Linocuts!

I’m always working on new projects! This week’s project is linoleum block prints! I love print making! Obviously screen printing is one kind of printing that I absolutely love! But I adore all kinds of print making! Especially block printing! For those of you who haven’t ever heard of linocuts before read THIS! It’s a really cool way of printing. It’s super easy too! You can find all the stuff you need at the craft store and you don’t need to buy expensive equipment. I personally love doing little ones. There almost like little stamps. They don’t take very long so you can do these really quick. You can use them for all kinds of things like, cards, stickers, fancy labels or adding embellishments on to anything. Any ways the point to my rambling is…go and make some prints!

Here are some stickers I made! I like using lables and things like that to print on, that way the are already sticky. You can get circle ones or just get big shipping labels and cut them to the shape you want.

Rolling out your ink can be kinda messy. (but fun) So if you have a small linocut you can use a stamp pad. You can even mount your little linocuts onto a piece of wood, like an actual stamp. But that takes time and I'm lazy, so I just get my fingers messy.

Just a little side note: Letters and numbers need to be carved backwards. So when you do your print it reads correctly. (Trust me you will only make that mistake once.)

Speedy carve blocks are also amazing. It will save your fingers from blisters and make it easier. Although it won't last as long. If your at the store and have to chose between Speedball and Moo Carve, get the Moo Carve. It lasts way longer then Speedball. (Don't get me wrong I love speedball as much as the next guy.)

Don't forget to look at our ETSY for new things comming and going. Also cure your bordem and click HERE and make your ears love you.   

 -Remi

Music Monday: Michael Trent.

Its that time of week again!! MUUSSSIC MONDAAAAY!! Okay, so I know Monday is almost over, and Im kinda lame like that, but its cool, hopefully the music featured on todays Music Monday blog will make up for the lack of Monday in Music Monday. So im gonna cut to the chase, today we are talking Michael Trent. Why yes my heart did just go all fluttery.

So who is this Michael Trent I speak of you ask?? Well only one of the coolest guys ever! He is the lead singer to one of my favorite bands, The Films. Who has gone on and done some solo stuff, and some stuff with other people, so lets take a stroll down memory lane together and vist Michael Trent in the past to current years. Hopefully the playlist below works and you can read a little about each song as we stroll along.



Create a MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

1. The Films, Black Shoes.
First Stop. 5 years ago. The Films release first single. Black Shoes. By the way, im pretty sure this was the first video to make it onto my myspace page. 4 years ago.

2. The Films, Belt Loops.
Next stop. End of 2006. The Films release their first full length album. Also, Remi and Zoei discover The Films and spend the next 3 years dancing their hearts out to "Belt Loops" Enjoy, hold onto your heart, before you dance it away.

3. Michael Trent, Situations.
Where are we going next?!? Michael Trents SOLO project oddly named: Michael Trent. How do people come up with this stuff??

4. Shovels and Rope, Boxcar
Next he hooks up with Cary Ann Hurst and becomes 50% of Shovels and Rope. Not sure which 50%, but after hearing them, I dont really care as long as they keep making music together!

5. Michael Trent, The Winner
Alright, after a long amazing journey we finally reach 2011. Michael Trent releases another solo album, The Winner.

Well I hope this was as fun as journey for you as it was for me. Michael Trent is one of my favorite artists, I love it all from the Films to Shovels and Rope to his solo stuff, I hope there was at least one song you were able to get up to and stomp your foot to! Enjoy your week, look forward to next week for Music Monday!!

-Zoei

Farmers Market

The Brightside girlies have been very busy this last week. Doing what you might ask? The FARMERS MARKET of course! We survived our first weekend at the farmers market and I must say it was a success! A lot of work! (More then I was expecting) We had tons of fun and got to meet some pretty neat people. I also learned a lot. Things like make sure you bring sunscreen, even if it’s cold in the morning. You will start off the day feeling pretty good, maybe a little warm. By noon you’re full on sweaty and then by the end of the day you are sun burnt. Lesson learned.  Regardless of the hot weather we sold a bunch of stuff, met an old man that was a way better sales man than any of us. It was fun, which is good because we signed up for the next couple months to have a booth. So, if you live in Utah County and are bored on Saturday between 9:00 and 2:00, come say HEY and check out the Provo Farmer’s Market.

As always check out our Etsy store for new products. Leave us some comments!! We always love any feedback we can get.

--Remi

Music Monday Goes Reggae

Its MUSIC MONDAY!!! For those of you who did not read my last post, I have taken it upon myself to make Mondays great.. well at least better than your average back to work again monday. How do I plan on doing that you ask, well  by giving you some new (hopefully to you) music to dance to all day long.

This Monday we are going Reggae! It is my personal favorite, and hopefully I can give you non reggae listeners some music to change you into Reggae lovers (and by reggae i mean stuff other than Bob Marley) So last week a couple of us Brightside girlies went to a super great Reggae concert, it was Rebelution (Zoeis number one favorite band) opening for Slightly Stoopid (One of Zoeis favorites, but not in the top 5). They put on a great show and it inspired me to blog about reggae. So Rebelution is my favorite band, but today im focusing on my 2nd favorite band, Tribal Seeds.

