paperwhitestudio

New Year ... new ideas...

2012-01-14T12:35:00.000-08:00

The first month of the new year is already half over ... WHAT?! How did that happen? I know someone accidently hit the fast forward button and we've been spinning toward the future ever so quicker than before.

I made a LOT of Christmas presents but haven't had time to post the pictures yet. But I will share a New Year's invite I did. This was a really simple invitation but fun design for an afternoon New Year's Day party. The cool thing about the design was that it worked in both black and white and color.

Our Christmas cards were a bit of a challenge this year. Only because I had several ideas and no one could agree on what we were going with. I was a little disappointed in the final cards because I felt like they were simliar to cards we did a few years ago. But I guess I'm the only anal one that would notice. Also, my original idea was to zentangle the background (thus the reason the children are in patterned black & white outfits) but everyone liked the snowflake design better .

I loved the ornament/snowflake shape to the cards and made the mistake of putting a hole in them and putting a string through it. I figured people would just use it to hang the card on the fridge but LOTS of recipients hung our card on their Christmas tree. Feeling a little guilty about the moral obligation/dilemna this presents to some who really don't want to put it on their tree but feel obligated.

I also added glitter to the snowflakes prior to sending. I was happy with the results but would have been more happy with one of the other ideas I had. I suppose I'll have to use one next year but my oldest is 14 and she made it known loud and clear her appearance on the annual card is reaching its end. Phooey!

Sorry it's a little late but I hope you all had a Happy and Safe start to the New Year as well.
Truly,
Erica

Zentangle Advent Calendar

2011-12-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

[Picture heavy post!]

Wow! Can't believe December 1st has already come and gone! I still feel like it is September. I can't keep up with time.

One of my cherished memories from childhood is an advent calendar someone had sent us as a card. I just loved the illustrations on it and each year would revel in opening the tiny door to see what was underneath. No one else participated with me, but I didn't care. I loved it! That poor thing was worn out as I carefully shut the doors each year and put it away for the next year.

I had hoped to do some kind of fabulous calligraphic advent calendar at some point in my life. I just never found the time. * However, this past June our guild challenged each of its members to calligraph a cylinder to be displayed at our December meeting where we typically showcase our calligraphic work from throughout the year. Being given a blank canvas and an assignment with a deadline is probably one of the worst creativity stiflers I can imagine. I stared at that cylinder for five and a half months!

Then I sat down just before December to write this blog. I got to the point where the * is and the idea hit me! I could make the cylinder into an advent calendar! And that is exactly what I did! This project took 32 hours. But I am very happy with the result. And it is a nice way to display some of my greeting card work.

I started by mapping out the spacing for the envelopes to determine which size tags to make. Once that was done, I made the envelopes from left over Stardream pearl envelopes from an old calligraphy job. I knew I would use those some day! They had a return address printed on them but the front was blank. I used Joanne Fink's zenspirations to create the numbers.

Once that was complete, I zentangled the entire sheet - 21"x31" sheet of hotpress Arches watercolor paper. This was the exact size needed to cover the cylinder. I then glued on the envelopes and started on the tags. Many of the tags use designs I created for greeting cards over the years but some were designed solely for the calendar.

Now that it is complete, I would only do one thing differently. I would have left a white space around the squares where the envelopes were. I loved the zentangles but once the envelopes were added, it detracted from the zentangle which really became just a background pattern. I think with some white space around the envelopes, the zentangle would still really stand out.

I am thinking of doing another one for the future but as a flat canvas. Instead of envelopes, I would cut a slice for each tag and tape an envelope behind the canvas.

Hope you enjoy!
Erica

Monday Morning Pinch Me - New Minivan!

2011-11-15T07:07:00.000-08:00

I've needed a new minivan for awhile now. My old one was 8 years old and had 120,000 miles on it. With three kids that translates to about 300,000 miles! Practical as we are, we wanted to wait until we found just the right one. Well, this weekend we did! Not only did we find a great minivan (Kia Sedona) but we found an amazing dealership.

We went to Fuccillo Kia in Cape Coral Florida. We were amazed at their fabulous customer service. Our salesman was a 7 year police officer turned salesman and he was fantastic. He even gave us some great parenting tips! The owner even sat with us and helped us get a better interest rate. To top it off, he gave us a gift certificate to a local restaurant (seafood!) because we had been there all day and hadn't eaten anything.

Buying a car has never been a fun experience -- until now. So, I thought it appropriate to send a nice thank you note. I had mentioned I designed greeting cards and the owner said he had never heard that before so I decided to design a fun card especially for them.

In doing so, I thought it would be interesting to show you all how the design process works for me. This is the pencil sketch I worked out beforehand.

From there, I create the design with a pointed pen. This takes a lot of time as I go over and over the design until I get each part just right.

From there, I created the final design for the card.

On the final card, I filled in the heart with a glitter pen and the card was printed on pearl paper.

Love my new minivan and we heart Fuccillo Kia!
Truly,
Erica

Monday Morning Recap - Whatcha been up to?

2011-11-07T08:51:00.000-08:00

WARNING: Very photo heavy post!

I just finished next year's birthday card for the Coastal Calligraphers Guild. LOVE it! I can't share until next year because I want it to be a surprise for members. Tease right?! Anyway, I've been doing lots of crafty stuff and baking but not much calligraphy these days. I thought I would take a moment to recap what I've been doing to make up for the lack of calligraphy. Sorry lettering friends - hope you enjoy some other stuff, too!

I made this little ipod hoodie for my oldest. It took much longer than I expected but I love how it came out. Found the pattern on Ravelry but originally it came from Colorado Moms. Thanks for sharing such a cute pattern! Wonderful gift for the teen in your life.

My cousin recently had another baby girl. I made this sweater dress for her. I'm not usually a clothing knitter but more of an accessory knitter. This took some work but I was really pleased with the result.

Let's see ... what else. . . last Christmas I did a few house portraits for friends of my parents.

What else? ... A totebag for my aunt and purses for my mom, my other aunt, and two other friends. This bag (except the tote) is my favorite pattern (as you can tell) and they were made from the Zest Tote Bag pattern at Joann.com. Note, I skipped the flower and made the straps longer than the pattern.

Goodness... can you stand another?!

Made these Kids Art Organizer totes for my nieces when they were moving back to Maine. Great for long car trips! This was a great Etsy find - Ginia18 has some wonderful patterns.

I loved these so much, I made one for myself for my calligraphy supplies in zentangle like fabrics!

Made this cute little dog harness for my mom and dad's dog. Found this wonderful free tutorial here at the Moda Bakeshop.

Made 10 of these cute little reversible bags for my oldest's birthday party. We did a treasure hunt at the mall with 10 of her friends. It was REALLY fun! The purse size was originally much larger and the strap was originally smaller but I made it a little longer and the purse a little smaller. This was a free pattern called Grab Bags from allpeoplequilt.com.

I made one for each of the adult chaperones, too!

This one is one of my favorites! I made these for all the cousins and my kids last Christmas. Their Nana passed away and we all live in different states now so I thought this was really cute. This was another awesome free project from joann.com. I made the drawstring bag and added the poem (feel free to borrow).

Made this laptop bag for my mom. I doubt I'll make another one. I loathe working with foam. This was a store bought pattern.

Every year I try to make one gift that I can give to all the folks on my list. You may recall my maple syrup bottles a few years ago. This past year it was conversation starters. I made these from scratch ... it took a lot of work and organization. I wouldn't recommend it! I see now they sell these things in various places. I also made the snowflake ornaments but I will blog about those separately soon.

This was a gift for my parents friends who are also now our friends. Their last name is Parrot. I've tried silk painting a few times. I still need some practice. But this was fun.

Made these for friends of ours that have a little girl and also a set for my uncle's son who recently had his first. I made a little cloth drawstring bag to put them in and crocheted a drawstring bag for the second set. SO CUTE! This was another great etsy find! Barnyard Balls by patternplay on Etsy.

Made quite a few cheer bows for the cheer squad at Imagine School where all my kids attend. These took some work as I had to actually make the sequin ribbon because it doesn't exist anywhere else! I cut fabric strips and used fuse-a-seam to adhere the strips to ribbon. Each bow had to be assembled and stitched. I used instructions from this great ebook, Cheer Bow Instructions from No Bow No Go.

