Thompson Family-Life

New kits at JessicaSprague.com!

Well, they aren't really "new" but they will now be available in my shop at JessicaSprague. Remember those Washi Tape Frames and Woodgrain Frames digital kits? Well you can now purchase them here instead of at the Kitschy Digitals Blog. Yay!

If you would like to use these for your business, please contact me at thousandclowns(AT)yahoo.com about a commercial or photographer's license.

These can be used to frame photos on your blog, in your blog design, for your digital art/scrapbooking, really the possibilities are endless with digital products like these. Use them over and over - you won't run out like with typical paper supplies! Or print them out (they are high-resolution images.. always!) and use in your paper crafts... so many uses for these!

Here are some artwork examples to inspire you...

 

 

 

You can find more of my digital products here and my professionally printed embellishment sheets with many of the same designs (for those not ready to play with digital!) here.

Be My Valentine Upcycled Instant Photo Card - DIY

These were so much fun! I've had this idea for a few weeks and finally took the time to make them. I almost couldn't stop making them, there are just too many possibilities for these.

It was also fun to do some paper crafting which I don't get to do too often these days!

If you have a Fuji Instax Mini Camera, or any instant camera (Polaroid, etc), you know that you inevitably have those photos that just don't come out the way you had hoped. Especially since my Fuji Instax is fairly new, there's still the learning curve to get past and I often have photos that are just not good. Or maybe they don't even develop totally and they're either pure white or just washed out.

Either way, I have a fairly large pile of ones that just don't make the cut.

But I hate throwing them away! I hate being wasteful in general, but this film is pricey, that makes it even harder when you have ones that don't come out. I was looking at my little pile of rejects one day and thought that they'd be the perfect size for Valentines!

 

You could make these yourself and give to loved ones, or let your kids get a hold of them and embellish to their heart's content. It's more creative than buying the ones at the store and it teaches them about reusing and recycling.

Some things that I did on mine:

- Embellish with stickers

- Cut out hearts with a craft knife and then back the opening with patterned paper (i used vintage wall paper scraps)

- Stamp them with rubber or polymer stamps (I inked part of my "Handle With Care" Horsy stamp - just the horse part -and then handwrote a note with permanent marker. You would probably want to use an ink like StazOn so that it won't rub off.)

- Typeset words and phrases in Photoshop (or Word, or whatever program you have) and then print them onto textured cardstock. Cut out the words/phrases and glue to your photo.

- Draw a heart onto the photo part of the Mini and then punch around the shape with a hole punch. Back the "card" with colored paper so that you can see it through the holes.

- Use a decorative punch like a heart (I used a scalloped circle) and then back it with colored cardstock. On mine, I printed a song lyric onto textured cardstock, centered it in the scalloped circle "window" and then cut off the excess. Tape it to the back of your photo.

- Cover your photo with patterned paper (I used vintage wallpaper) then add phrase/word strips for your message.

- Use the image in your photo to your advantage. On one of my photos, there's a lucky Chinese Cat (remember him?) and I cut out a phrase bubble from white cardstock and then added word strips.

- Think of your own new ideas!

As you can see in the first photo, I created and assembled an envelope that fits a Fuji Instax mini photo. I've created a template that you can download here so you can do the same. I also "lined" my enveloped with some more of that vintage wallpaper scrap.

Don't have a Fuji Instax Mini camera? This would work great with Polaroids too of course!

Have fun and please share a link in the comments section if you end up making some of these!

 

Here's another cute way to use up your reject instant photos over at A Beautiful Mess. :-)

some morning eye candy

A crochet sneaky-peek of a home decor project I'm working on.. I used some leftover yarn from the Gingerbread house that I was working on for Christmas 2009 (which I didn't finish, but I plan to, mind you! ;-)

 

Crochet is seriously way too much fun. I'm so glad that I finally finally picked it up. It took me a while to get over my intimidation of it, but once you "get it", you're off and running!

And a photo of some very very adorable birthday gifts from a very very good friend. :-) Isn't it nice when you have friends that "get" you? That is a very rare thing. HOW did she know that I've been coveting one of those huge plastic ice cream cones (that have bubbles inside!) and one of those Lucky Chinese cats? I'm putting a battery in that baby ASAP so I can watch his arm bobble up and down all day. :-) and all I can say about the wallet is hello, CUTE?!

And some pretty cool news on the blog-front.. I was contacted by a Typepad team member last week interested in adding Thompson Family-Life to the featured directory... that was pretty exciting. And there aren't many times in your life that you get to share a page with David Byrne, Spock and Michael Ian Black (who is apparently a celebrity that is "very famous".)

Nah, I'm pretty sure that won't ever happen again.

: )

(p.s. I'm in good company as well with a friend or two! :-) I'm listed under "Crafts" and "Life")

A blog makeover & my 2010 Calendar

I wanted to invite you to pop out of your Google Reader (or whatever blog reader you use) to check out my blog makeover that's been happening in slow stages over the past couple of months. If you don't use a blog reader, then you've probably noticed things slowly changing!

I've been wanting to "clean up" the look of the 'ole blog for a while. I'm much happier with it!

 

You will find new links to all of my shops, the Kitschy Digitals blog, all of my Tutorials & Freebies, Happy Press for my blog and shops, code for Thompson Family-Life and Kitschy Digitals buttons that you can copy and paste into your blog (thanks for sharing the love!) and lots of links to friends' blogs that you must, MUST check out! There's even a new link to everything pertaining to "My Dolly Life". :-) I'll also have my very first Sponsor ads at the beginning of February so that will be fun. :-) So browse around if you have time!

