misosouper, a shopping blog

In a world of either artisan-designed, hand-produced fabric or Crayola-bright commercial bolts from JoAnn’s, there arrives an amazing new option: self-printable, customized fabric from a company called Inkbloom.

It’s like DIY sci-fi: using your home inkjet and loomtack, Inkbloom’s patent-pending magical sticky material that makes fabric behave like a piece of paper, you can create lush, graphic prints for personal or limited commercial use.

Inkbloom offers downloadable patterns (called inkblocks), whose colors are easily modified through Photoshop or PS Elements.  You can even add bits of text to your designs.  And Inkbloom just introduced inkbits, which are exclusive designs for creating tags, cards, and labels that coordinate with your fabric.  Imagine the possibilities for entertaining, gifting, and branding:  party favor bags, pillows, jewelry pouches, and company cards, all in your own perfect hexadecimalized RGB color code.

Crazy?  I KNOW.  But so easy that even a dolt like me could do it.

Inkbloom and Misosouper will let one lucky reader exercise her creative muscle:  to win our random drawing for a package that includes Loomtack fabric stabilizer, plain white base fabric, and Inkbloom’s brand-new lovey Valentine design set, leave a comment on this post, telling us 1) what you plan on making for your sweetie for Valentine’s Day; or 2) what text you’d print on your Valentine’s design.  (More inspiration available in this gallery.) For extra entries, you can tweet, blog, and/or Facebook this contest, then link to those posts here.  If you do all of the above, you will earn four entries.  Be sure to read the fine print, and good luck!

the fine print:

This prize will be shipped to US addresses only.  Comments will be closed and entries will not be accepted after 11:59 pm EST on Sunday, January 24, 2010. The winner will be selected at random on Monday, January 25, 2010, and notified by e-mail. Results of the giveaway will be announced in the comments on this post on Tuesday, January 26, 2010. Misosouper, a shopping blog reserves the right to disqualify entries that are incomplete, inaccurate, or considered spam.  If the winner does not respond within 24 hours, an alternate winner will be chosen and notified.

As of today, I am 36+ weeks pregnant.

And this, part of artist Matthew Carden’s Small World Series, perched on the edge of a most beautiful burgundy abyss, is what I’d most like to do.

Choosing, printing, and gluing pictures to this frameable family tree (which fits in an IKEA Ribba) is so much more fun than just scribbling in the names.

Five states (including my own) list the mockingbird as their state fowl.

Bird gets around, apparently.

Someone please buy this vintage pull-down chart and put me out of my misery.

(Also perfect as an around-the-year adornment that can be gussied up at Halloween.  See wolf head, above.)