Cafepress new designs in store today

I have two sets of new designs in the shop today.  The first set, honestly I don’t know what happened but I created them in May and then never uploaded them and obviously they’re not doing anything for anyone sitting in a file on my computer!  Inspired by the old war poster text, I created a range of these sayings, one of which is Keep Calm and Carry On Reading!

tote bagpjs

The second set is yet another something I planned to do/started to do a while back and again, never seemed to get around to doing.  Anyway our book group is having a birthday this month so it inspired me to create a bunch of new book related designs and then I found these which I’d totally forgotten about *hangs head in shame*

Still working on the book designs but I thought the journal designs might also be relevant.  The images below are part of a series I’m working on adding, but as usual it all takes time and so for the moment the first items up are the journals 

sexy librarian journal knitting jnlperfume jnl

 

I think journals must be just about my favourite product to create. I love to see how the images look on the finished journal, doesn’t matter what it is, when you see it applied to the journal blank it’s really effective. There are of course more than just four of them! I think there’s about 20 so far listed under the Journal department heading but of course there are lots more available in all the other design departments too. Eventually I will copy them over so that all the journals are in one place to make them easier to find and browse through. Clicking on any of the above images will take you to the relevant details page in the Cafepress shop.

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design course 3

This course continues over the summer and so the next assignment is due later this month.  This time we have to design a board game!  My problem is that after doing the javascript course last year my brain keeps thinking up ways of making it a javascript game (if only I’d been thinking like that during that course!) but I think I finally worked out a way yesterday of getting what I want into a board game format.  I have lots of notes and rough sketches but nothing tangible just a concept.  I think I’ve lost my mojo too :(  Results of the previous assignment were good but not as good as I hoped they would be.

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Project Runway Australia Season 3 Episode 1 July 4th 2011

project runway australia The third season of Project Runway Australia has finally started.  It’s been two years between Season 2 and Season 3 and it’s been a looong wait.  A number of problems from what I can remember including finding a new host for the show has caused the delays but we now have Megan Gale as the host, Alex Perry as the mentor.

Both of them work for David Jones and it does seem like a David Jones sponsored show with the accessories wall being stuffed with David Jones product and Megan being the face of David Jones and Alex being a David Jones designer!  Bothered?  Not really, I’m just glad it’s back.

I love Project Runway – all of them – but one thing that does annoy me is how scripted it is.  Sure it’s great to have catchphrases but this show takes it to another level!  Anyway, on to the show.

designers

  • Amanda McKenna, 36, from Western Australia
  • Anna McEachran, 31, from Western Australia
  • Anthony Allars, 34, from New South Wales
  • Claire Hocking, 24, from Victoria
  • Craig Braybrook, 45, from Victoria
  • Dylan Cooper, 21, from New South Wales
  • Gabrielle Stephens, 40, from Victoria
  • Johnny Schembri, 23, from New South Wales
  • Matcho Suba, 27, from Victoria
  • Nerida Bourne, 21, from New South Wales
  • Rachael Perks, 21, from New South Wales
  • Timothy Godbold, 42, from Western Australia

12 new designers, all desperate to prove themselves, hog the camera and bitch about the rest.  First impressions of the designers at the beginning of the show – you know, when they met each other and choose their rooms etc, and give us a snapshot of themselves – Anthony, Gabrielle, Johnny, Matcho, Nerida could have potential based on first impressions.  Pink-obsessed Rachael is on my off list immediately due to all the pink and her attitude “watch out I’m sneaky”.  Really?  How about just winning by working hard and showing us your design qualities and not because you’re sneaky.  The hair looks like straw too, and she reminds me of a pink anime waitress or something.  Harsh?  maybe but this is first impressions time.  Not sure about Nerida, I don’t think I like her attitude too but I’d like to see more of what she can do.  Craig = bitchy queen.  Don’t like his attitude at. all.  Timothy “I haven’t sewn anything or done any pattern-making for 25 years” hmmm if that’s true then he did an awesome job with his dress.  It looked flawless.  The other 4 were forgettable in this first episode.

modelsThe task:  choose your model – all models dressed in shortie black robes – and then surprise surprise they take the robes off and the big reveal is that they are draped in the fabric you will have to use – satin, wool, chiffon – each in a different colour.  The challenge is to make a cocktail dress – some of these colours don’t really lend themselves well to the idea of “cocktail”.  I felt sorry for Anthony getting the yellow!

