Mushrooms Recipe Letterhead - TBA

Well it has been a while since I have been in my Zazzle stores because of my computer. I do a little bit here and there and I am happy to say I was welcomed back with a TBA!

A few weeks ago we had quite a bit of rain. Outside my office window was a gigantic mushroom growing in the grass. It wasn't anything special, just a giant blob of white fungus but it inspired me and I began to doodle mushrooms. It so happened that instead of tossing the doodles aside I transfered them into Illustrator and colored them with pretty colors. The final result is what you see above.

It is taking some time to complete the full range of products but they will be done I promise.

Mushrooms 1" Binder

Mushrooms Tie

Mushroom Bag

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Secret Project is Almost Ready

Well, That very special project a friend and I have been diligently working on is almost ready to go to the printers and be proofed. There are a few minor details to sew up and then I can let you all in on it. I know you won't be disappointed at all and I can't wait to share it all with everyone! It is really hard keeping a secret but I am pretty good at it.

Cordelia

Cordelia Invitation

This is my latest design for Pen And Ink called Cordelia. It is funny how things can sometimes spark an idea really. Every morning I happen to watch reruns of the tv show Angel. Now I can practically recite the whole series but I just never seem to get tired of it. Recently I took notice of a particular shirt that one of the characters named Cordelia was wearing. It was a bright orange color with giant circles down the front and back. While I personally could never pull off a look like that it really worked for her and it stuck in my mind. Now fast forward a few weeks and something jarred me to actually get that design out of my head and on to paper, well virtual paper anyway and thus Cordelia was born.

I have set this line up with the ability to change the background color to anything you would like. I personally like the orange but I realize orange can be an aquired taste. Cordelia looks great with a light pink background or a darker colored orange. You also have the ability to change the text colors with ease. It certainly will grab the attention to anyone carrying one of your business cards, of course there are other coordinating products to go along with them.

Cordelia Chubby Business Card

Cordelia Tie

Cordelia 1" Binder

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The Digital Fantasy Art of Nicole L Marques

Looking for distinct original paintings inspired by fantasy? Occitania's Store by Nicole Marques is that place. She is a digital artist among other things and she does it well. Her fantasy paintings bring magic to life and create a dreamlike atmosphere.

Capricorn, postcard by Occitania

I love this painting, in fact it is one of my favorites and it is a beautiful twist on the Sea Goat. The attention to detail is not at all lost here from the shiny pearls of her bodice to the clever hairstyle resembling horns.

Lady and Butterflies! by Occitania

This is another of my favorites depicting a woman rescuing some butterflies from a spiderweb. I love the contrast of the cold dark colors of her surroundings against the brightness of the butterfly wings.

Spring Equinox, postcard by Occitania

When I look at this painting I see a small fairy, on one side is winter, the other spring and she has met the hummingbird to transfer the seasons.

Dream Walk! by Occitania

Dream Walk is so full of detail it takes quite a while to notice everything. Hearts, butterflies, fairies and what I would like to imagine as millions of little fireflies are all tucked away as this lady walks through her dreams.

If you are a fan of fantasy art, you should definitely pay Nicole a visit. Nicole also has other shops on Zazzle.



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New From Pen And Ink

Fun Florals Sticker

I just wanted to take a moment to show what is new over at Pen And Ink before I introduce you to the next artist coming in the next post.

Fun Florals is a new design I drew in Illustrator using custom brushes and swatches. This particular version is more of a muted tone but coming soon will be a bright more colorful version. Right now it is available on all kinds of supplies for your business or personal use, from order forms to recipe cards to handmade by stickers and presentation/recipe/photo binders.

Fun Floral Invitation

Fun Floral 1.5" Binder

Fun Florals Mousepad

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When Life Gives You Gloppy Frisket...

Use Illustrator

I love the idea of frisket, my problem is that it glops up too fast and buying it is a waste of money. Even though I seal the bottle in two zip lock bags and carefully clean the lid and lip of the jar the cap still manages to seal itself shut like a vice grip. After about ten minutes of working at the cap and finally getting the darn thing open I found that my frisket was a gloppy mess as usual. After having removed most of the gooey-ness I began a painting that I woke up with in my head of a little fish.

I love batik and I used to do it all of the time in high school way back when, I love the way it looks and at first I was going to create my very first design of a stork among tropical foliage. Painting a sort of faux batik using watercolor and friskit but somewhere in between it turned into a tropical fish that I must have dreamed about the night before.

Now the original painting was good with exception of the above mentioned friskit. The lines were just too much of a mess to fix and I found myself getting annoyed beyond anything. I was about to scrap the whole idea when I thought "Why not take it into Illustrator and make the lines there and add the painting to it afterwards?"

That is exactly what I did and I think it came out successful. I scanned the original painting into Illustrator and cleaned up the lines by drawing them from scratch. I then moved it into Photoshop and scanned in four sheets of hand-painted watercolor, one each of yellow, green, ocean blue colors and purple. I placed the appropriate color behind the different sections of my new drawing and digitally cut it out. The end result is very close to the original painting only much cleaner. Maybe I shall recreate my very first batik just for the fun of it

Batik Fishy Print

A Quick Little Doodle

Lazy Daisy Ladybugs

These fun little ladybugs are adorned with daisies instead of spots and come in every color of the rainbow.

This design came to me one day at work when it was slow. Not having any paper on me I doodled a little ladybug on my hand so I wouldn't forget what I wanted to work on when I got home. I originally was going to do them in pastels but the weather here has been nothing but rain so I decided on some more bright and cheery colors instead. (although I just may do them in pastels down the road) I decided to draw them in illustrator instead of painting them in watercolor (and that may happen too) So far they have been well received and they come scattered or lined up in a row and are available on everything from skateboards to ties. Hope you enjoy them!

Click Here to see the full line of Lazy Daisy Ladybugs

and Here to see the Keds shoes when they are approved

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Welcoming Baby Cards

New Line Of Baby Cards On GCU!

I often times overlook Illustrator but on occasion I get around to opening it up and playing around with it. Since I don't have a drawing tablet Illustrator is not my first choice to use but I wanted to do another line of simple baby cards for single up to quadruple births and I wanted to make them multi-cultural.

First I started out with the background, I made a small swatch of polka dots in light and dark pink then added it to the swatch pallet. I applied it to my card background and added type on top. To draw the baby I started out with a circle for the face, drew half circles for the eyes, two small circles for the cheeks and placed them accordingly. To make the pacifier I made an oval and placed a half oval on top for the handle.

To make the bonnet and bow I began with a oval made from the pentagon tool. As I was stretching it I held the up arrow so the sides increased to around twenty or so. I used the "pucker and bloat" filter to make the billows in the bonnet. I then added a smaller regular oval to serve as the lip. For the bow I made a triangle and moved the anchor points to round it out. I copied and pasted in front of the first triangle and reflected it to form the other side of the bow. Add a circle for the knot, some lines for the creases, and the bow is finished. For the tails I just drew them freehand with my mouse and repeated the copy, paste, reflect for the other side. I moved the bonnet behind the face and the bow in front and placed it on my card. To change complexions and colors was easy from there by just selecting the items and picking the colors from the color palette. To add extra babies I copied the face after grouping all of the shapes and pasted them.

There are cards for single, twins, triplets and quadruplets and if you need more babies feel free to drop me a line and I will be more than happy to make one up for you. Cards are $2.79 with bulk purchases being lower.

to be continued...