A Sailor and a Seascape

A friend of mine, Kelci, decided she wanted to get a couples portrait for her husband before he got home on leave.... it was supposed to be a surprise, but she got so excited she sent him the picture via phone before he got back. I take that as a compliment. 

Believe it or not, I have lived at the beach for over a year and this is my first seascape. I'm not a huge fan of them, but I felt like this came out well. Simple in both color scheme and composition. 

Such a cute couple!

Jenna and Taylor Couples Portrait

This will be a short post, just enough to explain this portrait.

Jenna asked me to make her a couples portrait for her wedding and I was so excited to do it!

I chose their clothing by stalking them a bit on facebook. I had never met Taylor before the wedding so I had to do more research for him. I asked Jenna what colors they were thinking of using and used that as an starting point.

I am told Taylor was very pleased and wondered at how I knew what he would wear *heh heh*

This was a bit more adventurous of an undertaking for me since I didn't ask before I decided to splatter them all in paint, but I took a little artistic license and I think it worked better than if I'd asked them exactly what they want.

Just look at that adorable couple! I was so happy to be part of your big day and so excited for you two!

p.s. See that hat Taylor is wearing??!!

DIY: Shoe Box into a Vintage Suit Case

So I have had a to-do list in my head of the things I wanted to make that I have found on Pinterest.  This one has been there for a bit, but today I realized I had cleared out a shoe box and was about to throw it away, BUT WAIT! I need that!
So I stripped the shoe box of the wrapping paper that once adorned it and I used cheap acrylic paint to coat the box.....once, twice, and three times in a few spots.

After the paint finally dried, I used a thin marker/felt tip pen/sharpie to draw my lines. I used a ruler for some of the straight lines but the majority I did freehand to achieve that handmade look. (excuse my poor photography)

 I simply copied the patterns from the boxes I saw....which you can check out on my DIY pinterest board.

HINT: when drawing your lines, do put the lid on to mark where the designs on the bottom should end/begin, then take them apart and work on the separately. It is a hassle to try and work with the box all together... or at least I think it is.

So now my bedroom has a new box to hold all my clutter from on my dresser. I may make more for my  arts and crafts storage....maybe in beige next time?

Illustrations with COLOR

As I sat waiting for my car to be inspected and then fixed of its decaying belt and get new windshield wipers, I drew this little blue bird.  He loves Walt Whitman's poetry but is very distracted by sweets and caffeine. I made this card into a card that you can buy on etsy. It is perhaps my new favorite illustration, although the baby fox gives it a run for its money.

jhgkjhkj

Baby fox came from...well his mother. I drew a foxy lady sipping on some champagne but I wasn't satisfied with it. However I did enjoy her small pup sitting off to the side and felt it should be made larger. So I did make it larger. Perhaps around mother's day I'll reintroduce the Foxy Momma, but until then you will have to be satisfied with the wee pup above (in card form).  

Skunks in Love and a Caffeinated Hedgehog

I've been doing some illustrations lately. I've actually really been enjoying it....well other than the whole editing thing that takes forever. I thought if I drew with just black it'd be easy to edit, but I was wrong. 

These both are now made into cards and will be up on my etsy shop. Of course they won't have the red lettering on them. Currently they are blank cards, but if a customer had some thoughts on a good snippet to put inside, it can be arranged. 

I've been feeling the on-coming season change and am willing it to be here even sooner with my inspiring drawings.

DIY Envelope and Cards

I've made a few doodles lately that I have made with the intent of making cards out of them.  AND I actually have.  Here is one doodle and three options of text (thanks to my friends on facebook who liked my facebook page)

 I hope it was otter this world.

 I am otterly astonished!

 ...I miss floating around with you.

I have been printing two to a page of 8.5x11" paper. With my new printer I can actually print things that have no border which makes figuring out image sizes a lot easier.

However I still needed envelopes. I checked online to see what size would best fit and found that the size is actually an A2 envelope. It is sized just large enough for half a piece of paper folded in half.

I checked prices and even looked for a template but the ones I found were not large enough, or I had to pay/sign up for something to get them (blech!). So I took it upon myself to make my own template that I could print out and cut out myself. It is 8.5x11" so if your printer prints without a border just print away.  However you may need to do some math to crop it properly and print if you can't print without borders.

Download Template

Just cut to the inside of the black lines and fold along the dotted lines. Glue the larger tab to the small side tabs only up to where the long angles begin, then once your card is in, fold the top tab down. Notice there is no dotted line by the top tab, that is so that you don't have an ugly black line visible when it is opened.

This is the up-side-down view of the envelope template....I am too lazy to change it on the computer since it doesn't matter when you print it! I know it is nothing fancy and you can make one just as nice, but it's already scanned in and ready for printing for whoever doesn't want to waste the time to make their own. ENJOY!

And if you would like already made cards visit my etsy shop!

Horsing Around

I was given some amazing gifts from my parents for my birthday this past month. Pretty much anything of value that we own comes from one of the sets of parents. Mine gave me a fantastic printer, and my in-laws got me a matching scanner (that can even scan film!! so freakin' sweet)

I was also commissioned in the past month to do a horse painting for a friend. The original is the green/teal one below, but thanks to the use of my nifty scanner and photoshop skills I can now do prints of all different hues!

The original above, a photoshopped version below. So now if anyone desires a horse of any color, I can provide prints.