In the midst of the last minute Christmas rush, wrapping gifts, printing cards and thinking of the best way to put in words certain sentiments…I wanted to stop and share my creative workspace with you all.  I work on one of the sketches I made last week – trying to get this acrylic painting complete titled, Goodnight Moon.  Still a ways to go of course!

In addition, I received a precious ornament made by Mother Henna in the mail!  How lovely is that beauty?  I really appreciate the thoughtful posts, tutorials and community created from her blog to all of us.  You can even read the tutorial for the ornaments if you are interested as well!  Thank you so much, Kara!

Besides looking forward to a full-fledged Italian Christmas day tomorrow, I am a bit anxious because there seems to have been some mishaps at the post office and some of my mail has been lost!  I’m angry and sad, but hoping I can resolve the issue – maybe stalking the postman or harassing every post office in the area might work, huh?  Hmph! Well, I’ll switch back to thinking about the happy holiday season for now. Buon natale a tutti!  :P

Posted on December 24, 2009 at 8:42 pm | work in progress | No comments

Oh dear!  Only a few days left until Christmas Day and I still have a huge list of to dos. In the rush of wrapping gifts there’s always a need for cute holiday graphic images, so I decided to whip up an angel illustration today. I’m a big fan of personalizing each gift with a different illustration – if possible – as well as matching all the different elements together.  I can use the illustration to make a greeting card, matching labels, tags and even decoration for the wrapping paper.  It’s a quick and easy way to dress up a gift and really give it that handmade personal touch.

Let me share my angel illustration with you to use on your personal holiday projects.  All you have to do is click the image for the large version and download to your computer.  You can print it out in the size you want and cut it out for use – all straight lines so it’s easy and quick.  I’ve also included the black and white version below for all your digital stampers out there – I’m one of them, too!  I blog at backtopaper.com for card challenges and digital scrapbooking btw.

Hope you like this quick little freebie and also remember to sign-up for the tortagialla newsletter that always includes a digital freebie as well.  If you need more graphics check out all the free goodies on tortagialla. Have a great holiday!

Posted on December 23, 2009 at 10:52 pm | free goodies | No comments

Hi folks!  More digital stamp designs have been added to my Etsy shop…just a quick update today as I’ll be roaming the streets of Firenze doing some photography, shopping and celebrating for a dear friend’s birthday all day long.  Until tomorrow, I leave you with a cute little girl in a pea coat illustration below.  I am trying out different line types in Adobe illustrator, let me know what you think.

Posted on December 22, 2009 at 12:41 pm | store | No comments

Can you imagine a blanket of white snow gracing the Tuscan countryside?  That’s the view I’ve been privelged to witness this whole weekend as it snowed in many parts of Italy where normally it would never snow and actually stick!  It’s been super fun having a winter wonderland to play in, but now it’s a cold Monday morning and time to get back to work.  The weather has certainly caused trouble for many trying to commute to the workplace.  I feel so lucky to be able to work from home, especially since I always take Mondays to collect myself, organize and fill my mind with inspiration for the week.  Today, I’m snuggling up with a warm cup of coffee and the beautiful works of Lena Corwin.

via Lena’s Flickr

Lena Corwin is a pattern designer and illustrator living in Brooklyn, New York and I first encountered her work when I purchased her book, Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils, and Silk Screens.  I love how the book starts from zero, explaining the how-tos and whys.  Even though I might have dabbled in some of the techniques, it really helps to start from the basic foundation.  I like it so much that I purchased another copy to give to a friend this Christmas!  I’ve read through the book a few times, but still have to get through all the projects in a practical sense – she presents a project for each technique including patterns if you want to use her designs.  I totally love all her design work and I started following Lena’s blog as well.  From there I found that she not only creates wonderful patterns in her textile work, but also print items and works in various other mediums.

via Lena’s Flickr

I love her sense of style and the feeling her work invokes.  To me her designs exude that organic natural feeling as well as homey comfort that I love, yet the professional finish goes hand in hand as well.  I always aspire to create handmade and art from the heart, but also strive for that professional finish and quality.  You can check out Lena’s shop for a sampling of the beautiful products she creates.

via Lena’s Flickr

As if that is not enough, Lena also works to curate a book/zine called Lines & Shapes.  It’s all about connecting with other artists, sort of a showcase of art and design.  It’s so fascinating to see how her work spans across so many mediums and it’s very inspiring to me especially because I love so many different facets of the creative life and can’t see myself focusing only on one aspect.  To see other succeed in multiple avenues, makes me feel less scattered and gives me hope that a jill-of-all-trades isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Isn’t it all so very exciting and wonderful?  I hope you can soak in the inspiration and have a fabulous holiday season as well.  Today is official the first day of winter after all!

Posted on December 21, 2009 at 12:24 pm | inspiration | No comments

I hope that I’m not the only one who has some trouble pricing creative work.  Some folks seem to just know their price points immediately.  Maybe because they’ve been at it for a while or there’s a distinct range for their particular craft.  For those in the arts world, it can be pretty difficult considering the huge range of values put upon artwork.  If you are trying to make a living, you obviously need to make enough profit to sustain your costs.  Enter the series of mathematical calculations that go along with running a business.  I’ve done some research regarding pricing and there are countless articles and discussions offered online to read.  Fine and dandy to mess around with Excel sheet documents and fancy formulas, but it all feels uncomfortable and dry to me.  I know, I know…it’s all part of business.

I realize that it is essential to figure out these business basics to make a career out of your creative work.  The formal methods work to balance the books, but at the end of the day I always encounter the soft, not calculable part of business.  I have to feel that the price is right in the end.  Yes, emotions…but really it’s surveying the scene and something about supply and demand – details forgotten from that Economics class I took way back.  I need to value my work, but I need affordability as well.  It’s great to believe your painting is worth a million dollars – let’s say – but if it never sells you certainly can’t make a living off of that.  It’s a constant struggle to not devalue yourself, but still make your work sellable.  A few pieces for lots or lots of pieces for little?  What strategy to take?  What feels right?  Oh…it boggles my mind still…

Posted on December 18, 2009 at 7:05 pm | thoughts + discussion | 6 comments