Archive | January, 2010

iPhone Case Tutorial

by Melissa on 29. Jan, 2010 in tutorials

I’ve been bugging Chris for the last 6 months to get me an iPhone. Why the wait? Chris didn’t want to buy an iPhone when Apple might just come out with something cooler. Understandable. Now that the iPad is out, and it doesn’t quite make sense for us to get one (yet), I got to get my iPhone! Hooray! Now I can stop borrowing Chris’s for conferences & Whrrl posts! Life with my very own iPhone is so great. Everything is easier and more fun! The poopy diapers are more bearable! The dishes are more sparkly(er)!

Now that I finally have a nice phone, I’ve got to protect it from Penelope. I was planning on going to TJ Maxx or Ross to get a cover (because that’s where you go for cheap iphone covers), but Penelope napped for nearly four hours yesterday! Four hours was plenty of time to design and create my own case – and make a tutorial to share with you! I’m just tickled about how it turned out. I just love the pink/orange color combo.

This was a very easy project. If you have all of the materials ready, it would surely take less an hour to make (embellishing not included). Did I tell you that I love my finished product? It’s fabulous, and I’d surely make it again. I wouldn’t change anything about the pattern, but I would like to try using elastic instead of a small leather strip across the front. That might make tucking the flap away, a tad easier. OH, and did I mention that I LOVE how it turned out? EEE! I’m so happy about it.

Well, I hope you give this tutorial a try. If you do, please share pictures! I’ve just started a flickr group and I would love to see you join! Enjoy!! This tutorial (click above to dowload) is free for personal use only.

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Alt Summit Recap

by Melissa on 28. Jan, 2010 in adventure

I think it’s safe to assume that everyone who attended Alt Summit had a blast and everyone that didn’t go missed out. I am so glad I got to attend. I was in heaven, rubbing shoulders with the finest and creative-est in blogging & design. I think I said, “Oh my goodness, I love your blog!!” about million times last weekend. Every time I said it, I meant every word. I was just giddy and maybe a little star-struck to meet some of my blogging heroes, like Grace & Maxwell. They were all SO KIND and surprisingly approachable.

There’s no doubt, Gabby & the other fabulous Kirtsy ladies put on a spectacular conference filled with 100% relevant topics for design/creative bloggers. IT WAS AMAZING. It was rolling-on-the-ground hilarious. It was thought-provoking. It was an absolute blast. It was perfect. Here are a few of the highlights:

Early Bird Session: How to Find the Best Design Sites

Morning Keynote Breakfast: Why design?

  • Putting all of my attention into blogging full-time made all the difference. – Maxwell, Apartment Therapy
  • Martha is OVER. It’s all about being real, not flawlessly perfect. – Maxwell, Apartment Therapy
  • People will always have an opinion about everything. – Heather, Dooce
  • Heather Armstrong is a fabulous speaker and hands down hilarious.
  • Grace from design sponge is so genuine and so awesome. I love her blog so much more now that I’ve met her in person.

Form & Function: Designing online

  • What makes a good site awesome? Pixel perfection, good CSS, faster loading speed and sites that function on most browsers.
  • Good clients trust designers. They know what they’re doing. – Struck Design
  • Good designers don’t say no. They come up with something even better & knock the socks off their clients. – Struck Design
  • IE sucks. – Bryan, Typekit
  • Good typography is possible, even on the web. – Bryan, Typekit

Form & Function: Building your brand & business

  • I came into this session a tad late, but it was still super inspiring. Victoria from SFgirlbybay is ridiculously cool. I cornered her a few times to chat and she was very, very nice to me.
  • You don’t need to pigeonhole yourself in blogging. As long as it’s something you love & true to you, people will read it. – Gayla, You Grow Girl
  • I try to make my life blogworthy. – Sarah, Sarah Jane Studios
  • Blogging is a labor of love.

Keynote Lunch: New media artists

  • Let the creative process take you on a journey. – Erik Natske
  • Erik Natske does some incredible things with flash. Jaw-dropping awesome.
  • DJ earworm does an incredible job of mashing up 20 different songs to make a cohesive song. Super awesome.
  • DJ earworm did a mash-up for Annie Lennox. It’s stunning. Check it out here.

Design Theory: Designing Your Community

  • Erin of Design for Mankind is another new favorite person (Goodness, I met so many!). She’s so genuine, sweet & super stylish.
  • It’s good to keep the conversation going in the comments.
  • Meaningful comments that add to the conversation, are key. It’s especially important to show appreciation for folks that take time to comment on your site & to those that may write about you.
  • A canned response is better than no response. – Erin, design for mankind
  • It’s not super important to follow metrics obsessively, but be aware of them. – Erin, design for mankind
  • Blogrolls can be frustrating. Who to add? How many to add? Should they just disappear? {probably}.

