What is the Block I’ve hit?

A “Block” is when you’ve become unable to access your once flowing stream of inspiration, whether for writing, drawing, music, or other things. This would happen to me in school a lot, for pieces of art and even essays for other topics. When writing a history paper I would never know where or how to start it, but once you figure that out it all just starts to flow and come together into a great piece. There can be many causes for a mental block. From just a depletion of creative energy, perhaps after an intense project, to personal or emotional issues that arise in your life. Just remember that it is temporary, and thought it feels like an eternity, your blank mind will be filled with ideas soon, perhaps with just a little inspiration.

How To Get Inspired

Everyone is inspired in different ways, by different things. You’ll have to experiment to see what works best for you, or maybe branch out and try something new get inspired. Here are some different ways of finding inspiration:

• Go Out – Staring at whatever it is your trying to create is not going to inspire you, probably just cause frustration from your blank mind. Go outside and walk around, you can see, hear and smell many different things. These experiences engage the senses, gets you thinking, and inspires your mind.
• Do Something Unrelated – Again, staring at it is doing you no good. Leave your workroom/studio/computer and do something else. Go into your kitchen and bake something, plant some herbs or flowers, read a book or go to the book store and browse. If all you do is think and focus on writing or painting, your going to burn out and start drawing a blank.
• Explore Online – You can find anything and everything on the Internet. You can just browse pictures and articles as you find them, or start researching a topic that interests you, or research something related to a piece. Once in college I had to create an original logo for a tea company. Well, I had no idea where to start, and with so many different tea companies out there an original design was proving difficult. So, I started researching tea. What is tea, how is tea made, everything and anything about tea, and it inspired a great design.
• Listen to Music – Listen to your favorite CD, artists, or play list. Relax your mind and just listen to the music, don’t even think about that project waiting for you. Inspiration could come from a melody, a lyric or even just the beat of a song.
• Jot Down Random Things – Just start writing or doodling whatever. Random phrases come to mind, write them down. Go back and look at them, is there anything you can build on? Have an itch to draw but feel uninspired, just start doodling, start creating lines and shapes and see where it goes. You could very well just be over thinking the project your working on, causing a block. Do something simple and basic and see if you can get those creative juices to start flowing again.

I hope that these how to get inspired tips help you with finding inspiration for your projects. Heck, I even used some of these tips myself to inspire this blog post. I’d love to know what you do to get inspired or work through a block.

Here are some other pages on finding inspiration and creative blocks:

9 tips to be more creative – @pikaland writes about inspiring creativity.

How to Overcome Artist Creative Block and Get Inspired – A post on the @artpromotivate website with tips to help get inspired.

10 Tips to Avoid a Creative Block – A post on the @inspiredmag website with some tips to inspire you and avoid hitting a creative block

Top artists reveal how to find creative inspiration – Artists from a variety of different careers discuss how they get inspired.

How to Get Creatively Inspired – a post by Jacob Gube on the @designinstruct website that gives some more tips for finding inspiration.

Where to find creative inspiration? – A post with some interesting and creative tips to help get your creative juices flowing, from @inkbotdesign

Creating a Design

When designing t shirts, first you need to create and decide on a design. The design could be a logo, or maybe a team name. Many custom t shirt websites will have some per-loaded images or fonts for you to use, but if you want to create an original t shirt design here are some tips and techniques to make the most out of your design.

• Keep it simple – you want to get the point across without the design being overwhelming to the viewer. Stay focused on the purpose of the shirt and remember that less is more.
• Avoid Color Overload – Try not to use to many different colors. Using to many colors could be distracting, or once again overwhelming. Try to stick to only using 2-4 colors, you could even use multiple shades of the same color to get get some contrast and variation in your design.
• Simple Fonts – Just like with images, you want to keep your letters simple and easy to read. You can have a custom and creative font but if no one can read it then it fails in its purpose.
• Limit Text – A little bit of text is great, maybe a quote, a team or company name, or perhaps a slogan. But if you write a lot of text on a t shirt then people glancing at it won’t be able to get the full affect of the t shirt. Your shirt needs to get the point across in a single glance.

