Star Street Style: Spring Fever

Olivia Palermo

Hair Inspiration Gallery

The Luxe-Loving Mom

If Mom’s the kind of gal who likes to keep things simple, luxurious and chic, she’ll especially love Moroccanoil. If she doesn’t know about it yet, it’s time you shared with her the secret of this magic hair potion.

Everything Comes Around Again

I love this take on a very daggy interior item.  Who knew the humble doiley could look so good?

Book Love

I've been waiting a while for this to appear in my local bookshop and yesterday I got my sticky little hands on it.  I can't wait to take Rob to bed and find out just what he's been up to....

Black & Spiro Sale 2011

Mum snapped this photo as the beautiful pair of Antique chairs were loaded into the back of this truck.  They were headed to their new home in Byron Bay.  I was sad to see these chairs go as they were my favourite things in the entire shop.  These ladies drove all the way up this morning from Byron Bay...unbelievable!!

What a beautiful, sunny day it was today.  Perfect weather for a sale.  I arrived at the store at 7.15am to find the first two ladies lined up at our front door.  They had apparently been there since 6.45am.  To say I was surprised is an understatement.  By 7.30am my friend Faux Fuchsia had arrived and by 8am there was an army of happy, excited women at our front door lined up in an orderly queue around the corner into Browne Street ready and prepared for our 9am open. 

I have to say that every year I become more and more anxious about our one day only sale.  My thoughts drift from what if nobody comes to what if more people come than last year.

However, it seems that the latter is true - to my complete astonishment more and more people come every year.  Last year I don't think I was really prepared for the numbers we had on the day but this year we set in place some new procedures for our sale which I think made it so much better.  

I would like to thank everyone who supported us today.  I was absolutely delighted by the kindness, politeness and civility of everyone and it seems that everyone left the store not only with something they love but also with a smiling, happy face which makes me very happy and relieved!!

PS.  A huge thank you to my oldest and dearest friend in the entire world Sophie and also to Diana and Mum for stepping in and helping us.  I don't know how we would have done it without you!!!!  Oh and also the biggest thanks to my beautiful Black & Spiro girls - Kel, Liv & Eve.  You girls all worked tirelessly over the last week getting us ready for today.  You are THE BEST!!!

Would You Look At Those Eyes!!!

Alexis Bledel you are divine.

blogger's been acting up...

Blogger's has been having issues... some posts and comments are having disappearing and reappearing acts. :P Hopefully, it will be fixed soon!

All Dolled Up + GIVEAWAY

I’m both happy that I’ve had this chance but at the same time sad that this is going to be my last post here at the SEI blog. But like what the saying goes…some good things have to end and today I wanna share a layout I made with the Couture paper line, flowers from the Summer brights pack and die cuts from the With all my heart pack.

Do you have a child that wants to be their mommy’s copy cat? Well I am blessed to have one. My daughter is so into getting herself all dolled up. Now mind you, I’m not one to put makeup on regular basis but when it’s Sunday, I try to dress my best for church and I think that’s where she gets the idea of getting all dolled up too. These photos were caught while getting ready for church about a year ago. I’m so happy to have caught these photos of here in her favorite element, mirror in front and lip gloss in hand! What could a girl ask for more?

I had cut out three identical flowers from pattern paper here using my die cut machine then layering it with pink flowers and finishing it up with pearl brads. I also added some die cut shaped from the With all my heart pack that had the pink color scheme.

Remember those lace cardstock that I’ve used in my Mothers and Daughters layout plus the mini book? Well I was able to extend it to this page as well. The lace created a subtle background for my title. I had combined letters cut up from pattern paper with a die cut machine plus letters stickers from the White Elegance line.

So that’s it. I hope I was able to inspire you to try something new this week. Whether it be creating something for a unique mother’s day gift, challenging you to journal about relationships, making cards in one hour or recycling items that might have been thrown away. I always find myself in my most creative when I step out of my comfort zone.

Happy crafting everyone!

Signing off.
Grace

Thank you for joining us this week Grace! It has been a blast. We love all of your projects and they definitely inspired some great homemade gift ideas. We will make sure to stop by your blog to keep up on your future projects.

GIVEAWAY TIME! Ready for a chance to win some of the paper-crafting products Grace used this week? Just leave a comment on this post by Sunday, May 15th at midnight MST. Include in your comment which post or project was your favorite this week. The winner will be announced Monday.

Thank you!

Thank you to all the great Twigs & Honey blog readers and fans out there. I truly appreciate all your support these last 3 years!

I really do love what I do. It is a ton of work and it means the world to me to hear all the sweet comments and read all your wonderful emails. :)

We're continuing to grow and evolve and it's been a great learning experience. We've added a couple production workers and have lots of new endeavors on the horizon.

