A Little Party Never Killed Nobody - Custom Art Deco Cake Topper

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First, I hate that I just quoted a Fergie song BUT it was a big song in the recent connotation of The Great Gatsby movie. It's hard to shake it. 

Gatsby represents the roaring 20's with art deco architecture and design splashed everywhere. It is a long time personal favorite era of mine. Gimme that, art deco design and patterns, loud music, gold on black accents, flapper dresses and lots of liquor. Sounds like the perfect theme for a wedding! We recently had the pleasure of creating a custom cake topper for such a themed wedding.

Custom design by our customer - engraved and painted by 6 by 6

The groom had readymade custom artwork of their own so this project was a breeze. Clean angles with their initials engraved in the center. We painted it a soft gold tone and coated it with food grade wood oil.

A beautiful heirloom keepsake of their very special day. 

Ah...love. 

With that, I'll leave for now wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Lasers and love -Thea 

Geek Love for all!

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If you've been following us on our Instagram, you know we've been busy with some manufacturing jobs. But we are taking the day off this Saturday April 9th to attend the Emerald City Comicon. I picked up passes for our family as a birthday present for my son. We're so stoked.

We wanted to share our excitement about attending (and me finally getting to see Nathan Fillion in person!!!), we decided that we're going to have a weekend sale on our entire Geek Love line! 

Save 25% off our entire Geek Love line by entering code: criticalhit at checkout. 

Offer is valid April 8th, 2016 12:01am PST to April 10th, 2016 11:59pm PST.

If you're lucky enough to be attending the sold out Saturday day, we hope to see you there! 

Lasers and love - Thea 

Process

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We've been up to ears with things as of late. Which is great! We're managing well, it takes me a little extra time to get to emails and invoices but I'm tackling it one by one. 

Processing 880 wood boards.

We currently have a large custom manufacturing order on deck. So all new custom work requests have an extended turnaround time. 4-8 weeks depending on the complexity of the job. All retail orders are heading out as normal. So if you place an order from any of our shops, expect our normal delivery times. 

It kinda sucks when I don't have anything to interesting to share. BUT! I can't wait to share what this mega project is! Meanwhile, don't forget to get your daily dose (almost daily) of us over on Instagram. @6by6arts 

Lasers and love -Thea 

Wedding and garden planning!

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While our "plates" have been quite full lately, and we've been managing pretty well! We're so excited to have some new wholesale accounts! A few of them are brand new stores! So exciting!!! What would be typically a slow time during the year has been a busy one for us thanks to that support.

Late night gluing magnets together party!

Wine bottle openers, paint brushes, spoons and a shot glass = evidence from working late at night.

We also have the added bonus of preparing for our own wedding later this year. Being creative people, we of course can't just settle for readymade anything. We created our own save the dates. We are currently designing our own wedding invitations and programs. We're trying to enlist as many of our fellow makers and small business owners for the things we need for the wedding. I'm very excited to be doing it this way. I will admit that I did buy a store bought dress. I had the crazy idea to make my own. But I came to my senses and realized that I wouldn't have time to actually do it. Nice thought though! 

We made our own save the dates! This is a shot of our envelopes laser cut out of weighted cardstock from French Paper Co.. This is our go-to for simple envelope design.

We also have domestic family stuff too. I've been a long time avid gardener (I only grow food well!) So like I do every time around this year I plan out our garden and start seeds. We've had quite the boost with the early warm weather already hitting us here in the PNW.

Wildflower seeds gifted to us by Native Ideals for Montana. 

Wildflower seeds gifted to us by Native Ideals for Montana. 

I typically only focus on growing food. I do have flowering trees & shrubs and flowers for pollinators around the yard. But we were so kindly gifted some wild flower seeds from Native Ideals (their based out of Montana) I have to plan on including them in the garden this year! Their artwork on their seed packets are simply amazing! 

That pretty much catches you all up to date with us. At least for the next 24 hours! We are headed to Central Washington this weekend for some domestic stuff but I'll still post any interesting or ridiculous things we encounter on our Instagram. 

Lasers and love - Thea

New Stockist - World of Mirth (Richmond, VA)

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We're breaking into the east coast territory!!!! We're so excited to call the World of Mirth in Richmond, VA our newest stockist! 

