Thursday, March 26, 2015

A Peek Inside Gus & Ruby Windows

At Gus & Ruby we adore all things beautiful. We love to focus on the tactile nature of the details, whether it's the impression an inked plate makes into 100% cotton paper, or it's a handmade bag where you can see the stitches that hold the fabric together. We fill the windows with our favorite products and custom work and we see the window displays as another creative venue, to make a beautiful space.

Lucky for me, it's my job to execute the projects we daydream about installing in the windows. I wanted to start sharing this process in a new blog post that I'll write after each new window has debuted. It's so fun to connect with others who enjoy relishing in color palettes, textures, light, and beauty the way that I do. I can't wait to hear from you about your own projects, tip, tricks, and things that you would love to see from us at Gus & Ruby!

One of my favorite things about dreaming up new projects for the windows is re-inventing things we use everyday, this time I used waxed paper and crayons. Below I'll describe how to do it yourself!

You will need:
  • Crayons
  • Wax paper
  • Kraft paper
  • Iron
  • Scissors or a circle punch
  • Needle and thread
  • You will need a lot of crayons. I used 3 boxes of 100 crayons to fill our windows (keep in mind that you may only use part of the box of crayons). 
  • Pick out your color palette and take out all of those crayons. I chose greens and blues, but whatever palette you choose will end up looking lovely. Roughly separate all of your colors so that when you begin melting you don't get a pool of brown.  
  • You will need to peel the paper off of the crayons and then break them down. There are a few ways to go about this. You could go for the tried and true pencil sharpener method, the chop on the cutting board tactic, or the easy way: the blender! Use your best judgement, not all blenders are created equal and I don't want you risking your morning smoothie routine. 
  • I did use my blender (it worked like a dream) and pulsed the crayons for about 15 seconds and got a great powdery result.  I dumped all of my powdered crayons into the compartments of an egg carton for easy access later, but several bowls would do the trick!

Here's when you start seeing what you'll end up with!

  • Tear sheets of waxed paper into 6-by-16 inch sheets. Fold the sheet in half to make a 3-by-16 inch rectangle. 
  • Open your rectangle back up and sprinkle your crayon bits evenly across the wax paper. A little bit goes a long way, I used about 1/2 a tablespoon per wax paper rectangle. 
  • Fold your wax paper back to make a sandwich over the crayons, cover with kraft paper to protect your iron. Press the iron to melt the crayons. Let them cool and cut them into circles. 
  • String them together with a needle and thread and repeat!


And that's it! The installed 'curtains' look so lovely with the light shining through. Stay tuned for the next window post. I'm so excited to continue sharing these oh-so-fun projects!

Friday, March 20, 2015

Spring is here and it's time to dye some Easter Eggs!

Happy Spring Everyone!


We have this great all natural egg coloring kit in the shop, made in Portland, ME. It includes a few eco-crayons to try out relief coloring, 3 colored dye packets (with instructions to create up to 3 more colors), and a wire egg dipper. The natural dyes are made from gardenia flowers, curcumin, annatto seeds, beets, red cabbage, and purple sweet potato. We gave if a whirl and it was so fun and easy. 



Thursday, March 5, 2015

Facebook giveaway happening now!




Holy cow - we reached 5000 likes on Facebook! You guys are the best! 


To celebrate and say THANK YOU to all our amazing fans, we're holding a giveaway! 

Warm weather is approaching and that means it's time for adventures! One lucky person will win this fun striped weekend duffel bag- perfect for all the Spring and Summer trips to come! 

To enter all you need to do is visit our Facebook Page and add a comment to this post telling us what you like most about spring. And if you share this post you'll be entered twice! Giveaway ends Saturday March 7th at 11:59pm. We will announce the winner Monday March 9th!