My first experiment was setting up my big cartel shop with the cute kitchen prints you see above.  I can only list 5 products with a free account, so I suppose it’s not a long term solution.  However, I did want to try it and it is certainly very simple to add products and set up shop.  Creating these graphic art prints sort of replaced last weeks notes to myself art print, but I did get to illustrating one this week – Smile!

Again, due to listing costs I won’t be listing these prints into my Etsy shop anymore…will have to figure out a way to share them somewhere.  Although it’s nice to be part of the Etsy community, there are so many shops it doesn’t seem like listing there helps you to be seen really…you have to get people there no matter what.  In which case, isn’t it better to just list items in your website and have a Paypal button?  I wonder…

In other musings, I also created a new digital stamp set of owls and gave them funny names like big mister, chubby and wiseguy… I liked them so much, I had to use them for a repeating pattern.  Here’s a little peek of the pattern as I play around, but not done yet. What do you think?

The design you see is one of the kitchen prints I’m working on and adding to my tortagialla big cartel shop – a totally new experiment.  I am not sure where or how to sell my art work, but I’m all for trying out new ways and seeing what happens. I already have an Etsy shop, but wanted to try big cartel because there is a totally free, but limited option. I signed up in less than 5 minutes and just uploaded some kitchen prints.  We’ll see how it goes.  I do like the fact that they do not charge any commission per product, it’s a flat monthly rate if you want more features.  I wish they would add digital product delivery though…maybe one day…anyhoo.  Hope you enjoyed taking a peek into my digital-ish world today.  Ciao ciao!

Congratulations to Emily and Jen C.! You’ll each get one of the journals at random (more suspense!) Please email me your mailing addresses so I can ship them off – linda [at] tortagialla [dot] com.  For those of you who didn’t win, no worries.  Art journaling is really fun or just doodling, whatever you feel like creating and really it’s as simple as stapling a bunch of papers together.  If you don’t want to make your own though, I do have exciting news. I just listed my first journal for sale onto Etsy – my very special silver leather covered art journal!

Although I am still a beginner in bookbinding and have seen many masterpieces that are so refined here in Italy, I am still happy to create these little handmade journals myself.  Totally handmade in every sense, every single one different and special in its own way.  I also love thinking how wonderful it is to create something for someone else to create inside of!  The multitude of ideas and thoughts that will go in these journals…that’s pretty darn awesome.

So why do I think it’s so special?  Besides the fact that I made it…tee hee… all of the pages are individually sewn together, instead of the common signatures (bunches of paper folded). This one has 30 spreads, so the binding is sort of loosey goosey. See the difference when you push it around from the photo above and below?

However, I bind all the pages individually so they can all lie flat for ease of use as well as for the space it creates between each page.  See below how the journal looks like an empty photo album from top view?  You know what happens when you put photos into the album?  It lines up perfectly and doesn’t poof up…so that’s another cool thing.  The spine height gives you room to collage, add ephemera and use layers of medium with everything still fitting inside nicely.

I also put some elements in the inside front and back covers.  I always liked how composition books had a place to write your name or journals that have little encouragement quotes inside. Remember to create fearlessly!

I’m happy with the results of using leather in this way for the covers, but I still have some more experiments to perform and lots of leather to go through.  I just got a sample of a pinkish coralish colored leather today, sooooo cute! It’s funny that companies here have to throw away their leather pieces that are inconsistent or too small to make purses, shoes, etc.  Those scraps are actually precious to me because they are unique…and really we shouldn’t waste leather…or anything!

In other news, I am feeling a lot better now and trying to get back into the swing of things with more energy.  I continued onward with my series of graphic art prints, adding “Just Breathe” to the series. I’m also starting to work on binding a journal with some printed words, an artsy baby journal for a friend who is expecting. If you haven’t noticed already, I jump from project to project, letting my energy and excitement drive me forward.  We must follow our muse and be ready whenever, right?

]]> http://www.tortagialla.com/2010/02/02/treasury-love/feed/ 4 http://www.tortagialla.com/2010/01/26/enjoy-the-ride/ http://www.tortagialla.com/2010/01/26/enjoy-the-ride/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:52:42 +0000 linda http://www.tortagialla.com/?p=563 Happy Tuesday to everyone!  Today I released another graphic art print in my etsy shop titled, “Enjoy The Ride.”  It’s dedicated to my late father-in-law who was a professional cyclist and had a wonderful and exciting career.  I am trying to piece together his story and design a book about his career here in Italy. [...]]]> Happy Tuesday to everyone!  Today I released another graphic art print in my etsy shop titled, “Enjoy The Ride.”  It’s dedicated to my late father-in-law who was a professional cyclist and had a wonderful and exciting career.  I am trying to piece together his story and design a book about his career here in Italy.  Previously, I had never known that cycling was such a huge sport, especially in Italy…it’s pretty cool when you learn something new and discover a whole different world where people have found joy and passion.  It makes me happy to know there’s always something out there for us…

As you can see from my illustration, I’m pretty much saying… rain or shine, enjoy the ride... and I truly believe in having that perspective in life.  We need positivity and a good perspective on life no matter what happens.  I read a blog post about gratitude and it’s definitely around the topic I’m currently pondering.  The most moving quote from that post is how “Most of the things that we are grateful for have longevity. Most of our frustrations are short term, and are usually caused by ourselves.” Oh so true!  I hope we can all stop to think during times of trouble and check ourselves to see if we are causing more misery than necessary.  Be grateful, be happy and enjoy the ride…smooth or bumpy.  :P

Chase Your Dreams, Graphic Art Print

I also added a lot of digital stamps to my Etsy shop this week and working on some mixed media paintings and color explorations.  Hopefully I can show some progress later this week, although I’m running around trying to find my metallic pens that seem to have run away!  :(

This weekend I have a scheduled hospital visit, might be offline for a while, but don’t worry, I’ll be fine and back soon!  In preparation, I’ve decided to work a bit ahead of time and keep up with my blog schedule by programming in some future posts.  I don’t want to interrupt my current flow, especially since I’m on a roll in creating this week…I really think I can do it and it feels great to be productive.  So stick around for posts as normal!  Thank you for stopping by as always…ciao ciao!

I feel that it is so important to laugh every day and make sure to flex those funny muscles, making life so much more enjoyable.  As with everything, you get to choose how you react and feel in the end…glass half empty or half full?  Do you choose to despair or just chuckle to lighten the mood and try again?  I created this illustration to remind us all to laugh and remember that laughs can also be contagious, so be the one to start up the fun!  I am so into positive, motivational and fun wall art to decorate and inspire at the same time.  Will be adding to this series hopefully weekly – let’s see if I can keep that up!  Thanks for stopping by and ciao ciao from Italia

To round off 2009 I’ve updated my Etsy store, Spoonflower fabric designs and Zazzle store as much as possible.  Let me know what you think and if you have any comments, suggestions or requests.  I welcome all your thoughts and thank you in advance.    I’ve actually just started my “Notes to Myself” series of graphic art prints…see the first one below…

For the new year, I have a big book of many more ideas and art series in the works.  There will be originals, art prints and of course digital stamp designs, sets and scrapbooking kits posted on Etsy…with all designs transferred to apply for fabrics on Spoonflower and products on Zazzle as well.  It’s all written down, so hopefully the workflow on paper will work as planned in 2010! I wish you all a great end of year…I think my next big task will be clean-up and organization.  Until tomorrow where I have a cute freebie waiting for you…ciao ciao!