Kiddo's Artwork

Now that Stella is in school and is getting uber-interested in art (yay!), we have an ever-growing pile of her artwork. Of course we're not going to throw it away, but there is only so much room on our refrigerator to display it.


One way I've utilized it is by transforming it into Thank-You cards. I cut up her artwork into Letter-sized pieces, paste it onto a Letter-sized sheet of cardstock with Modge Podge, cut it in half, and vóila! A super-cute thank-you card. Not only does it look fun and colorful, but the recipient will get a little piece of original Stella art! Bonus, right? 

I also wrote "Thanks" with an oil pastel, but of course the message could be changed to suit different occasions.


Now I have to figure out ways of displaying some of her art on the walls - do you have any creative ideas, beyond framing it? That can get so expensive. I'd love to hear some of your thoughts...


Cheers!

Desktop Calendar {February}

Here in Wisconsin it is just after 11pm on Februrary 1, which means I'm getting this February desktop calendar in just in the nick of time. Whew!

This one was inspired by The Black Keys' song, "Howlin' For You".

I thought it was somewhat appropriate for February, being the month of Love and all!

Plus, it gave me an excuse to draw a different animal and environment.

You can click on the above image and save it to your computer, or you can also find it here.

Please note that this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Happy Februrary!

Shop Talk {Valentines}

Howdy!


I'm excited to share the new products that have just been listed in the Bluestar Ink shop - Valentines! 


One of my goals for 2012 is to create more goods that cater to different seasons and holidays. First up, Valentine's Day! 

For this Love series, I wanted a fresh take on the traditional Valentine's Day card. Utilizing super-saturated colors, illustrations and hand-drawn type, I was able to put the Bluestar spin on love. (or lust, if you're looking at the NAKED card!)


All cards are 1-color screen prints on my favorite French Paper. They will be sold individually with matching envelopes.


So if you're looking for a little color this Valentine's Day, check out the new line of Love cards in the Bluestar Ink shop!


Have a fabulous weekend,

Painted Lyrics {Brunettes}

Okay, so I'm realizing that painting with gouache is MUCH harder than I thought. 


When I was in college and painting with watercolor, I always disliked it because of the transparency and overlapping brushstrokes. Sometimes there were really pretty effects that were created, but I didn't know how to control them. And the lack of opacity meant so much PLANNING - if you wanted white, you better get that figured out before you paint over it and lose that white space forever. In retrospect, I probably didn't give it enough of a chance, since I gave it up as soon as the watercolor section was over and we moved onto another medium.


Anyways, now that I am attempting this gouache thing, I'm finding a lot of the same issues cropping up. It's slightly more opaque, but all of those overlapping issues are still happening. Ugh! This is why I usually color my illustrations digitally, so I can get a nice flat wash of color. Maybe I'm mixing in too much water?

I should probably stop whining - this is why I'm practicing, right? 


This painting is inspired by the song "If You Were Alien" by Brunettes.

It's such a cute song! It was fun imagining Stephen and I as aliens. And now that I'm finished and looking at it, Stephen's alien outfit reminds me of the Whos in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Little PJs...plus the antennae! Hehe. It makes me laugh.

Oh - and if you get a chance, you should check out this video compilation of the Etsy Plush Team in 2011 - are we a fabulous bunch or what?

Have a great weekend,

Painted Lyrics {Zero 7}

Howdy!


A couple years ago I picked up a nice set of gouache paints to give me another option for coloring my illustrations. I practiced with a few paintings, but I haven't touched them since. Since I've been spending so much of my time graphic-designing, I have really been itching do do something more with my hands. So I decided to break out the paints again. 


I'm assigning myself a mini project: since I listen to music every day while working, I thought I would use it as my inspiration for some mini paintings to hone my gouache skills. 


Today's inspiration is from the song "In the Waiting Line" by Zero 7. Here's the song in case you aren't familiar:

I don't want to spend a lot of time on these, since I have plenty of other things to do. I'm going to try to limit myself to 2 or 3 colors to keep it simple. And I don't think I'll do these every day, just when the lyrical inspiration hits. 

Have a wonderful day!

Project {Yoga Mat Bag}

Hello, and Happy Wednesday!


Last Fall, my friend approached me with a request to make her husband a bag for his new yoga mat. She had seen the disc golf bags I had made, and thought I might want to tackle this sewing project. Of course, I'd love to help!


