Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Last Minute Valentines

     Per usual I've been a little last minute in getting ready for Valentine's Day.  Fortunately I've embarked on a new artistic endeavor...well I guess it's an endeavor, it might be a rabbit trail, but I hope not.


Hearts & FLowers

     I've been having fun playing with my pastels. It all started when I volunteered to do the decorative, seasonal bulletin board at my younger daughter's school. I really didn't want to do typical bulletin board cut out stuff. And I needed to include a Bible verse which meant buying lots of cut out letters or cutting them out myself.  However, in the process of doing the first bulletin board it dawned on me I could use chalk on the background bulletin board paper! Yay!

Sunflowers and Pumpkins

     And then I remembered my fourth grade teacher, Mr. Schmidt. Every month he would do a colorful drawing on one of the chalk boards in our classroom. I wish I had a picture of one of those chalk boards. They were amazing!

     I did a little research and discovered that they make black bulletin board paper and that it's perfect for using soft or chalk pastels on.  And so I started doing drawings kind of like Mr. Schmidt, my fourth grade teacher.

Flowers & Bumble Bee

     They have been a big hit. I decided to make mini versions this last week to sell at a fund raising auction for my daughter's school. My husband loved them and told me I ought to find a way to sell them. Now I was racking my brain...do I have to figure out how to get this printed and then figure out how to do mailing from Etsy?

     My older daughter saved the day, she told me about a site called Redbubble.  Have you heard of it? I hadn't...frankly I find it difficult to keep up sometimes.  But it's such an amazing site full of original art on everything from cards to t-shirts to coffee cups.

     So before I handed over my chalk pieces for auction I pulled out the tri-pod and camera and found a really good spot in the house to take some photos of my work.  I then downloaded an open software called Gimp (Photoshop isn't in the budget) that helped me do some editing.

Rain Boots & Umbrella

      Long story short, I now have a "shop" at Redbubble for my chalk drawings. There is another site called Zazzle that I hope to also open a "shop" at. Those sites will just carry items with my chalk drawings on them for now.  AND I still have my Etsy shop in which I sell cross stitch patterns. Also I do have plans to convert some of the chalk drawings to cross stitch patterns. So I'm branching out and continuing to refine my style.

     But back to the last minute Valentines!

Bumble Bee Valentine
      So in the process of all of this I forgot, and so did my younger daughter, that she needed some Valentines cards for school this week. Because of course making your own is waaaaaay easier (not) I decided to do six quick little drawings and print out cards for my girl.  The winner is I get to offer them free to you right here!

Love Bug

     I printed them out on card stock and trimmed them with a quarter inch border...they end up being approximately 3"x 3".  Daughter has them all addressed and all we need to do now is get some little candies to tape to them!


So go ahead and click on the link below


 This one right here:
FREE VALENTINE DOWNLOAD


And have some fun letting your friends and family know how much you love them!
And please stop by my shops! 


Artists always appreciate you showing them a little love too!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!