If you tried to register for Alt Summit NYC, then you know the agony that I went through on Friday at 12pm EST. Servers crashing...error messages...it was nasty. And sadly, I didn't get a spot.
But, by the grace of the design-blogger gods, I got an email yesterday that, in fact, I'm in! I just had to finish my registration and click submit. Best submit button ever.
This photo illustrates my extreme elation that I get to rub elbows with the craftiest ladies of the interweb!
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{image via pinterest}
I'm not sure that there has been an invention of a craft material in my lifetime as monumental as washi tape. I can't get enough of the stuff. I'm hard-pressed to find a tacky washi-tape project. If I see it in a store, I can't not touch it. Should I see a doctor? Maybe. There are a gazillion awesome uses for the stuff; here are totally clever (and simple) ways to use washi tape on your walls.
Image via.
Image via Plenty of Colour.
Image via Objects & Use.
Image via Design*Sponge.
Image via.
Image via At Home In Love.
Image via Stylizimo.
Image via Studio Tout Petit.
Buy washi tape to your heart's content here at happytape.com. And find the new giant washi tape here! I need some!
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I thought I'd just finish out this week of family/photo love with a little post about creative ways to preserve keepsakes. Right now, I have 2 boxes, one for each kid, where I toss all of the little meaningful objects from their short lives...their hospital bracelets, their Welcome to the World cards, their sonogram photos. At some point I'm going to need a new solution. Here are a few thoughts...
I'm so crazy about these lovely shadow boxes. They are just the right amount of delicate, with their soft colors and simple white edging. For the life of me, I can't figure out where they are from (if you know, leave a comment!), but I think they are pretty DIYable. Image via Pinterest.
Have you ever seen Darcy Miller's (from Martha Stewart Weddings) scrapbook shadow boxes? They're amazing.
I love the idea of this sweet book keepsake box for love letters, gift tags, or photographs. Image via One Sunny Afternoon.
And for the most nostalgic (read: sappy), I can't get enough of these clean and modern, enamel lockets. I'd love to wear a few together. (Husband, if you're reading, bookmark this.)
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I can't even describe the visceral feeling that I get when I see these amazing aerial photographs by Normann Szkop of tulip fields in Holland. Those colors! I'm obviously not the first nor the last to think of gorgeous patchwork quilts when looking at these squares of bright hues. But then it made me wonder if patchwork has a place off the bed and into other design-y places in the home. I think I've discovered the answer to be yes. {Photo via This is Colossal.}
Patchwork walls are a dime-a-dozen, but this one from Decor8 grabbed me because of the mix of paper genres, so to speak—scrapbook paper, posters, book pages. I think if you try to control it too much you get trapped into a corner of color, style, or shape. But when you fully let go and let it be as random as possible, you can't mess it up.
I'm crazy about this patchwork tiled floor from an old issue of Budget Living that I found on Pinterest. Individually, I would never pick most of those tile patterns, but once they are all put together, they form such a soft, cool patchwork effect.
Fabric is obviously the logical material to use for patchwork. These lovely cushions spotted on Chic & Posh are a great surprise when you pull the red chair out from the table.
I'm feeling the patchwork itch. It's a perfect motif for kids since it's so free form. Where will it end up in my book?
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{Ed Ruscha business card featured on Flavor Wire.}
The topic of business cards keeps coming up in my life these these days, and yet practically, they seem so antiquated. I mean, I can bump my phone to another and exchange contact info, so why spend the time and money to craft or print a little card that possibly ends up creased at the bottom of your purse?
Well, when you see a good business card, it makes a lasting impression, and it can really identify your brand in a big, creative way. Plus, no one would dare throw it away. If you dismiss business cards as an analog, dated form of social networking, think again.
If you're of the crafty sort, study this photo within an inch of your life. These are business cards that The Proper Pinwheel collected at Alt Summit. I'll need to start planning mine now for the summer event in NYC.
Peal back the painters tape to reveal the contact info for a stand-out paint service company.
An interior designer should only have fabric business cards like Francesca Pasini's.
Dilly Dally is a toy store. 'Nuff said.
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This post makes me want to write a whole book on crafts to do with paper cups. As I was stumbling upon these, I started searching for crafts that I swore had to exist and they didn't! But the overwhelming amount of genius paper-cup animal crafts was staggering. Who knew?
I can't even contain my dropped-jaw expression for these artful paper cup animals by Gautam Datta. You also have to see how he crafted Hindu divinities from paper and cups. Amazing.
I found these on Pinterest, but there's no source from where they came. Sad. Because they are beyond the beyond. The winking bunny sends me.
