Cathe Holden’s Inspired Barn | Creative Lifestyle

“101 Gifts You Can Make at Home” and The Name Pennant

Wednesday, December 14, 2011 by Cathe Holden

Yesterday, thanks to Craigslist, I scored a wooden porch swing from a lovely woman moving to Colorado. It will be fabulous in my new barn studio, inspired by the studio home of Shauna and Stephen of There’s Something Hiding in Here. As I was driving back from town, I stopped by the recycle are of the dump landfill and rummaged through a few boxes of junk. Here is my 25-cent purchase of the day:How cute are those Mini Merchant cards by Current?! I lived in Colorado Springs as a kid and remember fondly touring the Current Greeting Card Factory with my elementary school.

I snagged a cool yellow school tag and some transparent nylon thread. But the big find was that dandy little 101 Gifts You Can Make at Home by Phyllis & Noel Ficarotta from 1968. I think it was one of those little grocery store check-out stand books. I LOVE the groovy felt family name banner design on the front cover. I couldn’t resist scanning and Photoshopping it out from behind the beach hat sun bonnet.The instructions for the Family Name Banner are followed by instructions for Name Pennants. This reminded me of one I’d made ten or so years ago for the a Family Tent Flag Challenge with friends we camped with annually. I made this pennant pretty much like the book describes machine-sewing rather than gluing, and I stitched a triangle of chipboard between two layers of backing felt to keep the pennant rigid for hanging on a pole.

The pinecone was likely inspired from something I’d seen somewhere, I really don’t remember coming up with that on my own. (Could have, who knows?!)This pennant hangs in my son’s lodge-themed bedroom. I think a family or kid’s name pennant would be a really fun gift if you’re looking for something unique. I just might have to reproduce that SMITH banner into something fun to go with my green studio sofa!

For well over 101 gifts you can make at home, visit MY DIY page!

I’ll leave you today with an exerpt from 101 Gifts You Can Make at Home:

The gift created by the hand is a gift from the heart. In these days of mass-production, the hand-crafted item becomes more precious than ever before. Even if it is less than perfect, it has a quality you cannot buy in any store. It is made with love. It is made for one particular person. It is very special – there is none like it anywhere. And it gave you pleasure in the making, as well as in the giving.

18 Comments | Posted in general craft | Tagged Felt Pennant

The Barn: Studio Dreaming and Fun Finds

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 by Cathe Holden

This is a Google satellite shot of our house and barn as it sits at the back of our little one acre ranchette (we have a nice new roof since the satellite passed over.) I’m writing from garage studio as shown in the image, but the commitment has been made to move my studio into the barn to expand into workshops and much more crafting space. Can you see why I’m out of my mind with excitement?! The barn, aka: man-cave, boat hangar, sports equipment locker room, family storage unit, rope swing gymnasium, is about 20 years old and in fantastic structural shape. There’s even a shop in the back with sink and johnny, which is under the loft. We started to make a small dent in cleaning out the barn last weekend, or at least Jeff did. He went through boxes and storage up on the loft at the back of the barn and brought down long lost luggage (forground above) and boxes of other long forgotten things. He found a stash of printed pieces from back in the day when I had my own design firm, Holden & Company, in downtown Santa Rosa. Each year in partnership with a printer/friend from Sacramento we did a self-promotion Christmas mailer that we sent to our clients and vendors. I designed the pieces and her company printed them with my logo on half and her’s on the others, then we’d split the cost of materials. Three of the years were gift wrap & gift tag kits, but in 1995 I designed little match-book style pocket calendars. (Keep in mind there was very limited personal technology then and most people didn’t carry their calendars in their cell phones. I think that was the year I first got a cell phone!)

I was going to toss these remaining pieces in the recycle bin until it dawned on me that the covers were salvageable and could be repurposed into hang tags.

Who knows what else is packed away in that barn! Stay tuned, I’ll be sharing more finds and progress as we slowly make the studio transition.

27 Comments | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Barn Studio

Hello Sandwich: Ebony Bizys

Tuesday, December 6, 2011 by Cathe Holden

Today’s assignment: Step outside of the box. Possibly even your creative comfort zone. Into a world of craft whimsy you may have yet to explore. I’m actually going to make that assignment very easy for you by sharing an incredibly fascinating artist and designer: Ebony Bizys, aka: Hello Sandwich.

Ebony, is an Australian artist and graphic designer living in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo. She and I connected a while back when she was putting together her amazing little sourcebook, Hello Sandwich Gift Wrapping Zine (now available in PDF version so you can get started right away wrapping gifts in unique style for the holidays!) Ebony takes upcycling, repurposing, washi tape, even dish sponges to a whole new level.

Oh, look! There’s my wrapping paper made from scanned vintage paint-by-numbers!

If you want to see some of this wrapping goodness on video, you’re in luck: Hello Sandwich Craft TV.

You can even order her darling It’s Dots wrapping paper for yourself!

ANOTHER fabulous goodie she’s involved in, the Japanese craft Kawaii Wrapping Materials Book!To help you with your assignment, here are more links:

Design Files Daily i terview with Ebony.

And another great interview on The Girl with a Sachel blog.

Be certain to bookmark the Hello Sandwich blog. She shares many of the projects from her books and one of my favorite eye-candy posts is her visit to the mt Expo!I hope you enjoyed learning about Ebony’s great style, projects and publications as much as I enjoyed sharing it all!