Do Lectures

The Do Lectures Conference seems a little like the Hobby series, but more serious and world-changing. I heard about this conference from the lovely swissmiss and the idea is that "people who Do things, can inspire the rest of us to go and Do things too."

I think my favorite offering from these guys is this poster:

(It doesn't hurt that this poster was printed on a press just like one in my shop:)

Saying yes is something I'm trying to do more: yes to opportunities, yes to challenges and risks, yes to using up time and living life. That's my New Years Resolution or Intention or Do: to fill the coming year with action instead of inaction by learning new things and making new friends and enjoying all of the good things already in my life.

So here's my question for this post: What is your goal or goals for 2011?

Holiday Season

It seems that there's nothing I can do to slow the oncoming winter and holiday season. So instead, I'm embracing it, within reason. I'm not exactly looking forward to trudging through wet snow, but I am enjoying sweaters and boots. Other ways I'm getting ready for winter:

Nesting: instead of spring cleaning, I think I'm in love with fall decluttering. As the air gets cooler I want to stay home, which makes me notice all of the little projects that need to get started (or more often, those projects that paused halfway through). Bonus: the faster I bustle around the house, the lower I can keep the heat.

The annual Two Loose Teeth Ornament Swap: over at my other [online] home, we're on our fourth year of trading handmade ornaments with friends. I haven't decided yet what I should make. Have ideas that I can't possibly pass up? Want to join us? Drop me a line at sarah at twolooseteeth dot com.

Thinking about Christmas gifts:

• As usual, I'm late to the party, but I keep flipping through Gifted Magazine. There are several good ideas in there, and I'm liking this trend of a traditional magazine set-up with the ease of reading online. Think Nonpareil, but with great gift ideas.


• I'm having a sale over at the Anderson Ink Shop. Custom silhouettes and Spring City Barn prints are seriously on sale and ordering early ensures that I have plenty of time to make your custom item. I'll also be adding some new items soon. Stay tuned.
• Lastly, my list of loved ones is long, my budget is small. I'm mulling over a few handmade ideas, but the question becomes: is the gift that you make cool enough? I try to remember that if I wouldn't see it in a store and want to buy it, it probably doesn't make the cut. How do you decide if a homemade gift makes the cut? Is the fact that you made it and you love the recipient enough? Do you only choose from crafts featured in a great magazine, website, or blog? Do you reproduce something that you saw in the store? Tell me your secrets.

Hobby

I stumbled upon HOBBY and I'm already addicted. I love listening to regular people talk about the hobbies they're most passionate about. And so I'm now waist-deep in their video archives, realizing that I want to be one of these are smart, funny people with unexpected insights or skills.

Hobby: Jessi Arrington, Thrift Store Shopping from Harvest on Vimeo.

What a great idea! I wish there was something like this in Salt Lake City. Hey Utah, think we could make this happen?

Hobby: Jennifer Brook, Making Limoncello from Harvest on Vimeo.

Brian Dettmer

Brian Dettmer is an artist who creates incredibly detailed sculptures made of books.




I can't even imagine how he decides where to cut and how everything will layer together.


Amazing!


I especially like this Flickr album with photos of his studio.


All photos courtesy of Brian Dettmer.

Found via... someone I can't remember, who linked to this post on designboom.

Custom Silhouettes

My adorable, crazy awesome friend Rachael emailed me one day, asking for help on her one year anniversary gift for new husband Brandon. When the traditional gift for the first anniversary is paper, how could I resist? After some brainstorming and then a whole lot of trust on Rachael's part, I started making silhouettes of Rachael and Brandon.

Silhouettes are something I've played with in the past, making one for my niece's 2nd birthday and a portrait of a chicken named Andre, the world's most glorious chicken and the only livestock I've ever purchased.



And I think that the Babiracki silhouettes turned out pretty great, aside from my haphazard hanging on uneven wall hooks for a photo before I packed them up and shipped them off.



