I have been working on a St. Patrick’s Day design for celebration of St. Patrick (also the birthday of one of my nephews). These are now on products in my Zazzle store.  Everything is customizable.

Kiss Me – I’m Irish Women’s Keds shoes by phyllisdobbs
customize your own sneaker at zazzle

My store is loaded with various products that you can use to proclaim St. Patrick’s day, including a mousepad, tote bags, invitations, aprons, stickers, iPad and iPhone covers, men’s ties and much more. I even have some items for little Leprechauns.

Kiss Me – I’m a Little Bit Irish Mousepad by phyllisdobbs
View more mousemats on zazzle

For those of you aren’t Irish, you can be “Irish for a Day”.

Kiss Me – I’m Irish for A Day Tote Bag by phyllisdobbs
Create photo bags from zazzle

Here’s wishing you the “Luck of the Irish”!
Phyllis

Starting a new year off is exciting but it always seems like the first of the year is very hectic, in part due to a partial slow down in work due to holidays combined with preparation for the January shows. I’ve been working hard on new art for my agent to present at the Atlanta Gift Market held last week. In addition, I finished a book proposal for a new Quilt book that has been accepted and is on my agenda to complete in the next few months. Also on schedule this year are new fabric collections – I can’t wait until I can show you these!

Getting to Atlanta this year was pretty much a nightmare for everyone due to the ice on the roads and airports closing and delaying flights.  I had to drive on very icy roads between Birmingham and Atlanta, and really scary roads in downtown Atlanta. But everyone made it in and the market was extremely busy with buyers – a great sign.

There were tons of artists signings during the show, including one by Mary Engelbreit. Here’s a picture of us with her signing one of her beautiful ornaments by Ne ‘Qwa Art. Mary’s fabrics are with Cranston Printworks (VIP, VIP Exclusive, Quilting Treasures)  the same fabric company that my fabrics are with. I’ve been working with her fabrics designing quilts for free project sheets for the company website. I will let you know when the project sheets are published to the site. (Thanks Amy for taking the picture!)

You know what they say about all work and no play!  A bunch of artists met up after the end of a long day to socialize and network. Shown on the front row (L to R) Debbie Cole, myself, Robin Davis, and Aaron Christensen. Back row – Terri Conrad, Jane Maday, Karen Embry, Beth Logan, Tammy Browning-Smith, Sue Zipkin, Chad Barrett, Beth Yarbrough, Paula Joeling, Robin Pickens (behind Aaron), Lynn, Brenda Pinnick and Suzanne Whitaker. A very delightful and dynamic group!

Thanks Jane Maday for loaning me the photo since I left my camera in the room (dumb move on my part!). Also to Sue Zipkin for sending me a photo.

I am now back in my studio working away and excited about lots of new things on the horizon.

Stay warm!

Phyllis

“Meow Meow” says the cat to all you cat lovers!  The cats with ‘tude from my Meow Meow fabric collection are on products in my Zazzle store, starting with “The Master”, a cat who knows he’s the boss (but aren’t they all!). I created an assortment of products ranging from aprons, tee shirts, mouse pads, invitations, baby items, stationery, postage stamps, mugs, key chains and many more items.

I am working on creating products with all 10 of the whimsical cats fron this collection and will add them to my store for a delightful and fun assortment to make you smile.

The attitudes were all inspired by own cat, who definitely has the ‘tude.

Meow,

Phyllis

I’m featuring my art from “It’s a Dog’s Life” fabrics on products in my new Zazzle store, with delightful and vibrantly colored dogs in their daily routines.  I just opened the store so that my art can be easily found on products.  I am beginning with the art from my “It’s a Dog’s Life” fabric collection and have an extensive collection of products geared toward quilters with Quilt Lover Dog.

I am featuring Quilt Lover Dog, Beach Dog, Angel Dog, Gardener Dog, and Chef Dog currently with more dogs and categories to be added daily.  The Quilt Lover Dog has an expanded product line that quilt lovers as well as quilt guilds will love.

Products include aprons, stationery, tote bags, cards and notes, and much more.  The notebook above has matching pages to hold notes on your quilts as well as guild notes or use as a scrapbook for your photos. All products can be customized to add your name, guild name and anything else you want on your product.

Please check back for more products and happy quilting!

