Need Your Vote For My Mossy Frogs! 'Ditsy' Print Contest at Spoonflower.

Spoonflower's contest this week is for small-scale, scattered prints, called 'ditsy' prints. I entered a variation of my Mossy Tree Frogs (see below). 

I would love to get a vote from you! Just go to the contest page and click on the fabrics you like. You can vote for as many as you want, so browse around and remember to click on my mossy frogs! Voting goes through next Wednesday and the winner (as well as top 10) are announced next Thursday, October 6.

Thanks!

Tiger's Eye Leather Beaded Bracelet

I am continuing on my fascination with wrap bracelets! 

 

I completed a sweet little single wrap, this one with 6mm Tiger's Eye round beads and dark brown leather cord (2mm). It actually has a surprisingly nice heft to it, which is why I chose to only do a single wrap.

I love the look of Tiger's Eye as it has a silky sheen to it, an optical reflectance effect seen called chatoyancy seen in certain gemstones. It's like seeing swirls of honey and caramel wrapping around your wrist! 

I paired the stones with another button closure from my box, this one a simple style in a matching dark caramel color.

Metaphysically, Tiger's Eye is said to be a grounding stone, bringing calmness, serenity, and harmony and the ability to see clearly.

Photos from the indiExhibit at the 63rd Annual Emmy Awards Gift Lounge

Here are some additional photos from the 63rd Annual Emmy Awards gift lounge where The indiExhibit had a booth. The group distributed swag bags containing items donated by indiExibit members to visiting celebrities and included handmade jewelry and other handmade items, prints and products featuring original artwork, books written by members, and more. We were fortunate to also have included the first volume of IE Magazine, featuring member ads, a great way to further promote the independent artists and creatives who are our members.

This was my first big events with The indiExhibit, and I am so glad to have had the opportunity to participate! I have an ad in the IE Magazine, and I was able to include a binder for my display item that featured my Woodland Peony illustration and my contact information. My swag bag item was a simple, but elegant packet of botanical seals featuring two of my other original botanical art pieces, the African Daisies and my Daffodil. 

Below are just some of the celebrities who came by The indiExhibit booth and received our swag bag. Yes, I deliberately chose photos that show my binder, either in the front or the background. :) As you can see, the celebrities often hold one of the display items for the photo.

Jim O'Heir of Parks and Recreation - holding my display binder!

 Alan Cumming

 Beverly Mitchell

 Joe Mantegna

 Kate Linder of The Young and the Restless

 Nia Peeples

Scott Adsit of 30 Rock

There was a great deal of interest in and support of The indiExhibit's mission to elevate the brands of independent artists. It was a very successful event! 

For more information on The indiExhibit, founded by Shannon Justice of Lollipop Labs, visit their webpage or find them on Facebook.

Here's to a New Decade!

Today is my birthday and it's a big one - 40! It is such a nice, round number :) I am excited to start a new decade.

I have spent a lot of time in the last couple of years setting up my Zazzle and Spoonflower stores, creating my business Facebook page, and updating the look of my blog and my website. Now that much of the infrastructure is in place, I think that one of my big goals in the coming year(s) is to simple do more art! I always have more botanicals that I want to do, and I am very interested in doing more beading, including more bracelets, but also working with seed beads. I would love to play around with some bookbinding as well. So, plenty of interest areas - I will not be bored, that is for sure!

Speaking of creating, I did manage to finish another wrap bracelet this week - a double wrap with lighter-colored leather and white and brown swirled shell beads (6mm this time.)

Well, I am off to do some regular stuff around the house and hopefully squeeze in some playtime with the beads, perhaps. Have a wonderful day!

indiExhibit Display at the 63rd Annual Emmy Award Gift Lounge!

Here is one of the first pictures from The indiExhibit display table at the 63rd Annual Emmy Award Gift Lounge sponsored by GBK Productions. The event was held two days prior to yesterday's Emmy Awards. 

This was my first event with The indiExhibit, a fantastic, supportive and global group of independent artists and creatives who pool resources to promote their work collectively through celebrity gifting and charity events.

The table looks fantastic and so many wonderful artists are represented here, including jewelry makers, writers, fine artists, multimedia artists and more. You can see my red Woodland Peony binder on the far right of the display. 

The event was a huge success for the group with a number of celebrities stopping by the table to see our display as well as receive our swag bags with products from each of the artists. A big thank you to the indiExhibit staff, including Shannon Justice, Kerry White, Kathy Adalian, Heather Nelson, and Joan Kelly, whose hard work made this such a great success.

Check back this week for updates and additional photos from the event!

My Pinterest Page! Check it out.

I have been hearing about Pinterest for awhile and finally created a page for myself. What a fun way to create visual bookmarks for yourself as you find things of interest on the web! I can definitely see using this to mark things for artistic and creative inspiration. 

So far, I have boards for my Spoonflower Fabrics, things I find of interest in Bookbinding and Book Arts, and also Beading and Bead Embroidery. I am sure I will be adding more! 

http://pinterest.com/ccreech/

Any other Pinterest users out there?

Broccoli Leaf - Ink and Colored Pencil - Advice?

I am working on a broccoli leaf in ink and colored pencil, but am having trouble with the color. 

The leaf is actually sort of bluish-gray/green with an almost chalky look to it. I can't seem to find any pencils in my current stash to render it correctly. I am using Faber Castell Polychromos and so far on this have used light green, permanent green olive and chrome green oxide. 

I have many layers to go yet, but this shows you the initial stages of shading. The stem and underside of this particular leaf were more in the sun and do indeed have a yellow-green hue, but the top part of the leaf is almost a white-gray-blue-green. I am trying to figure out what colors to use in addition to how best to layer them. It will take some experimenting, for sure! And perhaps a purchase of some additional pencils.

  

Do you have any advice on how to get the blend of colors right? I'd love to hear from you!

I will keep plugging away and post more in-progress updates as they develop. Thanks!

Need Your Vote in the Bird Fabric Contest!

Spoonflower hosts a number of design contests and this week's is for a palette-limited bird design. Three colors were set by Spoonflower and a fourth color was chosen by the artist.

I altered the colors and arrangement of my Japanese Crane drawing to meet the design requirements and entered it!

Here is what it looks like:

I would love to have a vote for my design if you are so-inclined! See the 'Vote for Bird Fabrics' link at the end of this post. 

You can vote for as many fabrics as you want, so feel free to browse through all of the entries and click away at the ones you like. You can vote through next Wednesday evening and the results will appear on Thursday, September 15th. Thanks and happy bird-browsing!

Vote For Bird Fabrics

Great Giveaway from artist Lynne Reichhart! 50 Free Custom Brochures via Uprinting.

Check out this giveaway of 50 free, custom brochures being offered by artist Lynne Reichhart (via Uprinting) at her blog:

An artists's ramblings by Lynne Reichhart

http://artbylmr.blogspot.com/2011/09/i-am-offering-another-great-giveaway.html

What a great opportunity to get some free, high-quality promotional materials!

See the blog above for details on the giveaway and how to enter, including multiple chances to win. You have until September 8th, but don't wait too long!

Good luck!