Things I Adore Thursdays: Layers

Photo by Wendy Bevan.

Good Thursday morning, friends. I wanted to share some of my latest favorite photos found around the Net last week. Like the one above. Ooh, it's so gritty and grungy looking. Loverly! Check her Photoshop process out on You Tube.

♥ This food photo styling is amazing. Go and drool.


I'm loving these washed out fashion photos, and the layered bracelets on the model are inspiring me for some upcoming styles -- bracelets and necklaces included.

♥ I adore the photo styling here.
♥ A very smart lady sent me this link.

I'm feeling an abundance of creative energy right now. I must go now before the muses retreat.

♥ I want to make these, sans the sharp pointy bits.

Things I Adore Thursday: Eye Candy

Image from SFgirlbybay

{Just a note: Thanks to all of you who checked out my new online shop and commented. Your input is appreciated!}

I'm loving this orderly inspiration wall. There's something about tidiness that makes pretty more palatable. I don't know, maybe that's my upbringing with a super duper perfectionist mom rearing its neat little head.

I am in looooove with this photo, above. I don't know who took it, but I found it on oh, hello friend, a gorgeous blog that I've recently discovered. Do check it out.

And here we've come full circle to a tidy little inspiration wall.

Before I go, I wanted to share some link love.
♥ Check out Urban Weeds: Street Style From Portland. There are beautiful photos, people, and lots of style.
♥ Mironabside's Flickr photostream -- so ethereal
♥ Crochet a "Button Bedecked Headband." I'm in the midst of this project now.

Things I Adore Thursday: Yellow

Image from Easy Living

I love the mix of colors in this photo from Easy Living.

Image from Lillyella.

If you're like me and have a brown thumb, you may have at least once wanted to make billowy paper flowers. Try the tutorial.

Craft Room DIY

Image from Sunset.

Hello friends. Lately I've been an uninspired blogger, hence my brief absence, but I'm back with fresh muses on my shoulder and plenty of fun, helpful links to share.

Image found on Flickr.

As I'm still dreaming up ways to make my studio the creative center of my personal universe, the chevron striped table, above, caught my eye. I'm thinking of giving the DIY project from Sunset a go, though it looks like quite an undertaking.

Images from the Makool Loves You shop. In the words of Rachel Zoe, "I die."

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite links of the moment. Enjoy. xo

♥ Super handy! Make a rolling coat rack.
♥ How to Rock a Craft Fair
♥ Crochet a wire beaded bracelet.
♥ Frayed roses tutorial by Sis Boom
♥ I heart the Makool Loves You blog big time, and their shop makes me weak in the knees.

Things I Adore Thursday: Craft Projects

Learn to make this Paper Parasol Centerpiece from Instructables.

I'll admit it. I'm a dilettante. I adore dabbling in just about every art form out there. Lately I've taken up crochet, sewing, rubber stamp carving and am interested in trying my hand at cross stitching. But I have to draw the line somewhere, right? Perhaps I'll hold off for now.

I scoured Instructables and the Web this morning for some fun and useful craft projects, and this is what I found.
♥ Paperclip jump rings

♥ Betz White's shoe bag tutorial
♥ Teacup Soy Candle
♥ Pam Garrison's coffee filter garland

And since I just took up sewing, I'm loving this Cupcake in a Teacup Pincushion.

How to Make a Stamp

Yesterday, in preparation for the Peach Festival, I spent some time carving a stamp to print onto paper bags. The effect of the image is rather handmade, which is precisely what I wanted.

I bought a rubber stamp making kit at Michael's that included:
(1) one rubber pad
(2) a carving kit that included two blades, shown in the photo.
(3) Separately, I bought a brayer (shown in photo), which is a tool that is used to spread paint evenly onto a surface.

You may also want to purchase:
(4) graphite paper for tracing an image onto the rubber pad
(5) various inks for stamps (useful if you're cutting a smaller stamp)

I started by freehand drawing onto the rubber pad with a color pencil, though a regular pencil will work too. The parts of the rubber pad that are not drawn on (referred to as negative space) should be cut away. What's left will be a relief of your image.

*Note: If you are including wording on your stamp, be sure to draw it backwards. If it reads correctly in the mirror, you've drawn it right.

After I carved away all of the negative space, I used the brayer to spread acrylic paint across newsprint. Then, I rolled the paint evenly onto the stamp and applied it with even pressure to my page.

As you can see in the top print, there were still parts of the stamp that needed to be cut down further. And in the bottom image, I had pressed the stamp onto the inked paper rather than applying the paint with the brayer, resulting in uneven coverage and not enough paint.

This is the result of the finished product. It's a pretty simple process. I suggest, if you have a choice between the white or pink rubber pads, to go for the white. They are more pliable and easier to work with.

Prioritizing: It's on my List

Whoever said that owning a small business requires the wearing of many un-stylish hats (hats for rather menial and unglamorous tasks) was right. I've worn so many today that my hair is embarrassingly flat. It helps that I don't mind doing a little of this and a little of that during the day, but I'll admit that I dropped the proverbial ball more than once today.

As a pro list maker I shouldn't be so darned disorganized, but alas my desk is small. It's covered in beads, chinks of wire and chain, threads, papers, half drunk cups of coffee, pliers, pens and plumes. Feathers, that is.

My head is crammed with the debris from last night's Web crawl -- full of what's hot, what's not and what happened on Americas Next Top Model, thoughts of tomorrow, some of days gone by and much of things left to do. Like, with all this work to do, when am I going to get around to finish the fruitless endeavor of crocheting that winter scarf or playing the new Metallica Guitar Hero? Trey is hammering away on that little plastic guitar at this very moment, fancying himself a rock star I imagine.

But what's that you say? "You're blogging right now, Monica," say you.
Priorities, I know. My priorities are just all askew.

Here are a few fun things I've come by as of late.

* Bokeh photography -- Tutorial on how to bespeckle your photos with hearts a blur.

* Love this dress -- Get the pattern for some pocket change and look like a million.

* Ever wanted to know what's on Trent Reznor's playlist? I have. Check it out.

* Do you have a craft business, too? Awesome. You might like this helpful Web site.

Let's Talk Craft Shows

Check out this curio box tutorial.

After the ups and downs of a roller coaster month I'm finally hitting my stride, making Petite Minx products and posting listings at the shop. With a craft show at the Ruston Farmers Market on May 9 on the horizon and a couple locations asking for displays, I need all the drive I can muster to crank gobs of jewelry out.

You can check out photos of the last showing I did at the market here. Back then I was using my name for my business.

Photo from Country Living.

I've been making jewelry for six hours a day lately -- sometimes more. Each passing day the pile of finished jewelry at my work desk grows and grows. That's my favorite part of doing jewelry full time -- tracking the identifiable progress. That's also probably why though a part of me dreads balancing the books, I enjoy it. The numbers don't lie, people.

CRAFT SHOW DISPLAY IDEAS

* Fabric covered bulletin board for earrings and necklaces with fun push pins.
* Tree branch necklace display. Branches can be sprayed black, white or silver and stuck in terra-cotta pots dressed up with paint, ribbons, buttons, etc.
* Small picture frame earring displays
* Hand painted canvas banner
* Small black and white photo displays for interest

I'll update with photos as these things are checked off my list.