Initially, I thought it would be fairly simple, just a long tube with two circular ends, and found lots of tutorials on the Internet that could guide me. But all of those instructions were for bags with a drawstring closure, and I didn't feel that a drawstring bag was "manly" enough. My hubby agreed. {Insert frustrated growl here.}


Okay, I'll make a bag with a zipper closure. Not too much harder, right? Well, those instructions were MUCH harder to come by. Finally, I found one shop on Etsy with downloadable instructions: Needle and Spatula. That would at least give me a starting point.


Unfortunately, the mat I was making a bag for was bigger than your standard yoga mat. It was wider and thicker. Plus, even though I had it for sizing, it was still in its package which would mean it would expand once unwrapped. I knew I'd have to adjust the instructions for all of the new dimensions, but it was still a shot in the dark, considering I didn't know how MUCH to adjust. I went with 2 inches wider and hoped for the best...

After all the initial freaking out, the execution wasn't too difficult. Lots of steps, the lining and 2 zippers later, I finished up his bag! I upcycled a pair of old corduroy pants for the main body and hand-painted an abstract design on some chartreuse duck cloth for the bottom. Even though I kept thinking "manly", I still wanted to add a pop of color, so I found a cool geometric pattern for the lining. All-in-all, I was really happy with how it turned out.


...And, in case you are wondering, now that Christmas is over, and he received his new yoga mat and bag, turns out the bag could have been a bit bigger to fit his mat. In a very nice way, he told me "he needs to get in a zen mindset when rolling up his mat after yoga class". Ah, well. At least it fits! Now I know for next time - 2 inches isn't quite enough...


Take care,

CB Massage {Logo}

Hello!


Today I'd like to share a logo design I finished up a few months ago. It is for a company called Cindi Bannink Massage, or CB Massage, for short. Cindi is the owner of a successful triathlon training business called Madison Multisport, which I blogged about here. She is also a certified massage therapist, which is a fantastic complement to the triathlon training.


There were a few things she was looking for in her new logo:
- A sense of 'oneness' in the number 3: How it relates to Triathlon; Bringing together Body • Mind • Spirit; An underlying faith in the Trinity
-She liked the color purple, but also wanted something that would complement her Madison Multisport Logo which is turquoise, orange, grey and black.
-Though she works with a lot of athletes, she didn't want it to look too 'sporty' - she wanted something more on the softer side.


With that great feedback, I started sketching. Here are some of the initial sketches:

I focused on three concepts - the letters 'CB', hands (representing massage) and a 3-part icon. I digitized the strongest concepts and sent them to her to get the conversation rolling.

After some discussions and revisions, here is the final logo!

So if you're in the Madison area and need an amazing massage (I've had one!), check out CB Massage!


Cheers!

New Fuzzies {Blankets}

Howdy!


How is 2012 treating you? Well, I hope. Today is my first official work day, now that Stella is back at school. I was really excited to get back to business. The break was great, but I have lots of plans for Bluestar Ink, and I'm anxious to start executing.


First order of business - getting back to blogging! There are a lot of projects I've been working on the last few months which will be nice to share.


I'll start off with some new Fuzzies - blankets!

These little guys are called Ni-Nis, after Stella's favorite blanket whom she'd named Ni-Ni. I'm sure you've seen them - little blankets with a stuffed head attached. They are perfect companions for little hands and not only does the kiddo have a friend, there's a blanket built right in!


Well, seeing how attached Stella has been to her Ni-Ni, I thought making a Fuzzy version would be a great gift for newborns. Plenty of babies have received my Fuzzies when they were born, but the size of the Fuzzies totally dwarfs the itty-bitty babies. These Fuzzy blankets have a smaller head than the classic animals, so they're a much better size for snuggling.


As far as the blanket portion goes, I'm going to utilize the collection of graphic tees I've been accumulating. Plus, there is some satin binding for those kiddos who like lots of different textures.


Since these were my first two attempts, I've been experimenting with the placement of the head: Corner vs. middle. I think I'm leaning towards the middle placement - it's more snuggly - plus I don't have to deal with the satin binding when attaching the head.


What do you think? Are there little babies in your life that may want a new Fuzzy Ni-Ni friend?


Take care,

BIG SALE! {2012 Calendars}

Howdy!


I just wanted to let you know about the big sale in my shop. My 2012 calendars have been marked down by 60%!

There are only a few left, so get 'em before the New Year is not so "new"...!


Have a wonderful day,

Desktop Calendar {January 2012}

Hello and Happy New Year!


I hope y'all had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to 2012. If it wasn't obvious, I took December off from the Bluestar Bloggery so I could focus on all of the Christmas projects that were on my VERY long to-do list. I will post more about those projects later.


