enJOY it

GET TO WORK BOOK : the illustration design process.

March 4, 2015

One of my favorite "extra" parts of Get To Work Book™ (learn more here!) are the tear out calendar pages. There are 12, one for each month, and while you could totally leave them in the book, they are a bit thicker paper stock and perforated to be torn out and hung on the wall as a small calendar. When the month is over, you can chop off the calendar portion and you're left with a square print. (The book is 7×9 inches and spiral bound for those that have asked.)

Each features a unique piece of illustrated text made from my words (mostly pulled from old blog posts!) and the artwork of Jolby & Friends designers. Today I want to share a peek at some of the designs and talk about the process for how these came together.

First, I should say that the book design process took weeks. Probably eight? Ten? I'm not sure. It was a very intense process to create what we all thought would be the "best" planner possible. The illustration process, by comparison, took just a few days. I had a decent idea of what I wanted and J+F executed perfectly.

To start, I combed the Internet for text design that I loved that I felt like fit the style. I pulled these images together on a private Pinterest board with specific notes for what I loved or liked about how the letters looked together. We knew that we would just be printing in black (and shades of gray) and so I played close attention to images that worked because of the form, not the color.

Then I sent over my 12 phrases and J+F broke them up amongst the designers.

And then they sent me back two or three hand-drawn sketches that represented different type layouts. I looked through them, picked my favorites and made any notes if I had them and sent them back. After a day or so (!!) they sent back a finished rendering. If I had any changes, they were made and then TA-DA! Complete artwork.

Seeing the sketches and then picking my favorite of the two was one of the most fun parts of this whole project. I was always impressed with both designs, but usually it was easy to make a gut decision about what would be "better." Since it was all going in the same book, I wanted the art to fit together, but I also wanted the designs to be different enough that it looked interesting. Like with any calendar, I want you (and me!) to be excited to turn the page and get to that next month's inspiration.

This graphic in particular has become the main "face" of the book and it's featured on the soon to be debuted website and is on the front of the GTWB business cards. This is one of the main concepts behind why I created the book and I REALLY love how this design came together.

I was able to chat with the designers from Jolby & Friends who worked on my illustrations and they gave me a peek into their design process. Some of my favorite quotes :

"The process for lettering starts with what it says. Is there a way to draw inspiration from what the words you are drawing have to say? How can the words inform the visual and conceptual route you go down? Type, in my opinion, is the most successful when it feels like what it says."

I love this and I see it most in play with the final illustration. It also fits into which words have to be highlighted in each phrase. We highlighted WORK and PLAY in illustration two instead of STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES because "work" and "play" are the action words and should draw the most attention. Likewise, we emphasized WHOLENESS and COMPLETENESS over "perfection" in illustration one because…duh.

After thinking about how the letters need to look, Brett, one of the illustrators, told me that he starts to…

"Sketch over and over, usually really loose – mostly to discover compositions and establish some sort of lockup concept that I can work within. After doing this sort of thing pretty continuously for the past few years, a lot of little rules and interesting nuances come through your hands with ease – and a special “style” develops in you based on what you have learned. Trying different techniques only expands your toolbox of ideas and approaches, so if you want to try calligraphy, brush lettering, woodcut, cut paper, etc., it will expand your horizons and inspire new ideas."

And obviously I love this. Practice, practice, practice. I love that these designs started with pencil and paper and came from many different trials. I love how the letters work together in a way that often handwriting can accomplish first better than a computer.

Cool, right?! It has been amazing for me to go through this process and learn a bit here and there about how design can come together. There are millions of different processes, but this is a bit of what mine has looked like. We've worked hard to make this Get To Work Book™ the best it can be and I'm excited to share more in the coming weeks before opening pre-order for the first version (July 2015-June 2016) in early April.

Thank you so much for following along.

All final images on this page are copyright Elise Blaha Cripe. Sketches not used in the final book are copyright Jolby + Friends.

