DIY Desk Ombre Calendar

DIY Desk Ombre Calendar:

I’m in love with this project—not only is it ridiculously easy, it also combines two of my favorite things:watercolors and ombré. C’mon, who doesn’t want a pretty little desk calendar in their office?

And don’t worry—you don’t need to be an artist to pull off this project. If you can hold a paintbrush, you can paint ombré! You may need to practice a little beforehand (I definitely wasted about 5 gift tags before I figured it out), but once you get the hang of it it’s quite simple.

First, measure the interior of your box (mine was 5 5/8” x 3 5/8”–you won’t need the lid).  Then, measure and draw a corresponding rectangle on the back of the patterned paper and cut it out.

With the sponge brush, add a layer of modge podge to the bottom of the box and the back of the paper. Place the paper on the bottom of the box, and smooth out any wrinkles/bubbles (a credit card works great for this!).  Let dry for 15 minutes.

In the meantime get out the watercolors, a small dish of water, and the gift tags.  I chose to work with pinks, blues, and greens, but you can do any combination of colors you choose–or even a single hue.

Dip the paintbrush into the water and wet the first color, ensuring you have a decent amount of pigment on the brush. Make a large stripe across the bottom of the first tag (remember: do a few practice ones first). Rinse the brush, wipe lightly, and paint another stripe above and adjacent to the first using only water.  Repeat these steps until you reach halfway up the card.  The color should be darkest at the bottom and gradually lighten until it matches the white of the tag.

Repeat this process on 13 of the tags. Let dry, and repeat on the other sides. Don’t worry if the paper starts to curl — painting both sides will flatten it out, and you can always bend it slightly afterwards.

While the tags dry, add another thin layer of modge podge to the bottom of the box and let dry for another 15 minutes, taking care to make it smooth.

Divide the tags into three piles of 6, 2, and 5 respectively. The first pile will be the months, the second pile will be the day’s first digit, and the third pile will be the day’s second digit.  Follow the directions of the rub-on letters and apply the following to the tags (front/back): jan/feb, mar/apr, may/jun, jul/aug, sep/oct, nov/dec, 0/1, 2/3, 0/1, 2/3, 4/5, 6/7, 8/9.

Next place three tags into your box, evenly spaced. Use them as a guide to make three marks on what will be the “ceiling” of the box, ½” from the front edge.

Screw the three C-hooks into the ceiling of the box.  Or ask your hubby to do it.  These babies take some muscle!

Place the tags onto the hooks! If you find they aren’t easy to hang, you can trim the tops or bottoms until they fit perfectly.

There you have it! Now stop checking your iPhone to see what day it is.

Patience & Discipline: This Piece Took Us 300 Hours To Complete

Patience & Discipline: This Piece Took Us 300 Hours To Complete

This project is a collaboration between Rémy Boiré and I, Xavier Casalta. After meeting through our passion for typography, we decided to experiment with a collaboration where we could learn from one another.

I am a 22-year-old artist. I have been practicing pointillism for over a year now and discovered this technique by chance while I was learning typography and wanted to experiment with something else other than solid black letters. This time-consuming technique (4-8 dots per second) is interesting because you need to look closely at the illustration to realize that it’s made of thousands of dots.

Rémy is a 23-year-old freelance hand-letterer and graphic designer who also works on illustrations to explore new horizons when he’s not working for clients. He always keeps typography as a starting point. Through this collaboration, we wanted to express the importance of careful planning and craftsmanship. But ultimately, we wanted to show that anything was possible with hard work, time, and commitment; hence, Patience and Discipline. To create this illustration we met several times over the course of several months and worked for over 300 hours. Once the sketch was done on the 22×30 inch sheet (56×76 cm), I started the dotwork while Rémy worked on the linework.

Prints are available here.

More info: Behance | Instagram/xavier | Instagram/remy

How to Build Self-Discipline

How to Build Self-Discipline

Discipline is freedom. You may disagree with this statement, and if you do you are certainly not alone. For many people discipline is a dirty word that is equated with the absence of freedom. In fact the opposite is true. As Stephen R. Covey once wrote, “the undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions”. And in the longer term, the undisciplined lack the freedom that comes with possessing particular skills and abilities – e.g. to play a musical instrument or speak a foreign language.

