Wall Flowers and Lollypop Trees

It was brought to my attention after the post on the short one’s room, that I have not provided a post on the smallest one’s room. She arrived 20 days early with a pop and a suprise so we had to finish up after she was here. It is pretty cute and so I am happy to share. I love the deer art on the wall by Larkspur Studio’s there is also a fabu piece on the upper shelf by Fort Guerin. The couch is a re-covered vintage piece and the rug is from IKEA it is called LUSY BLOM.

Trees and woodland creature letterpress art

Floor and wall flowers

Lolly pop trees

wall flowers

close up flower

close up flower

close up flower

The short one's contribution to her little sister's room

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Setting up your wordpress blog

Since I have been teaching blogging to my students at ASU this semester I thought it might be a good idea to post the How To here. Happy Blogging!

How to Post to your WordPress blog

1. Go to http://wordpress.com/

2. On the far right click on “sign up now”

3. Fill out this one-step form

Note the user name will be your blog name

Fill out completely

Click “next” at the bottom of the page

4. Blog Domain will be:   username.wordpress.com

5. Change blog title if need be to how you prefer it to read

Click “signup” at the bottom of the page

6. Check Your Email to Complete Registration

7. From your e-mail click the link to activate your blog – it will open to a new window and say “Your account is now active!”

8. Log In

9. Will open to your dash board

10. On the left hand side – click on “posts”

11. Click on the box next to “Hello world!” and trash this. You do not want your first post to be the automatically generated post.

12. Click on Appearances (on left hand side)

13. Choose a theme – don’t over think it just choose one – you can change it 10 minutes later!

14. Also under Appearances is widgets. Click on this to select items you’d like to have appear on your blog such as Archives or calendar. When you find one you want just drag it over to the right to place it under “Sidebar” give it a title. As an example you may want to title archives and previous posts.

15. Users should only be you – unless you want to have a shared blog then you can set up others.

16. Click on Settings –

Under General: remove the “Just another WordPress.com weblog” all together or add your own sub-title. Make any other changes needed and up load an image if desired. At bottom click on “save changes”

All others under Settings– just do a quick click through to make any changes that seem appropriate for your needs.

17. Tools – unlikely that you will need to make any changes under this option.

18. upgrades – no need to add and $$ on at this time – maybe something to investigate down the road.

19. The only other tab you may want to mess with today is the links tab – if you have a website you may want to link it to your blog. Click on the links tab on the left hand side (mid way down) REMOVE the wordpress.com and wordpress.org. Click “add new”  Name it and then paste the web address in, add a description if it makes sense to do so. Do not worry about Target, links relationship or Advanced at this time. Click the blue “add link” to the right. Do this for as many locations as you want to link.

20. How To Post:

· Click on posts on the left hand side

· Click “Add New”

· Fill in a title at top

· Type text in large box below (make sure the grey tab “visual” is selected unless you know html (NOTE: visual is the default) The menu is also right there above the big box much the same options as in Word.

· To add photos, video, audio, media or polls – click on the icon next to “Upload/Insert” and follow the step by step instructions. Make sure all photos or other media meet the DPI settings or they will not load. Generally the same as for a low res e-mail or facebook.

21. To add in a hot link: Highlight the word(s) you want to link – the button in the menu that looks like a chain link will highlight  – click on that button – under Link URL: fill in the web address you want to link to, under Target: always select “open link in a new window”. Do nothing with title or class.  Click “insert” It will automatically return to your post page and that which you highlighter will now be a different color and will be a link.

22. Do not worry about Excerpt or Send Trackbacks

23. Under Discussion – click “allow comments”

24. On the right hand side under Post Tags:  type (titles for content) for your post each time you post inside the box that says “add new tag” then click the “ADD” button. This creates your tags cloud. Once you have a tag under a specific thread of content you need not type it again. Instead click on “choose from the most used tags in Post tags” this will drop down all your tags to choose from.

25. Categories – you can do this same thing to create and use categories – treat these like a menu of options you might have on a website.

26. Once you feel good about all elements of your post click “PUBLISH” once the “waiting” circle has stopped spinning you can click “view post” at the top of the page to see what it looks like. If you have found anything you are unhappy with either click the back button or click “edit” under your post. You can then make changes and the click UPDATE to save those changes.

NOTE: when you receive the welcome info e-mail from word press – save it. It tells you how to make important changes.

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Make at MADE

The workshop at MADE was a fun one yesterday – thanks to all who came out to play. We made many, many V-day cards and love letters. We looked at poems, quotes and craft materials for our inspiration. There will be more opportunities in 2010 to pop in for a workshop at MADE. Hop over to their site and join the mailing list so that you are informed or subscribe to my list and I’ll let you know. Get inspired here though and get to making your own love notes! Here’s some pics from the day.

