Guides and Tutorials
« Previous EntriesInkjet Printer Fun (and a giveaway!)
By Marceline | July 13, 2010
PhotoPaperDirect.com specialise in inkjet printer papers and were kind enough to send me and the Glasgow Craft Mafia some samples to test. Although I own a pretty great Epson printer/scanner/copier I don’t really print many products on it. It prints my badges and coasters, a lot of my packaging and of course lots and lots of postage labels. So I was keen to see what it could do. I chose A4 Light Inkjet T Shirt Transfer Paper and A4 Matt Vinyl Self Adhesive Sticker Paper to test and here are my honest opinions.
For the sticker paper, I tried two things. First up, something I’ve been needing for ages – ‘Look inside’ stickers. At craft fairs I have a sample of each card on display and you can pretty much guarantee that no-one looks inside the ones that have a design inside. Sometimes they look inside a blank one and then decide they must all be blank. So I designed a little round sticker in Illustrator and printed them off. The paper came with full instructions on dpi, printer settings and most importantly, which side to print on. They came out beautifully and look awesome on my cards. Yay!
Topics: Guides and Tutorials | 7 Comments »
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Safe Colour Palette for Spoonflower
By Marceline | March 26, 2010
This post is probably very dull if you’re not interested in fabric design, sorry!
If you remember back to this post, I created a pattern using safe colours for Spoonflower fabric. Spoonflower uses LAB colours, which can be a bit of a hassle. Basically, it’s the same as how CMYK can’t accurately display all RGB colours.
Here’s an example of out of gamut colours. In the left, my yellow was not a LAB yellow so it marks the area in grey. If I go ahead and send this to Spoonflower, it won’t print grey but it will shift the colour to the nearest match, which may or may not be what you expect. I left some out of gamut colours in my Vintage Flowers print because they were so small and I didn’t have this palette – the yellows came out almost fluorescent. That’s not a big issue for a few tiny lines but if my whole fabric background was suddenly fluorescent yellow, that’s a problem.
Topics: Guides and Tutorials | 2 Comments »
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10 iPhone apps that amaze me daily
By Marceline | January 15, 2010
I felt slightly guilty after giving in and purchasing an iPhone late last year but that was soon forgotten when I realised I had bought something pretty much indispensable. No jokes, this has totally changed my life.
I think my favourite thing about the iPhone is how light I can travel. If I’m only going across town, I don’t need my iPod and if I’m away somewhere for a couple of days then I don’t need my laptop. Or maybe my favourite thing is how I can keep up to date with my shop/s wherever I am so I know about new orders and can delete sold things at craft markets. But no, actually, my favourite thing is how I can check my email, Twitter, weather and news headlines without having to get out of bed. Double bonus if you’re sick. Hurrah for Apple.
Anyway, I have immediately become hooked on installing apps to do whatever random thing I just thought of. Not that you can’t have hours of fun looking up the weather in Tokyo, or typing PIE LONDON into the maps thing to find the nearest pie seller, but these apps make my life even more fun.
Hello Kitty Camera (£1.79)
I read about this aaages ago and had to get it myself as soon as I had an iPhone. Basically, you take a photo of your friend/s and pass it to Hello Kitty who will place fruit on their heads and otherwise decorate the screen like a 3 year old. To hilarious effect, of course. It’s always been a dream of mine to wear a pineapple on my head and Hello Kitty can make that come true. Although, having posted about it here, I’ve lost the element of surprise and won’t be able to collect so many idiotic photos of my friends in future. Disaster! At least Angel Bunny is a willing subject.
WordPress (free!)
The first app to truly blow my socks off, as it lets me do almost everything I can do on my computer – write and edit posts, approve comments and do that on all 5billion of my blogs. Which doesn’t explain why I never blogged once from my sickbed, hmm. It does mean, I will quite likely BLOG FROM JAPAN later this year. Amazing. See also the Flickr app, though it’s a bit less amazing.