Self-discipline involves acting according to what you think instead of how you feel in the moment. Often it involves sacrificing the pleasure and thrill of the moment for what matters most in life. Therefore it is self-discipline that drives you to:

• Work on an idea or project after the initial rush of enthusiasm has faded away
• Go to the gym when all you want to do is lie on the couch and watch TV
• Wake early to work on yourself
• Say “no” when tempted to break your diet
• Only check your email a few of times per day at particular times

In the past self-discipline has been a weakness of mine, and as a result today I find myself lacking the ability to do a number of things which I would like – e.g. to play the guitar. But I have improved, and I can say that it is self-discipline that got me out of bed this morning at 5am to run and then write this article. Believe me, I would love to be curled up in bed right now, but this desire is subordinated by my inner sense of purpose.

If you struggle with self-discipline, the good news is that it can be developed. For example, it is only in the past two years that I have trained myself to wake early. The following are what I have found to be the five traits of self-discipline:

1. Self-Knowledge

Discipline means behaving according to what you have decided is best, regardless of how you feel in the moment. Therefore the first trait of discipline is self-knowledge. You need to decide what behavior best reflects your goals and values. This process requires introspection and self-analysis, and is most effective when tied to written expression. I highly recommend taking the time to write out your goals, dreams and ambitions. Even better, write out a personal mission statement. I found that writing such a statement gave me a greater understanding of who I am, what I am about and what I value.

2. Conscious Awareness

Self-discipline depends upon conscious awareness as to both what you are doing and what you are not doing. Think about it. If you aren’t aware your behavior is undisciplined, how will you know to act otherwise?

As you begin to build self-discipline, you may catch yourself being in the act of being undisciplined – e.g. biting your nails, avoiding the gym, eating a piece of cake or checking your email constantly. Developing self-discipline takes time, and the key here is you are aware of your undisciplined behavior. With time this awareness will come earlier, meaning rather than catching yourself in the act of being undisciplined you will have awareness before you act in this way. This gives you the opportunity to make a decision that is in better alignment with your goals and values.

3. Commitment to Self-Discipline

It is not enough to simply write out your goals and values. You must make an internal commitment to them. Otherwise when your alarm clock goes off at 5am you will see no harm in hitting the snooze button for “just another 5 minutes….” Or, when initial rush of enthusiasm has faded away from a project you will struggle to see it through to completion.

If you struggle with commitment, start by making a conscious decision to follow through on what you say you’re going to do – both when you said you would do it and how you said you would do it. Then, I highly recommend putting in place a system to track these commitments. As the saying goes, “What gets measured gets improved”.

4. Courage

Did you notice the sweat dripping from the man in the picture at the start of this article? Make no mistake, self-discipline is often extremely difficult. Moods, appetites and passions can be powerful forces to go against. Therefore self-discipline is highly dependent on courage. Don’t pretend something is easy for you to do when it is in fact very difficult and/ or painful. Instead, find the courage to face this pain and difficulty. As you begin to accumulate small private victories, your self-confidence will grow and the courage that underpins self-discipline will come more naturally.

5. Internal Coaching

Self-talk is often harmful, but it can also be extremely beneficial if you have control of it. When you find yourself being tested, I suggest you talk to yourself, encourage yourself and reassure yourself. After all, it is self-talk that has the ability to remind you of your goals, call up courage, reinforce your commitment and keep you conscious of the task at hand. When I find my discipline being tested, I always recall the following quote: “The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret”. Burn this quote into your memory, and recall in whenever you find yourself being tested. It may change your life.

Artist makes art out of Bananas

Artist makes art out of Bananas :

It doesn’t look like anyone ever told Stephan Brusche not to play with his food, but that’s just fine by us. This imaginative artist, based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, regularly turns bananas into creative and light-hearted works of art.

Brusche is not one to turn away other fruits as well, but he seems to favor the banana. We like it too, because it shows how much an artist can do even within a narrow and seemingly limiting field like banana art.

Incredible 4K Footage Of People Being Amazing In Slow Motion

We all love watching gymnasts, skateboarders, dancers and Parkour daredevils but to truly appreciate their skill and athleticism, you need to watch it in slow motion.

In reality, their gravity-defying movements are often a blur, dazzlingly fast and executed in the blink of an eye. ut when played out over a number of seconds you gain an entirely new perspective of the artform. The way the body adjusts through to the subtle shifts in balance.

Videographer Jacob Schwarz has captured all that and more using his impressive Phantom Flex camera (it shots at 1,000 frames per second) which he's used to create this incredible clip in glorious 4K resolution.