November 4th, 2009
Posted by Silke Stoddard
Buttons seem to be the part that designers skimp on first …. what a shame. It has such an impact !
So more often than not when I buy a piece of clothing, the first thing I do is to change the buttons. Most recently I replaced the plastic molded hideous shank buttons on an inexpensive Zara coat …
…. with some horn buttons from M&J …
and like my coat a lot better now.
Try it ! Learn how to sew on a button here. It is really worth spending a few dollars on some special buttons. You may find yourself with a whole new wardrobe.
Posted on November 4th, 2009 in Make It | direct link to this entry |
November 3rd, 2009
Posted by Hosanna Houser
I know that Halloween just past, but I wanted to share photos from behind the scenes of our Big Show, the theme being Monsters. Our Art Director, Anduin Havens started us off with sketches for the different areas of the set.
From there it was a full blow effort from everyone to turn the ideas into reality. A lot of making went into our sets this year. Since paper was a major foundation for almost every area, most of it is very approachable if you think of it in a smaller scale for the home. We are already thinking of how to take the technique used to create the tree tops in the kitchen set and use it for making the garlands for Christmas.
Since we only had two days to install and transform the entire set, a lot of work started a few weeks earlier in the craft work room. The following images start somewhere at the beginning of it getting started and the two days that we got to get it all into place. Martha has some great photos on her blog, and there are additional images in this gallery as well. Hope you enjoy a peak behind the curtain!
it all started with piles of kraft paper
Martha with her Monsters aka The Art Department
Posted on November 3rd, 2009 in Behind the Scenes | direct link to this entry |
November 2nd, 2009
Posted by Morgan Levine
The winner of the Maple Leaf Punch Around the Page set is Melissa, our last commenter. Congratulations!
Keep an eye out for more great giveaways…
Posted on November 2nd, 2009 in Contests & Prizes | direct link to this entry |
October 30th, 2009
Posted by Athena Preston
Here are some images from a halloween story Marcie and I worked on a few years back. The idea was carving trompe l’oiel sillhouettes of spooky objects into the pumpkins, hopefully making it look sort of like they were real objects in the room… It turns out this story was popular with our readers so I thought I’d post a few of them again and a behind the scenes image from the development of the story. Whether you carve a pumpkin or not, Happy Halloween!
Here is a detail of the feather, carved with a linoleum cutter…
May favorite was this moth-to-a-flame motif:
This is an early drawing from when we were developing the idea and the templates:
For the rest of the story and all of the templates, click here!
Posted on October 30th, 2009 in Inspiration Board | direct link to this entry |
October 29th, 2009
Posted by Marcie McGoldrick
It is that time of year again in the craft department. Every fall we end up searching high and low for great pumpkins to inspire us. Earlier this week Nick and I went to some of my favorite farm stands in Pennsylvania. It hasn’t been a good year for pumpkins around here but we managed to find some pretty great ones. Unfortunately it was cold and rainy – but the amazing colors of the pumpkins disguise all of that.
We weren’t sure what those green spirally things were but we thought they might be good for something.
We packed the car as full as we could with our favorite selections
At the end of the day there wasn’t a space we could fit another pumpkin!
If you are about to carve some pumpkins for Halloween and you need some inspiration check our pumpkin photo gallery . There is a great range of ideas and some have links to download templates. If you need a basic pumpkin carving 101 we have that online as well. Happy Carving!!
Posted on October 29th, 2009 in Behind the Scenes, Inspiration Board | direct link to this entry |
