Art Studio Confessions: Why I Won't Shop On Etsy Anymore

I used to love Etsy. It has been a consistent source of revenue for Sketchy Notions and a wonderful way to grow my brand and audience over the years.

But over the last few years, Etsy has forgotten their original mission of being a marketplace that supports small makers. 

While I fully understand that Etsy is a business (and now a public company that needs to keep shareholders happy), they've made many moves that feel abusive of their power and the foothold they have in the handmade industry. 

In recent years they've made multiple moves and enforced programs that cripples makers and takes a giant chunk out of our income, leading many makers to close up their Etsy shops for good.

Click below to read more about how Etsy is hurting its makers, and how you can still support handmade makers and small businesses. 

Winter Celtic "Sláinte" Photoshoot

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite local photographers, Rebecca Rivera, and one of my favorite coordinators, Maria from Wunderland Co., decided to get together and create another beautiful photoshoot. Last year, they collaborated on the stunning Cinco de Mayo "Tequila and Tapas" themed shoot, so this one was bound to be just as gorgeous. 

The results were incredible, I'm still in awe of how it all came together. For this round, I was able to make a guestbook (which is over in the Etsy shop!), mirror chalk signs, favor tags and some floral cameo mirrors. The little floral cameos were my favorite detail of everything I got to make! I'll probably keep them painted until I have to repurpose them for another wedding!

They shot the whole thing up at Knapp's Castle up above Santa Barbara, which is a magical location! Everything just came together so perfectly. AH! Here are the other lovely ladies that were involved with bringing this whole day together:

Photography: Rebecca Rivera Weddings
Curation/Styling & Design: Wunderland Co. 
Vintage Rentals: B. Living
Cake: Sass Catering
Florals: Terra Bella Event Florals
Hair/Make-Up: Julie Christy Hair & Make-Up
Wedding Dress: Dreamers and Lovers

favorite fellow card makers

Way back on this blog, I used to do a weekly segment called "Friday Feature" where I would highlight one of my favorite makers, artists and even musicians. I loved being able to reach out to some of my favorite makers and spread the word about some amazing folks. 

The feature died off a while back, around the time I started having less time to devote to blogging. But with the rise of Instagram, I've been so easily connected to SO many artists and makers! It's no surprise that I tend to follow similarly minded artists that are into plants, illustrations and card making. 

And so I wanted to bring back a little "Mini Feature" (not on a Friday, oops) about some of my favorite card makers. There are SO MANY amazing ladies out there making cards. Seriously, just scroll through my list of Instagram accounts I'm following, they're kinda amazing. 

Here are four ladies that I particularly admire. All four are incredibly talented, amazingly generous and genuinely wonderful women. Two are gals that I actually included on Friday Features years ago and two are new favorites I've been connected to through Instagram! I hope you enjoy their work as much as I do, and hopefully feel inclined to support their work as well! 

Katharine Watson:

Katharine has some of my absolute favorite card designs out there! I've been in love with printmaking since college so I have a soft spot of anyone that uses block printing in their work. Her designs are stunning and I love seeing her line grow and change every year. Prints, cards, textiles, calendars...everything is gorgeous and has so much time and work invested in it. She even delved into combining her block carvings and ceramics this year!

Shop Katharine Watson / @katharine_watson


Erin McManness / Paper Raven Co.:

I could go on and on about Erin's work. She's just incredible. I think I stumbled onto her blog when I was in Italy years ago and I've just loved watching her work evolve and her business grow. Her illustrations and letter work continue to one of my favorites out there. Plus, how cute is this little notepad?! Everything she makes is incredible! And she's such a lovely person too! 

Shop Paper Raven Co. / @paperraven.co


Laura Uy / Art and Soul Creative Co.:

I've followed Laura on Instagram for a while now, and her account is always so cheerful and fun! On top of adorable pun cards, Laura now has a new line of designs made from paper collages. I bought the Fiddle Leaf Fig for myself and Laura was so sweet to include a print of her Fiddle Leaf Fig watercolor too! I love everything she posts, especially her coloring book designs too! 

