My first podcast – Creative insights from Creative people

Excited to announce that I am Live on Kara Gott Warners Morning Cool Down Show episode 75. Creative insights from creative people.

I spoke about my journey so far in the world of art licensing and surface pattern design. If you follow along here you will know it has been a long, but very enjoyable ride.

Todays show is 45 min. long so grab a coffee and please have a listen. There is even a bit of show and tell.

It is good! I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive. I wasn’t worried about Kara – she is all voice. She is loud and clear and interesting!

I was just a wee bit worried about my performance. Would I hum and huh? Would I laugh too much? Would I provide too much or too little…

Big worries as you can see!

I am very happy to announce it all went well.

Direct link to Karas website which is full of interesting creative podcasts from all types. Great to listen to while creating away because it never hurts to get inspired by others tips and tricks.

My podcast (show notes)

Morning cool Down Podcasts 

Thanks!

Another beautiful weekend is in the forecast. Hope you enjoy it!

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A World of Artist Journal Pages

Getting my crazies out!

That is pretty much how I roll when it comes to my black and white journal pages.

No worry about colour. No thoughts on composition. Not a care in the world how they turn out.

Quite a bit different from my coloured pages where I just can’t help but wish for a good outcome.

I am very happy to say that someone else also liked my craziness.

Three of my black and white pages have been included in  A World of Art Journal Pages curated by Dawn DeVries Sokol.

It is pretty cool to be included especially since I remember my  purchase of her first book, 1000 Artist Journal Pages, very well. It was at Anthropologie in Seattle. I had stood glued to the spot with it for almost an hour. I had never heard of art journalling at the time and I was just in awe of everything in the book. It was definitely an A’ha moment.

Well, this one is no different, except this time I am in it!

I am including my pages today. I like to think of it as a little art therapy for my artistically afflicted ways. If I had have known they would be published I might not have revealed so much or been quite as messy, but then I guess that’s the beauty of it.

One more inspired by rainy day camping in the Pacific Northwest. I was actually sitting outside in the rain under a tarp freezing while this one was created….just trying to make myself happy.

I was hoping to include my favourite pages here, but there are so many great pages. The book is full of a variety of hand lettering, different textures and colours, paint, collage, mixed media and an endless stream of hand drawn goodness. If you are thinking of getting involved in the art journal world then this is a really good place to start. It is full of inspiration.

I love glancing through it again and again because  I find there is always something I have missed the first, second, third… time around. There is an extra bonus too – all  of  the artists websites are published right beside their work so if there is something you fancy and you want a bit more, you don’t have to look far.

A big Thank you to Dawn DeVries Sokol. What a wonderful piece of work you have curated and shared with the world. Well done!

Happy Earth Day!

The birds and the bees,  the water and the trees, flowers, rocks, mountains…..whats not to love?
It inspires me daily.

Happy Earth Day!

Some paper-cut art patterns in honour.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Tropical Inspiration for you from the Big Island

Very happy to be on the Big island of Hawaii again and very happy to report that life is still better at the beach.

It’s still 83F, sunny with cloudy periods,possible showers, an earthquake or two and the possibility of a tsunami. The lava is still flowing but, last I read, all is well. With 8 different ecosystems, mother nature is always up to something here!

For us, as a family, it is time to recharge and get inspired after the winter season in the mountains.

I love discovering new shapes, colours and textures over here. The flora and fauna is so unique and special to the Big Island.I am amazed to still be discovering new buds,seeds and pods after all of my years visiting here.

Always thankful for my big straw hat that spends more time carrying my finds,than on my head. I find it hard to go for a walk or run without picking something up.

Some tropical foliage for your drawing inspiration. Tropical is trending right now. Pineapples, flamingos and large-scale tropical leaves are everywhere.

I have a love on for large tropical leaves. I love any kind of leaf, seed or pod but the more unusual and the bigger, the better.

Sharing some of my favs with you all the way from the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Beach time sketching..

ONE of these things I will not be using for drawing inspiration. Centipedes, ants and the occasional flying cockroach seem to go hand in hand with the tropics.

Sending some Aloha your way!

Trending – Pretty in pastels

Pastel colors  – Baby blue, taffy pink, frosty mint or maybe some lemon ice.

