So, just a few days until Father’s Day and we have the perfect summery dessert to make for Dad! Our lovely Jordan wanted to make something special for her ice cream-loving Dad and she was kind enough to snap some photos in the process. Thanks, Jordan!

Get your ingredients  from the list in the last image and then get to work!

1. To make the dough:

Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat for 3 minutes. Add the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt and beat until a soft dough comes together. Make sure the dough is fully mixed.

2. Cutting the Cookies:

Press the dough out on a piece of waxed paper. Cover with another piece of waxed paper and roll with a rolling pin.

Remove the top piece of waxed paper and cut out shapes with a sharp cookie cutter. It is best to leave the pieces in the dough, don;t try to lift out. Lift the whole piece of dough on the paper and put it on a baking sheet and freeze for an hour or so.

3. Baking the cookies

Heat the oven to 325°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and remove the frozen cookie dough from the freezer. Using a spatula, carefully transfer each cut-out cookie to the cookie sheet. You can prick each cookie with a fork in a pattern. Bake 6 minutes or until no indentation remains when touched. Let cool for 10 minutes to firm up. Let cool completely before making sandwiches.

4. Assembling the sandwiches

To assemble the sandwiches just put scoops of the ice cream on the cookies and squish!

Have a fun Father’s Day celebrating with the men in your lives!

You might remember, a few months ago, we starting leasing our very first studio space! The building has clean, modern lines and beautiful white walls inside. We love everything about it….but of course, we had to add some additional pops of color and that all started with our office accessories! Thanks to poppin for getting us outfitted with bright yellow, turquoise and fuschia rulers, tape dispensors, pens and notebooks! They literally brighten up our work days. It’s always nice to surround yourself with well-designed things…and we think great color goes hand in hand!

The quality of the luxe notebooks is phenomenal! Isn’t the embossing great? And we got these great wooden pencils from the Kid Made Modern section at Target!

The rulers might be our favorite. Or the tape dispensers. Nevermind, we love all the poppin goodies!

Go get yourself some!

Pictured above: yellow tape dispenser// aqua pens // pink ruler // pink stapler // aqua luxe notebook // pink luxe notebook // our own “hello” iphone case //  wooden colored pencils

]]> http://ampersanddesignstudio.com/office-accessories/feed/ 0 http://ampersanddesignstudio.com/getting-crafty-for-fathers-day-diy-kites/ http://ampersanddesignstudio.com/getting-crafty-for-fathers-day-diy-kites/#comments Wed, 12 Jun 2013 06:00:26 +0000 ampersand http://ampersanddesignstudio.com/?p=5211

With Father’s Day right around the corner, we thought it was the perfect time for a little craft that you could do with your kid! Bonus: it can be a gift for dads AND a fun little activity for Father’s Day! So, grab a few supplies, and let’s have some fun!

Step 1.  Layout your skewers in the size that you want for your kite

2.  Tie off the center stabilizers and tape the supporting skewers

3.  Cut out a piece of tissue paper the size of your kite with a 1-2 inch boarder

4.  Cut thick fringe on the edges and glue the tabs around the skewers. Continue this around all four edges.

5.  Place the glue side down on another piece of tissue and repeat steps 3 and 4. Adding more layers helps to strengthen your kite! The more you add the stronger it gets!

6.  Once you have finished your layering  (we liked 4 layers the best) you can use your needle and thread to poke through and around your stabilizer at the top (its best if you can thread it through the tape so it does not tear).  Tie this off and then do the same at the bottom. Keep some slack between the two ties, this is what you can hold onto to fly your kite.

7. Add a tail! This can be anything you want! We used ribbon, yarn and bows!

8.  Decorate! Paint and stickers work great!

9. Take it outside and give it a shot!

We hope you guys all give it a shot, we had the best time letting our little guys decorate these kites!

We know we have already introduced you on previous posts, but this brilliant idea is all thanks to our absolutely incredible intern, Jordan Key! Not only is she an awesome designer, but we have uncovered a craft genius! She’s basically our very own in-house Martha Stewart and we are so lucky to have her! Thanks Jordan for coming up with this fun activity and for your daily brilliance!!!

Although it was just two and a half weeks ago that we returned home from Surtex, it already seems like months have passed! This was our second year showing at the biggest art licensing trade show in the country and it was a complete whirlwind of seeing new and old friends, catching up with past clients and meeting many potential new clients, and of course, finding a little bit of free time to explore NYC!