Speaking of cheer... I made over 50 fairy tutus, crowns, and 100 wands for a fundraiser at the school carnival. We were in a bad location so we only sold a handful. If you know anyone that needs fairy gear, I'm your girl!

Speaking of fundraisers... I made hundreds of cake pops and muffins for a bake sale of sorts during a motorcycle run fundraiser. We had a lot of fun but didn't make a lot of money as unfortunately, the turnout was really low. :-( I ate way more of these than any human should. I did make the labels (sort of lettering). The muffins were DELICIOUS and came from Good Housekeeping: The Great Bakesale Cookbook, a book with great ideas for bakesales. I should have left off the Ricotta label because you don't taste it and they are wonderful, moist, lemony muffins. I should know. .. I sold 2 and ate 4. The cheerleaders had no problem finishing the left over cakepops.

This was a birthday gift for my little cousin who is more like a niece. She's a doll! I think she enjoyed playing with these. This was another store bought pattern.

I also made her a princess crown hat for those inbetween cold days when a full hat isn't required. This is a pattern I purchased called Loved by Talitha Kuomi.

I baked quite a bit throughout the year. I won't post all of them. But my favorites were the pumpkin and chocolate whoopie pies. YUM! Oh look ... a tiny bit more calligraphy! :-)

WOW! I'm going to have to stop here even though there are a few more fun things I made this year that I would like to share. Maybe next time. Geez ... looking at all this in one place it's no wonder I don't have any time for extra calligraphy fun! Well, there is always next year. :-)

Truly,
Erica

A Rainy Monday - Halloween!

2011-10-31T06:37:00.000-07:00

Had a very busy weekend - making Halloween costumes! It's been a tradition since my first born to make costumes every Halloween. Some years the kids forgo it for a store bought one, others they ask for something really elaborate. Either way, whatever makes them happy. I enjoy doing it. If you remember two years ago, I pulled my first all-nighter in many years whipping up two costumes - one for my oldest and one for her bestie.

Well this year, she turned 14 and I figured it's time for her to stop trick or treating and she insisted she will trick or treat until she dies of old age. I told her if she planned on going she needed a full costume and it's a fact the older you get, and the less costume you wear, the less people want to give you candy. She insisted she had it under control.

So that's why yesterday I ended up making two "costumes" one for her and one for her best friend. They wanted something cute, but not trampy (which it seems is the only thing the local Halloween store carries for teens). They wanted something that was a costume but not really a costume. See, I said - another sign you are getting too old!

In any event, they decided on Tom and Jerry so I searched through my stash (I practically have a craft store in my front closet so it wasn't hard). I found some felt, found two headbands, made a pattern, and came up with these.

They were delighted. And I had fun making them.

My son, now 10, has left behind Spiderman in lieu of more "serious" Halloween wear. Last year he went as a *really* creepy guy from a video game he isn't even allowed to play. This year he asked to go as "Ghost" from Modern Warfare 2. Given it was too late to find a balaclava anywhere locally, I whipped up this little number with a dollar's worth of black stretch fabric and some white acrylic paint.

He was utterly amazed and I was really happy with how it came out.

Finally, my youngest, wanted the full blown deal - Mermaid. I purchased a pattern on sale for $1 and $12 worth of fabric and two days later had this.

Worth every last minute for that smile!

Hope you all have a safe and

Truly,

Erica

Monday morning after Death by Chocolate

2011-10-24T06:18:00.000-07:00

Had a great weekend. It was my mom's birthday and I decided to make her a photo clock. There is a great tutorial over at Rosy Red Buttons. This was an easy, inexpensive project that is sure to please! I bought the clock workings at Michael's for $6.99 plus a 40% off coupon. The board was $1.99. I already had the Mod Podge.

I put the whole thing together in a couple of hours. I like it so much I'm going to make myself one with a different photo. I did the title in calligraphy (or at least part of it). This isn't a great photo as the glare was bad but you get the gist. This is a really fun way to display a favorite photo. My mom already has lots of framed photographs so I wanted something different. This is a really special photo to her as it is her grandchildren and her altogether for the first time ever.

I also made Death by Chocolate Mum Cupcakes from one my all time favorite blogs, Bakingdom. Mine didn't come out nearly as nice looking as hers but I gave it a shot. They tasted great though! I made the cupcake wrappers from a template by gabbycakes. I had to size mine down by about an inch on the side and cut them about half height wise.

Busy weekend but lots of fun trying new things. Hope yours was good, too!

Truly,

Erica

Monday after Mike (Kecseg) - Beyond Copperplate

2011-10-10T06:27:00.000-07:00

Just returned from another fabulous workshop with the Scribes of Central Florida. What a nice group they are! And wow - such amazing pointed pen talent in that guild!

After many, many years of admiring his work, I finally met and took a class with Mike Kecseg. The class, Copperplate: Beyond the Basics, was a great fundamentals class. More of an opportunity to practice and advance copperplate skills rather than produce a finished piece, we spent two days learning Mike's tips for taking copperplate to the next level.

Mike is a very generous and down to earth teacher. Gracious with both his lettering and his sharing of knowledge, his class is a "must do" for any calligraphy enthusiast. His instruction is well thought out, well paced, easy to follow, and the handouts are DeLiCiOuS! Although I've been doing pointed pen for over 18 years now (what?!), I still learned some great skills which I'm sure will further develop my style.

Below are two of my practice sheets from the workshop. After reviewing the basics of copperplate, we learned how to vary a number of elements, such as X-height, slant, spacing, pen pressure, ascenders, and descenders.

If you ever have the opportunity, I highly recommend taking a class with Mike.

Truly,
Erica

Monogram Monday ... er Tuesday - wait make it Thursday!

2011-10-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

I was digging through old photographs (well, OK, I was whizzing through old photograph files but that sounds way less nostalgic) and found some old monograms I did. This was during the time my son had autism and life was a complete blur. No offense to any of the brides, but I don't remember doing most of these!

We were sleeping about 2 hours per night, I was trying to run my social stationery business, take care of two kids, and cure my son of autism. Sleep was low on the totem pole of priority. There were literally some nights I was falling asleep at my drafting table with a dip pen in my hand! (Don't try this at home - it does nothing for the nibs!)

Anyway, I was surpised at what I had accomplished in my sleep deprived state. I miss doing monograms. Maybe I should start doing them again... :-)

Think I went a little flourish crazy here:

Like this one. I'm sorry to say I have no idea who it was for or when I did it.

A calligrapher's dream when the initials are M and W! :-) I did another version I liked even better that was just the M & W ... can't find it!

Poor Linda ... run for the hills - take cover from all that flourish!

For my own personal monogram ... still haven't decided which one.

E, how do I love thee...let me count the ways!

Last one ... I so hope she went with the less flourished one.

Hope you enjoyed seeing them for the first time. I feel like I did as well! It's all a blur! Kiss your babies before tomorrow is yesterday and you can't remember what happened!

Truly,

Erica

Be Brave, Love Life

2011-08-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

I started this year with a new motto. I even put it on our Christmas cards. It rang so true with where I am in my life right now. I have lived in fear my entire life. I fear everything - making mistakes, not doing the right thing, worrying something bad will happen, not being perfect. After my mother-in-law died, I realized I wasn't really living life. And this was because of my fear of not living it the way I think I should. So everything I have done this year has been an effort to counter that and live my new motto.

I took a fantastic workshop for watercolor and illustration with Kristen Doty this spring. She is a fabulous teacher. However, I haven't done a whole lot since then in terms of using the skills she taught us. Once this summer in Maine, I tried to sketch some blueberries in our wild patch and also to sketch my uncle's boat in the bay. I didn't have the right colors for blueberries and the boat kept changing as the wind was shifting back and forth. I ended up more frustrated than practiced.

Last night I decided to just start again. I found a nice illustration in Botanical Illustration Course by Rosie Martin and Meriel Thurstan. I didn't have my watercolors out so I decided to just use the colored pencils we had just aquired for "back to school."

Initially it went great. I was enjoying it, relaxed, and having fun. I was nearly done with the flower and went to draw the leaf. This was the result...

Since I don't practice much (read "ever") I didn't test the pencil before going to town. It doesn't look as garish on the web but the color was sooo wrong! This is where I have the problem with playing. I don't like making mistakes. I look at it and think, 'all that hard work is wasted.' But I realized I learned two things from this.