Shop Art + Soul Creative Co. / @artandsoulcreativeco

Juliet Meeks Design:

Juliet is one of my newest favorite card makers and Instagramers. I absolutely LOVE her floral patterns with the black backgrounds! I think it's so unique to see that combination (especially since I'm such an addict to white backgrounds). Another thing I love is how she incorporates her watercolor patterns and designs into textiles and wrapping paper, they're stunning! She's also such a sweet heart with an inspiring Instagram as well. 

Shop Juliet Meeks Design / @julietmeeksdesign

Kelly's Embroidered Navy Wedding Guestbook

Hi blog...long time not talk. This year has flown by, which unfortunately included any free time to sit and post an update over here. I just finished up a local Holiday market yesterday and now I'm gearing up for Renegade in LA this next weekend! The home stretch! 

I've been making a lot of new things, including temporary tattoos, lots of calendars and quite a few traveling sketchbooks. In the midst of stocking the shop, I've also had some really amazing commissions pass through the bubble. There's one that I CAN'T WAIT to share! 

And there's this gorgeous book I made for one of my favorite people that got married in October! I just got my hands on some of the photos, which were taken by another favorite, Rebecca Rivera. How gorgeous are these photos?!

I'm seriously in love with this guestbook. 

On the cover, we did an all over navy watercolor wash. For their names, I painted them in silver ink and outlined them in mint embroidery. Inside we went with a watercolor floral frame on each page so guests had their own space to write inside. I posted a video on Instagram after I finished it up where you can see all the pages inside. Hooray for clip on phone tripods!

Okay, time to get to that lengthy to do list. If you're in the Los Angeles area, I'd love to see you next weekend at Grand Park! I'll be in booth 43 with all the Sketchy goodies (and even some Cursive Cursing...)

Still having craftbacks to this wedding guestbook I made a few weeks ago. I hand painted and embroidered the cover first. Then every page inside had a printed watercolor frame of the brides flowers. One big beautiful beast! If you have a friend, besties, fiance, sister, cousin or mom looking for a custom one-of-a-kind guestbook for their special day, send them my way! I have a few openings left for late fall and winter guestbooks and photo albums.#soloverly

A video posted by 👻SKETCHYNOTIONS by Chelsea (@sketchynotions) on Oct 13, 2016 at 11:54am PDT

Tracey's Expanding Indigo Wedding Guestbook

This big, blue, beautiful beast was such a challenge but I love the outcome of it SO very much. 

Tracey needed a big, dip-dyed indigo book to use as a guestbook for her wedding. They were planning on having their guests add Polaroid photos to it from the ceremony and therefore needed a book that could expand as the pages were filled with photos. 

We also dip-dyed the edges of the pages which was a GORGEOUS effect. Blue ombre covers, blue spine and just a touch of blue inside. 

I also incorporated some vintage Mother-of-Pearl buttons that belonged to my Grandma. Something blue and something old all in one spot! 

It's been a LONG time (about 8 years when I was taking my first Bookbinding class in college) since I last did a concertina binding, or an expanding spine. I was such a challenge but it was a nice change from my usual coptic stitch. 

I was pretty enamored with the final product too. When it was all done, I couldn't help just flipping through it and playing with the expanding spine. It was such a departure from my usual wedding guestbook commissions and stepping back from it when it was all done was just such a nice, satisfying feeling. 

Katherine & Eric's Chicago Firehouse Guestbook

Hello again blog! The other downside to a lack of blogging and no access to my computer this summer is that I'm terribly behind on sharing my recent projects! Albeit, a few of my most recent project couldn't be shared until after my departure day. There were a couple that I finished right before I left that I absolutely love the results of! 

This wedding guestbook was such a fun challenge. Katherine contacted me about making a custom guestbook featuring the refurbished firehouse in Chicago that they'd be getting married at! It's such a gorgeous building, I couldn't resist.

I love painting buildings, particularly older buildings covered in brick. We decided to do a purple skyline of Chicago across the inside spread as well to go with their wedding colors. I really loved how this building turned out. I always love to get a project where I can just channel all my focus into the cover and a few small personal details.

