A copy-cat shirt at that…

Original on left by Mary Meyer. One day, I’d like to own one of her lovely pieces, especially a scarf. But alas, I have children to raise and a food storage supply that needs updating. Priorities. Hence my home-made version using fabric paint and a $3 Old Navy top.

Newspaper pom-poms made on a rainy day.

And Beach House. Also good for rainy days and/or grumpy days.

For Ryan this Valentine’s Day, I sewed a burlap pouch, stenciled it, and filled it with spicy things because he loves spice. Something I enjoy reminding him on those days I’m cranky, feisty, and totally copping an attitude. The drama makes for an interesting marriage, I say!

A couple of months ago, a really cool Swedish military-style backpack had been making its rounds on the design blogs. In love with the looks, but not with the price tag, I sought a way to replicate the style and military-aesthetic. Recalling a certain army bag I toted around in high-school, my ideas fell into place.

So you know how there’s Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade? I like to think of this project as semi-handmade. No shame in that, especially when it’s done affordably.

Materials:
Military ammo bag (different colors available)
Cotton canvas
Fabric paint
Paint brush
Craft knife
Tweezers
Cutting mat
Freezer paper
Ink jet printer

Project time estimate: 1-1.5 hours

The idea is simply this: purchase ammo bags (perfect size for little boys!) from a military surplus store, then sew on a customized patch.

To get started, either design your own stencil, or download and print my Clone Trooper illustration (PDF) or sword and arrow (PDF) onto a piece of freezer paper cut down to 8.5″x11.” Make sure the paper side gets printed and not the shiny, waxy side.

Note: I’ve successfully ran freezer paper through two different types of inkjet printers, and never, ever had a melting issue. Jamming yes, but melting, no. Just wanted to forewarn you as I have heard this is a risk, though I’m guessing this is an issue with laser printers since there is no heat involved in inkjets. So please don’t try to run waxy paper through a hot laser printer!

Trim out your paper stencil, then cut out a piece of canvas. This will be your patch. For a frayed patch (like the Clone Trooper one above), trim out your circle 1/4″ larger than the stencil (example two pictures down). For a smooth-edged patch (like Dax’s sword + arrow one), cut exactly to the size of the stencil.

Set the canvas aside to prepare the stencil. Using a sharp craft knife, carefully trim out the white parts of the design. This will be the negative area, the parts that will not be painted. Set these tiny pieces aside (a tweezer is very useful here) until everything is cut out. Then reassemble everything onto the canvas patch. Heat up your iron to low, and iron down each itty bit, pressing just one piece at a time. The heat from the iron melts the wax side of the paper, adhering it to the fabric. When the entire stencil is assembled, run over the whole design with the iron to make sure the paper adheres to the canvas.

Using a brush, paint the exposed areas, dabbing fabric paint a bit at a time. Allow to dry. If using the sword + arrow design (no frayed edge) make sure to paint along the edges of the patch to ‘seal’ in the loose fibers. Carefully peel away the paper, using a tweezer for the smaller pieces, to reveal your design:

To fray the patch, rub edge with your fingers and pull off loose fibers. Then take your patch and bag to the sewing machine, stitch patch directly onto the bag flap, and call it done and cheap. Or “rocket pack” as Kai likes to call his new bag.

For a a more in-depth tutorial on stenciling, read my post here.

And Dana’s intro of me left me all sorts of blushy and giddy. Sweetest words ever, thank you!

For the entire month of February, Dana and Rae lined up a long list of contributors to share boy-related crafts and tutorials. The perfect solution to the huge void of boy projects in the crafting and sewing world, right? Many inspiring projects so far, and I’m particularly excited to get started on Traci’s trinket keepers.

My own contribution will go up on Dana’s blog this Friday!

I’m pretty sorry at the sewing machine, and thought I should practice some basic stitches in preparation for an upcoming project (clue: new button in my sidebar). So after salivating over the floral-patterned wallpaper here, I decided to put some new floral fabric to use and sew some garland. Garland is so played out, right?

Ryan teased me in a Sarah Palin voice by saying my finished product looks ‘country’ and that I’ve gone ‘country.’ But I reminded him that he was the one born in Texas and raised in Fresno, so he will always be more country than me.

And I’ve been thinking lately how poverty-chic is SO in right now. Twine, kraft, felt, hand-drawn, everything hand-made or thrifted… In five years, how much will our design aesthetics change, and are we going to look back and wonder why the heck did we wrap everything in paper akin to brown paper bags?

A little last minute, like many things, but a new card design for the shop is in the works. I’ll also soon be listing these cards from last year, precut and professionally printed. I’m sort of on an ink cartridge strike right now (replacing ink every couple of months is kind of ridiculous, and I’d rather spend the money on sushi or downloading Battlestar Galactica episodes because I’m too impatient for my Netflix, you know?), but the cards are still available here.

