The Large Print Project on Kickstarter

A little shout out and ask for support for my friend and colleague Deborah Velasquez. Deborah has recently launched her Kickstarter project The Large Print Project 

For those not familiar with Kickstarter, it is a crowdsourcing, fundraising platform for all creatives. Individuals dream up a project and ask for support to help back their project. It is a successful platform, with 44% of projects reaching their targeted goal to date.

Deborah is a maker. Her passion is art and design, whether it be hand carving her stamps or  silkscreening her scarves.The goal of her Large Print Project  is to raise funds to purchase the silkscreen equipment necessary to produce larger, multi-color works of art. The equipment will help create and make in larger quantities and help move her creative business to the next level.

Deborah is passionate about her work. She is a supportive friend and colleague in our design community, always offering up advice or encouragement.

I have enjoyed watching her growth over the past few years.I admire her tenacity. She is always learning and always available with an open mind to discuss new ideas and projects. She enjoys the challenge that art provides and is always ready to tackle a project. This is her biggest one to date!

Help bring Deborah’s project to life. She is half way there ~ her deadline is December 10th. Backers can donate anywhere from $1 up. The beauty about being a backer is you even receive a little  present in return! Really!  A nice little thank you for your support. (You have to visit her page to find out more!)

All details are over here on The Large Print Project. I love her video and watching her in action. Always in amazement that she never gets ink on those beautiful rings of hers too!

Thanks Everyone!

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Happy Halloween!

 

Happy Halloween from all of us here in Tapleys Farm, Whistler B.C

This neighbourhood is not for the faint of heart when Halloween rolls around. Fifty decorated homes, 500 screaming children, 20,000 pieces of candy, bonfires, mulled wine, music, fireworks…Utter chaos.

I have my tickle trunk full of costumes from naughty to nerdy all ready for last-minute costume prep. There are always the token few who don’t like to dress up, but then can’t resist getting in the spirit of it all. I guarantee my hand painted snowflake pants will be coming out to play, but I am not sure what will be accompanying them this year.

I like to leave my costume to the last-minute ~ always have, always will.

 

 

 

Sharing a few Halloween inspired sketches and artwork created for A Fresh Bunch.  Halloween is one of the top commercial holidays and I am realizing that I will be needing to create a lot more art licensing work for it. This is a start!

 

Hope your Halloween weekend is full of mini chocolate bars.

Best of luck staying out of the Halloween candy! I have failed miserably.

 

Happy Valentines to you from the Believe Creative team!

Happy to be here today to wish you all a Happy Valentines! I am joining in with Believe Creative Studio today to participate in a lovely bloghop sending love from all of us….to you!

You should be arriving here from MaryJane Mitchells blog. If you would like to start from the beginning, hop on over to Rosie’s blog.

I have really enjoyed the past two months spent as a guest designer for Believe- Creative Studio.The past 8 weeks have been fun designing for the children’s market. We are all ready for the big show – Indigo, Paris Feb 18th -20th, 2014

It has has been quite the roller coaster ride of emotion preparing designs for the show.I have loved every moment of it. I will share all my lessons learned with you next week on the blog. Today, is just a glimpse into the lives of the other guest designers behind Believe Creative.

Next up, Zoe Dieteren-Brenchs blog,  a designer all the way from the Netherlands.

Have a lovely weekend! I will be back blogging on a regular basis next week. See you then!

Inspired by Make Art that Sells – Part B

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here (only 71 days to go…)

Last week had me designing Christmas greetings for the paper market for Part B of Lilla Rogers Make Art that Sells. While Christmas is just around the corner, it was no easy task getting in the mood. The sun was shining, my outdoor deck was calling and while the snow is slowly creeping down the mountain, winter feels far, far away!

I did a bit of cruising around on Pinterest, googled vintage christmas images and even pulled out some old Christmas cards and decorations. I heard others had the christmas music blasting ~ I had to draw the line there! No festive FaLaLa’s for me. I just couldn’t face the music.

I am looking at this project as a way to ease into it all. If anything I am hoping it will find me a tad more organized then normal..I  will admit that during my research stage I ended up pinning many a homemade gift.

I have set myself some goals this time around for Make Art that Sells. The amount of info can sometimes be a bit overwhelming especially combined with the amount of creative work involved.

My goals for this time around include  ~ Icons, icons and more icons! I am going to practice my patience and spend more time creating smaller pieces. I am also really hoping to work on my color schemes and my POP value. My goal over the next 5 weeks is to develop 5 more  strong portfolio pieces with some corresponding patterns for each.