I have one awkward thing to say in the midst of all this.
As a designer, I think it's common to find that imitation does not feel like flattery. Sometimes it is a few instances and other times, repeated offenses, but it can be frustrating when you feel like you're putting your heart and soul into your brand only to see it continually copied and emulated. Many times, it's minor and no big deal (you have to grow a pretty thick skin), but lately (the last year or two), there has been one other designer that continually replicates not only designs but branding, marketing, descriptors, logos, etc. I've had several other designers/individuals point it out to me so I know I'm not going nutty, but it is definitely disheartening. I think it is one thing to copy someones designs, but it takes it to a whole new level when all the branding is nearly identical. I could point out a plethora of examples, but I don't want to be too obvious. It is actually kind of creepy and makes me uncomfortable - that is, the extent of how far it has gone (common responses from moi - "WTF?" "Really?"). I personally find it very odd to try so hard to be exactly like another company. Why would you want to do that? I really don't know what one could achieve besides short term monetary gain. Ethically & personally - I think it is just wrong and unfruitful. That's just my opinion.

Long story short, the best I can do is always look forward and continue doing what I have been doing. As part of a continual effort toward making Twigs & Honey a unique and innovative brand, I've decided to do some revamping of the branding. I think it's time for a lovely facelift. A huge motivator is the aformentioned offending designer, but another big factor is to keep Twigs & Honey fresh and refined. I can't wait to unveil what we have in the works! Keep checking back for updates. Some new things in the next few months... bigger things over the next year and beyond!

Keep on keeping on! :)

Mid-Week Tulips

These fresh tulips arrived at Black & Spiro today.  They were such a surprise.  I took them home and arranged them in the vintage bird vase I picked up a few weeks ago.  They have brightened my week. Thank you Janet!!

Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song

I can't get enough of this film clip at the moment.  I can sit mesmerised watching it over and over.  Weird.

Friends Card Set

Today’s post is somewhat of a challenge. Have you ever tried to make a card set in less than an hour?

Well this is your day to get some ideas and hopefully inspire you enough to do this challenge as well.

I love making cards, but sometimes I feel like I spend as much time in one card as I do with a layout. So to simplify things a bit, I decided to challenge myself to create these four coordinating cards in one hour. How did I do it…Well here are my tips…

1. Use a paper pack. They all coordinate with each other which take the time from you putting things together over and over again to see if they all match. I used the Sunny Day 6x6 paper pad for this project. Being that it’s a smaller pack; the designs were also made to fit the size of the papers therefore perfect for small projects such as cards.

2. I also used one design. If you look closely at my cards, they all have general design. To add variety, I switched the design from horizontal to vertical plus I moved the placement of the embellishments around.

3. Limit your embellishments to a minimum. Here I used two items, which is flowers for most of them and butterfly for one. The felt flowers on the best buds card were already layered and have adhesive on the back which made for a quicker card.

4. Use only one tool. Here I used a corner round punch on two sides.

5. The card sentiment blocks are all from the Garden Variety paper in the Sunny Days collection. The paper was printed with easy tear off sides for each block. There’s no need to use your paper cutter here. Super easy stuff!

Here’s a close up of each card…

This card set would be perfect for that Mommy bestfriend you have. So what are you waiting for…..create some cards today and try to them in one hour. See how the time constraint stretches your creativity.

See you tomorrow
Grace

Eye Candy - Josh Duhamel

Mothers and Daughters Layout

Hello, we are in the second day of our week long Mother’s day inspired project share. And today I’ve decided to pay tribute to the Mothers and Daughters in my family.

We all have mothers and daughters (that soon will be mothers themselves) so why not pay tribute to them.

In this page, I’m photographed with my mom and my sister in law. I also have two sisters and although I love them dearly, they were not photographed at this time. I’m sure there will be another photo opportunity with them in the future plus a layout for them too. :)

I added the lace cardstock behind some pattern paper here. I love how it gives that elegant border around my page. To make the most of this lace cardstock, I had cut the inside of it since only the edges will show on the page. This gives me the chance to use the lace on other projects that you will see in later posts.

I’m so in love with the Couture line. The soft colors and elegant designs are perfect for feminine layouts. I used my die cut machine here to create the layered flowers. If you read my tutorial yesterday, I pretty much did the same treatment with the paper flowers in the frame as I did here. The only difference is, I used some pretty pearl brads that is in the White Elegance embellishment line.

I also added some swirl stickers that is part of the Couture line. The swirl stickers weren’t long enough to go around my flowers so I cut them in half and stuck the cut up edges underneath the flowers. This way, I was able to extend them without making it obvious to the viewer.

