things I made

Valentines Day Craft: Heart on a Chain

I did this little craft with Moses this weekend. (It was mostly me, although he was into “helping” quite a bit.) We just made little hearts out of Sculpey or Fimo (the dough that hardens when you bake it–just get it from any craft store.) Then we made holes through the dough with a needle and baked them. We made a chain with it and hung it from our window. We also made little bracelets. I think the bracelets would be a cute classmate Valentine for when they get older.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Oh Happy Day Letterpress: Open For Business

Since Paul already has an art studio I’ve been able to justify keeping my press for just personal use and an occasional side project. But I’m really excited to announce that with my partner Alexis, we are now accepting letterpress jobs. I will do most of the design work and Alexis will do the printing in our studio in San Francisco.

We specialize in details like individual watercoloring, custom diecuts, hand painted edging, and dip dyed paper. Here are some of the cards we recently printed.

For Jenny’s cards we did a two color card. One was a blind deboss and then the other was a navy. We also hand painted the edges a pretty persimmon red. (These were laid out by Jenny’s designer.)

These are the cards we made for Aubrey last year. We printed them without ink as a blind deboss and then individually water colored each one by hand.

These cards were designed by Nicole and were printed on a super heavy duplex stock. They are printed with three colors and are two sided. (The back side is solid stripes.)

These cards we designed and printed on chipboard then hand painted the edges fluorescent pink and red. The chipboard has flecks of gold in it and is really really pretty.

These we designed and printed for my sister-in-law, Liz. They are two color and I surprised her with them at Alt. It’s payment for making me cookies.

If you need business cards printed or designed we are open for business! Our basic rates are right here. Email me at ohhappydayblog@gmail.com

We are also doing a wedding invitation line that will launch in a month or two. (If you are a bride and interested in lots of handmade details like favors and menus, email us with your wedding date and the number of invitations needed.) ohhappydayblog@gmail.com

Fondue Party

On New Years Day we threw a fondue party for all our friends. We did it like an open house from 12-6pm so people could drop in whenever they wanted. I had never thrown a party like that and I’m a solid convert. We got a chance to have a good talk with everyone that stopped by. That usually doesn’t happen when you just do a party for a couple hours.

It was a super easy party to put together. I bought all the cheese and veggies a day or two before then went to a bakery the morning of to get really fresh bread. I pre shredded the cheese the evening before and bagged them separately so every time I made a new pot of fondue I just had to empty the bag of cheese in. We had fun drinks and snacks around the whole time and then cooked a pot of cheese every hour and a half. We have two fondue pots so that made it a little easier to rotate out the clean one.

People streamed in and out. Some stopped in really quick, some stayed for several hours. It was fantastic and really low pressure. I’m totally doing this again. Plus melted cheese is the perfect way to start the year off right. My favorite fondue recipe is this one.

2010 Year in Review – Part 2

Here is the second part of my year in review. (Part 1 is here.)

In May I got to style two photo shoots for Anthology Magazine. It was such a great experience working with such talented and interesting people. A real highlight of my year for sure.

I also brought on Alexis Birkmeyer as an intern (and later hired her as a full time studio manager.) Alexis is pretty much straight from heaven and Paul and I always ask if we can adopt her. She will be running our studio and my press while we are in France.

I made these S’mores kits for Project Wedding.

And I shared pictures of Moses’ room. (My kids sleep in a closet!)

I designed these Father’s Day printable labels for Alpha Mom.

I did a DIY on how to make a birdcage veil for Project Wedding.

I did a magnetic board DIY for iVillage.

In August I helped with the Kirtsy Party at Blogher and I shared how to recreate a few aspects of the party like these signs held up by weather balloons and chalkboard speech bubbles.

I also created these flag sculptures for Project Wedding.

In September Paul and I collaborated on our Let Them Eat Cake project where I art directed and he painted 50 cake paintings. We had a show, and ate cake.

I did a fancy dinner party under the Golden Gate Bridge. Here is the main post and the details here.

I created this pinwheel seating chart for Project Wedding.

We had a movie night in our back yard.

Then in October my friend Fergi was in town for her birthday so we threw her another dinner party by the Golden Gate Bridge (this time on the Sausalito side.)

I was hired to work with Suzanne Shade and style a few different ads for Minted to run in magazines during the holidays.

We announced the Commission Project.

And we were lumberjacks.

In November Moses got a haircut.

I put a party in a box.

We had a pretty (and delicious) Thanksgiving.

And I got ready for Christmas by making this felt ball Garland.

In December we wrapped presents up real pretty. Plus here and here.

We sent Roman in for one last surgery.

I made watercolor paper chains with Moses.

Moses turned three!

And I made watercolor and letterpress Christmas Cards.

And that was my year in two nice and tidy posts. Going through everything was almost therapeutic. Onwards and upwards to 2011! Anything you want to see more of for 2011? Leave a comment.

2010 Year in Review – Part 1

2011 is here. We made it. It is nice to look back and take stock of what happened in 2010. It’s been a long year folks. I am putting a lot of faith in 2011, let’s hope it doesn’t disappoint.

In January, I turned 30. And was fat and pregnant. And depressed. No that’s actually not a picture of my birthday party. (It’s the birthday party of my dreams.)

In February, we shared some pictures of our apartment. Here, here, here, and here.

Then at long last our Roman came. And he was perfect.

In March, Paul had a birthday and I sent him on a treasure hunt following a red string with a picnic at the end.

In April I did these mobiles and citrus garland DIY’s for Project Wedding.

Then we sent Romey in for his first cleft lip surgery.

In May I put together the Birthday Surprise in the mail for Aubrey. Where all her family and friends sent her love notes and it turned into a giant puzzle. Here is the post about it, here is the rad video Aubrey made, and here are my DIY instructions.

I did the wheat grass escort card and the lemonade favor DIY for Project Wedding.

I started experimenting with watercolor and letterpress.

Phew! I’ve only made it to June. Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow.