July 2009 – Dabbled

An Illustration Friday Robot- on an actual friday, no less!

Dot — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:59:14 +0000

I dug out the paints and canvas for the first time in ages… what do you think? I’m thinking of a series of these for the new shop (which yes, I know, is so behind schedule).

So, the theme for IF this week is Modify, and I’m not sure exactly how this big bot is modifying the little bot, but I’m sure it will turn out well…
It looks a little more washed out here since it’s a scan of the art, but I’m quite happy with it.
Acrylic on canvas
c 2009 nancy dorsner

Scooby Doo Villains – created for Superpunch

Dot — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:50:48 +0000

One of my fave cool link websites, Superpunch had a contest this month to artistically recreate a Scooby Doo supervillain… Do I wait to the last minute to draw something?… yup!

Demon Shark:

And this one didn’t exactly come out as I planned, but here’s Space Kook… It’s a little known fact, but before turning to a life of crime, Space Kook was a renowned botanist! That or since I just got back from Austria, I keep picturing him singing “Climb Every Mountain”.. And what the heck, I guess I’ll use this one as this week’s illustration friday, too.. since he idles his days away traipsing through the fields of flowers!

New website update

Dot — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:20:00 +0000

Hi all, I hope everyone is enjoying the new look of Dabbled. Like I’ve said before, it’s still under construction, but it’s coming together. I’ll be adding a ‘Freebies’ section in the next week, so stay tuned for that.

The move to WordPress went relatively smoothly, except for one big hiccup, where the part of the feed to Google reader stopped working. However, thanks to some troubleshooting by some of my Twitter buds, and some research on redirects by me, it LOOKS like everyone who lost the feed should have it back now. So if you’ve been missing Dabbled for almost a month, that’s why.. So Welcome Back!! Be sure to check out what you’ve missed, and feel free to poke around the new (work in progress) website. I’d love any feedback.

For the newly found subscribers, here’s a few things you’ve missed!:

Dot went on vacation, and had some fabulous guest posters filling in... From all about letterpress to making re-useable sandwich bags: check out all the great posts and tutorials they did!
Some great links and inspiration from around the web
Robot illustrations, of course! This one is Mr. Buttons.
Dabbled Interview – Geeky Fun with “The Domestic Scientist”
And more tasty geek fun: Geeky Cakes Flickr Roundup

Guest Week Wrap-Up

Dot — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:31:54 +0000

Did you miss me? I’m sure you didn’t, since you have had such wonderful content from our talented Guest Stars! In case you missed any, here are the fabulous posts we had for Guest Week(s) on Dabbled!

Check out this fabulous tutorial on How to Make a Cute Candy Sachet. Sister Diane of Craftypodteaches us all about weaving without a loom (be sure to check out her new e-book!). So much fun!

Books Galore! Have a small child at home? ..or just need to buy some cool books for someone else’s? Adrienne from Baby Toolkit has some great book suggestions (and you know I love the Dragon one!)

Paul from Dudecraft curates the internet for us, with his own brand of inspiration, presenting some great sites we should all be checking out! Go read!

Make your own Cupcake Flower Arrangement
with Heather‘s great tutorial. What a lovely gift for someone special!

Learning Letterpress – Sarah from Sewer-Sewist taught us all about letterpress.. Wow, such great info!

Get inspired with Bananas! Carissa from Good N Crazy brought us a great recipe round-up from around the web!

Make your own eco-friendly and cute reusabled Sandwich Bags! (By Heidi, who also brought us the wonderful fabric Easter Basket tutorial earlier this year)

Me? I was busy trying every beer in Europe… I’ll definitely have a trip write-up for you soon!

Tutorial: How to Make Environmentally Friendly Reusable Sandwich/Snack Bags

Heidi — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:43:28 +0000

In my house, we (and by “we,” I mean me and my uninterested husband and kids that I am forcing this on) are doing our best to be better stewards of our environment. So when Dot asked me to be a guest poster on Dabbled while she sunbathes on an exotic beach being served fruity cocktails by 22-year-old buff cabana boys (I am now thinking I got the raw end of this deal), I immediately racked my brain to come up with a crafty “green” project.

And thus, the reusable sandwich bag project was born. Here in the South, school starts ridiculously early – like next week. So since we are heading back to school, I thought it would be the perfect time to make

these bags. These bags are the perfect size for holding sandwiches, cookies, crackers, chips, apple slices, grapes and all the other lunch staples. And while you might not want to store watermelon or last night’s pot roast in them, they work really well. Not to mention, they are simple to clean and can keep untold amounts of plastic bags out of the landfills. So without further ado . . .

