Postcards

I've been getting postcards made for advertising from GotPrint for the last few years.

They make beautiful postcards for a very decent price. There are plenty of different sizes to choose from, rounded corners, nice saturated color, and a few different paper options. I was completely happy with them but I thought it might be fun to try something different for my show in June. So I ordered postcards from Moo.

Moo does this neat thing where you can order a different image on each card for the same price as ordering the cards with all the same image. So I ordered 60 postcards and picked 6 different images to use. It's fun to hand out different postcards to different people! And the quality is really nice, but they sure cost a lot more than GotPrint, and they don't have 5x7 cards. So, it was a fun experiment, but I think I'll go back to GotPrint next time.

I obviously have a lot of postcards left over- so please let me know if you'd like to get one in the mail!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fisherman

Here's a new summer print for my series of Colorado images. The Yampa River runs right through Steamboat. In the spring there are always lots of fishermen on the river. In the summer there's also a steady stream of people tubing, kayaking, rafting, and dogs swimming. In the fall there's less of the other activity, but still plenty of fisherman. And in the winter you'll still occasionally see some fishermen. Are you hearing the theme of this paragraph yet? :) So for my first print I decided to do a fisherman.

This print felt like a little bit of a warm-up because I haven't had time to make any linocuts for weeks. Now that I remember how, my next one is the print of a teepee. I have to stay on a good roll!

Leftovers Arrived

A few days ago I got the artwork in the mail from this year's Leftovers Print Exchange. Yay! It was really fun to open these original prints that were packaged up in a brown paper lunch bag with a napkin and a restaurant ticket. The concept of the exchange was to make small prints up to 5x7 inches using the leftover scraps of printmaking paper that we all have laying around. Also, Amy, who runs the exchange keeps one print from each participant to sell and raise money for hunger relief.

These two cats were my favorites in the package I received. On the left is Bobcat by Jane Ryder and on the right is Full of Personality (I think) but I can't quite read the name. Please let me know if anyone sees their print in the photos above. I'd love to say hi!

Picture Framing

The other day I painted another Birdland print. It's the biggest linocut I've done- the paper is 27x17 inches!


I've been painting prints so I can still have a finished reference in my flat file when everything is framed for my upcoming show.


After painting, I started matting. I've worked in 5 different frame shops over the years and for a while I had my own little frame business that I ran from my house. I don't have a saw to cut frames, but you can order them already cut. And I'm horrible at cutting glass, but you can order that cut already, too, thank goodness. Otherwise I have the equipment and experience I need to frame artwork. That's really nice because every artist knows how expensive framing is.


I'm reusing as many frames as possible by taking out old artwork and putting my new linocuts in the frames I already have. Above are some metal frames I had.


And here are some new wood frames I bought along with my assistant Fuzzy. I think I'll be done framing tomorrow and I can move on to new projects!

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Custom Phone Case

I'm still painting prints and doing a lot of picture framing to get ready for my show at Off the Beaten Path.  That makes for very boring blog posts, so I've been talking about different stuff than usual lately. That explains why I'm showing you my new phone case today!

I got an iphone recently and wanted to make a fun case for it. A few years ago, I designed lots of wacky plaids and I thought one of those would be neat on a case. I narrowed my choices down to these three-

There are several places where you can upload your own art and have a case made. I chose Zazzle because my friend Tina Kugler has her wonderful artwork on many different products at her Zazzle shop Froufrau. It was pretty easy to use and there are different styles of cases. The one I chose was the Case-Mate Tough  and it cost $39.95 + shipping. Once you upload your art, they show you images of what it will look like done- that was really neat!

And here it is in real life-

I think it turned out really well! I feel so fancy, and well... PLAID. :)

Upcycled Business Cards

Every printmaker has reject prints- ones with bad registration, blobs of ink, or smears where the paper moved and printed double. In my process of learning children's illustration and getting comfortable with watercolor, I've also accumulated plenty of good prints that just aren't the best illustrations. The other night while drifting off, I had an idea of what to do with all of those not-good-enough prints. Cut them into little pieces and upcycle them into business cards!

First I laid out a grid of business cards on my computer. I used a simple image and colors because I wasn't sure how well my Epson printer would work on heavy printmaking paper. It wound up working so well, I might try a more complex image next, though.

Then I took one of the reject prints from my book Earth, and printed the business cards on the back.

I tried it with 3 different prints, cut them apart, and wound up with these business cards.

They have the textured feel of an original relief print, with a little teaser of an image. I think they are pretty fun! There were some that wound up with such an uninteresting or weird image on the back that I just tossed those. This is only the beginning.... I have sooooo many reject prints I can use. :)