If you are on Instagram head over to World of Mirth's account now. It looks like the most magical store in the world! A personal visit to this shop is very high on my bucket list! If you are in the Richmond, VA area, I am sooooo jealous of you! Please go visit WoM for me! 

Speaking of Instagram just a second ago, I know content here hasn't been super interesting lately. John and I are a duo company and we've been very busy processing orders, creating custom work and new products that we will introduce over the next few months. BUT, I do post photos on our Instagram account @6by6arts. Shots of work, photos of our home & office, just basically our life in general. 

Lasers and love - Thea

New D20 Key Chains!

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You asked and we made it happen! 

Like the rest of our key chains, we made these rad little D20 key chains from reclaimed oak wood. They have a great feel and durability. 

Perfect for your keys, zipper pulls, or backpack/bag adornments. 

Keeping it short and simple today. Sun is out and we have a TON of product photos to take!

Lasers and love - Thea


Mostly Manufacturing

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Well hello there. 

We've been busily filling wholesale orders and working on some great manufacturing projects that unfortunately, we can't share just yet. The laser has been busy and we've been all over Western Washington recently.

Riding shotgun in Whatcom County

Deliveries, new work and of course domestic stuff has kept me away from my computer. I've trying blogging on the road. Which basically turns into a text message with lots of photos. And taco emojis.

Our standard 1980's note (receipt) folded paper for shipments.

I've been editing product photos like a madwoman in hopes to release two new items this week. Along with more of a substantial post than this one. 

An average nighttime scene from our home. This unfinished Critical Hit sign looks quite nice chilling in my chair. 

We do post often on our Instagram. Two of the pictures in this post are actually from our IG. Be sure to check us out there for more of a daily update on our adventures and works.

Lasers and love - Thea 

New Stockist - Skagit Valley Food Co-op (Mount Vernon, WA)

We're so excited to announce our newest stockist : Skagit Valley Food Co-op in Mount Vernon, WA!

 

We dropped our order off in person. I loved the excuse to go. 

We dropped our order off in person. I loved the excuse to go. 

This one is a special one for me. For many years after my dad retired from the US Navy he ran two shops. A small engine repair shop and an auto body repair shop, both aptly named "Starr's Equipment" in Mount Vernon. I spent many summer break days of my youth being a shop rat. As a treat he'd take me to the co-op for farm stand fruits. I think I mostly enjoyed the walk down Main Street. It got boring at the shop sometimes.

I also use to visit the co-op after school for the one year I attended Mount Vernon High School.  It was just a fun place to go, get good food and walk around old Mount Vernon. 

Today, it's so much bigger and better than it used to be! It's huge inside and they've taken over the entire building. It's so awesome to see the community actively showing strong support for the co-op. 

We dropped off our products just last week and the awesome buyer has already put in another order. We're feeling the love.  

If you happen to head to Skagit County, perhaps for the up coming Tulip Festival??? Be sure to stop in at the co-op:  http://www.skagitfoodcoop.com/

Lasers and love - Thea

A year (plus) restoring a mid-century modern chair.

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First, let me state that we're not particularly into the mid century century modern style. I know there are many devotees to that style and feverishly collect pieces from that era. John and I just purchase stuff we like. Nothing matches and I indulge my love for a lot of color. I've also been known to paint unusual murals on the wall.

In December 2014 we were introduced to our local Buy Nothing Group. A friend told me about the great stuff they were getting through the group. I immediately loved the idea. It reminded me a bit of the military family support groups that I grew up around - trading, giving to someone who can use it. My children are big and I have so many little kid things that I needed to pass on. Or just random household items that were useful still, just not to me.  The very first thing I put my name in for in the group, I got. They were a set of chairs that needed some TLC. 

Nacho cheese chairs.

Nacho cheese yellow, unholstered and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to restore them but I was going to try. I had purchased a chair that I really liked from a thrift store and these weren't exactly the same but in similar style. I was hopefully that beautiful walnut wood was underneath that thick nacho cheese yellow paint. 

The inspiration chair!

I wasn't able to immediately jump into restoring these chairs. It wouldn't be until the summer of 2015 until I tried stripping the paint off of them.  I did use a paint stripper. The safest one I could find. It worked pretty well considering just how insanely thick the paint and primer was on those poor chairs. 

