Handmade Holidays – Gifts for Dearhearts

December 08, 2009

One of the things I miss about my grandmother are all her little sayings and old-fashioned words and terms. For example, I just loved it when she called me her dearheart and I still love the images it evokes in my head even today. I’ve always had a thing for deer and to me calling someone a dearheart is just about the most special thing you can call someone.

So, I’ve put together some Gifts for Dearhearts for all you dearhearts out there! This one is for you, Grandmom.

Deer Woodland Pendant – Peppersprouts $20

Deer Silhouette Fabric – Freshline Illustration $18

Mini Deer Printable 2010 Calendar -Ali Design $6

Baby Deer Fine Art Print – Sharon Montrose $25

Deer Friends Greeting Card – The Poppy Tree $4

Fawn Coasters – Joshua Stone $22.50

Fawn Wall Wear – Nea $70

Fawn Pin – Decoylab $6

Deer with Butterflies – John Murphy $35

Stag Ring – Dillon Designs $8

Filed in Fabric, Good Gifts, Got Art?, Handmade Holidays, Home Decor & Wares, Jewels | | Comments (3) »

She’s Crafty: Create Notebook with Amenity Home Fabric

November 25, 2009

Amenity Home recently sent me some of their fabrics to try out. I have a few things in the works for them…thinking about some placemats or a pillow…but in the meantime I decided to cover a notebook with a scrap of their Trail in Cream & Moss pattern. I bought one of those Composition Notebooks with graph paper in it (I’ve been using the graph paper to make my own embroidery patterns) and it was just to drab for me.

First, I made a little embroidered label for the cover. Then, I cut out a piece of fabric using the dimensions of the notebook, plus 1 1/2 inches all the way around. Measured where I wanted the label to be and sewed it on the fabric. Finished up by hot gluing the fabric to the inside of the cover. I also trimmed up the corners, so there was no overlapping fabric bits. Now, I have a sweet notebook for all my embroidery pattern inspirations!

I will be sure to keep you posted with any future projects that I complete with the Amenity fabrics….or soon I decide what I want to do.

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Wednesday Indie Artist Fixx with Jan DiCintio of Daisy Janie

November 11, 2009

Sharing my interview with one of fave people on the Internet, Jan DiCintio of Daisy Janie, for today’s Wednesday Indie Artist Fixx. Jan is fabric & surface designer & a regular must read blogger.

Couple of new things going on for Jan…her new 2010 calendar. I bought last year’s edition and I loved it, so I will being getting 2010 for sure. Also, Jan has just announced Geo Grand, which is her new organic fabric collection available for wholesale.

Learn more about Jan & her biz in my interview below.

1. What’s the name of your business, what do create and sell and how did you get your start?

In my business, Daisy Janie, I design & sell organic fabrics as well as a yearly calendar printed with my original designs. I also create/customize and sell surface designs to clients who use them for various applications. I started painting 11 years ago, creating surface designs on mirrors, furniture and walls. When my painting biz came to an end, I started sewing handbags to keep busy. It was not intended to be a new business, but one thing led to another and, soon, I was designing my own fabrics for my handbags. With consistent inquiries about buying my fabric designs, I dropped the handbags to focus solely on creating & selling fabric!

2. Share some of your inspirations.

I am inspired by textures, colors and patterns in nature and by lines & shapes created by sun and shadows dancing through a window. I also love design from the late 1920s to early 1970s, particular mid-century modern. It’s not only the actual styles of these periods, but also the stirring nostalgia I feel when I look at them.

3. Do you cook? If so, what is your favorite thing to cook? Have a recipe?

I love to cook! I am very improv with my family’s meals, just depends what we have on-hand. Last night, I threw together broccoli florets, roasted red pepper and tomato (cut everything tiny); added 3:1 dressing of extra-virgin olive oil & balsamic vinegar; freshly ground salt & pepper; sprinkled some garlic powder and a few crumbles of feta cheese (you don’t need a lot!). YUM!

4. What have you recently been reading, watching and listening to?

Reading…the newspaper and holiday cookie recipes. Some friends and I are getting together to swap books tomorrow – can’t wait!

Watching…Glee!, SYTYCD, Project Runway, Ace of Cakes, Good Eats

Listening to… http://www.radio1045.com – streaming audio; http://www.pandora.com – Feist station.

5. What’s your creative process like?

Daydreaming, walking, observing, thinking, imagining, doodling, drawing, experimenting, tweaking, tweaking, tweaking, dancing (and sometimes clapping as you’ll soon find out).

6. Share something silly about yourself.

Oh man, I had to ask my husband! He offered 3 gems: I eat triscuits row-by-row, I make up songs to the tune of nursery rhymes and sing them ad nauseum (sometimes opera style…), and I clap. A lot. I clap coming & going, happy & often. Why not?!

7. What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst?

Lately, I think the best and worst things are exactly the same: charting my own course day-in and day-out. It’s delightful to be able to take any creative direction of my choosing, but it’s daunting to whittle down my grand ideas into a few that are worth pursuing b/c they have profit potential. Thinking of my ideas as business units is a major reality check.

