Sources

Mmmm, so I just shelled out another $75 US on stuff for the craft fair. I'm confident I'll make it all back but these little things are adding up. However I think that things like professional printing and packaging increase sales and just general respect for the product. In case some of you are curious (and for future reference for myself) here's where I've been getting things:



Spoonflower - My fabric should be arriving any day now. Spoonflower is a print on demand custom fabric company. They are afforable and the product quality is pretty decent. Aaaand they just opened their virtual doors to the public this week, so anyone can upload designs (or photos!) and get some custom fabric.



Moo - Moo is where I having been getting most of my printing done for a couple years now. I love their mini business cards and always have a pack in my purse. I also have gotten greeting cards and stickers by them and the quality is excellent. The really exciting thing is that they do small orders and you can use multiple designs in one order. No where else can you order 100 business cards with 100 different fronts for $19.99. I just ordered a set to use as tags for my toys with safety information on the back.


Unique Packaging - Now I haven't gotten my package yet, I'll update when I do but this E-bay store comes highly recommended and the prices are very good. This is where I ordered the cello-sleeves for my prints.

I'm all for shopping locally, but when it's impossible, the internet is a crafty girls best friend.

contentment

Today is a good day. I had the house to myself all day which means it is rapidly approaching a level of clean that it hasn't seen in weeks. I've done some art while catching up on Pushing Daisies. I can smell applesauce simmering on the stove and I've got a new book to read by one of my favourite authors. Later I'll go teach aquafit, and then have a yummy pasta supper.

How is your day?

Bye Bye to Erik and Wristlet 2.0

So this is my second wristlet. I fixed all the major problems with the first one. I'd like to make the top a bit more square, so I'll work on that for #3. This one features my Koi print and some happy green fabric and pink ribbon. I used this tutorial and it worked quite well, but I did some hand sewing on the lining to make it a bit neater.




And tragically Erik is leaving us, it was a good two weeks but he's got places to go and birds to see. We went out for Indian food last night which was excellent.


Alrighty, gotta go bake cookies!

Sew Sew

So it's that time of year again. The season in which I make all sorts of pretty things and don't share them. It kills me. But too many of the recipients read my blog :P I'll try to share later...

However, here's what I can share:

One prototyped wristlet. I'm making another tomorrow with many improvements.



Four half finished softie blocks and the pieces for more.


And from some exchanges:

A gorgeous reversible Emmeline apron from Amethyst. I'm scared to use it and get it dirty!



And a print from Hidden Eloise. Patiently awaiting a frame. Maybe in the new house. It makes me smile while I work.

Survival

Well, I survived my four weeks of 6 days of work a week. Well, after today, but today is a short day. I actually have 3 days off next week! Well, I teach aquafit one of those days...and have been force volunteered into helping with the rec centre's open house another day. But it's almost like days off. Maybe I will get some sewing done! Or wonder of wonders, clean my house.

Last night was the Halloween Howl at the pool. I'm not a big fan of Halloween but whatever. I decided to go as a tattoo artist, so I got those full sleeve tattoo nylon things and wore a lot of black. Then I set up a table and drew tattoos on children's arms with face paint. Now you (as all the children were) are thinking "Won't that just wash off in the pool?" And the answer is yes. But it's still fun, they just keep coming back.

Of course it's not easy to draw with a face paint crayon on a wet shoulder, so this wasn't any great showing of my skills. Some of the kids looked at the drawing as if they thought they would get something better. I did a semi-truck on one kids arm (and trust me, it wasn't that great) and he was sooo excited "it looks so realistic! It looks like it can really drive!" Too funny. Here's what else I drew:
- Many butterflies
- Some pumpkins
- A vampire (what? a stick man with a red mouth?)
- 2 mummies (what? a white stick man with no mouth?)
- A witch (oh, you mean a stick man on a stick)
- Bats (I love bats, you can actually draw those on arms)
- Spiders (ditto)
- The word SPY (that was my friends kid...not sure why)
- But mostly sculls...mostly sculls with snakes coming out of them. I probably drew twenty sculls with snakes. I don't really get it. Oh and that would be a white blog with black dots and a green wavy line. Real quality stuff.

Also, I have to add, chocolate eyeballs filled with peanut butter are far better than those filled with fudge or caramel.

Printing on Fabric with your Computer - Part 2

You can view Part One HERE

9) Get the washing machine ready to go. Use a mild detergent or Bubble Jet Set Rinse. Use cold water and a lot of it. I haven't had the guts to try this in a front load.


10) Rinse the fabric quickly in a bowl of cold water with a little detergent to get the worst of the excess ink off. Hold the top corners and pull through the water towards you. You don't want the fabric to fold over on itself, this can lead to colour leaking onto a different part of the image.