Form & Function: Beyond Ad Networks

  • This session was super helpful. I really enjoyed how each panelist had a different perspective & brought different ideas to the session. Maggie is another new favorite person of mine. She’s stylish, clever, a savvy shopper and super fun to talk to.
  • If you’re a good writer, try selling your stories to a newspaper. (that does NOT apply to me)
  • Sell individual ads rather than sponsorships.
  • Sell more ads at a lower price.
  • Stay consistent in your ads aesthetics. It’s not bad to send advertisors a style guide. Ads are like accessories to a great outfit. They’ve got to match.
  • Make sponsored posts separate, and mark as being sponsored content. Charge 10x more for in content sponsorship posts.
  • Hand-pick your sponsors, don’t be afraid to ask for advertising. You’ve got to grow a pair to be a successful blogger. Ask for what you want.

Is there a rewind button I can press so I can relive the conference? Goodness, I had so much fun! I didn’t meet a single person there that I didn’t like. I can’t wait for Alt 2011!

*I didn’t take these photographs, mine turned out terribly. You can see the event photos here.

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Spritz Cookies

by Melissa on 26. Jan, 2010 in food

I’ve noticed something about myself. . . If I find a recipe somewhere other than in my three recipe books and I don’t blog about it, I lose it. I’m terrible at organizing my recipes. Lazy me. This recipe was, at one point, in the cookbook my mom compiled for us kids, but I lost it. I’ve called my sister twice now for the recipe. In my attempt to avoid calling my sister at awkward times (like 2am, perhaps?) I’m posting the recipe here.

I love spritz cookies. I have very fond memories of my mom making a million of these little cookies in assorted Christmas colors and in the cutest, petite shapes. They’re incredibly addicting and easy to make. I can’t tell you the excitement I felt when my mom gave me a cookie press for Christmas. There may have been an audible squeal. These cookies are divine when dipped in chocolate, topped with a melt-in-your-mouth lemon icing or just by themselves. Without any further Ado, here’s the recipe:

Spritz Cookies

no idea where this recipe came from– my mom?
makes about 70 cookies

  • 1 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

Cream butter, sugar and egg until smooth. Add milk, vanilla and almond. In a separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder. Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients. Mix until flour is incorporated. Use cookie press to form cookie shapes. Bake at 400º farenheit for 8 minutes. Cool and serve.

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Busy, busy

by Melissa on 21. Jan, 2010 in design

This week I’ve been overwhelmed with preparations for ALT (today, yay!). I’ve not had really any time to work on any new digital kits. No worries, I’ll be back in action next week with some fabulous new stuff. In the mean time, I just thought I’d point out to you my new favorites from other designers at DHD. These ladies are truly talented.

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This kit makes me wish I had a cricut. How sweet is this? I love the bright red + pink combination. Check out the print + cut kit here. Check out all of Deena Rutter’s other fabulous items in her DHD shop here.

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Yellow + grey have been on the hot list for color combos the last year, and I think the combo will forever be a favorite of mine. I really like Audrey’s patterns here! Aren’t they awesome?! Buy her textured + patterned paper kit here. Be sure to check out the other fabulous items in Audrey Neal’s DHD shop.

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Prepping for ALT

by Melissa on 20. Jan, 2010 in design

Some of you may have noticed the ALT button on my sidebar the last few months. It’s a cool-looking button, eh? Well, I’m proudly going to be attending the Altitude Design Summit this weekend, and I couldn’t be more excited. The speakers are going to be out-of-this-world awesome and the activities are going to be glam-fabulous. I’m super excited.

businesscard1

In preparation for the conference, I needed to print more business cards. Of course it wasn’t going to be a simple re-print of the cards I gave out at BlogHer. Oh no. I need to redesign my site, cards & everything. It kind of snowballed into this huge thing. As you can see the site hasn’t changed, yet. Lame. I’ve been a little busy getting the business cards perfected.

businesscard2

Didn’t they turn out beautifully? I bought some small envelopes a while back, and decided I’d use that to package the business card. I also designed a die-cut vinyl sticker that says “i still love you” in my own handwriting to stuff in the envelope. They’re gold. You really need to see them in person to really appreciate it, but they’re beautiful. It’s so funny how a printer can make or break your day.

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The printer who did the stickers for me gave me a good deal, so long as I weeded and cut them myself. Weeding is when you peel out the negative space of the die-cut sticker, which is time-consuming and unusually fun. The weeding was a piece of cake, and so was the cutting. . . well, until about 11pm last night when my rotary cutter slipped and took a turn for the worse.

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You want to know how sharp brand-new rotary cutter blades are? Effing sharp. It went clean through my nail and through part of the pad of my finger. It even took out part of my middle finger. It was a good thing Chris was around to help. Penelope wouldn’t be much help in a situation like this. Gross, hu?

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I was thinking about giving myself a manicure for ALT, but this was clearly not the one I had in mind. Chris so kindly scoured the entire Salt Lake valley for steri strips and got me some old fashioned liquorice to bite down on for the pain. Man that hurt. He’s thoughtful, isn’t he? Besides the minor set-back of having my index finger out of commission, things are moving right along in preparation for ALT. I can’t wait for tomorrow!!

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Tomorrow night is a 1920s social and I have the perfect dress for the occasion. It’s orange (awesome, right?) it’s real hand-dyed silk, it’s from the ’50s and it was my grandmother’s. I love it. Are you going to ALT? Are you excited, too?!?

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