Design Ideas

Are you stumped on a design for your custom t shirt? Here are some strategies for coming up with that perfect design idea. First think of the purpose of the t shirt. When you think of it what are the first things that come to mind. For example, for a family reunion you may think of a family tree, which could lead to an interesting tree based design. Your next step in coming up with t shirt design ideas would be research. What are other, similar groups or events doing for their t shirts? Maybe look into the history or read articles on topics similar to the purpose of your design, see if it sparks some design ideas. Instead of boring, plain stars on your astronomy club’s t shirt, have a super nova or a black hole. Be creative and think outside of the box.

Custom T Shirt Design Tips

Now that you have a design it’s time to create a custom t shirt. First you have to decide what kind of shirt you would like to have. There are polos, v necks, crew necks, and many more. After you’ve chosen the best style of shirt for your t shirt design, you now must choose what color the shirt will be. Try to find a color that looks good with the design that you created. Try to avoid shirts that are similar to the colors in your design. For example if your design has primarily dark red in it, then you may want to avoid shirts where the design will be surrounded by dark red because the design will blend in with the shirt. You want your design to stand out so people take notice of it. You’ll also need to choose where your design will go on the shirt. Will it be in an upper or lower corner of the shirt, or maybe on the sleeve, on the stomach?

Custom t shirts can be useful for many different things in many different ways. A custom t shirt design will set you all apart, make you more unified and easy to recognize, for maybe your softball team, business or family trip. I’d love to hear your t shirt design ideas or see custom t shirts you’ve made!

For more tips or to spark a design idea, check out these articles and blog posts:

12 Best T-Shirt Design Tutorials and Tips - Editor at @SloDive has compiled the great list of Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials

5 Secrets For Perfect T Shirt Text – Author John P Harrishas some great tips and information regarding text desgin.

How to design custom T-shirt- Michael Garmahis @garmahis has created a useful list of tips for creating a custom design t shirt

10 pro-tips for T-shirt design -@CreativeBloQ has a list of great tips and visuals to help create your perfect design

Have fun designing!

So I recently learned that there are a lot of people out there who don’t know how to properly care for their clothes. This is going to be the first in a series of posts that will discuss proper laundry care. This blog post will discuss ironing and how to iron clothes, a task that can seem a bit scary for those who have never ironed before. You are wielding a hot piece of metal that could potentially burn you or your clothes, so it’s understandable if ironing clothes makes you nervous. After watching the scene in the movie ‘Pleansantville‘ where one of the men shows an iron shaped scorch mark on the back of his shirt, it made me nervous about scorching my clothes as well.

What You Need

If you have clothes that need to ironed, there are a small number of items that you need. The first thing is you need a clean iron. Make sure that it’s free of rust or anything burnt that could be sticking to it, like starch if it’s used while ironing. If the iron is not clean it could ruin your clothes. You’ll also want to invest in an ironing board. You don’t want to use furniture because it could be dirty, the iron could possibly ruin it, or worse potentially start a fire. Ironing boards are designed with a material that is flame retardant and that’s breathable so steam is able to escape while ironing. You can buy stand up ironing boards, or ones that you can lay flat on a table or the floor. If your iron doesn’t come with a steamer then you will want to buy a small, cheap spray bottle and fill it with some water. The last thing you may need is some starch, but that only if you like to use it. It’s not a necessary item for ironing, I don’t ever use it.

Get to Know Your Iron

Before you ever try to use your iron, the first thing you should do is read the instructions and get to know your iron. Every iron is different, from the settings, to how it works, so read the instructions! Check and see if your iron comes with a steamer, and how to get the steamer to work. Learn how to change the intensity of the heat, and what setting they recommend for a certain type of fabric. My iron has settings 1-10, my friend’s iron has 1-7. Mine you have to manually turn a huge knob on the body of the iron to the proper heat setting, on her iron it’s a small dial on the handle. Every iron is different!

Using the Iron

Here are some general how to iron tips and techniques, Before you turn on your iron, figure out what type of fabric you will be working with, is it cotton, maybe polyester? Different fabrics have different suggested settings that will work best for that fabric. Once your iron is plugged in, if it needs to be plugged in, and you’ve put it on the proper setting, you now need to wait for the iron to heat up. While the iron is heating up or not in use, balance it on it’s flat, back end. NEVER lay the iron down flat on the metal side while it’s turned on. That is how things get burned, or how a fire gets started. Also make sure there is nothing hanging close to the hot metal, it could melt and/or catch fire.

