30 day art challenge: Day 4

update on my 30 day challenge: it's..... going.  that's about all i can say so far.  I did cut out some fabric for some pillows on wednesday, but last night, i just didn't feel like doing anything. the main reason for that is because i started re-reading the last harry potter book on monday in preparation for the movie.  yes, i am a harry potter dork, and a twilight fanatic. don't hate.  i am 608 pages in, which means only 151 pages to go before I go see the movie on sunday.  definitely gonna finish. 
so, i have missed one day of my challenge so far, well i guess technically this will be day 2 out of 4 of failing at my challenge, because i am going bowling tonight and will probably not be doing anything crafty.... BUT! tomorrow will be the craftiest day I have had in a while... like, since college.  my friend holly is making super awesome balancing wine racks for her bridesmaid gifts (her wedding's next weekend, yay!) and i'm helping!  she's got the wood, we borrowed a bandsaw, she's got the pattern printed out, we've pulled together supplies, and we're making these tomorrow!

Picture from etsy seller WondrousWorksinWood .... if we're lucky maybe ours will look as good as this!

So I say making a trip back to my woodworking days of college more than makes up for me being a little harry potter-obsessed this week.  I'll post a how-to and pics next week!  Have a good weekend everyone!

Logo Design Packages Available Again

About a year ago, I was offering custom and premade Logo Design Packages, and after doing it for a couple months I had become so busy that I took the packages out of my shop to focus more on the print-side of my business.  It's a fine line to walk, because you make more money doing custom work, but at the same time you've got to put aside a lot more hours in the day to work on logos and branding packages.  In light of my upcoming web design classes, I've decided to take on some clients for the next few months to help towards the $5000 dollar part of the school equation.  So, take a look and please let me know if you need any logo/banner/avatar/advertising work done, and please pass along my name to anyone who is looking for custom design work!

you are a single shopaholic?

I'm not really sure what this "family of stick figures" is trying to say about this person.  She's single, has no kids, but lots of animals, but she's also a shopaholic? hmmm...

30 Day Art Challenge: Day 1

For the first day of my 30 Day Challenge, I posted a print I had been working on a few weeks ago but hadn't made some different color variations and put it in the shop yet.  What do you guys think?

& they lived happily ever after, 8x10 print with customizable colors and names. Available in the shop.

30 day challenges

I was reading a post by Maggie of Mighty Girl where she spoke of Matt Cutts and 30 Day Challenges. 
I think the only way to really change your life is to do things continually... whether it's taking a class, wearing lipstick or high heels every day, learning to not be so dependent on technology, etc.  When it comes to my artwork, I become complacent for months at a time.  I am lucky in the respect that I have a sustainable field- I make a digital piece and can continue to sell the same print, as opposed to painters who can make one piece and then when they sell it, it's gone.  Which is why they can sell their paintings for high prices.  They are one of a kind.  So when I got to the point where I was making a reasonable amount of sales and had to print things and package them every night, I stopped making new things.  Sure, I make a random new print every once in a while, but for the most part I just renew listings that are already in my shop.  So, for the next month, I am going to create a new piece of art every day! Being realistic, I may not create an entirely new piece every day, but I am going to try to at least work on a new piece everyday.  For a while I had been sketching things everyday, so excited about all the new artwork I could make, and it kind of tapered off (plus I switched to my cute yellow summery Jessica Simpson purse, and my sketchbook kinda crowds it haha.)

 See? So cute, I love everything Jessica Simpson makes, even if I would probably never wear 5 inch heels. They're still cute.
Anyway, back on topic, I ramble I know.   So, my point is I wanna try to work on my art every day for a month, OR at least do something crafty.  I have some IKEA fabric that I've been wanting to make pillows with, I've got some clockparts and basswood slices I've had for probably a year that I have been wanting to paint and make clocks with, and I've been wanting to make a bench with cubbies for the entryway so we can leave our shoes by the door (thus keeping the dirt out so even when I don't sweep/mop our socks won't be all nasty.)
So, I'd love for you to share some things you'd like to start doing, whether or not you plan on doing the 30 day challenge!

fill in the blank friday!

Don't forget to link up at The Little Things We Do!

So, what's everyone's plans for the weekend? Tonight I'm going to Antico Pizza, and I'm so excited! I love their pizza, and it's BYOB and you stand up and eat and it's just sooo good.  I'll say it again if I have to.  Then, we're trying out a comedy thing called Cineprov at the Relapse Theater.  The movie for the night is Deep Blue Sea (you know, where they make the sharks smart and then the sharks turn on them and try to kill them?) and improv comedians make fun of the movie the whole time.   Hopefully it'll be a good time.  I've heard there might not be air conditioning, and I've also heard you can get in for free if you wear a bathing suit (which I am not going to do), so hopefully it'll be some good laughs (and people watching, if crazy people really show up in their swimsuits).

