busy busy bee

Whoo! It's been busy around here... I've been painting my basement (dark gray walls and yellow ceiling) and of course the yellow ceiling is taking For. ev. er.  Apparently there's something about a bright yellow pigment that makes you have to do 3+ coats to make it look really even.  And apparently painting is hazardous to my health because I've got a crick in my neck, a bum knee and a sore thigh.  I've been painting in lieu of working out this week, and my mom and I just started a new weightloss challenge, so I'm hoping painting is a calorie burner!

I've got a couple Priss Designs shop announcements:
1.  I've put my Gray Chevron with Yellow Bird print on sale through Dibsie for the next 5 days only, a site where you can find deals on a lot of your favorite brands, including j.crew, anthropologie, world market, bcbgeneration, and more!
Here's the link to my sale: http://dibsie.com/deal/2613

2. Also, I completely lost track of my 30 day art challenge, but here's Day 30ish - I just added an abstract pattern that I created that is based on a peacock feather.

Available in the shop!

I'll post some updated office remodel pics soon, I'm trying to get the painting done before I start really thinking about the next step, which will be building a desk.  I was really inspired by this desk made of reclaimed hardwood flooring that I saw on the hgtv blog:

Video on the HGTV blog

I was thinking I liked the angle of the desk, but after measuring and realizing I need a desk that is 11 feet wide and at least 26" deep, I'm thinking the angle won't really work for me... however, I really like the look of the hardwood floor top, and it may end up being cheaper than buying wood planks.

And don't worry, I'll be doing a lot of ana-white.com research to figure out a good plan of attack for the desk.  I love love love her and her site.  Oh and if anyone wants to buy me a present, I would like a kreg jig please!
OK I'll quit asking for handouts.  Have a good week!

Weekend Update: Wedding Fun!

I had a very eventful weekend! Bachelorette Party on Friday, Trivia on Saturday, Wedding on Sunday!
Here's a few pics from the weekend (I still haven't gotten a hang of my phone camera, everything turns out really grainy... anyone got any tips?):

Holly, The Bride

My friend Rachel and I at the "Sips n Strokes" Pre-party.  And I just want yall to know that I tried to iron my pretty new dress before putting it on, and apparently it is not an iron-friendly fabric, and it completely ruined my dress, but I wore it anyway.  I'm guessing no one noticed because it's black, but I don't know that I can ever wear it again.  BOOOO.  At least it was only $20 at TJMaxx!

Conor & I at the wedding

With the Bride

And I finally finished my niece's bookbag! I shared the beginning of the process here, and last night I stitched around the doggie, in the white space I left myself between the artwork and the pink border, and I stitched beads on as a necklace and bejeweled the crown.  I think she looks cute! Then, to keep the threads on the inside from getting caught on pencils and such, I used fabric glue to attach a piece of fabric to the inside of the pocket that covered all the loose threads, and hopefully that will keep the beads from getting loose and falling off also.

30 Day Art Challenge: Day 10

Since I've started offering logo design packages again, I haven't had too much time after work to do much else, so maybe this wasn't the best time to start a 30 day challenge, but I haven't given up yet! I've been working on a bookbag for my niece Kirstin, who starts Kindergarten in August.  She is obsessed with chihuahuas, and my mom tried to find her a bookbag with a dog on it and just couldn't find anything cute, so I offered to make her one.  My mom got this blue backpack with hearts online at Land's End.

So, I purchased this chihuahua picture for $1 from ADreamersVision on etsy:

And I added a pink outline to the doggie and got it printed on fabric at spoonflower.com- an 8"x8" swatch only cost $5!

 Then I carefully cut around the pink line, and then painted fabric glue around the outside edges and adhered it to the backpack:

It's not actually attached in that picture, but you get it.  So now here are the steps I still have left:
1. Go around the perimeter of the dog and stitch the fabric down in a few places where it might easily peel up when a kindergartener starts throwing her bookbag around.
2. Bedazzle! I got some beads at Michael's, and I am going to make the doggie a little beaded necklace and put some jewels on her crown.
3. This is optional: I got some wood blocks to try wood block printing, and I really wanted to stamp some little bones in the section that doesn't have any hearts, but I think it might be overkill, so I'll see how I like it after I get the jewels on.

Update! I finally finished my niece's bookbag! Last night I stitched around the doggie, in the white space I left myself between the artwork and the pink border, and I stitched beads on as a necklace and bejeweled the crown.  I think she looks cute! Then, to keep the threads on the inside from getting caught on pencils and such, I used fabric glue to attach a piece of fabric to the inside of the pocket that covered all the loose threads, and hopefully that will keep the beads from getting loose and falling off also.

Balancing Wooden Wine Holders - Building Process

As I mentioned last week, Saturday I went to help my bride-to-be friend Holly with her DIY bridesmaids’ gifts: balancing wine bottle holders! I got there at 11 and we started setting everything up: putting a new blade on the bandsaw, getting the planer out of the box, deciding on a plan… and the plan was: “oh, we can whip these out in no time!”  Too bad whenever you think a project won’t take long, it always ends up taking 12 times as long as you thought.  So while I don’t have any pictures of the finished product yet, I do have some how-to steps for starting the project.  