Brushes (£2.99)
Since the iPhone has a touchscreen, clearly people like me want to use it for drawing. Brushes has a great interface with colours, brush sizes, zooming and everything, plus layers so you can draw on one and add colour on another. Now if only I could control my fat fingers better. Might be investing in a stylus soon for this.
Facebook (free)
Notable for being an app that is infinitely better than the website. At least I now check in with my FB friends on a dailyish basis. Might even start posting things again soon.
The Guardian (£2.39)
I like The Guardian best for news because it doesn’t update too often – when I had BBC news on my RSS, it used to update with about 700 stories every minute. It also has lots of writers I like. This app is a bargain, as you can choose which sections to get updates on and even download a bunch of articles to read on the train. Other newspapers/magazines take note.
Solitaire City (free / £3.49)
This pretty much saved me from stabbing my eyes out on a number of occasions including extremely delayed train and illness-induced insomnia. The controls are really nice and the design isn’t too hideous. The free version did me fine for ages but I just upgraded to the full version and it has so many more games and variations. Farewell, boredom!
PicGrid (free / £1.79)
Picross on the DS is literally my favourite game in the entire history of the Universe. It’s tricky enough to make me forget about work stuff but enormously fun and satisfying too. I’ve played through the whole game twice and am missing it so much since my sister borrowed it a few months ago. So, the first app I searched for was picross. PicGrid is the best of a bad bunch – sadly the small screen means the puzzles never get bigger than 10×10 but it’s still fun, even if some of the pictures are ludicrous.
Amazon UK (free)
Like I need an easier way to buy stuff off Amazon. This is a truly dangerous app, which not only lets me search Amazon’s inventory but gives me access to my wish list, and allows me to pay for stuff with 1-Click. Argh! It is actually very useful for wishlisting things I read about in magazines etc. but I fear for my bank account. I also note it has a new feature where you can photograph covers and it will look ‘em up for you. Wait, WHAT? When did we arrive in the future?
iBattery (free)
One of my “I wonder if..” app searches. It just tells me how much battery power is left and what that actually means. You get a breakdown of time left in various uses – internet, 3G, phone calls, standby etc. As the owner of a camera that can work on a third battery power for about a week, this is hella useful.
National Rail Enquiries (£4.99)
£4.99?! Are you insane?!, you’re thinking. Best £4.99 I ever spent. It would be almost worth £4.99 just for being able to see when the next trains are leaving Bridgeton station (in real time!) so I don’t have to type all the info into the website every time I want to go across town. Even better though, if you’re taking a train, say, to Inverness on Christmas Eve during some unexpectedly heavy snowfalls, you can look up your train and see if there are any delays or problems along the line and get real time updates along the way that your train is currently running 40 minutes late. That way you can text your dad and tell him to carry on shopping and not stand around in the train station waiting for you. Mind you, if the train staff actually ever told you when you might arrive at your destination we wouldn’t need iPhone apps for it, but you know, best £4.99 I ever spent.
If I’d had 11, I would have added Tweetdeck, but really all Twitter apps are great as Twitter is pretty much custom built for phones.
If you fancy any of these apps, do buy them – just search for the app name in the App store. Most of them should work on iPod Touches too, though in a less useful way once you’re out of wifi range.
What have I missed? Tell me about your favourites so I can install them too.
Topics: Guides and Tutorials, Me Me Me | 2 Comments »
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Notes from the Enterprise Nation conference
By Marceline | December 17, 2009
You might remember, back in September, that some of the Glasgow Craft Mafia were interviewed for the Enterprise Nation Home Business Road Trip documentary. That’s still being edited but I was lucky enough to attend the recent Enterprise Nation conference in London on behalf of the Glasgow Craft Mafia. Here’s my report back.
20th November was the very first Home Enterprise Day with an aim of raising awareness about the huge number of home businesses in the UK. Home businesses are largely ignored by the government, despite their contribution to the economy.