For now, though it's a couple days late, I wanted to share my first desktop calendar of 2012:

This guy was inspired by one of my great friends who used to dress up as a bear at our college hockey games. It was so much fun going to games with him, because he was such a super-fan - he just radiated happiness and excitement; but it was also kinda hard to communicate with him through his big bear-head - There was a lot of hopping up-and-down and fist-pumping!


Enjoy your January calendar. You can also download it here.

Please note that this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. 

Happy January!

Desktop Calendar {December 2011}

Can you believe it's December already? I feel like it was only a few weeks ago when I was sweating up in my studio, and now I have the space heater about 12 inches away from my feet. Pretty soon I'm going to have to break out the Snuggie™!


And in honor of the 1st of the month, here is the December calendar to brighten your desktop:

For this calendar, I wanted to acknowledge the holiday season without being too over-the-top Christmas-y. One of my favorite things about the holidays is the twinkling lights, so I knew I had to feature them. Though, I just discovered that our new (85 year-old) house doesn't have any electrical outlets on the outside, so I'm not sure how we are going to decorate the exterior sans electricity! Maybe we'll hire someone to install some...or maybe we'll just put some candles in the windows this year, and figure out the whole electricity thing for 2012. Hmmm...


Now, I'll just settle for this calendar. Much easier, wouldn't you say?


Happy December!

New Bluestar Product

Hello again!


Are you finding lots of wonderful goodies this Cyber Monday? Before you fulfill EVERYTHING on your list, I wanted to quick share with you the newest Bluestar products that just hit my shops this weekend.

First off, the new 2012 wall calendar. This 11 x 17 calendar features my new "Sitting Lotus" illustration in pale yellow, blue and teal. It is printed on the heavy-duty Arches watercolor paper and comes ready to hang with a white grosgrain ribbon. Calendar can be found here.

I love this new tote! I upcycled some vintage drapes to create these whimsical new totes. My new floral illustration is screen printed across the front. These bags are lined with coordinating floral fabric, complete with 2 pockets for all of your incidentals. Do you like pom poms? There is an option with, and one without.

Holiday cards, woot, woot! I decided to take a more simplistic, graphic approach when designing these cards. Each 8-pack assortment features 2 reindeer, 2 snowmen, 2 trees and 2 retro ornaments screen printed onto either white or Kraft cardstock. Coordinating envelopes, (red, white, tiffany blue, magenta) are also included. The white pack can be found here, and the Kraft pack can be found here.

Here we have the new floral illustration again, this time screen printed onto thick, 100lb French Pop-Tone paper. Printed on 5 colors: magenta, aqua, green, red and purple. Just a simple print to brighten any room!

Finally, lots of my personal illustrations have made it into the shop as prints! These include some of the Daily Animal Doodles, along with other fun illustrations I've created over the last year or so. All are printed on 8.5 x 11 creamy Epson Ultra Premium matte paper with a white border for easy framing. Print shop can be found here.

And last, but not least, the newest Fuzzies! Meet Valentino, Galama, Wanda, Tringo, Yasu, Jemizee and Zazu. All can be found in the Bluestar Fuzzies shop. And, I've finally listed the 3 circus Fuzzies who were featured in STUFFED Magazine. Fuzzies make great gifts for the kiddos on your list!


In case you missed it there are special Cyber Monday deals happening in both my shops today only!


Bluestar Fuzzies : 20% off your purchase using the coupon code CYBERMONDAY20 at checkout.


Bluestar Ink: A free print of YOUR CHOICE with any purchase. This includes screen prints! Just note your choice at checkout.


Thanks again!
Now I'm going to go check out the sweet Cyber Monday deals floating around the Interweb...

It's Cyber Monday, People!

Hello!


I am SO excited for this post, because it means it's finally Cyber Monday...and that means big discounts for all of you!

As you probably know, I have two Etsy shops - one for the Fuzzies and one for the Illustrations & Screen Prints. For Cyber Monday 2011, I will have a different discount for each shop. They are as follows:


Bluestar Fuzzies - 20% your order - use the coupon code CYBERMONDAY20 at checkout.


Bluestar Ink - A Free Print of Your Choice with any purchase - just be sure to tell me your pick in the notes at checkout.


These discounts will be applicable Monday, November 28, 2011 from Midnight - 11:59pm Central Standard Time.


I know I haven't posted about all of the NEW PRODUCT yet - I've just been so busy listing all of the items in the shops in anticipation of Cyber Monday! I will be sharing all of the details soon - I promise! Until then, be sure to check everything out in the shops. If you have any questions, please let me know! Updated! Check out this post with all the details!


Happy Shopping!

Indie Art + Design Show Recap

Hellooooo!


