Big news! Treasuring is moving!

You guys, I'm so so so excited to tell you that I've finally moved Treasuring over to my website! No more blogspot address!! Here's a peek at the brand new location:

Isn't it pretty?? (The link to the blog on my website is circled there in turquoise.)

And this way I have everything all in one place, which is part of my 'streamline in 2010' goal. I couldn't be more thrilled.

So, please update your readers with the new feed address, or get email updates! Beginning tomorrow I'll be posting there instead of here on blogspot-- if you subscribe right now you won't miss a thing! And this way you can check out Treasuring and my website all together, and you can shop and see all my artwork and everything! Easier for you, easier for me. Yay.

I hope you like the new look, and I'll see you over in the new spot tomorrow! (You can subscribe from there, too.)

bits & pieces (or, what I'm working on)

I thought it would be fun today to share some visual snippets of some of the projects I've been working on these days. I love sneak peeks, don't you?

Above is a mish-mash of things, including some patterns and a birthday card I'm working on for Surtex, the shop header I made for my little sister's brand-new etsy shop, an illustrated map project for a client, a postcard for a client, black & white line drawings for another client, and a pattern for an I-can't-tell-you-what-it-is-yet project. These are among several other projects going on at the moment! Busy busy. Just how I like it.

Oh! Also, I'm starting to offer larger prints in my etsy shop! Here is the first one. The Bird Lady! If there are any specific larger prints you'd like to see for sale (11x14" and/or 13x19") let me know-- I'll be adding them to the shop over the next week, so I'm up for suggestions!

anatomy of an illustration

Good morning! Welcome to a brand new week. Do you feel the thrill of possibility this morning?

I was working on this illustration yesterday, and I thought it would be fun to scan it at a couple of stages and show a bit of the process, because I get asked about it often. So the top image is the pencil drawing that I began with in my sketchbook.

Then (above) I outlined that with a black pen and changed/added a few things-- the flag at the top is gone. I decided it was lame. I added the outlined flowers and bumps on the ground. I added the ribbons at the top. I got rid of the eyebrows. Oh, all these changes and additions were done in Photoshop- I should mention that.

And here is the finished piece! It's called "Summer Breeze," and you can see it here on my website as well. All the coloring was done in Photoshop with the paint bucket tool and brushes. The lace on the dress is a Photoshop brush, and the cloud and grass textures are pattern fills that I created and saved within Photoshop.

I hope you like it! It's fun to give a little insight into my work sometimes.

In other news, I finally added a big cartel shop to my website, so you can now purchase prints and things straight from there! Just click the 'shop' link at the top of my website. I'm also going to be adding some original paintings soon, so keep your eye out for that!

circus circus: new patterns!

I posted this new collection of circus- themed patterns on my website last week, and I wanted to share them here, too. I thought you guys would get a kick out of the little bears on bikes and the carousel horses!

This collection is available for license/sale, and I'll be taking it to Surtex with me in May.
Surtex is looming ever closer..... I'm so excited (and nervous)!
{If you aren't familiar with Surtex, it's a licensing show in New York City every May, where artists and designers exhibit their work and manufacturers & retailers come to find surface designs for their products.}

I had so much fun with this circus theme. I may end up adding to it because I love it so much- we'll see!

Happy {early} Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is a little controversial, isn't it? Some people think it's a marketing holiday, all about getting people to spend money on cards and chocolate and flowers, other people think it's romantic and fun... I fall on the romantic and fun side. I've always liked Valentine's Day, even if I didn't have someone to spend it with.

My husband, on the other hand, falls into the other camp-- he thinks it's stupid (I say boo to that!) so I have to remind him every year that I actually like the sappiness of the day! We'll see what he comes up with this year. :) I'm surprising him with some made-from-scratch macarons from Crumb here in Atlanta, and I'm going to stick a little toothpick flag in each one, with my favorite things about him written on them. Cute, no? He's going to love it and think it's cheesy all at the same time! And that's the goal, my friends.

Also, I just wanted to show you these cute Valentine designs I've been working on the past couple of days. Aren't they fun? I especially like the middle one.
{Card companies, call me if you like them!}

So happy Valentine's Day to you whatever you end up doing on Sunday, and happy weekend in general, and I'll see you next week!

here's what you're missing...

