17 June 2013

Shopping tip - Combitex


Last weekend for the first time since ages (probably years!) I've been to Combitex again. Now this name might not ring a bell but they have been featured in lots of Home magazines. So you probably have seen their furniture before.

I just love their shop. They mainly use old army furniture and accessoires and turn them into new up-cycled cabinets, tables, seats and beds. A paint job and some alternating does wonders!


It's also a very intriguing shop. It's full, it's cluttered and there are some really cool corners. They also have army surplus stuff as in clothes, shoes and camping equipment. Anyway, some of the furniture you can take home straight away, others are made to order (you can pick your own colours!).







 Yes, I did go for a reason to Combitex. I was in desperate need of an extra table in my studio. My budget wasn't stretching far and I knew I could find an army table here for 88 euros. So that's what I bought: table number 15 is mine!

Love to go and see for yourself? They're located in Noord-Scharwoude (near Heerhugowaard) and open 6 days a week (mon-sat). Check out their website at: www.com-anders.nl

10 June 2013

Balloon printing test

Okay, so for Lowlands festival a good friend of mine (the one that will be helping me on the festival) suggested selling balloons. Not just any balloons but ones with lights in and printed with my own designs. Can you imagine how cool they would look when it's getting dark!?!

So, getting my hands on the light up balloons is not an issue. The printing on the other hand is proving to be a bit of a challenge. It's too expensive to get a company to do it so I'm trying to find a way of printing them myself. I would like to do them all before hand so really I want to print them when they're still deflated. I've searched around the web to look for ideas and ways of printing them. It's going to be tricky!

My first idea was to do a screenprint on them but that means I have to half inflate them and that's a nono. It won't work with the light in the balloon. Let alone trying to get the screenprint smoothly onto a flexible curved shape... So I've tested some other things last night. With paint and permanent markers and even stamps and ink (they really didn't work!). Here are the results of a trial and error evening. None of it really works (or at least not to my little miss perfectionist standards ;-). So I've come to the conclusion that we've got to decorate them when they're completely inflated, there and then on the spot. That would be much fun to! I do still need to figure out how we can do it with minimum effort and materials... I'm thinking of making stamps of my designs and use paint to stamp them on the balloon. Anyone any other suggestions?

The orange one looks quite good, I kind of like it but it's just not what I had in mind...

Interested in some more balloon decorating inspiration? Have a look at my Pinterest board.




06 June 2013

05 June 2013

Etsy treasury: Cool modern vintage ( Father's Day!)

Father's Day is coming up!  Still looking for that perfect gift? Just to help you a little bit I made another treasury for all the cool dads out there who like all the modern stuff but can't resist that touch of vintage. It turned out to be a lovely mix of greys and blues, vintage and modern.... You can find it here on Etsy.

 

04 June 2013

Lowlands festival... am I insane?

Did I already mention that I am one of the lucky 30 that will have a market booth on Lowlands Festival? No? Well, you know what... I'm going to Lowlands! Woohoo!

Picture by Grolsch


Etsy is organizing, for the second year in a row, an Etsy Bazar on Lowlands Festival (16-19 aug.). I've applied to be part of it a long while ago but since Etsy is handling a strict selection process, I've been waiting for good (or bad...) news ever since. And finally it came through... me (and a good friend of mine) are going to Lowlands!

It's going to be hard, long hours (roughly 15 hours a day, for 3 days in a row... ouch!). Not for the weakhearted! And to be honest, I've never done a market in my life so starting with something big like this is, well, madness!?! Even a few of my fellow Etsians who do do regular markets, think I'm insane. Am I? Well, I know what Lowlands is like... been there, done that a few times. I just hope that in between selling all my goodies there will be a bit of time to go and see some bands. It will be great!

Talking about goodies, what's in my shop at the moment is not nearly enough to fill a stall, let alone to appeal to a festival audience. So time to do lots of new things, venturing out into pastures new... Yes, it will all be paper goodies but it will be varied and some items only exclusively for Lowlands. I'm so excited but I'm already so overwhelmed... did I take on too much?

With my regular day job of 32 hours a week, a family and a household to run there's not that much spare time left to spend on Heedopter. And there's a lot of work that needs doing before I'm ready for Lowlands. So I've taken last week off to completely and utterly focus on the work ahead. And a lot of things are taking shape quite nicely. I've already showed you a little sneak peek and there will be lots more to show in the time to come...

But for now, just wish me luck in keeping my sanity! :-)


Picture by EtsyNL
  

Picture by EtsyNL