A Stitch In Time For Yeppoon Australia

The 7th Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap is on!

Here's the plan:

Make a Post Card using the theme Create.

Use any materials you want, but put some stitching somewhere.

Then send it to someone you've never met, from another country from where you live.

This is all orchestrated by Beth Nicholls of Do What You Love.

She is an amazing person

who inspires literally thousands of artists around the world on a daily basis.

Include stitching?

Not a problem - I have MULTIPLE sewing machines scattered around.

(Some have collected dust while I dance with the MATS Assignment Bootcamp)

Finding stuff to use is also not a problem...

I have A LOT of fabric, paper, and fringe drops.

Like most artists do.

The decisions of where to put what got harder and harder to make.

I had SO MUCH STUFF I wanted to put on my card

for my new friend in Yeppoon, Queensland, Australia.

I finally decided to use it all.

What the heck.  The theme is CREATE, for crying out loud!!

You can't hold back when in CREATE mode.

When she opens the card, she'll see these instructions:

And now, I'm going to go create something while my card is flying to Australia.

And stick it on my refrigerator door.

Off to the studio!

More Trends from the Atlanta Gift and Home Market

The Atlanta Market is winding down,  but I continue to be blown away by this show.

Image from Peking Handicraft

The showrooms I visited at the beginning of the show in the Merchandise Mart were all about Old European Style, wood, metal, flaking paint, burlap and tweed,
unbleached canvas and natural linen.
A fairly masculine feel.

And then...
The last two days, I focused on the flip side - Powee!
Fabulous color - several million square feet of it.  And florals, chevrons, dots, patterns, 
and throbbing style:

Image from All For Color

Image from Peking Handicraft

Image from Thomas Paul

If I had to name a single color that stood out the most in the Atlanta Show, it would have to be Orange.  Followed by Blue.

Image from Kay Dee Designs

Image from Peking Handicraft

Motifs and themes that popped out of this more colorful side were all about the Shore, 
both Lake and Coastal. 
Lots of Octopi, Sea Horses, Conch Shells, Starfish and Sea Turtles. 
And Whales.  I saw whales everywhere.

The Great Outdoors was also a constant theme - 
camping, hiking, and playing outdoor sports.

Canoes, Bears and Moose.
Fly Rods.

Image from Sideshow Press

A huge, beautiful Market! 

Now, think about the millions of dollars spent in developing all these products.
And the thousands and thousands of hours that artists spent 
creating the icons for these products.
It will all wind up on store shelves and then float into your homes.

It all starts with a sketch.

Pretty unbelievable to think about, huh?

Think I'll go put my feet up, pour a glass of wine, and sketch something...

Meeting, Greeting, and Eating at The Oyster Festival

The NC Oyster Festival is over, and what a Festival it was!  On Saturday, we had over 45,000 attendees, an all-time record. 

The response to my new Wall Art Collection was  so  gratifying, after all that hard work.  It pulled hundreds of Lovely Folks into the booth.  Can you imagine how that made me feel?? 

I took orders to customize the canvases - lots of people wanted their own Cottage Name on the Canvas...so, lots of work to do this week!

The Sailboat canvases got lots of questions about the coordinates on them...those are the coordinates for Ocean Isle Beach.  I can put the coordinates for anywhere in the world on the image, but thought it was appropriate to mark where the Festival was being held.  One man who came in the booth murmured to his wife, "She probably doesn't know what those numbers mean."  Well, I do.


Many, many customers bought Stationery.  So good to know that people still value the hand-written note!  I sold Tons of Stationery, and took orders for more.  Happy, happy.  Here are a few of the designs:

When the crowds thinned out on Sunday, I took some snaps of my booth with my Iphone - here is the Hand Bound Journal Rack...

The blank Journals attracted lots of attention, but overall, seemed to puzzle most folks.  Don't people Journal anymore??  Maybe they just Blog??  One Lady zoomed in and grabbed up the Coral Bouquet Journal and flipped it open.  She paused, then riffled through the pages.  Turning to me with almost indignant puzzlement, she said, "It's Blank!".  I had that happen more than once.  Tell me, What was THAT all about?

The Festival ran out of Oysters mid-afternoon on Saturday, due to the HUGE turnout!  

Roasting Oysters on Saturday.

Bummer.  But there were more offerings on the table:  sublime Shrimp Gumbo from Causeway Gourmet.   Oyster Stew from The Boundary House.  Shrimp Rolls.  Scallop Rolls.  Shrimp and Grits.  Seafood Platters.  Apple Dumplings and Homemade Ice Cream.  North Carolina Barbeque.  Smoked Turkey Legs.

You haven't seen anything until you've seen a Lean and Mean Southern Boy walk through a crowded Festival, gnawing on a gigantic Turkey Leg.  Makes me grin, every time.  

So it's a wrap.  Now, back to business and to getting my house back in order!  

Order.  Holy Cow, I've got to fill all those orders!!  

My Memories Software Giveaway No. 2

As promised, here is one more post on My Memories Digital Scrapbooking, Version 2 - and a reminder that I'm giving one FREE copy of this software to one of my readers!  To enter, just leave me a comment.  More details at the bottom of the page...

I wanted to show you how easy it is to lay out a custom album with this software, so I quickly pulled together a catalog from some of my stationery designs:

And here is how it did it, in less than 30 minutes, using the software in the Custom Mode:

Choosing the Custom Mode from the opening page, through choosing the background for the front cover, took less than two minutes...

Now, on to the layout.

 I went to my Art Files, and chose one of my Stationery Frames and an image for the Cover:

Then just clicked on the "Add T" button for text, picked the font and size, and then the Paint Bucket button to pick my own font color...here's a screen shot of me doing that on the second page:

You can pick one of their offered colors, and then get REALLY custom by going to their RGB tab.  See the little sliders?  When you slide them left or right, your color changes, and you can see the resulting hue right underneath in the Sample Text area.  If you love what you've created, click Add To Favorites so you can go back to it, over and over.

Then I just kept adding images and moving them around until I liked the layout.  Added text boxes, edited those a few times, and Boom!  I had a catalog!

This is now ready to go to the printer, or I can print it here in my studio, or upload it to My Memories  for them to print and bind.  How Super Easy is That for pulling together a catalog of your work??

To enter the giveaway for the free software, just leave me a comment.  And be sure to go over to the

My Memories website to browse through their products.

You can use this code at Checkout to get up to $20.00 off your order:  STMMMS97941