So great that I've decided to make silhouettes more often. If you go to my shop and click the right buttons, I will make a custom, paper cut silhouette of you or a loved one. You place an order online, then send me an email with a photo. Wielding a blade like Sweeney Todd, I slice up a piece of paper until it looks like you (or your kid, or your dog, or your great-grandfather).



It's like magic! Except it doesn't smell like mothballs, and it's not disappearing any time soon.

Movie Monday: My Place

I didn't expect that my loves of hand claps and matchbooks would unite in a slightly silly, mildly sexy, pop(?) sensation like this music video from Navigators. And yet:

Drop Cap, &, and EndGrain

Get your daily typeface fix:

Daily Drop Caps created by Jessica Hische. She makes me want to learn more about Illustrator. And design my own font. And practice my penmanship.

An Ampersand a day keeps the boring straight lines away. Or something.

EndGrain features photos of old wood type. I'm in to that sort of thing.

Curiosity Group Elephant

This is a charming marketing piece: A folded paper elephant that you can print out and make yourself. I couldn't help myself!



And there's an accompanying stop-motion video and a good looking companion site:


Someone: hire these guys to design some papercrafts for your company. You will have my attention.

via How About Orange

Paperself

Now that's just a little crazy.



These incredibly detailed papercut eyelashes are by Paperself. I would be afraid to blink while wearing these, but I'd feel like I had something to talk about with my most stylish friend, Jillian.



I wonder how Dita would feel about these...

Real Life Pop-Ups

Note to self:



Turn your life into a popup book.



Awesome.

created by Jacques Pense, via Behance

Good Ideas

This Pennant Rubber Stamp Roller by Cathe Holden is so cleverly simple, I want to make one right now.


I can't stop watching the organized chaos of This Too Shall Pass, by Ok Go. Suggested by Mallory. Another fun video for this song is here.


This promotional video for Design Week Vancouver has made my list of needed office products one gadget longer.

Ridiculously Excited

All I'm saying is that fortune cookies come true. I have one more week with the company that laid me off and then? Then I start smiling bigger every day.

Because I have a job. But not just any job. A job that is frighteningly close to my dream job. At a company filled with some of the coolest people I've met. I'll be sharing more details as I settle in.

I hope it's as great as I imagine. I hope I can make a difference in their company. And, like a nervous kid on the first day of school, I hope they like me.

Lost Things

I have a thing for stop-motion photography. Clearly.



via Oh Joy!

My Fortune Changes

Last Monday afternoon I was told by my employer that they would be ending my contract in a few weeks due to budget restraints. Obviously I'm sad and a little unsure about the future, but I am confident that this is an opportunity for me to find something new that I love. And I don't only think that because my fortune cookie told me so.



I want to let you know why my posting may be a little sparse over the next few weeks. I'll be polishing and printing my resume during the time that I'd normally be looking for things to tell you about here. Wish me luck. Thanks for reading (Hi, Mom!) and I'll check in again soon.

Where They Create

Photographer Paul Barbera takes photos of studios and workspaces during his travels.





He calls this side project Where They Create.





All photos are the property of Paul Barbera.

The Third and The Seventh

I have the sudden urge to sit in silence in a cold, empty building. In a good way.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Another link sent to me from the always lovely Mallory.

Typewriter Robots

My brother Dave sent me an email with a link that just said "Something to do with all of your typewriters?"



I don't think I could create anything like this (and my brother was mostly joking), but these sculptures are kind of cool.

One of my favorites:


These sculptures made entirely of typewriter parts are created by artist Jeremy Mayer.

The Inspired Bride

These save-the-dates are a far cry from the last ones I talked about here.



But they're great.

I found them here on The Inspired Bride, which has consistently pretty content. I especially like her color palettes:



All images are from The Inspired Bride.

Upon a Fold

I am in love.



I totally get why people say that Twitter is ridiculous. It's something that is not necessary to our survival and seems even more self-indulgent and vain than blogging. And with each entry only 140 characters or less, how could someone possibly pack meaningful information into a Twitter update?

