Etsy Shop: Thank You Cards

Coming soon to my ever-so coming soon etsy shop: thank you card three-packs! These cards will be available in a variety of colours and patterns. Link in the doobly-doo. Here's a little taste:







And the backs of the cards:

Project Port Dalhousie

Recently, my city approved a project called "Port Place" which is set to start development soon in the historic waterfront area known as Port Dalhousie. Port Place is a 17 story condominium, theatre, and a boutique hotel, which (I believe) will also feature a small shopping mall. Sounds great if you're a tourist or someone who happens to be loaded with the $400,000 - $3,000,000 the condos are set to sell for. If you're an average citizen of the city like me, however, you'd probably be lamenting the loss of a charming, nostalgic little area where you spent your summers growing up - hanging out on the beach with your friends, riding the carousel, taking strolls on the pier, traipsing the old candy store, having picnics and watching fireworks in the park, etc. The city plans on demolishing a large chunk of Port Dalhousie to make room for Port Place, which won't just ruin the historical aspects and allure of the suburb while running many of the businesses out, but will also cause the loss of it's friendly, local sense of place in exchange for massive amounts of tourist dollars. It's always ALWAYS about the money, in the end.

Anygoo, I've come to terms with the decision, and have decided to make the best of it by turning it into a little art/illustration project. I will be drawing historic Port Dalhousie building by building, to remember it as it was. I may not finish the project by the time demolishment has started and finished, but I've taken photos to work from so it won't be a problem.

The first: Murphy's seafood restaurant and inn, situated right on the corner of the block set to be demolished. I only ever ate there once as it was always out of my price range, but it was delicious.

I'm on Etsy!

Well, so far this summer has been one of ups and downs (yes, I know life usually is, but for the most part my life is pretty monostatic... not a word, but let's roll with it), but I have to say right now the UPS are definitely winning out:

-successfully completed a month's worth of pilates + on Couch to 5K week 4, have not died yet! + eating better = lost 8 pounds of blubber!
-completed an interiors drawing course at Sheridan College and rocked it, of course
-GOT MY LICENSE finally finally finally and can now drive my own arse to wherever the hell I want to go and won't have to suffer cabin fever in the crazy-making winter months!
-POOL PARTIES POOL PARTIES POOL PARTIES POOL PARTIES... and BBQs!

The big news that is relevant here, however, is that I've finally worked up enough chutzpah to start my very own little etsy shop!:


I'm starting off with a few prints of older illustrations (these are currently in the print shop), and I'll soon be branching out with newer illustrations, plus stationery, etc. For future use, there's a linked picture in the sidebar, or you could just bookmark me. As you can see, I don't have anything for sale yet, but I will soon enough so stay tuned!

New Project...

I was just doing some free-drawing today when I started illustrating some text, which led me to a new project idea. I tend to produce ideas, get really excited about them, and then trash them later, but I *hope* I can stick to this one (but alas, I've said this many times before, of course). I'm not going to say what it is I'm scheming up quite yet, but you can probably get a good hint from the pictures.

Crafting: Stamps!

Last night I attempted creating my first stamps ever. I used Speedball carvers a Speedball Speedycarve rubber block. It was surprisingly simple, as the carving block cuts like butterrrr. The stamps themselves look pretty amateur, but they stamp quite nicely (and I love the look of white ink, but unfortunately the pad I bought was super cheap and isn't ink-y enough):



I'm addicted! I've also created two trees, a skull, a mountain, and the letter F... which I'll have to re-do as I forgot the number one rule of stamp-making: always carve things in the reverse! Anyone have a use for a backwards letter F?

English Country House

Also, I carved my first stamp today! I made a very basic one - a small lightning bolt.

Faux Patterns

Some faux-patterns, inspired by Liberty of London and Julia Rothman. This image is a little blurry, I'll try to replace it with a cripser one later.

Houses and Things

Wedding Invites - Map

I was recently asked to draw the map portion of the invites - just a simple version of an image I was given. Here is the result. This will be *very* tiny, in the center of the invites, so detail was not too important or encouraged. It's pretty basic.

Wedding Invites - Progress

Wedding Invites - Barn & Church

More work for Kendel's invites!