enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

I am so inspired by all the blog suggestions that were left today. Thank you. I have a few goal wrap up posts scheduled for Friday & Monday and then I am going to dive into these. I especially love the idea of getting Paul to write a post or two. That will be happening for sure.

ALSO, it's been a few years since I have done a video post for this blog. (I do them often my workshops.) So I filmed one this afternoon. It's a little rambly - because that's how I roll. But if you want to see the girl behind the blog, check it out. I answer a few questions from today's post that seemed like they would fit the video format. I didn't rehearse, so like I said, it's a little rambly. More questions and answers coming soon. And if Paul is willing, I would like him to do a video with me next week.

elise gets chatty. from elise blaha on Vimeo.

Fingers crossed the video doesn't scare you away. I say "like" and "you know" about eight million times. I'll work on it. And seriously, thank you. My big wall calendar of blog posts is so full right now.

(Giveaway winners will be picked tomorrow morning.)

you give ideas, i give prints! - winners below.

hi folks!

Next month is shaping up to be crazy with the blog workshop and prep work for the craft fair I will be participating in.

Of course, it is also a big priority that this blog stays active and so I'm asking - do you have any suggestions for blog topics? I've got 20 days to fill and not a ton of time to be thinking up blog ideas.

If you'd like me to write about something, please leave a request in the comments. And to sweeten the pot - I am giving away 5x7 digital prints (your choice) to three randomly chosen commenters. Suggestions are always welcome, but this giveaway will close tomorrow (Friday) morning. And the winners will then be announced in this post.

WINNERS : Dawn S, Andrea Miller & Erica. Please email me with the print of your choice and I'll send it out! Thank you!!

poster packaging.

Amidst the blog workshop lesson developing, I am mentally planning out my booth for the Queen Bee Market in early May. This market is going to have a shared checkout which means I will not need to be at my booth for the entire two days. This is great news, as I am looking forward to wandering around (not to mention being able to go to the bathroom). It is also a bit challenging because it meant I needed to come up with a way for my 11x14 posters to be "shopped."

I can't just have them flat out on the table, they are too delicate for that. And I can't have someone (me) at the table at all times to "pull" the poster the customer is looking for. Plus, I think it helps when people don't have to ask for help and can just pick through product on their own.

So I was a bit at a loss for what to do. And then, while driving, I had the idea to roll the posters into plastic sleeves (we used these when I worked at Paper Source to package flat paper for customers) and close off the top with a piece of cardstock and label.

  

I ordered 2x14 inch sleeves from uline and tried packing posters in them yesterday. Happily, the prints fit perfectly.

I am including a small sample image of what is in the plastic on the backside of the cardstock label. As of now, I am planning to machine stitch the sleeves closed between the folded cardstock.

Of course, I am also going to have a few of the posters framed in the booth for display purposes so people can see them at full size.

Fingers crossed these will be easily shopable and will help the posters stay safe.

she & he in march.

He is working a lot.

She is working a lot.

Everything she can think of to say really gets summed up by the first two sentences.

But this set of pictures made her smile so big.

And three cheers for new glasses!

project 3 of 26 / a striped pillow.

I cannot figure out if this pillow idea came to me in a dream or if I saw it while scanning blogs sometime last week. But the pattern and color scheme was very set in my head before I even entered a fabric store.

It's different than the colors I am usually drawn to, that is for sure.

It took much longer than it should have because I was unsure of how to make the stripes do what I wanted to. Because of this, I don't have step by step photos. Also because of this, my stripes are far from perfect and don't measure up quite right.

But what ended up working best was cutting the fabric into strips and then sewing them in a repeating pattern so the ends were like stairsteps.

Once I had my "striped" fabric piece, I sewed another one and then sewed the edges with the stairsteps together so the stripes lined up and formed a "V" down the center of the pillow. It became much more complicated than intended, (and very wrinkly - yikes!) but I am happy with the result.

Instead of using one full piece of fabric for the backside, I used two and hemmed the edges. I pinned the pieces together to form one piece and sewed the front and the back together. After I removed the pins, I had a pocket to slide the pillow insert into. I might need to add a little button to the back to keep it together, but for now it's working well.

Hmmm, maybe I'll get a complete tutorial together for this project ... :)

This is project 3 of 26.

I am attempting to tackle 26 personal craft projects before I turn 27 on 02.22.12. You can follow my progress here on the blog, on pinterest or on flickr.

See project 1 & 2.