I've also been meaning to share this AMAZING calendar that I got for myself for 2010. I think I found it via Holly at Decor8.

I've actually mentioned this artist, Jen Oaks, on my blog several years ago and I was so thrilled to be reacquainted with her work! The way she mixes pattern and color is just *gorgeous*. And I love that her work is digitally created! You'd never guess that.

Here's the calendar:

 

I absolutely love that it is centered around "Downtown" life in cities. I feel like every month I can live vicariously through her illustrations. I'm SUCH a city-girl. I would give anything to live right "in town" in a big city. I live in a big city, but I don't really live IN the city, ya know. ;-) I dream about living in San Francisco or NYC and taking my kids out, hopping on public transportation to go here or there.

But it's just not in the forecast for us for now, and really? I think at this point there are too many things that I wouldn't be able to sacrifice for living "in town". Not to mention the money it would take. lol! We have been spoiled by our mortgage. BIG TIME. :-) 

But all that said, there's something very romantic about it all don't you think? Here are some of my favorite illustrations from the calendar...

I think the biggest thing that sold me on this calendar is that you actually have room to write on each day!! As much as I love all of the beautiful calendars out there that I've seen on various design blogs, so many of them have a nice big image and then every single month is under it like the size of a thumbnail. :( I absolutely need room to write. And this has plenty of room, it's quite big! I also love that after a month is over, you can cut off the month grid and you have a perfectly frameable piece of art. Totally more bang for your buck.

And here are some other beautiful pieces from the same artist...

 

 

You can find all of Jen Oaks' work in her etsy shop!

'Twas a good birthday

I wanted to share some of my birthday loot (if you will)... it really was a good birthday. I love my family because they are the kind of gift-givers that point-blank ask you "what do you want and send me a link to it". They give you what you ask for. Which may not be that fun for the typical gift-giver, but I, as the giftee, much appreciates it. ;-)

It's especially nice when you have epiphanies of new craft projects you want to take on, or of home decor ideas that require some moolah to make them happen, and these said epiphanies happen right around your birthday. Always so timely. ; )

I gave Ethan a pretty long wish list of sorts which I think makes it a little bit more fun at least, because you really don't know what you're going to get on that looong list. Keeps a little of the element of surprise.

I opened this little guy (not so little actually.. around 9-10 inches tall? maybe more?) on the morning of my birthday when my 3 boys surprised me with breakfast in bed (which they usually do every year) that included 2 (yes TWO) chocolate eclairs, a bowl of raspberries (breakfast of champions, folks), some flowers and balloons.

I spotted that calico patchwork owl on Etsy many months ago and when it came time to give Ethan my wish list, he was still available (to my surprise!) He was a real steal and I couldn't believe how lucky I was that he was still there. I was surprised to see that he wasn't actually handmade (there was a little tag attached).. he looks very homespun don't you think? That mix of calico prints are inspiring the heck out of me right now.

I got to open the rest of my gifts once we made it to Savannah. Everything was of course on said wishlist.  (Ethan is a keeper, right?)

I had been eyeing these plastic settings on Etsy for the longest because I had some necklace ideas I wanted to make for myself. I'm so excited to get to work on these soon. The vintage beaded chain will go perfectly with them. (i might have to gift one or two of these.. i have ideas!maybe add one to the shop?)

 

I was also gifted some little gems from one of my all-time FAVORITE shops on Etsy, nothingelegant. I've actually never even shopped there, but I've coveted from afar for a very long time. It's kawaii-heaven and just everything you love about *cute* Asian design in general. The shop is based out of Korea. Be still my beating heart. Watch out because you will get stuck browsing for hours.

These tiny little zip lock bags are the C.U.T.E.S.T. and I love her assortment of stamps. It takes a while to receive your package from this shop, but it's TOTALLY worth the wait. :-) And she threw in 2 other freebie stamps.. one of which I totally adore and have used alot already! I will definitely be shopping at this store in the future. (yet another loooong wish list I'm sure.)

So you know how I mentioned that one of the new items I wanted to start collecting this year is vintage crewel kits? Well, between birthday gifts, birthday and christmas money, and other gifts, I seem to have come into a great collection already and fast. And I haven't had to buy one darn thing. Holidays are awesome.

I mentioned the cute owl crewel kit I received a few weeks ago, I've added two more to the collection thanks to some sweet family members.

This one was very partially started. I love the colors.. it's actually yarn, not crewel thread.. I've never embroidered with yarn before! I'm excited. i'm counting on many a pop-up camper adventures this year so I can work on these babies.

 

This one on the other hand could take me QUITE a while to complete, but I'm glad I have it nonetheless so that when I do find the time to work on it, it will be a darn cute one. So very kitsch.

 

I like purchasing the kits instead of the finished embroidered pieces on ebay/etsy, etc because they are usually quite a bit cheaper and you have the reward of working on them yourself.

This last gift is the first of another collection I wanted to start this year (which again thanks to birthday money, etc, I'm making a dent in this one fast as well!) vintage clocks. We plan on redecorating our dining room and I want to have a collection of these on one wall.

I have several more coming to me in the mail (thank-you Vintage Etsy and Ebay). Will post pics of those soon.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! :-)

P.S. how beautiful is this? i was introduced to this artist via Twitter today via scoutie girl.

 

Love it.