a peek behind Lark Studio...

Envelopes + Eye glasses = Jewelry

For the past few years the craft world has been buzzing with a variety of ways to show off the wonderful graphic design work of security envelopes. Security envelopes? You know, the things your bills come in and sometimes junk mail when it wants to look official. If you ever take a look at them you will see that clearly the paper industry has hired graphic designers to create them. The prints are phenomenal!

For a few months earlier this year I was collecting envelopes and waiting for an idea to strike that wasn't a duplication of what was already out there. Back in April the talented Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club did a great post on her blog about re-using old eyeglasses and creating pendants. Taking inspiration from that I decided to mesh the two and came up with these:

I have to say I'm loving the look of eye glass glass even when left plain and I think the distinct shapes of the glass play well with the graphic design of the papers. I also love when a project exposes me to great new products. Tulip® Soft Fabric Paint is rocking my world right now. Who knew it would work so well covering paper! (okay - I know paper is technically a fiber and its fiber paint, but cut me some slack) I had the pink, yellow and blue paint as samples from a demonstration from my work at JoAnn Fabrics a while back and never used them until now. I will definitely be looking for other projects to try the paint.

I have a huge stack of these security envelopes so look for more jewelry and other uses of them soon!

Trash to treasure: Jewelry displays

Like most professional crafters, my display set-up for Lark Studio is ever changing. For a while I have struggled with a way to display jewelry. Most commercial jewelry displays are pretty generic and I didn't want to copy the creative displays I have seen. Back in March I stumbled across two spice cabinets in very good condition. The cabinets were from the early 1970's and were only $7 for the both. They each had 2 inch shelves which I thought would be perfect to hold folded earring/jewelry cards and a wood door which screamed for screw hooks for necklaces.  During the spring I also stumbled upon a great deal on some Anna Maria Horner fabric at Quilting Adventures. Two of her Drawing Room prints were right in line with the brand colors for Lark Studio and I decided to give that look a go for my 2009 display.  With that decided the original dark brown wood tones of the cabinets didn't really fit in and just like in other aspects of my life I decided to lighten them up.

A few cans of primer and white spray paint later we have this:

(you can see more photos in my Flickr stream)

The front has a simple padded inlay of scrap foam core board covered with 1/2 inch batting and then one of the fabric prints. The back is the same fabric print glued to a piece of white poster board and stapled into the cabinet frame with my new heavy duty staple gun. And bonus - the fabric on the back are scraps sewn together with the seams covered by shelves and bars on the back! I used 1/2 inch white cup hooks screwed into the wood frame of the front door making sure they cleared the shelves inside so the door could close properly. The rest of the cabinet is just the original cabinet painted white. I even reused all of the original hardware. I didn't completely cover the spice cabinet info on the front cover. I kind of like the fact that there is still some of its former life showing through. If I find that its distracting from the jewelry I'll go in and cover it with some plain white paper.

I'm diggin' the whole creative reuse in my display pieces and have another trash to treasure piece I'm working on to display my clocks. Are any of your display pieces (for business or home) trash to treasure?

Back down (crafty) memory lane...

...I stumbled on this rubbermaid bin...it kinda made me laugh...it took me way back...back down crafty memory lane...

Okay, Minnie I am not. 

While cleaning up for the crafty yardsale that didn't happen, I came across a bin in the attic labled "miscellaneous". I'm pretty good with remembering all the stuff we have, but I couldn't recall what could possibly be in this bin. It was stored with my crafty stuff so the possibilities were endless...

The bin turned out to be a crafty, mini time capsule. It was full of unfinished projects and project ideas from years gone by. It's been funny to see what was hot back then - ideas that were popping up left and right on NEW sites like Craftster.org and such. Yep - some of these ideas are from as far back as 2004. 

I've decided to clear out the box by completing the projects. So far its been a fun break from production crafting - kinda like visiting a good, old girlfriend! First out of the box were some old vinyl albums and a beat-up clock. The idea was to manipulate the vinyl into record album bowls, to possibly try my hand at cutting the vinyl for cuffs or jewelry, or to make record album clocks. Well, last week I went a little clock crazy. I thrifted a few more clocks to reuse the quartz mechanisms and finally put a few of these together. I forgot how much fun making stuff from junk was!

Next out of the bin - cassette tapes!

Heard about the Summit of Awesome? Well...

Geared specifically for independent artists and crafters, the Summit of Awesome is 3 full days of seminars and hands-on workshops, which will provide business and technical education for those in the handmade arts community. The Summit also includes the D.C. premiere showing of the indie craft documentary, Handmade Nation - a film that captures the superstars of indie craft, and documents how the handmade community began and took its current shape.

 

Special keynote speakers include Maria Thomas, CEO of Etsy.com, andJenny Hart, Founder of Sublime Stitching!  Visit Hello Craft for a full list of topics and speakers.

