Memorial Day Weekend Sale at theStudio
Just a quick post to remind you that theStudio is having a Memorial Day Weekend Sale starting tomorrow (Saturday). It’s a progressive sale … the longer you wait, the bigger the discount. Don’t worry about my stuff, though … My entire store remains at 40% through June 5th.
Grand Opening redux
As I mentioned yesterday, today (May 22nd) is the official Grand Opening of my Commercial Use Store at theStudio. The announcement came out in today’s Studio newsletter along with a freebie. If you don’t get theStudio Newsletter, you can subscribe on their blog (upper right-hand corner). They have several different newsletters you can choose from and they typically include a freebie or two. Fortunately, for you unsubscribers, there is an archive of past newsletters also on the blog and you can see today’s here.
One of today’s freebies included one from me. This is a special freebie because it’s for Commercial Use and is a sampler from a couple of my products. It includes one of my Sunprints papers, a Peony Dahlia, and a Ribbon Rose. This freebie is exclusive to theStudio newsletter, so you will have to check out their archives to download it.
BTW — I just heard there’s a big sale this weekend at theStudio. SO, by subscribing to the newsletter, you get even more information about this weekend’s sales.
HUGS!!!
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Official Grand Opening!!!
My official Grand Opening at theStudio is tomorrow and my 40% off sale will now run until June 5th. The announcement will be going out in tomorrow’s Studio Newsletter, but here’s a sneak peak at my “Ad” …
In conjunction with the Grand Opening, I’ve released two more products bringing the grand total up to 22 products in my store.
First up, some new flowers. These were a bit of a whim that happened after reading an article on Dahlias in Sunset Magazine. I was amazed at all the petal forms and decided to try replicating one or two. Naturally, being the fool I am, I tried one of the more complicated ones … you will NOT see the results of that one. I then tried an easier form called the Peony Dahlia … and that is what you see below.
My second release is #3 in my series of Sunprints. While the colors are still vibrant, this batch is a bit more to the pastel side. With the pattern in these, you’ll see some dyed in folds along with some grids. The grid is the result of what I used to hold the fabric down … NEVER try doing Sunprints on a windy day without something interesting to hold things down.
Like the rest of my store, these are 40% off until June 5th. If you’re interested in buying them, just click on the previews above.
Finally, I can’t begin to thank those of you who have not only made purchases, but also provided all the encouragement … BUT … I especially want to thank AND acknowledge Karen Schultz aka Snickerdoodle Designs by Karen. This lady has not only spent time answering a bazillion questions, she was the person who I credit with getting me on board at theStudio. While I may have been able to do all this without her … I would NOT have been doing it so soon … NOR would I have ended up with such an amazing lady as a friend.
HUGS!!!
Read MoreNew Products – Overlays and Brushes
Monday morning and I’m ready to share my three latest products … and there’s a freebie involved. First up is some texture overlays: Roughed Up and Veins 2. As are all my products, my newest ones are on sale for 40% off until the end of the month.
The first one — Roughed Up — is a set of 6 overlays that I created from scans of some of my textile work. The actual textiles didn’t come out as planned (as in ugly), but I decided to try a trick that Karen (Snickerdoodle Designs) suggested to me once before (another experiment that failed) — see how they look grayscale. My failure made for some killer overlays … a little grungy with a great fabric texture.
My other overlays are a second look at creating veins. As soon as I made my first set, I wanted to try making some with a bit more variation in the veins. This experiment worked and I now have a Veins 2. Same idea as Veins 1 … use these overlays to create the look of a veined stone or just experiment to get that different look in your papers.
And now to the brushes, which I called Punchinella 1. If you’re not familiar with punchinella, you might know it by another name: scrim or sequin waste. Whatever you call it, it’s a staple of mixed-media artists. We use it as a stencil, we add it into our paint, we cut it into pieces … then I suddenly thought of another way to use punchinella: turn it into brushes.
Now you can have some virtual punchinella to do all kinds of things with … and that, my friends, is the basis for my freebie. I wanted to show you two ways you can use these brushes up close and personal. The first way is to simply make some punchinella elements by adding a style to them. For my elements, I created a kind of rainbow colored background pattern then added a slight bevel to it.
I also used the brushes to create the paper I used for the background in the preview. This time I used a mask on the brushes to make it fade into the paper. I then added a slight bevel and a small drop shadow. To give the paper some texture, I used one of my Roughed Up overlays.
To download these, just click on the preview … then let me know what you think of them.
HUGS!!!
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More Flowers
Almost forgot to post this …
In addition to the designer mix I told you about yesterday, I also released another pack of flowers. This time, the flowers are from my garden and are called Spring Mix because to me, spring is all about flowers. I stalk them … when I see a bud on one of my plants, I start watching it … almost hourly with some of them … and, with my trusty camera kept close by, I’m SO ready to snap a picture of them when they finally decide to bloom.
Lucky for you, I have even more flower photos that I have yet to extract …
This pack is normally $4.50, but like the rest of my store, they’re 40% off until the end of the month. Just clicky, clicky (sorry … tired of saying “click”) on the preview if you want to purchase them.
Be sure to check back to see what I have in store for next week … I’ve really got the creative mojo going …
HUGS!!!
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My Store is Growing – Designer Mix Vintage 2
I’ve got some more releases, but I’m only going to tell you about one today. It’s another designer mix and it’s another vintage one (as in Designer Mix – Vintage 2). Again, more things I have around the house with a ribbon rose thrown in for good measure. I do need to let you know that the 3 picture frame is small … it really does compare in size to the fork … that’s why I put the fork where I did in the preview. That particular frame (in real life) contains pictures of my husband and his two sisters when they were wee babes and sits on the top of my husband’s roll top desk along with his brass plated baby shoes (yes … in the olden days that was a real popular thing to do to baby shoes).
