Cupcakes and Mudpies

Hi everyone! 

I promised that there would be some more of Christy's birthday invites to come and here they are!

The past few days I have been working on a birthday invite for a little girl, as well as for the boys.

For the little girls invite, Christy was thinking she'd like pinks and browns, maybe with some polka dots and I came up with this!

This is the front of the invite.

This is the inside of the invite.

 Cute? :)

For the boys, she has a birthday package about digging in the dirt brownie adventure. I thought I could do something like bugs but not so gross :P I made one that I didn't like so much, Christy thought it was cute but I thought I would keep playing around with it to see what I could come up with. Here are the two different birthday invites I designed.

Front number 1 (not so good)

 Front number 2 ( a bit better?)

And finally this is the inside of the boys invite.

That's all I have for now! Let me know what you think :)

-Heather

Invitations and Blogs

Hello again everyone!

I haven't posted in a while but I've been working a lot on some graphics for Christy and I thought I'd share them with you guys!
Christy ( the chocolate maker - check out her website here ) had the great idea of having kids' parties now that she has a big kitchen to work in! She has four different party packages: Wacky cake and cookie decorating, pizza cookie fun, digging in the dirt brownie adventure, and dippity do chocolate I love you. For her website she was thinking of having some fake polaroid graphics that you could click on for each of the four birthday packages. Here's what I came up with for her.
So far it is just a google image in there, not one of Christy's but you get the idea.

Looks great doesn't it?! 

Another thing I've been working on is the invitations for her birthday parties. The idea behind this is that the mom's would go on her website, print out these invitations for the kids to bring to school and hand out to their friends. Here's what I came up with for the older female group.

This is the front of the invitation

And this is the inside of the invitation

The back of the invitation would have her company address as well as the map to the shop. My next steps will be to make a boy version of the invitation, as well as an invitation for younger girls.

I've also been working on Christy's new blog! Hasn't been ready for action at all yet, no blog posts, but I'm working on the design and the separate pages. 

One of Christy's pages is a recipe page. Her idea was that for each recipe she posts, she will create a recipe card. Her "Recipe" page would have several different images of recipe cards posted to it, so everything will be right there and easy to find. Here's what I created for the recipe card.

I love how it turned out, it looks so cute!

That's all I've been working on as of lately.. I will have some more graphics coming up, and I may have a post of "fall finds" clothes, keep checking!

Comments welcome

-Heather

This Book Belongs To..

Hello again everyone! 

Just got some free time finally! So I decided to post another one of my projects. This one was done just the other day for my sister.She is involved in Craftster and was working on a craft swap. 

The idea of this craft swap is the 12 days of Christmas, for 12 days.. there are 12 different gifts, at least I think that's how it works... ANYWAYS, for one of the days, my sister was planning on doing a book themed gift. She was going to send some handmade bookmarks and whatnot so she asked me if I could make this project to go along with it.

The idea was that this would be made into a sticker that the craft swap receiver could put inside her books, so that if they get lost the finder will know whose book it is! The specs allowed for quite a bit of creativity, the only thing my sister asked was that there be some sort of tree on the sticker. 

Here it is!

I really like how this one turned out, I'd actually like something like it for my business card! Let me know if you have any comments about it! I'd love to hear them.

-Heather

Online Ad

Hi everyone!

Another project for Christy's Gourmet Gifts I've been working on, this time it was an online advertisement for her store in Burlington.
Check it out!

Pretty easy to make, but I really like how it turned out, and it's already up online RIGHT HERE! Exciting :)

Let me know what you think of it.

-Heather

Kitschy Christmas!

Hi everyone!
Haven't posted in a while, just been working on a few things for my aunt lately as well as something brand new for my sister Jessica.
Every year she has a Christmas dinner/party at our house with a theme. It is always "A very ____ Christmas" Examples of what she's done are
A Very Glam Christmas
A Very Creepy Christmas
A Very Classy Christmas
Anyways, this year she's doing it again for the 4th year in a row and the theme this Christmas is "Kitschy".
She always makes a facebook event to invite all her friends to this so using my Graphic Design I make her an event posting picture as well as a thumbnail.
Check out what I made for the Kitschy Christmas!