Holly got a 3” thick piece of mahogany.  We borrowed our friend Rachel’s “baby bandsaw” and we were pretty worried about having to cut through such a thick piece of wood with the baby bandsaw, and Holly wanted to use the planer she got for Christmas, so we planed the wood down to about 2.5”.  I had never used a planer, and it was really cool.  You slide the wood through and it shaves 1/16 of an inch off the top of the wood every time it goes through, and makes a huge pile of wood shavings (which reminded me of this regretsy post about "sawdust to throw at weddings"; we could have totally made some money, or thrown them on the ground at holly’s wedding this weekend! Haha).

So, then we cut the huge piece of mahogany into smaller sections to make them easier to maneuver, and used Super 77 spray adhesive to attach the printed out pattern to the wood.  You can download the pattern for the balancing wine holders here.  Ned (Holly’s fiancé) used a holesaw drill bit to drill the hole first (so we had a flat surface to drill the hole instead of trying to drill on a rounded surface after cutting the piece out.) 

 

Holly cut out the pieces with the bandsaw, then we started trying to sand them.  By hand.  It. Was. Awful.  And it also made us realize we would never get them done if we didn’t have some power tools.   

So we busted out a hand sander… the kind that vibrates and makes your hand feel like it is going to fall off after you’ve held onto it for 5 minutes… and started using that, and it worked a lot better.  But not good enough.  So that warranted a trip to Home Depot for a belt sander.   If you’ve never used a belt sander, those bad boys are a little scary.  My first experience with a belt sander was when we were making shapes out of foam in college as an intro to model making, and if you weren’t careful, the sander would rip the foam out of your hands and throw it across the room.  The belt sander worked pretty well, and we got about 4 wine holders sanded with the 80 grit sandpaper, and they were looking good! Too bad you then had to sand them with 100 grit, then 150, then 200, and possibly even finer grit than that, before they can be oiled.  When sanding something, you start with a rougher paper to get out the big imperfections, then you have to keep going smoother to get your wood smoother.  It’s a long, drawn out, tedious process, and that’s why projects always take 12 times longer than you think they will!

I left at about 6:30 and that was the status of the project.  The wedding is Sunday and Holly still doesn’t have them finished, so hopefully she’ll be able to find some time to work on them this week and get them done by the wedding! I’ll post finished pics if I can get them!

30 day art challenge: Day 4

update on my 30 day challenge: it's..... going.  that's about all i can say so far.  I did cut out some fabric for some pillows on wednesday, but last night, i just didn't feel like doing anything. the main reason for that is because i started re-reading the last harry potter book on monday in preparation for the movie.  yes, i am a harry potter dork, and a twilight fanatic. don't hate.  i am 608 pages in, which means only 151 pages to go before I go see the movie on sunday.  definitely gonna finish. 
so, i have missed one day of my challenge so far, well i guess technically this will be day 2 out of 4 of failing at my challenge, because i am going bowling tonight and will probably not be doing anything crafty.... BUT! tomorrow will be the craftiest day I have had in a while... like, since college.  my friend holly is making super awesome balancing wine racks for her bridesmaid gifts (her wedding's next weekend, yay!) and i'm helping!  she's got the wood, we borrowed a bandsaw, she's got the pattern printed out, we've pulled together supplies, and we're making these tomorrow!

Picture from etsy seller WondrousWorksinWood .... if we're lucky maybe ours will look as good as this!

So I say making a trip back to my woodworking days of college more than makes up for me being a little harry potter-obsessed this week.  I'll post a how-to and pics next week!  Have a good weekend everyone!

30 Day Art Challenge: Day 1

For the first day of my 30 Day Challenge, I posted a print I had been working on a few weeks ago but hadn't made some different color variations and put it in the shop yet.  What do you guys think?

& they lived happily ever after, 8x10 print with customizable colors and names. Available in the shop.

30 day challenges

I was reading a post by Maggie of Mighty Girl where she spoke of Matt Cutts and 30 Day Challenges. 
I think the only way to really change your life is to do things continually... whether it's taking a class, wearing lipstick or high heels every day, learning to not be so dependent on technology, etc.  When it comes to my artwork, I become complacent for months at a time.  I am lucky in the respect that I have a sustainable field- I make a digital piece and can continue to sell the same print, as opposed to painters who can make one piece and then when they sell it, it's gone.  Which is why they can sell their paintings for high prices.  They are one of a kind.  So when I got to the point where I was making a reasonable amount of sales and had to print things and package them every night, I stopped making new things.  Sure, I make a random new print every once in a while, but for the most part I just renew listings that are already in my shop.  So, for the next month, I am going to create a new piece of art every day! Being realistic, I may not create an entirely new piece every day, but I am going to try to at least work on a new piece everyday.  For a while I had been sketching things everyday, so excited about all the new artwork I could make, and it kind of tapered off (plus I switched to my cute yellow summery Jessica Simpson purse, and my sketchbook kinda crowds it haha.)

 See? So cute, I love everything Jessica Simpson makes, even if I would probably never wear 5 inch heels. They're still cute.
Anyway, back on topic, I ramble I know.   So, my point is I wanna try to work on my art every day for a month, OR at least do something crafty.  I have some IKEA fabric that I've been wanting to make pillows with, I've got some clockparts and basswood slices I've had for probably a year that I have been wanting to paint and make clocks with, and I've been wanting to make a bench with cubbies for the entryway so we can leave our shoes by the door (thus keeping the dirt out so even when I don't sweep/mop our socks won't be all nasty.)
So, I'd love for you to share some things you'd like to start doing, whether or not you plan on doing the 30 day challenge!