First, ALWAYS test your tools on scrap before going to the work! This seems like such a logical idea so why didn't I think of it before. Second, you have to make mistakes to learn and improve! Wow - what a concept. Making a mistake is so far outside my comfort zone I've held back in creating because I didn't want to fail. Anybody else?

But you can't have success without failure. You have to be brave and take those chances. I once dreamt of this beautiful piece of artwork. It was a new "style" - one I hadn't seen anyone else do. In my dream I was so happy because I felt like everything has already been done before and I had created something unique. When I woke up, I tried desparately to grasp at the image in my dream of what I had created and it was gone.

I asked myself, 'Why can't I create that in my awake world?!' Well, how would I ever create something without playing ... without taking a risk. I couldn't. Some people are naturally creative and the ideas and a "style" come naturally to them. I'm not one of them! I have to work at being creative - which sounds like a complete oxymoron but let's face it - only a tiny select few are born with a natural art talent. So if I never try, if I never just play, and if I never make mistakes, I will never unearth the original creativity which lies within me.

Life isn't about perfection. You have to love it all. Ahhh... I'm over the green leaf now. I encourage you all, to not worry about making mistakes. Be brave, love life.

(Not) Wishing the Days Away

2011-08-23T07:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the kiddos went back to school. This used to be my absolute favoritest time of year. I *loved* back to school. New clothes, new shoes, new office supplies! Who doesn't LOVE office supplies?! But now that I have three kids, I'm a little sad when this time of year rolls around.

We had a great summer but I am sorry to see it come to an end. My youngest turned 6 and that means (to me), I no longer have "little ones" at home - just big kids. So I'm moving forward into this next chapter of our lives. While the past 10 years have been so incredibly awesome in so many ways, it also has had the most traumatic and difficult times of my life so far. So I'm hoping this next chapter is less stressful and more blissful (don't we all).

It just makes every day more grander and every moment more precious. I thank God daily for all our wonderful blessings. I wish I could go back in time to all those days I just wished away and put them back in my lifetime for another chance. But since I can't I can only vow to make every day count going forward.

Ah yes, moving forward. So it's also been 10 years since I left my HR career to launch Paperwhite Studio. This has been one of the greatest things I've ever done for myself. I *love* lettering and I love creating and to be able to do it for a living has been one of my life's greatest blessings.

The past few years it has been very difficult to maintain my business while also caring for the family. So this year, I really hope to make the best of my time and create as much as I can. Who says the New Year starts January 1? It really starts when the school bell rings in the fall! So I'm making my resolutions now - one of which is to try to create something new every day.

I've been really beating myself up about my "block" and realized if I don't just start "doing" I'll never bust past it. So yesterday instead of just gazing at one of my lettering books, I decided to give something new a try.

I created a new birthday card based on a style called, "clothesline alphabet." This is from the book, "Hand Lettering: Simple, Creative Styles for Cards, Scrapbooks, and More" by Marci Donley and Deann Singh. This is a great book full of fun lettering styles for anyone to try. I had so much fun doing this and look forward to the next "creative block buster" I can tackle!

Back from another planet...

2011-08-18T12:24:00.000-07:00

So it seems I fell off the planet again. Sorry about that. I thought about waiting a couple more months and then it would have been a whole year since I posted. UGH! That's terrible. Time has a way of getting away from me. I've been stuck in this creative rut for at least a year. I can still create - it is just incredibly painful! It is like torture. But I've done some fun things during this time and when I look back on it, I think not so bad.

I've done many lettering jobs over the past year but I've spent most of my time doing other more 3D creating like knitting, drawing, and sewing. I'll post some going forward.

But since this is essentially a lettering blog, I'll post a couple recent (and not so recent) lettering jobs. I had so much fun doing this lettering for the Symphony of Southeast Texas. My favorite style of lettering...flourished.

And it was actually relaxing to design this logo for a custom wedding studio. The flourish just flowed. Aneeta J.

I also designed a logo for our favorite homeopath. This was the first time I tried my hand at Illustrator. I've been busy trying to learn Illustrator. UGH! Not an intuitive program. Anyway, I was happy with what I came up with...especially since the art direction was, "think spiral, vortex; the matrix of creation is sacred geometry which is not fixed in anything but truth....as above so below...." [what?] Anyway, this was my interpretation of that:

That's all for now. Three more days and the kiddos are back to school! Hooray and boo - means more time to post!

Truly,

Erica

Happy Birthday Mom!

2010-10-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

I'm on a roll ... sort of! My mom's birthday was this week and we're heading off to her party this afternoon. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try another flourish. I really had fun doing this. I started with a banner from Ames Compendium and then just wung it.

I got a little carried away on the upper part of the banner when my husband came in and offered me a lick of chocolate frosting (since I haven't had any goodies since I've been on WW for 6+ weeks). I nearly fell off my drafting stool and then blobbed the card! So I tried to cover the goof by adding some thicker leaves. (It's was worth the lick of chocolate by the way).

I obviously still need to work on overall shape and getting down the stroke shapes. Looking forward to having something new to practice. I did the original with walnut ink on Fabriano Medioevalis. The web version is scanned and reversed. I'm including a photo of the original, too.

Thanks all for the great encouragement! Spark is lit again!!! :-)
Truly,

Erica

Something new...flourishing

2010-10-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

I had a request to create a flourished banner for our guild's newsletter. Since I was unable to attend IAMPETH this summer, I missed Heather Held's flourishing class (much to my dismay!) and I have never done any kind of off-hand flourishing other than flourished lettering.

I was tempted to say I can't. Lately it seems I can't do calligraphy all that well. (And in my head I hear my husband saying, "Can't lives on Won't Street. :-) It must be lack of practice but some days it just feels like the paper is too scratchy, the nibs all skip, and the ink constantly bleeds. Nothing seems to flow. When this happens, I think the best thing to do is get back down to fundamentals. So I thought I would teach myself how to do the flourishing. Why not try, now is as good a time as any, right?!

So I dug out my binder with Heather's instructions and pulled out my Ames Compendium and had a go as they say. It was *really* fun! It's as addicting as zentangle that is for sure. They are very much the same process. You continue to build on the design using different patterns.

This is my first attempt so no laughing. Everyone has to start somewhere! Hopefully a year from now I'll be sharing some better attempts! :-)

Truly,
Erica
P.S. This was done with McCaffrey's black and a Nikko G nib on copy paper, scanned and then reversed. Also, I borrowed the banner design from Ames' Compendium and then wung the rest. I can see some gaps now where I could have filled in more. But I reached a point where I was fearful to screw it up!

Introducing Zentangles

2010-10-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

I was asked to introduce Zentangles to the Coastal Calligraphers Guild during our last meeting. I had soooo much fun! I am not a certified zentangle teacher so I did the best I could using the information from the zentangle's website. Thankfully Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, the creators of zentangle, encourage others to share about zentangles.

We reviewed several patterns and then did a few projects. The first project was a tag necklace which can be used as a name tag, necklace, or gift tag or... For our second project, we tangled a copper colored leaf. I drew the leaf pattern and cut out the shapes, used black eyelets, and put black string through for hanging. Being from New England, I'm missing all the beautiful fall colors right now so I thought this would be a fun way to bring them to Florida!

I figured out why I love zentangles so much and why I think they are so popular. There is a youtube video which shows a vibration table and each time salt is thrown on the table, a pattern is created from the vibration the frequency creates. It's amazing to see all the different patterns created and they look just like a zentangle pattern.

Many of you know I am also a homeopath and homeopathy is vibrational medicine. Each remedy is a vibration/energy of a substance such as a plant or mineral. People also have a vibration. The vibration of the remedy is matched to the vibration of the person (based on symptoms) so that healing can occur. So zentangles is like homeopathic medicine in a way since people are resonating with certain patterns.

Fascinating to me - perhaps boring to others! But I think it's wonderful! Now if I could just figure out how to determine the pattern of each remedy to the pattern of each person, I could heal the world! But for now, I'll just have to be happy tangling!
Truly,
Erica

Using the chalkboard to demonstrate zentangles.

Loving using stencils!

The blank silver rimmed tags before the class. I glued charms to the bottom of each one to weight.

Our copper leaf!

Wishing for snow!

My tag examples.

From the class - they did beautiful work!

We worked through the same patterns - love how they all come out different!

Fall-ing behind.