I'm back! You probably thought I fell off the face of the earth. Fortunately, I didn't (though I came pretty close). I have just been busy, busy busy with the Indie Art + Design Trunk Show that was last weekend. Then I got sick, sick sick. But now I'm on the up and up, so I figured I'd share a few photos and tell y'all about my experience.


First I want to say how much I have enjoyed the last 3 weeks. This is the first time I've ever focused solely on my personal work, and I loved every minute of it. I have never felt so inspired! Just doing all of the things I want to do, and think about non-stop was so rewarding. Usually, as I'm working on my freelance design work, my mind is trucking along, spouting idea after idea at me. What torture that is, knowing I can't pursue most of those ideas! But November was different. It was all about me and making the stuff I want to make.

I'll admit - it was pretty scary, going a month without any income from my freelance design gig. But I was hoping that I'd make at least a little dough with the Trunk Show, and it would be somewhat justified.


My goal for the Trunk Show was to have a good mix of stuff, to show my range of capabilities. I didn't have a lot of inventory to start with, just a few Fuzzies and a couple totes. I needed a strategy for production. I decided to split my day into thirds: During the morning, while Stella was at school I focused on screen printing. (And this meant I had to finish setting up my screen printing studio in the basement!) A couple hours in the afternoon, while Stella napped, was dedicated to new Fuzzy production. And then the wee hours of the night, after everyone was in bed, was mostly for working on custom Fuzzy orders (non-Trunk Show-related).

I decided I'd go with this production schedule until a few days prior to the show, then at that point I'd switch gears and start focusing on the finishing details, such as packaging, hangtags, mounting, etc. Then, the night before the show I selected my favorite personal illustrations from the last year or so to print on my fancy new Epson printer. This was the first time I've ever printed them out! They looked just as pretty in real life than they did on the screen.


My space at the show was pretty limited (I was against the backside of a fireplace), so I knew I had to work vertically to make the most of the narrow room. Unlike my show experience in July, I wanted the Fuzzies to be out in the open, not crunched into some crates. Sandwiching some pegboards against the brick wall allowed me to hang the Fuzzies over my table. I really like the presentation, though I need to figure out a good way to hang them. For this show, I looped yarn under their armpits (or highest catch-point) and hung them from a hook. This worked better on some than others. The Fuzzies with a low center of gravity tended to lean forward off the wall. It worked for the time being, but I might start sewing a temporary loop into the top of their heads that can be cut off after purchase.

photo courtesy of Prozan McGlinn

One thing I improved with this show was my use of Square. Last time I couldn't figure out how to enter multiple items under one sale (on my iPhone...I think it's possible on an iPad). So I utilized a sales receipt book where I manually entered every item, totaled it, figured out tax, THEN entered that number into Square to finalize the transaction. It took a little longer, but in the end, I really liked having paper copies of all my receipts with the names of all the purchases and the names of the customers. It made my bookkeeping a breeze.

For the show I ended up with 3 new large Fuzzies (plus the 3 circus Fuzzies who were featured in STUFFED Magazine), 11 new Runts, a 2012 calendar featuring a new illustration, new striped floral totes, a new floral screen print (in 5 color options!) and new screen printed holiday cards on Kraft or white. Plus some of my old screen prints, totes, greeting cards and illustrations. It was a pretty good variety and I couldn't be more pleased.

Though I did fairly well, I didn't sell everything, so within the next few days I will be adding lots of new items to my shops. Yay! Just in time for your holiday shopping.

And...there will probably be a sweet deal in said shops to celebrate Cyber Monday, so be sure to check back for the secret code!

Hooray!

Indie Art + Design Trunk Show

I realize it has been pretty quiet here lately - I want to assure you it's not for lack of creativity or projects - I've been more busy than ever!


In addition to finishing up some major graphic design projects, I've been humming away in my studio creating product for an upcoming art show: The Indie Art + Design Trunk Show!

In less than 2 weeks I will be joined by 7 other fabulous local artists who will be selling our wares in preparation for the upcoming holidays.


In addition to what you can currently find in my Bluestar Ink shop and Bluestar Fuzzies shop, I will also have lots of NEW product! There will be oodles of new Fuzzies, new prints, new illustrations, new greeting cards and {hopefully} a couple new bags. I found some amazing fabric for said bags, I'm just hoping I have enough time to produce them - because in my head they are SWEET!  :-)


So if you're in the Madison area the Saturday before Thanksgiving, stop by! You will not be disappointed. 


For more info, check out our informational site and our Facebook events page.


Hope to see you there!

