Christmas Gifts

Posted on January 3, 2013 by studiogatz

The holidays are over…thank goodness. I was in a mad rush to finish all my StudioGatz orders and still have time to make all my family presents. My favorite gift this year was a quilted cover buttoned wall calendar I made my little sister. She has a new office and needed some “decorations.”

Quilted Covered Button Calendar

This is my first time to quilt anything. My mother is an expert quilter (check out her quilt blog I Finally Have Time), so I tried to channel her spirit while making this. In fact, I got the idea from a Zakka craft book I bought her for Christmas.

I chose this project also because my little sister had helped me make covered button earrings to sell at my Christmas craft show. She is a covered button maniac and was whipping them out faster than you can say “covered buttons.”

Here it is in her office (and changed to January):

Calendar in Office (notice the picture of Gatsby!)

I haven’t decided yet if this will make it over to the StudioGatz Store, but thought it was still fun to share.

P.S. For those wondering what’s going on with my Esty Store, well… I have no excuse, but I’ll try to sound pitiful while explaining. I hate writing descriptions and being clever and tagging and everything that goes into making a great Etsy store item. BUT It’s a new year and with that come New Year’s resolutions…So Resolution #1: Post items in my store.

Store Updates: Customization

Posted on May 21, 2012 by studiogatz

So what happens when a Judge and a Princess meet and fall in love?

They have a wedding shower and need 60 Thank You cards.

To be honest…this isn’t actually about a Judge and Princess, but about two friends whose last names are Judge and Crowne. With noun (and I guess verb) last names, you can have a lot of fun!

Mr & Mrs Stationary

The Mrs (or soon to be Mrs) helped with the design. She had seen one that had a mustache and lips, but wanted it customized to their names. I already had a Mr. and Mrs. card in Studio Gatz, so I added some of those elements.

Other Mr & Mrs Stationary

Every card needs a little fun, so I added pearlized dots to the crown for Mrs. Crowne (soon to be Judge). For my regular cards, I use glitter for the ampersand.

Studio Gatz can do almost any custom order. Just contact us (custom@studiogatz.com) with your wish list. We’ll be happy to send proofs, pictures, and pricing.

We’re Open!

Posted on April 17, 2012 by studiogatz

After slaving away for days in the living room workshop, we are finally open! Actually yesterday we opened the virtual doors. Every day, and every few hours, we are adding new products so check out the store often. Here’s a preview of some of the items you will find!

We are just starting out so please send us any and all feedback to contact@studiogatz.com.

Stay Connected

Posted on April 9, 2012 by studiogatz

As the countdown to Studio Gatz begins, we are excited to tell you about our new email list.

This exciting enewsletter will feature a new product every month and show off the site’s best sellers. Also, it is where we will tell you about special discounts and promotions. (How can you miss out on that!?!)

If you include your birthday (don’t worry we don’t ask for the year), you’ll also get a special birthday month treat!

Don’t forget to also follow Studio Gatz on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest! (and of course here at Gatz Chats!)

TOP SECRET: We’ll be running a super secret promotion in the next month. If you follow, like, subscribe, etc. to the enews and other sites listed above, you’ll have a better chance of winning. (What do they say? The early bird gets the worm!)

Favorite: Coordinately Yours

Posted on April 6, 2012 by studiogatz

I stumbled upon Coordinately Yours by Julie Banner in the wonderful world of Pinterest. I was led to the blog by a pin for hostess gifts, but I found oh so much more.

Like amazing printables and suggestions for events. I just love this table setting for Easter:

Great place setting for Easter Brunch!

It’s simple and elegant with a fun touch (and smell) of lavender. The menu cars/baggies are adorable.

There’s also great recipes and DIY projects (a little something for everyone–most of all the Pinterest obsessed).

Anniversaries Are Hard Work

Posted on April 4, 2012 by studiogatz

Anniversaries are hard work…for the children. I say that because last night was my parent’s 30th anniversary. And while, yes of course, it took a lot of work for them to get to that point, it also took a lot of work to make their present.