Reusable Sandwich Bags

Materials for one sandwich size bag

7”x 15” piece of plastic or vinyl lining (This is located in the home fabrics section of most craft stores. This is a much easier project if you buy the plastic lining that DOES NOT annoyingly sticks to itself.) If you want to make snack size bags, cut your plastic into a 7” x 8” rectangle.
Construction paper/cardstock/heavy duty paper template – 6.5” x 10” will work
7” piece of sew-on velcro
(2) 7” pieces of Decorative Ribbon

Step 1. Place your vinyl right side up on your working surface. On each of the short ends, you will sandwich the vinyl between a piece of velcro and a piece of ribbon(ribbon on outside or right side edge, velcro on inside edge). Pin in place.

Step 2. Stitch the ribbon/vinyl/velcro together. The end product looks and works best if you hem both the top edge and bottom edge of your velcro.

Step 3. Fold the vinyl in half (wrong sides together) so that you have a 7” x 7.5” rectangle (7” x 4” for snack size bags) with the velcro on the inside. Place your paper template inside the folded plastic so that ¼” overhangs both sides (template will overhang top).

Step 4: With your iron set to a medium heat, fuse the vinyl together on the edges using your paper template as a guide. DO NOT place the iron over the entire piece of plastic. Instead use the tip of the iron to seal the edge. When you’re done, let the pouch cool for 30 seconds and then remove the template.

Step 5: Stitch the now sealed sides using a 1/8” hem. Be sure to hem the entire length of the bag, including the ribbon/Velcro portion (I suggest backstitching this portion as well) to ensure your bag can endure repeated use.

This project is easy, fast and cheap. You can easily make a dozen bags in an hour, and when all was said and done, the cost for each bag comes in at just under 30 cents. And best of all, most vinyl is dishwasher safe on the top rack (test a single bag first to make sure). Enjoy!

#BananaLuv: Bestest Banana Recipes EVAH!

Carissa — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:54:08 +0000

GoodNCrazy Goes Bananas!

And maybe you’re thinking so is Dot? Where is she you ask? Um… she didn’t tell me?! I think she’s on a super secret mission? She promises to be back soon though? Maybe she’ll have additional robots for her collection.. ya think?? In the mean time… you’re stuck with me. Carissa. Mom/writer for 1 GoodNCrazy blog and chief craftster/boredom wrangler/mother to 3 kids. When Dot asked me to guest post for her.. I said oh girl.. I’ve got the perfect post…food, luv, chocolate, bananas… what could be better!?

I heart Bananas.

Join me at the smoothy store? Yes, I’ll take the bananaberryverydelicious option.{ Man I hate saying that out loud.}

Recipes that include bananas in them? Oh yeah baby, I’m all over ’em. Pancakes? (Cue the Jack Johnson song…makin’ banana pancakes…) I have a rockin’ banana pancake recipe that is more hearty than most people’s turkey dinner! In fact we often eat these for dinner! How about banana breads and muffins? Cakes you ask?

I do not discriminate! In fact if offered a flavor choice from LaffyTaffy to Lollipops.. even my kids already know the answer… ‘Are there any yellow ones??!’ They hand ’em over with no questions asked! A few weeks back I came across a friend’s Banana Icebox Cake with Chocolate Cream Frosting! Um? Hello… YES! I stumbled that post and begged her to mail me a piece of the cake… still waiting for that package in fact!? About that same time I was talking to my twitter posse of pals and one mention of my love for all things bananas and we were off and runnning! I had to create a hashtag to make it legit of course… #bananachat was born! (It lasted about 15 minutes.. but feel free to share your banana luv with the hashtag if you feel inclined!) Here’s one response to my call for a banana shout out:

THANK you Gina! Grilled bananas? All over that. (Feel free to chat with her about all things lactating and apparently banana related too!) Here is the most fabulous banana recipe bustin’ link up list EVAH! {at least as created by me?} I plan to try out every. single. one. But I’ll share I promise!

Enjoy— Let’s go bananas together!

	Orange Spice Banana Bread My pal Katie from GoodLife{Eats} bakes up wonders so it was no surprise that she had a banana recipe spectacular when I asked!
	Frozen Banana Wonders! Another foodie buddy Chris from BlogWellDone never fails to amaze me! From Turkey Brining to kids cooking, basically whatever I ask for.. he’s got it! Kind of like a personal online chef! You’ll love his site!
	Triple Chocolate Banana Bread From Lobolita.
	Banana Flapjacks From Epicurean Escapism.. these look more like oatmeal bar cookies?
	Bananas as aphrodisiac? Okay with me! From Anne of Carversville.
	Monkey Bars! These are Gluten Free.. from Healthy Tasty Chow.
	A whole banana bunch of healthy recipes From Green Lite Bites.

