Is it wrong that I'm already designing my valentines cards for my co-workers? I'm thinking a cute simple floral design that I can print, plus a heart sticker in every envelope.

any other ideas?

Part of our studio plan is getting reworked:

- Laid out the plans for re-arranging our entire apartment to turn our master bedroom into a studio and the spare bedroom back into a bedroom

We discovered one small hitch... The exercise equipment we have cannot be moved to the new location we choose in the apartment. The little dining area where we were planning to use has a ceiling fan. Husband and I are a little shy about messing around with electrical sockets so are remapping the apartment because we don't want to take down the fan and replace it with a different light.

ok - I know this will sound weird but in our investigation of embroidery sewing machines, husband and I found that a piece of equipment we have wanted for years came down in price significantly. (do not ask how we got from embroidery machines and digitizing software to vinyl sticker cutter, I have no idea, but we did.)

It's the Roland Stika - home vinyl and decal cutter.

We got the smallest of the 3 available, at much more reasonable, largely discounted price. It was comparable to some of the scrap booking paper cutters I've seen out there.

It comes with a plug in for Illustrator that prints directly to the machine, which acts like a printer or plotter. It's sounds slow in the specs, but we have not had to wait more than a minute or 2 for a large design to finish. We are like little kids, putting stickers on everything we can think of to stick them on.

The machine came in on Friday and husband did a few test cuts to make sure it was working (it came with one scrap sheet of vinyl). Our supplies came in yesterday and we've been cutting away ever since.

First up, the Anssi chair from Ikea. I cut one of my designs out after some fiddling in Illustrator.



These are the stools for the new work room. We went yesterday and picked up two.

Second, my suitcase got a big passion flower on it this morning...

before I removed the transfer tape:


after I removed the transfer tape:


the top picture is truer to the color of the suitcase. the vinyl I used in both cases is a bright bubble gum pink.

Husband has made two cuts of our family crest (see his site, top left), one for his bike rack and one for his suit case. He also cut some logos from his favorite show, Gundam and put them on his bike and G1. My attempt to put the passion flower on my G1 was a no go, but I think it's the soft touch finish of the phone. Husband has made another attempt and we will see what happens when he wakes up.

I learned this the hard way with lots of fussing and studying of the help files, along with help from my hubby. This should help some of you skip those steps....

1. Create your drawing in illustrator with basic shapes and no stroke, but filled with a solid color



2. Chose a stroke color that will work with your drawing for the shadow color
3. Make sure the color you want is in the stroke color selection box and that no fill color is indicated



4. Pick your paint brush from the tools menu



5. Draw a line overlapping your object



6. Select the original object to see how the stroke you painted will look on the object



7. If you like it, copy the main object (ctrl+c) and paste the object in front (ctrl+f)
8. This will not place our object above the stroke, only in front of the original object.
9. Right click and chose arrange -> move to front



10. Your object should still be selected.
11. Hold the shift key and select your stroke (or strokes) - you must select the object first THEN the strokes



12. Right click and select “make clipping mask”



13. You should see your original object with the stroke placed over it, but no stroke overlapping the edge of your object.



14. Repeat for each object in your drawing until items you want shaded are complete.

I have had issues with the stroke being changed to “no stroke” after making the clipping mask. Before you proceed to the next object, make sure your stroke is the correct color and there is no fill.

I would hate to see all my crafty favorites go out of business or have to change their business plans because some disreputable manufacturers screw things up.

I love the hand made toys, accessories, and clothes that are being made now days. They should definitely stay around.

So I was reading TrueUp earlier this week and ran across a term that I didn't know but can guess at the definition.

Color Story

Does any one know the real definition? I haven't' been able to find it any of the online glossaries of textile and fashion terms.

I'm assuming that it's pretty close to the definition of a colorway. But I wasn't sure...

anyway - here are some of the glossaries I was looking at for reference.

The Design Files - Interior Decorating

DesignersNexus - Fashion Design

Artlandia Glossary - textile repeats

Fibre2fashion - textiles

Holy smokes! We have been busy bees this past week at home. Remember my last post when Husband and I decided to become more productive creatively at home? That one decision has caused us much craziness.

Stuff that's been done this week:

- Laid out the plans for re-arranging our entire apartment to turn our master bedroom into a studio and the spare bedroom back into a bedroom
- We bought a vinyl sticker cutter
- Have looked at a bunch of different embroidery machines and investigated software for it.
- Purchased a new airbrush
- Purchased airbrush makeup for one photo shoot the Husband is working on
- Picked out most of the furniture we need for the studio (tables down, chairs to go)
- picked out a new bed & mattress - will be ordering after tax returns show up

Still to do:

- Clean A LOT
- make all needed purchases
- pick out a new monitor
- get rid of the 2 extra TV's and entertainment center (anyone in LA need a TV?)
- sell the big air compressor (anyone in LA need an air compressor?)
- make curtains for small window in the spare room we're turning into our bedroom.
- decide what to buy software wise and schedule in the budget
- oh yeah - figure out when the budget can handle all this stuff LOL!!


looking forward to much creativity this year!

Have fun ya'll!!

Another year down!!

This time last year, I was struggling with what to do with my career. I switched teams in Jan 08 and I think I made a good decision staying at the company, but working for someone else. The last year has been great working with all the folks around the world that keep the local websites up and running.

Next year will be much more creative. Husband and I have had much fun this last year just playing with the money we have instead of being responsible.

09 will see a switch - while we will still not be saving much, we will be improving our personal portfolios and creating more art. We have resolved to collaborate on a few projects and improve the state of our personal studio production capability. That means, buying a vacuum chamber, pre-production and production of several photo shoots, me learning how to use the CNC machine in engraving mode, taking classes and generally being much more serious about our art.

On another side note - I'm working on another pattern that should be done soon. It's one of the most complex pieces I've worked on so far, requiring more shading than I usually do and significantly more components. It is making me want to pull my hair out in bunches (see my "I HATE ADOBE" post below).

Last night I sat down to work on the new design again and decided I really just needed a short break before working on it so, I made the simple pattern below. I present dots and stripes:




Have a good new year!!

I have always liked Talking Heads - I listened to all the songs on the radio growing up. I thought many of David Byrne's lyrics were just weird and indecipherable - meant to be nonsense or for people who were in the "know" though. But in the last 15 years or so, since Mr. Byrne has gone solo I have come to have a deep love of a much larger group of his music. I have a few songs that I can listen to over and over and over again.

My husband is a much bigger fan that I and has just about every David Byrne album and some of the Talking Heads albums. He seriously GETS David Byrne. I swear if they ever met - they would be best friends. Husband has missed meeting him 3 times for various reasons. Our friend who is a sound engineer had a recording session with Mr. Byrne and forgot that my husband LOVES his music. And that's just one of the 3 examples.

The latest album he did with Brian Eno, "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today," is fantastic.

I am seriously in love with his music now - especially the new album.

Please, please, please, go listen. AND listen to it more than once even if you aren't 100% into it. It took 3 listens for the lyrics to really sink into my head and now I love it.

My personal favorites:

- Home
- Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
- Life is Long
- Strange Overtones

Husband and I cooked and cleaned yesterday, all the while listening to this album and They Might Be Giants.

I got frustrated in Illustrator again - just because it takes me sooooo much more time than Flash.

That is until today!

I opened Flash CS3 just to sketch something out real quick AND it doesn't work like it used to!! The point selector (white arrow) now uses handles!!

At least the line selector (black arrow) lets you bend the curves as always or I think I would have cried.

ARGH!

GIMME MY MACROMEDIA BACK!!!!

end temper tantrum...

back to your regular blog....