The joys of packing

I'm in the middle of packing up all my craft stuff for our big move across the country. This is no easy task, but today I found some items I had forgotten about and thought I would share. All of these items came to me from my great grandmother via my mom.

As a graphic designer I am a sucker for old packaging. It's usually very simple and clean. A few of these items get a bit more detailed, but all of them are pretty special.

Enjoy!














The illustrations on these are fantastic!









I LOVE this old Singer logo. So different from today's version

Baby Expo success!

The Baby Expo was a minor success. I sold enough product to cover my costs for being there, along with a little bit extra. It was a fun event and it was packed the entire day.

I shared my booth/table with Kelly from Bric-a Brac-a. She was selling the cutest crocheted hats. They were made to look like animals, so she had bear hats with ears, lion hats, frog hats with eyes, super cute. She also had some with flowers and large bright colored buttons attached. I wish her lots of luck.

Sitting to my right was Mrs. Claus Sews. She makes the sweetest baby bonnets. They are made from handkerchiefs and after they are used at the baptism or christening of the baby you take out the ribbons, iron the hanky and put it away. Then, it is the "something old" when the baby gets married. She also makes lots of other items, including super cute baby booties.

I had lots of visitors who took my business card so I'm hoping to set up my website this week. I plan to hold off on opening the online shop until we are settle in Michigan as we have to transfer banks and I don't want to start selling with one account and then stop to start selling with another.

We're busy packing and getting ready for the big move. This most likely means a bit of a break from crafting for a bit. I'll be back in touch when we've settled down in Michigan.

Almost ready . . .

I am almost ready for the big day. All that is left to do is get change at the bank for my cash box and pick up some sort of clothesline and clothes pins (more about that in a minute). Below are pics of the finished, packaged product. Oh, got my business cards today and they look great! You can see them in the birdie photos, as I used them as tags.

Gift Sets packaged
I used some clear pouches I had left from a few years back to package the gift sets. I then printed a label I can fill in for size and price.

Onesies & T-shirts packaged
I bought some "favor" bags at Michael's and used them to package the onesies and t-shirts that I'm selling individually. Used the same label treatment on the back for size and pricing info.

Crocheted birdies packaged
Using the same favor bags I packaged the crocheted toys. I used my business cards as the tags and tied the bag shut with a small ribbon. I wrote the price on the back of the card.

Invitations packaged
Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish the letterpress cards. It just became to tedious to do last minute, so I'll pack them up and plan to finish them this summer. I opted instead to print the same design on nice paper on my inkjet printer. They turned out great. I've packaged them in sets of 5 cards. I found the plastic display racks at Staples. They are some sort of mail/desk organizer, but work perfectly for displaying the cards, and they were super cheap.


Table set-up test run
This is how I am envisioning having my table set up. Still undecided about the smaller basket. I plan to string a clothesline to the front of the table and hang some of my pieces on that so people can see them.


Only one more day until showtime!

One Week to Go until Baby Expo . . .

I'm feeling a bit frazzled, but it will be worth it. I'm a busy bee working to finish up everything for the Baby Expo next Saturday. I spent most of Thursday printing the first phase of my letterpress baby announcements and shower invitations. I thought this would be the hardest part of the process because I had to rig the press to hold the paper in a not so standard place, but I got it to work and so far they look great. But, alas, today as I worked to continue printing the second round to be the graphics at the bottom of the design I hit some snags. I had to take a break and luckily I received my clothing tags in the mail today. So, I sewed in a whole bunch of tags and now feel like I'm making steady progress. Whew, on top of all of this we are getting ready to move across the country. Lots going on, but I am sure it will all work itself out in the end and in the meantime I will take breaks to enjoy margaritas (on my way to make one after finishing this post).

Here are some pics of my most recent undertakings:

"Faux" gauge pins holding paper in place on the press. I used self sticking photo corners cut in half and taped to the platen. It worked, so who cares how ridiculous it may look, right?


Prints drying! Yay! I'm 1/3 of the way there. Hope I make it all the way before next Saturday.


Clothing tags! They complete the sets. Now all I have to do is print labels for the clear bags I'm packaging these in.

www.lillyjean.com

I've got a starter page up for the Lilly Jean website. I'm hoping to create a little buzz before the expo. I've got my logo on the vendor page on the expo site that links backs to my site, so hopefully some people will click out of curiosity and then want to stop by my booth.

Anyhow, CLICK HERE to see the starter page. I hope to have more of the site up and running before the expo so keep checking back!

Sneak Peek

I am gearing up for my first expo. A friend of mine organized the first baby expo here in Bozeman this spring and I signed on for a small booth/table. I'm bringing back my Lilly Jean brand name and have re-designed a logo (first image below). I'm working pretty hard and trying not to freak out about how much stuff I want to get done before May 15. Thought I should share a sneak peek of what I've been working on.