I love their names, but pastel colors are just not on my go-to color list. They are trending though and I have had 2 briefs now calling out for Pastels and Pop so it’s definitely time to have a go at them.

I have to admit that after day of playing around with them, I may have a new-found love.

Soft, milky, washed out colors bring images of candy store treats or carnivals to mind. Unfortunately, I have none of these in my repertoire of motifs  so  I had to play around with what I already had.

Paint chips are a great source of hands on pastel colour inspiration, as are my pantone coloured pencils.

Pastel floral doodles – pretty fun with a nice vintage feel. I believe we once had a picnic table cover just like that packed away in the back of our station wagon for impromptu stops along the road. I also seem to remember a dress with a similar print.

I would be very happy living in a village of pastel coloured houses. I should have made this with canals and it could have been Murano Island.

One thing I have discovered about these colors is that it is hard to make them pop. I originally had this on a white background, but it wasn’t really adding anything to the print. A darker, cobble stone background helped out, but I am definitely going to have to continue working on this one. There is just something about the negative space that is throwing me off.

Have you checked out Emily Kiddys trend boards? I was happy to see this one come out while I had pastels on my mind. You can also pop over to her Pinterest account  for more trend reports and visual eye candy here

 

I love her trend boards and her blog in general. It is full of useful information, pretty graphics and lots of  inspiration. This board alone has already given me a few other ideas to try. Watch out for it!

So does this mean that pastel coloured jeans are coming back ..again..in 2016?

Finding Inspiration in the Leaves of Autumn

Inspired by the abundance of leaves in my  autumn backyard. So many shades of red, yellow and green. Berry branches, old seed heads and a token mushroom or two make my garden a rather special place at this time of year..

A snapshot of what fall looks like around here…minus the never-ending rain.

I know they should all be raked up and my garden put to bed, but I like to think of it as ground cover for the long winter ahead.

I aspire to be a gardener, but while I love everything in the garden, I don’t like the time and energy it takes to deal with my garden. Long ornamental grasses, big rocks and flowering bushes are fine with me for now. I am hoping in time that my feelings may change and I will be motivated to embrace everything it has to offer.

 

Collected on a morning run.

Leaves in my sketchbook.

I have one garden leaf in particular that I love.

I love the shape and changing colour of this leaf as the season progresses.I know I should know what type of bush this belongs to, but I am  sorry, I don’t.

Finding a bit of inspiration from its shape and colours to be used in some surface pattern design.

The beginning of the Bayberry collection – coming soon!

 

May the sun be shining bright where you live. I am sending all of our rain to California where it is needed most.

Finding Inspiration ~ From Shadow to Surface Pattern

Welcome to the Surface Pattern Design by Scratch Bloghop hosted by Bonnie Christine of the Going Home to Roost tribe.

Bonnie recently introduced her new Creative Live course Design Surface Patterns from Scratch.
It offers an in-depth view of Adobe illustrator and is packed with information to help  you  bring your drawings to life.
Have you ever imagined your work on stationery, fabric or digital media? This is a great place to start.

I picked up many illustrator tips and tricks that have helped me on my way to expressing myself digitally.
For todays bloghop, I thought I would share an unexpected source of inspiration for me.
Shadows.

This photo makes me smile. It gives you a pretty good idea of what I was up to. I received many an odd look from others as I took photos of the pavement.

My ride was littered with beautiful shapes and patterns. Needless to say, I was promptly ditched by my riding partners.

They should really know better by now…

Many, very many, photos later, I now have quite a collection of organic, leafy shapes to play with in my art and design.
Bonnie talks extensively in her class about Live Trace. It is my number #1 tool in Illustrator that I use daily. I simply brought these images into Illustrator and live traced them, playing with the settings to obtain different results. From there, with a bit of help from the blob brush and eraser tool, I ended up with a pretty assortment of shapes and textures that I then incorporated into some patterns.

Many of these shapes have also ended up in my drawings and paper collage work.

Pattern play with a hit of some leafy greens and blues inspired by road riding on the Big Island of Hawaii. Who would have thought!?