YUDU screen printed roller skate on notebook paper, rubber stamped cupcake, buttons and card stock - by me

workshop in action

Card - by me, made with a cut doily, card stock and rubber stamps

A participant working away

Card - by me, made with card stock, ribbon, drawing pen, rubber stamps and glitter

Card - by me, made with card stock, doily, button and rubber stamp

Card - by me, made with card stock, rubber stamps, drawing pens, ribbon and embossed hearts were made with a cuttlebug embossing folder

Card - by me, made with card stock, foam stickers, rubber stamps and foam designs cut from the cuttlebug quilling kit

workshop participant

A workshop participants design

A workshop participants design

A workshop participants design

A workshop participants design

A workshop participant

A workshop participants design

A workshop participants design

A workshop participants design

A workshop participant

Card by me using card stock, rubber stamp, felt, buttons, poof ball and notion trim

A card design by me using card stock, felt, foam stickers, buttons, embossed stock using the cuttlebug heart embossing folder and heart wings embossed and cut from Sizzix Hello Kitty Series

A workshop participants design

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local eats

Finally made it to Lo Lo’s Chicken and Waffles and none too soon as they are about to be featured on a TLC show about comfort food. That means the place will be packed and they’ll have to start taking reservations. Eight of us went together to this fun local dive and we all really enjoyed the waffles and the chicken. The sides were mediocre but hey if you just eat what they tell you to  – the chicken and the waffles your fine! Afterward we ventured around the corner to the Papago Brewery. I thoroughly enjoyed my coconut and coffee stout mmmmmm . . . . . beer dessert!

The famous chicken and waffles

grits with a 1/2 cup of butter on top!

big o' mugs of tea - the northerners in our group all had regular and the southerners had sweet

my coconut and coffee beer

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Craft Celebs and other cuties

A few other CHA shots I have to post. The first few are shots from a pen booth. A dress made from pen caps – ooh la la. Then a shot from the Provo Craft Party of Megan Nicolay (Generation T) and Mark Montano (Big Ass Book of Crafts)  both of whom have new books out. I had to take a shot of Sarah Moore of CraftCritique tote bag covered in cool buttons. There is a shot of me chatting it up with Gabi from CraftWell, one of me and my mixology buddy Erin Basset of creativitE and a shot of me with the Queen of crafts herself Aleene of Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue! What fun we had!

Dress made from Ink pens and pen caps

Close up of the pen cap dress

Megan Nicolay and Mark Montano

Sarah Moore of CraftCritique

Me with the Gabi from Craftwell

Check out this cutie at a paper company booth - her heels had hearts on them! Cute stuff!

Heart heeled, paper cuties booth

super fun booth decorations

me with erin bassett from creativitE

Me with Queen of Craft - Aleene of Aleene's Tacky Glue

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Edie Harper – Rest In Peace

Edie Harper
1922 – 2010

Charlie Harper is smiling as his beloved wife joins him. The rest of us are saddened by the news of her death.

From the Harper’s Studio:

Edith Riley McKee was an only child born in 1922 in Kansas City, Kansas.   A dreamy child, she moved with her parents to Liberty, Missouri, when her father chose to open a short-order restaurant.   On trips to see relatives on their farms and small ranches in the Sand Hills of Nebraska, she developed a lifelong love for animals and the vast, lonely expanses of the Middle West.

The family moved again, to Cincinnati, in the 1930s when Edie’s father landed a position with Procter & Gamble.   They lived in an apartment on Springfield Pike while Edie attended Wyoming High School (graduating in 1939), all the while creating art at a level beyond  her actual years.   The desire for formal art training burned in her heart.   So in 1940 the respected Art Academy of Cincinnati welcomed Edie as one of its most eager new admissions.

On the first day of the program, on the steps of the administration building, Edie met an equally earnest young man from West Virginia, Charley Harper.   In classes and conversations, she learned that he shared her admiration of painters such as Miro and Klee.  They studied printmaking with the Stampers and were fortunate enough to spend a semester with legendary Josef Albers, visiting to teach his Color Theory course.  For several years afterwards Albers sent Edie his hand-screened Christmas cards.

When Charley was drafted for service in World War II, Edie interrupted her classes to aid the war effort in a civilian capacity.   She photographed hydro dams and cement test samples and processed the film in the lab for the Corps of Engineers.   Later, she would receive critical acclaim for the black and white photographs she took with her 8 x 10 camera employing her own imaginative subject matter.  This resulted in an exhibition at the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center.