Hope the free download makes up for the wonky blog as of late. Ryan moved everything to a new server, and the blog said, no way –  I am now going to bombard all your reader subscribers with random comments. And then I said, oh no, how could you? Can we just go back to the way things were? So I think things are now on the mend.

Cut up some security envelopes today. I don’t have any application for my little raindrops, but I find them fun to look at.

I never knew as a designer/creative I’d be so influenced by my childrens’ interests. But here I am cutting out a t-rex skull because dinosaurs fascinate Kai and I. And because of this book, we also have frogs and bats on the mind. What’s the saying? Slugs and snails and puppy dog tails…

Isn’t it funny how prep for a craft usually takes much longer than the actual craft itself? Even if Kai prefers to smear paint everywhere and inevitably takes off to play with cars or Star Wars Legos, I still enjoy myself.

In case you try this: 1) Acrylic paint works much better than tempera, and 2) You get a better print if you lightly dab the paint onto the potato using your fingertip instead of dipping it into the paint. Happy printing!

After spending most of church struggling to keep the boys in their Sunday School classes, I was feeling a little blue by the time we got home. A nice nap — thank you Ryan! — took the edge off some, but I was still in need of a boost. I finally realized I needed to create something with my hands. The end result was a chocolate cake and some cheery bunting for my workspace.

(Wish I could take credit for this mini bunting idea and also give credit to whoever came up with the concept. But I want to say I saw it here, or perhaps here.)

We visited the LA Renegade Craft Fair, and went through as *slowly* as the boys allowed. In other words, Dax’s mini tantrums and signature back-arching move kept us from staying at one booth longer than two minutes. Kai did just fine. Which is great, since he better get used to being dragged around places that involve the words ‘handmade,’ ‘arts,’ and ‘crafts.’ Many more years of that to come, kids. (But I will buy you ice cream, promise.)

Artists that I liked:

Illustrator Caitlin Kuhwald

Wood block prints by Tugboat Printshop
(Saw the three individual, hand-carved wood blocks used
for the three-color crab print above. It was really amazing.)

Berkeley Illustration

Stacie and I went down to the LA garment district today, and I was reminded of what a simple girl I am. Because when I die and get to heaven, presumptuously assuming I’m going to heaven, I’d gladly choose to move into a warehouse full of ribbon and trim over a mansion, any day. Wait. Unless that mansion is a Marmol Radziner prefab. Hm. My brain is now hurting by this hypothetical.

One of the things I really wanted this mother’s day was to make a Lizzie Fortunato-ish necklace or bracelet. Of course that entails me going to the craft store alone and some quiet time piecing my spoils together. Heaven! So here is my knock-off prototype.

And here’s the real deal.

And lastly, mother’s day isn’t quite over for me yet — I’ve asked Ryan to take me to Sprinkles this Friday. I hear it’s supposed to change your life. My own homemade cupcakes are pretty kick-a*$, so I better not be disappointed!

{images via Lizzie Fortunato Jewels and Refinery 29}

Blogged a tutorial at Tangled & True.

Also, a t-shirt stencil download.

Kai and I got our craft on this rainy week. We hope the grandmas and grandpa enjoy receiving their cards in the mail (and that no excess glue via Child-Gone-Wild dried the cards shut.)

Still feeling full — two hours after the fact — from our delish Valentine’s breakfast this morning downtown. Thank you, thank you Aubrei, for watching the boys!

And I’m so happy that many of you enjoyed the free downloads. I’ve been playing with the idea of offering more designs since there was such a positive response to the Valentine’s cards. Maybe once a month. Just for fun. But thank you all so much for your kind comments (and excitement over the Twilight cards!).

Happy three-day weekend. : )

I love these markers!! They are so much fun. The OC part of me wants to clean up the glass door (+ Kai’s closet door), but a bigger part of me wants to keep the artwork up for Ryan — and us — to enjoy.

Thanks for the idea, Dawn :)

Cute, cheap, and unbreakable Christmas ornaments? Umm, yes! From Martha Stewart.

I really get into giftwrapping, so I thought I’d share my secrets to a wildly successful packaging-of-a-product-to-be-given-to-another.

- I like to attach the greeting card itself (no envelope) onto the wrapped gift.
- Fabric and paper are different and interesting substitutes for ribbon. (I used a strip of fabric on the package above.)
- Monograms are always cute. I go about this by hunting down some decorative font on dafont.com, download it, print out the initial onto colored paper, cut (use a craft knife), and affix.
- Kraft wrapping paper is cheap and versatile. You can go all sorts of crazy by layering different textures and colors on plain kraft.

If you don’t want to wrap your gifts this Christmas, I will do it for you in exchange for chocolate.