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Today on ELISE GETS CRAFTY, it's just me, talking about FEAR and how you've gotta let it go or use it to fuel you. Subscribe or stream here.
framed hallway photos

March 3, 2015

So my deadline for a "complete house" has come and gone. And we are…done! I am excited to share some before (move-in day) and afters (two years and so many nail holes later!) in the next week or so. In the meantime, one more project post…

I've had eight Ikea Ribba frames in my garage since last fall, but it wasn't until I saw Elsie's post a few weeks ago that I finally started printing photos.

I debated a million ideas for these frames but picking some of my favorite iPhone photos was the first idea that actually got me motivated to get to work. It was inspiring to see the casual photos Elsie had chosen. The everyday Elise, Paul and Ellerie photos are always the winners. Why not blow them up on the wall? Highlights include some timercam shots, Paul's return from deployment when Ellerie was four weeks old and so much color and sunshine.

It's no secret that framed photos are sort of my go-to. This house will be remembered for four things – the killer light (that's not in this hallway), the wood ceilings, the black kitchen counter tops I can't keep clean and the fact that I slapped family photos up on every wall. It's not fancy. It's not high-style. But it's me. It's us. It's our house and we might as well live with our memories.

I printed the 12×12 photos at home on my Canon PIXMA iP8720. (Long time readers know I have a partnership with Canon – they sent me printers and I am writing six sponsored posts over six months using them. This is not one of those posts.) My non-sponsored opinion is that I love my Canon printers and the fact that I can print 12×12 photos in minutes at 7pm on a Thursday without leaving my house is insane.

Long-term readers also know that activities like "measuring" and "being exact" are my worst nightmares. But hanging photos in a grid sort of takes some planning. I used tape and a level to get a straight line. Then I measured where the centers of the frames would be before hammered the top row into place. The bottom row was based off the top and is held to the wall with command strips (making them much harder for Ellerie to bump).

I ended up with space for more on the wall so back to Ikea I went. 10 frames seems just right. This wall is impossible to photograph because it's so narrow and obviously there are no windows to throw in some natural light. I would say that the 12x12s are almost too big for a space this small. But they are striking and fun and I'm so happy with how it turned out.

Seriously. How did I wait so long?
PROJECT 2/30 : SEED STITCH SCRAP YARN BLANKET

March 2, 2015

I'm excited about project #2. So excited that it jumped two other finished projects because I just had to share my how-to video.

This blanket was made from bits of scrap yarn in my stash (remember, I am working to use up old stuff first for MAKE&GIVE30). It was my first time trying to knit seed stitch which is alternating rows of knit 1, purl 1. It turned out small, but just perfect for a baby blanket. And that's what it's going to be. I'm sending it off to one of my best friends, Bill (given name Melanie), who will be welcoming a baby boy in May.

Things that you need to know about this blanket –

It's made from different types of yarn, and a few different weights. To make it work, I doubled the strands in a few places so I was working with similar sizes of yarn. Like everything I do, it's imperfect, but I think it turned out great considering this was just assorted bits.

I learned this is called a "log-cabin blanket" because I started in the center and then worked out in "logs" – rectangles of different colors – from there.

I used size 10 circular needles so I could hold a lot of stitches at once.

creating your own seed stitch scrap yarn blanket from elise blaha on Vimeo.

I filmed a 10 minute how-to video that talks more about the yarn I used, how I got all the seams on the backside, how I picked up stitches to join the blocks together and how I found an easier way to alternate knit and purl stitches. It's a classic Elise video, complete with the leg of the stool I was resting my iPhone on in the frame. But I think it will be helpful anyway, totally worth a watch if you'd like to make your own.

The finished size is 28×28 inches – so it's SMALL. But awesome for a tiny newborn to lay on. And Melanie! You should send it back to me when Baby Boy is six months old. By then I'll have more scrap yarn to add on! (I'm not joking.)

See more MAKE&GIVE30 projects here and more yarn projects here!
weekend links / 55.

February 28, 2015

I love the Internet. Here's some of the cool stuff I saw this week…

great list of apps to check out.

I'm obsessed with the patterns Justina's been creating lately. Here's how she does it.