2010-09-24T07:42:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

It's been so long since my last post. This summer was simultaneously altogether too short and the longest I've known. My family and I went home to Maine this June. It had been three years since we had been able to visit. We spent three glorious weeks with our family, creating memories that will last a lifetime. We roasted marshmallows indoors at the fireplace. We picked blueberries and made pancakes. We visited the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and enjoyed the splendor of stepping inside some of our favorite story books like Blueberries for Sal, Fairy Houses, and Miss Rumphius.

This would have been the most glorious summer I've ever experienced spending time with my children, my husband's family, and my extended family except for one thing. My mother-in-law, Val, passed away shortly after we returned home. She was only 63. To have had that time with her is priceless. But I never expected the magnitude of the grief and how it hits you when you least expect it. Almost two months out, I thought I would be over the sobbing part. But no. It still manages to catch in my throat and well up in my eyes even right now as I sit here typing.

The week before she died, my husband flew back home to be with her and I was suddenly presented with a few mother's day greeting cards to design. To sit and create a mother's day card while your mother-in-law is dying is either the cruelest irony or the most cathartic gift - I haven't quite decided which yet. But in any event, I was struck by one of the assignments as it reminded me so much of Val.

I had taken a photograph of the daisies in one of her gardens. Her mother (who has also passed away) had planted them. I used this to draw 5 daisies for the card - one for each of her children. My husband was able to show her a copy before she passed on. It was a gift, I've decided.

Val was an extraordinary woman. She welcomed me into the family and treated me like her own. At her funeral, I shared some memories of her and I'll leave you with my final sentiment: Thank you Val, for raising the best man I know, for unreservedly sharing him with me, and for loving me like your own.

Valentines ... again!

2010-05-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

Where oh where have I been?! Well, I bet you all had thought I fell off the planet. One of the great benefits of working from home is that when something comes up ... sick kids, traveling husband, blah, blah, blah ... you can be flexible and tend to it. However, one of the greatest drawbacks of working from home is that when something *does* come up ... your schedule is the first one to go right out the window! Which can be extremely frustrating - especially when deadlines are involved. :-)

Anyway, you get the drift. I am happy I have had a few more assignments. Some I can't post but I love to share when I can. Below are two new Valentine's cards for Sunrise Greetings. They'll be printed with the white in glitter. I heart glitter! It's so sparkly and good.

Summer has officially hit southern Florida ... 95 degree days are here to stay. We went right from 75 to 95 and missed out completely on our usually BeAuTiFuL spring weather. Blech! I hate the heat and one of the charms of living here are the perfect paradise days in January through April. Not this year! I loved the unusually cold days because they felt like home but we went right from that to stifle.

Kids get out of school in the next couple weeks ... SUMMER! Ready or not ... here we come! :-)

Funky Alphabet Fun - creating a fun calligraphy style

2010-04-14T18:03:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking on the posts. Well, I guess I've been generally slacking at life! So, so busy. The kids were on spring break last week and I had to update the school site which took me WAYYY longer than I anticipated. Then I had to do my taxes which actually took me way less time than I thought!

Anyhow, I have become keenly aware my children are growing faster than you can say, "blink." My son in particular is pulling my heart strings lately as he is turning that corner where 8 melds to 9 and you can see the beginnings of a man in his lengthening neck. I find myself trying hard to remember moments of him at 4 or 5. I realized this is when my third was born and the full meaning of the words "middle child" actually makes me wince a little.

At the other end, my oldest (12) is now accompanying me to my calligraphy guild meetings. And this past weekend, she participated in her first workshop with me! This brings me great delight! :-) This workshop was a lot of fun and hosted by Fred, a guild leader and very talented lettering artist and teacher. It was appropriate Delainey's first class was for "funky, fun letters."

We created our own alphabets using a foundational ... well... foundation! :-) Then we added a variation of a thin line and a swirl. I added a little squiggle and a few dots to mine (see below). Delainey did a variation with straight lines. It was really fun and we accomplished a lot in a short time. I may turn mine into a font just for fun.

On our way home from the workshop, I asked Delainey if any of her 6th grade friends were interested in calligraphy. This was the age I began my adventures into the lettering arts. She said none of her friends are really interested in art like she is. This was a revelation for me as I had never stopped to think about someone not being interested in art. For me it's like breathing or eating or sleeping ... it's just there and always has been. I have always, since I can remember, loved art whether it be doing my own or admiring another's. But until that moment, it hadn't really occured to me it wasn't innate in everyone.

I've often tried to determine what it is about lettering that I just love and I've never been able to express it adequately or eloquently enough. I suppose it's the potential for beauty in something that is ordinary. Or that meaningful words become even more so when visually expressed. Or maybe it's just the swirl, or evenness, or even reliability of the shape of a beautiful letter ... the combination of lines straight and curved, the unexpected swoosh that graces the page. Whatever it is, it is definitely "my thing."

I've encouraged my children from birth to find "their thing." I've tried to gently kindle a love of art and learning although it has been a struggle. Whatever it may be though, I encourage them to go for it. For my dad, it's sports. He just loves sports and always has. I, on the other hand, don't enjoy them much. But we share in common a love for something that just endures. I hope I can foster in my children that love for a special thing. Something they love forever and ever. Something that makes them happy. Because they are the only thing that supercedes "my thing." :-)

Truly,

Two new Christmas greeting cards

2010-03-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of fun designing these cards for Sunrise Greetings (a division of Hallmark). Christmas cards are the most fun to design. The color palette was chosen for me - beautiful!

I've been doing a lot of sewing and crafts lately and not much calligraphy. I hope to get back at the lettering practice in the next week or so. I have to get back up to speed for IAMPETH! I still can't believe I am going to my first conference - hooray!

Enjoy! :-)

Zentangle - Zenspirations Silk Ornaments and Zentangle Sneakers!

2010-03-13T19:09:00.000-08:00

Phew - it's been awhile since I've posted. I haven't had much time to do much of anything. I make 8 to 10 chauffeur trips per day - drop off first 2 kids, then come home, drop off 3rd kid, then come home, pick up 3rd kid, then come home, pick up kid, come home, pick up kid at sports, come home. It's never ending! I figured out I spend 3 hours per day in the car. But next fall all three will be in school full time and I'll have 6 whole hours per day!

I'm working on a few greeting cards for Sunrise which I will post when I'm done. But in the meantime, I thought I'd share the fun stuff I did yesterday.

My 12 year old daughter and I were working on homemade birthday gifts for her friend and I thought it was about time I combined the silk painting classes and zentangle/zenspiration classes together and make a zenspiration silk painting! I wasn't really prepared so the letters aren't all that well executed and I am out of practice on using the gutta paint tubes but I was so happy with this process! I cannot wait to make more. I know what I'll be doing for Christmas this year! And my daughter loved it so that was cool. I was bummed I only had time to make a couple. But stay tuned because I am sure I will be perfecting some letters and creating more of these.

Final zentangle ornament:

Close up:

Unfinished but ready for ribbon and beads:

The other fun thing I did this weekend was create my new zentangle sneakers! This was a trial run so I used cheap sneaks. But it was sooo fun! And I loved the results. Except I will need to get a new, brighter white paint pen. This one was old and faded. But I'll definitely be making another pair - if anything because my 12 year old wants a pair of zentangled converse!

Hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I enjoyed making them! Until next time ....

Truly,

Erica

Painting Roman Caps on Fabric - Susan Hufton workshop

2010-02-25T18:52:00.000-08:00

I had the best weekend! I went to a calligraphy workshop - Painted Roman Caps on Fabric. Susan Hufton, an amazing, calligrapher and lettering artist from London is a great instructor. The class began promptly at 9:00 and we learned and worked from the minute the class started until it ended each day at 5:00p. We covered an amazing amount of material and I learned *so* much.

I have very little experience with a brush, no experience painting on fabric, and no experience with Roman Caps. So this was a great way to introduce all three! I purchased Sue's book, Step by Step Calligraphy many years ago. (You can find it used on Amazon.) It features the techniques we used in class.

The class started with a brief introduction to Roman Caps and we practiced doing skeleton letters and drawing Roman Caps with pencil. We spent the afternoon getting acquainted with the brush and painting the letters onto different textures of paper. Then all day Sunday we spent playing with different paints, inks, and fabrics.