These issues were raised in the 2009 Home Business Report published by Enterprise Nation, which includes the following key points:
- 2.8 million home businesses contributing £284bn to the annual UK economy
- Over 60% of small businesses started in the UK are started at home
- 89% of home businesses expect to increase turnover in the next 12 months
- The majority of businesses will grow by outsourcing and sub-contracting, as opposed to taking on staff
- ‘Working 5 to 9′ is on the rise as people hold down a day job and build a business at nights and weekends
- Home business is bringing families together and contributing to the local economy and environment
You can download the full report here, which includes a little interview with our own Miso Funky!
The report was launched at the Enterprise Nation conference. All the panels were really interesting and though-provoking but I’ve picked out some of the most relevant parts for crafters like us.
Topics: Guides and Tutorials | No Comments »
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Back From London
By Marceline | November 25, 2009
I’m back from my long weekend in London and I had a great time! Well, apart from the journey down, which took NINE HOURS, five of which took us all of 75 miles out of Glasgow. This wasn’t entirely surprising, since the whole Borders area and half of Cumbria had pretty much been turned into a lake but it was still very boring.
Other smaller disasters included;
our favourite Japanese restuarant Soba turning into a Mexican restaurant seemingly overnight with no change to the decor or staff by the looks of it. Still, Mexican food is good too.
London Transport deciding to ‘do a FirstBus’ in honour of my arrival, with the East London buses on strike, half the tube lines down and buses we wanted taking forever to arrive, in the rain. Thanks for that!
No pie! Despite major efforts, including typing PIE LONDON into my iPhone and then being directed to a shopping centre with no pie, but instead a Waitrose (yay!) and a Japanese restaurant (double yay!). I spent my journey home full of rice and clutching chocolate orange tarts, nom nom.
Anyway, apart from that I did two very important things – go to the Enterprise Nation conference and SHOPPING. I’ll be posting about the conference soon but obviously shopping is the important stuff. Here’s the highlights:
ANTHROPOLOGIE
You know, that lovely shop US bloggers are always going on about. They’ve finally opened a store in the UK so we had to go and have a peek. It is indeed beautiful in every way, with the most gorgeous clothes dotted around the floors surrounded by homeware, stationery, toys, accessories and everything else pretty you could ever want. Not to mention unbelievable things like a giant squid tapestry and a 10ft narwhal hanging from the ceiling. I couldn’t have afforded a single thing in the shop but I really wish I could. If you’re passing and fancy getting me a gift, the narwhal would be great, thanks. Or maybe an embroidered fox teatowel. Lots of photos on Print and Pattern. www.anthropologie.com
Where is it? On Regent Street, next to Hamleys
ARTBOX
Possibly the cutest shop in London and filled with all our favourite kawaii brands. There’s a good range of products and prices so whatever your budget, you can at least come home with some little notebooks or stickers, even if you can’t afford Hello Kitty ear muffs or a Rilakkuma mug. They also had amazing panda mittens which I hope will be mine this Christmas :)
Where is it? In the Thomas Neal Centre, off Shorts Gardens in Covent Garden. Get a map, or just have a wander around the lovely shops in the area as there are maps all around showing where the cool shops are. There’s also a bigger store in Camden Market which I really want to go to now! www.artbox.co.uk
BOROUGH MARKET
If there’s one thing the recession can’t seem to touch it’s quality food and Borough Market has been getting a ton of press over the last couple of years as the best food market in London. I’m a big fan of food myself so we went to have a look. If I lived in London, I’d be hard-pressed not to go here every weekend – so many amazing food stalls plus people handing out free samples and loads of hot food ready to buy and eat right there. Not to mention the cakes, oh my. I had a fantastic burger and then we split a huge squidgy brownie. Next time, a meringue the size of my head is called for.
