A Little Hut - Patricia Zapata: press

Showing posts with label press. Show all posts

do you want to start your own paper goods business?

After a whirlwind holiday season, I feel like I can breathe and actually post something coherent. I hope you been enjoying the last few weeks of the year (I'm still kind of in denial that it's actually coming to an end!).

On December 12th I had the honor to be invited as a guest to one of Kari Chapin's Creative Live classes called Fast Start Your Paper Goods Business. If you follow me on any of my social media feeds you surely caught me waiving a flag about it that the days leading up to the presentation and the day of.

For those of you that don't know, Creative Live classes are free when they are streaming live and once the class is over you can purchase any one of them for reasonable fees plus added bonuses.

If you'd like to start a paper goods business and you're struggling as to where to start off (or you've already started and can use a bit of a refresher) I highly recommend Kari's class and books. Her teaching style is very friendly, approachable and she makes even the most daunting business tasks seem manageable and doable.

I've been a long-time fan of Kari's work and her contribution to the crafting community as a whole. I own her books and I still open them up to make reference to either the inspiring stories her featured artists offer or for her sound advice about one or another business-y things I'm not really good at. It was a real treat to finally meet her, talk to her and be a tiny part of her work.

I also have to add that answering many of Kari's questions made me finally put into words why I do what I do. The conclusion: I still love it, I still want to do it and I can't wait for 2015. New ideas are brewing!

Thank you so much Kari and thank you to those of you that reached out during and after the class. I appreciate all your kind words. They made my day. No. My month!

To learn more about Kari, visit her at the following links:
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

do you want to start your own paper goods business?

made in paper

I'm very happy to share that a couple of my projects can be found in the latest issue of Made in Paper! This is the 4th issue of the magazine and I think this is my favorite so far. It's full of a lot of paper goodness, inspiration and easy to make projects.

The Apple Newsstand iPad edition is available today (you can order and see a preview here). It's available in the UK starting today and in about 4 weeks it should be in the US at Borders, Booksamillion and JoAnn's.

Thank you to Made in Paper for letting me join in the fun!

made in paper

pregnancy and newborn magazine

I'm here to share a little piece of exciting news: A Little Hut is in Pregnancy & Newborn magazine this month!

I'm excited that they chose my Let's Go Boxes to feature for this issue—specially with a new little guy that has joined our family.

This particular set of boxes has always had a special place in my heart. When our D was a little baby boy he had nothing but cars (or anything with wheels) on his mind. You'll be seeing a bit more of this set down the road... I have more ideas related to this coming in the next few weeks.

I was just going through this issue and I'm kind of jealous of new parents. There are so many cool products out there nowadays. It seems like a lifetime ago when we were buying diapers and such. But now it's my brother and sis-in-law's turn—such is life!

See you on Monday!

simplicity

All plans for work went right out the window this week. The kids are out of school on spring break so I've been focusing on them. I have no idea what I was thinking when I thought I'd get so much done this week. All self-imposed deadlines were way off. However, I did launch into a two day massive spring house cleaning job. I've been attacking our belongings with brutal honesty—"do we really need this?"—nine times out of ten the answer is no. Goodwill and the public library received many goodies in great condition and this morning the rest went out the door in trash bags. Frankly, it is so liberating to watch all of it just go. I recommend it! It's like free therapy and once you get started it gets easier to just keep going. If you need a little push here's a great article about identifying clutter.

I found this quote and I think it sums up my thought process of this week very nicely...

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. ~William Morris

It's as simple as that.

• • •

I'll be back in earnest on Monday. In the meantime, if you'd like to explore other wonderful crafty blogs check out this list. It is such an honor to be included and in such great company. Thank you to Babble and to all of those of you that visit—and thank you for the kindest messages and emails I've received in the past month or so (you know who you are! :)) I cherish every word.

I must go now because the Houston zoo awaits and my very patient children are eager and ready to go. Have a wonderful week everyone!

valentine's day matchbox card

If you're still looking for an idea for Valentine's Day check out my new project on Craft . It's not as difficult as it looks and you'll get some good practice with simple paper cutting.

This photo is a just a little teaser. But there is a little more than meets the eye. I'm fond of this project because it has several of the elements that I like to use:

- Using paper in 3D form
- Multi-layered work
- Trees. Of course!
- Multi-functional
- Can be customized (you'll see! - it's tiny)

There will be more of these soon and they will be available in SVG format in the shop.

Head on over to Craft to see the whole project, so you can make one yourself—and let me know what you think!

• • •

Welcome to those of you that are visiting from Craft or Lifehacker (memo holder feature)! If you'd like to see other DIY ideas please use the menu at the top above my blog banner.