8. What does indie mean to you? You can give a literal definition, choose to be a little esoteric or a combination of both.

Indie is passion. Indie is caring. Indie is better than. Indie can be a mindset, personality trait and lifestyle. Get indie why dontcha!

Filed in Fabric, Indie Artist Fixx, Interviews | | Comments (4) »

She’s Crafty: colts and windmills fabric bunting

November 06, 2009

Over the summer I decided to figure out how to make fabric scrap bunting and I thought I’d share my project with you for She’s Crafty.

I’m pretty new to the whole sewing thing, so I’m trying to come up with projects that will help me dip my toe into the sewing pond. I had some gorgeous Skinny Laminx fabric that I’ve been dying to make something with and I’ve been wanting to make my own fabric bunting ever since I made my foxy paper garland and did a feature on some other folks’ buntings. Mine didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped, but I’m still proud of it and now I’ve got the skillz to make my own for special occasions and holidays!

The fabric I used was Colt Circles in Seafoam from Skinny Laminx. It’s 100% cotton and screenprinted in waterbased ink an it’s available for sale in several different lengths.

Materials:

Fabric Scraps (mine are from Skinny Laminx)
Cardstock
Bias Tape
Thread
Pinking Sheers
Sewing Machine
Potato
Acrylic Paint
Foam Brush, optional
Ruler
Scissors
Straight Pins

How-to:

Make a triangular pattern from the cardstock. Mine is 7 inches wide by 9 1/2 inches. For those who are a little drawing challenged like me. I made it by drawing a line 7 inches long. Then drew another line perpendicular to the original one and equidistant from each end…I just made a big ‘T’. Then I used a straight edge to draw a line from the bottom of the T to each side of the original line. Cut out your triangle pattern with scissors.
Pin the pattern to your fabric and use the pinking sheers to cut our your triangular flags. I cut out 5, you can do more if you want.
Use the straight pins to affix the top of your flags in between the folded bias tape. Determine how for apart you want them to be. Mine are about 1 1/2 inches apart. Make sure to leave a ‘tail’ of bias tape on each end that you can use to pin your bunting up. I left about 6 inches on each end.
Prepare your sewing machine with the thread you want to use and sew the length of the bias tape, making sure that you are sewing through all 3 layers—the 1st layer of bias tape, the flag & the 2nd layer of bias tape. I kept my stitches sort of small & I made sure to reverse a little on the end so they won’t come out.
Now, you can add a design with a potato stencil or decide to skip this step. I had this really awesome fabric from Skinny Laminx that I wanted to add some windmill shapes to. Why windmills? I don’t know, but there’s something about those colts that make me think of windmills.
Cut a potato in half and cut out your design. Remember, the raised up parts will be the bits that have paint on them.
Once you have created your design, dip the potato stencil in paint (or use a foam brush like me) and place it paint side down on your flag…keeping in mind how the pendants are going to hang and how the design will appear. You maybe don’t want to add your design upside down. Press down for 30 seconds or so and voila. Repeat as often as you’d like.
Let your paint dry and then hang your bunting.

Filed in Crafty stuff, Fabric, She's Crafty, Tutorials | | Comments (2) »

She’s Crafty: fabric scrap coasters

October 13, 2009

I’ve needed coasters for my Ikea desk for ages. I’ve just been using junk mail and paper towels, to protect my desk from my sweating glasses, but that was just getting old. So, I decided to do something about it and come up with a post for She’s Crafty at the same time. I’ve seen those fabric coasters made from scraps around the interwebs and decided to make my own with no tutorial or even much sewing experience at all.

Looking through my fabric, I discovered that I had some fabric scraps that Michelle Engel Bencsko of Cicada Studio sent me to review. Michelle is a printed textile designer and she sells her collections in her Etsy shop. Michelle has also licensed work to Henry Glass & Co, including Dogwood and Shade Garden, 100% cotton quilting collections. In addition to Cicada Studio, she also also teamed up with Gina Pantastico to create a jointly run fabric manufacturing company, Cloud9 Fabrics, which uses environmentally responsible organic cotton base cloths and print methods. Their premier collection is called My Happy Garden.

So, I had this really great great fabric from Cicada Studio and an even bigger need for some coasters, and this is what I came up with.

Materials:

Light or mid weight cotton or canvas fabric. This is what I used.
Quilting batting
Coordinating thread
Straight pins
Scissors
Pinking sheers
Piece of cardstock to create template
Ruler

How-to:

1. Cut a template out of cardstock. I made mine 4″ x 4″, which is a nice big size for even those great big mugs. I used the template as a guide to cut out each piece of fabric as well as matching pieces of quilt batting. I used straight pins to keep the template from shifting while I cut. You do not need to cut the pieces exactly to size, you are going to cut them again with the pinking sheers. Just make sure that they are not smaller than the template.

2. Then I made a sandwich out of 2 pieces of the fabric and a piece of batting. Use the fabric as the ‘bread’ (with the design facing out) and the batting as the ’stuffing’. Pin all 3 layers together with straight pins. Don’t put the pins right on the edge.

