Download designer Tour de France wallpapers

Raise your hand if you pay attention to the Tour de France. No? Me neither, though I do love chocolate croissants and I would enjoy a tour of France sometime. By car. The cycling race kicks off tomorrow, and in honor of the event, illustrator Eleanor Grosch has released a handful of free wallpapers for desktops, smart phones, and tablets. They're perfect for race fans, bike lovers, or modernist design aficionados. Download them here.

DIY foil cards: a better method

Yesterday I wrote about my ongoing experiments with laser transfer foil and an iron. Results were hit or miss. A lot of miss, actually. I'd been curious what would happen if, instead of fusing the foil to a laser print with my iron, I used my printer to do it (a Brother HL-5250DN). A representative from the company where I ordered the foil, PulsarPro FX, said a laser printer probably wouldn't work for a variety of reasons. They recommend a particular kind of laminator, but I've been too cheap to buy one. Last night I figured I'd try the printer anyway and crossed my fingers that the foil wouldn't get jammed up inside. The verdict: it worked WAY better than an iron.

I have a multi-colored pack of foils— click here and scroll down to "Foil Sampler Pack." That's the one. Or you could buy the "Individually Wrapped TRF" if you want to save some money and just get one color to test first, which is how I started. If you're outside the US, start here to find a vendor, then choose your product.

Here's the process.

First I requested Alex's permission to possibly destroy our printer. Got it, with just a "please be careful" admonishment.


Then I made a design in Illustrator and laser printed it on cardstock.


Next I cut a piece of foil and laid it over the design. I taped all the way along the edge that goes into my printer first and put a shorter piece on the other two corners to hold them down. Hard to see here, sorry.

Tips: Make sure the foil is cut large enough that your tape doesn't cover any part of your design or you'll probably have trouble getting the foil to stick in that area. Make sure you don't get wrinkles in the foil; smooth it down down when taping.


I put the taped-up cardstock back in my printer tray, positioned as if I were going to reproduce the print again on the same side. But this time, I printed a blank document. As the cardstock ran through the printer again, the foil became fused to any toner on the page.


Then I peeled off the loose foil; it only sticks where there's toner. The print above isn't too shabby.


But this here print IS shabby. And not in a chic way. I found that some cardstock works and some doesn't. No idea why; so aggravating. Update: Coated cardstock yields good results! Uncoated cardstock does not.


My white cardstock worked really well. Here's a print with copper foil adhered in a confetti design, inspired by that trend in metallic wall treatments.


Here's more copper in a houndstooth pattern.


Here's an origami unicorn I designed for another project, foiled in red. Fabulous!

So no more ironing. I'm using the laser printer from now on.

More experimenting with iron-on foil

I wrote awhile back about trying to iron metallic foil onto laser-printed paper. See this post and this post for my first attempts and how I ended up working with this stuff. I don't think stationery is its intended use, but I like experiments.

Recently I ran out of birthday cards, so I tried to make some quick foiled options. Foiled being the key word— most of my prints didn't turn out very well and went into the trash.

Using this metallic foil on paper has been hit or miss for me, probably because I'm too cheap to buy this laminator and modify it like the company recommends. I keep trying to make my iron work. I've gotten one or two nearly perfect prints, some decent ones, and A LOT of bad ones where some of the foil doesn't adhere. Here are the best results from my latest attempt.


This project uses metallic film from DecalPro FX. Using my home black-and-white laser printer, I printed black lettering onto cardstock. I laid a roughly-cut piece of metallic foil on top of the printed design. With my iron set on #2, the nylon setting, I slowly, smoothly ran my iron over the foil, pressing very hard. A few sheets of cardboard under the print protected my table.


After the foil was ironed on, I peeled off the excess around the edges, leaving shiny letters where the film adhered to the toner.

You can see these aren't perfect— there are little black flecks showing where no foil stuck to the toner. Among the many variables that can affect outcomes are the type of toner your printer uses, and even the type of paper seems to make a difference. (Heating the toner with a hairdryer first has no affect; I tried that.) I still like the idea of making cards this way. Maybe I'll try again another day or look for another product that might yield similar shiny awesomeness.

Update: I had better results with this method!

DIY folded paper bow tie

Justina Yang of Fiber Lab has invented a papercraft bow tie and made the template available as a PDF. I looooove it. See her post here to grab the folding diagram. If you try folding this yourself and end up with a crumpled paper ball, you can always order one from the Fiber Lab Etsy shop.

Photo by Justina's boyfriend.

Weekend fun at West Elm Chicago

I spent Saturday afternoon at the Etsy pop-up shop in the Lincoln Park West Elm. The store looked fantastic — West Elm did a beautiful job of choosing a location for each artist and integrating their products within the store's layout. I enjoyed wandering around meeting all the local artisans. Man, what a nice bunch of people. Above is Susan from Up in the Air Somewhere.


Kristin from Toast and Jam DJs provided tunes for shopping. I'm not sure who her friend is, but he has an awesome face.


Here's Angela of CircaAD putting something in a tiny bag. Perhaps a necklace with angel wings; they turned out to be a curiously hot item on Saturday.


