before and after

I have a little before-and-after for you today. A little art for my husband as a Christmas gift.


I found these pseudo-oil paintings in a thrift shop. They were labeled "French, 1950's". I think the frames are beautiful and were exactly what I was looking for.
So, I primed over the prints, painted the frames with a lovely brushed nickel spray paint (Valspar, I think) and transferred the silhouettes I did of our two pups and painted them with gouache. I added monograms for them too. "A" for Addie and "C" for Conner.


Ta-Da! They're hanging in our living room next to my Keep Calm poster (in Apples and Orange orange, PMS 151) from sfgirlbybay.

calendar contest.

I've entered a contest! It's a Spoonflower themed contest. This makes me super nervous because, you see, I've never done this before. I'm not sure when voting will be. I've submitted a calendar design I just happened to have done this week.

My plan is to actually screenprint the calendar, but I thought it would be fun to submit it for voting.

You can find my design here.

well hello there!

I've been missing for a bit, haven't I?

Here's a little peek into something I've been working on.
More soon ... I promise.

Make Like a Tree and Leave(s)

I am taking a short break from my leaves. I haven't been able to make the repeat work, so I'm stepping away for a moment. But, before I do, what do you think of the yellow? I love yellow. It's so happy and cheery. I would like to see this as yellow curtains for a bedroom (or any room). What better way to wake up (this coming from someone who is not a morning person!)?



So, in the meantime, I'm going to shift my focus to another pattern I've started. Here's the new one ... what do you think?Have a happy Tuesday!

The Leaves are Becoming

I'm excited about these leaves.

Here is the next iteration of my leaf pattern. I chose a lime-green color to start but imagine it could be done in a variety of colors. One step at a time, though, right? If you click on the image you can see a larger version.

Tell me what you think. Would you make a sofa pillow with this? Any advice on making this a successful repeat pattern for screen printing?


Another pattern is already in the works. But more on that later.

Surface Design, step 2

This post is a continuation from my exploration blog, Dreamy Abstraction. Since this relates to surface and pattern design, I decided to post "part 2" here.

Here are two versions using two leaf sketches. They are essentially mirror images of each other, but are separate drawings. I scanned, clipped, and placed them in two different repeat patterns. These are rough sketches.

I feel like I need something unpredictable in the pattern. What do you think? Should I vary the mirrored images more? Does it need something else. I think so, but I'm not sure what.

v.1

v.2

Please send me your suggestions in the comments.