Vintage-y

Been incredibly busy these past few months! Unfortunately I haven't had any time at all to craft anything. My latest addition to my etsy shop has been this new calendar design. My calendars are doing quite well sales-wise and i think its because people really liked the timeless quality of my Matchbox Style calendar set. I really wanted to do something sophisticated and elegant. Something inspired from vintage wine bottles and stuff. I really like how these came out. They should be quite versatile.

In other news, I've been working for a design and advertising firm called El Creative in Dallas. I started an internship there at the beginning of the summer and they loved me so much that they actually hired me on as a part-time designer. Its quite exciting. Its a very small design group (only four guys and me), but I've had a good time so far and they've really enjoyed my work. What's great about working there is that they really love to embrace design styles from past eras and I've come to learn alot of various "looks" just from being around the studio and seeing them work. I'd love to take what i've learned from the studio and eventually apply it to my stationery and calendar designs. :)

In other OTHER news, I've also been working with a partner to start up a t-shirt company. Its called Mekkem and its in its baby-stages right now. I'm quite anxious to see how it'll work out. Most of the design ideas are coming from my partner and I've been the one to make them happen. For the most part, the designs are targeted towards a predominantly male consumer group. Its kind of interesting because most of the stuff I've done is fairly feminine so it would be nice to flex my designerly muscle in something that is more masculine. Just wanna be your friendly neighborhood designer.

The quirky and the cute.

Sometimes there are things in this world that are so indescribably cute and quirky that it needs its own genre or category. Tada's Revolution is one of those genres. Tada's Revolution is a great little blog that follows a funny cast of animal doll characters. 

I saw these pictures while browsing through flickr and was mesmerized by them not only because of the cute dolls themselves but the unbelievable level of detail in the miniature background settings and the professional photography and lighting. The humor is quirky, weird, and never too sugar-coated. Just the way I like it. 

Empty journal... empty thoughts...

I got this really wonderful journal awhile back from my boyfriend. Its probably the nicest if not the best journal I've ever gotten. Problem is... Its too nice. XD I haven't cracked it open and drawn in it yet. I feel like its one of those types of journals where you have to do like a rough draft BEFORE you put it in the book. 

 
 

Its a handcrafted book by Iona Handcrafted Books. My boyfriend got it while he was in Austin. Its a very lovely book. Handtorn watercolor paper, banana leaf endpages, and a super thick leather jacket. Looks like something that Indiana Jones or someone who is well-travelled to have in their bag. I've sort of stowed it away on the bookshelf until the day I feel inspired to start putting something in it. Hopefully that day comes. XD I've always loved the really intricate artwork and ideas that other people put in their journals. 

Life on a string...

Sometimes its nice to just break away from the laptop and graphics programs and just do some good ol fashion needlework or paint something. I think that's why I love being a designer as well as an artist because I get to work in between several different mediums.  (Plus, I get bored very quickly!)

I've gotten very interested in more embroidery-type work. I keep running into lovely embroidery hoop art on etsy and its really inspired me to grab myself a wooden hoop and get to stitchin'! But I'm nowhere near as good as hardcore embroidery people. 

Here's a few of the cool things I found quite inspiring today:


By dailythreads.

By Samskiart.

By HAREandDRUM

Updated goodness!!!

I'm so horrible at updating this blog! My goodness! But I have alot of fun things I've been doing this past week. So here we go! 

I'm introducing a different style of printable card at my shop. Its a trifold style with a diecut. What's really cool about this card is that it can pretty much adapt to alot of different occasions so its great for when the Hallmark shop is little out of reach. You can either write in your message or simply cut and paste the messages that come with the template. I'm allowing customers to request certain messages to come with the templates in case they're looking for something a little more custom. You can see how it all comes out in the youtube tutorial video!

I've also designed my very first calendar set today! Its done in a simple vintage-y matchbox kind of style. Hence the name "Matchbox Calendar Set". They are mini calendars and great for the office or just to print and give away. I'm just so happy with the way these came out. I haven't really flexed my designerly muscle in a long time. 

A fun video tutorial for one of my card designs!

This is a fun little promotional video and tutorial to show people how they can make my cards at home. It features my newest card creation: an owl-shaped card! 

Cool Mail!

I get random mail from this stock photography website that I made an account with. I've never bought a single photo from them but they keep sending me stuff in the mail and alot of it is pretty cool stuff. Like this mailer. My dad was all like "It has a secret message if you look at it in the sunlight!!!". lol All it says is photosynthesis. You can't quite see it in the first picture but you can KINDA see it in the second one. The letters jump out as a more vivid green color when you see it in person. Its pretty cool. Its supposed to promote something green-related. lol Thought I'd share this cuz I like stuff that changes in the sunlight. XD

It was funny cuz our neighbor who was mowing his lawn was like "Why are you guys staring at that piece of cardboard??" 