These laser-cut brooch ladies looked on, modeling fashionable dresses.


Shoppers could purchase wood-block artwork from Lucius Art.


Or Chicago screen prints from Hiroshi Ariyama.


Meg from White Nest displayed her beautiful cushions and had the advantage of a comfy spot for a nap if needed.


Parched shoppers refreshed themselves with all-natural sodas from Seasons Soda.


Hungry shoppers fortified themselves with cocoa orange ice cream cake provided by Salted Caramel. "Hey, see that guy? He needs cake."


Here are Shawna X and Emily from Kissen Studio offering good-looking stationery and pillows.


Jack of Ethically Engineered told us all about making soap in his solar-powered studio. See that fellow with the orange purse? That's my husband Alex, to whom I owe a huge thank you for carrying my stuff all afternoon. A secure man is not afraid to be seen with a handbag.

Thank you to West Elm, Etsy, everyone who came out to support the work of independent craftspeople, and all 12 terrific vendors:
Nourishing Notes
Isette
Virtuality Studio
Second Chance Ceramics
White Nest
Shawna X
Up in the Air Somewhere
Lucius Art
Ariyama Studio
CircaAD
Ethically Engineered
Kissen Studio
Keep making wonderful things!

Music video made with a Silhouette Cameo

Want to see something cool? Blog reader Helen wrote to tell me that after my posts about getting and using a Silhouette paper cutting machine, her husband bought one. And then he used it to make pop-up paper sleeves for his album, plus this amazing music video for one of his songs, 10,000 Letters of Love by The Sound of the Ladies. (The band is one singer-songwriter-physicist guy, Martin Austwick.) To see how he did it, read here.

Helen says a paper-crafty beast has been unleashed. No kidding.

New ribbon designs for dog collars

Bella Bark & Meow enlisted me to whip up some geometric patterns for their latest dog collars and leashes. My favorites are the bow tie-ish triangles and the circular pattern that looks subliminally like martini glasses. These are available here in four sizes.

I spotted a couple other collars with ribbon I'd designed over at Design Sponge the other day. I am taking the dog collar world by storm, people! Ironically, I've never owned a pup, though about 10,328 of them live in my neighborhood.

Random story: although my city has posted signs prohibiting "dog nuisances," there are still folks who can't be bothered to pick up their pets' poo from the grass in front of our building. The other day an anonymous person printed up a small, sarcastic sign that read, "Thanks for being a great neighbor!" and staked it in the lawn next to a pile of doodoo. A friend in the building said he was instantly tempted to make an even tinier sign, mounted on a toothpick, saying, "You're welcome!" And then I had a glorious vision of a long line of signs poked into the grass, each smaller than the next like Russian nesting dolls. In an increasingly passive aggressive, tiny conversation, eventually so small only ants could read it. So awesome.

This Saturday: Etsy pop-up at West Elm Chicago

Need something to do on Saturday afternoon? Come mingle with me and local Etsy artists selling their goods at West Elm in Chicago. This pop-up shop is one day only, so don't blink or you'll miss it!

Saturday, June 22
1pm – 6pm
West Elm
1000 W. North Avenue, Chicago, IL

If browsing handmade art, housewares, jewelry and paper goods isn't enticing enough, let's add some free food and entertainment:

Handmade soda by Seasons Soda
Mini chocolate-orange creamsicles from Salted Caramel (I told West Elm there had to be something orange or I'd refuse to come.*)
DJ-ing by Kristin Marks from Toast & Jam DJs
Photo booth fun by Smilebooth

Spread the word and RSVP here on Facebook!

For a complete list of participating vendors, visit West Elm's blog. The good stuff pictured above: Rabbit by Lucius Art, mug by Second Chance Ceramics, card by Shawna X, bowl by Up in the Air Somewhere, pillow by Kissen Studio, State Street print by Ariyama Studio, pendant by Isette, pomade by Ethically Engineered.

See you Saturday!

*Kidding. I said nothing of the sort. But it was fun to write because it made me sound like a famous person for a second. Or at least a DIY maven, though I am not certain what that is.

Another Inkodye pouch

I've made another Inkodye tutorial, this time posted on the Etsy blog. Click here to read about this fancy lady pouch project.

I'm moving!

I have a bit of news. We'll be leaving Chicago and moving to the Cincinnati area in mid-July! Goodbye, lovely 1920s condo building.


I'm gonna miss this living room that made me feel like I lived in a treehouse.


And this office, from where I am typing right now.

Alex has gotten a new engineering job that he's very excited about, and I can't wait to get my hands on a home to spruce up. My work won't change since few of my clients are local, and even the local ones don't require in-person meetings regularly. Phone and email gets the job done.

It all feels like a fun new adventure. I'll keep you posted!

Coffee break wallpaper

It's Friday. I think we'll all need a coffee break in a little while, don't you? And why not extend that directly into happy hour and roll on into the weekend. In fact, maybe we should tack the coffee break right onto lunch time and just quit right now.

Download this hand-drawn wallpaper for desktops and phones right here from A Pair of Pairs. Happy weekend!

