On The Drawing Board

(working on another Seabird shirt)

Hard at work today! I've called in some reinforcements to help me with the boys and with printing/shipping so that I can hopefully get my nights back. You know that you love what you do when you're regularly willing to do it til 2am.

We're taking Hudson to the opening night of A Christmas Carol at Playhouse in the Park for his birthday. And we've got a ton of family activities planned for tomorrow and Sunday too! So I should have lots of pics to show you!

Have a great weekend!

Arian

Seabird!

I just finished up this Seabird tshirt design. (Check out the shirts I did last year here and here) It's off to the printer and the new shirts will hopefully be available for their cd release show on the 12th (come by and snag one if you're a Cincinnati local!). I'm working on two more designs that should be done tomorrow.

I love doing t-shirts for bands! I get sneak peeks at their new music and get to create wearable art--not a bad gig!

By the way, the lovely Sara Janssen (of Happy Foody and Live Lightly Tour fame) is giving away one of my prints (of your choosing) on her blog so stop on by and leave a comment if you'd like. (psst..it's also your chance to cash in on another Buy One Get One offer!!)

Have a good one!
Arian : )

Score One For Christmas!

We're going to Papa's this weekend to cut down our first live Christmas tree and I've been brainstorming, researching, daydreaming about how we'll decorate it. When we moved here from Boston last year we gave away our artificial tree with all its trimmings so I get to start with a blank slate!

I've been admiring all the ornaments at Anthro, especially the birds. But I can't exactly afford a tree's-worth of Anthro ornaments.

So I was suuuper happy to score big while out shopping with Andrea yesterday. I got a bag full of these adorable little birds for super cheap and I'm so excited to decorate our "vintage bird" tree! (For locals: head to Home Emporium if you're interested. There are tons more and they are 75% off!) We're gonna add some pine cones, ribbon, some berries, more feathers...I'll be sure to show you pics!


And I just purchased our Christmas stockings from Etsy seller Cherryland. Aren't they so cute?! I'm so excited to get them! Yay for Etsy shopping!




Speaking of Etsy shopping, I've got a lot of orders to print, package, and ship. Happy December!!

Arian : )

Tiny Hat

Here's the how-to for that little winter hat ornament I showed you last week. A friend taught me how to make these when we were in middle school and we stayed up all night making a huge pile of them to sell at the school craft fair. And that's how I paid my way through college! (juuuust kidding)

You'll need some yarn, a pair of scissors, a ruler, and a piece of a paper towel roll cut about 1/2" thick.

Cut a handful of yarn strands about 10" long. I find it easiest to wrap them around an appropriately-sized book and cut them as shown.
Make a loop with one piece of yarn and stick the loop up through the cardboard roll.
Wrap the two ends of the yarn up around the front of the cardboard roll and through the loop. Pull tight.
Do this all the way around the loop. You can make it a single color, alternating colors, whatever! It looks like a little hula skirt at this point.
Then turn it inside out by pushing all the yarn ends up through the cardboard roll.
Then tie them tightly with another piece of yarn.
Trim the little pompom at the top of the hat and there ya go! Feel free to leave it as is or embellish it with ribbon, rickrack, buttons, glitter, etc!

Hope those of you who do the whole Thanksgiving thing had a good one! Our "Christmas at Thanksgiving" festivities were awesome of course. (This time it was Jenny's turn to be very pregnant.)


This week promises to be crazy as usual! Several deadlines, lots of projects, a musical, a presentation, a tea party, annnnd Hudson turns FIVE on Wednesday! He's requested pizza and a Wolverine cake like last year's batman cake. We'll see what I can pull off!

Hope your week is off to a good start!!

Arian : )

Night Owls

It's 2am (yep, A.M.) here in the Armstrong household yet the house is abuzz with "Thanksmas" preparations. The lights are bright and warm and the whole place smells like chocolate and cinnamon.
One Armstrong is baking apple pies.
One is sketching by the light of the Christmas tree
One is making truffles.
Another is finishing up some Thanksmas (Christmas at Thanksgiving) presents.
And I am taking in the sights and smells and the faces...
...and crafting. I just made this little winter hat ornament. It's so easy and fast. If you can tie a knot, you can make this. I'll show you how soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!! And if you're not from the U.S., no worries, you're welcome to spend time with family, over eat, and count your blessings too! : )

Night,

Arian : )

Costume Designs

I recruited Daniel to do some costume design sketches for the book and in true Daniel fashion, he went all out with these full-colored, highly-detailed renderings that were even more spectacular than I expected them to be. He's so talented (and good-looking too) ; )
In the book we detail how these seemingly complicated designs could actually be pulled off by someone with little costume-making experience. Most of the elements needed to create these outfits (or ones similar) can be thrifted and augmented or found around your house. But you'll just have to wait til the book comes out to find out how! : )

Said Daniel is sick in bed right now which is a bummer because he's missing all the Thanksgiving festivities with his family. Hopefully all the sleep he's been getting will get him back on his feet soon or come Thursday we'll have to just slide his turkey and pumpkin pie under the bedroom door. And nobody wants to see that.

I think my sketching and crafting to-do list for tomorrow is a bit unrealistic, especially with the Mr. being down and out. But we'll see!

Arian : )

Feelin Generous

BAM!! Here's another freebie for ya--Christmas cards! I'm bringing back all of last year's Christmas goodies as freebies because, hey, I worked hard on them and you deserve a break!

You know the drill, click on the card image to see the larger version, then right click or drag to your desktop. By the way, does anyone know a better way to do this with a blogspot blog?? I'd love for you to be able to click on something and actually download the pdf but haven't figured that out. Any technical wisdom you can pass on is welcomed!

Stay tuned for more Christmas card goodness!

We're in Daniel's home town spending Thanksgiving week (and doing Christmas) with family. I'm soooo looking forward to relaxing, laughing, watching everyone open presents, good food, HGTV, crafting, and sketching out some new t-shirt design ideas for these fine fellas. I got a sneak peak at some of their new music and it's pretty sweet!

Hope your week is full of gratitude! (whether you're a U.S.A-er or not) : )

Arian : )