This was a great process for me because I normally work *very* fast. My pointed pen and flourishing are quick movements from the shoulder. It was refreshing to slow down and draw the letter and slowly paint it. Clearly I have a lot of work to do on the letter forms, but I really enjoyed it.

This was FW Acrylic on linen (an old tablecloth).

This is cheap watercolor paint on the same linen:

This is schmenke pan silver on dupoini silk:

This is the silver on polyster nylon. This was surprisingly easy.

And this was a little monochromatic experiment on cotton broadcloth. This was also the FW Acrylic.

If you ever have the opportunity to take a class with Sue, I highly recommend it.

There are so many applications for this. It will come in handy for gifts, I'm sure. Now I'm off to practice Roman Caps! And P.S. The "baby" is practicing for a friend. :-)

Belated Valentine's Day Zentangle

2010-02-19T05:43:00.000-08:00

Kept wanting to post this but didn't want to interrupt the letterpress flow... I had so much fun trying to design the Valentine heart that when I was practicing with a marker, I decided to do this:

You may recognize some of the patterns from one of my favorite Zentangle artists, Sandy Bartholomew at Beez in the Belfry. A few were featured in her Tangle of the Week posts. I bought the Studios magazine which features her zentangle studio (wow!). I also purchased her AlphaTangle Book. Both are a worthy purchase for the zentangle enthusiast. WARNING: For some reason zentangles are extremely addicting! :-)
Truly,
Erica

Can't wait for Valentine's Day! :-) My first L Letterpress card!

2010-02-13T14:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! [spoiler alert] ... As promised ... my first L Letterpress printed card:

Hopefully, Valentine cards arrived today so it won't spoil the surprise but since there is no postal mail tomorrow, I'm going to post online today. :-)

I had a lot of fun trying out my new QuicKutz L Letterpress machine. At first it was a little frustrating but once I got the hang of it, I was printing on every paper I could find!

Let me back up and start at the beginning. I ordered a custom plate of my calligraphy design from Elûm Designs. The folks over at Elûm were SO helpful! (sorry about the accent, couldn't find the straight line over the u.) Although I am somewhat of a Photoshop guru, I have limited Illustrator experience. The friendly folks at Elûm walked me through preparing the file. The nice thing is there is no minimum order, so I could order just my valentine plate. If I had to wait to gang up additional plates, I may never order! Here is a snapshot of the plate:

Here is a pic of my L Letterpress:

I took the advice of Harold at Boxcar Press and purchased a new brayer. It was $24 at Michael's Crafts and I used my 40% off coupon. [Sidenote: a very special thank you to Harold if you ever read this as if I had not seen your post, I probably would have given up thinking a good print wasn't possible.] Boxcar Press also makes custom plates for the L Letterpress.

I'm glad I did as the brayer made a huge difference. I tried the brayer from the kit and it worked but wasn't so great. It was just too small to ink the plate well.

I didn't know that the plate comes with its own self-adhesive back so I tried to use one of the adhesive sheets I purchased with the press. Doh! It wouldn't stick! Then I figured out the blue paper was to be peeled off. This is great as it eliminates the cost of having to purchase the adhesive sheets. I was able to print two different times, clean off the plate, and then peel it off twice and it still was sticky on the back.

On to the fun part. Inking the plate was clearly one of the most important factors in getting a good print. My first prints were horrible! I was more than a little disappointed. But, I would soon find out, the paper used made a huge difference as well. I'm not sure what QuicKutz was thinking, but the paper sold as an accessory to the letterpress machine made for terrible prints! It cracked and the impressions were not crisp at all. It felt soft and thick, but the results were not good. It wasn't cheap either. Had I not tried a back up paper, I would have written off the whole press as useless. But alas, the good part is coming!

I will say however, without ink, the paper made a beautiful debossed impression. For some weird reason in the photos it sometimes looks embossed, but it is definitely debossed into the paper.

A closeup:

So, after wasting about 25 pieces of the expensive cardstock, I decided to give another paper a try. I am so glad I did! The difference was dramatic. The prints were much crisper and more even. I was very pleased with the results. I also tried a metallic ink and it printed much better than the light pink I had started with. The metallic was just a little smoother.

The trick for me was using the brayer to smooth out the ink before I applied it to the plate. Since I had never used a brayer before, this took a little bit to figure out. But once I did, it only took a few strokes to get the ink smoothed out on the glass. A very small amount of ink is needed (about the size of a peanut) to print about 25 pieces.

For some reason, my kit did not include the cushion sheet that is supposed to go under the paper when you run it through the machine. I substituted a piece of the soft cardstock at first which proved a little too thick for a good crisp print. So I ended up using a piece of regular scrapbook cardstock but doubled it. This worked perfectly. Also, after just lightly running the brayer over the plate twice, I needed to wipe around the edges of the plate bed with a papertowel to make sure I didn't have ink smudges that would mess up a print.

Prints on L Letterpress cardstock:

Good print on alternate paper:

As you can see, the difference is dramatic. I went back to try the L Letterpress paper again after making some beautiful prints on alternate paper and they still did not print great. Better but not as crisp. It is like it just absorbed too much ink. So for those of you trying this ... have several different kinds of paper to try.

When I finally got on a roll, I was loving it and printing every last scrap I could find! The impression was gorgeous and the metallic ink was just beautiful. When I was doing wedding invitations, I had a fabulous, and very talented printer do my letterpress invites. Mark at the Dunstan Press in Scarborough, Maine was a real artist. I can honestly say the prints I made on the L Letterpress were comparable. (Sorry Mark!). But truth be told, I held up an invite printed with a traditional letterpress and my printed card and I would doubt anyone could tell the difference. But let me say, I would not purchase this gadget thinking you could run a full service letterpress business with it. It is a fine home crafter kit but would probably not hold up to every day wear and tear.

The press itself did seem sturdy. I didn't have any problems with cranking the plates through. It glided right through with no cracking noises or skipping of the handle. Even my 4 year old and 8 year old cranked some through. I do think the plate bed that goes through the press will need to be replaced eventually. It accepted the wear and tear OK but somehow it created a black streak on the plastic going through the metal rollers. And it definitely seemed looser after just two print sessions.

I did not purchase the cleaning cloths that were sold along with the press which I was initially bummed about because the ink did not just wash right off. But mineral spirits wiped it off no problem. Also, for anyone who thought of this, Gocco printer inks *do not* work. I gave it a go when the first prints were cruddy and the Gocco ink really isn't the right consistency.

There are some quirks to the press ... paper selection may be limited and metallic inks certainly printed better than the colors. But with some practice, this may be able to be overcome. Bottom line ... I am thrilled with my letterpressed cards. I'm really happy I made this purchase and I know I will have fun printing more custom calligraphy cards in the future. Overall, a definite cool tool for the home studio!

Will you be my Valentine?

2010-02-04T13:40:00.000-08:00

Guess what came in the mail today?! My first custom letterpress plate! I blogged a few months back I had purchased the QuicKutz L Letterpress machine. I finally finished my first design and sent it off to Elum to have a plate made for my Valentine's Day cards. I can't wait!

I am so glad I ran out the day I saw the announcement the printers were available because I went back to AC Moore and the entire display was gone... not sure why. I didn't bother to ask as they didn't even know they carried the thing back when I bought it (in November).

The plate itself is rather beautiful (if I do say so!). The price was very reasonable - it was only $11.78 for the plate and then $9.84 for shipping. So $21.62 total. Of course, I will blog all the details once I print the cards.

Did I mention I can't wait to print my Valentines?! :-) I don't want to give it away so I'm posting a different design just to tide you over until I get them done. Calligraphy and Valentines go hand-in-hand - so they are one of my favorite things to do. This image below is a heart flourish I did for a Papyrus Valentine's Day card a few years ago. I added the "love" today.

Stay tuned...

Oopsie ... I almost forgot the most important part ... I will mail one of the Valentines to the first 5 readers to email me their mailing address before midnight, Friday, February 5, 2010. I can't guarantee it will arrive before the 14th, but I'll try!

A Book Review (or two) of Sorts ...

2010-02-02T07:49:00.000-08:00

I just spent an hour writing this and then blogger dumped it so this will be much more brief! I've been working on a few Birthday cards for friends and family which is always difficult when you are a greeting card designer. The pressure is on so to speak! But I like to keep it simple. Otherwise, they would never make it into the mail. As I frequently do when designing cards, I browse through my calligraphy books and look for interesting hands I would like to try or experiment with.