11) Put the fabric face down in the washer. Try not to let them lay on top of each other. Wash (short delicate cycle).



12) Run them through the dryer. You don't have to be paranoid about leaking dye anymore, the colour should have set. Tadah! Custom printed machine washable fabric! Now go sew something with it!

Printing on Fabric with your Computer - Part 1

So I'm doing some printing this week as Craft Fair prep. A lot of people have asked me about the fabric printing so here's a step by step as to how I do it. There are directions on the bottle, but I didn't find them to be specific enough and did some research after my first failed project.

Here's what you need:
Fabric - %100 Cotton
Bubble Jet Set
Mild Detergent
A clean cake pan
Full sheet labels
Iron
Scissors
Ink jet printer
Large bowl
Washing machine


1) Cut your fabric to a bit bigger than what you want (in my case bigger than 8.5x11). It will shrink some (you don't need to pre-wash) and you need trimming room. Use 100% cotton. I've also heard that you can use silk, but I haven't tried.



2) I pre-treat with Bubble Jet Set 2000. You can order it online. This makes the print washable.



3) Get a clean dish or tub and pour a little BJS in. Then lay a piece of fabric in, add just enough more BJS to saturate it. Lay the next piece of fabric in a press it down (wearing gloves) to soak up as much liquid as you can, then add more to saturate. This method is less wasteful and less clean up then what the bottle says (which is to pour the whole bottle out and soak the fabric, then pour it back in the bottle).



4) Let it sit for 5 minutes, then hang to dry.


5) Iron the treated fabric onto a full page label. I've tried freezer paper and found that it doesn't work nearly as well, not heavy enough for the printer. It could just be cheap freezer paper though. Make sure that the label is fully adhered with no bubbles. Bubbles will snag in the printer leaving you with a white streak.




6) Trim the excess fabric. Be neat about it so that the printer will be happy.


7) Print your image, hand feeding the paper backed fabric to make sure it doesn't jam. Mine likes to jam, kind of guide it in so that it doesn't curl funny. If you want the colours to be vibrant you will need to start with an overly bright image, as it doesn't show up as bright on the fabric.


8) Wait ten minutes (I don't, but you should) then peel the backing off. Put the fabric somewhere safe to set for 24 hours.


Go to Part Two!

Little Red

Will try and finish while it's still fall...

Syringa

Sorry for the scant posting these days. If you've been following me for any length of time you know that it's not for lack of love for you guys, just that my life is once again too busy for my brain to handle. Between working 6 days a week, getting ready for the craft fair and moving...well really I've just had my brain shut off, I just read blogs and girly books. I still cook. I clean sometimes. And on Sundays I get some fresh air. Craig's brother Erik is visiting us for a couple weeks so we went out to Syringa for a hike. By which I mean birding expedition. Or in my case photography. It was beautiful, sunny, crisp and everything October should be.

Thanksgiving

I was going to post to wish all the Canadians a Happy Thanksgiving...and I was going to post to remind you all to vote. But I've just been too busy/tired. So I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was fun, and the election is over with no change...

Anyway, I worked Saturday and Monday but on Sunday we went to my parents and had some yuuuummy food.

Also we went for two walks, to the Wildlife Centre:








And along the river near my parents:






Anyway, Erik (Craig's brother) is visiting so that will be good times. And I am sleepy, nap time!

Spoonflower

So I'm in the process of ordering my doll and bird fabric from
Spoonflower and I realized I hadn't shown you my sample swatches yet.

Spoonflower is a fabric printing on demand service. You send then a file, and they print you custom fabric with your print and mail it to you. I decided that this would be a big time saver for my toys, and really the price difference isn't that bad when you consider than I'm currently paying for fabric + bubble jet set + printer ink.

Anyway, I ordered two 8x8 swatches with parts of my toys on them to see how the colours would print.



All in all I'm pretty happy. The colours are brighter and crisper than I can manage. The reds pulled towards orange, so I adjusted that. 10 yards of fabric are coming my way soon! (I'm paying $192 total. So that's 19.20 a yard including the shipping)

Little Worlds

Check out these fun photos by Magdalena Bors (via Drawn)

Belated Birthdays

Well I've been too busy to post. Busy moving into my new computer! If you're nerdy and want the specs I have them posted HERE. Otherwise I'll just tell you that it is a million times faster and bigger. And prettier, check it out:



After much angst it finally came on Monday while I was at work. Craig only beat the delivery guy to the house by 5 minutes. I've been spending all my spare hours installing and formatting and all that fun stuff. And I guess Monday was my birthday in disguise because I got another present too. Two of my friends from work got me a Magic Bullet. We spend a lot of time talking about food at work and they couldn't believe that I didn't have one. It's pretty cool, I've been enjoying my Magic Bullet smoothies :P.



So now that I can draw in high speed, you should see some art from me soon!