 

Lovely lovely...

Image by Jane Joss on Etsy.

Its been kind of hard financially around here for the past few weeks. Freelance projects seemed to have shriveled up for me. I don't know if its the economy or what, but I'll need to find a "real job" at some point. It kind of sucks because I really liked just hanging around all day doing whatever I wanted. :P Its a shame. 

I got an email today from webs.com saying that my naranjapanda.webs.com website is the top#1 site created this past week. That's nice to know. I did update it this past Thursday. I'm gonna try to update it every Thursday with a new webcomic. Let's see if that works out. XD 

Besides moping around, I did get to work on more etsy projects. I finally got my camera back today. Here are a few things that are about to go into my etsy shop in the next few days.  

Dandelions Printable Digital Card and Envelope Set (includes a designs for general use, "Happy Birthday" and "Thank You."

Paisley Girl Printable Digital Card and Envelope Set (includes designs for general use, "Happy Birthday", and "Thank You".

"Orange you glad to see me" 5 x 7 embroidered art print. 

"Its hard to be a glum plum" 5 x 7 embroidered art print.

Let's get crafty, ya'll

I decided to do things a little differently with my collage sets. My illustration style keeps morphing depending on my mood and what inspires me. I've also been doing alot of pattern designs as well and wanted to incorporate that more into the collage sets for my etsy shop. I've decided to create separate PNG files for each graphic as well, which should allow the user to use them for a wider array of things besides just cutting them out of one sheet of paper and gluing them. That means they can use them to make their own cards and stationery. Wouldn't that be nice? 

Webcomic Website

So I decided to move my webcomic and its archives to its own separate website. Take a look!

http://naranjapanda.webs.com

Life's hard when you're a glum plum.

I totally remembered that I have a webcam! Its not perfect, but at least I can still take pictures! Here's what I've concocted the other day! Its a glum plum. HAHAHA. XD I know. I'm so poetic. :P These are also hand-embroidered art prints. Signed and limited edition of 50. As soon as I get my Nikon back, I'll list them on etsy. :D

Don't mind my dorky self in the background. 

Apples to apples

What a slow week its been. Feels like its been dragging on! I've finished a few more art and stationery projects but alas, I will not have my trusty Nikon for the next week and a half so I can't upload pics of them yet. I'm itching to though. I'm really excited about them. :D

In the mean time though, this was the last project I photographed. They're apple shaped hair barrettes I sewed out of felt. :D Again, I've come to that fork in the road of indecision where I can't decide whether I just want to keep them and use them or sell them. Why must I always come to this conclusion? 

In other news, despite having gone through four years of design school and learned the pitfalls of printing, it seems that no matter what I try to do to print my art prints on my home computer, things go terribly wrong and I end up with a bunch of un-useable prints in the trash. On one round, the paper gets jammed. The next round, I accidently place the finished print on something wet and it gets ruined. Next round I realize that my printer scaled the image down so it was not at the correct dimensions! OH MY GOD.... somebody SHOOT me in the face! The paper I'm using is not cheap either. And neither is the ink for my printer. *Sigh* Its like I'm in college again... crying over my project that can't seem to print right and it happens to be due in three hours.  

Typography Tuesday... even though its actually Monday.

I thought today I'd have some fun and search for random images that just have cool typography. This has been something I've done since I took typography in college and it always amazes me how flexible type can really be. You can stretch it, manipulate it, twist it, texturize it, shake it up and throw it against the wall, and it still spells something. No matter what you do to those simple strokes that make up the structure of a letter, you will still be able to "read" it as a letter. I am particularly in love with hand-drawn type though. 

Here is just a snapshot of some creative possibilities with type. 

Paper and thread: Hand embroidery!

The other day I thought I'd try my hand at embroidery work. I must say that it gets quite addicting for some reason. :P I sort of figured it out on my own but you can find tutorials online on how to do embroidery work on paper. That's what I did here. 





This is just a basic hand-embroidered greeting card. Not so bad for my first time, I must say! I had some great little brass brads to attach the embroidery to the actual folded card. Made my life alot easier, and it looks pretty classy! I can't wait to try this on textured watercolor paper!





I also did the embroidery work on this art print I was working on for the etsy shop. It looked boring before I added the embroidery work. All of a sudden, it perked it right up! Fun stuff! I don't know why it took me this long to actually doing embroidery work. :P Paper and thread were meant for each other.

Panda better hold on to that kite! Its gonna blow away!

Panda loves to fly kites. Especially his bamboo-themed one. :P I've decided to introduce art prints to my etsy shop this week. Very exciting. I have one more to unveil that uses embroidery techniques but I'm still working on it. :P These will be limited edition prints. Only 50 will be made. They are signed, numbered and dated. :D

"Go where the wind takes you"

5" x 7"

Digital Illustration on Heavyweight Matte Paper