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this here or not, but I've started regularly updating the front page of my website with new illustrations and patterns several times a week, many of which I don't post here on this blog. So I wanted to give you a peek at what you're missing over there! These are all recent illustrations that I've posted.... with loving words as well. :)

I invite you to subscribe so you can get the updates as soon as I publish them!

ocean rodeo (or little boy prints)

Happy Friday!! Yay- it's almost the weekend! I hope you have some fun plans.

So, I shared this collection, called 'Ocean Rodeo,' on my website yesterday and thought you all might get a kick out of it here. It's not a new collection-- I've had it around for a little while-- but finally got around to grouping them together in a pretty little jpeg. Aren't the submarines cute? That's my favorite part, I think.

So, these are all available for licensing/limited use sale, so if you're someone who needs cute boyish patterns for your products and these seem like your thing, give me a shout!

Have a terrific weekend, and I'll see you Monday!

Score my design and help me win $10,000!

You guys! I entered a t-shirt design into the most recent Threadless challenge, and the winner gets $10,000. That's a lot of moolah!

The challenge is to come up with the newest trend for 2010, and I've decided that buffaloes are going to the Next Big Thing.

(ps- did you know that buffaloes are a symbol for abundance, life, and all things sacred? Yep, it's true.)

So CLICK HERE to vote, and score some other designs while you're at it. I'm crossing my fingers that I win, because how freaking cool would that be??

and the painting continues....

I sent off a box of paintings for the Enormous Tiny Art Show at Nahcotta Gallery in New Hampshire yesterday-- I'm so excited to be a part of this show! The piece above was included in that box-- it's called "The Wanderers." Isn't it funny? All the work will be up on their website soon soon soon! ANd the show opens February 5th, so do check it out of you're in the area! You can preview all the work on their flickr stream- man, I wish I could go. There are some *awesome* paintings. Oy.

And this little piece is called "Party Time," for another show that I'm participating in here in Atlanta. There's also a print in my shop! It's inspired by dressing up and going to costume parties as a kid-- that was always so fun. I remember a costume birthday party I had when I was about 12, and I dressed as a genie, and the boy I had a crush on dressed as superman. He made muscles out of balloons! He was so creative. But that is a story for another time....!

Pima Cecelia: a new collection

Patterns patterns patterns galore! I am just having a ball around here lately, with all the pattern making and illustrating and general color-filled goodness.

This new collection of mis-matched patterns is called Pima Cecelia. Isn't that a fun name? There's no hidden meaning there. I just like it.

I have a fun task for you, too: are there any themes you'd like to see me create patterns around? For example, a few that come to mind off the top of my head: pirates, Estonia, ocean life, bugs, articles of clothing..... ooh, now I'm full of ideas! Anyway, let me know if you have any brilliant ideas for me-- I'm looking for some new inspiration. :)

new paintings of a little girl variety

I'm working on creating some new paintings for a couple of upcoming shows, and I wanted to share a couple with you! The one above is called "The Beachcombers"-- and the black and white version below is how it initially came out of my scanner onto my computer screen. Obviously not what I was initially going for, but I sort-of love it, don't you?

The piece below is called "Tire Swing." Both of these are 8x8" and painting on wood with acrylic, india ink, and oil paint.

I'm trying to decide if either of these would be good additions to my etsy shop as prints... thoughts?

On a roll with the patterns...

Here are two more that came to be a couple of days ago. I'm having way too much fun. :)

a sneak peek at a brand new pattern collection

Pattern design! Love of my life.

I've been hard at work on some new patterns and collections of patterns, and the peek above is a collection called Salmon & Moss.

Surtex is coming up in just 4 months, and I want to have a million patterns to take with me! OK, maybe not a million, but as close to that as I can get. :)

more paintings on canvas, a little bigger this time!

"here, now"

More new paintings!
I've realized I've hardly been sharing anything of my own here lately, and I'm hoping that will start changing now that 2010 has rolled around. These 3 paintings are all 10x10" and painted on canvas, also for the "Peace, Be Still" show that I mentioned yesterday at Flourish Studios in Chicago, which opens today. (The opening reception is January 15th from 6-8pm.)

"heart, head"

I think I'm going to make these into prints to put in my etsy shop. Good idea? I haven't added anything new to my shop in too, too long.