When it’s time to start ironing, first spray a little bit of water, just a spritz or two, on the clothes you will be ironing. This water will steam, which is good! When you start ironing, keep the iron moving at all times. Don’t lay it down on the garment and let it sit there because it will burn, or scorch, your clothes. Just slowly lay the sides of the garment flat and move the iron across in small strokes and flatten out any wrinkles. The heat, steam and movement of the iron will flatten out wrinkles and put everything in it’s place.

Certain items have certain ways they need to be ironed, or pressed. There are clothes with creases that need to be kept, or items that need to be ironed in a certain direction, like top to bottom. Here are some resources to help you learn how to iron your clothes, so that they look clean and wrinkle free.

• How to Properly Iron Shirts, Pants, and Skirts
• How to Iron a Shirt like a Pro
• How to Properly Iron a Dress Shirt

Good luck in your future ironing endeavors, and remember, if used properly you have nothing to fear of your iron or ironing clothes. Until next time!

What Is Tie Dye?

Tie dye is a process of tying a piece of fabric and dying it, typically with bright colors. Hence the name tie dye. The tie dye we all know today is the modern use of the traditional dying methods used in many cultures over the course of many centuries. The t shirt tie-dye that we know today came about in the late 1960s.

What Can I Tie Dye?

I think an easier question is what can’t I tie dye. If it’s a fabric or cloth you can most likely tie dye it. The most popular tie dye item would be tie dye t shirts. Other common items are pants, socks, towels, sheets, scarves, dresses, and much more! I personally am fond of the tie dye sheets I made for my college dormitory my junior year. Everyone was jealous of my awesome tie dye sheets. If you have a flat laying top sheet you could even hang it on the wall as a really cool tie dye mural or decoration.

Tie Dye Techniques

There are many tie dye techniques and kits available for tie dying today. Whichever kit or instructions you’re following, make sure you follow them exactly. Trying to re-create the results of one method with the supplies or techniques of another could ruin the whole process and the t shirt tie dye may not work.

Generally, the first thing you have to do is, using ties or rubber bands, fold the garment. There are many different techniques for folding fabric. There are knots, spirals, rolling, bunching and many many more. Depending on the method you’re following, after folding you may need to have the garment soak in water or some sort of solution. There are kits though that are able to dye a dry garment.

Now you color! The more traditional methods use dye baths to color the apparel. You immerse the clothing item in the lightest color, rinse and then repeat with a darker color, rinse and repeat with an even darker color, etc…. More modern methods and kits will have you put the dye in a small squirt bottle and have you squirt the color dyes onto, and into, the fabric. After dying some techniques will have you rinse the garment to get rid of excess dye, though others will not require this.

To get the dye to stay permanent and vibrant, you must wash it correctly. Follow the instructions that go with the tie dye technique you’ve chosen. Do NOT wash with any other garments, excess dye will be coming off the shirt and will dye any other garments in the wash with the tie dyed items.

I hope that this post helps you with your tie dying needs! Tie dye can be a great activity for families or groups, and both kids and adults will enjoy creating an original tie dye t shirt to wear and show off. I’d love to hear about any of your tie dye adventures, or maybe a new technique that I haven’t heard of.

For some more information on tie dye and tie dye techniques check out these pages:

Tie Dye Instructions

History of Tie-Dye

Tie-Dye Wiki

Folding Techniques

Tie Dye Your Summer

Tie Dying Techniques

Urban Outfitters Tie Dye Techniques

Tops

In the 70s, men wore solid colored shirts, as well as shirt with loud prints, that usually had long and pointed collars. The printed shirts were very often paired with leisure suits. These leisure suits came in a large variety of colors, some of these colors should never been seen again. In women’s fashion, halter tops and tube tops became popular, as well as some continued use of the loose fitting peasant tops that became popular during the 1960s.

Bottoms

Bell bottoms is a vintage style that continued from the 60s that were still popular throughout the 70s for both men and women. But for the women, there were now hip hugger jeans. These jeans sat a couple of inches below the normal pant waistline and were very often extremely tight. Women were know to decorate the denim pants with studs, or rhinestones, and some even bleached the pants to change the color or create patterns. Hot pants also came into style. These were very short and very tight shorts that left very little to the imagination, kind of like the shorts girls where today only with a higher waistline. Women also now had three skirt lengths to choose from, mini, midi and maxi. In regards to men, the only trend I could find was their pants got tighter, so not much going on there.

