felt club recap and the golden robot awards!

it's been a crazy week, work-wise, folks. so much so that i missed california's great shakeout - rest assured the next one will be properly photodocumented at the hearts and laserbeams headquarters, as we have some of the best earthquake drills around!

felt club was this last weekend, and if you've never been to this show you. have. got. to. go! if you love etsy and all things funky and handmade you'll be in heaven!

one of my absolute favorite things about an event like this, aside from seeing crafty friends and checking out amazing arts and crafts, is the business cards. ohhhhhh, the business cards!

the great thing about business cards for artsy craftsy design types is that it's so far removed from the bland, plain, stark business cards you remember from american psycho. for these types of businesses, the more eye-catching, the more fabulously designed, the more memorable, the better! and with that, i invite you to:

the hearts and laserbeams golden robot awards for excellence in business card design 2008!

i've poked through all of the bajillions of business cards i saw this weekend at felt club, and these were my faves in the following categories - enjoy, and congrats to the winners!


most unique shape!


figs and ginger and v is for violet tied for this one, both completely stood out from the pack with their unusual shapes! figs and ginger's round card is wider than a standard business card, so when you stack em all up it sticks out on the side, making it impossible to get lost in the crowd. v is for violet is in the same vein as those new tiny moo business cards, but feels a tad cooler because it's slightly bigger. there's also an awesome pattern of scissors printed in a clear varnish on top of the overall design that's totally eyecatching when you hold it in your hand!


funniest business card!


ok my imaginary boyfriend wins a golden robot for making me laugh my ass off with her card - when i picked it up from her table, i didn't think much of it because i was looking at the backside, with her business name and info in this cute handwritten text. and into my bag it went! then, as i was sifting through all my faboo business cards lookin for the standouts, i came to this one and it was face up this time, and this is hands down funniest business card ever!! hooray!!!


best save in the face of business card adversity!


ok i love this handout by the folks at copacetique - super cute, to the point about being outta business cards, but refuses to miss an opportunity to get the word out there and have someone check out their website. kudos!


favorite eyecatching elements!


miss natalie gets a golden robot because this is one of the happiest stripes ever - it reminds me of one of my favorite sweaters, and it was enough to get me to stop and take a second look! still life mercantile's card is really well designed as well, love the bird motif that flows on both sides of the card - that kind of retro feel character totally caught my eye and dragged it fifteen feet!


best use of a collage on a business card!


ok seriously both the paper princess and oh hello friend have some of the prettiest business cards i've ever seen - their montages of images make me wanna find tiny frames just for their business cards! so cute and nostalgic! the paper princess also has a great pearlized finish on their cards that gives it a bit of awesome sheen. note i said awesome sheen, not charlie sheen...


sweetest letterpressed business cards!


i heart letterpress stuff so much it makes my socks dirty - what i loved most about these business cards by krank press and joie studio is that they're letterpress people that have letterpressed their cards, too. both of these cards have that same awesome heavy paper and embossed texture that so clearly calls out what it is they do.


cutest critters on a card!


cartoon characters get em every time, folks, and these are no exception! not only did sheriff peanut's booth have totally adorable stuff, but their peanut mascot is the bomb! the cats on jake & micah's card and the octopus on the back of nifnaks' card were adorable, too, enough to make someone wanna adopt 20 kittens and take em on a field trip to the aquarium!


best use of product recognition!


i have to tell you these were some of my favorites soley because it's BAM right in your hand what it is they do, and the design is way cute to boot! what's great about this type of business card design is that the second i pulled these cards from tsai-fi, berkley illustration, art school dropout and rock scissor paper out of my tote bag i remembered everything they had at their booths and how much i wanted all their stuff. i think that makes these really strong promo pieces, because it's so easy to see what they have to offer.

and that's my favorite business cards from felt club, hope you liked em! were there others i missed that you particularly liked? you should comment about it! also, i think the golden robot awards will be poppin up every now and then from now on so stay tuned you may win one next for that absolutely gripping phone call you made to your boss about being *cough* *cough* sick last week!

felt club tomorrow, so exciting!

tomorrow josh, gayle and i are makin' way for los angeles to check out felt club, and you should too!



i'm a little bummed i couldn't apply for shows this holiday season, because felt club is a blast to sell at. it's always fun to go as a holiday shopper, though, to pick up fun handmade things for friends and actually have a second to stop and say hey to all the great vendors!

if you go be sure to stop by the long beach craft mafia table, they'll have goodies for the first 25 shoppers at their table and 1" buttons galore by me, hooray!

i don't do windows!!!

except i totally do.

there's nothing like new beginnings, fresh clean open windows and awesome friends.

awesome friends, you do not follow the windows cuz they brighten the whole place, i just saved the best for last.

i'm really looking forward to a week and a half of painting and making stuff. stay tuned!

and if you could keep your fingers crossed that i get into felt club this time around, that'd be grand - here's hoping!

help your fellow crafter!

i had told ya about jenny from felt club being slapped with some heinous fines for well-meaning people putting felt club posters up where they shouldn't have in downtown l.a. - she got another fine in the mail the other day, bringing the grand total to something like 600 bucks. ay yi yi, no me gusta!!!

so she and some friends put together three crafty smorgasborgs for you to bid on to help alleviate the costs - they include handmade items from all sorts of arts&crafters, including me. i've got a postcard set in each basket, and a little skull painting in basket number 3, so get over there and get to bidding!

in other news, josh and i have been making dummies swear for the past hour. i apologize in advance for the multitude of profane emails you may have received on these dummies behalf. 3 cheers to jenn and trav for alerting us to this marvel of modern technology!

aaaaaaannnnnd i'm very excited - after 7ish years with my current printer, it's started to not print nearly as nice as it could be, and a new one's on the horizon... but what printer it is, i'm not sure yet - still deciding. what's your printer of chioce?

my name is simon, i like to make drawrings

yay art shows! can't wait for this afternoon, my new years resolution to actually go out and see some art shows instead of talking about it all the time is a go!

imagonna go check out the magritte show at the lacma this afternoon, which should be pretty cool, especially if you like paintings of pipes or businessmen with applefaces!

then imagonna go check out the school daze show at reform school! super excited, i've been dying to go check out this store for months. don't know if i'll be there for the actual reception, as it starts at 7 and i may be done at lacma way way way before then, but still rad all the same.

in other news, my hair is in that crappy stage between awesome super-short and cool-looking longer hair, so it's really just irritating me and making me wanna bust out the scissors. but i remind myself that i'm trying something new with this hair thing so i'm gonna eat some m&ms instead and just try try try to be patient with it for a few more months before i cut it all off again.

also, in the man's keeping you down news, jenny from felt club's run into a bit of a fines situation over felt club posters from past events. apparently someone who had posters to put up hung them outside in a no post bills zone sort of thing, and the powers that be are charging jenny $400 in fines even though she's not the one who hung the poster since it was her event. she's broke as a joke like the rest of us, so in the next couple of weeks she'll be having a couple of ebay auctions for gift baskets full of arts and crafty items from people all over, including yours truly. imagonna donate a skull painting to the cause, and you're gonna bid on the gift basket it ends up in! it's the least we all can do for all the work she's put into having these events, you know? i'll keep ya posted on when the auction goes up.

what else... i got nothing. cheers!