And yet. I have found that people can be hilarious, companies have turned around PR nightmares, and (my favorite) I've discovered treasure troves of inspiration. And today that inspiration is a new online shop based in Sydney, Australia.



Patricia from A Little Hut alerted me that Inside Out mentioned their new favorite shop, Upon a Fold, and it is beautiful. I can't wait to see how this new little shop grows. I'm adding it to my list of reasons to visit Australia.

Photos from Inside Out and Upon a Fold.

Kodachrome Curtain

Mallory sent me a link to this project, which she heard about from Maria.



This curtain made of Kodachrome slides looks so cool, offers plenty of privacy, and filters the light beautifully. I think this would make one of my windows look amazing, but could also potentially make a room a bit dark and cave-like.

Photos from crafty curtain creator, yarnzombie.

Art & Copy

The Salt Lake Art Center and Salt Lake Film Center held a free screening last Friday night of Art & Copy.



Even though Lisa and I were rushing to get to the movie on time (I leave my house late all the time. I'm trying to be better. Sorry, all of my friends, for my constant tardiness.) and had to sit separate from our friends and from each other (though congrats to the Salt Lake Film Center for having a packed house!), I'm so glad we went.

First of all, because of this guy's collection of radios:



But more importantly because I was inspired. Inspired that simplicity can be powerful, that advertising can change our world, that people like me (but smarter, more talented, more creative) at desks like mine (but bigger, or messier, or prettier, or cleaner, as the case may be) can make something beautiful or funny or meaningful or creative. And people will listen. And reminded that the most impactful work can come from people with passion and integrity.

I don't think this movie was perfect, but I think that its message was powerful: that advertising is more than pushing a product. It's easy to forget that fact when 95% of the advertising I see doesn't seem to try that hard. But there are people out there, people with giant bird nests in their offices or private concerts or walls covered in thumbtacks



who have the job every day to find something special about a product and about life and make that matter to the rest of us.

Or at least they can make something pretty that doesn't make us all (rightfully) fly into a blind rage.

Type Specimen

Note to self: Remember to look more at this.

via Jessica Hische's tweet

Nick Dewar

Sadly, I found out about Nick Dewar when I heard that he had passed away. My condolences to his family and friends. On the bright side, the internet has made it possible for me to hear about someone and get to know their work even after they're gone. I like that.

Nick Dewar's illustrations are whimsical and smart. If you wonder how creative people do it, you might enjoy reading about his process here. I did.

More wallpaper

This would look amazing on your wall.




Do it. Wallpaper your house in this amazing stuff. Buy it here.
More good stuff here.

Veasyble

Veasyble is a little crazy, a little cool.





Excuse me, I have to go fold something.

via swissmiss

Weekend Snippets

Loving:
Jessica Hische is Lettercult's 2009 Person of the Year. I'm a little obsessed with her lately, so I'll be talking more about this later.

Watching:
Steve Jobs: How to Live Before You Die and Tom Shannon: The Painter and the Pendulum. Both inspiring.
And of course, the Super Bowl. Lisa made some delicious beef sandwiches, the commercials were disappointing, then we watched Whip It and played a little Just Dance on the Wii.

Organizing:

I've made and collected a lot of button pins. Now I know where they are. And I have plans for them.

Plotting:

I have hundreds of matchbooks. There are a few ideas rolling around in my head of what to do with them, but I'm curious: what would you do with a blank matchbook?

Tavish the Gnome

Still on my list of people/products to review:

Quilling. It's basically using curled strips of paper to make a design. I must try that.

A different spin on quilling are minifolk made of curled paper.



His name is Tavish the Gnome. Adorable, right? Rebecca, the woman who made this little gnome won a video competition on Etsy. You can see it here.

The Spotted Sparrow Valentines

If you're looking for Valentines, there are some cute ones over at The Spotted Sparrow. This collage artist pairs vintage imagery with 80s song lyrics.



I think they're amusing.



Plus they're ecofriendly, in case you're into that whole Earth-saving thing.



via Paper Crave.

Typewriter Valentines by Anderson Ink (hey, that's me!) are available here.