Product labeling!

My husband found this wooooonderful app on our iPad, called Makr.

I'm completely addicted to it. He made an account for us and I currently have, I think, about seven projects saved on it. I've used it to make address labels, price tags, product labels, and business cards for A Hankering For! In a couple of days, we'll be ordering the pdf files for all of those items and printing them out soon after. I'll finally feel a smidge more legit. Yay! I plan on sending a handful of business cards with all orders that are shipped, so that'll be exciting.

With Makr, I was able to customize my own little logo, color wheel, and fonts used in my products. It's completely "me" and I'm in love with all of it!

There is a sneak peek of the address label set as my cover photo on my Facebook page.

Excitement!

-Erin

Alcohol Inks!

So my MIL, the wonderful woman she is, got myself and my husband completely addicted to using alcohol inks as a medium on ceramic tiles.

If you don't know what alcohol inks are, join the club. I had NO idea what to expect when using them. The brand we use is by Tim Holtz, they are acid free, called Adirondack, by Ranger Inks. The largest supply, that I've found, come from a crafts store here in Minnesota called Crafts Direct (I went to that store for the first time a little under a year ago. I am utterly hooked to it! I will miss it so when we move). The alcohol inks can also be found online and at Michael's.

But these alcohol inks are incredible. They are so fun to play around with and see the different ways that it can be manipulated. I'm not going to go into a full-on, detailed tutorial at the moment. I just wanted to post about some of the tiles we've completely thus far. We have roughly twenty tiles althogether!

This is an Instagram photo of a tile I half-arsed.

Those cute little bottles above it are the bottles of alcohol inks used.

This Instagram photo is of a tile I had started, on a whim, after helping

my husband with a wolf tile he was working on. The black outlining is actually

made by Tulip brand "Slick" dimensional fabric paint. It acts as a grout (the best

word we've found to describe it, lol) to separate the alcohol inks. 

This dream catcher is probably my favorite tile made, thus far.

Finished product:

Isn't it just gorg?!

This tile has some history. My husband actually drew that

swallow on the tile, originally meant for his sister. Then, because I free-handed

a better one, he took mine. So I turned this one into a tile representing the peace

and courage of kidney disease and kidney transplant awareness. 

[A friend of mine just donated one of her kidneys so that her father 

could have a kidney transplant that was much needed. If you'd like 

to donate to help them financially while they are both out of work, 

you can visit the linked website at the bottom of this post. Thanks a million!]

This Instagram photo (are we seeing a trend here?!) is another fave.

Spur-of-the-moment tile made because of a quote I had read (somewhere

on FB, I'm sure). A friend I graduated high school with put an order

in for one for herself shortly after posting this picture on FB. So excited!

[Thanks again, Jazmyn!]

This tile was one of the very first that I made. The top, darker picture is

just me goofing off. I didn't like the dark so much, so I used rubbing alcohol and

a stamper with felt attached to lighten the coloring of the background.

This MN tile is the VERY FIRST tile I worked on. I sat down with my MIL and 

had this idea, so I googled silhouette pictures of the state and free-handed the outline.

Lol, my MIL was floored at how well it looked. I take that as a HUGE compliment!

Like the previous tile posted, I lightened the background a bit. I like it very, very much now.

This tile-ugh-is not a favorite. I don't really know why, but I'm just not

very fond of this tile. The pattern was all free-handed, not measured out. I've tried

to convince myself that it is a cute tile, but I cannot. Creator's remorse, I call it. :]

Maybe I'll do a photo-detailed tutorial on alcohol inks in the future? I am just not sure about putting all the work into that detailed of a post with only a few (VERY beloved) readers. We'll see!

If you'd like to donate for the cause mentioned earlier in this post: Kimmy & Kimalie's Kidney Fundraiser

If you'd like to follow me on Instagram, if you don't already: @wishitwerethatsimple

-Erin

A New Year!

So, magically, 2014 is here.

The air seems colder (it is) and the sun feels warmer (it isn't).

This year is going to bring a lot of change for my little family.

• First up, A goes back to 2nd grade on Thursday. Which is tomorrow. 
• Then I am going to spend my Friday night with two wonderful gals that I have come to adore and love. They understand my thoughts before I can really say them. I'm so grateful for these two ladies and I will miss them dearly when we move. 
• Next up will be Christian going back to college for his last semester. With his schedule, I will be working nights (which really translates into "evenings" because I'm not working OVERnights) and I am not very excited about that. Especially since this means that I will be driving home in the dead of the night in the middle of winter on one of the worst roads. Paranoia, activate!
• Shortly after, I will be turning 26! -insert sarcastic gasp of horror at my old age-
• Then Christian and I will have a night out with some friends. We're super stoked about that.
• Then we have Miss A's EIGHTH birthday and birthday party. I'm totes magotes in denial about that one!
• Valentine's Day.
• Christian's 29th birthday! -insert real gasp of horror at his old age-
• Dabbled in there, once a week, I will be seeing a physical therapist to (hopefully) help with my tension and cluster migraines. This, in turn, will help with my overall health.
• After all of that, there will be more extended family birthdays, holidays, meetings, nights out, doctor appointments, phone calls for planning, laughs, cries, and a full range of crazy emotions.
• Christian will graduate college (for the SECOND time!) in May, A will finish up second grade in early June, we'll stick around through early-mid June for birthdays and then we will be packed up and moving to Alabammy!
• After that, who knows what will be happening for us! I know, for sure, a lot of visiting folks in the south, a lot of trips to the beach, trips to North Carolina to see my mom and her side of the family along with a best friend and her family in Charlotte, trips to the beaches in the Carolinas, and some serious relationship bonding with my little family. We'll be busy finding a place to live, jobs to interview for, and getting everything geared up for A to be a third grader and Miss C should be starting kindergarten, hopefully!

Either way, 2014 will be a very busy year for us. We have direct goals and plans in place and nothing will stop us from getting there!

How do you think your 2014 will shape up?



-Erin