A history of the banana? Whatever.. just be sure to check out the Best Banana Recipe Contest!

Gold Coast Banana Loaf Cake {Pictured at top of post} by Inn Cuisine

{click to see the whole series}

Learning Letterpress

Sarah — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:24:54 +0000

Thank you, Nancy, for inviting me to write a guest post here on Dabbled–this is one of my favorite sites for creative inspiration, with a nice dose of fun mixed in, so it is an honor to post here.

Letterpress "ornaments," which are decorative elements that can be incorporated with type. There are some amazing ornaments out there--from corporate logos to highly artistic Celtic knots. There are, in and of themselves, works of art.

I was invited to write about letterpress, my latest obsession. Probably more than anything I do or write about on Sewer-Sewist–the blog I co-author with my wonderful husband, Josh–I get wistful-sounding feedback from people who really want to learn letterpress. Unfortunately, letterpress is kind of a hard thing to write a “how-to” for–since it involves equipment that most of us don’t have on hand and requires specialized inks and tools, I thought I’d talk to you about learning letterpress and the language of letterpress. It’s a beautiful art-form that has helped me tremendously in my creative thinking. I also love that it has a practical heritage and connects us to our past, since letterpress printing was revolutionary when it was developed, making the printed word accessible to the masses–not just the wealthy elite who could afford handwritten books. There are lots of interesting resources online about the history of the printing press, but About.com’s guide is a nice, brief overview.

Wood type is generally used for poster printing or art pieces. Sadly, since wood type is very decorative, so people buy their favorite letters, numbers and punctuation to display, it is very difficult to find complete sets of larger wood type.

While I am normally a big advocate for self-teaching (I taught myself screenprinting, for example), letterpress is the one craft that I really believe that you need to learn from an expert who has not only experience in composing letterpress designs, but who has a good level of familiarity with the equipment with which you will be working. For example, while I have taught people how to printing using a Vandercook press, I would not be qualified to teach anyone how to print with a platen (or clam shell) press–and not learning proper equipment operation can not only lead to damage to pricey, hard-to-fix press, it can also result in physical injury.

My husband Josh printing on a Vandercook press for the first time. He learned in a four-day intensive workshop that lasted six hours a day. You really need 20-30 hours of training to gain confidence in letterpress. It's far more challenging than I would have ever expected--in part because the presses are quirky.

I started my introduction to letterpress with a ten-week-long (three hours per week) letterpress class through Pacific Northwest College of Art’s Continuing Education program, which was actually an intermediate class (I thought screenprinting skills would translate to letterpress–I was wrong), with Abra Ancliffe, a letterpress printer who has a degree in printmaking and worked at Egg Press here in Portland for a number of years. I would highly recommend that if you have a college, museum or library in your area with a Book Arts program, that you look into one of these types of courses. Book Arts programs will generally have excellent equipment and give you access to the letterpress studio outside of class–a big plus, because it takes lot of practice to become confident with the printing process. You’ll pay two or three times as much as you would for a half-day seminar at a letterpress studio, but you will get at least ten times as much out of it. Trust me.

There are three different typefaces in this block of type--Bank Gothic, Raleigh and Times New Roman.

Letterpress printing is a relief process, so you can used a number of different methods to create unique artwork. The first technique I used was the traditional type-setting. I love painstakingly setting type using lead for spacing–particularly when playing with different typefaces in conjunction with one another. For my first letterpress project, I had an overly-ambitious project for creating the coolest, artiest basketball cards ever. Little did I know that it would take a ridiculous amount of time to create lines upon lines of text for each of these fifteen cards. (I still haven’t finished the text part of that project.) If you’re learning letterpress, start with type–preferably lead. You’ll really learn the intricacies of letterpress that way. While it’s not the easiest to work with, once you get a handle on that process, you’ll have the confidence to explore other materials and mixing type with linoleum blocks and photopolymer plates. There is also something almost profound about simple hand-set type on paper. It draws you in in a way that computer generated print simply cannot.

This piece is set with Bank Gothic 12 point type. I love the stark simplicity of this all capitals font.

