lately via Instagram

Hi friends! Long time no blog, I know. Things are busy as you may expect. LOTS of new projects and collaborations are brewing and I'm terribly behind on sharing all my recent work too. 

When things get crazy, Instagram seems to be the easiest way to share what I'm making or where I'm heading. I also recently got a Snapchat account! (If you're a Snapchat user, my account is @sketchynotions). I'm still learning how to make the most of it but, in the meantime, I'm having fun using it. 

I'm also behind on a newsletter update! As an apology, I'm adding a FREE PRINT download to the next one. If you're not signed up, here ya go! 

So! here's a little glimpse at what's been happening lately. I'll do my best to get a proper update up soon. 

1. I took a trip out to Texas last weekend! My dear friend got married north of Dallas so we had a mini Italy reunion. This photo was in McKinney, Texas. I LOVE this brick wall! 

2. Some new Spring card and print designs are in the works too! I got a lot of sketching done on the flight to Dallas so you should see those in the shops pretty soon. 

3. I've started staging color photos in the art bubble. Just little collections of things I have around by color. So far I've made green, blue and yellow photos. 

4. So...I have this little unicorn. It's a long story but the gist is my two friends and I take turns taking photos of this little Despicable Me unicorn! He has his own Instagram account too: @smallunicornbigworld

4. I did a couple nursery murals recently. And I LOVE how they turned out! This was for a sweet little baby girl. 

5. THIS BEAST! Ah! I've done a few commissions for this couple before and every single one becomes my new favorite. This was a giant watercolor for their 2nd wedding anniversary. We used a thick cotton paper as a compromise for the traditional cotton gift. 

6. I've had Italy on the brain a lot (see below) and I made a few teeny tiny watercolors! They're over in the Etsy shop if you'd like to call one yours. 

Weekly Postcard Love - the last postcards

Eek! Happy New Year everyone! 2015 flew by for me, and so much happened! The whirlwind started almost a year ago in January 2015 when Instagram listed me as a suggested user. And it just got crazier from there. 

In 2015, I met Instagram and Etsy friends in person, finished a giant piece for I Madonnari in Santa Barbara, applied and participated in my first Renegade market, collaborated with Etsy, had my photos shared by A Beautiful Mess and the Huffington Post, and finished my first ever 52 week project.

Each week, a new postcard to make and send to someone, somewhere in the world. I think the farthest one of them traveled was to New Zealand and the Philippines. The closest was right here in the Santa Ynez Valley. And now it's done! 

I'm in the process of researching printing options to turn them all into a book for me to keep since they're all in their new homes. These are some of my favorite photos from throughout the year and all photos of all the postcards are up on my website. 

Tomorrow I'll be starting a new weekly postcard project! This one will be very different compared to last year's. I'm more nervous about not completing this one, it's bigger and more daunting than the last. I'll be posting about it tomorrow morning on Instagram if you'd like to follow along with my 2016 weekly project! 

Are any of you lovely friends out there trying a weekly or monthly project in 2016? 

Weekly Postcard Project: update II

It's a bit daunting that last week I reached week 26 of this project. The year is already halfway over and my project is as well! 

As each week progresses, I can see some changes between week 1 and week 26 already. I'm not sure if the postcards are getting any better but I think my photographs of them are. As a result, I think that's also reflecting in my product photography in my Etsy shop. I'm editing, framing and accessorizing things differently. 

If you're curious to see the full progression, you can see all the postcards together on my website. I really like seeing them all together, especially since I don't have all of them with me anymore! 

I've turned some of them into prints or notebooks already and a few have been added to my Society 6 shop too! I get a kick out of seeing a postcard as a cell phone case or a pillow. 

I still have trouble planning my postcards ahead of time, unless I know that I'm leaving on a Friday or have plans all Saturday. Sometimes I'll have enough foresight to make the postcard on Thursday to photograph on Friday, but not always. It's not uncommon for me to make the photograph on Saturday morning. But that's alright. I didn't expect this project to change my deep seeded procrastination habits in the slightest. 

Keep an eye on my Instagram tomorrow morning for Week 27 of #weeklypostcardlove! And if you haven't signed up for the Sketchy Notions Newsletter yet, you might want to get on it. I have some fun ideas brewing that I'm going to share next week! If you shared it with your friends, I'll love you even more! 

bits + pieces lately

The busier things get around here in the bubble, the less I end up blogging. Sadly it's easier to just upload a quick photo to Instagram than find some time to sit and type and edit photos. I'm waaay behind on updating my website with recent projects so hopefully before the summer madness kicks in I'll be able to catch up a bit! 

