Illustration Friday - winter

Things Made With My Fabric

I made a case with my fabric for my new ipod touch (...greatest ipod EVER). The outside fabric is from my Felicity collection, and inside is lined with purple felt. It matches my purple gel ipod case, naturally. I used an iron-on fusing material to fuse the cotton and the 2 layers of felt together, so it protects the ipod. It came out well, but I think I'm going to have to try a new one, since there is no room for my headphones. I'm thinking I should add a front pocked for them. Hmmmm....

Happy Holidays

Christmas is about a week away, and I've done nothing to prepare, except for my Christmas card. I submitted an illustration to They Draw And Cook's holiday recipe contest, and my fingers are crossed! I like it so much, that I used this for my card this Christmas... and yes, that's really my grandma, and yes, she's really said those things to me - several times :) I showed her the illustration and got her blessing before submitting it, and now she keeps asking when I'm going to win. Love you Gram!

UPDATE: What timing! Today my recipe was on They Draw And Cook. You can see it here.

More fabric shots

Here's a few more photos of the assortment of fabric that arrived recently.

Ladies Night - cotton

Bauble - cotton

Felicity - cotton

Sugar Pop - flannel

Grandpa

Rest in peace, Grandpa. I love you and I will miss you so much.

New header!

Its FREEZING here in NH this week, so I'm calling it - its winter! (Yes I know I'm a bit early, but really, its COLD.) Life with Sam needed a new header to celebrate.

Look what came in the mail....

Hooray! Sample yardage of my fabric arrived today - thank you UPS guy! For the past year I've been working with Eugene Textiles who has been making my artwork in to beautiful beautiful fabric, thats sold in JoAnn's and Hancock Fabrics, to name a couple places. Here's a sneak peak of just a few things that came - there's a lot of different collections, and it will take me awhile to photograph it all. I'll post more later. Yippeee! What a lovely birthday! (Yep, its my birthday today! Speaking of Eugene Textiles, the great people there that I've been working with called and sang me happy birthday - in English AND in French. I was impressed.)

Time to get sewing....

Fresh - cotton

On The Farm - flannel

In The Doghouse - cotton

Bloom - cotton

And here's the color version

My newest collection - Halloween Night. I like it! I hope other people do too :)

New Collection for Halloween

Sure, its a little late for Halloween, but I've been working on this one for awhile and I'm almost done. It was time for a new fun spooky collection, and here's a sneak peak.....

Poor Sam

This isn't art related, but it does have to do with Sam.... he's got fleas, poor buddy. Here's a shot of his 3rd bath in the past 5 days. Thankfully, I think we're starting to win the battle against the fleas.

This pencil is confused.

I recently bought some colored pencils for an after-school art class I'm teaching for elementary school kids, and found that one of the pencils is having an identity crisis. Poor buddy.

Time for a new header!

It was way overdue... the header needed some color, not just a white background anymore. Welcome to autumn, Sam!

They Draw And Cook

Here's my submission for the blog They Draw And Cook. Now that its fall, I can't wait to go apple picking and make this again.

The Yellow Dog's Barn

I recently did some signs for The Yellow Dog's Barn, a fantastic dog daycare in Barrington, NH with a newly expanded retail space. My own Sam goes here, and loves the gals who own it, Holly and JoAnne. Each time we pull into the parking lot he starts whining, urging me to open the door faster so he can get to his friends, and when I pick him up in the evening, he is happy and exhausted. The Yellow Dog's Barn store now includes a great selection of dog and cat food, toys, supplies, clothes and everything in between. Stop by and say hi, and check out the pretty new signs!

Illustration Friday - dessert

Yum.

What I'm working on....

I've been creating a new collection for licensing - Woodland Creatures. Its a cute little thing, geared for baby/toddler, and is still a work in progress.... I'm loving the colors though. Its a nice change from my usual brights.

Illustration Friday - artificial

Robot love.

Birthday Wishes Scrapbooking Materials

Look what I got last week - lots of beautiful samples of my Birthday Wishes collection of scrapbooking materials, made by Momenta Inc. Its in stores now, and you buy online here.

illustration Friday - giant

Giant bird, little worm.... this is an oldie, but a goodie...