So what happens when your number one and number two favorite bands do a collab project together, well pure awesomeness is what happens. I like to think it is very rare, and that I am one of the rare luckys that this very thing has happened to. Tribal Seeds (which we established is my 2nd fav band) and Rebelution (my most favoritest band) actually did a song together, and it was like I said pure awesomeness. There isnt really a whole lot more I can say about it, I think music is one of those things you have to listen to and decipher for yourself whether you think its awesome or junk. So im going to wrap it up now (or rap it up, music pun haha) and leave you with a link (image below) so you can get a taste of this amazing reggae song I adore so much. So click on the link, listen to the song "Soundwaves" if you like it, comment and let me know, then listen to the rest of the stuff they have playing on their site, and also check out Rebelution. Both great bands (obviously, I wouldnt make bad bands my top 2!) Hope you enjoy! Dont forget, click the pic below!!

Click me for awesome music! **Remeber Soundwaves is the collab song, but also "Ill Return Again" is one of my favs!

Oh yeah and BTW, don't you think they should have asked me to design their EP album art, I think I could have done a better/cooler job!!

Its Wednesday!

Its Wednesday...well the end of it at least! Just thought I would share a project that I've been working on. I'm always working on new projects and love crafty things. Although I hardly ever finish any of the projects that I start. Any ways, I've been working on making some STICKERS! I am truly in love with my sticker maker, if you don't have one you should get one. I also love vinyl records. So...I made some record stickers! They are really easy to make and look pretty amazing. (not to brag or anything)

 FIRST: Cut out some black circles. ( I used a circle cutter, not necessary but makes it way easier)

SECOND: Add a little white circle in the center like the label for the record. (I used mailing labels and cut them up, just so that they were already sticky and I didn't have fool around with the glue.)

THIRD: Poke a little hole in the center. (I used a itty bitty hole puncher, but you could use a needle or even just use a marker and make a little pretend hole.)

FOURTH: Make it look pretty! I wrote a mini track listing and band name on the white label to make it look fancy. Then took a white pencil and made little lines like the texture on a record.

FIFTH: Put it in the STICKER MAKER!

TA-DA! Nifty new stickers! I personally love the way they turned out. I'm going to post a mini-pack of these on our Etsy, well...when I stop being lazy and get around to it. ALSO...we love comments! But no one ever leaves comments. :( So.....Leave us a comment and get a FREE STICKER! No guarantees that it will be a record sticker, but probably something I've shoved through my sticker maker. But lovely none the less. So leave us a comment and include your e-mail address and I'll send you some itty bitty love in sticker form.

---Remi

Music Monday: Desert Noises Kickstarter

Hey-ooo!! Zoei here and I am super excited to introduce you to my new friend, his name is Music Monday (name is still in progress. I think.) I am going to make Monday worth waking up for now by blogging about something music related (yeah!!) Im super stoked, I find a ton of great music every day, and now this will help me share all of that awesome with you! So here it goes for Music Monday (again, not sure about name) blog numero uno!!

Otay so I absolutely love being from Provo, why you ask, well there are so many reasons, but by far my number one reason would have to be all the awesome local music we have. A lot of people dont realize just how many great bands come from Provo, I would love to name a few but for today I am writing about only one. I have loved this band for a while now, so this blog is for Desert Noises.

Desert Noises = Zoeis fav band. Kickstarter = Zoeis favorite website. So Desert Noises+Kickstarter = Zoei just danced her pants right off. If you read our blog often then i am sure you are sick of me blogging about kickstarter.com. I am obsessed. (Remi keeps telling me it could be worse so not to worry) But its just so great, and it feels good to donate to bands that need extra moneys! For those who have no idea what a kickstarter is please refer to my past blog which i believe is conviently calledKick Starter.Com And then come back and continue --->HERE<----- (saved your spot for you! You're welcome.) Now that you know what kickstarter is I would absolutly love you if you went and checked out Desert Noises kickstarter here---->tDesert Noises Kickstarter page. They are a great band, and are definitely deserving of your hard earned cash, and they are offering super great incentives, so you dont just donate and get nothing, you get great music and you get to help a great band! So I realize that I always ramble on and on so im going to keep it short. Help Desert Noises get funded. Know that I love you even more than I did before. Get great music/nifty gifties. Get to know a new great band you didn't know of before. Help spread the Desert Noises word around to people who like awesome things.


Desert Noises+kickstarter+our help = More great music for our lovely ears!

Enjoy.

Here comes the sun, and I say it’s alright.

I probably blog about other people’s blogs way too much. But I just love them sooo much! There’s so many insanely creative people out there it boggles my mind some times.  But here are some blogs that are just way too cool not to mention. 

From the Top of Willamette Mountain.  The blog of one of my favorite singer songwriters, Joshua James. I love this blog because it’s not just about his music and performing. It’s about life, good food and good company. He is an amazing writer. Reading his blog is like reading a really funny and intelligent chapter from a really good book. Just ask Zoei, I bug her all the time to read it and now I’m going to bug you to read it too.  

Here comes the sun. One of my new favorites added to the long list of things I read regularly. My favorite part about this blog is the pictures. Honestly I only read it half the time, mostly I just look at the neat pictures. The girl is just adorable and her hats are amazing!

                                     

Also...I learned how to make pictures go to different links, that’s why it seems like I have random pictures on this post. Sooo..if you're extra bored, clickety click on the pictures.