Halloween 2011 {Batgirl}

Over the last couple months, there has been a lot of talk about Halloween costumes in our house. For the first time, Stella was really getting into it, because I think she finally grasped the whole concept of dressing up in a costume for trick-or-treating. Given her current obsession with all things Disney Princess (!!!), we were sure she was going to pick one of them as her inspiration. Which would have been fine, but I had decided I was not going to make a princess dress, since they are so accessible this time of year. After going through the Princess line-up several times, she finally landed on Batgirl. And it stuck.


Now I can't tell you how excited Stephen and I were about this choice. It was so rad! Though we doubted her excitement would last until Halloween. But it did! Batgirl was here to stay. With her 'batty' choice, I figured I could definitely pull off making her costume. It probably wouldn't top last year's, but she wouldn't mind, right?

I was able to use a lot of regular clothing as the base of her costume: a long-sleeved black shirt, black leggings, a black knit hat, pink gloves, a pink belt and pink socks. Then I just appliqued a few pink bats, added some ears to the hat and threw together a cape. And there we have it - Batgirl!


Though the pink metallic material looks awesome, it kinda sucked to work with. Or maybe it was the light, crunchy nature of it compared to the heavy, stretchy knit that I was pairing it with. Either way, I learned a lot about those two fabrics - and they don't really like each other. And I didn't like them very much towards the end of making that cape. After only a few curse words, it all ended up working out in the end.


Stella had lots of fun wearing her costume, which validated all the hard work that went into it. Plus, she got some super-cool pink Chucks out of the deal, too! What kid wouldn't love that?


I'll leave you with this tender moment between cat and bat:

Did you all have a fun Halloween? Any good costumes? For handing out candy, I wore a neon blue wig under a witch's hat and painted my lips black. It was fun. I actually scared a couple kids which is always a bonus, right?


Cheers!

Desktop Calendar {November 2011}

Wowsers! Can you believe it's November already?

Well, it is. And since it's the 1st of the month, I present to you the November 2011 Desktop calendar:

Living in our new house, I've been loving all of the fallen leaves. That was one of our prerequisites of finding a house - there had to be at least ONE mature tree in our yard. And this house has several...which means LOTS of raking! But I don't mind. I actually enjoy it!

And, once again, the outfit was inspired by one of the JCrew outfits in the new catalog (page 009). I figured it was perfect for a cold, blustery November day!

You can also download the calendar here.

Please note that this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. 

Happy Halloween!

Boo!

 

J.Crew {Color Palette 1}

Have you seen the newest J.Crew catalog yet? The color combos in the first half of the catalog are a-maz-ing. Every turn of the page was more and more inspirational. I kept telling myself, 'I have to remember this palette!' as I flipped through.

I was going to do a little color breakdown of every page, but I thought it would be more fun to add a little illustration element to it. You know, why keep it simple, right? Here's my first sample, from page 03:

Please forgive the crappy quality. My scanner doesn't do a very good job, so I've been taking iPhone pics in lieu of scanning.

And my palette breakdown:

It's just a down-and-dirty illustration of the composition, with some color blocking to represent the palette. And now that I'm looking at the scan of the catalog, the pants on the right really are more teal than blue and the pants on the left are more rust than red. I'm just sayin'.

And a side note: As I'm writing this post, the tweets are flying about Project Runway. What's going on? Ugh! I hate having to watch it the next day. This is torture!

Later!

 

Tattoo {Let Go}

Way back on a lovely Saturday afternoon in July, my friend Rebecca stopped by with an urgent request. Her 35th birthday was the next day and she had accidentally found that her surprise gift from her husband was going to be a trip to the tattoo parlor. Her husband didn't know she had found out, but she was happy she did. She didn't want to arrive at the parlor unprepared.

That's where I came in. She had a vision of what she wanted: the words 'let go' hidden in a script-y, vine-y design. She liked my illustration style, so she was hoping I could help her out on short notice.

Well, I'll be honest. This freaked me out. I'm all about tattoos (I have 3 myself), but the idea of my art on someone else's body PERMANENTLY is a lot of pressure. I've had several tattoo design requests in the past, but I've always somehow avoided executing them. (Sorry, friends if you're reading this...) But Rebecca seemed so desperate - she needed it that afternoon! I couldn't let her down. So I accepted, and went about sketching the concept. This is what we decided on:

I was happy about it, but it was still on paper - it's an entirely different matter, etched into someone's skin. But when I saw her the next evening at her birthday party, she was proudly showing off her new tat:

It looked so good! It looked like I drew right onto her arm with a Sharpie. Phew! What a relief. Now perhaps I should review all of those other tattoo concepts I owe people...

:-)