Chairish Room Challenge

I was recently contacted to participate in a room challenge by Chairish, have you heard of them? It's a super cool site where you can buy and sell furniture. This is a dream come true for my unhealthy mid century modern obsession! The challenge was to take an accent chair found on their site and design a whole room around it fitting in the theme "White to Bright." Again, total dream! My whole apartment is "White to Bright." I envision this room with white walls and the furniture and accessories adding all the color! Below is what I came up with.

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Camping Party Invitation

So if you follow Design Fancy you know I love to throw parties! Actually I love any excuse to design an invitation, and Mason's second birthday was the perfect excuse! If you haven't noticed, my last name is camp and that is what I went with for the theme, a camping party. I was going for less campfires and tin foil dinners, and more for a retro summer camp sort of a feel.

More often than not, my design process becomes experimental. I knew I wanted there to be a crest sort of shape that acted a sort of the summer camp logo. I also knew I wanted it to look stamped and retro. I don't generally like when something is faux stamped in photoshop or illustrator, you can usually tell. I also knew that I could not afford to purchase custom rubber stamps (I looked into it, it would have been pretty pricey). While I was racking my brain to try and figure out how to achieve this look, I remembered an art project I did with kids while working in an after school program in Idaho. Styrofoam Printmaking! Have you heard of it, or tried it before? Google it! I have done it before, but didn't think of it as a serious art form. People, it is! Basically all you do is gouge into a styrofoam plate with a ball point pen or some other pointy tool, paint over it and press it on paper. You can create some pretty sweet stuff with this technique! The possibilities are endless. I'll share more about the process next week.

So back to the invitation...My sister and I stayed up real late one night gouging and painting different shapes on plates (thanks Lollie), then I scanned them in and added the type. All the fun shapes started out on a styrofoam plate.

I love how it turned out! It's bright and fun, but not babyish. It was the perfect intro to his fun little party! Check back in next week for more party details (the party favors were real cute) and more on styrofoam printmaking.


P.S. If you think you would like this for your own party leave a comment. If I get enough interest I'll create a version for my etsy shop.

Happy February

Happy February Friends! I hope January treated you well. January in California has been amazing! I actually like winter again now that we aren't living in Idaho.

I thought since it's the first day of February I share some past valentines posts in case you're already looking for pink and red decor or you want to start DIYing some heart day cards.

For decor check out this post that is pictured above. You can print out the letter outlines and watercolor them like I did, or here's a fun idea, let your kids do it! So fun! I think I might do it again and let the little one have his hand at it.

Looking for a fun and different valentine to hand out? Check out the Lips ans 'Staches post for the printable. Want to make this Idea really fresh? Print the lips and mustaches on fun and funky colored paper! Neon pink lips? don't mind if I do! A green mustache? That's just crazy!

Be sure to check back on Monday! I have 3 new and really fun valentines to share and I will be showing off the first one on Monday! See you then.

Adding "JOY" to Your Home

Hello friends! are you ready for Halloween? I been busy making a few Halloween and Christmas projects and I thought I would offer them to you as well!

Aren't these so cute? Have you seen any string art on pinterest lately? I thought it was such a cool and simple idea so I created a few patterns myself. I decided to mix the sting art with vinyl and painted graphics as well.

So do you want to add a little "JOY" to your home? Not only are they great decor for your own home, but they would make great gifts as well! Contact me if you would like one of the designs above or something COMPLETELY CUSTOM, like a name or an initial or maybe a thanksgiving turkey, or something you dream up yourself. I can create just about anything with nails and string! You can pick the size and color of your board as well as the colors of the embroidery floss.

Think you'd like to create one yourself but don't really know where to start? I am also selling the patterns for the projects seen above, I can also create you a custom pattern for you to print and use to create your own board.

If you are interested in pricing for any of these or something custom, please leave a comment below and include your email. You can also contact me directly through my email listed at the top of the blog.

Nautical Birthday Invitation DIY

**UPDATE- TO PURCHASE THE NAUTICAL INVITATION CLICK HERE!**

Happy Monday friends! How was your weekend? Ours was lazy, but it was great! Today II am finally sharing Mason's 1st birthday invitation with you, as well as how to create the same obre effect yourself.

For me, the basis of any good party is the invitation. It should set the overall tone for the event and give your guests a little sneak peek of what's to come! I knew from the beginning I wanted some sort of ombre effect on the card. First I tried painting different shades of blue, but since I don't know how to watercolor, it didn't turn out so fabulous (see below).

