DIY Glittery Spiderweb Halloween Cards with template

Last October, Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy prevented most Halloween celebrations, and although I don't usually get too into the holiday, having a year off may have been just what I needed to get the spirit back.  For my cards this year, I'm going all the way with glitter. 

Using some regular Elmer's Glue and black glitter, these spiderweb cards are a synch to make. You can freehand a spiderweb design, or download and trace the template I've created from my sketch. Obviously you could glitter up anything, for any occasion, but hey, let's focus on the coming holiday.

Step 1: 

Create a spiderweb design freehand, or download and trace the template I've created from my sketch. Remember to keep your pencil marks light.

Step 2: 

Trace over the drawing with white glue.  I used a toothpick to get in small areas or to clean up any slips (there will be some).  Hold the bottle at an angle to prevent it coming out in globs and work in small sections so that glue doesn't dry before you can add the glitter. Superfine glitter will work best on these thin lines.

Step 3:

Sprinkle glitter over top. Let stand about 30 seconds, and then tap off excess.  You can go back in with a toothpick and clean up any smudges.  I like how non-uniform the lines are, it almost give the feel of water droplets on the web.

Optional: To keep glitter in place, cover the card with 1-2 coats of acrylic spray.  I used Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic.  Make sure to spray in a well ventilated area. Right outside your front door with the door open so all the fumes go back in the house is not considered a well ventilated area (I'm telling myself this).  

Have a spooky Halloween!

Happy Father's Day!

A happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

Ink on watercolor. With rocks.

Bridge illustration no. 2

Not too long ago I posted an illustration of the Manayunk Bridge, and I'm here to post another illustrated river crossing in Philadelphia.  I'll be spending a few weekends there this spring, and I look forward to exploring this city that I'm coming to like more and more with each visit.  Maybe I have a soft spot for old Ben, being an F&M alum, or maybe it's the fact that the mortgage payment on a 3-br house is as much as the rent for my studio apartment.

Anyway, I'm not actually sure what the name of this bridge is so if anyone does, please post in the comments. 

And as always a close up.

You can tell the lights are on from the light bursts.

Happy first day of Spring!  Although the forecast tomorrow calls for snow.  We might as well be living in Canada!

Quick Personalized Stationary

As you can probably tell from my frequent post about cards, I love sending mail. When a boxed card just won't do, and you are short on envelopes, it's easy to whip up a quick, personalized bit of stationary using stamps, cover stock, and some fun paper. 

Leave a pretty note on the car you hit and the owner can't be mad.

To create a unique envelope, simply deconstruct another envelope (make use of that junk mail), trace the shape onto scrapbook paper or some other lightweight paper, cut and reassemble.  Cut your cover stock to fit inside and adorn with your personal monogram or anything else you can come up with.  Don't limit yourself to stamps either!  Now you can write your correspondences like they are always doing on Downton Abbey when they aren't killing off main characters.

A heartfelt apology.

Now you have a very personal note ready in 10 minutes or less!  I'm sensing a "quick and easy" theme starting to emerge for March.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy V-day! 8-bit style love to my readers!

Conversation heart puffy stickers by Hallmark courtesy of Dad.

A wedding at the zoo!

You can imagine how excited I was to be working with Rachel and Clay when they told me their wedding next year would be held at the Bronx Zoo!  What a unique and nontraditional venue that allowed for some really creative stuff.  After speaking with the bride, we'd have to find the right balance between zoo theme and classy wedding, so it doesn't look like a child's birthday party.  To keep it elegant, I went with simple animal silhouettes in black on bright white linen paper.  As a personal touch, one of the silhouettes is actually the couples' rambunctious mutt, Hannah!

I took several stabs at this, and here's one of the alternates, more modern and casual with different kinds of type mingling.

All the animals at the zoo get along swimmingly

The final invitations just printed and I'll post them shortly, along with the official save the date.

Making this year's holiday cards

Truth be told, I was pretty unmotivated to make Christmas cards this year, or even writing out store bought ones.  But after a lazy afternoon of watching Home Alone, inspiration struck.  I freehand carved this design into a speedball speedy-cut rubber block, and went for some glitz by using metallic inks.

Here they are drying on my clothing rack (a very good place to dry cards)

I even did a little experimenting with red paper and leftover white ink, which I'm totally diggin'.

The festivities start tomorrow night for my family, and the weather is predicting a possible white Christmas.  Well, 1-3 inches which will melt immediately but I'll take it!

French tea bridal shower invites

These bridal shower invitations combine watercolor painting with digital printing to fit the girly, French-inspired theme.  No poodles, pink stripes, or baguettes here.

Toile wedding invitations

Courtney is one of my best childhood friends and the most efficient wedding planner I've ever met. She had almost everything in order close to a year in advance, the benefit of being a teacher and having the summer off.  I'm lucky enough to not only be a member of the wedding party, but also to get to design the stationary for her and her fiance, Mark.

The inspiration for the set came from the toile china that the bride's mother had.  Her flowers will be hydrangeas, picked from her grandmother's garden.  With those two things in mind, the design came together easily in my mind, executing it was another story.  I attempted photographing, photoshopping, and drawing, but nothing seems to get that toile look.  There's lots of toile stuff out there, but finding hydrangeas proved very difficult. Luckily I stumbled upon my saving grace, Wikimedia Commons, which offers freely licensed and public domain images (that means use them without fear of being sued). Nice!  A little photoshopping and the rest came together for a classic and elegant look.

Printed on bright white felt stock.