{the delicious sweet biscuits @ Tasty n Sons}

1.   My plans this summer include      nothing really.  I went on my vacation to the Dominican Republic (first vacation since our honeymoon 2.5 yrs ago) in May, so I don't really have any more vacation plans.  I hope to get to the pool a few times and maybe the lake or the beach.  

2.  The best summer I ever had was    probably when I was a preteen and I went to the YMCA day camp every day, and it's just so fun having so many friends and playing in the sun and swimming and having first everythings- boyfriends, kisses, heartbreaks (not that that's fun, but it's fond memories when you look back on it and realize everything happens for a reason).

3.  Summer is     hot.  growing up in south georgia there's just no respite from the overwhelming heat - and the bugs, ugh, gnats everywhere!  you can see why i got married in the winter. 

4.  My favorite summer food is   ice cream! we just got one of the self-serve frozen yogurt places right by my house, and it's so good.  and i may or may not have had a frosty for lunch today. 

5.  The best way to quench a summer thirst is with     a mojito.  i love those things. 

6.  My summer uniform consists of       capri pants and light shirts- i'm not big on shorts or tank tops either, really.  

7.  The best thing about summer is     that traffic is a million times better and it takes me 10 minutes less to get to work.  Plus it's easier to get up in the morning because it's brighter outside, and it stays brighter at night so you feel like doing things after work. 

what i want wednesday!

today i'm going to showcase some of my favorite things that i've found through pinterest (follow me here: http://pinterest.com/noellepriss/) - these are from my "luxurious modern bedroom" board, which i envision to be charcoal gray and yellow, and full of texture!  my wall color is a blue-gray, i can't remember the exact color right now but i'll have to remember to post a picture soon.

Bella Bedding from Z Gallerie

Yellow Woodgrain Rug from rugsusa.com

Lantern from zgallerie (apparently it's not for sale on the website anymore, but that doesn't make me want it any less!)

Yellow Ruffle Pillow from whitenest on etsy

Side table from West Elm

Felted Loop Pillow, free pattern available on lionbrand.com

Check out the entire pinterest board to see the other exciting things I want for my bedroom!

back to school, back to school

i have some exciting news to share! i'm going back to school! not REAL school, i guess, but taking web design classes. 

i know someone who now has a design business who learned web design through emory's continuing education program.  at the end of approximately 8 months, i should have a certificate in web design, and i think the track i'm going to specialize in is e-commerce.  with my background in selling on etsy, and knowing that i'd love to have my own shop and be able to design with my own aesthetic, i think i'd like to stick to the shop-side of web design, and help other people create their e-commerce sites. i also want to learn some wordpress and do some blog design.  final cost will be about $5000, which is a big chunk of change, but about $25,000 less than getting an associates degree in web design online.  it also means i will be going to class all day on saturdays for a while, but i can suck it up and deal.

and then i can work from home and make a cute little computer nook with birch trees! love it! via designsponge

fill in the blank friday!

hi everyone, hope you're having a good friday-before-vacation... i had to work today but we get to leave in about 30 minutes.  not before we decorate my boss's office in aluminum foil for her bday though! hopefully she won't kill us, but i think it's going to be so cute.  plus I got cute zebra print and polka dot streamers to hang from the door and the ceiling, and silver balloons... here's our inspiration:

(AP Photo/Mankato Free Press, John Cross) MANDATORY CREDIT

We're definitely not going this crazy because I think our boss would get pretty mad, but we're gonna do the chairs and door and desk and the things on the desk.
OK....now time for some blanks!

1.   The best news I ever received was       hmmm.... probably that I got into Georgia Tech.  Definitely a proud moment.

2.  Something I'm looking forward to is    hmm... these are hard today.  I'm looking forward to pitching a plan this weekend to my husband for me to start taking some web design classes! 

3.  Something I would never do is     eat bugs.  eww gross.  my mom told me she ate some kind of chocolate-covered bugs at some point in her life, and i just don't think i could do it.  i would fail big time at fear factor. 

4.  If I could choose someone to be my life coach (famous or not, living or dead), I'd choose   Marc Newson.  He's a crazy awesome Industrial Designer, and he is probably pretty crazy in real life too, so it'd just be fun to hang out with him and see how he gets his crazy ideas so he'll rub off on me.

