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.
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 visitCreate Product Mockups.
Welcome to my turn in a Holiday Blog hop. I’m delighted to be part of this blog hop put together by talented artists. We are taking turns sharing a fun holiday project or craft and hope that you are inspired to make some using our free patterns and instructions. And leave a comment on each of the artists blog and you may win a random drawing for a prize by each artist.
I love to entertain over the holidays and often need more festive dishes or bowls. I painted this terra cotta flower pot to give an extra bowl to hold holiday treats (or even a plant). Since stripes and dots are very popular design elements and which I also happen to love, I used these to decorate it. It’s easy to do and you can make one and use it that night.
1. Use a terra cotta flowerpot the size of your choice - you can make it as big or small as you like. Wash the flower pot and go over it with alcohol to disinfect it.
2. With a pencil, draw the lines for the stripes around the rim. I made the stripes on mine about an inch wide. Also, draw 1/2 inch circles randomly on the bottom of the pot.
3. Paint the red dots and the red stripes, alternating the stripes. Paint the background of the bottom pot white and the remaining stripes. It will take 2-3 coats of paint. Let it dry between coats. Paint the inside of the pot your choice of white or red.
4. When the paint has dried, add small white dots in a line on the red stripes.
5. After all has dried, use a clear satin acrylic to seal the paint.
6. Fill with your choice of snacks, chips, ornaments or whatever you desire.
Please leave a comment to be entered into a random drawing for a prize. Also please visit the other artist that are participating in this blog hop and leave comments for a chance at more prizes.
As part of this blog hop, we are supposed to answer these questions to give some information about ourselves. Mine are below.
5 things we might not know about you that you’d like to share.
1. I love to listen to music when I work and have music of every genre except rap. The type of music I play depends on what I’m working on.
2. I planted lettuce for the first time this fall and was delighted that it turned out so tasty. The only place I had to plant it was in the flowerbed by the mailbox, but the bright greens looked very pretty and my husband backed down from being horrified by veggies growing front and center of our yard.
3. I’m a color junkie and often buy stupid stuff just because I like the color, however anything with great color is not stupid! Like a purple cooler to carry to the beach when we have several in basic red and white.
4. I enjoy social gatherings with my girlfriends such as bunko, girl’s poker, pokeno and book club. And, I don’t have time to read the books so I go to listen, socialize and drink wine.
5. I feel guilty because I don’t get around to exercising as frequently as I want - almost non-existent at this point as I’m working hard on close deadlines.
5 things going on in my creative world.
1. In October, I signed with a fabulous agent, Jewel Branding & Licensing and am very excited about this partnership.
2. I’m working on several new art collections and am looking forward to seeing new products created with my art at the January markets.
3. I’m putting together a quilt e-book.
4. I’ve been creating Christmas crafts to share with my blog readers.
5 things that really inspire me.
1. Color, lots of it.
2. Humor
3. Nature, especially the greens
4. Flowers, even though this is technically part of nature.
5. People - family, friends, and other artists. I’m also really inspired by the paintings of Matisse - love all his work.
Be sure to leave a comment and be included in a drawing for a prize.
I know! Its not even Thanksgiving yet! But when you are hand making gifts or decorations for Christmas, there is never enough time. Between now and Christmas, I will be posting some Christmas projects. I hope that enjoy them and even make a few - as always, I would love to see what you make.
When I am giving a gift of wine to friends or as a hostess gift, I always look for a cute bottle bag. But, with this easy pattern and some felt, you can make a snowman bottle wrap to use instead of the bag. In addition, it can be used throughout the season to display a bottle of wine. So when you are making one (or more) for gifts, make one for yourself.
Aren’t the colors in this quilt fun and make you want to celebrate! And this quilt also helps to celebrate a worthy cause. I wanted to show you the celebration quilt that I designed in for the recently published quilt book “Think Pink” published by House of White Birches. Celebrate Each Step is 44″ x 52″ and is made with fabrics from Quilting Treasures.