A custom proposal book for Samantha & Sian

I get a lot of very sweet commission requests. Every now and then, there's one that comes along that scares the hell out of me. A commission so big and so sweet that I'm terrified of screwing it up, and ultimately screwing up the big day or surprise for someone else. 

This book was one of those "holy hell sweet and daunting" books. 

Sian contacted me a while ago about putting together a "children's book" about how she and her then girlfriend Sam met. The book would go through how they met, their travels together, meeting family, and ultimately end with a surprise trip where Sian would propose on the last night, on the very last page. Ring illustration included. 

Like I said, holy hell sweet and daunting. 

Luckily, Sian already had the story framed out so all I needed to do was illustrate and bind it! It was so fun to watercolor these two and their incredible story of dating across two continents. 

Sian was so sweet and so much fun to collaborate with that it made the entire daunting process so much easier to tackle. I also got a sweet review from Sian so I can guess the proposal went over well!

There's some more photos up on my website if you're curious to see...

Aiden's Adventures - Custom Children's Book

A few days ago I made one of those "Best of Nine 2015" Instagram collages. After it compiled my most liked photos from last year, I was bummed. Not a single one of the photos were of any of my art. In fact, two of them were "Throwback Thursday" photos from Italy! Albeit, most of the photos in the collage were photos I posted during the peak of the Instagram craziness. But I was still bummed. 

Sure, I love looking at old photos of Italy and sharing my travels and photos around town. But you'd think since I have a business built on making things that odds are one would be top 9...but alas. 

So one of my goals this year (besides my new Weekly Postcard Project, Postcards from Penny and Lane) will be to share more photos of my work. The in-process messy shots, the silly behind the scenes collages of all my supplies, and the finished works of course. 

This is just one of many projects from last year I need to share, but it's already one of my favorites. 

Five years ago when I was still living/working in Italy, I was just starting to make custom children's books. Liam's Adventures was one of the earliest children's book commissions I received. In the 5 years since I made it for that little boy in Australia, Liam has grown up and now has a little brother, Aiden! His family requested I make a book for Aiden this time. 

I used a lot of the places mentioned in Liam's books as places for Aiden to actually visit. Aiden might be my new favorite traveling children's book. It might also be due to the fact that I was able to deliver it in person to Aiden when he and his family were visiting their relatives here in California for the Holidays! During his first reading of the book, he kept asking where Liam was in the book. By the second reading, he was loving seeing himself on all the pages! Such a fun moment for me. 

There's a few more photos over on my website too if you're curious to see more of Aiden. 

Adrian's Big Adventure...twice!

Hello friends! Holiday prep mode is in full swing here in the Sketchy Notions studios, which typically results in another "long time, no blog" post. I'm also still pretty far behind in sharing my recent projects. So far behind that they're no longer the most recent projects...

And so, here is a peek behind a pair of books that I made earlier this year. A pair of TWIN custom children's books! These two were quite the challenge to make but I'm very pleased with how they turned out. 

Holly approached me with a story that her father wrote about her two little boys. She wanted to have the story bound and illustrated for his birthday. And...a second copy for the boys to have. This commission resulted in my first ever clone book! 

Once each illustration was finished, I then scanned, edited and printed the illustration with the text. And voila! Two nearly identical custom children's books. *scissor drop* (because I'm a nerd and won't go anywhere near a microphone...)

These two were such a challenge but it was a great, satisfying feeling to send them both off to loving new homes! There are a few more photos over on my website as well if you're curious to see more. 

the Sketchy Notions rebrand

I've been working late hours and posting teasers galore and last Thursday I finally revealed all the big changes! It may not seem like it, but there are quite a few changes and improvements to my little Sketchy Notions world...

First off, new photos and look! I enlisted my besties, "the Kellys," to help me take new head shots. I had the idea for my personal website to have collages of brushes, paint, tools, treasures and assorted things from the bubble (similar to what I've been doing in some photos for my Weekly Postcard Project this year). 

Taking photos for my website menu photos was simple, but getting a giant overhead shot of me surrounded by a life-size I Spy photo was going to require more than a stupid selfie stick... 