Yes, this last one from Handmade Charlotte has a Christmas slant, but how smart is it to cut up straws to make antlers on a reindeer cup? Love. Love. Love.
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Every year, I hear that I'm hard to buy for. Birthday, Hanukkah, Mother's Day...I'm a challenge. You know what it's like; we creative types that read a gazillion blogs, we have high standards. We know what's out there, and if there's nothing good, we just make it.
I'm pleased to say that I found me a husband that rises to the occasion. No matter how much I say "this year, I don't want anything," he knows that I do want a little attention. And for me, there is nothing better than the gift of creative thought.
This year, I'm all wrapped up in my craft book project and like most people, Pinterest is my best friend. So he created a private (uh-hem, how racey!) board called The Amanda Book Project, where he took vintage book covers and doctored the words or images to make them about me. I am sharing a few with you, the few that I can share (wink, wink).
Not only do I have a funny, creative, and expressive husband, but he's damn good at photoshop.
(PS...Oliver is our 2 and a half year old son. Anyone with a toddler knows that you are just their pawns in the game of life.)
(PPS...For my newer readers, check out what the husband did a few years ago. It got linked to the Brooklyn Flea's blog!)
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This photograph makes me happy and sad at the same time. Happy because those first few moments after the turn of the machine's nickel crank (am I aging myself?) are the most exciting, anticipatory seconds. Is red going to be cherry or strawberry? Will the blue turn my mouth blue? And sad, well, because they are scattered on the sidewalk, just waiting to be swept up and tossed in the trash. So today, I felt the need to honor the shiney, sugary everlasting gobstopper of my youth: the gumball. (Photo found via pinterest)
I totally get the urge to wear gumballs around my neck. Doesn't everyone? Via Formal Fringe.
Why aren't there more gumball machine toys? I love love love this wooden one that I found at A+R.
Gumballs have the potential to be turned into many things. Least of which—apples. By The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle.
...or chicks. Also by The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle.
And lastly, I found the artist Stefan Sagmeister on The Jealous Curator and was fascinated by this exhibition that he erected called The Happy Show. In this installation, he asks the viewer to rate her/his happiness on a scale of 1 to 10 by taking a gumball from the corresponding cylinder. It looks like 7 was winning that day which makes me feel pretty hopeful. What number would you be? Today I'd say I'm a solid 9. Pretty good for girl woman who's turning 38 tomorrow.
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{Image via Love Your Chaos}
I am no sports fan (shocker, I know), but my husband and I got invited to see the Brooklyn Nets play at the Barclay Center last night and we were curious (plus it was our friend's birthday—yay Alex!). The place is amazing and I love how they really Brookl-afied a sports team...everything was very hip from the music to the mascot to the colors—black and white. As we were leaving, I joked that I'd parlay the experience into blog post with a "how to knit a basketball net", but my brilliant husband suggested that I go with a black and white theme. Brilliant, I tell you.
I am so in love with these plates by Lisa Grue, I don't even know what to do with myself. The black ink on white ceramic or porcelain is one thing, and then there's the addition of the pom pom. Stop it.
I swear I've seen every chalkboard paint idea known to man, but I've never seen a chalkboard helmet. Oliver would pee his pants if he could color on his bike/scooter helmet with chalk. By Tom Derracott.
How perfect is this minimal snowman craft? Just gorgeous. Via Pinterest.
Mer Mag posts some of the best kids crafts, and this feather headband is no exception.
I'm always looking for craft storage solutions, and I love how people apply their craft to everything...even their organization systems. Found via The Daily Telecraft (cute blog name).
Ok, these are not DIY, but I love them so much! I found the bunny on Ebay and the dog on Art Fire. $55 each. Sold.
Give me some flat, black, oval rocks and I'll make this homemade domino set too. By Repeat Crafter Me (again, another cute name).
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If you challenged yourself to document everything that you bought, do you think you'd spend less money? And by document, it could be any format...a typed list, a phone snapshot, a voice memo. What if you told yourself you were going to draw everything you buy on a daily basis? Enter Kate Bingaman-Burt, a dedicated (gross understatement) illustrator who has been drawing every last purchase, from baggage check fees to a new hair brush, since Februay 2006. Here are some of her drawings from December 2012. Crazy or cool? You decide.
Spotted on Flavorwire.
If you had the brilliant idea that she should make a book, well, she already has, and a new one is due out in the Spring. You can buy it here.
PS...Check out this post from 2 years ago about a guy who photographed all of his possessions!
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