Now, on the complete opposite end of the letterpress spectrum, we have photopolymer. As I began to explore letterpress even more, I really became excited about was experimenting with this high-tech approach to traditional relief printing. Photopolymer is a relative newcomer to the world of letterpress; basically, it’s a thing metal plate with a semi-hard gel of photochemicals coating it. Using a black and white negative image, you expose the plate, and wash away the unexposed areas, which you then print with on the letterpress.

A photopolymer plate in action. It's attached to a giant magnet while you print. If you can correctly guess what this plate is of and send me an email through my blog by July 28, 2009, I will totally send you a print. Seriously, I will.

I’ve become really interested in using photopolymer to print faces. I like playing with paper, ink and packing (paper placed behind the paper you’re printing on to create a deeper impression) to see the different results–and human faces have some interesting results. I incorporated this into my ridiculous basketball card project.

Same ink, same packing, three different papers--very different results.

You can get a fairly high level of detail using photopolymer, though not at fine as with screenprinting. If you reverse our image with a photopolymer plate, you can get very striking results–and that’s generally the method I use. I think it makes the ink and paper play with each other in very interesting way, as the paper is almost an accent element.

This is probably my favorite thing I've ever printed--and I did it just as a goof-off print run to mess around with metallic ink (which has real silver in it). There are technical details about this particular print if you click through to the Flickr photo. Who is this in this print? It's Brandon Roy, guard for the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team--I'm a big fan. Google him, he's awesome.

I recently took a four-day workshop at PNCA in letterpress and mail art and used linoleum blocks on the letterpress for the first time. You can get many of the same results as photopolymer, although because of the soft surface of linoleum, you get more of a stamped quality to your print, as opposed to the pressed look of photopolymer. And you can even combine the two, for a look with additional texture. I’m itching to also incorporate type–maybe in the form of blind embossment (creating an impression without inking the press)–into a piece combining photopolymer and linoleum block printing.

A print combining both photopolymer prints and linoleum block prints--the background is linoleum printed. This print is of Portland's Steel Bridge.

Letterpress printing is a wonderfully diverse medium, that has enjoyed a wonderful reemergence over the last few years. I feel so fortunate to be a part of something of a movement to help this craft thrive. Because of that, I’d be happy to chat over email with anyone who is interested in learning letterpress, and try to answer any questions you may have. Get in touch with me through my blog–I’m thrilled to share some letterpress love.

Cupcake Flower Arrangement

Heather — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:00:19 +0000

Need a quick cheery gift? Give someone a no-bake cupcake! The construction is so simple, you can whip one up for a birthday, or other special occa

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sion in no time. (Download the flag pdf which includes flags for Happy Birthday, Thinking of You, Congrats and Get Well Soon.)

What you’ll Need:

Fluted baking mold or brioche pan (I used a 3.5 Cup baking mold)

Floral foam or styrofoam

Flowers (fresh or artificial)

Sand paper

Primer & paint

Print out of Cupcake Flags

Colored paper & markers or pencils

Ribbon

Wooden skewer

Glue Gun

*Other decorative embellishments (Optional)

1. Lightly sand the surface of the baking mold and prime. Then paint with your choice of color and let dry completely. I think using spray paint yeilds the best results, but you could use acrylics as well. Just be sure to coat them with a sealer.

2. Cut floral foam to fit the mold. Use a bit of hot glue to secure the foam from sliding if needed.

3. Cut flowers in tiered heights. Place the shortest closest to the outside of the foam and angled out a bit. Place fairly close so there are no gaps, you want your “frosting” to be thick and fluffy. Continue additional layers slightly higher. The amount of layers you’ll need will vary depending on what type of flower you use. I only needed 3 layers of the artificial hydrangeas in a 3.5 cup baking mold. Luckily the foam is fairly forgiving and you can rearrange as needed. (note: For a more authentic “icing” look, use flowers that are more round in shape or densly packed like hydrangeas or carnations. Flowers with long petals will begin to look like a regular flower arrangement and lose the cupcake feel!)

4. Download the flags.pdf, color, cut out and layer with colored paper to decorate your arrangement. I used the Stampin’ Up Scallop Edge punch on the colored card stock, but you could use decorative scissors or even leave a straight edge. Use the cut and folded flag art as a template. (Measure out about an extra 1/2 inch to use a punch). Adhere the front flag to one side of the cardstock and wrap around the wooden skewer. Secure back of flag to backside of the cardstock and stick into the arrangement.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this fun little craft. And BIG THANKS to Nancy for asking me to be a guest blogger here at Dabbled. I love the projects she comes up with and I am so happy to have the opportunity to share one with you too!

