Free high res textures

Smashing Magazine has assembled a gallery of texture photos free for personal or commercial use. Browse the categories here and download to your heart's content.

In the mail

Look what I just bought from Golden Fruitfly's etsy shop. I fell in love with the pattern. The underside says Spanish Crown Ironstone, made in Spain.

Printable recipe cards

Julianna Smith, a Portland-based illustrator, has designed a couple of free recipe cards you can download. Get them here.

Home

I'm all done communing with nature (and my bed) after a deliciously long weekend. The weather in Tennessee was so lovely I could hardly stand it. Too bad it's only 47 degrees in Chicago. News I learned upon returning: My mom read this post, decided to find out what Crocs are, became intrigued, and bought some just to spite me. (Okay, it wasn't just to spite me, but can you believe that? Reverse psychology truly works.)

Back in a bit

Bye, guys. I'm going to a cabin in the woods until Monday night. (Monday's a holiday in the U.S.) Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

Iron-on vinyl coasters, part 2

I bought this lemon paper ages ago because it matches our crazy fake lemon branches (see picture here). I guess I should say "faux" instead of "fake" to make stuff sound fancier. Anyhow, I bought it and then I couldn't think of anything to do with it until now: clearly the answer is more vinyl. I ironed it onto the paper, which worked great. (Except for the piece I ironed too long and the paper turned brown. Oops.) After vinylizing the paper, I stuck self-adhesive cork on the back and cut out squares.

Printable pocket photo album

Visit this site to create your own mini photo album. You can upload pictures from your computer or Flickr account, print out the page, fold it up, and carry it in your purse to show off your granddaughter to everyone you bump into. (Better buy some more paper, Mum.)

Iron-on vinyl coasters

At the local fabric store I found some iron-on vinyl to play with. It's pretty neat—you can iron it onto fabric or paper. I tested it by making coasters.

1) Cut out two squares of fabric and vinyl for each coaster.(I wanted to end up with 4" coasters, so I cut my pieces larger than that.)

2) Follow the directions that come with the vinyl to adhere it to your fabric. (Summarized: Pull the paper backing off the vinyl and stick the vinyl to the right side of your fabric. Place the paper backing on top, shiny side down, to protect your iron from the plastic. Iron for 8 seconds, then flip the fabric over and press the back side for 4 seconds. Very easy.)

3) Place two of your newly laminated squares together, vinyl sides out. I secured mine a bit with a fabric gluestick to keep them from sliding around.

4) Mark a square on the fabric with a disappearing fabric marker and sew the pieces together, following your lines.

5) Trim the edges with a pinking shears.

(This heavy-weight fabric is by Trefle, sent by my supplier in Japan, AKA Megumi.)

More DIY projects

Stuff you can make:
Above left, tissue-paper party favors from Martha Stewart (get containers here)
Above right, cereal box magazine organizers, also from Martha
Mini smores grill at Ohdeedoh
Girl's ruffled apron at I Have To Say
Repainted, decoupaged dresser at Curbly
Colorful wall hooks at Tangled &True
Round fabric-covered bulletin boards from Sweet Jessie
Inkjet image transfers at Photojojo
Sewn coat hanger cover at Notebook Magazine

(Images from marthastewart.com)

Little paper Hermes purse

For those of us who don't want to spend our life's savings on a real Hermes bag, there's a customizable, downloadable paper model on their site. (Find the picture there that looks like the one above and click it.) I guess this little bag could sit on your desk and hold a jellybean or something. Thanks, Tsh.

P.S. If you poke around the Hermes wonderland some more, you can find lots of nifty animations, games, and videos.

Pretty

I'm not usually a big jewelry person, but I found etsy seller Wicopy the other night and had to share. I'm captivated by all the loveliness. Too late for a Mother's Day present, but wouldn't a pair of these be a nice gift for someone? (Or yourself?)

Six things

Reinaswan tagged me to list six unremarkable quirks, and I happen to be in the mood to do it. I'll pick three things I like and three things I don't like.