It feels like it's going to be a very productive week. Happy Monday!

recycling project - mother's day card

Last week I shot two segments for the local show called Going Green with Yolanda Green. One was a how-to for an extra special Mother's Day card/gift (which could work for Dad as well) and the other for a 4th of July project. The first one aired this past weekend and below is the video which, by the way, does not show up on Google Reader (psst! you'll be able to see me with my new haircut).

Materials:
- Empty cookie or cereal box
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Scissors and/or Xacto blade and cutting mat
- Tape
- Tissue paper (can be wrinkled/used)
- Mod Podge or craft glue (slightly watered down)
- Bowl
- Brush
- Leftover cardstock or colored paper
- Ribbon
- Round corner paper punch (optional)

I completely forgot to take photos of the process as I made the project so I created a project sheet that you can download below. To save paper just print the first page and then the second on the back side of the same page.

Download here.

If you like the format of these project sheets or you have any ideas on how to improve them please let me know. I'm thinking of continuing them for the projects that I post from now on. Thoughts?

your million dollar dream

I am my own worst critic. I always feel like there is so much more I could be doing and ways in which I can improve. The funny thing is that just as I'm beating myself about one thing or another I have outside input that sets me straight. I am reminded of the fact that I am accomplishing a lot and that even though I still have a lot to learn I should feel free to pat myself on the back.

A few days ago I received an email that informed me that my blog was mentioned in a new book by Tamara Monosoff called, Your Million Dollar Dream: Regain Control & Be Your Own Boss, Create a Winning Business Plan, Turn Your Passion into Profit. My blog was on a list of five that she recommends. To say that I was surprised and flattered is a huge understatement. I purchased the book and sure enough there I am on page 163. Thank you so much to Ms. Monosoff for the mention and kind words.

I'm already half-way through the book and I keep wishing that I'd had something like this when I was starting my business years ago. It's a very easy read and although some chapters aren't quite relevant to my situation since I'm already established in those particular areas, I am finding the tips on marketing very helpful. The reminder about focusing on my goals and pressing forward in a determined fashion has also been good. I've enjoyed the stories she shares of other entrepreneurs and their experiences because they're so inspirational. I think this would be a great book for someone that is just starting out, specially since it's written from the perspective of our current global economy.

So... from where I stand today I think a little pat on the back is in order, right?

Give yourself one or several too. We all deserve it!

recycling project no. 20 - 3D heart

This is very easy if you need to make a last minute Valentine gift or card.

Materials
- Magazine (or any other type of paper)
- Glue stick
- Scissors
- Deep frame or card stock

1. Using scissors and a page out of magazine, cut out one heart that is about 3" tall. Use it as a template to cut out a dozen additional hearts.
2. Fold each heart in half and add glue to a 1/4" on the folded border. Attach another folded heart on top of the first one.
3. Repeat step 2 until all the hearts are stacked and glued one on top of another. They will only be attached to close to their folded area.
4. Once it's dry, the heart will fan open. Glue it on the center of a piece of card stock that will fit into the frame.

This heart can also be glued to the center of a piece of card stock and used as a card or gift tag.

If you'd like your heart to look fuller add more hearts.

• • •

If you live in the Houston area and would like to see me work on this project I will be on Going Green with Yolanda Green (Channel 39) on Saturday at noon and again on Sunday at 10am.

Have a great Valentine's Day!

The egg carton heart project can be found here.

EDIT: Below is the video of the show that played locally this past weekend.

going green with yolanda green

Last week, somehow and in the middle of everything going on, I managed to record a short segment for Houston's Going Green with Yolanda Green. I worked on my yarn gift tags and teardrop holiday ornaments.

Since our house was still in the middle of remodeling, we used my parent's home as our setting. The painting & pictures that are visible on the walls are some of my brother's work.

Less than 12 hours after shooting this video I was completely voiceless (laryngitis) and feeling like a truck had plowed over me. I still had to deal with the last week of school activities, walk through at the house, checking out of the hotel, delivering orders from my shop (yep I dragged all that to the hotel), etc, etc.

Home, sweet home!! Last night we finally got to spend our first night home after a couple of weeks of hotel living. Needless to say we are beyond thrilled to be back. My bed never felt cozier. However, nobody warned me about all the clean up work that comes after the fact—holy moly! I don't think I've ever cleaned up so much dust in my entire life. Even the dishes in the closed cupboards are going to have to be washed. On the bright side of things we're happy to be here in time for Christmas and the house does look so much better now.

Tonight I will be catching my breath and relaxing with a cup of tea and watching Love Actually.

Ta-ta!

martha stewart radio - round two

Yesterday I started off the day very early. I was invited to join Betsy and Kim on the Martha Stewart radio Morning Living show. My first interview with them was back in August.