Lilly Jean Creatios logo


Onesie sets


I plan to sell these appliqued onesies and pants sets. My "theme" is elephants and birds and I'm working on using fabrics for boys and girls and some fabrics that I think could go boy or girl. I also am hoping to sell some letterpress shower invitations (pics to come later) and some crocheted toys. Hope you enjoy these "sneak peeks."

In Progress

I am currently working on the cutest little jumper. I love the stitch pattern and it's super easy. I've managed to memorize it, so it must be.

Here is an in progress shot. The pattern is from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders. It is on the right hand page in my photo in the bottom left corner. I'm hoping to finish it this spring.

Elephants are for girls too

I just finished these pants to go with the onesie. I made them entirely from scratch, created my own pattern! It was harder than I expected, but worth it. This little set will be a gift eventually. I have two more onesies that I also plan to make pants to go with.

The elephant is also my design. I'm making it a goal to create more original pieces this year. Take a shot at pattern making, do more illustrating. I'm currently working on some letterpress plates to have made. Along with creating more original pieces I am working on not being overly critical of myself. That is hard. This little outfit turned out well though.

Oh! And if you want to place an order I'm happy to oblige. I am still figuring out pricing, but send me an email and we can get started.

Letterpress or bust!

So, here it is almost a year since I got the press. I'm a bit embarrassed it's taken me this long to sit down and make it work, but better late than never. I decided to tackle our holiday cards. I probably had three different ideas laid out before settling on this one and getting down to business.

A note: Letterpress is not easy.

But, it is very rewarding when you figure it out. Setting type is tricky and I don't think I'm doing it quite right, but for now it worked and that's all that matters. Below are pics of the process. I think once I got it printing evenly it took me about an hour to print all the cards, maybe not even that. Also, even prior to all of this I soaked the press in a vinegar and lemon juice bath for about 3 days. It's amazing how much of the rust came off. Some of it is back already, but I think it helped.

Next step is to figure out how to get some custom plates made. Since the press is pretty tiny I probably won't be doing any type heavy designs with it, but I have some ideas for images/illustrations that I think would make cute notecards, etc. I'm in the process of figuring out what size base I should order. I'm working with Elum Designs. They have been super helpful.

Here are the pics:

Here are press proofs done while I was figuring out how to get an even print. The process involves tightening and loosing screws and adding padding to the tympan. It is tedious, but well worth it.


Plate on press, ready to print


Fancy paper ready to go


Rollers inking the plate




Prints drying


Finished cards

Hat and Scarf Set

Before I made the six scarves for my co-workers I tried out the pattern. I had enough yarn leftover to make a hat to match. Turned out pretty cute. The only thing is that the hat is a little big. I may stitch some elastic thread into it to tighten it up a little. I like how the flower "pops" and the way the hat curls along the edge. Cuteness.

Six Scarves a Curling

I found a super cute scarf pattern (once again, on the Lion Brand site) and it was so easy I decided to make one for each of my six co-workers this year for Christmas. They all turned out really cute and the girls loved them. The scarf curls and when you wrap it around your neck it looks really full and fun.

I also created some tags for these gifts. It's the first time I've tagged my work. I used iron-on transfer paper and an old t-shirt. They look really good. I got just as many compliments on the tags as the scarves.

Tutu-ka-choo-choo

I was the tooth fairy for Halloween this year. In order to make my costume look more "fairy-ish" I cut the petticoat from my wedding dress to fit under the tooth fairy dress. This left me with a TON of tulle and no idea what to do with it. My co-worker and friend, Kendra suggested I make tutus for my nieces for Christmas. Mmmm, great idea! So, that is exactly what I did. Below are a few picks of the finished pieces. We also got the girls shirts and tights at Target to complete the look. Hopefully they'll have some fun dressing up and dancing around in them.





If you're not up for trying to craft your own tutu, you should order one from my friend Kendra. You can find her on line HERE or in my links under "Crafty, Artsy Friends." Hers are way cuter than mine.

Elephant Gift Set

I finished a crocheted elephant awhile back. You can read about it HERE. It was the first part of a gift set I was working on for a cousin who was due in November. Well, the little guy decided he'd rather have an October birthday and arrived a few weeks ago. I finished up the onesies and sent off the gift.

Fabulous "Tartique" in Bozeman

Bozeman has a pretty solid community of artists. One of my favorite galleries/shops is "Tart." They are located in the Emerson Cultural Center. Today they launched their new web site @ www.tartique.com

Be sure to check them out. They do an awesome job promoting Montana artists and crafters. It would be so cool to sell my creations there, if I ever get around to creating some worth selling.