For more inspiration and a chance to pick up some other tips and tricks ,click back to the starting page here to begin. This hop has been going on daily for 6 weeks now so there is lots of reading entertainment.
Bonnie has also kindly offered up a free month to her Going home to Roost tribe where you can meet others within the Surface Pattern community and learn more about the world of surface design. Go here for more details.

If you haven’t had a chance to visit my bloghop partners,please pop by and visit Emily Truong of EmilyAnn Studio and Nika Martinez!

Thanks for dropping by!

So sorry Blog, but Instagram is my true love these days..

I think I may be breaking up with my blog. I am having mixed feelings about it right now.I feel horrible.

It has served me so well and has always been here for me – I talk, it listens. A perfect place to show and tell.

I cannot lie though. I have discovered another.

One that inspires me, motivates me and is oh, so lovely to look at. One that it is so easy to be around and engage with. One that actually comments and shows lots of love. One that I can carry close to my heart and stays by my side..

My new love…Instagram

My goal ~ to post daily about my creative process and finished product. To make more time for my photography. To connect with others in my community.

 

 

 

In our busy world today, it is so easy to find a moment to pick up a phone and connect with Instagram. It is  very user-friendly.

There are thousands of beautifully inspiring pictures posted daily. Take some time to explore and discover. Find out what interests and inspires you. Follow others in your field and leave a comment to connect. You just never know, it might just be your next collaboration!

I thought I would share some of my favourite  Instagram feeds with you today to help you on your way! These are off the top of my head and they vary from pretty pictures, lovely food styling, great design or just real, interesting people living a life very different than my own.

Instagram feeds 

ArtisticallyAfflicted (That’s me!)

MaryJoHoffman

Inaluxe

TheyDrawAndCook

TheyDrawandTravel

Cannellevanille

Flow_magazine

TravelWriteDraw

ShiraMcD

Emily_Jeffords

Tracyporter_poeticwanderlust

 

If you are interested in showing your creative process, please feel free to use the hashtag #shareyoursketch. I started it many months ago and it has gained quite a bit of momentum with people sharing daily. I will be (re)starting a weekly #shareyoursketch column here featuring work from it.

While I am not saying goodbye  quite yet, I believe in fair chances for all, I think I am going to try things a bit differently around here. More frequent posts ~ Less words, more pictures. More about what really inspires me!

Finding inspiration~Back to basics!

Every once in a while I sit down to a fresh piece of white paper and my mind goes blank. I feel like there  are no original ideas left! It has all been done before.

At times like these when my  rosy outlook takes a little detour I usually come back to basics – simple geometric shapes and marks. No color.. just black and white.

It is my hope that the wonderful combination of all these shapes will eventually come together and find their place somewhere in my surface pattern design.

The days have been busy here. The ski season is slowly coming to an end, but the competitions are still on. Travel to other mountains, school trips and spring break have left me with little time to sit uninterrupted to create. I have been trying to change my ways and create in clumps of time, but I still find that my best time is when I have nothing pressing or beckoning me away from my work.

There really is nothing better than a long stretch of uninterrupted time to sit and create. I think most of us can agree on that!

I am (slowly) working  on my next collection for Modern Yardage – MeadowBlush. Taking inspiration from my geometrics, I enjoyed combining different geometric shapes to make up the flowers and other elements involved in this design.

I can imagine them on outdoor pillows, children’s bedding, a sweet little summer dress…

I think some ladybugs are also in order for spring. I may  also throw in some butterflies and I don’t doubt that some seeds and pods will also end up in the collection. They seen to end up in all my work.

My MeadowBlush fabric collection will be coming to Modern Yardage month end, right in time for spring.

Have you had a look at my 101 projects to make with one yard of fabric pinboard? You can find it on Pinterest here
If you are like me and finding it hard to find long hours of uninterrupted time then this might be the answer to your sewing and crafting creations.

I am heading off today to one of my favorite places – the Big Island of Hawaii. Time to feed the soul and the senses. Pop back next week for some visual inspiration, or if you just need a hit of sunshine!

xox

PaperLove bloghop

My love for paper runs deep! My heart beats a little faster, my mind starts racing and I get a little giddy. All the colour, texture, pattern and weight is enough to make me a little speechless.