8 energy-cleansing tips.

cool tee.

ahhhh, Tara, you inspire.

"No one is doing it all, and we are all "lazy" in some way." – holler.

uh oh. Still excited to watch though.

great quote.

honored to be included on this list of creative podcasts.
february : currently.

February 27, 2015

wearing a new short haircut. New decade, new hair style.

enjoying MAKE&GIVE30 so much and the projects that are coming from it so far. (follow me on instagram for so many peeks at #makeandgive30)

appreciating your kind comments this week!

reading One Plus One.

eating this salad every other night. It's tough to rave about a salad this one is so. good. Try it and see if you agree.

watching Parenthood while weaving.

fangirling over the Parks & Rec finale. Finales are tough. I thought they did it well. April's zombie make-up was my favorite scene x100.

dropping off another roll of film.

waiting not so patiently for Get To Work Book™ samples! An update on this adventure coming soon.

planting veggies in our garden to take advantage of the rainstorms we are supposed to get. I realize that much of the country is experiencing a very harsh winter. I'm thinking all the warm, safe thoughts and hoping a beautiful spring comes soon for you.

thinking I have finally found the hat to rule all hats.

loving this 20 month toddler stage. Ellerie is learning all the words and making me laugh all the time. She's picked up a "fake chuckle" that always turns into a real giggle for both of us.

doing my best to imprint these moments onto my brain.

cutting way, way back on my email time and feeling more like a person and less like a robot #winwin.

looking so forward to a weekend in Vegas with Paul and some friends and then a full week at home for family. When Paul requested the first week of March off last summer it felt years away. And now we're here! Good foresight, Paul.

announcing the random winner of the hand-bound book at the bottom of the original post. Thanks for your comments!
huge photobooth style family photos.

February 26, 2015

I've had this idea in my head for way too long and I'm so excited to share it with you today in partnership with Canon USA.

I am a huge fan of photo booth strips and we have tons displayed in our house. Most are either on the fridge, on my bulletin board or matted on white cardstock and framed (like this).

I wanted to do something different though and create a "photobooth strip" out of full size photos to fill a narrow wall in our hallway. I figured the perfect frames would just be simple white. (I picked four up at Target.)

To get the photos, I taped my iPhone to a wall (using masking tape) that was opposite another white wall in our house. I then practiced and made sure the forward facing camera worked before gathering up Paul and Ellerie.

Sidenote: I think this process would also be awesome if you already have a photo booth strip that you love and just want to emphasize by making it huge. You could just scan it and print each photo separately to frame. My friend, veronica, got engaged in a photobooth and v – you NEED to do this with that photo strip.

I used the 3 sec timer on the iPhone to take five photos (all on burst mode). This took 15 seconds total which is great because that is about the range of Ellerie's attention span these days.

Then I went through the burst photos and selected my four favorite images. I used VSCOcam app to boost the contrast a bit and convert to black and white. On my computer, I blew them up to 8×10. Because of the forward facing camera, they were a bit smaller and lower quality than normal iPhone photos. Up close they are a touch pixelated. This doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I printed at home on my Canon PIXMA MG7520 on 8.5×11 matte photo paper.

Then I trimmed to 8×10 and framed them.

I hung them on the wall using command strips since I wanted them to hang one directly on top of each other. This was much easier than having to match up four nail holes perfectly. And it makes sure they are sturdy and really stuck when little fingers go to grab.

I love how this looks on the wall. It's been up for about a month and every time I walk by I grin. It would be fun to do one every year and then have a full grid of photos filling a much larger wall…

This post is brought to you by Canon USA. Project idea, words, opinions are all my own.
february book report

February 25, 2015
Here we go!

