Colour paper typography photography music cats. I like to share things that I’m working on. I like to share things that I think are pretty swell. I like to share.
Unless otherwise specified, all content is produced by me - so I say go ahead and take what I post and share!!!
It was slim pickins’ at the flower shop the day before our wedding, so my floral crown idea was scrapped. How could it be you ask… well I went on Mother’s Day - so of course it was a bust!
Anyways, before we left home to go on our wedding holiday, I hung my practise floral crown to dry. The photograph above was taken at a drying time of 3.5 weeks. I’m a fan of dried flowers, so I was happy with the end result. The flowers are pretty delicate, but I attached the crown onto a headband before drying - so it should hold up. Just don’t expect it to last during a reenactment of Bo Derek running across a beach towards Dudley Moore.
Instead of wearing a veil for my wedding, I wanted to make a floral crown since my hair is quite short, and I thought it would deter attention away from my unintentional mullet (circa Jane Fonda mug shot). In preparation for this, I decided that it would be fun to make “practise” crowns with my friends. We totally winged it – and they turned out great! My pals look great! I will be making my weddin’ floral crown next week, so hopefully I will be able to take some photographs of the process. In the mean time, I hope this write up will be helpful, and the photos of my girls and their crowns will inspire! Happy DIY-ing.
Supplies:
Floral wire
Flowers
Scissors
Spray bottle w/ water
1 – Trim all of your flowers, leaving approx. 5 cm of the stem.
2 - Cut two arm-lengths worth of floral wire (you’ll need more, but this is a good start!), making sure to twist and bend both ends inwards so you don’t stab yourself!
3 – Place a flower along one end of the wire, and then wrap the wire around the stem 3-4 times.
4 – Place another flower flush to the first flower’s stem just below the bloom, and repeat step 3.
5 - Continue until you have a line of flowers long enough to wrap around your head. Don’t forget to play with your flower arrangements! If you run out of wire, cut more and wrap one end around the end of the last wire 5 times to secure it.
6 – Once you have the proper length of flowers to fit around your noggin, twist the ends together and secure it with additional wire for good measure!
7 – With your spray bottle, lightly mist the flowers with some water. Do this a few times during the day to make it last longer!
8 - WEAR!
Tips
– Dry your floral crown in the sun to get a different effect and get more wear out of it.
- If your crown is flimsy, add some discarded stems from step 1 and wrap more wire in and between the flowers to make it sturdy.
Audrey Hepburn Letterpress Print
I am a huge Audrey Hepburn fan. With that, the idea of creating a print inspired by her was an obvious one. The photograph I based my illustration is of a publicity still for the 1957 Paramount Pictures musical - Funny Face (a personal favourite of mine). I chose two shades of pink because AH “…believe[s] in pink”, and she has also famously been quoted as saying - “Paris is always a good idea”- which I mingled into her hat.
Although the print is part of a personal collection not available for sale, I hope this print will inspire others to create letterpress products, and to use paperless products like cotton ‘paper’ when creating prints such as this one.
The print also serves as an introduction for the ongoing collaboration between Zebra Army and Mihaela Hinayon of the letterpress printing company Paper & Spice. We call this #PaperLove people!
Beach House has posted a YouTube release of their new single ‘Lazuli’, which is to be featured on their new album ‘Bloom’ (available May 15, 2012). You can listen to the new single on their website http://beachhousebaltimore.com/
1 x Paper lantern (make sure it fits your fixture)
Packaging tissue paper* (pick your colours!)
Glue gun + additional glue sticks
Pencil / chalk
Measuring tape
Stencil (Mug)**
Spray bottle / Steamer
Scissors
* Number of sheets dependent on the diameter of your stencil, circumference of your lantern … blah blah blah - For me, I eye-balled it and bought two packages of tissue paper (1 x peach , 1 x off-white) to create two (peach with off-white accents).
** I used the base of a mug as a stencil, but you can use whatever shape you would like. A diamond shape would be fun! To make it, just cut it out of cardboard to work as your stencil! Easy peasy!
1 - Prep your paper lantern (if not already fully decompressed): Using a spray bottle, lightly spray your lantern with a bit of water and hang to dry completely. If you have a steamer - great - use that instead! These methods will allow for the lantern to unfold into its full shape. Don’t be generous with the water - too much watch will compromise the strength of the paper lantern!
