Color Love: Melon + Mint

 

As I was organizing my studio this weekend, I discovered some magazine tears I stashed away - and was looking everywhere for! I had just died when I saw this gorgeous photo shoot from O Magazine's March 2012 issue with Jaime King! The focus on '20s styling along with the yummy use of melon with mint (and/or chartreuse) is to die for! And I love the parasols...reminds me of how pretty they turned out in my Glam Garden photo shoot.

Along with melon and mint, add a bit of lilac and rust for a spicy, feminine look!

 One of the few times I love black mixed in. These shoes are pretty fab too!

 

Just thought I'd send some yummy color inspiration your way! Enjoy!

Featured on Print & Pattern Blog and the Surtex Marketplace

Huge thanks to Bowie Style from the fabulous Print and Pattern Blog for posting about me, my work, and my upcoming Surtex attendance!

I'm SO excited to attend this year, and have been working away like crazy to prepare. As a reminder, I'll be in booth #325!

Speaking of Surtex, you can now see a snippet of one of my new collections, "Tea House' on the Surtex Marketplace of rotating images...so you need to wait a while for it to pop up.

I'm also working on some fresh, new things for all of you that I plan to introduce in the fall. Crazy, exciting things are happening and I can't wait to share with you!

Commissioned Project: Baby's First™ Dolls

In addition to my licensing business, I also take on commission work from companies and projects that I feel I would be a good fit for or a product category I'm passionate about. For the past few years I've had the pleasure of being commissioned by the Goldberger Toy company to revamp their line of Baby's First™ dolls, including a new logo, patterns for their new packaging and exclusive patterns for their doll's clothing! It's been a such fun project and I've been able to put my textile production skills to good use!

With this new product launch, we created a retro, design-focused line that will appeal to parents, grandparents, caregivers, and, of course, baby. Their new Baby's First™ website has recently launched. Look for the dolls in your local Target, Toys R Us, and the like to support a wonderful company while bringing cuddly goodness to your little one(s)!

 {A sampling of a few of the many new dolls from Baby's First™!

More about Goldberger: The Goldberger Company was founded in 1916 and is one of the oldest doll companies in America. For nearly 100 years, this family owned business has been making soft, snugly baby dolls and playthings for the youngest children, becoming the expert in creating baby dolls for children ages 0-3. By listening to its customers and responding to their needs and concerns, The Goldberger Co. continues to create dolls and accessories that are safe, well made, creative, and well-priced. Goldberger dolls are designed to delight children and those who shop for them.

What I love about these dolls is how each of them has a concept behind them and I especially love the fresh and modern colors that make them stand out from a sea of baby pink and baby blue!

New Licensed Products! Cake Decor!

 

A few weeks ago I received samples of my licensed products with Lucks, who provides the baking industry with quality products and services that enhance the decorator's creativity. These Edible Image® Designer Prints™ decorations, come in a variety of cake decor options such as cake sheets and top of cake designs. I thought I'd share some of the gorgeous photo's with you of a handful of my licensed designs with Lucks {more to come!}. Unfortunately these cake sheets are only sold wholesale to bakeries and such, and are not available to the public. 
 

After I opened everything, I immediately contacted my good friend Laura Parke // A Girl Who Makes to see if she and her photographer husband Eric Linebarger would be up for doing a photo shoot for me. And to my super-duper happiness, they were excited and up for it! {thanks guys!!}

 

Laura did the awesome job of decorating the fabulous cakes you see in the photo's and applying the edible cake decor to them, and her awesome husband Eric Linebarger did the awesome photography. Don't you agree?

I met Laura when I worked at Hallmark Cards, and we became immediate and great friends. I truly heart this girl. I am very familiar with her mad decorating skills from the cute cupcakes she would bring to work and the stories she shared about her cake decorating classes from the night before.

Her awesome blog, Laura Park // A Girl Who Makes is one I highly recommend you check out and follow! She's such a crafty girl with a ton of awesome ideas, and this blog is her outlet for sharing lots of unique craft project ideas and how-to's! She also contributes to Design for Mankind where she shares (even more) DIY ideas! She truly amazes me with her reservoir of ideas and the passion she has behind them.


Thanks Laura and Eric for sharing your mad skills with me!!

I'm Exhibiting at Surtex 2012

 

It's that time of year again! Surtex 2012 is just around the corner, about 6 weeks away. I've been working away in my studio creating fabulous new work and getting things ready to exhibit. This year, I'm in a smashing new booth location, Booth #325!

For any licensees and manufacturers attending, please do swing by to say hello and peruse through my portfolios. I am now taking appointments from 9:00am-5:00pm in half-hour increments, and if you are interested, please e-mail me for a time slot.

For any designers and artists attending - I'd love for you to say hello! However, if you would be so kind to please be sure to read the Trade Show Etiquette before attending, us exhibitors would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!! 

Surtex is Sunday, May 20 - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 and takes place in New York City at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

Hope to see you there!

My Print on American Idol Judge Randy Jackson

OK, this is kinda fun. Wednesday night I was watching to Top 10 perform on American Idol, and as Randy Jackson (one of the judges) was talking I'm looking at his shirt and thinking....that print....looks familiar.....it's MY print!!! So I pull up my iPad and find the print I have posted on Flickr to show my husband to make sure I wasn't crazy...and crazy I was not! SO FUN!

I tweeted about it, but thought I'd send you guys a picture too for fun.

