Tag: handmade (page 1 of 2)

Colour Scheme

It’s not always fun to be practical. I’m in the realm of pumpkins, hot apple cider and walks through the woods that are slowly turning a delicious golden and red hue. However, I do have to put my practical hat on because October is just around the corner. In fact, October will be here this weekend and I don’t have that much longer to design this year’s Christmas card so it can be sent off to the printers.

Last year, I did a full watercolour winter scene. The year before that a Christmas in London theme. In previous years I’ve also created a collage and used a photograph of a winter wonderland that I designed. This year, I decided I wanted to keep it simple. I toyed with a lot of ideas, sketching them out and then scribbling them back out. But, I’ve finally decided on what I want to do.

It’s going to have a 1950’s/60’s design flare. Almost everything will have been created out of basic shapes that I’m reinterpreting.

Above is the current colour scheme, there is still some tweaking to do, but I’m very happy with where this project is going. It’s always nice to see an idea come to fruition.

Here’s a sampling of some of my previous cards. Goose Girl & Foxy managed to get onto one of them:

Christmas Card 2013

The Anatomy of a Christmas Card

A New Years Card

Oh Christmas Tree…

Remember these?

Jennifer Michie Wooden Trees

Well, I glued them on to ring bases, covered them in extra sparkly green glitter and gave them to my printmaking class as a Christmas surprise. I was really pleased with how they turned out. Nothing like a little Christmas bling to get you ready for the holidays!

Jennifer Michie Christmas Tree Ring

A Photo Shoot

We woke up early this morning and ran out in the rain to get coffee and go grocery shopping. Everyone in the grocery store seemed to be in a bad mood, maybe it was the weather? It has rained all day without ceasing, but I don’t mind it. The candles are lit, we made a fresh loaf of buttermilk banana bread, tried a new recipe for dinner, drank tea, listened to Christmas music and worked on this:

Jennifer Michie Christmas Shoot 2014

Those objects were the beginning ingredients for our photoshoot that will become our Christmas card this year. I still had the watercolour of the evergreens I did last year, so I cut them out and made a stand for them and decided to make them part of the background. I’m going for a 50s/60s look this year.

You can see my previous designs here:

Christmas Card 2013
The Anatomy of a Christmas Card
A New Years Card
The Christmas Angel (our card for 2012)

{These cards are my original designs, please do not use without permission}

Christmas Card 2013

Well, it’s that time of year again and I thought I would share my Christmas Card with you. This year I took my inspiration from two very talented ladies. The first being Phoebe Wahl and her beautiful artwork and the second being Mindy Gledhill and her Christmas Album.

I collaged the front of the card with a selection of vintage wrapping paper and card images that I steadily collected and then cut to my desired shape.

Print

The back of the card has a quote from Winter Moon, and a watercolor painting that I did.

Print

I’m really pleased with how the cards turned out and I so enjoyed working on the painting of the forest evergreens that I might just make a card next year based on a painting of mine, but I have plenty of time to think about that!

My previous card posts:

The Anatomy of A Christmas Card

A New Years Card

{These cards are my original designs, please do not use without permission}

The Anatomy of a Christmas Card

Last year, due to the general craziness of school, the cottage being painted and other things going on, I never mailed out Christmas cards. Instead I made, “Happy New Year” cards in January and mailed those out. Since we were already being non-traditional, we kept it that way and had our design printed up on postcards with envelopes to mail them in.

I had so much fun doing that, that this year, I decided that I would do it again. I created a design to fit on a postcard and this time I had the help of Mr. Michie, Goose Girl & Foxy.

I gathered up a few of my Christmas items, GiGi & Foxy invited over some gnomes and deer to the party and we got to work.

We set up a green screen, laid down “snow” and set up lighting. It was a regular little photography studio we had going on here.

We posed everyone in different positions, until we found one that would work best, after going through all the proofs, we picked a few images to work with and got going.

Through Photoshop, I extracted out the background, placed in an image we found, that seemed to work in harmony with everything else and adjusted the lighting, placed an overlay on the top, to create a frosty feel and added in a “Merry Christmas” banner, drawn by Mr. Michie.

We designed a back for the postcard as well, with a small Christmas message and a vintage picture of Santa. This was a project I truly enjoyed working on and I can’t wait till next year, I already have ideas like sugarplums dancing in my head!!

(My work is my own, please do not use it for your own purposes! Thank you.)