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson / I love going into books with no clue as to what I am going to get. This was one of those books. It's young adult (which I realize I read a lot of, but tends not to be my favorite) and a very quick read. I figured out one of the big plot points early, but it was still twisty and smart and surprising. Fun one.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson / I didn't love this book, but it was all I had and so I kept reading. Usually I have to convince myself to put books down to turn off the light and fall asleep but this one put me to sleep after just a few pages each night. That's awful, but sadly true. I didn't end up finishing. Only 20 pages to go and I finally realized I could give up. In the past I haven't mentioned the books I don't get through, but I resolved this year I'd share it all. Plus, the reviews on amazon are good so I'm sure many will enjoy this.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion / I adored this. The main character was offbeat, charming and I loved the way he thought things through. It was laugh outloud funny and though not realistic somehow still so real. I looked forward to reading this one each night and wish it had taken longer to get through.

The Kings Curse by Phillipa Gregory / these historical novels are my guilty pleasure. I think I've almost read them all? And my only regret is that I didn't wait until they were all out and then read them in time order. I love reading basically the same story (Tudor England) as told from so many (strong female) perspectives.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes / so many folks had recommended this to me and I finally picked it up from the library. Oofta. All the feelings. It's a love story but it's also a "love life" story. And I (obviously) loved that. Highly recommend.

What are you reading?

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Today on ELISE GETS CRAFTY I'm chatting with the couple behind Pinch of Yum about transparency in business. Maybe my favorite topic! Subscribe on iTunes or stream here.

Other posts you might enjoy:
PROJECT 1/30 : a handbound journal

February 24, 2015
Annnnnnnnd, we're off!

30 projects in 365 days? That sounds manageable. (I've got four queued and ready to roll.)

I mentioned that phase one of this project is all about using up existing supplies. This is part of my idea that sometimes creativity comes when you GET IN A BOX. Setting parameters and working with what you have can make you even more inspired. The example I like to use is the Project Runway one: the challenges when the designers had to "make it work" with car parts always had much more interesting results than when they could use any fabric at Mood.

I have had a case bound grid journal from Paper Source in my cupboard for years and knew it would have to be Project 1.

Hilariously, I have already attempted to do a tutorial of this process (and I've already given a handbound book away!) but every five years you get to recycle blog content so we're good. Plus, I've gotten moderately better at taking photos of myself doing projects in five years. Though if I do anything right in the next five years it will be hiring an assistant to help me take photos.

I didn't have any great patterned paper on hand for the cover of the book so I decided to really go for it and stamp my own with a hand-carved stamp I made a few years ago. I already had white bookcloth and kraft paper on hand so it was a no-brainer to use white paint.

I love the look that results from a hand-carved stamp. The imperfections really make it. (I you want to carve your own, this is a great kit, I love this brayer and I have had great results with this printing ink – though any craft paint works.)

The hardest part of this project is (sadly) sourcing the book kits. You need a text block and precut book board which isn't easy to find. Paper Source has these square ones in limited quantities. Blick has these smaller ones at a great price if you want to make a bunch (teacher gifts anyone?). I am sure there are more, but these are the only brands I have tried. Other than that, you'll want:
- PVA glue
- a glue brush
- pencil
- ruler
- book cloth
- bone folder
- scissors
STEP 1 : cut your book cloth down so it's a few inches taller than your book and about 4-5 inches wide. Fold it in half the long (hot-dog) way. You now know where the center of your spine will be. Place your ruler on the fold and measure out about the width of your text block on each side.

For this book, my text block is 10/16 inches thick. I went 9/16 out on either side of the 6 (see those marks on the ruler?) We measure out this far to be sure our book will open and close properly. Mark these spots with a pencil in two places of the book cloth.

STEP 2 : apply glue to the bookcloth starting at the pencil marks and pulling out all the way to the edge of the bookcloth. Line your bookboard up with the marks and push down to adhere.

STEP 3 : do the same on the other side, being careful to line the top of the two bookboard pieces up.

STEP 4 : apply glue to the top of the bookcloth and pull it tightly over the bookboard.

STEP 5 : use your bone folder to smooth out any wrinkles of the booktape on the back and front sizes. (At this point you can add a bit more bookcloth to the back center – see final photo in step 12 below – but it's not necessary.)

STEP 6 : congrats! You have just combined two pieces of bookboard (your covers!) with a spine!