If you’re reading this, wondering what Surtex is, here’s a brief description from their site:

“SURTEX® is the global B2B marketplace for original art & design—where artists, agents and licensors connect with manufacturers and retailers to create the next best-selling products in every category imaginable. Wall coverings, decorative accessories, bed linens, stationery, giftware, tabletop and so many more…if it’s any product with a surface design of any kind, there’s a good chance it originated at SURTEX. That’s because each year some 7,000 buyers/manufacturers from 49 countries converge on the SURTEX exhibit floor to buy or license the newest designs from approximately 1,000 trend-setting artists. It’s a veritable who’s who of manufacturers and retailers seeking first dibs on the best original art & design being created today.”

When each artist arrives into the humongous Javits Center, this blank, cold, empty booth is what is waiting to be transformed. After doing tons of research last year, we pretty much had our set-up method down! We got our banners hung and shelf displays put up in just a few short hours and ended up with the entire afternoon to play in the city! (Last year we spent two days setting up-yikes!)

This was the first year we decided to put some of our actual products on display. We showed off some of our awesome licensed pieces like the patterned notebook sets and bicycle boxed cards (currently sold out-sorry) from teNeues, the Cream & Sugar fabric collection with Windham Fabrics, and even some of our very own products like the famous ampersand prints and our newly-released cell-phone cases!

Psst…we had some rainbowy-bright “I Heart Ampersand” pencils to give away for everyone that visited our booth! Note to self for next year: sharpen pencils BEFORE you arrive in NYC. Our booth was filled with pencil shavings but at least it gave us something to do during down time.

How amazing is this banner??!!! We found it on etsy from Studio Mucci and the entire shop is filled great handmade paper decorations in some pretty fabulous color palettes! Make sure to check them out! It’s crazy how many compliments we got about our fun tassel garland!!

We had a few takeaways to go alongside our pencils! Hey, you never know what’s going to make someone remember your booth, right?

We sported our ampersand bracelets (from Make Pie Not War) for good luck. And we accidentally dressed like our booth every single one of the three days. At one point, Morgan’s pants were practically camouflage with one of our banners.

Overall, the second year showing at Surtex felt very different than the first. We just sort of knew what to expect, everything wasn’t so unknown. We had many current clients that we were excited to get to see in person again after an entire year has passed! It’s crazy how frequently we email and talk with so many people that we collaborate with, but don’t actually get to see them in person, so, Surtex and Design Week in NYC is our form of a little reunion, and talking to our work friends was a real highlight! This year we also attended the Surtex happy hour and the Smart Creative Women happy hour, both of which were so great! During the show hours, we really feel tied to our booth to make the best of our time there, so the little get-togethers after hours allowed us to meet and hang out with some fellow artists, many of which have been huge inspirations to us! Others we’ve only talked to virtually, and others we met last year and were excited to see again. You’re getting the point, right? It really is like Designer Camp in NYC!

Everyone keeps asking us, “how’d the show go?”, and the truth is, you never really know until many months following because you don’t actually sell artwork or sign contracts on the spot. All those discussions happen once we get home. That being said, we’re pretty darn excited about the relationships we made this year! We were walking out of the show on the last day, dancing and singing. If all goes well, we cannot wait to be sharing the fun products that Ampersand designs will be making a splash on….so fingers crossed, right?!!!!!

We had to share the picture below of The Highline. On the last night, we packed up our booth in record time, dropped off our boxes, and just walked. Walked and walked all the way from our hotel down to The Standard Hotel for our tradition of celebratory drinks. There are a lot of long nights and crazy work days leading up to the show, then we try to make the very best of those three days while we’re there, so it is such a relief when it’s over! We can literally feel our shoulders resting a little lower. Just making it to the show is a success. So yeah, we just walked The Highline and talked about the future and took in the fresh (non-convention-center) air and the beautiful view!

And this is too funny not to include, this is how we ended all of our evenings in NYC! ha!

We already shared a little recap of our Mother’s Day Anthropologie Event here, but we thought it was only fair to make sure that all of you, even if you couldn’t make it to the event, could still do this fun little painted flower pot DIY! We’ve shared our super-easy steps below!

The only supplies you will need are: painter’s tape, scissors, paint, a flower pot, (optional hole-puncher) and a wooden skewer! And of course the perfect flower or plant of your choice to finish it all off!

