After my hiccups yesterday, I decided to try my hand at something other than printing. This first project has been in my head every since we moved in almost a month ago. All of our packages had these red stickers on them, and I thought … THESE ARE PERFECT FOR A PROJECT! So, the poor movers, had to work around me ripping them off all the boxes as they were coming in our place. 

For a while they were stuck to walls, fans, mirrors, furniture… all over the place! As you can see above. I think the only thing I will change with this project is to paint the frame black. I think it will look nicer and work well to pick up the black in the image. I am going to make one more that has an orange sticker in place of the yellow. (Only had one yellow sticker.) I’d like to have a pair, or three if I have enough stickers. We will see. 

Next a project from the Big Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano. I am participating in Crafty Daisies Book Club, we are currently on this book. I plan to do more projects before the deadline, but this is my first! It can be found on page 6, Drag Art. There are SO many projects in the book I want to try. Check out the Crafty Daisies Book Club Flickr Group. And to end the post, here is a pretty picture of my paint blobs today. I think I’m going to have to print this one and frame it. I love the way the light catches the colors. Makes me want to create! 

Back in June my husband bought me Lotta Prints as an early birthday present. I was so excited to try making my own stamps. I had already tried my hand at potato stamping an old skirt several months earlier. (I must have remembered the idea subconsciously somehow… from somewhere, who knows?!) Anyway… I was having a lot of fun making my own stamps, but yesterday I finally got around to trying some prints and they just were horrid. Maybe the fabric paint I used combined with the old pillowcase I tried to print on. I don’t know. It was a sad day overall. However, I did manage to make a dress! I will share that soon. 

I’m bummed. I’ve had really great results with my Gocco until today. (Not the Gocco’s fault, mind you.) It’s frustrating that changing factors disrupt your results. However, I get it. I know when you change something you are almost guaranteed to run into a snag, especially with printing.

This first card was supposed to be something to make my husband happy. Instead, he’s lost all hope for his design to EVER be brought to reality. You see, we attempted screen printing this for T-shirts one afternoon with total and utter failure So, trying to be an encouraging wife I suggested we print the design onto some cards since I have had such great success. (He wants to send people encouraging notes.) Hmm, hopelessness soon set in once he saw the design was stuck (more than usual) to the screen. I always get a little stick-age between my design and the screen after it is exposed, but this was crazy… parts of the paper were fused to the screen. So sad. I will try again in hopes of boosting Dustin’s ego. 

Since, I had bad luck with the first print, I decided to draw something with my RISO pen. Some Horse chestnut leaves actually. I thought cropped the right way might look really pretty on a crisp white card. I traced over a drawing I had done this weekend and filled in the leaves with my pen. I, then, laid white paper under the trace to make sure the print would come out well. Hmm, disappointment … again. I’m not sure if the heat from the bulbs reacted with the tracing paper, or if the paper didn’t give me good coverage with the pen. Either way, it did not come out the way I had hoped. And, I definitely inked the screen VERY well. Gr! Do I give up or try again? 

One last shot with the Gocco. Thankfully, I had written out a little something to go on the backs of my cards and burned it into the same screen with the leaves. Hallelujah! It worked. It’s little bit less than crisp (which I have a hard time accepting with my anal-retentive nature when it comes to my designs), BUT I actually am quite happy with it. Maybe it makes it a little more “real”, reinforcing that “handmade quality” that I love. I’m happy to have something to finish off the cards by adding this information and my mark. 

Although I wouldn’t call this a successful day of printing, I’m happy it wasn’t a total bust. Did I mention Gocco printing on your couch results in…. green ink on your couch? 

Two new card designs now for sale in my shop.  

Enjoy!! And, thanks for looking! 

Check out The Vintage Pearl for contest details. 
Shealynn is giving away one of her beautiful camera straps.
You get to choose which one you’d like! I just love these. 

Just wanted to share 2 new Gocco cards with you. Printed these Friday of last week. I’m really happy with how these turned out. They should be up for sale in the shop by the end of the week! (Please excuse the photos, they are not the best)

Here they are, drying on my patio table that is currently in the kitchen… hm, long story… moving into a much smaller place. You know how that goes.
 

“Hello Love” is pretty straightforward. I made this design while flying home from San Francisco.
 

“Tank You” was inspired by my little sister, Amaris. She wanted to draw something that I could use on the Gocco (she thought it was so cool) So, I asked her to make something for a thank you card. She accidentally wrote “Tank You” so I had her draw a tank that I ended up modifying and simplifying to use for this card! I love how it turned out. 

The only thing I want to change is to modify the cards to have rounded corners. I bought a corner punch that I thought would work, but it ended up being more ornate than I realized. I thought it was just a rounded corner… not so! Ah, well, I’ll keep searching. Until then, you’ll have pokey corners! :) 

Today I received my very first blog award/meme! How sweet is that! Thanks Tina! Check out her blog. I just love watching the journey she is on learning how to screen print. She makes some wonderful designs!

Six things I am happy about: 

1. I’m am really more than excited that I’ve finally managed to get my Etsy shop up, and have had my first customer! (Now it’s time to update the shop with more Sew Trashy goodies!)

2. I’m absolutely THRILLED to be an Aunt! My nephew Max was born in February and he is just such a little bundle of joy! I am thankful to be back close to home so I can squeeze his little cheeks! 

3. I am happy all the cardboard boxes and packing paper are no longer in our new place! Now it’s time to set up house. 

4. I am happy to have my little buddy, Bonsai. He is my short leg Jack Russell who keeps me company during the day. He’s a spunky little guy, but he always makes me laugh. He also listens pretty well. 

5. Dustin, my husband. I’m so incredibly happy to be married to him. He is an AMAZING husband, more than I could ever have imagined. Such a loving, Godly man. I love him.  

6. Above all, I am beyond happy that I have the ability to choose to love my God. It’s a gift, and I am so thankful to cherish every moment. 

** What are you happy about? **

I am very proud to sale that yesterday I set up my Etsy shop and made my VERY FIRST SALE!!! HUGE, ENORMOUS THANKS goes out to Jessie for being my very first customer!! She is now the proud owner of my first set of Gocco printed notecards! I just stocked up on more supplies so there will be many more Gocco cards up for sale soon as well as some other handmade goods! Check back for my shop updates.

AHH!! I’m so excited! Now off to make a little something extra to send out with Jessie’s cards!  

Hm. I feel some “spring cleaning” coming on… although, isn’t it still summer? Oh, well. It’s a beautiful day. Hug someone. :) 

Please forgive my absence lately. We have relocated from Hawaii to the Washington, D.C. area, and are in the process of settling in. I am so over cardboard boxes!! ha! My studio space is the next room to tackle so hopefully I’ll be making more Gocco prints soon!!! Stay tuned…

Here’s some eye candy from a recent trip to San Francisco. Enjoy!