The opportunities with paper are endless. It is for this reason alone that I have become a bit of a paper hoarder. I have stacks upon stacks of different types of paper in my studio ~ old envelopes, cardboard, kraft paper, handmade paper,wallpaper, old magazines,tissue paper,  stationery, maps, and even some good old scrap- booking paper. It has been bought from far away places and travelled the world and it has also been found dumpster diving in my very own community. Interesting paper is everywhere!

floral papercuts for handmade business cards

Paper can be stamped, glued, painted, sprayed, crumpled,cut and of course, written one. Oddly enough, I often forget about the good old traditional method of writing on paper. I am usually to busy ripping it up and gluing it down.

I love to be inspired by my paper collection. I can admit to you, because I know you will understand,  I often sit surrounded by my papers. I put them into pretty piles playing with colour and texture. I imagine them in my art journal or all collaged up onto wall art. I imagine all the different textures that can be made in my paintings with them or how they will look with a transparent dab of paint – a glimpse of their original state peeking through. It makes me want to pull out all my papers right now and get working!

More mood boards focused around scraps of paper. I love the natural feel of paper~ it can be mixed with so many other types of medium such as wood, bamboo,birchbark, and even material, yet still keep its natural feel.

papertags,birchbark,cardboard,old packaging, paint chips, wallpaper,rice paper

Below is one of my “collage everyday” pieces. I hope to continue on with this project again one day. I had fun creating daily collages based around the woodland theme. It’s a great way to put all your paper scraps to good use.

wallpaper,handmade paper,tissue paper,ink and thread

And, of course, we can’t forget the lovely feel of a good, old fashioned dip pen and ink on paper. It almost inspires me to sit down and write a letter , unfortunately, I have a feeling I   would make more of a mess than anything else.,

Guess who else loves paper around our household? Yup~ Cariboo. He wanted to be part of our paper love bloghop today so here he is. Any paper that hits the ground is fair game in his eyes.

The PaperLove Blog Hop is a celebration of all things paper! Follow the links to discover more bloggers who love paper and use it to inspire and delight. And if you want to explore a whole world of paper, and stretch your paper passion further with a host of creative projects, why not join the innovative new online course PaperLove (starts March 31). Led by book artist Rachel Hazell, PaperLove is a five week creative adventure for paper lovers. Find out more here.

Come visit the other paper lovers in our bloghop today. I am sure you will find loads of inspiration!

Participant list

Majo Bautista / Tona Bell / Louise Best / Cathy Bluteau / Jennifer Bomgardner / Giova Brusa / Lindsay Buck / Beka Buckley / Joanna Caskie / Jonathan Chapman (Mr Yen) / Halle Cisco / Sarah Clare / Cathryn Clarge / Dawn Clarkson / Rhiannon Connelly / Jenny D’Fuego / Molly Dhiman / Ian Dudley / Ayisatu Emore / Akmal Farid / Monika Forsberg / Claire Fritz-Domeney / Louise Gale / Chrissy Gaskell / Julie Hamilton / Emma Hawman / Rachel Hazell / Holly Helgeson / Claudine Hellmuth / Kim Henkel / Sarah Hoffman / Joanne Hus / Paula Joerling / Beth Kempton / Julie Kirk / Eos Koch / Katie LaClair / Kristy Lankford / Michelle Manolov / Doreen Marts / Rosie Martinez-Dekker / Tori Mears / Maria Mederios / Lise Meijer / Debbie Miller / MaryJane Mitchell / Suzy Naidoo / Grace Noel / Hannah Nunn / Camilla Olsson / Jo Packham / Rachelle Panagarry / Monette Pangan / Melanie Paul / Nicole Piar / Jen Pitta / Liz Plummer / Julie Reed / Michelle Reynolds / Lisa Rivas / Angee Robertson / Natalie Ryan / Aisling Ryan / Elisabet Sapena / Kyrrha Sevco / Jamie Sprague / Elizabeth Steele / Terri Stephens / Juniper Stokes / Mary Tanana / Maike Thoma / Linda Tieu / Gabrielle Treanor / Tammy Tutterow / Deborah Velasquez / Jordan Vinograd Kim / Cat Whipple / Brooke Witt / Katie Wood / Amelia Woodbridge