Experimental Success

Sweet Sweet Victory

You know that feeling when you have an idea for something to try, and you have no idea if or how it's going to work, and then it turns out just as fabulous as it was in your head? That is my feeling this week. Boy, it is sweet. This is not usually a first-try feeling for me.
I was making birthday cards for my niece and nephew and I was struck with the idea of combining drawing, cut out construction paper, and photoshop. Yes, I know this is not super original or anything, but I hadn't tried it.

For the first card, I cut out the rocket and smoke plume out of three colors of construction paper, taped them together, and scanned them into the computer. I then cleaned it up and formatted it properly in Photoshop. Finally, I placed it in Illustrator and added the text. Much cooler and more readable than my completely illegible southpaw scrawl. I. Love. This. Card.

For the second card, I started with the drawing. Before anyone gets all up in arms, this bird was inspired by a Marimekko print from 2008. I LOVE this print and had been looking for an excuse to do a version of the birds in it. I then cut out pink and purple construction paper outlines for it and taped them together. After I scanned it into the computer, I changed the color of the area right around the bird (MUCH easier than cutting so close to the outline). Finally, I placed it in Illustrator, added the text and made some cool rays coming out from behind the bird. Hooray! Lovely girly bird card done!

Part of my niece's birthday present is this faux flower hair clip. I have had several phases of buying massive quantities of fake flowers, taking them apart, and trying to get them to stay on my head in some way. This is a small, tasteful version of that on-going project. I took a smaller, lighter-weight flower (as opposed to the 6-7 inches in diameter ones I was using) and hot-glued it to a barrette with a fake flower leaf to secure it. After it was ready, I realized it would be kind of impossible to wrap. Luckily, I had this perfect purple tin it would fit into. I drew another Marimekko-inspired bird and glued it to the top. Now the present is two presents! What sweet, bird-loving girl would not want a pretty purple bird-adorned container for all manner of small cuteness?

Obligatory Adorable Baby Pic

A post would not be complete without a bit of 5. I am under no delusions that I am as popular as my son. He knows it, I know it, we ALL know it. He is awesome. He is very excited this week to finally be big enough to fit whole toys in his mouth. I am less excited about this.
I am still WAY behind in production of sale-able goods (2 weeks running oh no!) but birthdays are behind me and I just have a baby shower to create for... I'm totally going to catch up... maybe next week.

Check back Friday to see if I ever get any product made this week!