Help a girl out

Guys, I've prepared a super quick questionnaire about this blog and your preferences. It's multiple choice and only requires you to use about seven brain cells. Would you mind weighing in with your thoughts? Click here to take the survey. Thanks much!

I'm taking the rest of the week off from blogging due to my parents' arrival tomorrow. We're spending a long weekend celebrating three birthdays, Easter, and their 40th wedding anniversary. It will be a spectacular extravaganza. Meaning, we will go out to eat at least once. And I think Grandma G wants to make homemade deodorant. Should be a good time.

Update: The survey hit the 1,000 response limit and is now closed. Thanks for your responses!

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62 ways to decorate Easter eggs

Check out the massive collection of egg-decorating techniques over at Martha Stewart. Last year I attempted to dye eggs with silk neck ties (also included in Martha's roundup, I believe), and I gave my results a D on the egg-dying report card. I think this year I'd like to do something with tape. Shooting for a B+ this year.

(Images from marthastewart.com)

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Fabric pack guest designer at Sew, Mama, Sew

Fabric shop Sew, Mama, Sew asked if I'd like to design a fat quarter pack using fabrics from their store. Heck yes—who wouldn't like to browse through pages of delicious fabric swatches? (Okay, probably lots of people, including Alex who would put it right up there with his other most-detested activity: rug shopping.) But I loved it. As you can see, I was on a mission to work in the orange.

For a chance to win one of these sets, head over here, or buy a pack in the shop. To learn what in the world a fat quarter is, plus lots of project ideas, click here!

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Another thing I do when you're not looking

Here's what my desk looks like at this exact moment. I'm swimming in Pantone chips, trying to pick colors for ribbon designs, like these. Fun, right? Which is clearly why I need this mug from which to drink my coffee as I do so. Birthday is coming. Hint, hint, hubby.

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What I'm doing when you're not looking

Contrary to popular belief, I don't spend all day surfing the internet. More likely, I'm at work on brochures and logos and sell sheets and ads. The days when I don't manage to get a blog post up, it's probably because I've got a deadline. Or maybe I'm eating bonbons and watching Oprah in fuzzy bunny slippers. Who's to know.

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Free black and white wedding printables

Thanks to e.m. papers, you can download a DIY wedding kit featuring vintage clip art right here. Customize all the pieces and print everything yourself, saving a humongous pile of money. Via iDiY.

(Image from e.m. papers)

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Giveaway: Amenity Home pillows

Amenity Home offers lovely, eco-friendly products for modern living, including the new Muir bedroom furniture collection. The pieces are inspired by classic modernist design and hand crafted from vintage hardwood rescued from buildings slated for demolition.


Win a pillow set
Amenity's textiles coordinate beautifully with their furniture line, and now you can win some for yourself! Amenity is giving away a matching set of two 18x18 pillows (valued at $140 or more) in one of the colorways above: 1) Moss Birdseye 2) Charcoal Birdseye 3) Silver Trail 4) Moss Trail 5) Charcoal River 6) Sienna River. Just leave a comment on this post with your choice of design by Friday, March 26 at midnight CDT. Be sure to include a link or other way to contact you. One winner will be drawn randomly, contacted, and announced in this post.

Update: Giveaway is now closed. Congrats to commenter #796, Brooke! To thank everyone for participating, Amenity Home would like to offer you a 20% off discount. If you sign up for their newsletter on their website, you'll receive an email with a discount code. Enjoy!

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Printable CD cases

Download and print free CD envelopes designed by Tomoko Suzuki for Canon. Orangey and fabulous! Get the music theme here and the travel theme here, available for both letter and A4 size paper.

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Fabric basket and bin tutorials

If you're into spring cleaning and organization, these DIY fabric storage box instructions might be right up your alley:
1. Surlepetitchemin's box, made with this tutorial from Sew4Home
2. Pink Penguin's fabric basket
3. In a Nutshell's nesting boxes
4. Jezze's no-interfacing storage basket
5. Urban Nest's cereal box storage bins
6. Kargrrl's square-bottomed canvas bucket

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Easter craft idea

These happy spring papercraft characters look like a fun project to do with the kiddies. (Well, I have no kiddies, so I don't know how old you have to be to make these. I think an advanced 18-month-old could probably pull it off.) Templates and instructions are available for $4 from Mibo right here.

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Bye bye, Etsy shop

Speaking of Etsy, I've decided to close up my shop. I just don't have time to create and photograph and list and weigh and package and mail stuff anymore, along with my regular design work. Somebody should make an online quiz for people considering starting an Etsy shop. My result would have said: "Bookkeeping, repetitive tasks, standing in line at the post office, and earning approximately 10 cents an hour will make you want to shoot yourself. Consider other work." Then I would have ignored the result and tried it anyway, of course, just to see. I did love the thrill of creating designs and products, but I can find ways to do that without running my own shop.

Sewer/Mom, I'll miss bossing you around. I really enjoyed the power trip. Everyone else, thank you so much for all your support and encouragement, and the hundreds of purchases you made. Onward!