Register now for a 3-day pass for $180.  Discounts are available for groups and craft collectives. The crafty folks at Hello Craft are putting on the event. Email hellocraftinfo@gmail.com for group rates and more info. 

 

The Summit of Awesome will take place in the independent shops, restaurants and bars in the MidCity area of D.C., along 14th and U Streets NW, including Miss Pixie's Solly's, DC9, Bar Pilar and Gate 54 at Cafe St. Ex. The Friday night film screening of Handmade Nation will be hosted at the DCJCC's Theater J. 

If you decide to go, PLEASE respond to this post and let me know!

Register now for a 3-day pass for $180.  Discounts are available for groups and craft collectives. The crafty folks at Hello Craft are putting on the event. Email hellocraftinfo@gmail.com for group rates and more info. 

 

The Summit of Awesome will take place in the independent shops, restaurants and bars in the MidCity area of D.C., along 14th and U Streets NW, including Miss Pixie's Solly's, DC9, Bar Pilar and Gate 54 at Cafe St. Ex. The Friday night film screening of Handmade Nation will be hosted at the DCJCC's Theater J. 

If you decide to go, PLEASE respond to this post and let me know!

Supplies, supplies everywhere!

Are you an artist, crafter or maker with just too much stuff?  Do you go crazy during this time of the year wanting to clear out and organize?  Well, I feel ya.  And I have a solution for you. 

The 2nd annual Crafter's Anonymous Craft Swap will be held this Sunday at Artworks from 2 - 5 pm.  You can bring your unused, unwanted supplies and swap them for other supplies that you may need or want. There will also be crafting/making stations set-up so you can sit, chill and create throughout the day. The event is a fundraiser for Art 180, so there is a small fee to enter.  Check out the website for the swap for more information.

See you there!

How did I ever have time to have a full-time job?

Whew...I've been busy since I left my full-time job.  So much so that I have to wonder how I juggled both my crafty endevours and work in previous years.  When I decided to get up from my week long nap after my "retirment" began, I was all about planning our first Fall Open House.  The DH and I haven't had a number of people over to our house at one time since about 2000.  That is way too long!  We had done some remodeling in 2008, and were celebrating both our birthdays and our new found freedom from working for "da man".  What better way to commemorate all of that than with a party, right?  The DH even showcased is expansive collection of classic hip-hop posters throughout the house. The event was a great way to kick off the holiday season - good times, good food and good friends!

Since then, other than the requisite break for Thanksgiving cooking, its been all about holiday craft shows.  Sorry for the last minute-ness of this, but if you are looking for cool gifts in downtown Richmond, stop by the Fawn Shop.  We are only open through Saturday December 13th so hurry on down!

Can't make it to the store?  No worries, I got you covered.  Come see me at the Richmond Craft Mafia's fourth annual Handmade Holiday show.  We went bigger and better this year - featuring over 30 local artists and crafters from the area, the show will be 2 days and at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.

Knitting through the downturn

Ahh..back to the land of the living.  Much to blog about, but I'll start slow with some links.

Here's an interesting article from the New York Times - Knitting Through the Downturn.

How are you getting through these times?

And so the remodel begins...kinda

I'm finally remodeling my kitchen and dining room.  My kitchen is teeny-tiny and we don't need a formal dining room so we are tearing out the wall that divides those rooms and making a larger eat-in kitchen.  This has been about 2 years in the making.  I finally bit the bullet a few months ago and decided to do it.  The remodel was supposed to start this past Monday but I hit a snafu with the timing of the kitchen cabinet delivery.  That coupled with our vacation next week followed by my contractor Matt's vacation the next week put demo on hold until August 18th.  Here's half of the cleared out dining room:

      

I was told the cabinets weren't coming until next week - which is the main reason we postponed.  Guess what showed up today?  The cabinets.  All. 70. boxes.  Yes - you read that correctly SEVENTY.  Seven zero.  AND - I only have 10 days to make sure nothing is damaged!  Figuring out how and where to do that in a 1200 square foot house should be very interesting.

      

I'm paying Matt to assemble the cabinets.  I'm thinking I'll need to supplement that with lots of cookie and pie baking for him!

Bringing it back

Back in 2006, I started a monthly craft lounge for Richmond.  Since then, my RCM girls have helped it grow and evolved into something robust.  I just updated the official RVA Craft Lounge blog.  It will be the place to get all the information about the monthly craft lounge.

The next Craft Lounge is tonight at 7:00 pm!  Check out the updated blog for all the details!

July is 'How-to Month' at Etsy

Want to ramp up your crafting skills?  Then join the folks in Etsy.com's virtual labs for over 25 live craft tutorials during the month of July.  Etsy will be posting videos, podcasts, and accompanying articles for most of the workshops.  You can see the schedule for the entire month here and an overview (which includes supply lists and links) of Week 1 here.  Don't wait - Print Gocco is today at 5 pm!