I recently purchased two books by Ruth Booth that every lettering artist will want as part of their collection (if they don't already have them). Intended for scrapbookers, these books are full of great alphabets and are very popular with calligraphers. Scrapbooker's Alphabets (search for it at Paper & Ink Arts - it's on sale!) has a huge range of both fun and elegant alphabets. One of my favorites is Romeo which are built up Roman caps done with pencil. I've always wanted to do these but couldn't find a good source.

Celebration Calligraphy (about halfway down this page at John Neal Booksellers) features more great alphabets like Jargon capitals which are thin versals. This is another hand I was not able to find a good examplar for until now. I used this alphabet to do my birthday cards and thank you card below. The colored pencil didn't scan well but you get the idea. I will say the cover of this book does not do it justice. It is full of wonderful ideas and even a small gallery of calligrapher's work at the back.

I am sure these two books are ones calligraphers will turn to again and again for great lettering ideas.

The path to calligraphy...

2010-01-26T11:11:00.000-08:00

I received a wonderful email from fellow letter-lover Sandi from TN who is learning spencerian. This got me thinking about how I became a lettering artist.

I had always enjoyed drawing but I fell in love with calligraphy around the age of 10. My 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Jacobs, had the sweetest hand writing - the result, she told me, of long hours of practice in Catholic school. I longed to be able to write like her. I was a straight A student with C's in penmanship! And thus began my true love of lettering. My mom gave me a calligraphy kit for Christmas and I practiced with my markers and fountain pens. Back then the only books I had available were by Ken Brown and Margaret Shepherd. I practically memorized them.

I started getting commissions as I finished up grade school - certificates, programs, yearbook cover, etc. I became fairly adept by high school where I encountered my first real calligraphy teacher (who shall remain nameless) in graphic arts class. I was so happy to have a mentor who also loved calligraphy as much as I did. This would be short-lived as I soon experienced for the first time, the competitive bitterness that can rear its ugly head in the art world.

When we displayed our final projects, another student commented that my lettering was better than the teacher's. I was embarrassed but pleased at my progress. So I was disappointed when I received a B. When I inquired as to why I had received only a B, the response was, "I'm the only one who gets an A in this class."

My confidence was shattered and any glimmer of an idea I had of going to art school was extinguished. I gave into the notion I would never be good enough for a career in art. I continued to take art classes in college when I could fit them in. And I continued practicing my calligraphy. I did a few jobs here and there - invitations and certificates in italic. But it was really more of a hobby than anything else.

My senior year in college, I took another hit to the ego when a photography teacher told me my project was "silly" among other nasty things I can't even write here. It was a very bizarre experience but suffice it to say it reinforced the idea I could never be a "real" artist.

A few years later when I was working in the corporate world, I received an alumni magazine which featured a story on the same teacher. She was showcasing her work in the university gallery. Or perhaps I should say she was showcasing her version of my work. Yes - she had copied my project. So I reasoned it could not have been *that* bad. With a new perspective, I started practicing both calligraphy and photography with a renewed spirit.

It was the June 1993 issue of Victoria magazine that completely changed my life. I was preparing for my own wedding when I saw the article featuring Maria Thomas's amazing spencerian invitations. I knew right then and there I *had* to learn how to letter like that. I contacted Maria. I still have (sitting right next to me here in the studio) the package she sent me 17 years ago. Maria put me in touch with Michael Sull who was just finishing up his "Learning to Write Spencerian Script" book.

Michael kindly sold me a photocopied, unedited, stapled version and I was off. I practiced, practiced, practiced. It was love at first sight! I lettered my own invitations for my wedding in June the following year - and poorly I must say. But back then I thought it was wonderful!

Michael gave me the name of another calligrapher, Laura Di Piazza who generously sent me a copy of John Neal's catalog. I could not believe this entire catalog full of calligraphy stuff existed! Well, I continued practicing and did wedding invitation, diploma, certificate, and envelope jobs on the side. I also took a number of art classes at Maine College of Art, including graphic design classes, while working full time and starting a family. This time I was fortunate enough to have a fantastic design instructor who reinforced the fundamentals and encouraged me greatly.

About 7 years later the insurance company I worked for was bought out. I was in the unique position of being the only person in the company who could do the human resource job position systems transition for all of our 1200+ employees.

Although my position would be eliminated, I was offered a stay bonus to complete the project and a different position afterwards. I became pregnant with my 2nd child just as we finished the acquisition. Long story short, my son had a severe reaction to his first round of immunizations and going back to work FT was completely out of the question. So I decided to quit my job and post an ad for wedding invitations in Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. The stay bonus was enough to continue paying our bills while I got my business up and running.

Well, the business was off with a bang! One of my first clients was a referral from Margaret Shepherd - the very same calligrapher whose books I poured over as a child! I quickly started getting wonderful clients for upscale weddings. The majority of my brides were attorneys living in large cities in the U.S. such as NYC, LA, Houston, etc. I then did a job for Harrison & Shriftman, a high end PR firm, and thus began a string of Hollywood parties and promotional pieces. I really enjoyed this type of work but the stress of deadlines and a child with autism made each day a struggle.

Thankfully, during this time, Casco Bay Scribes, the local calligraphy guild in Portland, Maine, started back up and for the first time ever, I was introduced to friends who shared the same passion I did for hand-lettering. With this came many workshops with very talented calligraphers.

Eventually, I had to stop doing weddings and social invitations. During this time, I was contacted by Marcel Schurman, now Papyrus, to design a Mother's Day card. I was thrilled! Thus began my adventures in greeting card design. My first greeting card was awful! But they seemed to like it and I started doing more and more.

Over the next few years, I worked to recover my son who experienced a miraculous recovery from autism via homeopathy. I then began studying medicine to become a homeopathic doctor. My third child was born in 2005. I was busy doing logo design for an internet web design company and around this time I began designing for Sunrise Greetings.

In 2007, we moved to FL where the alternative medicine laws do not allow me to practice homeopathy. So I've been able to continue with commercial lettering and greeting card design. It has always been a struggle to balance my love for calligraphy, photography, and now homeopathy. I have been fortunate enough to assist some amazing healing. But for right now, it is not the right time to practice. I miss my lettering and hope to immerse myself back into all that is calligraphy!

Phew, that is way more than I intended to write. But there it is... my story of how I came to be a calligrapher ... an artist ... and very, very happy. :-)

The ads in Martha Stewart Weddings - 2001.

Happy New Year - 2010!

2010-01-01T16:01:00.000-08:00

Wowza - 2010! I truly can't believe it. Back in 1999, I was an executive compensation analyst (can you imagine?!) and we were scurrying to prepare our large company for "Y2K." My bestest friend Lisa and I were in meetings on a daily basis ... what if this, what if that. We were both astounded that the year 2000 was upon us. Five kids between us and 10 years later ... here we are even more astounded 2010 is upon us!

While there are many parts of the past 10 years I'd like to erase (and hope to this year, if you catch my wide drift! ;-p), the past 10 years have brought me personal growth, knowledge, and experience that combined finally make me feel like a grown up. Horror that is, with it came the most joy I've ever known in the form of 3 very beautiful, sweet children whom I adore more than life itself.

As some of you kind readers know, for the past 5 years, I have put my serious pursuit of the arts on the back burner while I studied homeopathic medicine to become an HD (homeopathic doctor). Although that study will last the rest of my life, I have accomplished what I set out to do. And now that I live in a state where I cannot practice without 2 more additional years of medical school to complete an MD, that goal is going to have to be put on hold.

In the meantime, calligraphy has been calling me. And if ever a heart could ache to create, mine is. While I continued to letter greeting cards and such through the past few years... my penwork is grossly out of practice (get it? -- grossly? - inside joke to calligraphers)! So I decided I'm going to try to work my way through the Tamblyn Instructor.

I whizzed through Lessons 1-6 today... then was struck by how difficult it was to make a Capital C in Lesson 7! I had to use all my restraint to not just go off course. Since Tamblyn starts with business writing, no flourishes are allowed - no loops ... ahhh the discipline. But I'm hoping it will pay off with fresher letters. (OK, you can see where I let a few flourishy "t's" fly but then I gathered myself properly. :-) I did manage to squeak out one semi-decent C at the end. (See the tiny arrow?)