STEP 7 : we are now going to cover the book with paper. The amount of paper you'll need will vary based on the size of your book. You will want 2 pieces (one for the front and one for the back) and you should shoot for a few inches taller and wider than what your final book will be. Apply glue to the backside of the paper, taking care to pull the brush off the edge (on to scrap paper). We need that whole edge covered with glue.

STEP 8 : turn the paper over and line up the glued edge against the spine so it covers the bookcloth edge but leaves about an inch of cloth showing. Use your bone folder to smooth things out.

STEP 9 : turn the book back over and use scissors, to cut wide U shapes out of the two corners, making sure to leave about 1/8 inch of space between the paper and the bookboard corner.

STEP 10 : apply glue and fold down the top and bottom sides of the paper.

STEP 11 : use your bone folder to tuck in the extra little bit corner – this will give the book a polished look.

STEP 12 : apply glue and fold over that final side. Pull tight and smooth out with the bone folder.

Repeat steps 7-12 for the other side. Congrats! Your cover is complete!

The final step is to drop in the text block. The text block is a "pre-glued set of pages" and it slips right into your covers. Stick yours in and be sure that it fits. To hold it in place, we need to cover the whole front and back pages with PVA glue. This part always makes me nervous.

What I like to do is get it lined up in the cover exactly how I like it. Then I carefully set it on the table and open the front cover. Slip a piece of scratch paper under the front piece of the text block and apply glue to the whole thing, pulling the brush over the edge of the page and on to the scrap paper. Without moving the text block, close the book and firmly press down the cover. Remove the scrap paper.

Then flip the book over and do the same to secure the last page of the text block to the back cover.

Tuck fresh scratch paper (without glue on it) behind the covers to protect the pages and stick it under a heavy book for a few hours. The extra scratch paper will absorb any extra moisture. This glue is no joke and your book will hold beautifully.

Hooray! A REAL BOOK. I've learned a lot of DIY tricks over the past decade but book binding is top ten for sure. When I make stuff, I am trying to make stuff that I would actually want to buy. This is one of those projects for sure and a perfect kick off to MAKE&GIVE30.

And now! The giveaway. Since this is a journal… leave a comment telling me something that you'd write down in it. Grocery lists? Dreams? Things your kids say? Funny Leslie Knope quotes? I'll draw a random winner by the end the week. Giveaway open to anyone, anywhere.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED! Random.org chose #278 as the winning comment which is Sara (Kanapi). Sara, please email me at elise.blahaATgmail.com and I'll send out your book. Thank you!
at 30.

February 22, 2015

photos from my instagram feed from my last week at 29.

When I was young, I remember having a conversation with my dad.

Something had just changed, I don't remember exactly what… maybe I was now in third grade. Or maybe I was now waiting for the bus by myself. Or maybe I was in the later lunch period.

Either way, I was explaining to him that I was there, where the big kids had been. I was supposed to feel different. But I felt exactly the same.

"Yep, that's how it is" my dad said. "You're standing where they stood. You're doing what they did. But you are still just you."

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I remember graduating high school in 2003 and looking through my yearbook. We were the seniors now. My photo was amongst the color ones and we got to include quotes (mine? ~You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.~ …complete with those terrible squiggles). I looked at myself and my fellow seniors and thought – "that's odd…we look just like us."

So of course, then I had to pull out my freshman yearbook and compare. The seniors then?! They looked ancient. Like real adults with real drivers' licenses headed off to real and important lives.

They looked so old. Still, to this day, when I go home to my parents' house and look at that class of 1999 they look older than me. I have 13 years on them but because I knew them at 14, I'm still intimidated by their age.

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Whenever Paul and I are headed out for a date night, I get the strongest sense of déjà vu.

It's always a little dark outside. I'm always wearing a little extra makeup. I'm always giving the baby-sitter a rundown … "okay, she'll go down quick…if she wakes up…she will want…the wifi password is…we should be home by…" before we rush out of the house.