2 - Measure the diameter (“d”) of your mug, then fold your tissue paper to fit that shape {square that is (d + 1cm) x (d + 1cm) should do} & trace your shape: Fold your sheets of paper several times, keeping in mind you will need to be able to still cut through it… so don’t make it too thick! With a pencil / chalk, trace the base of your mug on the top of your paper pile, and cut out your shape! Repeat to get a good amount of circles.
3 -Start from the bottom! Glue first layer onto the bottom of the lantern: Place & glue one circle near the base of the lantern. Slightly overlap (~1.5 cm) a second circle onto of the first circle, and glue into place once you find an overlap you like. Continue with rest of the first layer
4 - Glue second layer of circles, overlapping approx. 1/2 of the top of first layer: Place & glue one circle of your second layer by overlapping 1/2 (top) of 2 circles from the first layer, making sure it sits in between the 2 circles from the first layer. Continue with the rest of the second layer, remembering to overlap like in step 3.
5 - Repeat step 3 for all remaining layers: Once you get to the top you may need to adjust the overlap in order to properly cover the last layer.
6 - Add additional layers if there are spaces: If your lamp hasn’t completely unfolded, you may notice that the circles have caused your lamp to unfold even more, resulting in space between layers. No worries… create extra layers using the same colour, or use an accent colour - which is what I did with the off white. Instead of overlapping the circles in these new layers, I staggered the circles, with about a circle-width gap between each piece.
DONE! HANG, and revel in your sweet new lampshade.
**DIY is meant to encourage personal creation, so modify my tutorial as much as you like, and share! We’re all just trying to learn new things!**
doubleExposure
money tree + @ davekrstin = its a good thing (martha stewart style)
This is Lewis. Lewis loves to sit in the sun, overeat, and sleep. Lewis doesn’t like the harmonica, plastic bags, and eating alone. We adopted Lewis from Toronto Animal Services late last year, and the impact he’s had on us is incredible. I mean… we’re building a Windows Phone game called The Legend of Lewis!
With the risk of sounding like I’m preaching, I can’t help but hope that more people will consider adopting animals, as opposed to simply deciding to purchase from mills / breeders. Bringing an animal into your family is a huge commitment, so this post isn’t meant to chastise those that do purchase from breeders, but to encourage people to research before buying, and include adoption as a viable option (good slogan).
Before Lewis came into our lives, we considered purchasing a kitten from a breeder. We researched for weeks, and upon discovering that the breed we wanted was affected by a painful degenerative joint disease as a result of breeding for a particular characteristic, we decided against purchasing from a breeder. When we started researching about adopting a cat, we learned that all cats were spade/ neutered, given all necessary shots (including rabies), and even chipped! Bonus!
When we decided to check out a shelter, we went intending on getting a young female kitten. Instead, we ended up leaving with an older male kitten, who had been at the shelter a bit longer than the rest of them. It wasn’t that there was a shortage of cute young kittens, it was because when we met Lewis - there was something real special about him. It makes me sad to think he was there for so long, but on the other hand, I can’t help but be happy that we were the ones that got to bring him home. He is such a huge part of our lives (and wow - my parents who were anti-cat go nuts over him, and even gladly catsit for us) that we really can’t imagine life without him.
While working on the new website, I had a hankering for ice cream and apparently triangles as well. I don’t know if this will end up making its way onto the website, but it was fun to make, and a strangely satisfying way to nip my craving in the ice cream bucket. When I was a kid, I always picked the most colourful flavour, like rainbow & bubblegum, and without fail, I always wished I picked chocolate like my sister. I guess I was hopeful that one of these days it would be a real good choice… perhaps the best out of everyone else. Still hoping I guess.
High Highs - Horses (live acoustic - Big Ugly Yellow Couch)
![Audrey Hepburn Letterpress Print
I am a huge Audrey Hepburn fan. With that, the idea of creating a print inspired by her was an obvious one. The photograph I based my illustration is of a publicity still for the 1957 Paramount Pictures musical - Funny Face (a personal favourite of mine). I chose two shades of pink because AH “…believe[s] in pink”, and she has also famously been quoted as saying - “Paris is always a good idea”- which I mingled into her hat.
Although the print is part of a personal collection not available for sale, I hope this print will inspire others to create letterpress products, and to use paperless products like cotton ‘paper’ when creating prints such as this one.
The print also serves as an introduction for the ongoing collaboration between Zebra Army and Mihaela Hinayon of the letterpress printing company Paper & Spice. We call this #PaperLove people!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3drghO0bW1qhp4ufo1_1280.jpg)