This book is filled with projects to give comfort to women as they battle breast cancer, plus a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each book goes to breast cancer research. I hope you make this quilt and help a worthy cause at the same time.
I have created a free pattern for you to make this tote bag. I designed it with my fabric collection “It’s a Dog’s Life” for Quilting Treasures by Cranston Printworks. As you can see, the fabric collection features very whimsical dogs and will generate plenty of smiles. The tote is easy to make and can be finished in a couple of hours. The tote has large pockets on each side made with different dog blocks. The bag is lightly quilted with stipple quilting.
Enjoy! And I would love to see a photo of any totes that you make with this pattern.
I just received the August issue of Quilter’s World magazine and am excited to share it with you. I designed one of the quilts in this issue - Daisy Pocket Quilt. Its an easy-to-make quilt that would be perfect for kids and teens because it has pockets to hold their “stuff”. I designed it in the bright colors of “Kids Go Green” fabrics from Quilting Treasures to add a dramatic accent for a wall.
I stipple quilted this quilt in an all-over pattern, a technique that I love, but outline or echo quilting would also work well with this quilt. It would also be a great project for a new sewer or quilter in your family.
Thanks for stopping by and and stay tuned - I have lots more to show you!
I have been trying to catch up all week from a whirlwind trip to Atlanta for the Gift Market. I always return home tired but inspired - tired from the constant walking because the market is so huge and inspired from meetings, visiting with friends and the excitement that just comes from market.
It was encouraging to see that the buyers there were buying, although more cautiously. A lot of the showrooms were really busy, especially for gifts over home decor items. Also, lower price items were selling better than the really high price items.
I had some great meetings with discussions on new products using my art to debut at the January show. Meanwhile I was thrilled to see some of my new products that I have been working on the past few months. Most of the products were still in sample form, but here is one, a “Chick Power” garden flag for Evergreen that is available in 2 sizes.
I can’t wait to show you my other products but will have to wait until they are completely finished and in catalogs.
Is always fun to catch up with friends, plus make some new ones. I had a fun evening with a dinner with several friends at Azio’s (one of my favorite restaurants in Atlanta). From left to right - yours truly - me, Joyce Shelton, Barbara Barnett, Brenda Pinnick, BJ Lantz, and Carol Eldridge. I guess you can figure out what happens when 6 women get together - lot of talk and more talk, and most important - lots of laughing.
Frequently, I am so focused on what I’m doing, I loose track of time - you know, a few hours. But this week, I lost an entire day. I have really been focusing on creating new art and designs. I did not pay attention to the calendar on my computer or any of the other ways I keep track of time such as mentally noting each day.
Yesterday, as I was working, I wondered if it was Tuesday or Wednesday, hoping for Tuesday, but really knowing it was Wednesday. So this morning when I woke up, I asked my husband if it was Thursday. To my surprise, he told me it is Friday. Gee, now I’ve got to go double time as I’m behind where I had planned to be at this point. My husband insists that I was present and accounted for each day, no alien abduction.
So, back to the “drawing board”.
I wish each of you a great and safe 4th of July! I do know that its tomorrow, since its on Saturday and today is Friday!
My life has been going to the dogs recently, but in a good way. I’ve been sewing and quilting with the whimsical dog fabrics that I designed. The collection, It’s a Dog’s Life, is available from Quilting Treasures, a Cranston company. I recently designed and made this quilt, which will be featured on a segment of Martha Pullen’s Sewing Room on PBS this fall.
The pattern is available on Quilting Treasures website for downloading the free pattern in PDF format.
WELCOME! I invite you to visit with me in my studio. I create illustrations and designs for art licensing. I also design fabrics, quilts, needlework and textile products. I will share my latest news on illustration and designing as well as interesting tidbits on artist friends, books, traveling and anything else I run across. I would LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU and appreciate your visits.