So, this is pretty much what the photo shoot looked like. Kelly 1 on a chair standing over me. Me on the floor laying on giant pieces of watercolor paper in front of a bright window. Me holding another piece of watercolor paper to reflect light. Kelly 2 helping arrange and set up all the goodies. Then after a little editing with Gimp,  voila! Clean white backgrounds and new photos galore! 

My personal website got a huge overhaul. New menu photos, new bio, new links...the works! I'm a bit in love with the new menu photos. It's all just a lot cleaner and easier to navigate.

The new changes also carried over to the Sketchy Notions Etsy shop with a new name, new headers and new products. There are new sketchbooks and my new babies, Embroidered Wedding Guestbooks! I've been wanting to make some of these for a while and they're finally here! There's new designs in the works too and I'll open up a listing for custom covers too. 

One of the biggest changes is to the Etsy shop. I'm now listing a select selection of cards and prints in the Etsy shop as well as the Sketchy Notions shop. It was time. I've been having more and more people going to my Etsy shop searching for my postcards and prints so it only made sense to finally offer them in both shops. 

The Sketchy Notions shop also looks a bit brighter and cleaner as well! All new products and prints, including all three of those designs up above! The little girl throwing leaves is by far my favorite! 

I'm working on Christmas cards and new products too so those will be coming soon. If you're not already signed up, you might want to pop over and get on my mailing list. That's the best way to stay up to date with new product launches and upcoming Holiday deadlines! Christmas is coming, whether I want it to or not...oofah...

Dhvani & Vineet's Travel Wedding Guestbook

Guys...I'm in love. I love my job. Absolutely, head over heels, in love with what I do. The sweetest people across the world ask me to create something one-of-a-kind that they'll cherish for years to come. My customers are the most thoughtful people. They're so patient with my terrible emailing/updating skills. They're some of my favorite people, that I've often never met in person. It's a pretty incredible thing.

A lot of the time, I have to keep my projects secret so as not so spoil the pretty details until after the surprise, wedding, shower, engagement or birthday is done. And more often than not, in the process of keeping it a secret, I forget to share what I made entirely! This album is one of those cases...

Dhvani and I met in Italy years ago when she was a student at Santa Chiara, the study abroad center I worked at. We first collaborated last year when I watercolored some illustrations for their wedding invitations. She then commissioned me to create a guestbook for their special day this past May! 

Oh man, I loved this album! This was a hard one to mail off. An entire book filled with passport stamps, how could I not love it?! We also alternated the stamps with flowers they used on their invitations. 

I'll eventually share some more photos on my website but that's under serious renovation and remodeling now. The blog will be too! Everything in fact... profile photos, shop platforms, prices, bios, overall brand aesthetics. EVERY-DAMN-THING! 

The Etsy shop already had a BIG name change this week! I'm hoping to have it all done and launched by mid September. Want to stay on top of the changes? Sign up for the Sketchy Notions Newsletter or follow along on Instagram! And if you've had your eye on anything in either the Etsy shop or the Sketchy Notions Shop, buy it now before prices go up! 

Farm Yard Family

I'm still slowly catching up on sharing all my most recent commissions. I feel like as soon as I finish one, three more come busting in! Which is great! I just end up falling behind on sharing them that much faster...

This sweet little book was another Christmas commission from last year. I made this one for Amanda, the founder of Old Yeller Ranch Rescue. The story follows her sweet little son and his adventures on his Grandmother's ranch with all her animals. You can see more photos of this sweet book on my website.

Papa's 75th Birthday Guestbook

Last weekend, my family descended upon Las Vegas to celebrate my grandfather's 75th birthday! It was a pretty bizarre weekend filled with nicknames, alpacas, drag queens and awkward family inside jokes. 

To commemorate the occasion, I made a little guest book for the whole family to sign. My grandpa lives in southern Utah so all the illustrations inside were reminders of Utah and his ranch. I particularly like how the cover turned out. It's a bit of a combo of my custom state watercolors and doodle cards. 

Here's a little peek at the book and there are more photos over on my website too!