"peace"

Do you have a favorite? I'd love to know!
(If one of yesterday's 5x5" paintings was your favorite, I'd love to know that, too!)

painting on canvas for the first time in years

These little paintings are done on the cutest little 5x5" canvases I've ever seen-- I wished I'd ordered a whole box full of them when they arrived, because they were just so tiny and adorable.

These paintings are going to be part of a show at Flourish Studios in Chicago, opening tomorrow night. 12 artists have created 6 pieces each on the these 'Peace, Be Still," 3 of which are each 5x5". This means 36 5x5" painting all hung on a wall together! Fun. And I love this theme. I went with the idea of inner peace for my paintings....

If you're in the Chicago area and are interested in the show, the opening reception is January 15th from 6-8pm.

Tomorrow I'll show you the other 3 paintings I created for the show, also on canvas. Normally I paint on wood or masonite, so the canvas took some getting used to! I haven't painted on it in years...

SPRING: our very first video post about GRATITUDE

I'm very excited this morning to announce that our first episode of Spring: inspiration in bloom, which I introduced here a few weeks ago, is up on our website and ready to watch!

We had so much fun recording the video (despite some technical challenges which we will be improving as we go)-- hopefully the conversation and gratitude will shine through it all!

The video is available in 4 clips on the Spring website. I decided to post the first clip here, which is an introduction to who we are, and then you can pop over to the website to watch the rest!



I hope you enjoy our discussion on gratitude, and please feel free to leave us your comments and suggestions about the current video and for our future episodes! We would love to have you join in the discussion.

website redesign (again!)

I think I'm destined to change my website every few months. I get to a place where I like it, and then a few months later I want to completely change the way it looks!

So, inspiration struck last night, and I got involved in a bit of a redesign. I'm moving towards a content-driven site, inspired by this post by Sarah J. Bray. I've been looking for a way to combine my website and my 2 blogs in one powerful place, and I think I need to make the leap. I want to have one web presence, not 3! 2 blogs are a lot to keep up, and I'd rather have one direct place for everything. I have some ideas, but for right now, my brand new animation is on the front page, and I made some colorful buttons for the sidebar. I also moved the main navigation to the top. I'll be filling it all in with more info over the next few weeks.

What do you think?
Do you have a content-driven website? Do you have a website, an etsy shop, a couple of blogs, a flickr page, and it all feels like a bit too much? Share your experience with me! What do you like to see when you visit an artist/designer's website?

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: keep out of the cookies (a new animation)

I can't believe I was able to keep this a secret for so long, but I have something really fun to share with you this morning! I've been working on another animation (you might remember the first one)-- I've been SO EXCITED to tell you all about it, and it's finally finished and ready to be released!

So, there is a purpose to this animation, which you will discover by watching it. {It is Christmas-themed, and oh-so-silly!}

And after you're done watching the animation, CLICK HERE to see what the purpose of the animation is. Here's a teaser:


Curious? My etsy shop holds the answer.

new inspirational screen prints!

{bright orange ink on white cover stock}

I've been screen printing up a storm today, and I wanted to share some brand new prints with you! New colors, and for the first time ever, prints on brown kraft cover stock. I'm in love.

{silver ink on brown kraft stock above and vibrant yellow ink on brown below}

They are in my etsy shop-- go have a peek!

{bright white ink on brown kraft cover stock}

SPRING: inspiration in bloom

Spring. Inspiration in Bloom.

I am so thrilled to announce this project that I've been working on for the last few months with 3 incredibly inspiring ladies:

*Michelle Ward
*Jess Constable
and
*Carolyn Rubenstein

Spring is about dialogue. We will be creating monthly conversational video posts and blog posts around specific topics-- topics that you want to hear about and participate in! That said, we need your input.

The theme for our first video, which will launch the week of Thanksgiving, is gratitude. What questions/comments/experiences do you have around the idea of gratitude? Through sharing our own experiences and tossing around ideas suggested by you all, we hope to inspire not only ourselves, but also you in the process!

Head on over to our Spring website to learn more about the project and to leave us comments. (You can add comments here, too, or even email us if you want to!)

We have a badge, too, that you're free to put on your blog if you're inspired already:


We can't wait to hear from you and start exploring the topics that emerge!