Recently // Instagram

My life has looked like a lot of jewelry-making lately (spring shop update next Tuesday!)  Which is exhilarating and stressful and all-consuming.  That and a little bonding time with the cat and snacks replacing actual meals.

I'm all over Instagram like a bee is to honey.  Are you?  It's the perfect way to capture a moment and has me looking at simple things in a much sweeter light.  Pretty nice for a free, phone app, yeah?

otl Branding // Mood Board & Logo Design

I see a lot of graphic designers throwing up mood boards, like and this and this, to help with them with design projects and branding, so I thought I might just do one for the onthelookout as well! #fakeittilyoumakeit.

Coming up with a logo and overall feel for this brand is something that I've been wanting to take on for a while, but haven't necessarily thought I was ready to do.  There are just so many options out there!  Color schemes, fonts, packaging, mission statements, etc etc.  When you have complete creative freedom, it can be hard to narrow down just what you like, no?  Pinterest has been a great resource for helping me compile all of the visually inspiring stuff out there, so I used that to pull together this first mood board.  I gave myself 10 minutes to look through and select all of the pins that reminded me of my vision for onthelookout.  I think the time limit was helpful, lest I spend hours on something that is supposed to be pretty quick and organic.  I hope that studies like this will help me narrow down the goods and edits out the "unnecessaries."  Plus, I am dying to get a some business cards and a custom stamp made for packaging.  At the very least, it was fun to do!

Colors and shapes are pretty consistent here: Pink, blue-grey, black, and gold appear everywhere on my Pinterest boards and in the colors around my house.  Oh and I love me some triangles and geometric, deco-inspired shapes.  However, I'm still on the fence about the logo... I can't decide if I like the blocky text or hand-written script look.  Thoughts?

I'd love to see any mood boards that you've done!

Decorate Your Space // DIY Paper Pennant

Life in my new apartment is finally running smoothly with all of the needed (read: boring) items purchased: Light bulbs, cleaning stuffs, paper towels, utensils, etc.  Now, it's time to get a jump on the FUN decorations and cheer up the place!  I'm only planning on staying in this space for the next year, so easy-to-make decorations that are inexpensive, that can be moved easily and that don't require much planning are key.  And since I always want my life to feel like a good party, I decided that stringing up a few garlands would be the way to get it did.

This paper, pennant garland was SO easy to make and I tacked it up with just a bit of tape and I was good to go!  Plus, you gotta admit, it looks like a giant, toothy grin and how can that not put a smile on your lovely face?

You will need:

• Colored card stock or construction paper
• Glue (Tacky or wood)
• A pencil
• Scissors or an exacto knife
• String (I used a neon pink shoelace) 
• Ruler

(Neatly assemble your supplies.)

(Measure out an isosceles or equilateral triangle on a piece of paper and cut it out.  Use that as a template to trace out 10-15 triangles on the rest of your paper.  Then, cut them bad boys out.)

(Squeeze out a bead of glue at the top of your triangles and stick them onto the string.  Use your ruler to space them equally - mine are 2 inches apart.  Both tacky glue and wood glue dry super fast, which means your triangles shouldn't fall off when you try to hang this without letting the glue dry completely. #impatient)

(Hang, admire and SMILE.)

The Daily Draw // Logo and Package Design

[A peak at what I'm drawing today...]

Feast your eyes on round one of prototype packaging for onthelookout jewelry.  I think I've decided to do a combination business card / earring, necklace and bracelet holder - in order to keep my costs down and streamline the process.  When you're starting your own creative business and, hence, do all of the work, you gotta take the "easy" route when you can.

So far, my idea is to use rectangular piece card stock.  I'll then stamp my logo in black/gold/pink at the top and a row of three or five chevron/herringbone/triangles at the bottom in another color.  I figure I'll go ahead and hand cut slits or holes in the card stock with an exacto knife, depending on what it's going to hold.  After that, I need to decide if those go into boxes or muslin jewelry bags.  I'm leaning towards boxes, because there's built in protection for shipping right there, but those little bags are so cute!

Looks real amateur, doesn't it?  Just how I like it... Simple beginnings soon lead to great things, I think.

And by great things, I mean I want to be starring into the likes of one of these bad boys one day:

Collection: Wood You Rather?

[...a collection of wooden finds.  And a terrible, nonsensical pun, but yeah, I went there.]

As soon as I saw Alicia's pictures from her kitchen renovation, I instantly fell in love with their expansive, butcher-block counter. Dang, it looks so warm and pretty!

That got me thinking about one of my favorite materials to work with: wood.  Wood, people.  With all of its antiquated charm, wonderful scents, general abundance and raw unwillingness to be anything other than what it is -- Ever try to stain something exactly the color you want it, to only get a better (or worse) turn out?  You know what I mean.  

So, I put together a few of my favorite wooden finds right here for you!

one - Handcrafted, reclaimed wood headboard by Ariele Alasko, recently featured on The Makers Project.
two - Hand carved, oak rope swing.
three - DIY painted wooden platter.
four - Pretty, painted wooden bowl set.
five - Wooden handled bread spoons (Each spoon measures out the exact amount of each ingredient to make homemade bread.  Awesome.)
six - A handy guide for the practical folks.
seven - Mora tree branch wooden sling shot (I may or may not have climbed trees in my youth and shot acorns and rocks out of a device such as this. #dennisthemenacewannabe)
eight - Handcrafted, natural wood chest.
nine - Wooden nugget necklace.
ten - The stacked wedges of my dreams.

(Someday, I will have a wood shop in my studio/home - right across from the metal fabrication area and laser cutter.  And I'll play with the likes of power tools and hammers, tool belt slug around my waist and nails in hangin' out of my mouth.  I'll bang around, measure twice, cut once, get lots of splinters and rescue wooden pieces and parts to turn what was once waterlogged and damp/ dry and brittle/ trashed and forgotten into pretty pieces to be loved again.  #dreamvivid)

Myne - Spring 12 Lookbook

[...or clothes I'd like to where whilst taking a sunny stroll, playing old-timey board games and playing with film cameras.  Models have all the fun.]

Beautifully draped and detailed pieces (with some fabulous open back action) from the Myne '12 Spring Lookbook.

via ofakind.