That's when I saw this post from Say Yes to Hoboken on how to dip dye tags, I thought it would be a great way to get the effect I was looking to achieve on the invitation. I, however, had to change some things up from her tutorial because: 1. I didn't have dye of any sort and I wasn't going to buy any, and 2. I didn't have a can/ cup/ vase or anything tall enough and wide enough to dip the 5x7" invitation. Below is my take on the dip dying process.

You will need:

A large enough baking dish to fit your paper, watercolors (not the dry kiddie kind), a paint brush watercolor paper, a rag, and of course water. (ignore the heart cookie cutters that was for another project).

Mix up your color in the baking dish with the water. Pour in enough water so it's about 1/4" deep. Add more paint depending on how dark you want your paper to get (you can also add more later if it isn't dark enough). Mix the paint with a paint bush to make sure there are no globs of paint on the bottom on the dish.

You will create the lightest color first. Dip your paper to the point where you want the color to start and giggle slightly to avoid a harsh line. Leave it in for just a few seconds and pull it out of the water. If it is the color you desire the dab the bottom on the rag to collect any pooling color and let it sit to dry. If you want that section darker, then put in back in the color for a few more seconds and let it dry.
When it's completely dry repete the process, but don't dip the paper in as far. This time leave the paper in the color a little longer. Continue this process till you have all the layers of color you desire. ** be sure to mix the color with your bush before each layer to avoid the globs of color on the bottom of the dish. If you don't you will end up with very thick, uneven layers of paint.

This is what my paper looked like when I was half done. Notice the little dark spots on the side? Those are globs that I missed!

That is you can dip dye an invitation!

I know what you are going to ask me, "You dip dyed every invitation?" No I did not! I dip dyed 1 invitation and scanned it in. I also painted a few sailboats to scan in so I wouldn't ruin my dip dying. After I scanned everything, I placed the in Photoshop and added my text. 

What do you think? Will you try the dip dying effect on any of your projects?

**UPDATE- TO PURCHASE THE NAUTICAL INVITATION CLICK HERE!**

Mason's Party Sneak Peek

Hello friends. Today I'm getting ready for Mason's 1st birthday so I thought I share a little something from his party. I found cheap little anchor charms and thought it would be cute to add them to the invitation so I went with a nautical theme. I did not, however, end up using the charms.
Next week I'll show you all the little details and a DIY for you! Hope your weekend is awesome! bye.

"Love is Sweet" Banner Download

*UPDATE: LINK HAS BEEN REPAIRED SO YOU CAN NOW DOWNLOAD THE BANNER

Why hello there! How was your weekend?  We threw a little Valentine's shin dig. It was quite fun! This week we are getting ready for Mason's first birthday party! I can not believe it's been a whole year! I should also throw in the fact that he is a walker now (of 3 days) and we have locked up taped up all our kitchen drawers and cupboards (classy right?). Enough of my bragging.

For our party I created this happy banner to hang above the dessert table. Cute right? Do you want one?
I've decided to turn it into a DIY project for you. I will now try and explain how I did it.

I first placed each letter in Adobe Illustrator and reversed them so when they were cut out I could turn them over and not see any lines. I printed them on water color paper that I had laying around and then ON THE BACK did a few swipes of pink water color across the whole page, leaving so white areas. When that dried I went over some of the areas with red. To add some other textures I added salt to the wet water color (it leaves little dots when the paint is dry). I brushed off the salt, cut out the letters, and stapled the to a piece of yarn. The end. It was that easy!

So do you want to make one? CLICK HERE to download the letters. You can print them on any type of paper and do whatever your heart desires to them! You could use markers, colored pencils, or print them on patterned paper. This would also be a fun project to do with kids!

Have a delightful day and check back tomorrow for another Valentine's surprise!

Friday Fancy

Happy Friday friends! How was your week? I'm SO glad it's Friday! Any fun plans this weekend? Are you planning any Valentine's parties? I'll share some ideas for that next week! In the mean time here are some this I discovered this week (isn't the playing card above insane?):

Fashion Playing cards by Connie Lim
Need a pick me up?
Cute Valentine card ideas over on Dandee


image via trendland illustrated by Connie Lim

I had to share...

I saw this cake on Pinterest the other day and about died! Awesome right? It caught my eye because it matches the Ombre Dot wedding invitation in the shop (except it's hearts). 

