shifted from cutting out pictures of cute boys from Teen Beat magazine, our desire to look at things and say "This will one day be my life," hasn't.  Now I can rekindle my old desires to live a make believe life and it be completely acceptable!  While I know I'll never have the hair of Zooey Deschanel, I sure as heck can make that cute bird feeder I just saw.  So please Santa I've been a good girl this year, let me please wake up to an invite to be part of the cool crowd and get my membership to Pinterest! 

You + Me = Us

During my daily glance at Design*Sponge I ran across the above print by Johnny&Stacie and fell instantly in love! It was a must have. Now I don't want anyone to think I'm the type of woman who just buys things on a whim. I'm more of the type to pick up a $1.95 picture frame at Target, carry it around for a while, then put it down realizing I really don't need it—this happened yesterday. Needless to say I strive very hard to avoid buyer's remorse. But this print on the other hand was a must have! You see in the last four years my husband and I have lived in our house, I've painstakingly put hours into making it a home. With that my husband has been left out of the process here and there; not because I wanted him to, more so because it's either been "my" thing or he debates something so long it then goes out of style. Now the above print helps relieve some of that "the house is your thing" tension. This print that will hang next to our door embodies both of our loves, his simple pleasure of riding his bike and my love of good design. One print alone my not conquer our homemaking problems...but it's a simple start!

Remember Yearbooks?

 Ah, the good ol' yearbook.  Something we  can look back on and say, "Did I really wear my hair like that?"  Recently my sister-in-law asked me to design the yearbook for the elementary school she teaches at.  The first thing I thought of was, "Wow they start 'em off early now-a-days, huh?"  The youth of todays America has got it good, first the Internet, then cellphones, social-networking and now yearbooks!  

At-any-rate, the theme was Peace, Love & Learning.  Since I refused to go with the standard tie-dyed approach, this is what I came up with.  It's not really my cup of tea, however if I were a fifth-grader I'd  be pretty excited to have it on my bookshelf to go with all of my other colorful Judy Blume books. 

To me yearbooks are exciting the first five-minutes of having them.  You flip through, see how fat you looked and move on.  I'm hoping that one day when I have kids I'll want to go through them again and show them how awesome I thought I was; yet I'm afraid the initial reaction will probably re-occur.  However, with a cover like this the skies the limit! 

Negligent Blogging!

I have been a negligent blogger I know, but for good reason. I am still trying to brush the dust off of my recent wedding. I have always heard rumors of the overwhelmed bride. However, I didn't believe them...until now. I imagined a life post-wedding to be easier and filled with free time, mine has been anything but! I'm not complaining, more-so making an excuse as to why I have been less than attentive to my own artistic endeavors. But all of that will change, there are some exciting things on the horizon such as new art being made, a possible women's art co-op being created, and renting a booth at the upcoming Crafty Supermarket! So stayed tuned. Until then here are some pictures from my recent nuptials.

Rob Ryan timelapse

Recently I've fallen in love with the work of artist Rob Ryan. His simple yet complex images can mesmerize you for hours. Not only does his work exude the current DIY craze, but is very reflective of the Victorian Era with its ornate nature and hue choices. I truly admire artists that can bring back the past yet recontextualize it with a modern twist. If you're interested in having one of these gems adorn your wall you can purchase one right here.  

However, if that's a bit out of your price range you can enjoy the video below that shows his process or keep up-to-date at his blog.

Stop to see the paper!

So after my recent post about origami, another fellow paper lover happened to stumble upon my blog—and I'm glad they did! The lovely paper blog is about all things paper, from diy projects to gowns made of nothing but. Currently they're having a contest to win a wonderfully handcrafted picture frame (image above) made from newspaper and felt. All you have to do to be entered into the contest is the following:

1. Follow their blog (what paper lover wouldn't want to do that?)

2. Leave a comment

3. Write your own blog about the contest (lend a hand

to fellow bloggers and help promote!)

With this fun and creative contest about paper taking place I thought I'd talk about a couple of other must have/must sees for avid paper lovers.

The book Paper: Tear, Fold, Rip, Crease, Cut, by Ravin Smith celebrates one of our oldest artist materials. It provides a historical look at paper from its creation to contemporary use. Paperprofiles fifty artists and designers that use and manipulate the material in non-traditional ways. Featured artists include: Andreas Kocks, Rachel Whiteread, Robert Ryan, and Thomas Demand. If you're looking for a book that will not only fill your brain with the history of paper, but also introduces you to some "outside of the box" uses by some of the great contemporaries, then this is it! Oh, did I mention the book has an interactive component too?

If I'm going to talk about paper then I should also mention something to contain this historical gem. The book Re-bound: Creating Handmade Books from Recycled Repurposed Materials is chalked full of amazing ways in which to bind your paper. And since going green as become as popular as sliced bread, this how-to book is a double win! The book contains sixteen step-by-step instructions on how to take every day house hold items and turn them in to a masterpiece for your bookshelf.

Last, but not least we can't forget about our wallpaper lovers! I will be the first to admit I'm not a fan of wallpaper in the traditional sense. It's rare now-a-days that I see wallpaper adorning a wall that doesn't look tacky—yes there have been some exceptions. However, wallpaper in the non-traditional sense I'm game. Coming into the home stretch before my wedding I've been scouring some of my go-to websites for last minute diy projects and came across a project forpersonalized napkins that uses wallpaper. I was really attracted to the vintage wallpaper they used that I spent the rest of the afternoon browsing Vintage Wallpapers' website. They literally have hundreds upon hundreds of different styles ranging from the 1930s to the 80s. With such a great paper to start with the creative possibilities are endless!

So whether you're going big, going green, or trying to go back in time take a second to appreciate a paper and all of its infinite potential!