I don’t know why these shows are so bitchy.  I watch Masterchef Australia and that has a totally different atmosphere, people are even giving up their spots so someone else can follow their dream, but these guys all are all stab you in the back whilst smiling at your face.  I wonder if it’s a requirement of the show though, that they have to show that.  All the PR shows are the same so maybe it’s in the format.  Masterchef US is also bitchy so maybe that’s what people want to see?

Anyway, there’s a scene where Anthony is struggling to get finished and Craig is finished and says to camera that he could have offered to help him finish but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.  Poor old Anthony turned up on the runway with an unfinished dress pinned together and was the first fashion victim.

 

However, with Craig’s attitude I did expect something spectacular from him, but instead he gives us this hot mess:

craig1I’m sorry but what is this?  A cross between a Pretty Woman wannabe and a bad bridesmaid dress?  Yikes!  I do wonder what Anthony’s dress would have turned out like if Craig had helped him.  Anyway I think the unfinished yellow dress looks much better than this.

 

 

 

So that’s the worst, now on to the best.   Johnny’s purple dress was very well made, well sewn and looked like it filled the brief perfectly. It was also the winning dress! First impressions of Johnny are positive so far. He didn’t seem bitchy and he just got stuck into the job at hand and did a good job of it too.   Johnny has his own women’s fashion label “By Johnny” which is currently stocked in boutiques around Australia – not bad for a 23 year old!  Last year he won the Peroni Young Designer Award.

 

I thought Gabrielle’s dress was very pretty and well made but perhaps had missed the mark as a cocktail dress.  I liked the dress though but I would have to tidy up all those threads as that would drive me nuts.

Gabrielle is one of the more mature designers at age 40, and has studied Design and high fashion.

 

The third dress they liked was this one by Dylan.  The judges really seemed to like this one and I thought they might have picked it at the winner.  I don’t like it at all.  It’s probably well made – I couldn’t see any details – but I don’t like the shape, the cap sleeves, and the way it looks like a top and skirt rather than a dress.  The light top and dark bottom cut the model in half and makes it look like separates.

 

NEXT WEEK:  looks like they’re recycling old clothing to make something fabulous!  Love those challenges, really separates the creative from the non-creative.

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Birthday Present for Mum finally arrived!

This is what I ended up giving mum for her birthday using the painting I did last month.  Unfortunately it did not arrive in time for her birthday last week, it arrived late so I only just gave it to her on Saturday instead of the Sunday before, which was her actual birthday.  But she liked it and said it was worth the wait!

This is the card using the original design in the previous post.  Yes I liked it so much I have it on my blog header too :)

and then I applied the same design to the little jewellery box.  The colours printed on the box are much deeper than on the card due to what they are printing on.  On the card they are quite pale.

I love the black lacquered look of the box.  They also do this in brown but I think the shiny black looks much better with this Chinese influenced design.  The jewellry is mine btw, I only put it there to give an idea of the size of the box.  Then I also made her a notebook, the one on the left with the cat is for her, the other two are for me :)

I got them printed up via the Cafepress shop of course but this design hasn’t been made public (yet?) as it was a special for Mum.

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design course 2

I finished (!) my assignment with one day to go and I’m feeling quite proud of that.  It was almost catastrophic as I realised after I’d submitted it that there was something wrong with the file size – it was way too small – and was able to resubmit it.  Now if I had submitted it at the last minute I probably wouldn’t have been able to resubmit, so when they tell you not to leave it to the last minute, this is why!

Really enjoyed this part of the course as we got to let the creative juices and our imaginations flow and get hands on by making some prototypes.  I would post up a photo of it but it could be the next big thing!  J/K !!!  Anyway, I’m just relieved to have it finished and submitted on time.

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Macro

Today I found macro and super macro on my new camera and it was awesome!  It sounds silly that I wouldn’t know where they were but actually the camera is new and I haven’t really had time to look at it at all.  For example I only just put the strap on it today even though I’ve had it for two months+.  I had to take some photos of a design problem for my course and the super macro made the photos look fantastic.  This is good news for when I need to take photos for etsy, at least they won’t suck now.  The design problem concerns my phone which is also my camera so it was actually impossible to use the phone to take a photo of… the phone, so I had to resort to testing out the new one.  Glad I finally got around to it.  More in-depth testing is required but I also had to make a birthday cake today for mum’s birthday and ran out of time.

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Embroidery II

Ok really getting the hang of this now and I LIKE it!

Did a few more designs today, some converted and some original but what I find is that now I am actually thinking of designs created for embroidery rather than designing something that will hopefully convert to embroidery.

It does really suck up your system resources though :(

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