Where is it? Opposite London Bridge tube station, or it’s a nice walk from lots of interesting places – Liverpool Street, Tower Bridge, Tate Modern, Design Museum etc. etc. www.boroughmarket.org.uk
JAPANCENTRE
The Japan Centre used to be something of a hidden secret, where you could find all your favourite Japanese foodstuffs and a few bits of kawaii too. Then they started importing homeware from Daiso and now it’s expanded across the road so it covers two buildings! The original shop on Piccadilly Circus is mostly homeware, toys and gifts plus lots of books and magazines in both Japanese and English. Across the road on Regent Street the new branch is next door to Mitsukoshi, the Japanese department store and is mostly food (hurray). As well as the supermarket, there’s a bakery selling fresh curry bread and the always-intriguing melon pan and a sushi/bento bar. I got some rice (sheer laziness, but also cheaper than the Glasgow stores), some grape chews, some grape Cheerio (almost as good as Fanta Grape) and of course, a custard pancake which I had for breakfast the next day. Don’t leave without a custard pancake!
Where is it? Homeware branch, just off Piccadilly Circus,, next to the Clydesdale Bank. The food branch is on Regent Street (heading South) next to Mitsukoshi. www.japancentre.com
MAGMA
A shop to be avoided, unless you have strong willpower or lots of cash as pretty much everything is amazing. Lots of quirky gift ideas plus stationery and cool homeware. I didn’t even dare look at the book shop part as I can’t be trusted with books at the best of times.
Where is it? In Covent Garden – see above. www.magmabooks.com
MR PANDA
Yay for Mr Panda, who sells my favourite iPod monsters, hand-sewn pouches with all different animal designs. My current (amazing) cat one was falling apart a bit so I picked up a brand new bunny one, plus a few bits and pieces for the SCK shop. It’s all pretty affordable though, especially compared to the other vendors in the building – they’re best treated as a kawaii museum of awesome but overpriced cuteness. They also have a Japanese photo sticker machine and out the back takes you to Chinatown proper which is good for a wander.
Where is it? In a little shopping centre on Charing Cross Road – there are loads of Asian restaurants surrounding it so not too hard to spot.
MUJI
Ahh, Muji. It’s still absolutely ridiculous that there isn’t a single branch in Scotland. The online ordering is really good but it’s always nice to have a browse in real life. I only ended up buying some soaps but there are loads of cute Christmas things on offer. At least I now smell like an orange.
Where is it? Branches everywhere. We went to the one on Tottenham Court Road. www.muji.com
PAPERCHASE
The flagship store, which means three floors of awesome stationery, homeware and art/craft supplies, and even a cafe. Mostly we were there to squeak individually at each and every item in the Food Friends range but they’d kindly dotted it around the shop so we saw lots of other cool stuff too. We managed to restrict ourselves to a shared box of notecards – bargainous!
Where is it? On Tottenham Court Road, nearer the Euston end than the Oxford Street end.
Clearly, these are not the only good shops in London – I’d usually add Liberty, Selfridges, Hamleys, Rough Trade and many many more, not to mention the other markets at Spitalfields, Camden, Portobello etc. Do some googling!
Topics: Guides and Tutorials, Me Me Me, Shopping, Travel | No Comments »
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Busy Busy Friday
By Marceline | October 16, 2009
It’s certainly been a busy Friday! I was wrenched out of bed to handed my brand new notebooks by the DHL man and since then I have photographed them, added them to the shop, gocco printed 3 notebooks, 50 thank you cards and 100 paper bags, made a bunch of Jammie Dodger cards and am just about to finish off a stack of badge sets. And it’s only 3pm!
I’m very pleased with the notepads though – they’re custom printed just for me with lovely glossy covers and ringbound. There’s something awesome about ringbound notebooks. Anyway, there’s two designs to choose from and they’re in the shop right now.
They’ll be making their debut at the Glasgow Craft Mafia day out to Inver Cottage in Argyll for a craft market. It’s a good hour or two outside Glasgow so it really does feel like a mass road trip. Plus, look! It’s lovely out there and the food is amazing too. I can’t wait. If you’re in the area or fancy a day out, all the details are here.
I still have a to-do list as long as my arm so I will leave you for now with a rather rubbish photo of my card carousel ready for action, complete with giant cardboard Cakeify. Enjoy!
