Vintage Typewriter Love

So I have aspirations of getting on the Project Life bandwagon (well... sorta PL, my own version of it anyway, but more on that later) so I've been snapping onsie-twosie little photos here and there to you know, tell the story of my life (even if it's pretty bland).

So one day last month I arrived at work to find this on my desk:

The cutest, most amazing little blue typewriter ever, right? :)

I'm pretty sure if you'd taken a picture of me spotting this typewriter, I would have pretty much looked like a kid on Christmas morning.

And well, it's pretty much guaranteed that nothing better was going to happen that day to beat the discovery of the best vintage typewriter, ever, right? So when my coworkers weren't looking (to wonder why this crazy person was holding a photo shoot in her cube with a typewriter as the subject), I snapped this pic.

And then of course it was way too cool to be a tiny little 4x6 daily card, it needed it's own special page. Something to convey the angelic singing I heard when it appeared, the rays of sunshine that emitted from my new found little blue joy.... okay, so I may be getting a tad melodramatic here, but work with me... I lead a simple life :)

Oh yeah, and this is where I deviate from the whole PL thing... I mix in 12x12 pages for the things that are extra special.

And thus, this page, filled with washi tape goodness was born.

Complete with the story of the original owner, and how I came to share a little time with this fabulous, piece of vintage goodness. And since starting to use it, only once have I nearly pounded my laptop keyboard to death. Apparently I don't know my own strength :)

Studio Calico, October Afternoon, K&Co, Bella Blvd, American Crafts, Love My Tape, Bazzill

Techniques on Tuesdays: Creating the look of weathered wood

The distressed and time-worn look is all the rage. You can get that look yourself with a few simple supplies.

"Barn Board" Supplies
-"Red Pepper" paint dabber
-Black paint
-1" paint brush (the cheaper and rougher bristled the better)
-wet paper towel
-plate for paint
-Tim Holtz Grungeboard: BASICS - Stripes

Here's how to work this technique:

1. Cut the grunge board in half vertically to create the "wood" pieces.
2. Cover the pieces in "red pepper" paint.
3. Put a small amount of black paint on a plate. Spritz with water.
4. Lightly dip the paint brush in the black paint. Off load a bit of the paint onto the wet paper towel. Then, working from the outside edge toward the center, add the black paint to the red pieces. The key to this technique is to use very sparing amounts of paint and to layer it as needed. Once you've added the black paint and it's dried a little, gently wipe over it with another wet paper towel to tone down the brush marks and blend it into the red.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 until all of the pieces are painted.

To create the look of "nails," check out this post.

Our Little Yankee Doodle Girl

Happy Fourth of July from me and my favorite little Yankee Doodle Girl!

Check this out! Sketching made easy.

Despite resisting the Apple crush sweeping the world for the past few years, I broke down and bought the iPad 3 on the day it was released. To be honest, having been a PC and Android girl, I didn't immediately embrace my new iPad, but one of the reasons I kept it over the Andriod tablet was because of the fabulous retina display. I spend a lot of time viewing design related things and you really can't beat the display on the new iPad.
This past weekend I purchased a Bamboo stylus to use with my iPad and it came with a free app called "My Notes" from Bamboo/Wacom.

If you are a sketch artist, you NEED this app! Not only can you sketch with it, you can also import your actual photos into your sketch. Plus, it gives you options to save them to your photo gallery, email, and/or print. What a handy way to plan pages when you are on the go?!
Here's a quick sketch idea that I drew in just 2-3 minutes.

The possibilities for this are endless! I'm thinking that this app + my card reader would be an awesome way to document project life or a family trip :)

Try it out and leave us a comment!