OK, for some reason I still haven't been able to figure out this whole processing thing on blogs so I'm now writing to you from the centered position. But that's about it anyway! Oh ... one last thing ...

Truly,

Erica

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T11:28:00.000-08:00

For all who celebrate ... wishing you a safe, healthy, joyous Christmas!

Christmas Angel

2009-12-21T15:19:00.000-08:00

Finishing all my last minute Christmas errands. Finally mailed my Christmas cards. I'll post them later - don't want to ruin it. But here's one I just got back from Sunrise. They ended up not using all the verse in calligraphy (I did 2 versions). But I really like this one.

Merry, merry!

Erica

Christmas presents - personalized bottles

2009-12-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

I hope I won't be giving this away for any of our gift recipients but I wanted to post about the idea I came up with for teacher's presents.

We have many, many teachers to give to because each of the kids has 3 teachers and then specials teachers. It's hard to find something nice, affordable, and universal!

But there is one thing we love and that is maple syrup. And only real, pure maple syrup which is expensive and not a luxury many people purchase for themselves. So I thought it would be nice to give bottled maple syrup. Then I thought, hey, wouldn't it be nice if I could somehow personalize the bottle. So then I looked into glass etching.

As it turns out, I can etch the bottles with my calligraphy! There is a small machine which makes the stencils here: Glass Etching Kits. Has anyone tried this? All of you calligraphers out there - this could be a great money-maker!

So I was able to purchase the bottles via Specialty Bottles. I'm so excited! Then we purchase our favorite maple syrup, etch, bottle, and voila - gift!

I am posting the camera ready of the etching below. I drew the snowflake and did the lettering (except the font). I will be sure to post pictures of the finished gift.

I'm really excited about this! I think I may have found our "annual gift." When all said and done, if all goes as planned, it will be a nice, yet affordable, personal gift. I hope! :-)
Truly,
Erica

Holiday Season is upon us!

2009-12-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

I honestly think time has sped up. I am still floundering back in September somewhere. Even the days feel short now and the months whiz by. I am so happy I didn't procrastinate this year and our tree and decorations went up on the day after Thanksgiving. That is a record for us! Each year for the past 8 years or so we've been piece-mealing it together so that we finally have all decorations and such complete about the day before Christmas. So this year, I made a huge effort to make sure we got it done. Even my shopping is done! Not wrapped yet but done!

I play Christmas carols every minute of every day until Christmas because it still feels like Christmas in July for me here in Florida.

I am starting to work on the teachers' gifts (we have 9 teachers because the kids go to a charter school and work in groups with several different teachers each). It's hard to find something nice to make or buy for teachers. But I'm working on something! Last year I did personalized stationery for each one - calligraphed and gocco printed. So this year I'll have to come up with something different. Maybe a Zenspirations monogram?

I just completed my 2nd American Greetings design yesterday. Ugh! It was like pulling teeth. It was a combination of monoline and slight thick and thins. Since I am not polished at brush lettering, I tried it with several different tools. But patience and perseverence paid off as I finally was able to do something which they liked. I used a straight fountain pen. It was frustrating at times but I loved the process and I am learning sooo much with every design.

I suppose it looks kind of stark without the design but thought I'd post anyway just to help your curiousity. :-)

Thanks for visiting!

Erica

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T05:09:00.000-08:00

Gobble, gobble! Not the best calligraphy I've ever done but you get the idea!

Hurry - there's still time! L Letterpress machine give away

2009-11-18T13:06:00.000-08:00

OK - I just found out there is a new home Letterpress machine! It just came out. I am so excited! I found it on this great blog: http://www.i-do-it-yourself.com/2009/11/psa-update-on-the-l-letterpress-giveaway/comment-page-10/#comment-4732.

There is still time to get in on the give-away. The deadline is 11:59p tonight!

I *love* letterpress. Many of the invitations I designed in early 2000's were letterpressed by an amazing artist in Scarborough, Maine. Letterpress just gives an amazing textural quality to your project. I had my business cards and brochures letterpressed. I could just sit and feel them for hours!

I've always wanted to do my own greeting cards with letterpress but could never afford it. Now maybe I can! They hope to come up with a custom process soon!

So cool!

Life is getting in the way!

2009-11-18T06:38:00.000-08:00

So life is getting ridiculously bogged down and I haven't been able to do any art related fun things lately! But I have managed to squeeze in a little Zenspiration stuff at night after the kiddos are in bed. I'm still in the rough learning stage but I thought I would share the fun.

I still can't figure out why you can't click on my new images to see the larger one. You used to be able to do that in my earlier posts. So I must have somehow changed my settings. Sorry about that. I'll try to figure it out. :-)

In the meantime, here are some roughs.
Truly,
Erica

Zenspirations by Joanne Fink

2009-11-09T14:17:00.001-08:00

WOW! I had the *best* time yesterday at the workshop put on by Joanne Fink. It was like decorated versals merge with zentangles and more! Joanne's workshop was called Zenspirations and was it ever!

Joanne is a terrific instructor. She was very organized, had wonderful handouts, and first quality supplies. What I really liked was that she shared so generously with her handouts so that once the workshop was done, you really have a good reference packet to use on your own. The workshop was extremely well layed out - meaning each step was useful and fun and did not waste any time. We got right to creating and I felt I had learned a great deal when the workshop was over and every minute was very well used.

The great thing about Joanne's Zenspirations is it really takes the idea of zentangles one step further. There are so many ways you can apply what Joanne taught. I was always intrigued with zentangles but hadn't made the leap yet because I didn't know what use it would have to me other than a fun time-eater and Lord knows I don't need anymore of those! :-) If you ever have the opportunity to take this workshop with Joanne - DO IT!

We started by learning some basic zentangle like patterns. Then we learned how to apply these to a series of curved lines. Here's my first go:

We then learned how to apply them to versal like capitals. The fun part is the letters are a series of sketched lines so if you make a mistake, you can correct it with another line. It takes away a lot of the pressure of trying to get perfect letter forms. To me, that is the zen part. You can create without worry! Here's a "K" which was one of my first letters.

Finally, we learned how to do something playful and apply it to illustrations and add color, etc. This was with a Sakura gel pen.

Can't wait to play more!

Until next time...

Erica

Zentangle Conference - yahooo!

2009-11-05T08:07:00.000-08:00

I'm going to the Zentangle Monograms conference taught by Joanne Fink in Orlando! I am so excited. It's been so long since I've been to a calligraphy workshop - years even!

I have never done zentangle although I've heard about it. So I watched some videos on line and read some stuff on it and gave it a try last night with a ball point pen and regular copy paper. I think I'm really going to enjoy it!

It is complete coincidence that when I turned my paper, this looked like a woman's profile! I'll share what I do in the workshop when I get back.

Truly,

Erica

Water Bottle Carriers

2009-11-02T14:42:00.000-08:00

I gave these as gifts to the teachers last year. I loved how they came out. You can get the pattern for free here at Pink Chalk Studio. I think the teachers liked them. I also made them for Mother's day. I added the little beading accent. I wish I could have found bottles to match all the colors but no such luck. Do you know how hard it is to find decent water bottles that don't cost a fortune?! UGH! Anyway, I made myself one, too! :-)

Candy Corn Witch

2009-10-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

For those of you hoping to only see lettering here, I have to apologize. I was trying to decide if I should separate out my personal projects from my lettering and I finally decided I would keep it altogether. Sorry! You'll just have to weed through the stuff that doesn't interest you! :-)

So this past week my daughter and her best friend decided they wanted to be candy corn witches for their halloween party. This was fine except all the local stores had sold out of the costume and the adult version was wayyyy too risque for my taste and for my 12 year old!

I agreed to make both of their costumes. What was I thinking? Oh, probably the same thing I think any time I am met with a challenge - I can totally do this! It would have been fine except the girls found out they would need me to make the costumes on Friday morning and we were hosting 15 people for dinner for my mom's birthday on Friday night!

So I ran like a crazy person all day getting stuff done and went to JoAnn's and bought all the fabric after I sat down and sketched out the idea. This was not easy as I could not find a pattern to modify so I had to wing it all on my own! Yikes!