Tokens from San Francisco

I recently took a trip out to San Francisco to visit some friends and see why so many people are migrating to the Bay City. While I don't know if I could get used to the unchanging temperature and the rapidly changing weather, it is a pretty awesome place. And what trip would be complete without picking up some paper goods as momentos?  Sometimes letterpress is just too hard to resist.

This map-ish card is by Karen Jean Organics for Loose Petals

A bright skyline letterpress card from Hello! Lucky

"Growing Horns" print by Leah Duncan

Love the soft colors and organic detailing

Paper bird garland from Lamali. I still can't get over birds.

I also bought some of that blue paper that changes colors in the sun. It's been probably 20 years since I last played with this, so lets see if I can come up with anything more interesting than an arrangement of leaves found in my front yard.

Use this paper to trick children into doing chemistry.

Here are a few extra things worth including in this post. I was hoping to get more street art, but I stopped trying to take pictures while riding a bike after almost colliding with one of those Lance Armstrong types.  

In the Haight

This was just a picture I really liked that has not been photoshopped.  Taken in Alamo Square.

Those are my three friends, not aliens

Can't wait to go back!

Watercolor bridal shower invitations

When given the task of sending out the bridal shower invitations for a good friend, I couldn't just go with store bought ones and miss an opportunity to showboat.  But not only that, it was a chance to design something without a client; I had free reign to do whatever I liked.  

Since I'm in the midst of several wedding related projects right now, I've been hitting the blogs hard, and came across this excellent tutorial from Oh So Beautiful Paper and put my own twist on it.  I loved the idea of doing something two sided.  It added so much style to what could have just been a simple card.  After painting the watercolor flowers (check the tutorial for how to), I grabbed a few of them from the back in Photoshop, and used them to adorn the front.  Using old typewriter font went along with the vintage feel of the whole thing, and the delicacy of the flowers was partnered with a simple script.  One learning was not to make the watercolor too light, or the scanner won't pick it up.  

They were printed out on Neenah 110lb Natural White Classic Crest paper, which is tough to cut by hand, fyi.  The envelopes are Laid Continental Blue, picked up from Paper Presentation.  Beautiful and classy, much like the bride before she is corrupted at the bachelorette party.  More pics below!

Taken by the Hand is turns 1 today!

Birthday cupcake watercolor

One year ago today Taken by the Hand was born! Conceived out of the desire to motivate myself to get back to my roots in fine arts and crafts, I'm happy to say that it's been more successful that I'd hoped.  It's also given me the chance to share what I've been working on, whether it be a quick sketch,  a 3 month long woodblock print, or a seasonal decorating project.  Putting yourself out there can be a little scary no matter how many times you do it, so I thank you, my readers, for all your support.  Look at me, pouring my heart out.  Check back often as I make my way through the list of projects I have in my head, and remember to create, always, in whatever way you choose!

Einstein won the Nobel Prize...

...but not for his theory of relativity!  It was in fact his discovery of the photoelectric effect that won him the award.  This information is a great pickup line for a guy OR a girl and may be useful one day during bar trivia.

This sketch of Einy is actually the front of my bf's valentine's day card.  We are sometimes dorky-cute like that, but not in an annoying, Zoey Deschanel kind of way. 

A New Year's Wedding

In order to avoid Christmas overload, here's a New Year's wedding invitation.  I made these for some friends of mine who wanted a festive party feel to their invitations, since we'll be poppin' bubs and dancing 'til the world ends.

They were printed on pearl linen paper, which has a gorgeous shine and sparkle to it that unfortunately doesn't photograph well.  They were then mounted on black card stock and put into gold envelopes.  The bride even added some extra sparkle by adhering a few little jewels to the firework centers (not shown).  I'm really happy with they way they turned out and I can't wait to celebrate the big day!

The full set

Close up of invitation

Close up of RSVP

Another card from Christmas past

Here's another card from '09, or maybe even '08, I can't really remember.  This one was designed in Illustrator and screen printed onto a bright white cardstock.

Last year's holiday cards

Since I started this blog last February, I wasn't able to show the process of making my holiday card from 2010.  The design was created in Illustrator, carved into 2 linoleum blocks, and then hand printed.

Slight ink variations. Ah, the beauty of hand printing!

I usually like to go with some warm and fuzzy Christmas lyrics, but nothing that straight up says "Christmas" so that I can send it to my non-Christian friends.  For this year I'm thinking "Tidings of comfort and joy."  And of course I love type, so it'll be very type-centric.  

Suggestions?  Post them in the comments.

Halloween is approaching

A few years ago I made these Halloween cards and recently came across them in the closet while switching out my summer clothes. They are collaged out of patterned scrapbook paper, as I am surprisingly not into scrapbooking but I love those big tear off books of paper. Maybe this year I'll actually send them!

Summer cards

Here are a few cards I created last night using clear stamps.  I went in without much of a plan other than giving them a patterned look. They ended up having the feel of Hawaiian printed fabric, especially the green and yellow which is my fav.  Perfect for writing notes to your teacher friends about how bitter you are that they get summers off!

My bedroom floor makes everything look orange

Mom's love homemade things

Happy Mother's Day!
Since I have a very wonderful mum who loves when I make her things, I used my new clear stamps to create this fun and simple card.  The ink runs off the page for a full bleed effect, which makes it look more professional (the overprint of the flowers helps with that as well).  Simply put a large piece of scrap paper under the surface you are stamping so that you can go off the edge without inking your tabletop.  Be gentle when you push on your stamps or you'll end up with a smudged "M" like I did.  Don't worry, my Mom still loved it!

Thanks moms!

Remember, moms are the original creatives!