The Screen Printing Kit has Arrived!

It’s here, it’s here, the kit is here! I’m so excited… it’s been almost 10 years since I’ve done any screen printing. In my high school and early college years, I worked for a small print shop back home making t-shirt designs and helping out with the printing whenever the guys in the shop needed an extra hand. I loved working up in the office, making shirt designs and helping the customers & clients. What a wonderful thing to see their faces light up whenever I would show them the designs I’d come up.  There’s nothing like being able to take something that someone has in their mind and not only create that – but create something possibly even better than they imagined. Being able to do that for people is what made me fall in love with design. A college degree and 3 years of professional work later – I am just now looking back and realizing that creating things that helped people is what really made designing t-shirts so rewarding for me.

I can still remember hot summer days down in the print shop too – we had little to no A/C and the place wreaked of chemicals and was full of large, sweaty guys making grossly inappropriate jokes… What can I say? For a tomboy who grew up hangin’ with the boys, this was just the most fun you could have. With the radio blasting AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, it was that perfectly simple mix of physical labor, lots of laughter, and filling a need by making things. Even though it was far from being a dream job, for that time in my life – it really was.

So here we are.. me and a screen printing kit, 8 years down the road we are reunited. I’m so excited to see where it takes me and who I can help along the way. Off we go!

August: Eggmergency Survival Kit!

Well, a few days late on this one – but I’m very excited to finally reveal to you the world’s first Eggmergency Survival Kit! Many of you have been following along and are familiar with this one. For those who are getting a first look, the theme for this project was “Survival” and the project medium was Ukrainian Easter Eggs. My boyfriend was actually the one who came up with the idea for the survival kit – so props to him! When he first mentioned the idea, it instantly sounded fun, silly, and utterly ridiculous… three very great criteria for a creative project, don’t you think?

It’s been a long process getting all nine eggs completed.. I finished the last of them around 2am last night. I got the egg container spray painted red yesterday as well, so thankfully today was mostly taking final photos and getting the label designed and printed out. I’m sure a few of you know from my posts along the way, that the August project and I had a very love-hate relationship. There were definitely moments of tension between us. The results have made the struggle worth it though. It’s only purpose is really to delight, it’s completely fictitious and it’s very silly – and I love it for that.

The kit includes a sampling of 9 eggs – each with unique designs and symbols to represent the survival tool inside. The style of the designs is inspired partly by traditional Ukrainian easter eggs – which use ornate patterns and specific symbols to tell stories. In a wonderfully whimsical other world, you’d simply break open these little beauties to reveal the tools stored safely inside.

A little fun fact regarding survival and this project: The rope egg (also somewhat resembling a pretzel) was quite the trooper.. when taking it into the kitchen to do the first coat of dye, it slipped off the counter and fell to the floor.. yup, totally cracked. In my moment of frustration, I’m actually quite surprised I didn’t cry profusely – as this is my normal method for dealing with tiny disasters. On any account, I put it aside to finish a few more and came back to it the next day. Though it was heavily cracked and looking somewhat dejected – I decided to give it one more chance. To my surprise, it actually survived the entire dyeing process in-tact and became a beautifully green-striped little member of the group. You can actually see the crack in the close-up shot below if you look close. Very proud of this sturdy little egg – way to go!

Below are the close-up shots of each egg, so you can see them in all their egg-cellent glory (I apologize, but there had to be at least one of those in this post!). In order, here are the fellas: Compass egg, water ration egg, flashlight egg, food ration egg, rope egg, bandage egg, knife egg, fire starter egg, flare egg.

I think my favorite one ended up being the food ration egg – I just love the diamond patterned greens on it. Although the flare egg came out pretty snazzy too. Which is your favorite?? Drop me a comment – I’d love to know!

That’s all folks!

Wrapping Up for the Night…

So that thing I said about how well I work under pressure? Yeah, that was kind of a lie. At least, not under THIS amount of pressure. So the nervous breakdown is over for tonight… and I have gotten a pathetic total of 2 eggs done. I’d hoped for twice that. Stupid eggs and their breaking. At least now I am at the halfway point – just a few more days and I’ll be done with this ridiculousness.