I also pleated some paper to create my subtle and soft border. For my journaling I wrote about how lucky I feel to be surrounded with strong feminine examples in my family. What special things do you share with your mother, sister or friends? Make sure you document those special relationships in a layout soon.

See you tomorrow.
Grace

Cafe Love - Wee Jeanie

Ian and Clare Munroe, the delightful couple who originally brought us Le Chien in Seddon, then opened The Corner Shop in Yarraville Village have now opened the doors on their latest venture - Wee Jeanie.

(50 Anderson St, Yarraville Village)

Considering the fact that I spend every week day morning at The Corner Shop I was bound to like Wee Jeanie - a more casual version.  My problem now is which one to go to?  They are both situated in the Village which suits me just fine with Wee Jeanie a hop skip and jump from CHALK.  What a nice dilemma to have.

Drop in and say Hi - although Ian is sooo in love with his fabulous new coffee machine that it is hard to get any sense out of him at the moment!  See you there.

The Preparations Have Begun...

Yesterday we started preparing for our annual sale at Black & Spiro which starts at 9am this Saturday.  This is what our fabric remnant room looked like after I had stripped it of piles and piles of fabric which we are putting into our sale on Saturday. It's so nice to have some order in our remnant room as it usually looks like a cyclone has swept through it!! 

Van Love

Do you reckon they're allowed to park the van there?  I think not.  High tide could prove to be their undoing.

Altered Quote Frame

Today I want to start us off with an easy yet very elegant project that you can either make for yourself or to give to the Mother/s in your life...

I love to frame quotes. It’s the next best thing to pictures and adding paper flowers to the sides just makes this frame scream Mother to me.

I used the elegant Couture line for this project. I found the quote here.

The layered flowers were scrunched up to create more texture and I also inked the edges.

The quote is tucked behind the glass which means that you can enjoy this frame and the quote for a long period of time.

But wait! There’s more….I decided to make this post a tutorial. Read on to know how I made the frame…

First I start of with collecting all my supplies.
• Couture line papers
• Printed quote on white cardstock
• Die cut machine and cartridge
• Frame to be altered
• Pearls
• Paint (white)

Plus these tools…
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Paper trimmer
• Scissors
• Border punch

*Although I usually have a game plan before I start the project, I usually end up changing things up a bit. I’ve organized this tutorial in the way where you can end up with the same final project as I have but you might notice that in the pictures I’ve jumped around a bit.

Step 2
I paint the frame white. I got the frame for 99 cents at Goodwill. Although the frame has cute things written on it already, I felt like it was lacking some color so I opted to alter it. Let the frame dry and continue on to the next step.

Step 3
Start cutting your flower shapes from your die cut machine. I wanted the layered effect so I cut the flowers in graduating sizes- large, medium and small. I love how double sided pattern paper helps with the layering, it gives you coordinating designs every time with less time cutting.

Step 4
Layer the flowers the way you want them to look. Make sure you take into consideration the paper that you will be using to cover the frame. You don’t want the flowers to blend with the background. You want them to stand out, that’s why you made them after all. I inked the edges to make them pop out more.

Step 5
I used a pencil and my hands to scrunch up the flowers and make them more dimensional. Take your time in creating the different layers of the flower; it’s worth it at the end!

Step 6
Flowers that doesn’t have any centers just doesn’t finished to me, so I added buttons with baker’s twine threaded through them as a finishing touch to each flower. Set aside your flowers.

Step 7
When your frame have dried completely, measure the length and width of it. Cut a piece of pattern paper that will cover the entire front of the card. Although we have painted it, we will still cover it with pattern paper. The white paint just gives the edges a finished look.

Step 8
Lay your cut out piece of paper onto the frame and turn it over. With pencil, draw out the opening of the frame and cut it out with either scissor or paper trimmer.

Step 9
The inside edges of the frame didn’t look so perfect to me so I added a punched border to it. I did this by punching the decorative edge on paper first and then cutting them in strips.

I then laid them the way I want them to be. I decided to only perfect two corners since I’ll be covering the other two with flowers. I made the corners perfect by aligning two strips and then cutting one edge diagonally.

I then inked the edges.

Step 10
Adhere the paper onto the frame and ink the edges.

Step 11
Trim your quote to fit the frame. I used the glass panel to make sure my quote match up perfect in the frame.

Step 12
I then added the flowers- Two on the top left and two on the bottom right. I used pop up adhesive for two of them to add more dimension to the flowers.

Step 13
I wanted to add more feminine touches to the frame so I hand drawn a swirl on both top and bottom sides of the frame and then added pearls over the swirls. After adding them, I carefully erased the lines.

And there you have it! A frame that you can be both inspired and proud of.

See you tomorrow.
Grace