Here's a peek at what has been keeping me away from the blog lately...

1.  I've been working more with Arts Outreach this year, which has been awesome! Between teaching, I've been organizing and cleaning supplies in one of my classrooms and probably playing with the supplies more than I should!

    2. This was my most recent custom wedding guestbook that I made for a sweet girl that I met in Italy years ago! I can't wait until she gets married so I can share more photos of this album. 

    3. I recently collaborated with the awesome ladies at Dreamcôte Wines in Los Olivos for a new label for them. We have a ton of ideas brewing for new projects too, I'm so excited! 

    4. My friend Kelly snapped this photo of me during my Words to Live By talk at Casa Dumetz last month! It was a bit insane of a night but so much fun! 

   5. I participated in a local art market a couple weeks ago with my friend Roni from Peace By the Sea. I always end up coming home from a market with a new necklace by her and some other treasures too. I found this Amelie Mancini tote at the Inez store booth! 

   6. I've been making SO MANY custom travel sketchbooks lately! This was the most recent one (and I'm binding about a dozen for a special event with Casa Dumetz in Los Alamos!)

   7. Last weekend I helped out at Mattei's Tavern for their Mother's Day event! A fellow artist from Arts Outreach and I crafted with the kiddos all day making flower crowns for their moms. Even the singer Pink came by with her daughter! So cute! 

   8. I recently did a couple interviews with some lovely creative ladies! Sabrina over at Hands and Hustle featured me and my art supply arsenal in her Tools of the Trade series a few weeks ago. The lovely ladies over at Dulcet Creative also featured a little interview I did for them as well! 

That's about it for news from the art bubble. Follow me on Instagram @sketchynotions to stay more up to date with all my projects and upcoming travels! 

Weekly Postcard Project update I

I can't believe I'm already 16 weeks into my Weekly Postcard Project! It really puts how fast this year is going by into perspective...

The project is going along great! I'll admit, some weeks have been easier than others to sit down and make a postcard in advance. Some weeks I'm up early on Saturday morning to get it watercolored in time to post. And I'm not always the fastest to get them to the Post Office. But I really, really love this project! 

So far the farthest away I've mailed a postcard is to Germany! Another friend in Canada got one too. But most of the recipients have been domestic addresses. I also had my first repeat winner the other week too! I like that people are still entering even after they've won! It's nice to see people Posting It Forward in a way to send their postcard to a friend or a sister. 

I think the must fun aspect of this project is making the photo each week. It has been SO FUN figuring out new ways to display and collage an image together for each week. I get kinda giddy looking at the #weeklypostcardlove hashtag and seeing all the images together. So far, I think the bicycle color wheel up above and the butterfly chalkboards have been my favorite. 

I've gotten better about taking the photos but also editing them as well. All I use is a few giant sheets of watercolor paper and a sunny hallway! At first I used my phone to take the photos but I've shifted more into using my camera every time so I can edit them up with Gimp before posting. And I always do a high quality scan of the postcard before I mail it off to its new owner! 

I decided that at the end of the year since I will no longer have any of the postcards, I'm going to have a book made through Artifact Uprising. It will be fun to flip through all the pages and see how each week progressed from one postcard to the next. 

There's still plenty of weeks left for you to enter to have one mailed to you too! Just follow along on Instagram and keep an eye out every Saturday morning! 

Did you really have your eye on one of the postcards? You can find prints and notebooks with illustrations from the postcards in the Sketchy Notions shop! I'll be adding more throughout the year too...

16 weeks down, 36 to go! 

Do you have any ideas of images you'd like to see on a postcard this year? 

that one time on Instagram

Oofah. I'm a little late to share this news on here (and another blog post in general) but oh well! It's been a bit crazy around here, especially on Instagram. 

Back in January, I got an email from Instagram saying that they were going to list me as a recommended user. And boom! (yes...BOOM) my little follower list went a bit crazy. In less than 3 days it hit 100K. Freaking ridiculous. 

The folks behind Instagram also sent me a sweet little package with some stickers, buttons and a little book about the history of Instagram.  The interweb love has been lovely.

I know it doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of it all but it has certainly been fun connecting with more people on this little app. My Weekly Postcard Project has been pretty well received too. And the boost in traffic for my business has been fantastic! 

I probably spend more time on that silly app than I should admit. After a long day of working by myself down in the art bubble, it's really nice to get inspired by all the amazing photos from around the world. There's a great sense of community on there, similar to the community I had back in art school. That's one of the things I miss the most about school, being able to bounce ideas off of your colleagues. So it's really nice to be able to still feel connected to a vibrant and creative community, even from my quiet little art bubble on my beat up little phone. 