Soon after the war, Edie and Charley resumed their studies at the Academy.   Following graduation in 1947, they embarked on a six-month camping honeymoon throughout America.   Edie kept an illustrated journal.   Every day they sketched and painted, occasionally the same natural setting, and compared the results.

Upon their return from the honeymoon, Edie and Charley maintained separate studios in the basement of Edie’s parents’ home in Roselawn.   The young couple helped care for Edie’s father, who had multiple sclerosis, and were able to save Charley’s earnings from his day job at Schaten Studio.   In 1953 Edie gave birth to their son, Brett, named after California photographer Brett Weston.   Throughout the 1950s Edie continued painting, supplemented by a rich output of jewelry, contemporary photography, enameling, sculpture, and silkscreen prints.

In the 1960s Edie added weaving to the roster of media she had mastered.   During this decade she converted to acrylic paint and completed a series of grid-centric images.   Toward the end of the 1960s, Edie returned to explore an early, just-hinted-at interest in the design possibilities provided by stories from the Bible.

Thompson Hall Jordan Funeral Home will be handling details. Reverend Sharon K. Dittmar of First Unitarian Church will preside over the service. Wednesday January 27, 2010

Edie Harper print

Charlie and Edie Harper in the early days


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crafty charity

There is a lot of giving and charity in the world of crafters. While at CHA – I was able to screen-print on draw string bags that attendees were sewing with The American Sewing  Guild . These bags will be filled with goodies and shipped to the troops overseas.

I also stopped by the scrapbook royalty crop night to see about 300 gals and two guys with all of their crafting supplies laid out. This was a charity event benefiting The Kids in Need Foundation. There were also raffles and a silent auction with goodies given out by Provo Craft, Fiskers, Ellison and more. Pretty impressive!

Screening draw string bags for the troops

Screening draw string bags for the troops

scraping for a cause

a crafty set up

give-a-way time

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Crafty PJ Party

Me and Sarah the pro screen printers we are – pitched in and screen printed 125 tote bags for the Inspired by Home Pajama Party. It was a whirlwind that was down to the wire to get all of them done and laid out to dry before the party started. We went back to visit during the party and the gals looked like they were having a lot of fun in the PJ’s, slippers and hair curlers.

Sarah screening the PJ party bags

A shot of the PJ party bag

shot of the PJ party bags drying

Tiffany Windsor in her PJ's

Curler Cutie

PJ Party Craft - button flowers

PJ Party Craft - Fabric Bracelets

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What is that on your jacket?

It’s ink people! Demoing the YUDU and Your Story for Provo Craft the last couple of days has been super fun. While all the other peeps in the booth are wearing nice clean white bakers jackets –  mine is covered in red screen printing ink. What can I say I am trained as a painter and don’t generally concern myself with such things. After talking my throat raw (thanks for those who brought me water and cough drops!) I am reminded how great it would be to have screen printers in all of the schools just like the die cutters that are in every school. What great fundraiser opportunities! Another mission for me to focus on. Here are some booth shots from the last couple of days.

chatty me

Provo booth showing off the new Cricut Cake Machine

Provo booth - YUDU and Your Story section

Me and Erik at the Provo Booth

Having an envy moment with the new pink cuttlebug which is not yet on the market

Showing my tip for quick drying the YUDU screen - a hairdryer

Little cakes we were printing and decorating

Cute little cupcake box I made using the new Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge

cute cupcake I made and put in the box

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CHA ooo la la

First day at Super Crafts Show / Craft and Hobby Association Convention (CHA) was a whirlwind of activity. We work at the Provo Craft booth all day chatting with conference attendees about the YUDU.

Also, some props out to other friends we made fun projects with during breaks. Craftster folk making buttons, Plaid folks busting out the Mod Podge, cute stuff at taylored expressions and the Zip Dry glue peeps. Oh yes and my girl Sarah from S-Spencer Studios and finally a whoot out for Scrapbook Royalty who does so much good charity work.

We were welcomed with a fun balloon lounge. We walked around for a bit before settling into to screen posters for attendees. I have so much more to blog about but since it’s sprinkling we need to run over to the Convention Center. More soon . . .

craft lounge

fabric cupcake tower

love this table cloth and flag banner by taylored expressions

we did a make it take it with zip dry paper glue - i was impressed it was like liquid rubber cement

Making a super fun button at Craftsters booth

Michael's make it take it - duct tape wallet

Sarah killing it with some Mod Podge

cutie from Craft Royalty - I want her necklace

pretty little number

Craft Lounge

She is so ready to roll up her sleeves and get crafting!

Sarah shopping the fair

cute fabric flag banner

pretty!

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