 {Screenshot from the American Idol video 'Top 10 Perform' - Randy & J.Lo}

It's funny because when I designed this navy/gold/brown colorway for my 'Dot Tac Toe' print, I was thinking of how it would work awesome for a guy. For my Just Dandy photo shoot I SO wanted to have a tie or a button-up shirt made out of it for a little boy, but just didn't get around to it. So here it is! Awesome! Made my evening for sure!

From My Shelf: Spring Print Inspiration

 

 {Roberto Cavali printed jacket & dress}

Happy Monday! Just had to post these print beauties from one of my spring Fashion magazines (I can't remember which one it was from! Either Elle, Bazaar or Vogue...). Super inspiring! The colors are spectacular...what I like to call 'light-brights'. This is the one time that I'm feeling the love for black - when it's used as an accent to bring out the best in other colors.

 {From left to right: Sportmax + Peter Pilotto, Versace, Prabal Gurung + Dries Van Noten, Dries Van Noten, Erdem}

Isn't this a beautiful line-up of spring prints? I just love all of the pattern mixing...and those shoes! They called this spread 'Island Life'.

{Dress=Vera Wang}

This one is gorgeous as well. I just love how digital printing makes so many things possible to wear! This photo is labeled 'Trippy' - Vera Wang took cues from Alice in Wonderland for her acid-colored, down-the-rabbit-hole psychedelics. 

 {Burberry Prorsum}

This photo is labeled 'Tribal Wave'. 

{Mary Katrantzou}

This photo is labeled 'Field of Vision'... I'm loving the names they came up for these fabulous photo's! And Speaking of Mary Katrantzou...her collaboration with Topshop is FABULOUS!! What I love about her is that she's no shrinking wildflower. She truly loves prints, and makes them over-the-top amazing!

 {Peter Pilotto}

This photo is labeled 'Water World'. What gorgeous, ethereal prints!

 {Gucci}

This photo is labeled 'The Clash'. 

Now, THIS is how you wear black and white...or at least how I would if I decided to give-in to black. It makes it much happier when it's head-to-toe print!

{From left to right: Proenza Schouler, Rodarte}

This photo is labeled 'Retro Grade'.

What an amazing magazine spread of Spring prints, yes? I haven't seen one of those for what seems like a really long time. I hope this print inspiration put a little skip in your step this Monday morning!

 

NEW! Licensed Products

This week my doorbell rang and low and behold a big box was sitting on my doorstep. A box too big to be shoes or from Anthro, so it peeked my curiosity. It came a day early (YAY UPS!), which is why I wasn't expecting it. When I saw the 'from' tag, I popped it open immediately! Sitting inside this big box were lots and lots of orange, blue and green product samples with my artwork on them! Talk about Christmas in...February!

I put all things aside for the day to take some pics and update my website with them, and today I thought I'd share them with you!

These fabulous products are from Wellspring Gift and range from tote bags, purse scarves, laptop and iPad covers to compact mirrors, business card holders, note pads, cards, pill boxes and contact lens cases! Loads of wonderful, organizational products to keep us stylish! I've already started putting some of them to use. If you're looking to get stylishly organized for Spring, head on over to Wellspring to order some of these fun products!

My New Fabric Line: Hope Chest

 {My mood board for my Hope Chest fabric collection. All images from various magazines.}

Happy Friday everyone!
Well, I have a little news for you...I am really excited to say that I am now a part of the Blend Fabrics team of designers! My new fabric collection, Hope Chest {see the artwork image in the top corner for a sneak peak!} will be debuting at Quilt Market in May. And to top it all off, I'll be attending Quilt Market for the first time on Friday, May 18th! I thought I'd give you a little sneak peek into my fabric collection with images from my mood board, which I create to help keep me on track with my over all theme when designing.

Blend is the new licensing division of Anna Griffin, Inc. I've been a long time admirer Anna Griffin's work for as long as I can remember..years!...back in the days when I was designing wedding invitations on the side and dreaming I would do that for a living......{well, until I met a bride-zilla and realized I liked creating beauty but not dealing with the beast! But that's another story!}

I've always loved Anna's take on product. Her designs are timeless and beautiful and have always been pushing the envelope and paving new paths. I'm just so overjoyed to be a part of such a company and to be a part of such a wonderful team of people. So going forward, my fabric collections with be with Blend Fabrics. Exciting!!

Also, I'm SO excited to attend and experience Quilt Market! I've always wanted to attend, so I'm really excited for the chance to go and be surrounded by pattern, fabric and people. Please do stop by the Blend Fabrics booth to say 'hello' on Friday, May 18th. I'd LOVE to meet you!

Happy Valentines Day!

 {Some valentines I made using from L2R: Rose Wallpaper, Have A Sweet Day, Space Needle with Heart Burst on the Side, Sending Love From Seattle, Typewriter with Love Letter words on the Side}

I've been dying to use my new Valentine stamps, to make some cute cards, and send some love to friends! Thankfully, a good friend of mine was in need of making a few cards herself - which was the perfect excuse to set some time aside and create away! AND the perfect excuse to make a trip to Impress to pick up some new and fun ink colors, papers and ribbons! She came over and we spent a few hours creating away - complete with screams and clapping when we created something we just couldn't STAND the cuteness of. LOVE friends like that! We easily could have spent a full day creating! I made about 20 cards, but kept it do 4 different designs. I had tons of more ideas but not the time to execute them = bummer! These puppies are in the mailbox today and making their way to some friends' homes and hearts.

{A handful of my new Valentine stamps}

You can find all of my new stamps on the Impress website, and loads of card ideas on their Facebook page too. I just love how involved their community is! I think the best part for me is seeing what people makes using my stamps. SUCH a treat!

Even though it's a little early - Happy Valentines Day!! Sending you love from Seattle!