Click on the logo to the left and you can listen to yesterday's interview.

This is the last project that I mentioned during the interview. Too bad I don't have a tealight handy to show you what it would like when it's lit. It's another very simple idea—a snowflake hurricane cover that can be made with the help of the entire family. Just use scissors to make a bunch of snowflakes and use dots of glue to attach them to both sides of a sheet of paper. After everything is dry, simply wrap the paper around the glass container. I like that the snowflakes aren't completely flat.

Here's a thought provoking question for the day: How do you make it?

do it yourself magazine

Thanks to the heads up from a friend (don't you love online friendships!) I purchased the latest Do It Yourself Magazine (Winter 2009) and found that four pages were dedicated to four projects found in Home, Paper, Scissors. It's so exciting to see the word spreading around about my book.

I hadn't had a chance to really take a better look at this magazine. There are some fun projects in it and they're inspiring me to look inward a bit. Inward in the sense that it is high time to apply some of my ideas to our own home. I've been concentrating on work so much that I've neglected to make our little corner a little cozier. That will be changing and hopefully the results will be good enough to share with you.

• • •

Thank you to Apartment Therapy - OhDeeDoh for featuring my Numbers Flash Cards on their site. Welcome to those of you that are visiting via their site.

I've had some serious thoughts about using the illustrations in my flash cards for to be used for paper or fabric designs (maybe even digital applications?). I'll have to do a bit more of research to see what direction to take. Hmm.

martha stewart came calling... sort of

This morning I was on "Morning Living with Kim and Betsy" a Martha Stewart Radio morning drive-time show. It was my first radio interview and I didn't know quite what to expect. However, I did know that at some point or another I'd be at a loss for words, would totally get tongue tied or say a bunch of ummmms and I was right, but oh well. I guess it wasn't too bad. As soon as it was over so many other things I could've said came to mind. Doesn't that always happen? In any case... here's the recording:

I've been wanting to share this project since January and yesterday it finally saw the light of day. I designed it for issue 11 of Craft magazine. Sadly, as some of you may recall, the 10th issue was the last one to be printed. The project finally made it's way to the Craft site yesterday. It fits in nicely with this month's Home, Sweet, Home theme.

The lamp is still in the same spot I set it up for this photo and we use it on a daily basis. I don't know what it is about it but I really enjoy looking at it.

If you'd like to make one of your own visit the Craft site for the full tutorial. I promise that it's not as complicated as it may look. Thank you Craft!

Another huge thank you to those of of you that sent me kind comments, tweets, private messages and emails yesterday. I was overwhelmed in the best of ways! Your support means the world to me. I truly appreciate it all. I hope that those of you that have ordered Home, Paper, Scissors really enjoy it. To top it all off my Mr. Z came home with flowers for me (and little C). How sweet is he?

Have a great day!

hgtv - that's clever

Today I found a DVD that hadn't seen the light of day in a long time. It's the one were we recorded my 2006 HGTV That's Clever appearance. It's so interesting to see how far my work has come.

The day before taping I had a severe case of laryngitis. I never loose my voice. Never. Not even after screaming my head off at some sporting event or concert (back in the day). But of course 24 hours before taping the show I had absolutely no sound coming out of my throat. Talk about panicking. Somehow, the morning the film crew was going to show up at the house, I got most of my voice back. Like my D said today, I still did sound 'weird but ok'.

The whole process took about 5 hours of continuous work. Most of the retakes occurred because I was laughing so hard about the cutesy lines they asked me to say. I felt completely out of my element and it was a long afternoon but it was a lot of fun. It felt like those tough experiences that you'd like to try again once you get past them.

Oh and our kitchen isn't that crazy yellow anymore. Yikes!

Patricia Zapata from Patricia Zapata on Vimeo.

the chosen five

I'm rather quiet about my graphic design work here. I'm not sure why. But it still is a big part of what I do. My design business was my first venture into going solo and the reason why I stayed sane a year after quitting my full-time job. I still enjoy splitting my time between Zapata Design and A Little Hut. It keeps me balanced.

If I had to pick only one thing to design it would be logos. They're challenging and entertaining at the same time and you never know what you're going to end up with.

I'm happy to report that these are the logos that have been selected to be part the first book of Initials & Crests in the new LogoLounge Master Library series. It will be published by Rockport Publishers next year.

