Scandinavian Design

This week on Spoonflower, the design challenge is Scandinavian Design. My submission is in blue, orange, yellow and green with stylized birds and flowers. I drew the shapes in pen and ink, scanned them to the computer and completed the repeat pattern in Adobe Illustrator.

Scandinavian inspired birds and flowers

You can vote here for your favorite Scandinavian inspired design until December 18.

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 25

This week is another collage cube. I used acrylic paint in the background with a leaf pattern stamp. On top is layered vintage wallpaper and antique documents, a bird stamp that I hand colored, and type stamps.

sides 1 & 2

sides 2 & 3

sides 3 & 4

sides 4 & 1

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New in the shop

I've done some prints and they are for sale in my Etsy shop. They are all done from my black and white illustrations and have been digitally colored.

Owl Dance

Spring Garden

Bird Duo

In My Office

Here are a few things I have on display in my office. The cups are by Avon and once held lotion. They are sitting on 3 books from the Penguin poets series that date from the late 1950's. The books are collectible for the patterned covers. I got these at my local library sale room for $1 each. The bird is actually a tape dispenser and I purchased it and washi tape from cutetape.com. In the background, a Walt Disney record album (Zoo Songs) and a tag made from 1970's wall paper that I got from PommeduJour on Etsy. The tag perfectly compliments the Avon cup in front of it!

Mother's Day Card

New in the shop is a Mother's Day card I printed using one of the birds from my 2013 calendar. The image is printed in dark pink from my hand cut linoleum block and the type is in chocolate brown.

Record Album Covers 2

I found this jazz album on Ebay --I love the bird and the groovy type. It dates from 1963 and the cover art was done by Don Weller. You can see more of his album cover art here.

Valentine Love Birds

This was one of the designs that I was going to use in my 2013 calendar but I ended up with something else for February. I carved it anyway and made note cards, which will be available in my shop. Happy Valentine's Day!

Holiday Cards

Holiday cards that I've saved (and sent) over the years.

1. Bowerbox Press
2. Hello Lucky
3. Vintage (unmarked)

4. Designed by Sarah Young for Robot Design Ltd 
5. American Greetings (vintage)
6. Illustrated by Esther Wragg, Wragg Designs for Woodmanstearne Publications

7. Illustrated by Claire Heminsley, Wragg Designs for Woodmanstearne Publications 
8. Papyrus
9. Illustrated by Gustave Baumann (German 1881-1962) Art Institute of Chicago

New Promo Postcard

Since I have a craft show tomorrow (Abbot Kinney Street Fair in Venice, CA) I did a new promo postcard to highlight my collages. I created this on the computer using scans of a vintage book cover, vintage wallpaper, old stamps and a shipping tag. The bird illustration I got from the Graphics Fairy (see her blog here) and the butterfly is from Dover (check out their clip art here).

I found this bowl at the flea market but I can't find anything about it. The bowl is really thin white glass and the design is done in black and gold. It looks a lot like pieces by Georges Briard (you can see samples of his work on flickr) but my bowl is unsigned.

Tea in the Garden

At one of my craft shows, I was approached by a woman who commissioned me to do a tea party collage for her daughter's birthday party. She backed out after I had completed it so, I gave it to a very special little girl-my niece-whose family has just moved into their first house. It's now in her brand new bedroom.

The collage combines acrylic paint and handmade papers on canvas. It's the largest thing I've done at 16" x 20". The quote is from a song by Raffi.

Little Travelers

These two have traveled quite a ways to visit me. The bird is made of vintage fabrics and wears a jaunty acorn hat. She was made by Ann Wood from Brooklyn, NY. You can see more of her creations here. The little mouse came all the way from Chile! He is needle felted and travels with a tiny leather bag and knit scarf for cold nights. He was made by Johana of Felting Dreams. You can see more of her adorable animals here.

New Artwork

I've been working on some new collages and am quite pleased with the way these 2 came out. These are collages on canvas using acrylic paint, handmade papers and miscellaneous vintage ephemera.

Craft Show Product

Since my first craft show of the year (Patchwork Long Beach) is this coming Sunday, I thought I'd make some items using my new collages. I've done 6 different note cards, and a few decorated Moleskines with matching bookmarks which will be sold as a set. If they do well at the show, they'll debut in my Etsy shop in a few weeks.

New Artwork

I have some spring shows coming up and I sell not only my stationery products, but also some original artwork. Here are a few collages on paper that I've been working on. They're made with vintage papers and ephemera, handmade Japanese papers, rubber stamps, and finished off with some stitching on top.

Lovely Blog

Carol from Orange Bird Studio has my Fancy Bird card on her lovely blog.
You can check out her blog here, or her Etsy shop here

The Old man and the Bird

I just purchased this fabulous Swedish children's book (luckily translated into English) from Etsy seller sorrythankyou79.
The book was written in 1964 by Hans Peterson, published by Ab Rabén and Sjögren Bokförlag with illustrations by Ylva Källström. It tells the story of an old man and his pet bird. When the bird becomes ill, the man gives it a pill which cures the bird but makes it grow and grow until it is as big as a circus tent (and still growing). The story is as delightful as the pictures.

Ceramic Bird

I found this little bird at the Long Beach Flea Market. There are no maker marks on it but I love the color and shape.