This is the main facebook picture 

This is the facebook thumbnail picture. 

I really like how everything turned out. I think maybe the font needed a little something else but seeing as I only had a half hour - hour to work on this I had to stick with what I got. 

Comments welcome!

-Heather

More for Christy

Hi everyone!

I'm back in action again with some more stuff for Christy's gourmet gifts company!

Christy has been having me work on a few different things for her trying to get the hype up for the launch of her new website!

She's been trying to get going a Facebook account, as well as group, a Twitter account and her very own blog (involving recipes, event ideas, testimonials, and weddings/events they have been involved in). 

For her facebook group we were thinking something that would also help with marketing.. I've noticed a few different companies/real estate agents and things like that doing a long sort of Facebook picture with information in it, as opposed to just pictures and I thought this would be something good for Christy.

This is what I created for her main Facebook group picture. 

To link from her website to her blog, this is the button I initially created for her, but the pictures needed to be changed up afterwards, as she now has a different photographer!

Since the photography changed, we decided to change up the button a bit more and this is what we came up with. On her main website it will also be a lot larger than the original image that I created. 

The last piece I created for Christy was a blog header. She wanted something with a lot of images to attract the customer to her food but also something that was pretty. 

That's it for today! There will be a lot more to see in the future so keep lookin' back and I'd love to hear your feedback!

-Heather

Web Pages

Hi everyone!
Disappeared for a while there. Been working really hard on the graphics for a website. I did this for a lady, Christy, who makes her own chocolate gifts, specializing in corporate gifts.
For this project I was doing all the graphics, sending them over to a web designer and he was putting them all online and adding in e-commerce.
The web designer already had a few pages set up I was just changing them up and adding different features and what not.
Christy wanted her website to be pretty and girly with lots of photography to entice people.

Here's the main home page we came up with as a collaboration.

This second picture is a view of what the buttons would look like when you scroll over them. They would be linked to different pages on the website.

Here is a layout of one of the pages her main page would link to. 

Each page would have a different picture on the top as well as the side. These pages have the same tiled background as the main page, it is just a creamy-type colour.

When you click on the product link on the top home bar, this is the page it would take you to. Each picture of product would take you to a separate page which is seen in the second image I have posted. Each top of the page would be different according to what product it is.

A few things have been changed on these webpages since going online. As some of my pages didn't work properly with the way the e-commerce was designed, it had to be tweaked a bit but otherwise I am very pleased with how it turned out :) I will post the link to the website once it is online and ready for the public to view.

Comments welcome!

-Heather

Recipe Template Page

Hello again everyone!

So my latest project has been a collaboration with my sister, Jess. She's made recipe binders in the past that have turned out really nicely so I asked her to make one for me. We picked out fabric together which she will cover a binder in and pad it as well as embroider a felt piece with the word "Recipes". So far it is turning out really nicely.

I wanted to add some of my own flair to this project so I decided I would make the graphics for the inside. I would make one template that could be printed up several times and put between dividers to organize all the recipes.

This is the fabric and felt colour that we chose for the binder.

And here is the recipe template I made for the inside of the binder. Changes are still optional as my sister hasn't finished the binder yet so there may be some slight differences to the final product. The white square at the left hand corner with the line is for your recipe name :) The little circle thing is an Ernst Haeckel design ( I LOVE ERNST HAECKEL ) that I thought looked somewhat like a dandelion, which matched with the front fabric.

I'm thinking I might need some little something near that top left-hand white rectangle. Not sure what it needs yet. Opinions anyone? 

-Heather

Sketchbook Project!