And the whole time I'm thinking: this is so weird. Because in the moment I'm also me, six-years-old and watching my parents rush out of the house into the dark night. In the moment I'm also me, sixteen-years-old and watching the couple I'm baby-sitting for rush out of the house, the mom wearing a little more make-up than I'm used to seeing her in.

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I'm me. Always and forever. Third grade, senior year, college, married, mother, me. Always me. Doing what they did. Standing where they stood. Smiling like they smiled. Rushing out like they rushed out.

And still. It's just me.

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Today I am 30. I never thought much about being thirty. I think when I was small, twenty seemed old. And then I just wanted to turn 13 so I'd be a teenager. And then all I cared about was 16 and getting my license. And then obviously 21 was the big hurdle. But after 21? There are no "age" milestones except for the ones that we create for ourselves. You have to build your own hurdles after 21. You have to figure out what you're really striving for and what will define you so much more than a license to drive and drink (never at the same time).

After 21, you get to figure out what each age is actually going to mean.

I spent my 20s trying to decide what I wanted to be. At the start of this decade my goals looked a hell of a lot different but who I was, who I am, is the same. I think maybe why I handle change so poorly is because when I embark on something new, my first reaction is to handle it how I think I should. I try to slip into the mold of what I think "college student" or "military wife" or "mother to a young daughter" is supposed to look like. And then after realizing that plan is a complete fail, I give up and return to just being me. And then, only then, when I stop fighting the current and decide to swim with it as myself, am I able to start moving forward.

I am happy today. I haven't been happy through every stage of my 20s, but, of course, I learned a lot. Much more in this past decade than in the first two. More importantly than anything on this list, I learned what really fuels me, both personally and professionally. It's different than I thought and it's the same as I thought. I am so lucky that my job and my life matched up. I couldn't have this job if I didn't have my life. And I couldn't enjoy this life as much if I didn't have this job. I respect that. Every day I am grateful for that.

If my 20s were for finding what I wanted to do, I wish my 30s would be for cultivating it. I want to spend the next decade raising my family. I want to spend the next decade building my business. I think those things can happen simultaneously. I want to get better at loving. I want to get better at managing. I want to keep finding the things that make my heart race with excitement and my brain hum with possibilities. I want to keep finding the things that make me laugh until I cry. I want to do what Bob Dylan recommends and build a ladder to the stars. But the second phrase is where he really nails it, because also, I want to climb on every rung.

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Getting older is not about feeling different. It's not about putting on a new look or changing who you are. As experience has shown, we pretty much feel the same. We just grow. We gain experiences. We carry who we were into the next year and the year after that. We're a little taller, maybe. We're a little rounder, maybe. We have different tastes, maybe. But we're us.

Exactly us.

Standing where they stood. Doing what they did. Learning all along.
weekend links / 54.

February 21, 2015

Have I told you I love the Internet yet? Here are my favorite finds this week…

this makes the top five of most beautiful paper projects I have ever seen.

"Good grown-ups don’t care about being right; they prefer being informed." – loved this essay on what it means to "grow up."

a day in the life of a fashion bloggers husband. I #lololololed.

over 5 years ago I bought my wedding dress from j.crew and it's still the best (wedding) decision ever I made. Anyone need a j.crew wedding or bridesmaid's dress? because 20% off through March 3…

also, if you ignore the purple pants, this is the best tee. (Ellerie was kind enough to get it for me for my birthday.)

encouragement from Ira Glass. – thanks for the link, Emily!

"I’ve recently come to terms with something: I am never going to be a good writer if I write safe. And truth be told: I write safely a lot." – you nailed it, Ashlee.

this bag tutorial is not in English, but looks easy enough.

"And I blinked, realizing the depth of male privilege in the working world." – kick-ass essay from Meg Keene on Pink Entrepreneurship

why I still love Etsy. (another great essay! all the essays today!)

(speaking of essays I'm gearing up to write a looooong one tomorrow night, after a glass of wine or two. sort of a "state of the union address" of turning 30. see you then!)

ps…happy birthday to so many of my friends these next few days! steve, veronica, bart, katy & sara!