1) I'm sick to death of seeing owls on everything. No more owls, please. (Of course, if you just read that and you make things with owls on them, I'm sure I've offended you terribly. So sorry! You should continue making owl things, because apparently people still love them and you can make a boat load of money.)

2) I get really crabby in airports and crowded, noisy places.

3) I think Crocs are the ugliest shoes I've ever seen.

4) I drank my first mojito last summer and it's my new favorite drink. I'm going to start growing my own mint to feed my habit.

5) I love the Olympics. This is peculiar since I have zero interest in sports otherwise. I wait and wait for an Olympic year to come around, and I'd rather stay home every night to watch the games than go out and have fun with people. Also, I'm so moved by this Adidas commercial and ad, and I think the Beijing Olympic mascots are ingenius.

6) In the last four days I have become addicted to eBay. I've only spent $15, but I can't stop browsing. Help, help!

(Owls on left available here; owl on right available here.)

Decorate office supplies with fabric

While procrastinating at my desk yesterday, I found myself staring at our letter opener and thinking how plain it looked. Clearly I couldn't keep using such an abomination. It must be decorated.

See? It's so.... white. And those clips. So black. No fun. I'd seen some lovely binder clips available for purchase here and here, decoupaged with paper, but I wasn't sure how fabric would work. Experiment time.

1) I tried three options: fabric pieces with iron-on interfacing applied, fabric with HeatnBond applied (not that I was going to iron it to the metal, but it makes your fabric sort of papery when you've pulled off the backing), and just plain fabric.
2) Trimmed the pieces carefully to size.
3) Removed the wire handles of the clips (very easy).
4) Applied spray adhesive to the back of the fabric pieces and stuck them to the surfaces.
5) Reattached the wire handles.
6) Painted on two coats of gel medium (thinned with a little water) to seal the fabric on.

Verdict: My interfacing was too thick. Not needed. HeatnBond was good, because it gave the fabric just a bit of stiffness, making it easier to position. Fabric alone worked okay, too. The gel medium seals it down so the edges won't fray. Happiness.

Wearable statistics

StatAttack has designed a compelling series of T-shirts illustrating life expectancy, poverty rates, and other alarming statistics in a handful of African countries. Twenty percent of T-shirt proceeds go toward financing the building of an orphanage in Mozambique. (Via Brand Appeal.)

Decorated cups

Some mugs I drew on with one of these pens I got at the local Blick art store.

The pens are locked up in a cabinet so you can't sniff them. Or steal them? I don't really know why. But I felt faintly embarrassed to have to ask for something in a locked cabinet. Like I might be a criminal or something. And of course I threw away the package a long time ago and can't remember the instructions for how to set the ink. I think you bake it for awhile and then it becomes dishwasher safe. I remember dishwashing something I drew on once, and it stayed perfectly. Now I'll have to go back to the store and read the package instructions, but to do that, I have to make them unlock the cabinet again. Sheesh.

Sorry for filing this under "tutorials" because it's not really, but I couldn't think of where else to put it. Once I find the directions again for setting the paint, I'll add them.

Update: Called the store to get the instrux. The upshot is I used the wrong pen. There's not a way to set this pen, and it will never be dishwasher safe. It's not food safe, either. Turns out I used another pen before (which I can't find now). It's coming back to me... I bought this DecoColor marker to use for drawing on canvases I had painted with acrylic— no need to put those in the dishwasher. Heh heh. So now I have a couple nice pencil cups, I guess.

Quiz: Identify the font

You might have seen the Rather Difficult Font Game floating around the internet lately... have a go at it! But don't feel bad if you wouldn't know a Frutiger if it came up and bit you in the, um, backside.

Last Update Before the Big Trip!

We're leaving for Japan in less than a week, woohoo! So this is the last update before we go.

We still haven't received confirmation of all our accommodation places yet! I'm still waiting for my first choice accommodation in Kyoto for a reply. But the rest are all booked. It wasn't easy, as I had to brush up my Japanese to write emails to the Japanese Ryokans and the local tourist associations in order to book some of the more traditional places. I even had to ***FAX*** a booking request to one of the villages as they still don't have email.