We had a wonderful dinner party and said goodbye to all of our guests around 10ish. I sat down to the sewing machine and had a 15 hour costume sewing marathon. That's right - I pulled an all-nighter. I can't remember when it was exactly but at some point I think around 2, I realized if I went to bed, I would never finish in time for the Halloween party the next day.

So I sewed and cut and measured - wait reverse that. I'm still a little sleep deprived! But ... drum roll ... I did it! The girls were thrilled. They loved their costumes and I was happy to do it. I crashed at 3:30 in the afternoon and didn't wake up until 6 o'clock Sunday morning! Phew! What a weekend! But it's done...

Here is the sketch I did as well as the finished costumes... Hope there are other moms out there as crazy as I am that can appreciate it!

Truly,

Erica

Final fishies

2009-10-22T08:11:00.001-07:00

I thought I would post a picture of the final fish project. These are hung in the window of our kitchen. The gloss made a big difference. The fun thing is they gently sway and rotate so they look really dynamic in an otherwise dull space. The cats are going nuts! :-)
Happy Thursday!

My first American Greetings job

2009-10-22T06:44:00.000-07:00

I just completed my first gig for American Greetings. I am thrilled to be doing freelance for one of the top greeting card companies in the world! It was a great learning experience and just this one job has improved my "contemporary" lettering already.

It's slightly embarrassing to admit my first attempts were less than stellar. But the senior lettering designer was so patient and extremely helpful. His direction was excellent and I was able to accomplish what he was looking for. PHEW!

This is straight lettering - no illustration or card design - so it is done in black and white. Hard to imagine these two lines took me well over a 40 hour work week, 6 nibs, a full jar of McCaffery's, and two reams of paper! But the practice will certainly help in getting my style up to speed.

So here it is ... look for it in a major retailer near you next Father's Day!

Second Beading Attempt - Dragonfly Ornaments

2009-10-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

I saw this great ornament on this site: Dragonfly Ornament.

Looking for terrific Art and Craft Ideas? To make these lovely dragonfly ornaments, see the tutorial and photos on the How To Arts and Crafts.com website.

I wanted to make an ornament to donate to our Art Center to sell at their craft fair.

Wow - this was hard! I couldn't get the wire to stay smooth. And it was very time consuming. But I had fun. I chose to do silver instead of gold. The directions were great. I would not have been able to make it without all the photos.

Truly,
Erica

Silk Ribbon & Bead Book Marks

2009-10-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

I made these for Christmas gifts last year. I think they were well received. Each of my children have 3 teachers so I tried to come up with something I could give to each that was still nice and slightly different.

The hand dyed silk ribbon comes from Jamn Glass. They are beautiful in real life. She handstitches the edges! Wow!

The idea came from a Bead magazine which escapes me right now but I'll dig it up.

This was my first attempt at beading. I don't enjoy it that much (it's time consuming and so much harder than it looks). So I tip my hat off to all you wonderful beaders out there! :-)

Truly,

Erica

Last one for today...

2009-10-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

I'm working on my first card for American Greetings. Can you tell I am procrastinating? It's is a great learning experience and it's really helping me get my lettering up to snuff. By that I mean - more contemporary.

Anyway, I have lettered "Happy" about 300 times in the past 24 hours so I'm taking a "happy" break. :-)

Here is another gift I crocheted this year. These were for my neices. One day I was over babysitting and I was knitting a hat for someone. They asked if I could knit them a ballerina and a dolly in a blue dress. Hmmm... I'm on it! So this got me interested in amigurumi. For those of you that don't crochet, I think that is the japanese art of crocheting or knitting stuffed animals or toys or something. It is addictive! And fun. My problem is I like to finish things at one sitting so that means I stayed up wayyyy too late making each of these! But the girls loved them and that was totally worth it. They even sleep with them. :-)

Once, again I went to etsy for the pattern. This one is from AJollyShop. I modified the pattern a little to make the ballerina tutu.

More stuff I did this year ... more baby bibs, booties, and hats

2009-10-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

As I said, I did go a little crazy with the baby stuff. Here are some more things I did...

These bibs are great. I so wish I had thought to do something like this when my kids wore bibs. This pattern is also from Precious Patterns on Etsy.

I also made these little damask booties (another Precious Patterns):

I crocheted these baby booties. The pattern is from FrougesArt.

I'll post more later... it was a busy year! :-)

Truly,

Erica

Stuff I did this year... Handsewn Baby Bibs

2009-10-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

So I can't believe it's the middle of October already! But when I look back on the year, I've done quite a bit of stuff! Not a whole lot of lettering because I took a small hiatus. But I had time to do some projects I enjoy doing. I thought I'd post some for fun, although not related to lettering...

My cousin had her first baby this year. I was thrilled to start making stuff for a baby again. I went a little crazy but had so much fun doing it.

These are reversible bibs. I loved these in that they weren't "baby-ish" but more fun patterns but still in bright colors. I bought the pattern on Etsy from Precious Patterns. She has great patterns.

Free Paperclay Fish Template

2009-10-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

Couldn't figure out how to make just a link so I'm uploading this as a photo...hope it works. Have fun and let me know if you make one!
Truly,
Erica

A little crafting... Paperclay Fish

2009-10-18T06:47:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to come up with ideas that all three kids and I can do together. The older two had a great time at art camp this summer with our local Art Center. So Friday night I stayed up late making these little fish and turtle ornaments out of paperclay. I drew a template and then used an exacto knife to cut them out. Once cut out, I used a wet paintbrush and my finger to smooth the edges and shape them the way I wanted. I put each one on a balled up piece of recycled paper (the sheets I used to practice my calligraphy) to dry.

I used beads for the eyes in most and left a few in case the kids wanted to paint the eyes instead. I poked a hole in each one so we can hang them but you could also glue a magnet to the back instead.

In the morning, the kids and I painted them. What fun! Everyone could participate and was very happy with what they made. Here's what we came up with... the one on top is Erilyn's, then Kaiden's, then Delainey's, then mine. The kids did a great job. We have two windows in our kitchen eat-in area so I am going to hang these along the window at varying heights.

I've included the free template if anyone wants to give it a try. I will warn you though, it takes a lot of patience and time to shape the ornaments and smooth the edges. But I found it very relaxing and satisfying. :-) If you give it a try, hope you have fun!

Truly,
Erica

Where oh where have I gone?

2009-10-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been a *long* time since I have been on here. Let's just say life with 3 kids has been extremely busy. Studying homeopathic medicine, designing greeting cards, and taking care of three kids has just about put me over the top. However, my littlest one has finally started preschool which means, YES - mommy has 3 hours free EVERY weekday! I don't know what to do with myself. But first I am getting my lettering skills back up to snuff.

I started this week with my first freelance gig for American Greetings. Yippee! I'm very flattered to even be considered for American Greetings so I'll be very, very happy if I get some good gigs. The first one is a Father's Day card and I really like the design. I get to do straight lettering without having to worry about designing the whole card which makes it much less time consuming and a little less stressful. Not as much pay, but hey, it all adds up.

So I also haven't had time these past couple years to keep my hand in what has been happening in the lettering world. Wow again! A lot! There are blogs aplenty and many, many more websites than when I started in 2001.

I was very inspired yesterday reading Jane Farr's beautiful blog! And so I am going to try to blog more which anything would be more since I haven't blogged in literally years!

So here's my first ... I designed this today. I was trying to come up with a "Florida-ish" Christmas design for our local art center which is hosting a contest for their holiday card pack. I could not come up with anything until I saw this beautiful orchid in a sea shell at our local farmer's market this morning! It was calling my name. So I bought it even though I know I won't be able to keep it alive. And the rest just came right out. I'm real happy with it even I don't make it into the card packet. Here it is...hope you enjoy seeing it.

Nanny for the McPhees!

2007-06-11T16:33:00.001-07:00

I can't believe we finally have a new Nanny starting today! Hooray! I was able to accomplish so much in just one day. I almost completed the entire website revision. I hope to finish it tomorrow and then update my ispot gallery. It feels good to be back at work after almost a year of managing a house and 3 kids by myself!

We are settling right into Florida and it's getting hot!

We finally moved!

2007-03-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

We have finally moved and we are in the process of setting up the studio. Quarters are a little tight but I think it will do. I have my computer system up and I hope to get my website back up and be back in business soon!

Florida is beautiful. I miss Maine already but I know we will enjoy our time here. I can do design and lettering from anywhere!

Look for more posts soon.