Wouldn't it be fun to have a cake that matches your invitation? Want a cake like this one? Follow the DIY instructions on Wedding Chicks. You could use any cookie cutter for any shape you want!

image via Pinterest, cake created by Erica O'brian Cake Design

Kiah and Ramon's Invitations

I love a challenge, and this invitation was definitely that! When Kiah and Ramon decided that they wanted a mason jar on their invitation I was so scared. I am not an illustrator and don't pretend to be one, but I worked it out and gave them a mason jar. They loved it and I sort of love it too!

I went with a watercolor look done digitally in photoshop (something I hadn't tried before). This is definitely something I will be trying again! What do you think?

Re-evaluating

Sorry for the silence! I did not plan on taking a break from blogging, especially for that long! It's been good though! I've been thinking a lot about my priorities and what I want (mostly career wise). I've got it all figured out now though, and it feels good!
How are you doing on your resolutions? I'm doing surprisingly well! I'm eating healthy and working out (sometimes twice a day). I'm also trying to step away from the computer more and create things by hand. Notice the water color up above? I made that. Can you tell I have no idea what I'm doing? It's been fun trying something new!
I currently am working on a few projects and can't wait to share them with you! One is Mason's 1st birthday invitations, inspired by this cake.
I hope you have an amazing and productive day and I hope you'll stick around because I'm back baby!

Paper Nativity

This morning I'm leaving for our Christmas vacation, but I could not leave with out sharing this little paper nativity I found via How About Orange. It was created by Marloes de Vries, an illustrator and designer from the Netherlands. I LOVE nativities and I got really excited when I saw this one because this is one you could give to/ make with your kids! There is even an outline version you can color in! All you need is scissors, glue, and maybe some crayons and you've got holiday fun for the whole family! Download the pdf here. HAVE FUN!

Camp Family Christmas Cards

I finally can share our Christmas card with you! I sent them out late last week so I've been waiting 'til people received them to share this with you! I love how they turned out! What do you think?

We decided to go with this card because this will be our last winter in Idaho so we thought it was fitting.

I created a custom backer for us (which you can have too right here). I was inspired by the navy and green in Mason's newborn photos (taken by the amazing Rosalyn).

I also created a wrap around return address label to match (if you want one contact me through my custom page).
I'm proud of this little card and so happy to show off our little family. Thank you so much to those who have supported me in my new little business venture. It's taken a ton of energy and love, so thank you to those who have stuck by me and furthered the new brand!

Unique Custom Gifts

Are you still looking for the perfect gift for someone? Have you thought about something custom? Maybe you have childhood pictures laying around and would like to create something out of them for your mom for Christmas. Or maybe you've seen some subway art on pinterest and want a custom saying for your wall (or someone else's wall) printed on canvas. If you think you would like to give something really personal and special this holiday send me a request on my custom page. Hurry quick! To insure delivery by Christmas orders should be placed by December 15th.

Pinspiration: Wreaths

Happy Friday! Are you so excited it's December? The Hubs only has 2 weeks left of this semester and then it's off to California for 9 days! Saying I'm excited would be a huge understatement! What are your holiday plans? Today I have a little Pinspiration for you. I love having a wreath on my door this time of year and I've been seeing some amazing wreaths on pinterest, so I thought I'd share. Most of these would be pretty easy to DIY as well (if only I had money...).

This first wreath above I fell in love with a few years ago on Martha and then recently rediscovered it on pinterest (link below). Can you tell what it is? Moss! Yup. I was going to attempt making  this wreath but unfortunately I live in a small town and couldn't find the right moss! To recreate this all you need is a wood wreath form, moss, and t-pins. Could someone please recreate this and send me a picture since I can't make one myself?

This one is moss as well but they used a square form! I love when wreaths get an update with a geometric shape!

Gorgeous right? And they look so timeless and effortless!

Have you been introduced to felted balls? You can buy them on etsy in bulk and glue them on a simple wreath form. I'm diggin the red one. The different sized balls give it so much texture!

I die every time I see this one. The white on white with hints of gold makes such an impact!

This beauty is created from dollar store ornaments! So cheap and easy (and no one would suspect it's from the dollar store).

How cleaver is this? They just took a large letter and glued fake berries to it! Easy peasy.

Shut the front door! (no seriously, I want to see your wreath) This last one is my FAVORITE! This is what I would put on my door if I lived near the ocean or in the middle of the desert.
You want a wreath now don't you? Have an amazing weekend!


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