IS•LY | I Still Love you

Merry Holidays everybody!! Here’s my 3rd annual Christmas candy box. I’ve been a little stumped with ideas for what to do this year. LAME. So 40 hours, a pep talk from Chris and a few temper tantrums later, here it is. My gift to you.

click on image to enlarge

The color scheme was inspired by 100 Layer Cake’s Red + Green colorboard. Have you been to that blog before? It’s a fabulous resource, wedding or no. I pretty much drool out the side of my mouth every time I visit that site. The pattern was inspired by Orla Keily and one of my favorite wallpapers.

I really hope you enjoy this printable and USE IT! I plan on using these for the annual candy party with my mom and sisters. Oh, and if you don’t celebrate Christmas, it’s fairly holiday neutral, so feel free to use it for your holiday celebrations, or anything. Ever! Click on the button below to download for free.

For the 2008 Christmas candy box, click here.

for the 2007 Christmas candy box, click here.

The assembled box measures about 3.25 in x 3 in x 1.5 in, which is perfect for homemade caramels, chocolates, jewelry, etc. Let me know how you’re using it! I’d love to see pictures or hear about what you did, so please comment!

It’s funny how sometimes I don’t do things unless I have the right motivation. I was thinking about writing a Thanksgiving post and offering a Thanksgiving printable, but it didn’t start working on it until I heard about the possibility of winning a $100 gift card to ModCloth. I’m not usually this self-serving. Promise.

Natalie made this candy cane sweater. It’s so soft, so cute!

Despite my intense desire to win this contest, my thanks are heartfelt. My cousin James and his wife Natalie visit us often; our weekends are very incomplete without a visit from them. I’m really happy James found a lady as sweet and fun as Natalie. It’s been great to get to know her better every weekend.

So, Natalie, I think you’re really awesome and I hope ModCloth can see at least a glimpse of how cool you are.

While we’re talking about thanks and ModCloth, I think they have a good thing going when encouraging all the internets to find people to be grateful for. I think it’d be great to keep this thing going. I’ve made a little fill-in-the-blank printable for you to fill out and send to the folks in your life that you love. Please enjoy the FREE printable and please use it this Thanksgiving. Click on the button below to download.

This tutorial is free for personal use. It cannot be distributed without my written consent. All content is original and exclusive to IS•LY.

Have any of you noticed how horrible I am at taking half-decent “before” pictures? I should be so ashamed. Then again, a bad “before” photo always makes the “after” photo look so much better.

I’ve had this shirt forever and I swear the neckline just gets lower and lower every time I wear it. Last time I wore it, I thought how great it would be if I did a simple refashion to bring up the neckline. I was going to braid an intricate insert, then I got lazy and decided a cowel neck could be cooler. NOPE. Not at all. It looked like I was wearing a knotted dickie and that put me in a pretty sour mood. I was just about to throw in the towel and proclaim the shirt dead, then my better half (aka Chris) reminded me that there was such a thing as a seam ripper and not all was lost.

Instead of butchering another neckline I decided to re-enter my comfort zone and refashion the shirt into a dress for Penelope. Isn’t Penelope adorable? These sorts of refashions are a lot of fun, and not very time-consuming. I think I like that shirt so much better on Penelope.

Here’s a little preview of the tutorial

I think it’s high time I give you a tutorial on how to do it. Yeah, there are a million other tutorials out there on this type of thing, but this is my take on it. Since natural light is pretty rare around these parts, I thought I’d illustrate each step instead. Let’s be honest, I was really just looking for an excuse to use my new Wacom tablet. Please enjoy the free tutorial. Click on the button below to download.

This tutorial is free for personal use. It cannot be distributed without my written consent. All content is original and exclusive to IS•LY.

Every once in a while I stop thinking about myself and think of others for a moment or two. Since Chris and I have been out and about the last four months the “every once in a while” is turning into “never”.

I see these boxes at events and weddings all the time. I really like how they close, forming a shape (usually a heart) that pops out. The problem with these boxes is that they’re white. Plain. Boring. I was trying to think outside the box (I didn’t stray far at all) for the shape of the top. Hearts are overdone, butterflies are not my style and stars are SOO last month. I like clouds. Clouds are a bunch of circles put together. I like circles, too. But how would I tie in the clouds with treats? After a few hours of brainstorming this is what Chris and I came up with:

Click on the image above to download IS•LY’s newest freebie. I have one request: would you please print at least one, fill it with chocolate and give it to someone who might be having a bad day? I’m not sure who to give mine to, but I’ll think of someone and let you know.

Show your friends some love! I know y’all think it’s fun to get something other than a bill or an ad in the mail. I think all of you should print this card and send it to someone you think is cool. I sure did (and it wasn’t addressed to me).

Download the Indie Wolf Card Here

Download the Envelope Template Here

This card was inspired by this wolf shirt, which Chris and I think is super cool. You know what’s even cooler? The card fits perfectly inside the printable envelope I designed a while back. Click on the links above to download the card & envelope.

I’ve been kicking this idea for a card for a while now, and finally I’ve mustered the motivation to do it. Yup, My middle name is procrastination.

I’ve noticed a SERIOUS moustache trend about the internet/indie crowd recently, and I wanted to tell Christopher that he’s a very cool dad. I really made this card just for him, but I’m sure there might be some dads out there that are cool, too. Maybe this would be a good last-minute card. Although I’m giving this card to Chris for father’s day, there’s no reason you couldn’t send a cool man in your life a little love any day of the year.

Click here to download the Father’s day Tri-fold Card

Click here to download the plain “You are so Indie” card

Happy Father’s day, Chris. You’re a wonderful dad.