samanthatroy, Author at The Experts Agree

Etsy Schmetsy: Bonjour!

July 21st, 2010 by samanthatroy

Tonight marks the fifth in a six-week French class that Jessica and I are taking. As you might expect, five weeks has not been enough time to become fluent, but we are enjoying learning something new. So in honor of French class, and of Bastille Day — which was last week — we bring you a little French-flavored Schmetsy. Voilà !

Row 1: StoriesDivinations; MacaronParlour; plastique
Row 2: tinatarnoff; mimileephotography
Row 3: studiokmo; letterpress

Etsy Schmetsy: Trianglish

July 14th, 2010 by samanthatroy

We’re particularly partial to triangles this week. “Why?” you ask. Well, we spent the fourth of July weekend gocco’ing our latest cards and we’re pretty darned pleased with them. Check out out our new cards below this week’s schmetsy.

Row 1: lisacongdon; spinthread; whitemetal
Row 2: clarebowers
Row 3: heatherfuture; LauraLombardiJewelry; selflesh

And, on to our cards: on white it’s a birthday card primary-upbeat enough for your nephew or designy-sophisticated enough for your BFF. On chipboard it’s an all-occasions card with a shimmering layer of triangles, brimming with positivity.

TypograFriday: TypArchive

July 9th, 2010 by samanthatroy

Thanks to one of my new favorite blogs, The Jealous Curator, I just discovered TypArchive, an amazing collection of images of hand-painted, neon and dimensional signage. Aside from being really nice to look at, I think it could be a great resource if you are looking for a little typographic inspiration. When Owen and I travel, we are constantly snapping pictures of cool typography; perhaps we’ll need to submit a few images.

TypArchive is an image library primarily focused on hand painted signage. The objective is to amass a comprehensive global collection of a high-quality images and produce hard-copy volumes.

Amidst a landscape of vapid strip malls and sterile signage, hand-painted lettering retains a soulful aesthetic to be treasured. Like other crafts dissolving in the digital age, sign painting is a fading occupation. Today it’s easy for any layman with minimal computer knowledge to produce a sign within minutes, but the skill acquired to artfully produce hand lettering took years of apprenticeships, dedication and true talent. – RD Granados

Here you can find out more about digital signage software.

Dreamy Diana

June 24th, 2010 by samanthatroy

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I’ve been toying around with buying a few things from Photojojo! for a while now; mainly this, and this, and this. But the Dreamy Diana Lens seems so cool, I think I may need to take the plunge and make my first Photojojo! purchase. Basically, it allows you to take dreamy, soft-focus photos like the original Diana, with your DSLR. So cool!

It is available with an adapter for either a Canon or Nikon DSLR, or if you are lucky enough to own this, you can purchase the DSLR adapter on its own without the lens.
diana

DIY Embroidery Cards

June 22nd, 2010 by samanthatroy

curious doodles 1
It is no secret that I love stationery and I love embroidery, but I also love kits. So when Laura from Curious Doodles emailed us a few weeks back about a new project of hers, I was instantly intrigued. I’m a big fan of Laura’s screen-printed work, we featured her 2010 calendar in our calendar Schmetsy, Counting the Days, but these new DIY Stitches Kits are super charming. The cards are available in 2 sets, one that reads: feel better, love you, oh baby, miss you, and congrats, while the other reads thanks yo, fo shizzy, whatevs, luvz ya, and word. I mean really, who doesn’t want to get a hand stitched fo shizzy card in the mail?
curious doodles 2

The World

June 14th, 2010 by samanthatroy

World-map-cutout_1

We’ve posted about Famille Summerbelle’s maps in the past, and while I think they are all lovely, Julie Marabelle has really outdone herself with her new world map. I would love to see it in person to see all of the darling illustrations and details. Check out the video below for a peek into Julie’s process.

World-map-cutout_2

Etsy Schmetsy: Earrings a go go

June 9th, 2010 by samanthatroy

Row 1: michellechangjewelry; SigneNjustJewellery; TwistedDesigns
Row 2: lazygiraffe; ColleenBaran; reginepfanzdesigns
Row 3: MiniCyn; aprilkawaoka; 3dots

New from TiniestJ: Rushmore Pencils!

June 1st, 2010 by samanthatroy

Jessica has just posted this amazing pencil set, created in homage to Rushmore, in her etsy shop. Each pencil in the hand foil stamped set features the name of one of Max Fischer’s extracurricular clubs from the film. The pencil sets are available in a super limited edition, so get your set now!

Movies R Fun

May 27th, 2010 by samanthatroy

What can I say about Josh Cooley‘s take on Little Golden Books Movies R Fun that they don’t already say for themselves? Not much, but, I think they are great. Luckily, he has compiled the illustrations into a book and is making “High quality, ‘classy’ prints” that will be available at Comic-Con this year.

via Cool Stuff

Etsy Schmetsy: Suggested Shops

May 12th, 2010 by samanthatroy

This week, Etsy launched a new feature: Suggested Shops. This week’s Schmetsy includes only shops that were recommended to us by the new Suggested Shops feature. So, it is a bit less cohesive than usual, but it seems like a really neat feature.