Phyllis

It was a hot time in Atlanta as crowds arrived to attend the Atlanta Gift Market.  Mix in some humidity and it was sweltering, but it didn’t dampen our spirits while at the show.  I wish I knew how many miles I walked while there.  My poor feet wished I had not covered as much ground.

After days filled with meetings, it was fun to meet up with friends.  A highlight of my trip was a party held at the studio of Paula Joerling and Tom Haney.  Both Paula and Tom are so talented and have the most fabulous studio walking distance from market. Please check out their delightful blogs.

Tom is a master of creating kinetic sculpture art.  Here are 2 photos (which doesn’t do them justice since you can’t see the kinetic aspects.  Tom’s studio was filled with these wonderful pieces as well as tons of components.

Here’s a group photo of some of us in the studio – Elizabeth Tipton, Tom Haney, Robin Davis, Paula Joerling, Chad Barrett, me in front, Chad’s sister, and Janet Wecker Frisch.

While walking market, I saw one of the products that I designed, a garden flag for Evergreen Enterprises, Chick Power. More products will be out soon based on Chick Power.

Meanwhile, back to more gathering of friends.  A bunch of us met at the Westin to get together and basically talk and talk along with a few hugs. Pictured are Jane Maday, Terri Conrad, Martha Collins, Joyce Shelton, myself, Sue Zipkin and seated in front, BJ Lantz, and Carol Eldridge.

And, I was walking by the C.R. Gibson showroom while Jim Shore was there for a personal appearance and signing.

I have finally recouperated and am in the middle of getting work out.  Just in time to attend the CHA show in Chicago next week.  I’m looking forward to seeing several of you there!

Stay cool and out of the heat!

I’m happy to announce that I have completed an upgrade to my collection of product templates Create Product Mockups – for a total of 105 product templates.

Create Product Mockups is an aid for licensing artists to use to show how their art will look on products in the most popular categories.  The files are in both Photoshop and Illustrator format and are easy to use.

The 105 templates cover a wide range of products in the following categories: Bedding and Bath, Kitchen Textiles, Stationery, Tabletop, Partyware, Apparel, Baby and Kids, Garden, Home Accents as well as Basic Shapes for multitudes of uses.

The upgrade is free and has been sent to those of you who have previously purchased Create Product Mockups. As I create new templates, I will continue to provide free upgrades.

Its always fun to meet someone who you really admire.  At the Atlanta Gift Market last month, I had the good fortune to meet Mary Engelbreit in the showroom of Katherine’s Collections.  Mary was there for a personal appearance.  I have always been a fan of Mary’s as well as appreciate her as a trail-blazer for art licensing.

The past couple of months have been the most hectic of all.  Preparing for two major trade show events in January required hours and hours of work.  Attending the shows, Atlanta Gift Market and CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) were almost like vacations because while they were technically work, I could lay down my paint brush and ignore my computer for a few days.  Plus, its always such fun to meet up with friends.

The day before the CHA show in Anaheim, Brenda Pinnick and I went to Laguna Beach for some much deserved R&R.  We shopped and had a great lunch while watching the Laguna Beach surf (which was very high due to the recent rains).

Although the shows are over, work continues with work from the shows as well as the work that was still in progress before the shows.

And, I am happy to say that I just finished a new fabric collection and am really excited about it.

I hope you are all staying warm in all this cold and snowy weather.

Phyllis

I’m pleased to announce that I have completed my collection of product mockup templates that I have been working on for over 2 years.  They are compiled on a CD Create Product Mockups. Two years seems like a long time ago from when I started this, but I had so many interruptions – you know, work with deadlines!  So it kept getting pushed back in spite of some people regularly asking about it.

The templates will allow you to easily put your best foot forward when showing your art to manufacturers, on mockups similar to their products.

Create Product Mockups contains 93 templates in Photoshop files and are created with clean vecor lines to give a professional mockup.  They are are also in high resolution for sharp printing.

The templates are transparent and not filled so you can use multiple methods of creating your mockup, including inserting layers under the template, as well as paste and paste into.  The collection comes with easy-to-follow and straight forward directions to easily and quickly complete professional looking product mockups.

The 93 templates cover a wide variety of products and categories for the most popular licensed products. Photoshop is required.

For more information as well as purchase information, please visit Create Product Mockups.