Urban Scarlet

Sorry for the lack of posts this week… But while I’ve been working tirelessly, intern Courtney rallied up a lovely guest interview for you all to enjoy: Tang from Oui, Petite — She is one of my newer blogger friends here on the the world wide web, but also one of the sweetest. Her blog is full of non-stop eye candy! She finds the prettiest flicks, takes a few awesome ones herself & lives in the one country I’m dying to visit… CANADA! Thank you Tang for taking the time to give us this sweet interview!

C: How did you get your blog name?
T: When I decided to start this blog I tried to think of something that related to me and something I wanted to talk about; Oui, Petite aka Yes, Petite because I’m a super petite girl standing at 4’11! I try and share some of my petite stories as well.

C: What is & what do you love best about your job?
T: I’m a graphic designer, currently working at a small studio that designs stationary and mainly wedding invites. My dream is to work at a fashion magazine though! The thing I’ve always loved best about being a designer is seeing the end product, holding it in your hands and finally admiring the physical product of your hard work! :)

C: What inspires you most?
T: I know this is a often the typical answer, but over the last 2/3 years it has really been other blogs and bloggers. When I found myself tiring of my last design job, the one thing that really put a spark back into design for me was the blogging world. It’s such a great community and bloggers find the most amazing things to show and share!

C: How would you describe your style?
T: My design style: I like to stick to simple and beautiful design (Sorry I know that sounds vague!). My fashion style? Lately, I’ve been gravitating towards the pretty and preppy look, but I tend to get sucked into a fad when I see it looking amazing on something or someone! Clothes are my kryptonite!

C: Current design trend you’re most into?
T: I love love love letterpressed anything ever since I took a letterpress workshop over a year ago + beautiful hand calligraphy.

C: Your dream travel destination & one thing you would bring back if you could?
T: There are so many amazing places that I want to travel to, but if I were to call one a “dream destination”, it would have to be Hawaii because that’s where I would love to go as a honeymoon destination! If I could lug
this past customs, I would bring back my own palm tree, since there aren’t any in Canada and I’ve always loved them!

C: Any design advice for our readers?
T: Just some general advice I’ve been trying to follow myself: It’s been really up and down for me over the last year and finding a job can be such a depressing task sometimes! So whenever I feel down and out I try to remind myself over and over to never get discouraged! And as cliché as it sounds, it’s so easy to take a blow and let it knock you down, but if you don’t get up you’ll never achieve what you want to! Also, find little things in life to smile about! :)

Thanks Urban Scarlet readers and of course Courtney & Justine for having me!

I have the biggest treat for you today! My new friend, Michaela over at Bliss! sent me over her awesome DIY post with all of the details on how to make a ruffled lamp — It’s so fun, cheery, and can be easily customizable with different colors! I absolutely adore it and can definitely see it in a child’s nursery… Great job, Michaela! — By the way, you HAVE to head on over to her blog. I don’t know how she does it, but she finds the best party idea inspirations you can ever dream of. Prepare yourself, it might just be your favorite new blog to follow ;)

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Hey Urban Scarlet readers! I’m Michaela of bliss! and I’m so happy to share this little diy project with you today. I made this ruffled lamp last weekend for my little daughter. She chose the colors herself, so it may seem more like a pinata than a lamp to you. But imagine it in muted, pastel tones or pure white and it would make a gorgeous piece for a bedroom. Or you could make smaller ones as party decor.

But let’s get started!

To make a large lamp like this, you need the following materials and tools:
5 Crepe paper sheets
transparent tape or masking tape (just check what sort of tape sticks to paper and lamp)
scissors
paper glue

Start by cutting the crepe paper into strips. The width should roughly be twice the of the size you’d like the ruffles to be in the end, if not a bit more.

Then start attaching the crepe paper strips to the lamp as shown below. Ruffle a small part of the strip up as much as you want and stick it onto the very bottom part of the lamp with a piece of tape (note that i confused the bottom part with the top of the lamp, so i had to dismantle the whole inner part later – don’t be as stupid, please). Attach the next bit, and so on. The more ruffly you want it to me, the more crepe paper you’ll need. And the shorter you want the ruffles; the more layers of ruffles you want, the longer this project will take you.

This took me about 15 minutes. Change the color whenever you feel the time is right. Or don’t – these things would look pretty in just one color, too.

To stick the tape really tightly onto the lamp, you may have to reach inside and press against it from the inside from time to time. Keep going. At this point you might ask yourself why you didn’t make the ruffles longer and perhaps a bit less ruffly ;)

But it’ll be worth it when you get to this stage. Attach the last bits of tape inside the lamp frame, so you get the ruffles all the way to the top of the lamp. For the very last row, use paper glue to attach the crepe instead of tape.

Now you’re almost done. Hooray! At some parts of the upper half of the lamp, some tape may show from underneath the ruffles – just use little dots of paper glue on those bits and stick the paper above onto it to hide the tape.

And that’s it! Install the lamp shade like you’d do with any other on your ceiling. If you’re concerned about the heat of the bulb and its effects on the crepe paper, especially when making a smaller lamp shade, check if you can find flame retardant crepe. Or use an energy saving bulb that doesn’t heat up as much as regular ones.

You could also make smaller versions of these and use them with twinkle lights instead of normal lamps/bulbs.

Thanks for reading and I hope you got a little bit inspired to get crafty yourselves now!

I’ll be seeing you soon for a neat little project Justine and I have planned for all of you. Can’t wait!