The Christmas Angel

When Mr. Michie and I were first married we searched high and low for the perfect angel for our tree. She couldn’t be just any old angel, she had to be special. We searched here and there for quite some time and one day, I came across this angel and she spoke to me.

I met the artist who created her out of vintage French millinery items and had handcrafted and painted her face. Claire was a kindred spirit and I knew this angel was supposed to be ours. I asked if she had a name and I was told it was Genevieve, that sealed the deal!

She was nestled into a pink striped box and tied up with a vintage ribbon. So, home she came with me and we have enjoyed taking her out every Christmas. She looks like she could be on top of a Christmas tree in Little Women.

This year, I have put up a smaller tree in the bedroom and so Genevieve is gracing our mantel instead. She looked so pretty in the white wintery light this morning I just had to take a picture of her. Is there a special item that sits atop your tree every year? I’d love to know if there is!

Oh, Deer!

Oh Deer! She, just happened to jump into my hands at the Renegade Craft Fair and I took her home with me. Isn’t she lovely, she traveled all the way from Germany and she is made by hand.

I haven’t picked a name for her yet, but I think it has to be along the lines of Gertie or Heidi or Gretchen….

 

More Clues

The week has just gotten away from me and I have a terrible cold, so I haven’t had a chance to write a full post on my little project yet.

But, in the meantime here are a few more clues to keep you going. All will be revealed soon! I promise!

Granny Knot vs. Wreath Knot

Now that I have my lovely new Birthday shoes (see: New Shoes), the question that begs to be answered is: Granny Knot vs. Wreath Knot?

Put This On, Episode 2: Shoes from Put This On on Vimeo.

After seeing this video, I think I will never go back… no more double knots for this little lady. You have to wait to the end too see what I am talking about, but it is worth it!

P.S. If you do not have Instapaper you should definitely get it, I have become an Instapaper junkie for those times I don’t have time to read what I want, I can instantly save it and I can then, go back to it at a later time or date. Now that, is just happiness!

P.S.S. Instapaper is not paying me to advertize for them, I just like their product!

Purl One, Knit One

I am an old soul, there are times when I think I have been born in the wrong time period! I am a nerd amongst my friends and quite happy to be one! I taught myself to knit two years ago and little by little I have been expanding my knitting pattern knowledge. This past year I taught myself to crochet (my Nana had taught me when I was younger, but I definitely needed a refresher!) and when I was at home this Christmas I went yarn hunting with my mom and picked out the colors for the Granny Square blanket I intend to make, with her discerning interior decorator’s eyes at my side!

I have a few stores I buy yarn from here in England, one of my favorite being a little gem on Carnaby Street, or in Kingly Court, I should say.  My yarn tends to come from all over, I go for the feel and the color of it, I am sure I should think about ply and weight first, but right or wrong I go right for the textural and visual side of it.

I have used Lion Brand online as a resource tool when I am stuck on a particular stitch, they also have a wonderful supply of free patterns online too.  I have knitted with their yarn for some projects before and this was the yarn I chose when I was at home. I wanted something colorful, yet rich, warm, yet happy and a reasonable price for a project I was going to be experimenting with; so I selected a variety of colors to work from(an ebony black, a warming charcoal, a rich red, a deep purple, a soft cream and a velvety green-sounds odd, but trust me they all work together).

Sitting in the airport, the Saturday after New Years Day, sad to be leaving my family and watching the snow fall from the window, my adorable husband appeared with a cheering up gift in his hands from the magazine store.  A copy of the January 2010 issue of Martha Stewart. As I flipped through the pages I discovered inside an entire article on Lion Brand yarn (which he had already flipped through and seen and that was his entire reason for buying it, isn’t that thoughtful? What a cutie!), and now I dream of walking in through those doors of the flagship store in New York, sad I know! I love the fact that there is a sampling wall to try out yarn and you can take yarn home with you to try out, there is a place where you can just sit and stitch and play, like a toy store for grown-ups!!

I want to take that lion in the window home with me, I love his twisted yarn mane, he is like a giant yarn made Aslan, guarding the store and all who step over the threshold.  I wanted to share some of the pictures from this article here.  Knitting is like yoga or gardening for me, it is therapeutic and on cold nights here it is something to keep my hands warm. I am looking forward to starting my blanket, this will be my first project that will be able to keep me warm as I go, I can’t wait to get to the stage of it being so big it covers my lap as I work, but now, I am getting ahead of myself….

(All images copyright Martha Stewart Magazine)