I Heart Handmade

Wowee! Visit I Heart Handmade's Valentine Market. All of the shops are offering special promotions. My shop is offering FREE SHIPPING, as are several of the others. Amazing! Please take the time to shop around, it is definitely worth it. Thank you!! x0 melissa

Eye Candy Organizers

Since the age of 9, I believed that a laminating machine was an essential household appliance. Now that I finally have one, I intend to laminate everything without legs.

My brand new product is now HERE! "Eye Candy Organizers" - laminated covers and tabs with all kinds of custom options. I've started with my favorite double sided papers and thanks to the beauty of lamination, both sides are enjoyed! Hooray! This first batch contains papers by Sassafrass Lass, Martha Stewart, and K and Company. Their brilliant designers are what put the candy in these babies.


These are "half sheet" sized ( 9 inches by 6 inches) with papers cut to a smaller size by about a quarter of an inch all around. Laminated pouches that are 10 mil thick (super rigid) are used for the front, back, and for any divider pages. This is an excellent weight for plastic covers in my opinion. I really love the glossy effect created by the plastic coating. Corners are rounded and binder rings are in coordinating colors.





The beauty is that you can reuse these lovely organizers once the pages are full. All you need is a standard 2 hole punch and you can have all of these in one:
-calendar
-pockets for coupons, receipts
-sketchbook
-lined or grid paper
-patterned paper
-scrapbook
-art journal
-class notes
-address book
-message pad
-to do list
-!!!??? something pretty to look at!

These organizers will be listed in the store this week. Each one is fully customizable; you may order it full of paper with a larger or small binder ring OR describe your dream organizer and I will build it for you.


You can add your own bits and papers by acquiring a standard 2 hole punch which is available at any office supply store for a few dollars.

Lots more photos are on my flickr site under the "Eye Candy Organizer" set. Hooray!

Printable New Year Card and Envelope in the Shop

Here it is: the first of many-to-come download & print stationery bits. The first one is a Happy New Year Card and it is a "color your own." I'm often asked for blackline versions of other printables. I colored a few myself and tried a blingy version with glitter and stickles. Only $2.00 for the download, come and get it!

Crab Apple on Cuteable!

It was so thrilling to see a mention of Crab Apple notecards on today's Cuteable Clinks! Lynsey was kind enough to mention that my cupcake notecard set is on sale in the shop. Thanks, Cuteable!

Cupcakes, Damn it.

I've looked all over the place, and I cannot find satisfying cupcake fabric. So, it falls upon me to create this item, and boy-howdy am I trying to do it in a little way I like to call, "the right way." Except I'm not sure what the right way is so away I go.

First, I drew sketches in my Rhodia notebook, comme ca (note: I drew these while riding in the car from Yachats to Portland, so they are a bit rougher than usual due to car turbulence):





Next, I begin to digitize and form some kind of a pattern in Inkscape:

I want the fabric to be "multi-directional" so there's no way for it to be upside-down. This makes it easier to cut. So I fiddle around with rotating the shapes and tiling the original design to get an idea of what it would look like on a larger scale.


Now, I'm working on adding color and patterns before submitting it to Spoonflower for a swatch to see if the colors are true to my vision.

Note polka-dot and stripe-y patterns on these 2 'cakes.

Any suggestions are welcome!!! Nation, we are in need of a kick-ass cupcake fabric. So let your voice be heard. These babies will find their way into vinyl covered zip pouches at some point soon. xxxooo melissa