Santa is Exhausted

Too many presents to wrap and deliver, too many cookies...Santa deserves a break.

Vintage Christmas

The Snow King

Every once in a while, I see something online that I fall in love with. This book is one such item. I kept searching Ebay and one day, there it was. With my name on it. And the price was right. The stars were aligned.

The book was printed in Ploland in 1968 and I have no idea what the story is other than it involves a King, a princess (?) , a polar bear, birds and a scarecrow. I believe the name is The Tale of the Snow King (or The Ballad of the Snow King), written by Tadeusz Kubiak and illustrated by Zbigniew Rychlicki The illustrations are frosty and perfect for the holiday season.

front cover

Back Cover

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.

Holiday Packaging

Cost Plus World Market is one of those stores that I can spend hours in, wandering around and finding nifty things that I just HAVE to have. Today, I saw super cute soap packaging for holiday gifts made by addison & gates and Castelbel.
I couldn't decide which to get so I guess I'll have to go back. 😊

love the velvet ribbon

how cute is that pom pom!

 a jingle bell to top it off

beautiful watercolor

New Collage

I took a selection of my Asian papers - Chinese and Japanese and combined them with a vintage ticket from China and I stamped some Chinese characters on top. It's done on a heavy, handmade French paper.

Holiday Treats on Spoonflower

This week's challenge on Spoonflower was "Holidays around the World".  I chose Holiday Treats - mugs of hot cocoa (or hot toddy?) candy canes, and gingerbread cookies because nothing says the holidays like lots of yummy food! You can vote for this week's challenge here.

hand painted in gouache on bristol

the final repeat design

Since Spoonflower not only prints fabric but also gift wrap, I ordered some for the holidays.

Fair Isle Fashion

This week, the challenge on Spoonflower is "Fair Isle".

Growing up, back in the day, I had Fair Isle sweaters in every color. Some were purchased in Scotland with beautiful patterns, some were cardigans, some pullovers. These were the inspiration for my pattern. And who better to model the sweaters than a family of bears!

You can vote for your favorite Fair Isle design on the Spoonflower website, here.

Bears in sweaters drawn on smooth Bristol board

painted with gouache

a cozy cardigan

the final repeat pattern

All the tea in China

With extra free time, I've been working on my design skills by doing some challenges from Spoonflower.

Spoonflower is a print-on-demand fabric company and every week, they have themed challenges. The submitted designs are voted on by your peers. I managed to make the top 25 on the last challenge but it's tough because there are some pretty awesome fabric designers out there.

This week's theme is "Chinoiserie". I submitted a tea-themed design. I watercolored my tea cups and teapots, scanned the illustration, and then designed my repeat fabric on the computer. This was quite a challenge for me because I figured out the repeat for the cups and pots first, and then had to make sure the background pattern also repeated. To set off the blue and white teacups and teapots, I used a dark peach background. And then I tried it with a blue background. Now I can't decide which I like best.

You can vote for your favorite Chinoiserie design on the Spoonflower website, here.

I drew my images in pencil on bristol.

added some shading with watercolor paint...

added the detail.

Option 1 - Peach background

Option 2 - Blue background

The designs on the tea pots and cups were inspired by Chinese batik designs
from a book my sister gave me.

It's Calendar Time!

Finished my 2019 calendar a few weeks ago. This is is the 10th year I've been doing the letterpress calendars printed from my linoleum blocks so, I decided to do a special edition with 2 colors for most designs. It was definitely more of a challenge to design and print - twice as many blocks and registration on press. Available now in my Etsy shop.

Birds inspired by Aldo Londi's Bitossi birds

National Pig Day is March 1

Nothing says summer like an Adirondack chair

Mid century inspired candles

Twice the carving, twice the fun

When life gives you unexpected free time

...collage!

I purchased some nice old book covers from Red Cottage on Etsy. The base of this collage is a leather cover and part of the spine. The stains on the cover were so beautiful that I didn't want to cover too much. I added some vintage papers, rubber stamp pattern, and postage stamps.

Collage on an antique leather book cover

Time flies by

I can't believe how fast the time goes. I never seem to have enough time to get everything done. I did get a few new collages completed however.

A few months ago, I purchased a massive collection of vintage postage stamps. The books had been left out in the rain so everything was damp. It took me weeks to go through all of the books, peel the stamps off the sheets and flatten everything. The butterfly stamps in the following collages are from that collection. The first three use stamps from Hungary and the last one has a stamp from Bulgaria.

New Collage

I haven't done a collage in a few months but I pulled out my scraps last weekend. This was done on a 4" x 4" birch board using vintage documents, hand made paper and some rubber stamps. The black and white hand made paper is from India and the round rubber stamp is Russian.

Easter Sunday

Inspiration Thursday

I am inspired by beautiful packaging. I have been know to buy something just for the packaging. Here are some favorites.

Too pretty to use!
from Australian company Myrtle & Moss

Portland based Olio E Osso found at Anthropology

Old Tom Gin
from Swedish company Hernö

A favorite perfume from Skeem

An elixir from Reorient Naturals - such a beautiful bottle!

I purchased this even though I didn't need it.
Make up from Rouge Bunny 

Tea packaging
from Japanese company Teapond

Olive Oil
from Greek company Rhizoma

Hand crafted soap from Spinster Sisters

Inspiration Thursday

I am inspired by Japanese artist Makoto Kagoshima.

Last summer, I went to an exhibit of his work at Chariots on Fire- a gallery located in Venice, California. I missed the opening on a Thursday evening and arrived early Saturday morning ready to see Kagoshima's beautiful ceramics (and possibly make a purchase). Sadly, I was told that there was a line around the block Thursday morning and everything had been snapped up within an hour. I was soooo disappointed! So I follow him on instagram and dream. (All of the following images are from instagram)

Chariots on Fire has published a beautiful book of Kagoshima's work - 137 pages of photos. You can order your own copy here.