~ Heather Sitarzewski ~

artist • designer • creative

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Need a quick cheery gift? Give someone a no-bake cupcake! The construction is so simple, you can whip one up for a birthday, or other special occasion in no time. (Download the flag pdf which includes flags for Happy Birthday, Thinking of You, Congrats and Get Well Soon.)

What you’ll Need:Fluted baking mold or brioche pan (I used a 3.5 Cup baking mold)
Floral foam or styrofoam
Flowers (fresh or artificial)
Sand paper
Primer & paint
Print out of Cupcake Flags
Colored paper & markers or pencils
Ribbon
Wooden skewer
Glue Gun
*Other decorative embellishments (Optional)

2. Cut floral foam to fit the mold. Use a bit of hot glue to secure the foam from sliding if needed.

5. Embellish!! Use a pretty bow with your skewer or a tappered candle (for a birthday arrangement). You could add small different colored flowers to make “sprinkles” on your cupcakes. There are so many options to customize, go crazy! I hope you’ve enjoyed this fun little craft. And BIG THANKS to Nancy for asking me to be a guest blogger here at Dabbled. I love the projects she comes up with and I am so happy to have the opportunity to share one with you too! ~ Heather Sitarzewski ~ artist • designer • creative
Path:

The internet, curated.

Paul — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:49:21 +0000

Awfully honored to be guest posting here on Dabbled. Thanks for having me and I hope not to scare any of you away with my atrocious grammar and communist leanings. Here goes…

I think that the thing that I love the most about the internet is that it gives us all the chance to be curators in our own little museums. We, bloggers anyway, are afforded the chance to trot out whatever collections that we deem hip, cool, or important without having to worry about grant money, a board of directors, or even a coherent direction to our posts. It also lets the public speak directly to the person in charge of the museum and that’s pretty empowering. Participatory processes always foster a greater sense of engagement and that’s never a bad thing.

So, in that spirit, I thought I’d share a few sites that pull this trick off particularly well. First up…Dark Roasted Blend.

The photo above comes from a recent post that features vintage photos of flight attendants. Not your thing? Not to worry. DRB has some amazing posts on Sci-Fi, retro-futurism, emerging technologies, steampunk, weird advertisements and tons more. I’m sure you’ll find something you like. I always do.

Next, I highly recommend Judsonn Frondorf’s blog called AckAckAck . It’s a list ordered daily dose of what Judson thinks is cool. From politics to art to just plain weirdness, ackackack has it all.

Lastly, I’ll turn you on to Web Urbanist and it’s sister site, Web Ecoist . Both are design blogs of sorts. Web urbanist deals with urban design, travel, art and architecture, while Web Ecoist is more concerned with sustainable methods and green technologies. Both are fascinating and always have something of value to read. (The pictures above come from an article on rainforest teetop walks.)

Being that I visit upwards of twenty blogs a day, I could go on and on here. I won’t though, because now it’s your turn. Know of a particularly interesting blog or website that fits into this “mini-museum” category? Put it in the comments and share the love. Let us know what it’s about and why you like it. After all, that’s what the web is for.

Cheers,

Paul from DudeCraft

The Ghost of Guest Posts Past…

Dot — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:42:00 +0000

Since we’re having fun with our lovely guest bloggers, I thought you might enjoy a reminder of some of the cool projects done by some previous guest stars! Here are three from 2008…

Hungry but you’re on a diet? Maybe you should make these adorable Felt M&M cookies instead! Melissa from Crafting With Cat Hair brings us a terrific tutorial to make your own fun play food. Wouldn’t these be a great addition to any play kitchen? And a fabulous handmade gift…!
Felt Cookie Tutorial

Or maybe you aren’t on a diet, so making Chocolate Covered Marshmallows on straw ‘sticks’ would be right up your alley! A great rainy day treat, or fun party food, these tasty and fun looking candies, by Chica & Jo are easy to make, The step by step tutorial has lots of pictures so you’ll know just what to do. What a cool thing for your next kids birthday party!
Chocolate Marshmallow Treat Tutorial

Not really food related, but you could certainly make some play food using the needle felting techniques shown to us by Pollywog’s Cakewalk, in her Needle Felted Gnome tutorial. Or you could just make this adorable gnome. I haven’t tried this yet myself, but she’s certainly inspired me to put needle felting on my list of things to try. As some commenters pointed out, this would be a really lovely way to make a nativity scene, so start now for those Christmas gifts for mom!
Needle Felting – Make a Gnome Tutorial