So it took some extra effort, but I think it will be worth it. Our final itinerary is:

Day 1: Kansai Int'l Airport - Osaka
Day 2: Osaka
Day 3: Osaka - Himeji - Kobe - Osaka
Day 4: Osaka - Nara - Uji
Day 5: Uji - Kyoto (Aoi Matsuri festival)
Day 6: Kyoto (Northern Hills + Arashiyama)
Day 7: Kyoto (Higashiyama)
Day 8: Kyoto - Kanazawa
Day 9: Kanazawa - Gokayama
Day 10: Gokayama - Shirakawago
Day 11: Shirakawago - Hida Takayama
Day 12: Hida Takayama - Kamikochi - Okuhida Onsengo
Day 13: Okuhida Onsengo - Matsumoto - Tsumago
Day 14: Tsumago - Magome
Day 15: Magome - Nagoya - Centrair Airport

So that is the big plan, a 15-Day trip concentrating on a small geographical area roughly 300 KM in diameter. About the distance from New York to Washington, or Paris to Brussels. But in my opinion these regions of Kansai (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe) and Chubu (Central Japan) are the most culturally and culinarily interesting regions of Japan.

As usual I'll come back with photos and commentary. And of course the food pics!

Last Update Before the Big Trip!

We're leaving for Japan in less than a week, woohoo! So this is the last update before we go.

We still haven't received confirmation of all our accommodation places yet! I'm still waiting for my first choice accommodation in Kyoto for a reply. But the rest are all booked. It wasn't easy, as I had to brush up my Japanese to write emails to the Japanese Ryokans and the local tourist associations in order to book some of the more traditional places. I even had to ***FAX*** a booking request to one of the villages as they still don't have email.

So it took some extra effort, but I think it will be worth it. Our final itinerary is:

Day 1: Kansai Int'l Airport - Osaka
Day 2: Osaka
Day 3: Osaka - Himeji - Kobe - Osaka
Day 4: Osaka - Nara - Uji
Day 5: Uji - Kyoto (Aoi Matsuri festival)
Day 6: Kyoto (Northern Hills + Arashiyama)
Day 7: Kyoto (Higashiyama)
Day 8: Kyoto - Kanazawa
Day 9: Kanazawa - Gokayama
Day 10: Gokayama - Shirakawago
Day 11: Shirakawago - Hida Takayama
Day 12: Hida Takayama - Kamikochi - Okuhida Onsengo
Day 13: Okuhida Onsengo - Matsumoto - Tsumago
Day 14: Tsumago - Magome
Day 15: Magome - Nagoya - Centrair Airport

So that is the big plan, a 15-Day trip concentrating on a small geographical area roughly 300 KM in diameter. About the distance from New York to Washington, or Paris to Brussels. But in my opinion these regions of Kansai (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe) and Chubu (Central Japan) are the most culturally and culinarily interesting regions of Japan.

As usual I'll come back with photos and commentary. And of course the food pics!

Etsy window shopping

I've added a little Etsy mini widget in left sidebar, in case anybody has spending money that's burning a hole in their pocket. I can't buy everything I like, but it's fun to window shop.

Automatic photo oldifier

In the unlikely event you ever need to age a photo, here's a site that will do it for you. Upload your picture, press the blue button, and you'll get back a low res antique-looking snapshot. Via Photojojo.

How to make cut paper frames

It's like making paper snowflakes, only better! I made these cut paper frames with big pieces of origami paper (got them at Blick; they're 9 3/4" square. Not quite this, but close). On your bulletin board or fridge, you could frame postcards, photos, poems, you name it.

Inspiration came from a Japanese book. I can't read it, but you don't need to. Just fold your piece of paper into quarters, colored side to the inside. Sketch your design on with a pencil, making sure it runs off the edge on the two sides with the fold. (See where I marked "FOLD" on the book's example.) If you don't do this, your frame will fall apart. Then cut it out with an X-acto knife and carefully unfold it.

The photos I printed came from the Condé Nast gallery. They sell reproductions of all the gorgeous magazine images there. Have fun browsing.