Once again I’ve added some more letters from my uncle along with some of the mystery photos. The fork is part of a set I inherited from my grandmother (that’s a “G” for Greenfield on it). Funny story, she had a 12 piece place setting … unfortunately, I have a sister who I had to divide it with so I only have a 6 piece setting … but that means I’m good for a couple of more Vintage mixes.
Full price for this mix is $4.50, but, like the rest of my store, it’s 40% off until the end of the month. AND … if you’ve not read any of my earlier posts … just click on the preview to get to the product’s page in my store at theStudio.
HUGS!!!
Read MoreWatercolors and Sunprints — Oh My!
Just a quick post for today, but I did want to show you 2 more products I’ve released. It’s two paper packs: Sunprints 2 and Watercolors 2 (sensing a theme yet?). 
The full price for these is $4.00 each. Lucky for you, like my other releases, these are on sale for 40% until the end of the month. PLUS, I’ve made it real easy for you to buy them … just click on the previews above.
HUGS!!!
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Flowers – Real and Imagined
I just release 5 new products in my CU Store at theStudio, so get ready for some more show and tell. Today I’m going to show you 3 of them, all of which are flowers … perfect for that customer of yours that is a cluster fanatic.
The first one I’m going to show you are the real flowers. They are from photos I took while visiting my kids Nana. Her garden is absolutely amazing and I love wandering around in it taking pictures. Their yard is so beautiful and well maintained it was awarded the Garden of the Month this past January (see below). Notice things are already starting to bloom and it’s early January!!!
This package of flowers is called Nana’s Garden (I figured Dad wouldn’t mind even though he does help a lot in the yard). This is a package of 5 camellias and 2 leafy branches. I’m hoping to capture a full year of her garden, so this is actually Nana’s Garden 1.
The next 2 products are my pretend Flowers both of which are based on one of my favorite flowers, the cottage rose. The first pack contains 5 roses made from ribbon, thus the name Ribbon Roses.
This next pack contains 5 paper roses that I made while playing around with my Silhouette Cameo. Although I have the designer edition of Silhouette Studio, I actually started off in Illustrator and traced the initial flower. But this isn’t a tutorial, it’s suppose to be me showing off (but I do plan on doing some tutorials in the future). Naturally, I did a lot of additional work on these, but I can’t tell you how WONDERFUL it is to not have to cut/punch out all the layers by hand. My Cameo does all the hard work and I get the fun stuff. Anyway, this pack I actually called Cottage Roses.
So, that’s it for today. All packs are on sale for 40% off through the end of the month … just click on the preview to get to their page at my CU Store at theStudio. Full price for Nana’s Garden is $4.50 and the other packs are $4.00 each.
Be sure to check back tomorrow for the unveiling of the 2 other items I released … or just head over to my store and check them out ahead of time.
HUGS!!!
Read MoreBatik Papers Tutorial and Freebies
Now that I’ve gone through my original 10 products, I wanted to show how I used a couple of my products — Transparent Overlays – Batiks 1 & Brushes – Watercolor Splashes 1 — to create some Batik Papers.
For the papers in the sampler, I used the distressed overlays. I created a new document in Photoshop (12-in x 12-in @ 300 dpi). I then placed one of the overlays on the layer above the background making sure it’s centered on the page. Using my watercolor brushes, I started stamping away on the Background layer.
I realize I could have created the background without loading in the overlay, but I did it this way so I could see how the background played against the overlay. It’s funny just how much different things look when you have a pattern over the top of the background you’re working on. Once I got something I close to what I liked, I used a little Gaussian Blur to soften it (you don’t have to do this if your already happy with what you have).
You can leave the overlay black, but I really was looking to make something that looked like batik fabric so I started playing around with coloring the overlay. There are a lot of ways to do this, but my favorite way (because I’m lazy) is by creating a layer above the overlay layer and clip it to the overlay. My reasoning for doing things this way is because I can play with color/blend modes without have to use the extra “clicks” to bring up the effects dialog. All I have to do to change the color is pick a new one and use the paint bucket to dump it onto that layer. I can then use keyboard shortcuts (CMD + or CMD – for the Mac; Shift + or Shift – for the PC) to change the blend modes and I still haven’t had to open the “effects” dialog.
Once I got the combination I liked, I added a textured overlay (a fabric for these) and, using my keyboard shortcuts, played around with the blend modes and transparency. All that is left is to save this out as a jpg and you have your batik paper.
Questions (maybe I can get someone to take now)??? If not, enjoy and don’t forget to download your freebie. Just click on the preview to download it.
HUGS!!!
Read MoreOverlays – Textured and Transparent
The last 2 products, out of my original 10, are overlays. The first one is a set of 6 grayscale overlays that I called Veins. These crazy things are the result of trying to find a way to imitate veined stones. They may not be perfect, but they definitely stand out … plus they’re not like anything you’ve every seen before.
The second product is a set of transparent overlays called Batiks. There are 3 unique overlays, one set of 3 is solid and the second set is distressed. If you love the look of batik fabric, these are the overlays for you. I even included the sample you see in the preview. These look really cool used over my watercolor paper or even the sunprints (or, if you must, topping other types of abstract backgrounds). Add a matching color clipped to the overlay and you’re good to go.
Both of these product are typically $4.00 each, but like the rest of my store, they’re 40% off until the end of the month (do I really need to tell you what that works out to be???). Just click on the previews and you will be whisked away to the store page for that product.
So, what do you think??? It’s still so quiet. No problem … I can always talk to myself (although folks are starting to give me strange looks).
Don’t forget to stop back … If all goes to plan, my store should be increasing in size Wednesday and you can count on me showing off again.
HUGS!!!
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