We have a new type of theme at Less is More this week – working through the alphabet. Unsurprisingly, we start with A and the chosen item is ‘automobile’. I went through all my stamps and found just one featuring a car. I used that recently (actually not so recently I discover) and decided to look a little further. A quick internet search later, I found a suitable file I could edit and cut out with my Silhouette electronic cutter and came up with this:
I’ve been in full production mode getting stock ready for a Christmas Fayre at the end of November. All being well, there will be good footfall and matching sales. If not, anticipate a lot of listings in my Facebook and Etsy stores!
This week I’ve been concentrating on signs. The wood plaques were bought in, and then undercoated with gesso and a cream chalky finish acrylic paint. I designed all the typography in Adobe Illustrator and then etched the outlines on to the signs using my brand spanking new replacement laser cutter. After that, it was a matter of using Posca pens to fill in the gaps before doing a dirty wash with diluted acrylic paint to age them. Some had crackle medium added to the corners, but it doesn’t show up overly well. Each sign is approx. 30cm x 10cm, £5 each.
I’ve also been playing with some 10x10cm paulownia wood blocks, etching into them using the laser cutter. The laser has burnt away the soft wood more easily than the grain leaving a beautiful texture in the background. A set of four is available for £6.
Used in these projects:
Ever since Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons introduced me to ambigrams, I’ve been fascinated by the typography involved. An ambigram for the uninitiated is a typographical design or art form that may be read as words as presented, or from another orientation (in this case, upside down). Combining that fascination with a desire to make a more personal and distinctive logo, I started sketching last night. This afternoon, I have honed my first ever ambigram in Illustrator, and I think it’s turned out alright. I’ll not be rushing to do another in a hurry as it made my brain ache, but that might just be the full sinuses and leaning forward. And though personal, I’m not sure that the word is so distinctive unless you knew what was there to see… what do you think?
The hardest thing about keeping my blog up to date with my crafty exploits is that some of my work has to be kept under wraps until the special reveal. So there may be times when I seem to be quiet – but in fact working frantically to meet deadlines!
Today’s post is one of those. A good friend asked me to make her wedding invitations – and now they’ve been sent and received, I won’t be spoiling any surprises 🙂
Both Jess and Stuart are real ale aficionados, and we’ve spent hours together working our way through the bar at the Peterborough Beer Festival. What more fitting then than a personal hand pull badge? I drew the hand pull from reference photographs, and then scanned it and coloured it in Illustrator. The badge was designed in a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator. After creating print proofs, cut lines were created in Illustrator and sent to Silhouette Cameo using their Connect plug-in. It was then a matter of assembling the parts using 1mm deep foam pads to add some dimension (and allow avoidance of large letter postage).
By my reckoning, one can measure how successful a job has gone by whether more work is commissioned as a result. Happily, the couple are so delighted, I’ve been asked to adapt the design for the reception table labels.
Congratulations to the happy couple, all the best for the day, and here’s to another reunion at Peterborough in August 🙂