Looking for the perfect card to deliver a mushy missive to your loved one?
big spoon <3 little spoon
These cards are flying out of my Etsy store in anticipation of Valentine’s day. Don’t wait until the last-minute, order yours today!
Click here to buy a big spoon loves little spoon card.
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I recently bought a wood burning tool to make a gift. I would have rather borrowed one but apparently there is a dearth of loanable wood burning tools in the NYC metro area.
No 7 restaurant in Fort Greene celebrated their 5th anniversary a couple of weeks ago. Because wood is the “traditional” gift of 5 year (wedding) anniversaries my idea was to design a wooden spatula to give them for the occasion.
I bought a bag of wooden kitchen utensils and practiced first on a spoon.
Here are some more pictures.
Then I got to work on the spatula. First I burned their logo onto it.
Every time you touch the wood burner tool to the wood a puff of campfire-smelling smoke rises up. It was a rather pleasant way to spend an hour or so, even if it made my eyes burn a little.
Once it was all done, I shortened the handle and then set it into a shadow box frame.
It was on display at the restaurant during the party!
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Last year I made advent calendars for my brother’s kids and my friend Chelsea’s son, Malik. It was pretty last-minute so I chose to work with images I already had.
First I found some 2″x2″ Christmas-y envelopes and numbered them.
Then I printed out 25 (totally random) images on small cards.
I stuffed the envelopes.
And then sealed them onto a length of baker’s twine and quickly shipped them off!
Here is my brother’s family with their calendar. Aren’t they adorable?!
My plan is to make this an annual tradition. I’ve already started working on this year’s calendars because I had visions of forgetting and having to whip out 25 original drawings on November 30th and I decided that was no good.
This year’s calendars will have a number of improvements including a theme throughout. I’ll repost about them later in the year in case you’d like to order one!
I’ve been hand-painting custom monograms. Here’s the first!
I have to wait to post the rest until they’re received by their recipients.
They are 9″x12″ and make great gifts, especially if you know someone with a little one on the way. I’ll put a button on my Prints and Cards page for ordering!
You may have already noticed this but…
…I made a page especially for streamlining the process of ordering cards. Huzzah!
Tell all your friends!
I just ran across the file for a portrait I painted as a wedding gift for some friends a couple years ago. Coincidentally, they’d also just announced that they’re expecting a new baby. Congrats guys!
Last month Mike’s best friend Brendan, wed the lovely Elin (see previous post). I drew this portrait as a wedding gift. Attractive couple, no?
Here it is in the frame.
Remember this teaser? I made scratch-it bouquets!
At the end of the first dance, we gave this bouquet to the couple that had been together the longest which was Mike’s grandparents (50 years!).
Here are directions so you can too. First you’ll need:
Two notes on supplies, 1. I found that using a stapler was better than tape. I was working in the humidity and the last thing I wanted was for all my ‘blooms’ to come undone, 2. I also ended up using green washi (paper tape) in addition to the florist’s tape, more on that later.
First a made a bunch of big buds using the technique from this post.
Then I curled and fastened all the scratch-it flowers with a staple.
Next, I slid a bud into a bloom.
So that it looked like so.
Then I secured the bloom and the bud with green washi tape.
The reason I used washi tape here is because florist’s isn’t that sticky. It gets it’s staying power from being stretched and pressed onto itself. These scratch-it tickets were too slick for it to get a grip so I had to use the stickier washi tape to secure the blooms in place.
Unfortunately, washi tape isn’t cheap but I’ve used my ten-pack for enough different projects and gift wrapping that I think it’s paid for itself by now.
Here are my grandparents-in-law, Matt and Marjean, with their bouquets!
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