My cat decided to give me a little added stress of course just as I was beginning to relax for the evening – they are so good for that aren’t they? I had plopped down on the couch to watch some TV and turned around to see this huge fumbling dork of a cat hovering atop my neat little nest of beautifully completed eggs. Dear God, why do I ever think I can leave anything precious laying around my house… ever? In a fury I jumped up, the eggs were just moments away from being kicked by a leaping cat and flung into the air. It took all the restraint I had to calmly call him off the table instead of smacking him right off it.. slowly he jumped down, leaving my precious cargo and hours of work just barely unharmed…… what an ass. Like an annoying older brother who screws with you just to laugh at you freaking out, that’s a cat.

I have now tucked all the eggs away in my laundry room – safe and sound from the dorkiest cat on the planet and the cat that’s big enough to BE a planet. Here’s a quick shot of the progress… a tasty treat to tide you over until the finale. I will be taking a break tomorrow night to celebrate a friend’s birthday (and have some much-deserved drinks!), but will be back at it Saturday to finish this thing. And now… finally… to sleep! Goodnight to all who are reading.

July: Reclaimed Window Coffee Table

Ok, it’s taken about 20,000 times longer than I expected it would, but the coffee table is totally and entirely complete! This past week I ordered the glass panels cut to fit within the eight sections of the window, painted the ceiling tile wallpaper with some leftover green paint from my bathroom walls, and put the final coats of varnish on everything. To raise the glass panels up to be flush with the wood, I cut some foam core board and placed it underneath the wallpaper. I could not be happier with how it turned out… in fact, this is one of those rare and wonderful projects that has turned out to FAR exceed what I had envisioned in my mind. I’m so in love with the colors and textures. And to think… it started as an old display window that was left behind.. with a sloppy coat of white paint and some cheap plexiglass windows. My how far we’ve come!

The Kit has Arrived!

Got my Ukrainian Egg Dyeing Kit in the mail today! The kit comes with 10 colors of dye, three styluses (known as a pysachok, pysak, pysal’tse, or kystka, depending on region), a block of beeswax and a booklet of basic designs to get started with. I also bought an egg blower – which is used to clean out the inside of the egg with minimal damage to the shell. I’m excited to get started practicing on some eggs this week!

Announcing the July Project!

I’ve arrived back in town after a relaxing & re-energizing July 4th vacation down on Padre Island. Growing up on the coast, I am certainly a beach bum at heart. Whenever I return, just as soon as I smell the salty sea air and feel the warm sand under my toes.. I instantly wonder why I ever left. There is so much creative inspiration down there! I do dream of one day returning to a coastal city to live.

So, a bit of a delay on getting the final photo for June’s project.. there are some logistics that are causing me to need some weekend time to finish it up. In the meantime, I’ve gone ahead and picked the cards for July. I’ve been waiting for this project to come up all year! I’d already had plans to make a bed frame for my new queen sized bed, and decided to wait for the monthly project to work on it. Thankfully, the theme I drew was not anything too crazy… i shudder to think what kind of bed frame i would have ended up with if i’d drawn “bodily fluids” from the stack! Phew. Let the fun begin!

Announcing the June Project!

Wow I can’t believe we are at month 6 already. Halfway over and it seems like it has gone so fast!

I’m not gonna lie… when I first drew the cards for this month I almost redrew because of the utter ridiculousness of the combination. But then thought for a moment… and realized that really is the point of this whole 12 month project -and  that is what makes this combo soooo fantastic too! I already have an idea swimming about in my noggin for this one. Now I am off to research how to etch glass – since I have never in my life done much of anything with glass other than look at it, eat off it or drink out of it. =P

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Hand-made Valentine’s Card

Hi all!

Just thought I’d take a moment to share the lovely hand-made card my friend Kellye Kimball sent me! She and I are participating in a little project called “Hand it Forward”. I recommend trying it out! Just post this in your Facebook status below and watch the hand-made goodies spread! =)

“Hand it Forward in 2011: I promise to send something **handmade** to the first 5 people who leave a comment here. You must in turn post this as your status and send something you make to the first 5 people who comment. It must be handmade by you and it must be sent sometime in 2011.”

Thank you Kellye!