Topics: Guides and Tutorials, New Work | No Comments »
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Get the most out of Shopify!
By Marceline | March 12, 2009
I wrote this for my Tips & Tutorials blog on Prettify but I thought it might be of interest to you lot as well. Remember, if it wasn’t for Shopify, there wouldn’t be any Cakeify.
If there’s one bad thing about Shopify (and there may well only be one bad thing), it’s that they’re too modest. All the tips I’m going to give you can be found either in your Admin panel or in the Shopify Wiki or Forums but so many Shopify users have no idea about them. Many of these can be added in a few clicks and might just change your life!
Topics: Guides and Tutorials | 2 Comments »
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Book Hearts bookmark tutorial
By Marceline | February 11, 2009
Since it’s almost Valentine’s Day, it seemed like a good time to publish my tutorial on how to make my Book Heart bookmarks. I wrote this for Folksy Makes but it’s nice to have all my tutorials here too. The Folksy version has bigger images though, if you can’t figure something out from these smaller ones.
These cute heart-shaped bookmarks are simple to make, needing only a steady hand, some beautiful paper and an eye for detail. They make great gifts for bookworms and can help add a personal touch to a gift of a book token or notebook.
Materials required
Sheets of Japanese washi or other handmade paper
Metal heart clips
Sharp pencil (no softer than HB)
Glue spreader
Sharp paper scissors
Marvin Medium, or other PVA glue
Topics: Guides and Tutorials | No Comments »
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Desk Calendar
By Marceline | January 23, 2009
Look what I made! A bunny and panda desk calendar! Whenever people ask what the downsides of working at home are, I can never think of anything. Today I realised one of them – having no idea what day it is. I’m still convinced it’s Saturday today, despite my laptop having Friday displayed at the top of the screen. I usually rely on my desk calendar but I didn’t get one this year – sob! With the end of January almost upon us, clearly the only thing to do was make my own.
My old desk calendar was bought in Tokyo and is of the CD jewel case folded over variety, but a bit smaller. I just measured the pieces of card and drew up a grid in Illustrator, then tediously added in the correct numbers for each month. Then I printed it on to card, cut it out and hurrah! Here it is in real life (excuse the dark photo).
Sad life of a freelancer – the only thing worth noting this month is doing my tax return. This is the top of my shelving unit right beside where I work. You can see here some of my tins, a plastic cookies cup that I keep pens in, my cute notebook from Rebecca that I am trying to make myself use, and a corner of one of my lovely tiles by Campbell Firth.
March is my favourite month as both me and Panda have our birthdays then. The only thing to do was add a tiny bunny and panda on the right days!
If anyone else is short of a desk calendar, I could probably enlarge this a little bit for CD size and give you a PDF. Email me!
Topics: Design Work, Guides and Tutorials | 5 Comments »
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Folksy Makes
By Marceline | December 1, 2008
Folksy Makes has finally launched and I got to be one of the first contributors! Makes is all about showing people how to make stuff with a bunch of user-generated tutorials for varying levels of difficulty. For my first Make, I’ve done a tutorial on how to make one of my washi book hearts.
I’ve been meaning to do a book heart tutorial for ages so this came up at just the right time. I’m quite proud of inventing the book heart and I enjoy making them but I can’t say I get a huge amount of artistic fulfillment from the process, which is basically sticking stuff together with glue. They are one of my best sellers though so I’m glad everyone likes them. But now you don’t need me, you can just make them yourself :)
Having said all that, I just made 54 of the things last night, as well as 32 button badges. I am determined to have lots of stock ready for the next lot of markets and the Christmas sales (which started for reals today!) so I don’t have to run about like crazy making tons of stuff the night before. We’ll see.
I’ll probably re-post the tutorial here, just for completeness, and in case Folksy gets run over by a bus, or whatever the techy equivalent is.
Oh, and yes the Prettify competition is now closed. I will pick a winner sometime this week and email everyone who entered.
Right, I need to make some new vintage button brooches now…
Topics: Guides and Tutorials, New Work | 1 Comment »
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