I was completely ecstatic when I saw the wood that was beneath of that! This was a "me" project but I did recruit my eldest son to help with getting all of the paint off both of the chairs. It was a lot of work.

Removing the old varnish.

I took a long break from working on these. We got busy with work and family stuff. You know how it goes. Once I picked it back up, it was a lot of sanding. Near the end of the completing one of the chairs John came in to help me out. 

PRETTY!!!!

We got it!

Since the inception of 6 by 6, I've gained a whole new appreciate for wood in general. It's natural grain, color and overall beauty. I really wanted to choose a stain that really showed off how awesome the walnut is. So I went with a natural dark walnut and gave it a good rub down of oil to seal it all up and protect it. Oooh la la! 

I posted this on our Instagram late at night because I was so excited to finish one!

I've only finished one. The other still needs to have the final sanding to smooth out the wood to be ready for stain. I chose a dark brown and black pinstripe print upholstery fabric for the cushion. The cushion type is a staple to the bottom rather than sewing a full piece.   

Complete! Now it's not only my desk chair but a photoshoot prop. 

It was a lot of work but I really love how it turned out. 

Lasers and love - Thea

8 bit Hearts and Liking Most Things About You

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After much teasing, I finally listed our 8 bit heart cupcake toppers! Honestly, we're not Valentine's Day people so admittedly, I did drag my buns posting them. Apologies to the 8 bit lovers out there who wanted to get a jump on them for Valentine's Day. 

They are awfully sweet and I pictured them used at party or even a wedding! 

On a more truthful oriented wall art note, we did recently introduce our newest sign just in time for "love season". 

You know, for the times you want to your loved one some real honestly about your love. When you're in a long term love we know that "most things" is realistic and honest and quite frankly endearing. Most is better than very little or none. 

Ah love... we'll be rolling out a few more new items along the love lines soon. Later this week we'll be announcing our newest stockist and tomorrow I'll share a bit about a little project we did over the weekend for a family member. 

Lastly, Happy Lunar New Year for those who celebrate it!

Lasers and love -Thea

This, that and things.

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I haven’t posted much, mostly because I don’t have much to post about. I *know* as a business owner I need to post a bit more, but I have a hard time posting about disingenuous stuff/fluff. If you're going to read our blog, I hope to make it worth your while. 

Admittedly, I’ve been a bit slow going in other aspects, with exception of our orders. My eldest son moved away for college. He and my eldest daughter live in the same town now. That’s comforting, but the house is a little bit emptier. It works out for saving arguments for bathroom time in the morning, but being used to a large noisy group, our clan just got a little more quieter. We're adjusting to it slowly but surely. It has been awhile since we had this experience. 

I’ve personally been busy working on new designs (still) and revising our 2016 look book (still). John has been doing the stuff he normally does; tells me how a design won’t work and proceeds to find a way to make it work. He’s wonderful like that. He’s also been refining our trade show display for the Seattle Gift Show later this month, which is also a big project for us both. He makes it functional and I make it pretty. (We try at least.) It is a fun challenge though.

A small ornament version of our Forever Heart.

Well, as you can see in the photo above behind the new small ornament version of our Forever Heart, I have a brand new sketch book waiting for me to fill up! With David Bowie music filling the air around us, its hard not to be inspired to create.

One last thing, USPS rates will go up over the weekend and we will be adjusting shipping rates accordingly. Consider grabbing some stuff now while shipping is a bit cheaper.

Lasers and love -Thea 

2016 The Year of Love and Humor

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Happy New Year dear friends! We took some time off at the end of 2015 spending it with family and friends. The holidays were kind to us and I hope they were to you as well. We even got to see a bit of snow. 

Old lady Toki enjoying a bit of snow 1/3/16

As we're easing on into 2016, we'll be updating our shop with new products and a few updates on some current favorites. 2016 is looking to be a big year for us. We hope to attend/vend at a few choice craft shows locally and nationally. We'll be introducing a big handful of new product lines, while continuing to offer custom services. We're coining 2016 The Year of Love and Humor - mostly because we are getting married this year. Also, as I mentioned previously, love and humor never goes out of style. We enjoy things with staying power and hope that our products have what it takes to earn that title. We're also completely ridiculous people and enjoy making ourselves laugh at what we do.

We're hoping you'll stick around and follow us along in our journey this year.

Lasers and love -Thea