Really?!

Pardon the forlorn groundhog/sea lion, but you get the idea. Six more weeks of Winter??! To quote my 4-year-old, "You have got to be kidding me." Not that it matters much. After enjoying a steady, yet unrushed workload (the kind that pays), my inbox has suddenly quadrupled ensuring that I won't be emerging from my hole any time soon. Not that I'm complaining...I knew it was coming and I'm thankful for it. This just means more pizza and less blog.

Also please accept my sincere apologies, if you come back here to check in only to find Mr. Groundhogsealion. I'll try to climb out with an update as soon as possible. Until then, Happy Groundhog Day.

Smart Marks

I have to tell you about the brand new 'art just for fun' that has arrived over in my etsy shop. It's a set of wisely affordable owl bookmarks that I designed using the owls I painted back when.

For the background, I scanned the wise entry from a really old dictionary. Then, I placed the owls in miniature in sequence on top of the entry with a shadow effect (all done in Photoshop.) Wise and Wiser are on the front of the bookmark while Wisest has the back all to herself.

The bookmarks have been offset print (front and back) on a heavy coated stock with rounded edges for extra charm. When they came back from the printer, I hand punched each top and added a cord. These bookmarks are available in sets of four. They're perfect to stick in a card (Valentines maybe?) or enclose with a gifted book. Or maybe you'll want a couple for yourself to mark various places...wise cookbooks, wiser craft magazines or the wisest decadent novel.

I've also made individual 8" x 10" owl prints available if a larger, frameable version is preferred. Fly over to my etsy shop to check out the goods. And as always, thank you for stopping by to see what I've been up to and for supporting my artistic journey. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate each and every one of you! I am so grateful for a community that never fails to inspire. Thank you.

Extra! Extra!

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. Ours went about as fast as the rest of the summer which was pretty fast. Now it's time to look for pumpkins and gourds and to settle into the routine that the school year brings. errrr...excuse me...what did you say? ohhhhh...you're wondering about that wooden newspaper carrier?! Well, I'm glad you asked. He holds under his arm my very first e-newsletter which is almost ready to deliver to subscribers.

If you haven't yet signed up look over to the sidebar on the right of my blog>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
see that little box that says "subscribe to my e-newsletter?"

All you need to do is enter your e-mail and you too will receive the "art just for fun" e-newsletter which includes insider tidbits along with valuable coupons for my etsy shop. Plus every once in awhile I'll be having subscriber giveaways. It'll be fun.

I promise you will not be overwhelmed with mail as my goal for e-news is just once every month or two. And so you know, this guy has strict instructions about spam...no credit card applications, no silly jokes, no chain letters, etc. Plus you can always unsubscribe. (I'll be a little sad and miss having you, but I'll understand.)

Now I've got to go catch that carrier. He has deliveries to make.

Bags and tags

The bags for the show have arrived!! yep...colorful, fun and best of all~earth friendly. After pouring over options I decided on these. I LOVE a good shop bag (I've been known to ~she admits bashfully~ make purchases just to get the bag.) These non-woven fabric reusable bags are made of virgin polypropylene fiber that is 100% degradable. The cost averaged out to about 85 cents each for different colors in assorted sizes. To me that is money well spent not only for the reuseable factor, but to give my customers something special and show that I value my art. In my opinion, mixed messages are sent when vendors stick their gorgeous handmade items in a Wal-Mart bag. It devalues both the item(s) and the handmade movement. A cake with no icing or worse yet, a cake with big ugly mass retailer advertising all over it. Now hopping off my soapbox...

I also just received my freshly designed business cards. Overnight Prints did the printing and I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. little details: I requested rounded corners for a more handmade/less commercial touch. Also, had the front of the cards coated, but left the back uncoated to pen notes and thank yous.