5.  If I had to put a label on my style it would be    lazy.  i wear what is clean and not too wrinkly.  jeans every day.  wear my hair up in a wet ponytail at least 3 times a week because there is no way i'm getting out of bed 10 minutes earlier to blowdry it.

6.  One should always       do what makes them happy.

7.  I want to      be a super awesome famous designer who gets to travel the world! 

supplies suppliers

i know when i was starting my shop, i had so many questions that i wished i could ask other digital artists, but i was way too shy to ask them.  i wanted to know what kind of printer they used and what they thought of it, where they got envelopes and clear sleeves and chipboard and other supplies.  so here is what i use and where i get it from, and how much it costs.

Clockwise from top right:
1. I usually get my ink from Epson online, unless I run out in the middle of a job and I need ink really quickly, in which case I will go to Office Depot (it's only $1-$2 more).  Ink is $18.99 for each cartridge, and I probably buy about 3 cartridges per month.  my printer uses 6 inks (CMYK plus a light cyan and a light magenta).
2. My printer is the Epson Stylus Photo 1400 Ink Jet Printer.  I like it pretty well, I haven't had any major issues with it, no print heads clogging or anything, and I've had it for almost a year.  It's a large format printer, so I can print up to 13"x19".  Some of the more expensive printers have a light black ink, and I think that might be a better option for someone who prints a lot of grays, because my grays sometimes come out looking purple.  My printer was $300 with an $80 rebate.  I'm ashamed to say that I waited to long to do the rebate online, and I wasn't able to get it, so I actually paid the $300.  I'm an idiot, I know. 
3. I get my Flat Mailers from packagingprice.com.  I get the brown kraft color envelopes for my larger prints (I have one large enough for 11x14's (about $36 for 100), and one big enough for 13x19s.)  I get the white self-sealing mailers for my 8x10 prints, $29.60 for a case of 100, and I think I've only had one issue where one showed up bent, and I use USPS first class mail.
I started out unprepared and would go to CVS to buy envelopes when I made a sale, and that is a BAD IDEA, they are like $3.00 each or something.  Also, I went to Office Depot to buy mailing tubes for posters and they were like  $7 each... then I found some at Kroger for 50 cents each.  PackagingPrice.com also has mailing tubes in pretty colors, they are $36.50 for a case of 50.
4. For my larger envelopes, there are tabs to close the top but I want to make sure they can't be opened by a random person, so I got some cute woodgrain printed tape from tapeswell.  It was about $10 for the roll. I love the look of it, the only thing I wish was that the pattern was ongoing and didn't reset every 6 or so inches.
5. I get my clear envelopes from cistamps.com.  I have 8x10, 5x7, 9x14, and 11x14.  8x10 is $14 per 100 envelopes.  When I have a print larger than that, I will cut the seam off the left side of one and off the right side of another, then overlap them.
6. I get my large format paper from Epson.  I use the Ultra Premium Presentation Matte Paper, $51.50 for 50 sheets, and anything I print over 8x10 gets printed on that paper then I cut it down to size with an X-Acto Knife.  
7. I get my 8.5x11 paper from Red River Paper.  It is called Aurora Art White, it is 100% cotton rag with a 13.5 mil thickness, and it has a slight texture.  It is really pretty and absorbs the colors really well to make them bright.  I used to print on a slightly semigloss paper, and it left the ink on top of the paper instead of absorbing it, and the colors would look washed out and not as solid as a result.  I really like this paper.  the only problem I have is that my printer will not pull in one sheet at a time if I put several pieces in the queue, so I have to sit there and put in one sheet of paper at a time.

Also I put a sheet or two of chipboard in my packages to prevent bending, and I get it from uline.  I got a large pack of 190 sheets of 18"x24" for $52, and I cut them down to size.  This is something that is really annoying and in the future I'll probably try to find 8x10's so I am not constantly having to cut chipboard for every order.  Or I could take some to a printer with one of the big automatic cutters, and get them to cut a bunch of 8x10's for me, if I ever quit being too proud to ask for help.

And in case you're wondering, I also put a thank you card and a business card (both of which I print myself)  in all my packages.

So, hopefully for anyone that is looking for information on supplies this was helpful.  Starting out on etsy as a digital printer is easy because you can just put the picture of your artwork online without having actually printed it, then when you finally start making sales you run around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to figure out how you're supposed to ship something.

And don't be like me and be too shy to ask other artists for their help or their opinions, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions anyone might have!