Weekly Postcard Project

Hello 2015, I have big plans for you! There's a lot brewing for the future of Sketchy Notions, which is a bit daunting. After the mayhem of Christmas wrapped up, I was able to finally just make stuff for fun. Which I really missed! 

I have also been wanting to try doing a weekly project this year as well. There's a lot of ideas floating around out there but none I could really picture myself committing to for 52 weeks. 

So, I thought up the Weekly Postcard Project. Each week I'm going to make/watercolor/draw/collage a postcard. I'll share it on Instagram on Saturday. Anyone that comments on that photo is in the running to win that postcard. On Monday, I'll randomly pick one of the comments and mail that postcard to them or someone of their choice anywhere in the world! 

I think it will be a fun little project to keep me making things just for fun, but also a fun way to spread a little bit of art around the world. It will be cool to see how far away these little postcards end up at the end of the year. 

The postcard below is week one! 1/52! I'll be sharing some of the postcards here on the blog but you can follow along on Instagram @sketchynotions and the hashtag #weeklypostcardlove 

Do you have any resolutions or weekly projects for the year? Big goals to tackle?

Did you blog about it? Share the link below! 

hibernation

As my mother pointed out to me the other day (hi mom!), I'm overdue for a blog post. I'm stuck in blog limbo at the moment, which isn't exactly a bad spot to be. Today I'll be shipping out my last December commission and I can't wait to share all these new little books and stories and illustrations. 

BUT, I want to make sure their new owners have had plenty of time to enjoy them in private before I start sharing them all over the interwebs. Hence the limbo. 

I'm also just in deep, post-Holiday commission hibernation mode. That odd feeling of freedom that I haven't felt in about a month and a half because I've been so overwhelmed with work! Don't get me wrong, that overwhelmed sensation is a freakin' great feeling to have! But it is nice to be able to sit down in the middle of the afternoon and catch up on garbage TV and not feel guilty about it. It's amazing to go to bed before midnight and not panic that I'm falling behind. It's lovely to just watercolor and sketch without worrying about making a shipping deadline. This Holiday season was really amazing, but I'm pretty glad that hurdle is over. 

January is coming, which means many things. My birthday being one of them and my Etsy shops birthday as well! So you can expect a couple giveaways coming! And also the final looks at all my new custom children's books and other projects. Plus some new looks at what's coming for Sketchy Notions in 2015! 

Until then, here are some teeny peeks at my latest projects...

1. Little Amaya in New York!

2. My new favorite binding technique for custom children's books

3. My little boys and my favorite little cowgirl

4. A custom traveling sketchbook! 

5. One of the new additions for the new year, custom country and state watercolors doodles. And some new calligraphy prints coming to the Sketchy Notions shop! 

bits + pieces of Utah

My family and I spent Thanksgiving in southern Utah at my grandparent's house. Utah is definitely in the top three for favorite places in the world (tied with California and Castiglion Fiorentino of course). We were there for a week and we crammed SO much into that week! I found an arrowhead, we went off roading, found petroglyphs, got seriously lost for hours in the boonies, went to the Grand Canyon, shot skeet (and rocked it!), found an antler, chopped wood, had hydraulic grease explode all over me, drove through Zion and ate copious amounts of food! So much stuff in just 7 days! 

We were also in Utah over Black Friday + Small Business Saturday + Cyber Monday and I'm so excited with how well it went this year! THANK YOU! There's still time to snag some goodies in time for Christmas, and if you sign up for the Sketchy Notions Newsletter you can snag 10% off your order! 

1. This guy almost didn't make it home but we were able to squeeze him in at the last minute! I'm still searching for the perfect spot to hang him! 

2. The view from my grandparent's house outside of Kanab. Best view to wake up early to. 

3. All my weapons of creation for arting in the wild. Armed with my trusty sling shot and favorite Bird Trouble pouch! 

4. A great off-roading ride that leads to the coolest petroglyph location!

5. Freja, our Danish foreign exchange student, and I got separated from our group another day we were off-roading. We were a bit lost for a couple hours but we got some great adventuring done and even some sketching. 

6. There's an old movie set by my grandparent's house too, where they filmed old Westerns. Now it's just a cool ghost town to wander through.

7. Dusty sunset after some off-roading. 

8. This is Freja just after we saw the Grand Canyon! Hooray! (She's also a fashion blogger!)

9. Sketching the Grand Canyon. I can check that off the sketching bucket list! 

10. We drove through Zion National Park on our way home. Zion is one of my favorite National Parks in the whole country. 

How was your Thanksgiving? Any good adventures or traveling stories to share?