We had to share one more shot of our entire fabulous group of attendees! Such concentration, right?

And, here you go – a free printable for your very own flower picks! Just click right here to download:

FREE PRINTABLE FLOWER PICK FLAGS

One more big huge THANK YOU to Anthropologie for letting us host this Mother’s Day Event!

We are super-excited to introduce you to our new obsession… Kansas City’s own Prairie Goods. Several weeks ago, we learned of the gorgeous leather goodness our W studio mate, Jason Domingues, was making, together with his wife, Allison, in his spare time and we have been dying to share ever since. We’ve known Jason as an amazing photographer, and it almost doesn’t seem fair that he has a whole other crazy talent for handcrafting belts, wallets, and other accessories. We have been following along as each new color and style gets perfected and now we can all order them! Every piece is created just for you after you order it. The belts are even cut specifically to your waist size. How cool is that?! The greatest thing about Prairie Goods in our opinion… great gift possibilities. Guys are so hard to buy for and we are thrilled to have belts and wallets that we would be so proud to give the men in our lives (and the ladies, too, for that matter)! So, you better jump on it for Father’s Day!

We’re not sure if we could love anything more than this rainbow, abstract painting on the exterior of a church in Washington, DC!!!

Artist, Alex Brewer, also known as HENSE, first made a name for himself as a graffiti artist and his work grew into the realm of public art, grants, commissions, and cross-media connections which have landed him local, national and international public art projects. Brewer developed his skill for graffiti in the mid to late ‘90s and early 2000s.

We couldn’t describe his work better than this: “HENSE’s manic marks, scribbles, drips and splashes produce an agitated tangle of shapes, symbols and figures that offer the viewer a unique and strangely peaceful platform for the eyes and mind. His slick stylizing may send observers on a roller coaster ride of emotions, perturbed to peaceful, angry to inspired, always travelling at the command of the individual’s own subconscious collection of experiences.”

Ted Elmore – RVA News

{all images from HENSE’s website}

Two weeks ago, we had the pleasure of hosting a Mother’s Day DIY event with Anthropologie! We put together a really fun painted flower pot DIY that could be the perfect Mother’s Day gift or just a colorful addition to your windowsill! The event was filled with more laughter and creativity than we could’ve imagined! We really wish you ALL could’ve been there, but just in case you missed it, these photos by the talented Eric Linebarger perfectly capture the festivities! Stay tuned for a follow-up post where we will include the full DIY for you to do at home!

The evening was filled with sweet treats, cocktails and the most fun gals in the city!

We had flower pots, paints, brushes and the fixings for a flower pick with a sweet sentiment! And never fear, we kept everyone’s darling outfits free of paint with some canvas aprons!

We really can’t get over how creative all of our guests were! Check out this darling mini-dot flower pot?!

Morgan was delivering succulent plants while Carrie was hard at work hand-lettering each guest’s apron!

Biggest thanks to Emily & Jordan for helping us make this event happen!! Jordan, thank you for all of the paint-testing, flower-pot-reseraching, plant finding, picking up, setting up and cleaning up! Without your creativity, and fabulous DIY sensibilities, we never could’ve made this happen! Emily, thank you for tying up all of our loose ends! We are so lucky to get to work with you ladies!

We had so much fun with you all, let’s do it again sometime, shall we?!

And biggest thanks also to Molly & Tiffany at the Leawood, Kansas Anthropologie store!! Thanks for making it so fun to plan this event together and for all of the sweet treats! We hope we get to partner with you again soon! PS – check out Carrie and Tiffany’s cute baby bumps!!!

{All photos by the talented Eric Linebarger}

So this is what packing for Surtex is looking like around here. And this is just the beginning. In addition to the “S” hooks, business cards, all sorts of adhesives, we also have huge 3′ x 8′ banners, a dolly, and lots of samples of our existing product. But we’re getting close! We leave in THREE DAYS!!! Surtex, here we come!

PS…that also means that posting will be a little light around here for the next week and a half, but follow our facebook, twitter and instagrams (@AmpersandStudio, @MorganGeorgie, & @ CarrieKiefer) for NYC updates!

yup! you read that correctly! for all of you that live outside of the US, we can now ship our iphone cases internationally!!! Run, don’t walk over to the shop!!!