Glimpses of my life week 5

I pulled out my Windsor Newton watercolor box and thought about painting. I really want to get back to painting but I have been only working in the studio for a couple of hours this week because it has been so cold out there. I really love this watercolor set because it is so portable. it also has a very tight seal so I can put it in my bag and not worry if I left a little bit of wet paint. 

I am trying to get some more painted papers made so that I can get the mixed media kits back into the shop. I really enjoy making these kits and have some new items that will be included in the revamped kits. I am creating stack of papers in each set of colors that I am working with. The ones above were created with DecoArt American Multi Surface Acrylic Paints in reds, yellows and browns. I added some random lines and marks with a large Sharpie Magnum. 

My second adult coloring book Floral Abundance was published earlier than I was expecting so it is now live on Amazon and I could not be more excited. This on is all about flowers and i have been coloring some of the sample pages out of the book and I will be posting them soon. If you read the post on Monday all about Leveraging Your Art to Work for You, then you will know that I am working on creating diverse product lines with my art and the coloring books are just one way that I am working with these images. In the next few months I will be creating a book full of designs to stitch. 

This is one of the more simple designs that are in the book and it was colored with some on the Fine Tip Sharpies that I have in my collection. 

Here are the link to the supplies that I have mentioned in the post if you would like to try any one them out. 

Disclosure: I will receive a percentage of any purchase that you make using the links in this post. You dont not have to use these links to make a purchase and they will cost you any extra to use them.

Leveraging Your Art to Work for You

Today on Let's Talk Business, it is all about Leveraging your art to work for you. I love making art and I could stay in the studio all day and be happy, but I know that I have to take care of the business side of what I do in order to make money with all the art that I create. I want to share the ways that I have been able to monetize my art through different income streams. Today I want to talk about Printables. 

Creating printable items that for sale on Craftsy have been a great way for me to add a passive income stream. These items are created once and I can sell them over and over. once they have been uploaded to either of my shops there really is not much that I have to do keep them selling. I scan all of my art and so this is an easy way to make my art into items that can be used for printables. These are planner items and items for ATCs and project life cards. The items that I have shown here were created with some of my art that I have created with vector art. 

When you create products with your art it really helps to make sure that your information is on the printable. This way they will not forget where they made the purchase once the item is printed out. I like to make sure that I print them out to make sure the color looks correct. This is a way to make sure the quality is what you really want to put out into the world. I really have a high quality and don't want to put out something that I would not want to buy. 

I hope that I have shared some information that you have found helpful. Next Monday I will continue this series about Leveraging Your Art so that it Works for You. 

Glimpses of my life

 This week has been up and down. It has been slow in my graphic design business but I am getting a lot of  other projects completed. I have highlighted a few today.

I have bee working on revamping my YouTube channel and so I will be posting new items each week. This is now where The Art Party will be happening, I posted a new video on Wednesday. I will be filming them on the weekends and then working on them throughout the week so that I can hopefully have them post on Wednesdays. 

My coloring book has been published. I am so excited to be able to show it off. You can purchase it on Amazon now and I hope that you will enjoy it. 

The Sunrises have been so pretty on the farm that I just have to share this. My daughter called it cotton candy sky. There is no filter on this photo and I just love the colors that are in this. It would be a beautiful color palette for a piece of art. 

I was playing with the #mymatsprep looking for things around town. This is a lampshade that is in our local courthouse. It is metal and a textured glass. I love the color that are in it. I could not get a very good picture of it so this doesn't do it justice. 

I have moved my studio back to my farm and it has been way too cold to work out there so I am really itching to get back to it. I hope that this weekend I will be able to get some heat out there and be able to get another video filmed. 

Something New The Jewels and Mandalas Coloring Book

I am so excited to announce that my new coloring book has been published and is now available for purchase on Amazon. 

The Jewels and Mandalas Coloring Book has been a long time coming. I have been working on the drawings for this book for a while now. I am super excited to see it in real life and get to hold the finished product in my hands. I hope that it will be enjoyed and well received. I have three more in progress and will be releasing them over the next few months. Now that I have the design for this book it really makes it easier to produce the other editions a little bit quicker. I still have to time it takes to create the images but putting the book together and having it ready for publication will take less time. 

The Themes for the other upcoming releases are: 

• Pattern Mania 
• Floral Abundance
• Main Street USA

I have printables by the same name in my Etsy shop and the print editions will be expanded on these designs. 

Let's Get Creative with Mixed Media Valentines Pt1

Today we will be making some Mixed Media Valentines. These are made with Vintage Sewing Book Paper, Decoart Paints, Decoart Decor Stencils, Sharpie Magnum, Faber Castell Pitt Pen, and a 0.7 Drawing Pen. I created a video for this weeks post and I am excited to share it.

I did not start out making these papers to become valentines. I was just making some quick background paper for collage fodder. I love making background papers to add to my stash so that I always have pattern paper on hand when I am ready to create. I really don't want my stencils to have a clean look I want them to look distressed and like they are old and weathered. This really helps to make them just a textural element instead of a focal element. I love just have them for layers when I begin to work on an art journal page. 

Once I started to add the markers to the page I could see how these would make good heart shapes to add to some handmade valentines. I love making handmade valentines instead of buying a pre-made one. It really seems to have more meaning behind it because I took the time to make something from just a few supplies instead of just picking on off the shelf. I know that knot everyone has the ability to make them so even if it is bought it has meaning as well. 

I hope you have enjoyed this look at making Mixed Media Valentines and will come back next week to see how I will finished them into a finished project. 

Making Goals that Work

This is the first of our series on Making Goals that Work.  These post will be apart of the Let's Talk Business post that is posted every Monday. I hope that you enjoy these post and will share them with your friends. You can share the post on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest with the buttons at the bottom of the post

Today it is all about making goals that work. I always spend a week in December working on my goals for the year. I am not a new years resolution person. I am more about make goals and breaking them down into steps that can be completed so that I know that I am moving toward something, and that each step is helping me to achieve that goal. 

I have created a template for you today to help you plan your goals. This template will help you get started putting your goals down on paper. You can download the PDF here. 

Once you put at least 5 goals down for the fist year and 4 for your lifetime, break each goal down into steps that need to be taken to achieve them. Try to break them down into the smallest steps that you can and then put each step on your calendar so that you have a deadline to get them finished. Let me know if you use this and I would love to see your goals. It you post to social media please tag me @ASouthernLadysR and use the hashtag #LTBwithASouthernLady

Make 16 January Issue A Planner Kit

What is Make 16? it is a project where I will be creating a new item each month in a limited edition of either 16 or 160. They will be released each month and once they sell out they are gone for good. If you are interested check back here on the 16th of each month for the release of that months limited edition creations.

January 2016 Edition

This Make 16 collection is a box of planner goodies.

You will receive a collection of 6 different packages of planner goodies to dress up your planner. 

These will include a mix of the following items: 

• Large Bunting Page Flags
• Small Bunting Page Flags
• Paper Lollies 
• Flag Stickers
• Custom Paper Clips

All Items will not be included in every kit, but you will receive 6 different packages of items. Most packages contain 4-6 individual pieces. So this collection is a very special handmade planner collection .

 

 

 

The Price of this collection is $12.00 plus $3.00 shipping and handling. The kits will be shipped out within 3 business days of order placement.