3. Use pinking sheers to trim the coasters. Cut through all 3 layers at the same time.

4. Using a sewing machine, sew the 3 layers together all the way around. Create your seam about 1/8″ away from the edge and leave the edges rough. Try to sew a little straighter than me, but don’t sweat it if you can’t…they don’t need to be perfect.

My thoughts:

I am not much of a sewer…not really one at all. I’m really only getting acquainted with my sewing machine and I found this project to be really easy and newbie friendly, so go for it!

I’m actually thinking about making a whole bunch more coasters for the rest of the house and as homemade gifts this Xmas. I’m thinking that some Cicada Studio or some Cloud9 Fabrics fabrics would make this gifts even more special.

Filed in Crafty stuff, Fabric, She's Crafty, Tutorials | | Comments (4) »

Wednesday Indie Artist Fixx with Betz White

August 26, 2009

You may best know Betz White from her books, Warm Fuzzies and Sewing Green, but Betz has just come out with a new line of original textile designs printed on organic fabrics. I sat down with Betz to learn more about her fabrics, how she got her start and what inspires her in an interview for this week’s Wednesday Indie Artist Fixx.

1. What’s the name of your business, what do create and sell and how did you get your start?

Betz White Productions is my business name, under which I create unique designs and products including one of a kind home accessories, whimsical felted wool items and a new line of original textile designs printed on organic fabrics.

I spent the first 15 years of my post-college career designing kids clothing for several large apparel manufacturers. I left the corporate design world early in 2005 to pursue freelance design work & spend more time with my kids. I enjoyed working from home, but often felt isolated and missed interacting with other creative individuals over the age of 5.

At the time, I was just getting into reading craft blogs and became aware of the rising indie craft movement. In an effort to connect with the crafting community, I decided to participate in the No Coast Craft-o-rama in Minneapolis, MN. I debuted my line of felted wool accessories created from recycled sweaters. The show was very well attended and my work got a great response. Over the course of the next year, I got my own website, started a blog and opened an etsy shop. Shortly thereafter, I started writing my first book, Warm Fuzzies, which came out in 2007. My newest book, Sewing Green was released in the spring of 2009.

2. What are your inspirations in your art and life?

The source of inspiration is such a difficult thing for me to pinpoint. All day long I fill up on images from everywhere: the Internet, nature, books, even the grocery store! I may or may not actively take note of anything in particular. Later, an idea for a design or a color palette, will bubble up out of that mixed-up “stew” of inspiration. I have my best ideas in the shower or when I am waking up in the morning. I have sketchbooks and notepads on my nightstand, in my purse and all over the house ready for that spark of an idea.

3. What’s your favorite comfort food and why?

Hmmm, I don’t know, maybe homemade chocolate chip cookies? Warm and sweet always wins with me.

4. What’s something you’ve learned as an adult that you wish you knew as a kid?

Everything comes around sooner or later. No matter what it is, big or small, someday it’ll be your turn. The key is knowing that almost nothing stays the same and to accept the things that do.

5. What blogs and mags do you read and what shops do you shop at?

As my blog reading has increased, my magazine reading has decreased. (sorry magazines!)

My favorite blogs are: Posy Gets Cozy, Wisecraft, Craftzine, Soulemama, Anna Maria Horner, Susan B Anderson & Print + Pattern.

My favorite magazines are: Family Fun, Selvedge and Marie Claire Idees.

Favorite Shops: I’m afraid I’ve pared down my shopping a bit as well! I always check Etsy first when shopping for gifts. For myself, I love poking around Anthropologie for inspiration. Other than that, I’m all about thrift stores, yarn shops and flea markets!

6. What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Reading—I hesitate to admit it, but I am not a big book reader. I do love books, especially how-to and reference books. I flip through them “grazing” and gathering what I need. Somehow I never just sit and read for pleasure, I’d much rather knit!

Watching—We recently canceled our cable TV and now watch things exclusively on Hulu. My favorites are The Daily Show and The Office. My sons are into old shows from my childhood such as Flipper and Pink Panther, which warms my heart every time I hear the theme songs.

Listening—I am a HUGE podcast fan! I love to listen while I work. I feel like I learn so much from podcasts, I look forward to them every week. Here are my favorites: This American Life, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, The Moth, Radio Lab, Craftypod & Craftsanity.

7. What’s new? Any products or projects you’d like to share?

My big news is that I’ve recently launched a line of original textile designs printed on organic fabrics. This is something that I’ve intended to do long before the release of my book Sewing Green and I am so proud of myself for finally making it happen. My designs are professionally printed in the US on organic fabrics. The digital printing process utilizes water-based, non-toxic pigment dyes and minimizes waste and water consumption. Heat and pressure are used to finish the fabric instead of harsh chemicals. In addition, I’m very excited about using print-on-demand technology in an effort to prevent fabric waste. It allows me to print only what is needed and not end up with a large inventory of unwanted material.

Filed in Books, Crafty stuff, Fabric, Green Stuff, Indie Artist Fixx, Interviews | | Comments (2) »