As for tags, I'm using these awesome Fiskar squeeze punches to cut circles and squares from decorator paper. You squeeze the handles together and out pops a perfect circle or square (and they have tons of other shaped punches available.) The best part is they are designed so that you can see exactly what you are doing. You can punch shapes at lightening speed...such a great investment. Easy on the hands too.

Fluffy fibers attach cards to bags and tags to items. Here's "Love Bird" getting all tagged and ready for her first show. I'm finding out that prepping for an art show is more time consuming than I E*V*E*R dreamed. Admittedly, it's not helping that I am a sweater of the small stuff and think about details almost to a fault. The already packed lint brush and first aid kit are proof. Now watch me forget the art.

Rolling out the Blank Canvas

After flag garland, the next thing on my list for my upcoming first ever art fair booth was the main sign. I purchased a 3' x 5' piece of primed canvas from Dick Blick. And I really have to remember this stuff for future sign making, kid projects, etc. This huge piece was a steal for under $8. Plus I can roll it back up on the sturdy cardboard roll it came with for easy transport to wherever my show tour may take me.

The first step was to transfer my nameplate to the canvas. I printed out my name (in tiles...this was huge) from the computer. After I drew lines and knew where everything should go, I attempted to hunt down carbon paper. Stuff I knew I had somewhere, but for the life of me could not find. Refusing to go to the store, I came up with an alternate plan for transferring that works just as great. I took charcoal sticks (wowza! that's my box from college!) and charcoaled over the letters on the back of the paper. Then I flipped the paper right side and traced the outline of the letters with a pencil. The charcoal left a perfect line on the canvas.

Next I recreated what you see at the very top of this blog ('hey did ya notice the new header...up there?!' ...me pointing to top of screen.) Paint flew and things got pretty messy at this stage, but that's okay. You gotta have a little fun to sell it. I laid the canvas out to dry in the guest bedroom a.k.a. warmest room of the house with a threatening sign. Maybe a "Please DO NOT STEP ON" would have been nicer, but that might have taken away from the strong message I wanted to communicate to the eight other feet in the house.

Tah-dah!... here it is all finished. Well, almost finished. I still need to give it a coat or two of protective varnish. Plus an edge trim. Checking this off the list + flags is HUGE. I'm starting to see my vision come together. Next up is bags. Believe it or not, over thinking bags for customer purchases is what threw me into logo redesign mode in the first place. I've got a thing for a good store bag. More prep craziness coming soon.

A virtual Christmas card from us to you...

open to...

Finally, I got all of the printed versions in the mail yesterday. I still have a few hand delivers that are awaiting a tray of cookies to go with. This card idea came to me after finding yet another vintage Scrabble game (favorite) at a holiday flea market. At home, as I stared at and moved around those gorgeous wooden letters, I saw XMAS. When I discovered that I could fit MERRY XMAS on the wood rack, I completely geeked out and went at it with full force. Using a Photoshop trick or two, I turned our family into scrabble tiles adding a point value to correspond to ages. (okay one age is slightly questionable...I wanted to see who was paying attention ; )

With several design projects happily at the printer, cards mailed and presents wrapped, I've officially put myself on vacation. My hubbie and I purchased a rug pad for my office rug, installed badly needed new blinds and completed little odd ball fixes around the house that have been crying out for attention for many, many months. Projects that give me tremendous JOY now that they are done. Me and my little cooks are planning to heat up the kitchen with cookies and a feast for Thursday. We have family coming into town for Christmas day and several days after so we're looking forward to entertaining and enjoying our time together.

I'm taking some time away from here, but I'll be back after the new year. 'Til then happy, safe and cozy holidays to you along with lots of PEACE, HOPE, LOVE and JOY.

Check this out

If you've been hanging around here at all you may recognize the lunch survey on page 42 of the December/January edition of Family Fun. I posted my idea here first, and now have been honored to have it included this month in one of my very favorite mags. You can go to Family Fun to download a copy or since you're here scroll over to the right in my "Printables" section. Click on lunch survey to read about the inspiration and then click on the survey itself to print. Try it out on your kiddos. It's a great way to hear more about their day at school. Plus they'll love it. promise.