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A new way to search Etsy

Good news for impatient people like me. PicClick.com has released its Etsy browser, where you can search for items and see bazillions of results all at once. Instant gratification! Use the slider to set the size of images you want to see, and the number of results will fill your browser window. Let's say I'm shopping for, oh, orange housewares. Searching on Etsy shows me 33 results per page. Searching on PicClick shows me.... um, all of them on one page? As long as I keep scrolling down, I get more. Then I just click the item I like and it opens in a new window at Etsy. Browse eBay the same way right here.

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Fabric sighting

Just found these drum shade pendant lights made from the Earth colorway of my Amusement Park fabric collection. Lovely! They're available here and here from Shades of Light.

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St. Patrick's Day downloads

To get yourself in the mood for St. Patty's Day next week, grab some shamrock wallpaper for your computer desktop, compliments of Eleanor Grosch.

Or print some cupcake toppers from TomKat Studio. That looks yummy.

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Where to get stuff printed for cheap

People sometimes ask me for recommendations on where to get things printed inexpensively. Here are online places I've used with (mostly) acceptable results.

VistaPrint.com — I've printed magnets, return address labels, postcards and business cards here. Quality varies, but is usually acceptable, given how amazingly cheap they are. Their business card stock is uncoated. Only once did I toss a print job in the garbage, due to a significant color shift. Customer service phone call was a frustrating experience. But with their discount coupons, they're so cheap I can't make myself stop using them for ultra low budget jobs.

OvernightPrints.com — I've printed postcards, bookmarks, business cards, and letterhead here. Their postcard and business card stock is very smooth and coated on both sides. They offer a rounded corner option. Only once did I send a job back for reprinting due to a significant color shift, and it came back corrected. Good customer service.

UPrinting.com — I've printed brochures here.

GreenerPrinter.com — I've printed notecards here. Eco-friendly printing on recycled paper; you pay a little more if you care about the environment.

MaverickLabel.com — I've printed stickers here.

iPrintFromHome.com — I've used their Somerset Velvet Giclee fine art print service with gorgeous results. Richly colored fine art prints on heavy watercolor-like paper.

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Child's soft chair pattern

My mom's latest sewing project with my canvas fabric was this child's soft chair. It's made with Etsy seller Abbiesolutely's pattern; thank you, Abbie! The chair has a carrying handle and a pocket in the back for books. This pattern is definitely not for the beginning sewer, and the cost of the foam and supplies—using discount coupons on everything—was $81, excluding the cost of the pattern or the fabric. While not a project for the faint of heart, the result is really cute! A video of my niece Courtney testing her new chair's durability is at Mum's blog.

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DIY projects for your home

Things to make for your house, with instructions:
Rectangle cutout bookcase, inspired by West Elm (above) at Knock Off Wood
Vintage deck of cards wall art by Cathe Holden
Collapsible storage boxes at Sew4Home
Items screenprinted using Mod Podge at DIY Ideas
Retro room divider at Remodelaholic
Eco bath mat by Michelle Kaufmann at Pixei

(Image from West Elm via Knock Off Wood)

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Quiz: Name that brand

Based on two colors, a visual hint, and a cryptic verbal clue, see how many of the world's brands you can identify in this quiz. I got a respectable 18 out of 21, but I'm still scratching my head over the ones I missed. Via Brand New.

Update: The answers are in one of the comments here. (Thanks, Jan!) Now I will sleep better tonight.

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Packaging your gift for the neighbors

Allow me to introduce you to this free printable from Amanda Joy: a label you can stick on a box of goodies for your neighbors. Love it. I've given baked things to new neighbors before, but my paper plates covered with foil probably explain why we never became best friends. Packaging some treats this way should seal the deal.

(Image from Joy Ever After)

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DIY tuxedo t-shirt download

Thanks to the magic of inkjet iron-ons, Alex will be able to attend our Oscars shindig dressed appropriately. If you're going to watch TV for four hours, you might as well be comfortable. I, on the other hand, will be aiming for the red carpet worst-dressed list in a black and gold $5 thrift store gown.

You're welcome to download my version of the ever popular tuxedo t-shirt and make your own. Print it on iron-on transfer paper, available at office stores, and transfer the image to a t-shirt. The iron-on paper I have is letter-sized and of course I wanted the image larger than that for Alex's manly chest. So I printed the design on two pieces of paper, cut out the halves, and spliced them together when ironing them on. To download that 2-page PDF, click here. If you'd like the design as one piece, click here. You could reduce it to fit on one sheet for making kid shirts or baby onesies. For personal use only, please, not commercial. Enjoy.

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Make your own stamps

These two DIY stamp projects look like fun. Left: Cathe Holden's pennant rubber stamp roller. Right: button stamps made from spools by Maximum Rabbit Designs, via Craft.

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Quiz: Choose a career using your favorite colors

Okay, this is uncanny. Take this color test, and it will tell you what career you're suited for. My result: "You're a CREATOR." Among the suggested career occupations: Web Designer, Creative Director, Fine or Commercial Artist. How can it be? Get out of my head! A note: I couldn't get the quiz to give me the results in Safari, but Firefox worked. And you can click right past the screen asking you to fill out an informational form. Okay, now you try it and tell me if it works.

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In the mail

Thank you, Erin Gilmore, total stranger who lives in Vancouver and my new best friend.

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