After I made my chair cover, I wanted my desk to have some of that fabric as well and since I had a buch of scraps I decided to make a mousepad (I really needed one too) I also wanted to give my brand new ModPodge a try even tho the one that I have it’s not one the recommended for fabric.

I wanted to wait a while in order to write this post to see how it worked first, it’s been more than 3 months and it holds the shape and works perfectly, so now that passed the test of time I can share it =]

It was actually pretty simple and if it wasn’t for the dry time of the ModPodge it could be done easily in less than 15 minutes.

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For this week’s Tutorial love Friday I want to share some awesome pillow tutorials I’ve come across the blogosphere. They are so cute, so if you are in need of a lovely pillow for your home visit this ladies, grab some supplies and get your craft/sewing on!

1- Felt monogram pillow by Allison from Little Lovelies via Maybe Matilda
2- Big bow pillow by Liz form Say yes to Hoboken
3- Shag pillow by  Vanessa from V and Co
4- Smock pillow by Fleeting thing

 

I am super excited to go to Utah and attend Alt summit next week! and to finally have time to craft a little and make some pretty business cards =] I will show you all once I’m done!

I hope you have a lovely day!
XO

I can’t believe how fast this year flew by, lots of things happen and I wanted to share some of the highlights =]

♥ First I have to say that I am super happy to see how much this little blog grew in just one year, back in January there were not even 200 RSS subscribers and now it’s pretty close to 2,600! How did that happen? Well, however happen it makes me super happy =] so Thank you [huge wave]

♥ I am also very excited to finally finish the update for my business HowJoyful Design Studio or HJD Studio, it took me a while but finally it’s ready for the new year and I am excited to finish all the current projects so I can start accepting new ones in March.

♥ Last January I jumped and started my very own 101 in 1001 list. I has been very rewarding to cross things off (yeah I am a list maker!) so I hope I can cross off a lot more things in 2012! If you still don’t have a 101 in 1001 list, this is the perfect time to start =P

♥ In 2011 we decided to adopt a little dog, but we only got to enjoy him for a few days =[ We are hoping this new year will be the year to try to get another one.

♥ I was super happy to go visit my family back in September, it was very refreshing to get to spend time with my Mom and sister. Once a year sometimes feels like it's not enough.

♥ I opened a premade template shop, shared free templates and open the shop section of my blog, so now I just have to finish the details of my two first sewing patterns and add them there =]

♥ I was also very excited to open the doors to sponsors in July, thanks to the on growing traffic I felt I could help other blogs and small business to get more views in their sites.

♥ And of course there was a lot of sewing, crafting, upcyling and Inspiration shared this past year, so I can only hope to have more time to dedicate to the things I enjoy doing SO MUCH =]

I had this post almost ready since last month, so I decided to change the end portion of it. Two days a go my grandfather passed away in Chile, so that would definitely be the sad part of 2011 =[

For the past couple of day I’ve been thinking a lot about life and the things I want to do, but most importantly about what my contribution to other people’s life is and I hope will be. This next year I hope to keep growing into a better person, to worry less and love even more. I hope to never take my friends and family for granted and remind them all the time how much they mean to me.

Let’s celebrate life and cherish every moment, always say “I love you” and hold the hands of those who need it, life is too short to worry about silly things. Let’s be playful and smile, laugh and jump. I wish sunny and pretty days for all of us and for those gray and cloudy days warm and tight hugs. Deal?

Thank you for reading and letting me share my life.
Much love, XOXO

Hello my lovelies! A few weeks a go I was contacted by  Missy from S.Y.T.Y.C. (So you think you are crafty) to guest post on her blog, I was super excited and honored to be included in her round of guest post.  I decided to share some simple ideas to embellish and wrap gifts for the upcoming holiday season =] since the post was already published in her blog, I also wanted to share it with all of you!   I totally love buttons so for this post I mixed 2 of my favorite things, kraft paper and buttons!

 

I made a PDF file with 4 different buttons patterns that you can use to wrap or embellish packages, I used only one sheet for my 4 sample gift on this post =]

As I mention before this is a PDF file, so in order to preview the file you will need to have Abobe Reader installed on your PC or MAC. Without the program you will not be able to download or preview the file. If you have troubles please visit this link, because each browser works different.

I simply wrapped everything with craft paper (when I ran out of it I always use lunch bags) to embellish the package in this post I did 3 different things.

- I printed and cut stripes of the button paper, and used them as belts for the bigger packages, I glue both ends and finish with a hemp twine wrap and a simple bow =]

- I printed and punched flowers, I think this was by far the easiest one and witha few of them your package just looks adorable =] If you don’t have a flower or shape puncher, just cut some cute shapes and glue them to one side, it will still look very pretty!

- I used the paper to make little bunting details, I cut a 1″ long stripe, then cut 3″ pieces folded them in half and place yarn in the middle. after gluing it, I cut the edges to shape a bunting flag =] I glued the first and last bunting flag to attach to the package

I hope you guys enjoy it and embellish your packages with this simple tips =]
Have a lovely day!
XO

* This printable is provided for personal, non-commercial use only.
Check the Site policy at the bottom for further information, Thank you!

Back in September, when I decided that it was time for Howjoyful to have a facelift, the very first thing I did was grab some paper and a pencil to draft some ideas. I have to admit that when it comes to me as a client I am the worst so I end up with 2 completely different ideas and 2 completely different concepts. I loved them both but I had to make up my mind and choose, and that’s what you can see now in the blog.

Since I really liked one of the rejected drafts I decided that it would be nice to show you all a little bit of behind the scenes as an excuse for it to get a little exposure, I just feel sad no one got to see it! The least I can do is give it 1 post of fame. So here it is, the poor little How Joyful that went to the trash =[

For this sketch I really liked the idea of making swirls in the shape of hearts with "How Joyful" but then I changed my mind because it seemed too busy and cutesy for my personal taste. So I started exploring other ideas and other kind of typefaces, lines and swirls. I ended up with probably more than 20 different drafts but this one below was the runner up =]

I still think I could do something with this, the one above was the last draft I did in ink and paper, but I also vectorized it. So, I would really like to actually do something with it since I spent so much time on that. I think it could be another print to frame for my office, or maybe print it on fabric? I am not sure.

This was one of my first completely free-hand projects and I loved the process so much! Now I really want to buy a new tablet to draft projects because my old one was only for PC so now I have no way to use it (the only bad thing about only having Mac products now) so hopefully I’ll get to buy one soon, because I really want to get back into drawing with a tablet again.

I’ve received a few emails asking me for the font I used in my current header, so I want to show you where it came from. I actually didn’t even have tracing paper that day, so I just started playing with the only sheet of paper I found. After my first sketch I went over to my Mother-in-laws (She does awesome calligraphy) and asked for her advice/opinion, we played with calligraphy pens and had a lot of fun. I was still indecisive over the two sketches because I started with such a different set of concepts for each one. But I decided to work more on my second draft because I thought it was way too rough at first, so with a few line changes and tracing it on Illustrator it ended up just like I wanted =]

Do you have any ideas to use the runner up?
I hope you all have a wonderful day and stay warm!
XO