So a long while ago I signed up for the Sketchbook Project, I don't know if I've mentioned it before but basically you sign up, pay the money, pick a theme and they send you your very own Moleskine sketchbook. You fill it up, send it back, and then all the sketchbooks that are submitted go on a tour around the world!
The theme I chose for my sketchbook is "Storybook". I've only got starts of pages drawn up so far but I've been getting some good things done lately. I have some great plans for this sketchbook. I hope I can finish in time!!
Anyways, usually when I have a sketchbook I cover the back of the covers in a pretty paper, makes the sketchbook feel a lot nicer to me so I did it with this one as well. I went on a hunt for different papers and ended up finding a scripty writing one (perfect for a storybook) as well as a paper with a toile print.
The papers were a bit too white for how creamy colour the sketchbook paper is so I decided to dye the paper with tea. ( Cinnamon tea :) It smelled so good! )
After the paper had dried and everything I went over some things with a thin tip gold paint pen, as I'm going to have a lot of gold going through my sketchbook to make it sort of like the letters you would find in really old storybooks! Here's the first pictures of what I've done

Front Cover

Front Cover Close- Up

Back Cover 

Back Cover Close-Up

That's all I got so far! So much more Sketchbook Project pages to come in the future!! Keep lookin

-Heather

Vacation Time!

Finally I've got some time off work and I'm going to Cuba with my mom and my sister tomorrow! I won't be back home 'til next Thursday so I probably won't have any new posts before then but I have some exciting information!

My dreads have finally been cut off! I went one day out of the blue and cut my hair off, I thought I'd be too hot in Cuba and that's what started it all. I took a before and after picture, here they are!

before

after

I didn't necessarily like how they styled my hair, but I think the hair cut is really cute and it looks pretty nice now! :)

I'll be back soon with pictures of my Cuba trip most likely so stay posted for that! Yay for vacation time :D

-Heather

Vanity Desk REVAMPED

This is a project from long ago but I recently discovered the pictures I took before I revamped the furniture and got inspired to write a blog post about it!

I was in the midst of redoing my room when I created this vanity for myself. The table was one we had for years, it used to be a sewing table, then it was a craft table for my sister and I when we were little. When we stopped using it for crafts it just sat in the laundry room all paint-covered and I rediscovered it!
My ex boyfriend sanded it for me and I washed it down and then painted it a nice white. Here's the before and after of the table.

before

after

I found the stool for my vanity at a flea market in Brantford, ON for 5 dollars! Awesome deal :D It was kinda retro cool but the texture of the fabric was soo irritating it definitely needed to be changed. I found some excess blue velvet fabric in my house (only enough to cover the stool!) and I used that to recover it. I love the fabric so much I wish I had more. Here's the before and after of the stool.

before

after

Unfortunately I didn't take a before picture of my mirror but it cost me 5 to 10 dollars ( I can't remember! ) at the other flea market in Brantford.. What's with all the awesome deals?! :P The mirror was black and gold and I painted it with the same white as the rest of the furniture. And here's my last picture.. a full out picture of all the pieces together!

I had a ton of fun working on this project! I'd love to hear what you think of it. :)

-Heather

New Projects

Hello again everybody!

So I've been working on a whole bunch of projects.. maybe not actually WORKING on them as I've recently gone from working as a barista 3 days a week to 5-7 days a week. EEK ! So basically I've just been collecting things to work on and then thinking about them a lot. :P Haha fail.

This weekend I'm going to get started on them and really get some stuff done! I decided I'd show off my before projects see what people think of them and then show my recons and revamps later on! Are you excited?! I am.

Lately I guess I've been drawn to the colour orange, don't ask me why.. not like it's one of my favourite colours or anything. Just happened lol.

This is the first project I'm working on. I needed a dress to wear to my cousin's wedding, coming up September 10th so I better get workin! It's an orange silk fabric, floor length with some billowy transparent fabric on top. I can't think of what the word would be for the actual fabric. Here's a picture of the dress ! It's really pretty but floor length is not really my style and it is too low in the front so I'm going to fix it up. I got this at Value Village for around 25 dollars. Totally worth it.