Fold an origami elephant

I made this guy by following a video by Leyla Torres, my favorite origami demonstrator. Forget yoga— if you ever feel stressed out, just put on one of Leyla's videos, lie down on the couch, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and listen to Leyla speak gently about valley folds. Find her instructions for this origami elephant here. The design is by Fumiaki Kawahata.

Make photographic fabric prints with Inkodye

I played around some more with Inkodye, the permanent, water-based dye that develops its color in sunlight. After making easy shadow prints using safety pins and leaves, prints using cardboard cutouts, and a design with a freezer paper stencil, I tried working with a photo negative that I printed at home.

For this experiment, I did a Google image search and set the filters to display large black-and-white photographs. I found an image online that I liked: this desktop wallpaper with a 1962 Ford Thunderbird admired by elegant ladies. "Betty, is that your new car?" "Yes, Shirley. Isn't it mahvelous? Good thing I have a massive driveway so I'll never need to parallel pahk this boat."

I inverted the image in Photoshop to make it a negative and printed it on some old 3M CG3460 inkjet transparency film I found in my closet.

Even if you don't have Photoshop, you can turn any photo of your own into a negative. Bold photos with lots of contrast will work best.

Go to the online image editor Pixlr. Choose "Open image from computer" to upload your photo. From the top menu, choose "Adjustment">"Desaturate" to make the image black and white. Then select "Adjustment">"Invert" to create a negative image. You can also play with brightness, contrast, or levels to get dark blacks and bright whites for good printing. Finally, choose "File">"Save."

Then print the negative onto printable transparency film. Order some from Amazon or the Lumi website. Follow the directions on the package for feeding the sheets through your printer.

If you need larger negatives, try splitting your image in half, printing on two sheets, and taping them together.

Or if printing your own negatives sounds like a pain, you can download the Lumi iPhone app to order custom negatives delivered to your doorstep.

After printing out the negative, I got the fabric ready. A piece of cardboard wrapped with a plastic trash bag makes a great waterproof work surface. I taped my piece of cotton canvas to the board to hold it in place while brushing on dye.

Then I poured a little Inkodye into a cup and brushed it on with a foam brush. Doing this in a room with subdued lighting is important— you don't want the dye to start changing color before you're ready! Try to get an even layer of dye on the fabric. The cloth doesn't need to be soaking wet; just thoroughly coated.

Mix Inkodye with water in a 1:1 ratio to stretch it farther; you'll get the same vibrant color. Or add even more water to get lighter colors. Mix colors to create new hues if you want.

I used a paper towel to blot off all the excess dye I could remove. Too much moisture can cause condensation on the negative, and this can mess up your print.

Then I laid the negative on top of the fabric, printed side up so the ink wouldn't get wet and smear. In case there was a slight breeze outside, I stuck on a piece of tape to secure the negative so it wouldn't blow away. Add more tape if needed, but I wouldn't recommend taping down all the edges or you'll trap more water inside, increasing condensation.

Then I carried the board outside into direct sunshine. See the little animation I made? That's what it looks like as the dye starts to change color from nearly clear to purplish indigo, and eventually to blue. Condensation started to appear which worried me; I've had prints ruined by that before, but this one turned out okay.

After 10 minutes of exposure, I took the board back indoors to a dim room and removed the negative.

Then I immediately washed the fabric with laundry detergent in hot water. The goal is to remove the undeveloped dye from the light areas before it turns color. Scrub really thoroughly or put your print right into the washing machine. The Inkodye company recommends washing it twice. The dye is permanent, so don't worry that you'll wash off the blue areas. They're there to stay, so you can dye clothing and bags and wash them regularly going forward.

Here's the final print.

I decided these ladies needed some friends, so I chose this McCall's pattern fabric for a lining and sewed this print into a zippered pouch.

You could make prints of your kids, your house, your Prius, or your Persian kitty. Print on aprons, t-shirts, hoodies, or pillows. Good times!

Free vector frames and ornaments

Vectorian is a great resource for graphic designers, featuring beautifully digitized vintage ornaments, illustrations, and frames. Best of all, there are some great free .eps files you can download. If you like art nouveau or calligraphic illustrations, and you've got Adobe Illustrator so you can open and use them, go check 'em out!

Quiz: What's your design alter-ego?

Design in a Nutshell is an entertaining series of short videos explaining design movements from the last 200 years. The animations are charming, and the narrator has a fabulous accent and says things like "al-yoo-min-ee-um." Watch the videos here to educate yourself about design history, or take a quiz to determine your design alter-ego.

Your alternate persona will be a mashup of notable names from the movement that best matches your style. I ended up a modernist, then took the quiz a few more times to see the other characters. The postmodernist dude (whose favorite color is Thursday) cracked me up.

Via Swiss Miss.

Easy origami business card stand

In just a couple minutes you can fold an easy double-pyramid stand for business cards or phones. Check out the video tutorial from Leyla Torres right here.

Below is a still from Leyla's video. Wouldn't it be cool to fold a whole bunch of these, hot glue them to cardboard, and hang them on the wall? The trick would be to use gorgeous colors, so you might try this origami pack of 100 different hues. I used some on this thing.