so small art show 2015

For the So Small art show to benefit the OSLP arts & culture program.

We Are Small but Speak of Stars copyright 2015 Amelia Reising

new blog look!

The blog's been needing an update for awhile, something tied in to the Night Garden image a little more. I found this cool 1920s (copyright free!) star chart over on the Graphics Fairy blog and used it as the basis for the backgrounds.

I changed up the post heading font, too, to be more readable. I loved the hand-writing feel of the old font, but some glyphs were hard to make out, and the funky spacing had always been a thorn in my side. The new post headers
keep something of the casual vibe, while being presented in a font with fewer quirky little glitches.

There are a few other changes, mostly subtle color shifts and font size alterations. And, I struggled for awhile to find a way to use the illustration in the sidebar of the boy looking at the stars. It's someone else's, you see. I pinned it awhile back on my Design Love pin board over at Pinterest because I love it so much, but because I'm not sure it's past its copyright date yet, I figured the most honorable thing to do would be to link it back to a place to buy the book from which it came.

Here's a little reminder about how things used to be vs. the way they are now. . .

old header:

new header

old background

new background

old font

new font

I'd love your feedback on the new look!

Thanks for reading!

all - stars

I found a little pair of Chuck Taylor's at the thrift store which were just the right size, but not the right color. We don't really wear much pink around our house, so I made them into these sweet little day-and-night Chucks for my kiddo as a Christmas present:






These were in practically new condition, as lots of second-hand kids' things are. You can see how the inner soles look pristine.




Even the laces were still pretty new-looking.




Enter Tulip Soft Fabric Paint.


(photo credit)


They come in teensy little one-ounce bottles, which is plenty for little projects like this one, with enough leftover for a bunch more projects. I bought four colors (Yellow, Glacier White, Marine Blue, and Platinum Metallic) for a little over a dollar each; I had the turquoise color left from those baby onesies I painted awhile back. You could also use regular craft acrylic paints; they're colorfast, too, but can be a little stiff. These come out nice and flexible, which is great for stuff kids are going to wear.

First, I painted one shoe solidly Turquoise for the "Day" shoe. I let it dry for about an hour, then added some puffy white clouds with the Glacier White and a tiny little bird with the Marine Blue.




Next, I used the Yellow to turn the "All-Stars" logo into a little sun.




For "Night", I painted the other shoe in Marine Blue, with accents of the Turquoise for depth and the appearance of galaxies.




Using the Glacier White, Yellow, and Platinum paints (alone and in combination) I dotted in stars of varying sizes, and painted in some starbursts, dashed lines (resembling those on a star map), and a little moon near the logo.




My little dude looks pretty darn cute running around in them.







This is a really fun project that can turn out to be pretty time consuming, depending on the complexity of your design. On the other hand, if you were to start with a pair of shoes that was already some shade of blue, it would go faster.

You can also adapt this project for a ton of other designs, as this company does. How well they turn out will totally be dependent on your artistic ability, but a simple Day-and-Night design should be pretty easy to accomplish with decent results.

Total project cost here was under ten bucks, including the sneakers ($4) and paint ($4.50, with lots left over).


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)


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