Look What Showed Up in the Mail!

Candy Fabric

All I can think is, “Ididit!Ididit!Ididit!Ididit!” to myself over and over.  In case you can’t tell from the photo…that’s fabric.  I designed it…and I’m feeling rather pleased with myself about it.

I took the design from the candy bookmark (here!), made it a million times more complicated (it took about 2 weeks of grumbling to finish–I’m very sorry about that to anyone who had to listen to the grumbling), and used Photoshop to create a repeat pattern (which is, in all honesty, pretty much the only thing I currently know how to do in Photoshop).  And it worked!  On the first try!

I’ve stared at it long enough at this point to feel comfortable saying that everything lined up just as it should.  Gah!  I’m so happy with it.

And now I get to order more and make stuff with it (stuff–a technical term) as I only ordered a fat quarter initially.  Hopefully my next pattern will come together much quicker than this one did (cupcakes next!).

Now what to make with it first?

P.S. I feel like I should just come out and admit to not ironing before photographing…everything is far less bendy in person, lol.  I realize there’s some weird stuff happening in that photo.

Fun with Cupcake Earrings!

Adding fun into the title clearly makes EVERYTHING more fun.  True story.

And now for my face:

20160810_111037

Becky and I came up with 2 different earring designs based on my brand new coloring bookmark set–> Coloring Bookmarks Eat Sweets! Pretty spiffy, no?  The ones I’m wearing in the photo feature a tiny stack of 3 cupcakes.  Which means that when you wear them you are literally hanging 6 cupcakes off of your ears.  Lets see Chuck Norris do that!

Now lets see my face again:

Pink single cupcake earringsBam!  My face.

These are the singles.  As it turns out, I like both of them equally–which is only odd, because I was really, really, really determined at first to have a stack of cupcakes because in my crazy cupcake obsessed mind more cupcakes are ALWAYS better.  As it turns out, they are pretty stinkin’ cute, but the singles have the added bonus of being able to see the detail a bit more, so hooray for that.

Multiple embroidered cupcakes

As with the cherry blossom necklace (scroll down, I promise it’s in there), I created the lineart and Becky worked her magic to digitize it for the embroidery machine.  They take a bit of trial and error to get right, and then they take a bit of prayer–because I really am terrified of fire, and melting the edges so that they don’t fray is utterly terrifying.

The purple cupcake stack and the blue cupcakes on the right are actually the original design.  Can you tell the difference?  The finished ones on the left look so much cleaner and nicer because we removed some of the detail.  The poor yellow cupcake in the middle bit the dust–I think the embroidery machine tried to eat it…it happens sometimes.

So, what do you think?  They’ll be available for sale soon…hopefully!  We’ve got a few other things in the works as well, so keep an eye out.

And if you didn’t follow that link above to go buy my coloring bookmarks, go here!  They’re pretty!  They’re inexpensive!  You can color them!  And think how happy your very favorite Angela will be if you buy a set! (BTW, thank you for everyone who HAS bought a set, I really do giggle like a little kid every time I sell another one!)

Coloring bookmarks preview

 

Week in Review: Updates and Fun Things

Hello All!  It’s been a crazy busy week, so we’ll call this more of a “check in” than a blog post.

5 Coloring bookmarks and pencils

I know I posted the WIP last week, and I’m happy to say that the candy coloring bookmark is FINALLY finished.  I was up until about midnight trying to get it done last Wednesday–so basically, I showed you guys the lineart and then sat there for 3 more hours making it all fancified.  I’m really happy with how it turned out.  Some of you may have seen this photo up on instagram–I’ve finally started coloring some of my own designs–is it weird that I haven’t until now?  I really like making lineart more than coloring…I can’t help it!  (If you’re not following me, I’m scribblerex on Instagram!)

Angela with concert in the background

Saturday night, Katie, Sean, Stephanie, Simone, and I went down to Duluth Square for their free “Summer Concert Series”  to watch an 80’s cover band called The Breakfast Club play.  The band was good, the music selection was fantastic, and altogether it was just a really fun concert.  Duluth Square is really set up to optimize a gigantic amount of space.  Even if you’re far away you can see and hear really well–and I’m only saying this because we got there a bit late, it was insanely crowded, and we still got a great spot.

Group photoDuluth actually has 2 more free concerts lined up: Drivin N Cryin on August 13 and On the Border on September 10th.  If you’re interested head over to the City of Duluth page and don’t forget that you also live SOMEWHERE!  Most cities host something free over the summer, so google your hometown!  There might be something free and exciting going on nearby.

And there are about 12 Pokestops surrounding the stage…I really did try to catch ’em all Saturday.  Received my first PokemonGo injury Saturday as well.  Walked into stairs, stubbed my toe, it was gross–I was in flip flops, the steps were brick, I wont go into details.  Watch where you’re going everyone!  Don’t be like me!

Lastly, here’s an update on the embroidered necklace front:

Angela wearing necklace

I bought bigger jump rings for it (They’re actually chain mail rings which are a million times easier to use than jump rings.  An actually million, not just an imaginary million.) so it lays much nicer than it did before.  I’ve also switched out the chain for ribbon for 2 reasons: 1. The chain didn’t actually fit the style of the necklace, and we think the ribbon looks prettier, and 2. The ribbon is super easy to adjust.  The necklace is intended to be worn higher up on the neck, and everybody has different sized necks so it just seemed logical to make it so that it could fit as many people as possible.  Plus you can tie it into a cute little bow in the back!

Alright, well that’s all the updates for today.  I’ll be back on Wednesday with more bookmarks (most likely).

P.S. Going to be starting on some Harry Potter robes soon!  Guess what comes out at the end of the month!