And while we're on the topic of surveys to check, here's another post from last year that is once again perfect for the season. I created these Thankful coloring place mats for the kids at our Thanksgiving table.The idea was to start the wheels turning about all the big and little things to be thankful for and why we celebrate this holiday. Poor Thanksgiving sure gets overlooked what with Christmas decorations hitting the stores before Halloween. You can click on Thankful coloring sheet link in my "Printables" section to the right. Then click on the image itself (private use only please) for your Thanksgiving festivities.

Enough

Here's my Illustration Friday topic of the week: enough. I was actually working on this illustration before I received the IF topic in my inbox today. When I did get the word, I couldn't help but think what a topic-perfect illustration it was.

This happy couple will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks. I'm honored to have been asked to design the invitation for the grand event. This collage will grace the cover.

It is said quite often, but 50 years speaks louder..."I take you to be my constant friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. In the presence of God, our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live."

Now if that isn't "enough" I couldn't tell you what is.

the Official Lunch Survey

Almost every school day my third grader asks if I'll put a note in her lunch box. While I love that she wants a momlunchnote, it's hard for my early morning brain to come up with something original to write...and something that may or may not be shared with a table full of classmates. Usually, I'll write how I hope she's having a good day, studying hard and not causing too much drama. I also might add something that I plan to do while she's at school. Kind of boring stuff to write in lunchnote after lunchnote. Recently, I had this survey brainstorm to get Cara talking back about what was up with her—yes, I am soooooo tricky ; ) . I rolled up my survey (pictured unrolled above) with a fun ribbon and included a colored pencil for her to complete while she munched.

The survey was a huge success. Not only was I providing an interesting "momlunchnote alternative", but (the best part) I was getting some insider information as to what was going on at school that day. I know I'm not the only Mom who hears the "boring...nothing" response when you ask how school was and what happened at school. This idea catches the kid midday and in a fun way providing at least one interesting lunch survey result to talk about after school. I was privy-ed with some informative and funny answers as to to the happenings of Cara's third grade day. Of course I plan to save these past surveys and insert new survey opportunities in future lunches. As soon as the other two can read and write well enough, they'll find surveys too.

As the "additional comments" line above states Cara had a pretty fun time letting me know about her day (I love the exclamatory heart!) And here's a little gift from me to you...click on the survey at top of post, save to your desktop and print out for your kiddos (no mass distribution without my permission please). Let me know how it works at your house. And remember not to tell them that this survey is not all about the lunch!

Daley design

I'm back in the office today. Daley design is my freelance graphic design business. I have the luxury of working at home which is something I've been doing now for eight+ years. Having my first child was the push I needed to realize that a 9-5 job wasn't working me. It hasn't always been a piece of cake. I have the photo to right posted on my bulletin board. It makes me laugh now. This is me (8 years ago--please forgive the hair) and my eldest daughter Cara who was a little over a year at the time. We're actually on a photo shoot together. The photographer had us test the light (way back in the day--no digital photography then) before the real subject of the photo stepped in. As you can see, Cara is not too happy to be on a photo shoot in the school president's office testing light. And even though I have a smile on my face, I can assure you I was NOT smiling on the inside. The president sat in this spot moments later. This is where I have to say a sincere thank you to all of my client's that overlooked my slightly underage, very unprofessional design assistant and stuck with me. It is definitely a juggling act. I've learned a lot along the way, including hiring a sitter, so that most times when I need to be out of the office for meetings or photo shoots I can be a solo act.

I design a wide variety of stuff including logos, magazines, posters, newsletters and brochures. Some weeks are busier than others and I admit to putting in some crazy hours. There is definitely no 9-5 and no routine schedule. The best part, besides being my own boss, is that my days are never boring (having three kids helps with that too.)