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Positive Change

There have been a lot of changes around here with the New Year. I have been reflecting on my business plan and making changes in the areas where I want the business to grow the most. One thing that will never change is my commitment to using unique images.

I was looking through my cards and I noticed that some of the original ones could use a makeover. I have a number of cards that feature my flower illustrations. These were the perfect cards to spruce up a bit. Rather than just have a print of my illustrations I wanted to design with them and create some unique compositions.

Here are the before and after photos of some of the cards. Let me know what you think of the changes by commenting below.

Original lily illustration done with watercolors. Purchase online here. Like on Facebook here.

Original poppy illustration done with markers. Purchase online here. Like on Facebook here.

Original illustration done in Adobe Illustrator. Purchase online here. Like on Facebook here.

Spring Fling

On Saturday, JLiB kicked off the new season of craft shows at MMS's Spring Fling. This show was a rain check event for the Valentine's Day show which had almost a foot of snow fall on the weekend of the event. Each year MMS hosts two shows, one near Valentine's Day and one near Halloween. I love going to these shows because the group of vendors are great, the coordinator is awesome and I do well at them!

My table display! My sign is made of individual parts so it can be hung different for every show.

Some close up shots. The card display on the right is made from an empty drawing pad. Its light weight and  the colored background is easy to swap out for different occasions.

Step By Step Easter Illustration

One thing that makes my business special is how unique my products are. Most of my cards feature original illustrations. For Easter I was really excited to draw some adorable, fuzzy animals. Here is a look at how I created the image for one of my Easter cards.

First I start by pulling some photo references. I used a number of photos of rabbits and baby ducks along with an old book of animal illustrations I have admired since I was a kid. Drawing from photos helps me to keep the realistic anatomy of the animal. I start sketching the largest animal so I know what size to draw the ducks. These sketches are loose and far from perfect. In fact, the final illustration is far from perfect but that's the style I wanted. I start inking the drawing from the foreground and work my way back. After erasing the pencil marks I begin to add color in the form of chalk pastel pencils. I like to be creative with color blending and for this Easter illustration I had lots of colors in mind. Once I'm happy with the illustration I scan it and from there I can print out as many as I need.

And here is the card I made to feature the illustration:

Gotta have it? Purchase this card online, here!

New Year, New Supplies

I was very fortunate this year, as I am every year, to receive such thoughtful gifts from loved ones. I'd imagine that I am pretty easy to shop for. Everyone knows to get me craft supplies :)

This is just a highlight of some of the craft supplies I got this year. After spending month on Christmas crafting it was a nice break to play with some of my new toys! I got a three pack of birthday themed embossing folders so I thought that would be a good place to start. I also got some birthday stamps, new ink and some awesome patterned paper in fun colors.

I developed three different card ideas using almost exclusively my new products. After looking through everything and getting a feel for what I wanted to use, I sketched out some layouts.

Next I used my embossing folders for my focal points on my cards and also a background for one of the cards. After the papers got embossed I used some of my new ink to add a shimmer to highlight the raised edges. I used this technique for the celebrate and the candle card. By doing this, I am accentuating the texture created by the dry emboss and also making plain paper look special. 

As for the balloons, I used my Prismacolor markers to add some extra color to the card. The other cards have a green and orange theme so I wanted this card to be a little different in it's color pallet.

I had fun background paper for two of the cards but I needed to create a background for the candle card. I used my new ink and stamps to create a typographic background. I started by stamping the word "celebrate" in different colors. Positioning the word in lines. To add excitement I have the word in different colors and positions on the line. I added the dots to fill in space between the lines of text. They add to the linear quality I was going for and also add more variety. I inked them with all the colors "celebrate" is found in to create a nuance from orange to green.

After some cutting and embellishing, here are the finished cards.

I stamped "wish BIG" and used a 3D mounting technique to pop it off the card. I added star confetti to the celebrate card for some added sparkle. You can really see the shimmery ink on the candle card.

Gotta have one of these birthday cards? They are all for sale at my online store, here.