A girl in Kensington wearing a mini skirt from Wikipedia

Shoes

Platform shoes, which had two to four inch soles became popular for both men and women in 70s fashion, particularly for those who dressed in the Glam Rock style. While being extremely popular, they were responsible for many injuries since they were instable and not really practical for dancing at the disco. Other shoe trends were Cork Ease shoes, flip flops, clogs and disco shoes that would match your glittering, tight-fitting disco outfit.

Hair and Makeup

For most of the 70s women wore their hair long, much like in the 60s though other popular hairstyles emerged, and rather quickly. Some of these hairstyles include the afro, feathered hair, and shaggy hair. Men’s hair was typically worn long, and was often styled in layers. Tousled hair and sideburns also became popular in the earlier half of the decade. For make-up, unlike many past and future trends, women went for a more natural look. Their goal was to look like they weren’t wearing any make-up.

Styles and trends are constantly coming and going. There are trends that last a year, styles that define a group of people and then there are the trends that define a decade. Like many of the decades in the 20^th century, the 1970s had distinct styles and trends that defined it. Some of these have resurfaced as vintage apparel from time to time, others my mother tries to forget but I’m not letting her off the hook that easily.

Here are some other resources to look at if you want to learn more about styles and trends of the 1970s:

1970s in fashion – Wiki page on the styles and trends of the 1970s

Fashion Blog Life – 70s Fashion – The 70s Fashion page of the Fashion Blog Life website is informative of many of the trends from the period.

Top 10 fashion trends of the 70s Christina Pinto, writer for @topyaps, has created a list of fashionable 70s trends that have also re-emerged today.

Classic70s – 70s Fashion This page on the Classic70s website has a great overview of the fashion of the time period

Retrowow -70s Fashion – Author of @retrowow has made a very informative page about fashions of the 1970s

The Life I Live

I currently am a resident in the New York City Area, where I have lived for a few years and, so far, never plan to leave. I love the city and all that it has to offer. One of my favorite things to do is visit various art galleries in the city, and there are a lot of them. I also enjoy going into the city with friends and sitting at home reading a book with the only other resident of my small apartment, my cat Albus. Can you guess who he is named after? Haha. Also being a lover of art I have to mention that my favorite art period is the Renaissance, which I know if very stereotypical, but there were so many great artists and art pieces during that time. I actually can’t pick favorites!

My History

After receiving a degree in Art and Design I had started working for a small graphic and printing store. I helped people create logos and designs and even learned about printing the designs on many different things from invitations to t shirts. Now I’m a writer and blogger for blankstyle.com, which is a big change for me but I’m excited to be able to continue to learn new things, as well as share all of the new experiences I’m having and new information that I’m learning.

The Blog

Now that I’m apart of the blogging world, I look forward to being able to hear from you, the readers. Please let me know about your interests, your tastes in apparel and design. I’m still learning about the blog but soon I hope to learn how to add photos and videos, so watch for that. Feel free to drop a comment, whether to give feedback or just say hi!

Now let’s get blogging!!

The print is gold metallic plastisol on the American Apparel 4314 Flat Bottom Panty.

“(to the melody and rhythm of Snoop Dog & Dr. Dre’s “Aint Nuthin But A G Thang”) — One, two, three and to the four, fresh Blankstyle order’s knocking on yo door! Ready to make a purchase, so pack on up, cuz you know we’re ’bout to screen it up! Send me da garments quick, so I can bust like a bubble. Glendale and Costa Mesa, now you know you in trouble! ‘Aint nothing but a hoodie thang, baaaaaby… two loced out Brothers, so we craaaaazay! LOVE ME SOME BLANKSTYLE!!! You guys kick it Thanks – Mike @ HPLHS, INC.”

Here at Blankstyle.com, we don’t just have customers; we build business partners. We ensure that your business excels, and we put our two cents forth as well. We congratulate Brian and Eleventh Hour on their continued success and hope to continue working with them for their future endeavors!

Here is a picture of our sales associate Loi wearing one of their famed shirts!

Garments Printed on:

Alternative Apparel AA1927
Bella 7501
Tultex 0202
American Apparel 7301

Print Type:

Soft Feel Plastisol