Top (left to right)
Saratoga Springs - for a neighborhood in Phoenix
V Spa - for the Hilton Anatole spa in Dallas
Sumpter & Gonzales - Austin law firm

Bottom (left to right)
The Myositis Association - Washington DC
People & Partners - UK

• • •

FYI - I posted a new interview on Crafty Synergy. Come by and visit here.

gift tags in craftstylish

I visited the CraftStylish booth at Maker Faire and was pleasantly surprised to see a copy of the magazine in which a gift tag tutorial I wrote is published. I worked on this tutorial back in May so it was very nice to finally see it in print. These tags are very easy to make and it turns out they could be used for another purpose as well. A friend, that I showed the magazine to, said that she could see them being used as tree ornaments. I think she's right!

This morning I got around to uploading just some the of the photos I took at Maker Faire. If you'd like to take a peek they're on my Flickr page here. I was shameless this time. Took lots of pictures everywhere!

we have a winner

I know what you're all here for today! Here's what I did. I punched out pieces of paper and numbered them 1-99 (I didn't expect that many!), put them in a bowl and my little C pulled out one. So... Drum-roll please. The winner of the giveaway is: number 89. The 89th person to post a comment was Cheeky from All Over the Map (Australia). Congratulations! I'll be in touch so that I can get your mailing address.

To everyone else a big hug for all the lovely comments you posted on my giveaway post. I wish I had the time to answer each and every one of them. I'm touched by all your kind words. Thank you!

Friday Tidbits (I haven't posted these in a while)
- A personal one first. Thank you to Bryn, How Magazine editor, for making me part of her Paper Market article.
- I've been avidly reading all the coverage that the National Stationery Show received on so many blogs and the one designer that stood out for me was Elissa from Loop. Her work is so unique. If you'd like to see a more behind the scenes check out her blog here.
- To end the week on a positive note, here's a little inspiration I got from a forum friend. Look for the positive angle in your failures. Super short - watch here.

Today is the last day of school (half-day) so I must get a few things done around here before the summer break officially starts in this household.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

some yin for my yang

I was just going through my archives to add some work to my portfolio on Logo Lounge (an amazing online logo library - worth every penny of membership!) and this is some of what I added. You may recognize at least a couple of these logos. It's rare that I get to see a group of them like this and I find it to be such a visual treat. It makes me feel like I'm really getting somewhere. I don't know where the finish line is but I'm in forward motion regardless.

This got me thinking about the two worlds I work in: the digital and the handmade. I love them both for different reasons and I don't think I could do without either one of them. My logo work starts with a lot of communication and interaction with my client and then a type of hands on approach in the form of sketches. However, the majority of the time involves the steady click of a mouse and lots of back and forth emails.

My handmade work is so different. I typically start working on a piece with no outside direction other than my own gut feelings, ideas and whims. I work entirely by hand and the end result is purchased (hopefully) by someone that I will never speak to, let alone meet or given away as a gift. The latter occurs less frequently because I have this silly thing about feeling self-centered when I give someone something I've made. I know. I need to get over that.

So where am I going with all this? Not sure. I guess I'm just thinking that finding the right balance with what we do and how we live is really important. I'm only mentioning the balance in my work life but it obviously applies to all else. I don't consciously check my 'life scales'. They just seem to gently rock back and forth on their own. Thank goodness.

Speaking of giving something away... I couldn't leave well enough alone and instead of giving our cards and 'thank you' drawings to our kids' teachers in a plain envelope I made the small folder type pockets below. They match the cards I made the other day. I know I called them gift tags in that post but we used them as note cards this time. You can't go wrong with versatility.

My little C decided that the little graphic in the corner of each card just wasn't enough (even though she did stake her claim really quickly on the school house and apple). She added hearts and a portrait of herself, standing next to each of her teachers, on the back of each card. Someone seems to be taking after her Mom. Nah! I'm not beaming that's just the glare of your monitor.

Good news for the day:
- My little C graduated from Pre K today. What is it with me and the mommy tears? I just couldn't help myself. She looked so cute in her cap and gown.
- My blog made it to a very unexpected place. Neat!

Don't forget there's still time to participate in my anniversary giveaway. Just leave a comment here! I'll let you know who wins at noon tomorrow.

make a diorama

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Today, I have another bit of news that I'd been holding back. I got my latest Craft - Vol. 7 magazine (on stands on May 6th) in the mail over the weekend and on page 103 you'll find a diorama project made by yours truly. I was approached by the Craft editor in January to work on this project and nearly 3 months later it's so nice to finally see it in print. Initially, the scene was more winter oriented so I did have to revise it a bit to make it look more 'springy'. This is the first time I write an article for a magazine so I was a little apprehensive about the whole thing but in the end I think it turned out ok.

Speaking of dioramas, I was about to throw away some shoe boxes this weekend when I thought about my own project. Now I think they'll be the materials we use for our first summer project with the kids. I can't believe the year is coming to an end so soon!

One more thing - If you haven't visited the Crafty Synergy blog in a while I posted a new interview on Friday. Check it out!