Surtex 2010

Back to life.. back to reality... everyone sing it with me!

I am back from Surtex 2010 and the National Stationery Show, and I am inspired and invigorated, and I have the fantastic feeling once again that THIS is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life - being an illustrator! I think with a creative career, heck maybe with any career, you go through ups and downs and periods of self doubt. But going to the show, and taking a couple great seminars and hearing other people's stories, made me connect once again with what I know to be true - this is my path. I was able to catch up with people in the industry that I know, and meet a bunch of others that I didn't. I saw some friends from school, some former colleagues, and some artists that I highly admire, and of course I spent some time with my lovely agent Kolea and her lovely assistant Lynette.

Artists of Kolea booth:

Here's my agent, Kolea Baker. She was being interviewed by a Surtex guy and was on camera at the time.

This year I took a couple of the seminars that Surtex offers - Core Basics Part II - this was an introduction to the world of art licensing, how it works, some tips and tricks for those just starting out. It wasn't anything I hadn't heard before, but it was a great reminder of how the industry works and it was very good to hear some things that made me say "yeah, I should be doing that" about several things that were talked about. I also attended The Art of Success, which was a panel of 3 well known and respected artists - Beth Logan, Kate McRostie, and Dena Fishbein - talking about their careers, how they started out, what they do to become and remain successful. I am so glad I went to this one - what made this particular seminar so good for me, was hearing Beth Logan talk about her first several years exhibiting at Surtex, and how everyone loved her art when they saw it, but not getting any calls or emails returned month after month, and doing it all again the next year, and nothing happening, and so on and so forth for awhile. I feel like that is MY story, and I hope against hope that I can achieve even a part of the success that Beth has. Yes, things have picked up in the last year for me, but only a little. Hearing these ladies speak made me feel much better about my art and my career choices, and excited to get back home to my studio.

At the M.Middleton booth at the Stationery show - they are a division of DesignDesign - I saw the purse pads that I created last fall - YAY! They looked so good and I was so excited to see that some of my flowers were used on the wall display of the booth, along with what I think is the talented Jess Volinski's butterfly. I did two of the purse pads that they had, and when I asked someone in the booth if it was ok if I took a photo, I unknowingly asked Anna Post - granddaughter of Emily Post - Anna has a line of wedding stationery produced by DesignDesign. Wow a famous person! Sort of! :) She was super nice and found someone for me to ask about taking pics.

These two are mine:

The wall display:

Anna Post & me:

Now I'm home again, and will get to work on the post-show "to do" items... ie: sending lots of emails. It was good to get away, but its even better to be home again.

Headed to NY

I'm leaving in the morning for Surtex - whoo hoo the work is done! I will take a seminar or two while I'm there, catch up with some friends, and with some clients, and soak in the inspiration. Here are some of the magnet giveaways I made, and will have in the booth for all to take. Sorry the color is crappy - its late and I have yet to pack. Gotta get off the computer! Good luck to the SLC ladies at the NESCBWI conference this weekend - I can't wait to hear about it!

Illustration Friday - fearless

I did this one a couple years ago... and thought it fit this week's theme....

Getting Ready for Surtex 2010

Just one week to go until I leave for Surtex - as always its held at the Javit's Center in NYC. I've been locked in my home, work work working my fingers to the bone - and there is a light at the end of the tunnel! Yahoooo! I've finished up my final collection before the show - titled "Back to School" and you can get a sneak peek here, including one of the handouts I've designed. What I have left to do is print out all my artwork and get my portfolio books ready, and finish up the handouts and giveaways as well, and get myself over to FedEx in a timely manner! I think I've decided not to make any mock-ups of products featuring my art this time, because I have a lot of stuff already from January. But.... I do have a week left, so maybe I'll change my mind :)

So if you're coming to Surtex and the National Stationery Show, stop on by booth 321-323 Artists of Kolea to see my work.

Also, I got a lovely shout-out this week from Bowie at print&pattern! Click here to see. She's been featuring exhibitors in her blog, so I sent her some stuff and I guess she liked it! Thanks Bowie!