Let me start off by saying I’m one of three girls and we don’t live close by to one another (we’re spread between Boston, Chicago, and DC). So trying to plan something together is a bit hard. Thank goodness for group GChat! We started off by trying to meet in DC, where my parents also live, to celebrate, but couldn’t get our schedules to work.

Then SURPRISE! My parents said let’s go to Hawaii. They had been there on their honeymoon and we all went on their 10th anniversary (see our luau gear below). Well I was definitely in for that. “Hey everybody its time to start working out, I’m going to be in a bikini early this year!”

Hula Dancers

Oh wait…just kidding… My dad, it turns out, has a meeting there this Fall. So “Sorry girls, no trip to Hawaii for you.” Way to totally rip my heart out mom (I know you’re reading this!).

So anyway… we loved watching our home videos, but they were all on VHS and my parents were paranoid about converting them to a DVD or digital format. Worried they would forever lose their memories. (Ummm the problem with that is you were still missing out on them because you didn’t have a working VHS player!) So we hired my baby sister to be stealthy and secretly grab the tapes and ship them off to be converted (I had a coupon).

Hello preserved memories! And while 13 hours of shaky video footage is oh so exciting, we needed something more. Enter iMovie (my new boyfriend and a new “Favorite”). This is why I’m so glad to be a MAC. This program was amazing–I was able to slice the old (now digitized) footage with pictures and set it all to music.

I then made these cute DVD covers using my Silhouette Cameo:

And of course you can’t forget that Anniversary card. I made this one using the Cameo sketch pen feature. I had the brilliant idea to re-create their cake. I had that idea before seeing a picture of their wedding cake. It took some time (and a little simplification), but here it is next to the real cake:

So parents, please remember… it’s hard for all of us.

Pinterest Project/Vintage Finds: Utensils

Posted on March 30, 2012 by studiogatz

So along with my Pinterest obsession, I have a thing for utensils (which is just kind-of a fun word to say). In fact, I’ve started a whole new board dedicated to utensils from DIY projects to fun designs and inspirations for future Studio Gatz products.

Here’s a snapshot of the board:

Oh! The possibilities!

I’ve been thinking about projects like these for a while now, so literally flipped out when at an antique show. Why? You may ask. Well there was a whole dusty basket filled with old silverware.

I tried to hid my excitement so as to not spoil my negotiation tactics, but there I was digging into the basket with zeal. Should I buy a few? Should I buy them all? Should I focus on spoons, or forks, or knives, or sets?!?!?!

Such decisions! I ended up with these:

Spoons, glorious Spoons!

I did get mostly spoons, but also a few sets to play with. I can’t wait to try some of these projects. I’ll be sure to post here on what I make. Stay tuned… And follow Studio Gatz on Pinterest for a constant stream of utensil-mania.

Favorites: Swirly Designs

Posted on March 26, 2012 by studiogatz

I am a long time fan of Swirly Designs. Today they launched their Easter/Spring collection. I’ve already purchased these:

Blue Eggs in a Nest

Veggie Garden Quartet

Paul and Lianne Stoddard make these wonderful “hand-sculpted, hand-painted polymer clay ornaments.” The husband and wife duo release their collections around each holiday season.

I hang my ornaments off my kitchen cabinet knobs and switch them out based on the time of year. I can’t wait to add these to my previous Spring time purchases! I think I have about 15 right now that I switch out all year long. It about the only holiday decorating I do…

If you are interested in polymer clay, Swirly Designs also offer how-to’s on their blog. But word to the wise, they make it look a LOT easier than it really is. Here’s my attempt at simple ornaments for Christmas:

Ornament gone wrong!

Notice the all the bumpiness :(

Trust me, after trying to make your own, you’ll definitely appreciate Swirly Designs so much more!!! Each design is sketched, sculpted (including etching every single signature swirl), painted, and varnished. (Check out the process!)