My plans for this dress is to make it above my knee and poofy! Im thinking with a slit in each side or something with a cream coloured fabric underneath. THEN under that I would use some crinoline. Also I would add a tie up bow under the bust. Here's my drawing of what I want it to look like :)

And last but not least.. I am working on an outdoor wrought-iron stool. I found this at a flea market for 22 dollars.. kind of pricey for my budget but I kept thinking about it after I left the store and I had to go back to get it! Here's the pic of the before

Some past owner decided it would be a good idea to upholster this cute chair in this hideous fake orange fur (mom thinks it's cute LOL). The wrought-iron is all rusty and paint chipped so I'm going to repaint and reupholster and REVAMP! It should look really cool. Updates will be coming in soon. 

I'm also going to be looking for some accessories for this wedding. Hair accessories especially. If anyone knows some cool jewellery I could look at (online or otherwise) let me know please!

-Heather

Anniversary Present

Hellooo there!

This is what's been going on in my life. It was my anniversary with my boyfriend Daniel the other day (6 months) and we were exchanging gifts so I decided to make him some of his presents. 

The first thing I got him (not made) was a gift card for an aquarium store as he really likes frogs and whatnot and is always building his aquarium with plants and more fish and all sorts of fun stuff. His favourite pets are his African Dwarf Frogs 

See them here

Hahah, I love them, they're so funny to watch. Anyways, since he likes these frogs so much I made him this artwork (he moved in not too long ago and has no art on his walls) SO I made him this!

The frog was made with fabric we picked out at the Value Village a few days before and then I did the background kind of tie-dye looking with gouache. I mod-podged the whole thing and added a white acrylic paint outline to the froggie and there we go! 

Also Dan was mentioning he needed a new wallet so I went on etsy and searched up some wallets I thought he'd like and I came up with THIS!

 A leather wallet that is screen printed with woodgrain pattern! I love it. Unfortunately I didn't order it from the internet in time and it hasn't come yet.. so I had to improvise. This is what I ended up giving him.

I printed out a picture from the one online and packaging taped into into a wallet shape.. with the help of newspaper lol. He still liked it anyways but I did put an IOU note on it. 

And that's all I got for today, keep looking for new crafts and graphics I'm up to!

-Heather

New Logo!

I've been thinking about starting up my own business redoing furniture and whatnot so I decided I should make my own logo for it.

I'm calling it Fresh Start furniture because I take old furniture from flea markets/garage sales/thrift stores and redo them and give them a FRESH START :P
Here's the logo I came up with. I really like how it turned out.

I have two colour choices as well, not sure if I'm going to go with either of them but I was testing them out. If you have some comments on which one you like better, I'd love to hear them!!

Also, let me know what you think about the logo. I might make a few changes on it still!

-Heather

First Ever Resin PENDANTS!

Hi everyone!
Here's the scoop. Lately I've been trying my luck at making some jewellery. My sister and I bought some resin recently (neither of us had used it before but wanted to try it out!).
My boyfriend and I collected seashells and cool stones and that from the beach and wanted to make some jewellery with those found objects.
Here's the ones we came up with. Again.. a bad quality picture but as I just moved recently I can't find a camera or anything better to take pictures with.

This is all the resin pendants we made, for now!

Unfortunately my boyfriend worked on this one while I was out of the room and he used the wrong colour background :P Looks good anyways I think though. It's still a bit tacky at the front.

This one was a cool rock we found at the beach. Hard to see the details in the picture but it is quite cool. I like this background a lot as well. We found all the backgrounds in pieces of artwork out of the art magazine Juxtapoz.

This one was my favourite at the beginning but unfortunately got an airbubble in it that we couldn't pop. :P It still looks alright to me, looks like the seashell is floating on top of water or something.

This one is my very favourite out of all of them. It was the one my boyfriend created so I can't take credit for it unfortunately but lucky for me I still get to keep it as jewellery. Hahaha :)

Let me know what you think!

There will probably be more jewellery coming up on my blog in the future as I am making a piece of jewellery out of a bone we found at the beach. I was thinking it was a fish bone, but now I'm not sure. If anyone can tell me what kind of animal this bone comes from I would love to know. 

Here's the bone all lacquered up!

Thats all for today, I've been really busy with working at 5 30 am everyday and I need some sleep! 

- Heather