Work in progress – light, dark, birds, owls, more snowflakes…help?

Part B covers 5 more markets all in need of art! I am super excited about learning the ways of the paper, party paper and scrapbooking market. I am very interested in the baby apparel market. I am plain old terrified of the editorial market.I am not even sure what the editorial market is all about and have decided to leave it as a surprise instead of stressing over it right now.

In true julie fashion I know I am going to love all of it which is not going to help me in my decision to narrow it all down and specialize, but then why take all the fun out of it?!

My almost finished piece for this weeks market.If I had to do my own critique on it I would say it is definitely going in the right direction, however I still think it needs to be a bit more festive and fun.Maybe some christmas lights strung through the trees and a few more woodland creatures celebrating.The silent night type has to go. Any other suggestions?

What did I learn this week?

I hope all my Canadian friends had a wonderful ThanksGiving weekend. It was a beautiful, crisp and colorful weekend here in Whistler! Lots to be thankful for.

Pop by later this week for another Creative Process piece by Lindsay Buck of SlumberMonkey Designs.

See you then!

Modern Yardage ~ fresh & contemporary fabric!

I am very happy to officially announce that I have been invited to join the Modern Yardage fabric team!

A new digital textile fabric manufacturer, Modern Yardage is dedicated to bringing fresh, contemporary, fun fabrics to the modern sewist. Created to help solve the problems that the fabric industry faces by taking away the speculation on trends, popular print shortages and scarcity, and limited color and scale offerings, Modern Yardage is rethinking the traditional fabric manufacturing process and offering something new to the industry.

I have done the happy dance many times about this, but it still never grows old for me. I am very excited!

I was hesitant to announce it until I had the goods in hand. The Pantone chart was not enough.I needed to see it to believe it.

I wanted swatches with my designs…

My first strike-offs for the Willow Wisp collection

I almost drove my poor mailman mad waiting for this. He actually waited for me to open it, which was only slightly unnerving. I had visions of user error – crazy colors and no-peats – Instead, I was greeted by super soft fabric and rich, saturated color all in perfect repeat.I may have had a moment:)

Without further ado – My first collection.

The Willow Wisp Collection

Willow Wisp comes to you in three colorways.  It also comes in 3 sizes! Big and bold or smaller scale ~ you make the choice on how you would like to customize your fabric project.

Lots of inspiration for your sewing and crafting needs!

The colors are bright and saturated! I will add real,live shots later to give you a better understanding of the color. Sometimes the computer screen can be a little off!

I can’t wait to see what others create with this design. There is something quite special about seeing your design beautifully crafted or sewn into something special. I am hoping that I get the opportunity to collaborate on some sewing projects.If you are interested, please connect with me!

For more Modern Yardage fabric and inspiration, please visit our Pinterest page!

Connect with us here!
Website
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Pop on over, meet the other designers and discover what’s so special about Modern Yardage!

Inspired by…surface pattern design

Kind of where I am at right now….

Patiently waiting for April to roll around, bringing with it the  start of my new online class

The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design.

I am asked by many who are willing to listen to me….  The what??

This will give you an idea…

Wallpaper, clothing, home accessories, my favorite coffee cup from Anthropologie….if you look around you will start to notice print and pattern everywhere!

Someone has to design it…. I am ready to learn.

Heres a little blurb  about Rachel Taylor and her course. Maybe it is something that would interest you too?

Thriving surface pattern designer Rachael Taylor will guide you along this exciting path from developing your signature style to putting a collection together, and from protecting your work to monetising your designs. With a rich combination of design inspiration, practical advice, demonstrations, creative exercises, resources and interviews with leading industry practitioners, this is the go-to guide for anyone wanting to develop their design skills and break into the industry.

Module 1: Designing your way (5 weeks Apr 23-May 26)

Module 2: Creating your professional identity (5 weeks June 18-July 21)

Module 3: Monetizing your designs (5 weeks September 3- October 6)*

You can do one or all three modules. I signed up for the whole meal deal. I like to jump in…

Truth be told I am a perpetual student, happiest when learning.  I love the daily inspiration it provides. The challenge it presents. The barrage of new ideas and dreams it creates.

Ahh more sleepless nights to come~ too much excitement  ….It is very hard being me.

So until my time arrives, I have started sketching in my journal, collecting inspirational color combinations and playing with design on my computer. My inspiration board is filling up!

For now that is all I have…

Have a fabulous weekend!