Act quickly, the most popular designs sell out fast! Make sure to sign up for Swirly Designs mailing list to get alerts of when the collections go on sale.

Pinterest Project: Storage Baskets

Posted on March 19, 2012 by studiogatz

I have a very tiny condo. When I say tiny, I mean itty bitty — 425 square feet. For all those New Yorker’s out there that may seem large, but for me, it’s small. So I’ve had to be creative with storage. One thing that’s great about my place is that it has very tall ceilings, so I’ve been able to utilize the vertical space.

I was super excited when I found this storage idea on Pinterest.

From "I'm Busy Procrastinating"

I had been storing extra towels under my bed and I wanted to use that space for my crafting supplies. My mom was in town for a weekend and so we tackled this project. I should warn you, I make simple tasks very hard and this project was no different. Below is a the saga of the basket storage…

First, I bought three nesting baskets at Christmas Tree Shop. For those who haven’t experienced the Christmas Tree Shop experience, well all I can say is it’s an experience. It’s not Christmas supplies as one would expect by the name, but more like a discount home goods store.

When my mom got into town, I sent her with a basket to the hardware store to find the best way to hang them. She decided on whatever these are in the picture below, after ruling out picture hangers and decorative hooks.

Thing-a-ma-jig

I had originally thought I would put thee baskets over my toilet and quickly realized that was not going to happen — I would have hit my head on the bottom basket. So I had to put them on the only other available wall space in my bathroom, where I currently had decorative shelves. (Hence why this turned into a saga rather than a simple project.)

The shelves were secured with mollies/wall anchors, so I needed to take those out and repair the holes. I did have a stroke of genius at this point, and determined my baskets’ locations based on being able to use the wall anchors already in the wall. I now also needed to hang the shelves over toilet, which meant putting in more wall anchors there.

(Helpful Hint: When ever hanging something that will have weight on it and be jostled, it’s best to use mollies or wall anchors. I usually buy the kind that can be screwed in or out since they are the easiest to remove. There are also ones that you can just hammer in.)

Prepping the Walls

So after I filled in the holes and repainted, I went to work putting in the rest of the wall anchors. This is what took me so long. I’m in a bathroom, and what’s in the walls of a bathroom? Pipes. Don’t worry, I didn’t go through one. I might just have tapped them a bit. I had marked where I wanted the shelves and baskets to go, and started drilling and hammering and ~~hit~~ tapped a few pipes. This meant re-patching holes and changing my locations.

After doing this a few times, my AMAZING mother had a brilliant idea! SHORTER ANCHORS! Why didn’t we think of this before all the spackling! So after about a day and half of wall repairing, we finally finished!

Yeah! Bathroom storage!

Now I just need more towels…

Bow-Wow-Wow

Posted on March 16, 2012 by studiogatz

I mentioned in my last post that I’m obsessed with my dog Gatsby. While that’s certainty that case, I really am in love with all dogs (although Gatsby’s the best by far!). One of my first projects on my new Silhouette CAMEO was to do a card of Gatsby’s best friend and our neighbor Monty.

Monty is an adorable french bulldog who has lots of wrinkles around his face. I decided to create dimension by creating multiple layers — one for each “wrinkle.” I then cut them all out, stacked them up and glued them together. Monty has a lot of variation in color on his coat, so I added some detail in colored pencils.

One of my friends at work saw a picture of the card and wanted one of her dog, Gus, to give to her fiance for Valentine’s Day. She’s a country music fan and wanted the card to say “I love you like my dog does.” That’s also why I used some old sheet music to create hearts.

Finally, came Bear a big ol’ lug of a chocolate lab. He loves to play on the beach, so I changed out the background and add a little glitter (who doesn’t love glitter!). I’ve posted the original pictures and the cards below. These pictures aren’t great at showing all the different layers, but it gives you the idea. If you’re interested in having one made of your dog, please email custom@studiogatz.com.