:: A Bleached Bloom

This is a piece I had partly finished...until today. What gave me the push to finish you ask? I reserved my very first showcase spot on Etsy for July 27th and was hoping to break out of my creative slump and breathe some life into my poor, stale little shop. But, at about 1pm today I realized that I had accidentally reserved my spot for JUNE 27th. I now had 8 hours before I was to be featured.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I went through my stack of partially finished works. When I pulled out this flower I had an epiphany. I had stopped working on it when I couldn't decide whether to make this a square piece or a standard 7" x 5". What I realized was that it should be left up to the buyer to decide. In a way, whoever decides to adopt this little wildflower, will be finishing the piece themselves.

:: Visit the Wild Flower in my Etsy field ::
:: learn more about my bleach process ::

:: A small stone appeared and is speaking to me.

The oddest thing just happened. I went to the grocery store and when I was taking everything out of the bags at home I found this little stone that's just over an inch wide. I have no idea how it got in there. They don't sell anything like this at the store and the bags that they used were brand new and folded completely flat in a stack.

So where did you come from little stone and why have you entered my life right at this moment? And WHAT am I to 'become'? It's such a strong statement for such a small stone to make.

I've been in a terrible creative slump and haven't been motivated to paint in over a month so something about this seems serendipitous. I feel the need to comply with the stone but I really hate being told what to do!

Tell me what YOU think it wants from me?
What would you do if you were told to 'become'?

:: Groovy 2" Square Etsy Business Card Templates

I've been wanting to make myself some business cards that are specifically for promoting Etsy and here is what I came up with.

I'm not too hip on the standard size business card and I love squares...square art, square windows, square shelving, square food, especially cake, preferably tiramisu or that layered truffle type...well, you get the idea.

Aaaaanyway, after recreating the Etsy logo I made a 2" square Photoshop template so I can drop whatever art or photo behind the logo that I want. Then I made the info side very simple with black and beige text listing my 2 Etsy stores and what they contain. At the bottom I also included the name of the piece of art or what the photo on the front was. And there you go!

Oh yeah...I made a batch with rounded corners too. They kind of remind me of nice paint swatches and I think they'll hold up better because the corners won't get broken or bent.
I'm really happy with them!

I'm waiting for a batch of Moo cards too so I'll have plenty of promo stuff. Now it's just a matter of which format I like better, long and narrow or square...that is the question...

:: Download the Photoshop Templates ::

this is a zip file containing:
:: 1 - Photoshop file with 2" square card for home printing
:: 1 - Photoshop file with bleed for professional printing
:: 1 - 8.5" x 11" Photoshop file with guides to print 20 cards

Don't worry, the files have been scanned and are virus free.

:: Find out more about Moo cards ::

:: 3 birds with one stone ....

It's been such a long time since I posted in my blog, listed anything in either of my Etsy stores, or made ANYTHING new for that matter.

I've made a set of my gallery style cards with details of one of my bleach paintings, "Skeletal Moth". It's something that I have been trying to work out for a while now. I wanted to do these cards with tiny prints of entire paintings but they were so small that the detail was completely lost. So heck, why not JUST do the details!

There will eventually be a set from my "Mosaic Dragonfly" and two other moth paintings.

So why the 3 birds reference? Well, you just read a new post on my blog, and the cards will be listed in both of my etsy shops as a crossover product! Ta-da!

:: Visit my Etsy shop for bleach paintings ::

:: Visit my Etsy paper playground ::