Yeah, this is how geeky we really are... we sit around thinking up stuff like this

illustration by Cindy Garber Iverson

Being a stationery designer means I have to think about a holiday long before everyone else does

I've said it before... I love designing stationery. There's only one downside to it. I have to be thinking about a holiday LONG before everyone else. I have to be in a "Christmas-y mood" months before I necessarily feel like it.

I try to release at least one new design for every major holiday every year. This year I've had a design in mind for my 2012 Christmas release for quite some time now. The problem was the more I mulled it around in my head, the more elaborate it got. After I discovered the fantastic paper art of Kevin Kidney, the design in my head got even more elaborate (click here to check out his great blog post on making a Christmas poster). It reached a point where I intended on handcutting every element of the design out of paper, mounting it just right, lighting it just right and then photographing it.

Then visions of trying to do all of this with the "help" of my feline studio companions, combined with their stray hairs and the inevitable creative meltdown that would ensue started to pervade my thoughts.

I was at a creative standstill (it happens to me often). So the design wasn't getting done and the time to release something in time for people to use it for the 2012 holiday season loomed closer.

Yesterday, I finally decided to break down and just do it. I figured I could create a similar look digitally (it wouldn't be near as cool as Kevin Kidney's, but OH WELL!).

I ended up visualizing the pieces the same as if I was going to cut them out of paper, except I created them as digital vector shapes instead. I did all the letters in Illustrator (a major feat for me) and then brought them into PS3 and did the Santa shapes with the rudimentary vector tools in PS3 and was just as happy with the result (if not happier).

Once I had finalized the art. I started incorporating it into various layout versions for different stationery styles.

First, a simple no-message layout for sending as a free ecard at pingg.com (for an added fee you can have it delivered in a cute digital envelope like the one below):

Then I did a layout to send as a free photo ecard at pingg.com so people can add their own photo to personalize it:

I did another version of the layout so someone could include a personalized message on the free ecard at pingg.com:

Pingg.com also does a cool printing and mailing service called "postal pinggs" (click here to learn more about "postal pinggs"). So for people who want to send out printed Christmas cards, all my above pingg layouts can be sent that way by pingg.com.

And, finally, I did a layout for a printed photo card for my zazzle shop, Rosehaven Cottage Stationers:

If anyone is interested in a DIY personalized printable file, I will make that available too.

Now my 2012 Christmas design is finally out of my head and available for other people to enjoy. You can't imagine what a huge relief this is for me. Now I can sit back and look forward to Thanksgiving instead of being haunted by visions of paper Santas being pawed at and chewed by naughty kitties... just a tad different from the sublime visions of sugar plums dancing in one's head.

Swallowtails, palms and why procrastination is sometimes a good thing for an artist

"Swallowtail on lilac" by Cindy Garber Iverson
digitally painted photograph
Fine art reproductions available here 

Around here it's still too hot outside to start the big garden projects Hubby and I have lined up. Based on the weather forecast, we'll probably have to wait until the first of November to get a cool down significant enough to go out and start moving big rocks, digging post holes with an auger and breaking a sweat. No one wants to do that when it's threatening to be 90F (32C).

And lest anyone think this is due to global climate change... it isn't. This is typical for October.

"Queen palm" by Cindy Garber Iverson
digitally painted photograph
Fine art reproductions available here 

Because our days are shorter now, I don't get the lovely twilight hours I get during the summer to putter in the garden. So that means I'm mostly inside in the studio creating and keeping busy.

I've been creating some "for fun" pieces the past couple of days. It's nice when I can just hunt around in my photo archives and pull something that strikes me fancy. Then I bring it into Photoshop and start to play. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's just nice to have my stylus in my hand making "brushstrokes" and digitally painting something. I find it therapeutic. I have lots of time to get lost in my own thoughts and ponder things. It's a form of meditation for me.

And sometimes I'll have something that I got about two-thirds of the way done years ago and then never got back to finishing for one reason or another. Like this...

Send this as a free ecard here

I don't know why I never got around to finalizing it, but I'm glad it stayed in the archives for the past few years. I've learned more about my digital tools since then and have a better idea of how I like to use them to achieve a certain style. Because I waited on this, I was able to finalize a version that I think is more representative of what I do now in that style. Had I pushed myself and finalized it back then, it would have ended up as one of those pieces that I would always look at and say, "Eeew. That's definitely a practice portfolio piece." I have too many of those already. I'm glad this didn't become another one. Trust me. It would have based on what it looked like when I reopened it earlier today.

The swallowtail butterfly photograph (above top) was a photo I took 5 years ago and didn't really do anything with. Again, because I waited, I know my tools and my own style better now then I did then. I can create something now that I wouldn't have even ventured to create back then. I didn't know how, and I couldn't have envisioned at all.

Then there's the case of a photo like the one of the palm tree (above middle). I took that only a month ago when visiting my brother and sister-in-law. They have gorgeous queen palms lining their backyard. I took the photograph, got it home and wasn't impressed with the backlit result I'd gotten. It wasn't until I had the time to just play with it yesterday that I happened upon the right post-processing techniques for that particular image. If I'd pushed it when I first took the photo (and was busy with other creative work for clients), I probably wouldn't have gotten the result I wanted.

Sometimes procrastination pays off.

One hen has now become a flock (of sorts)

A while back I designed an egg carton label to put on a carton I was returning to a friend that generously gave us some eggs from her backyard hens (click here to see the post where I wrote about it).

My original hen illustration on the labels looked like this

Well, last week a very nice lady emailed me to ask if I did bulk quantities of personalized egg carton labels. She wanted to keep the cost low so she could sell the eggs from her own backyard hens for a reasonable price and not have to fold in the cost of an expensive label. Since my online printer only does a more expensive label, I told her that a great option would be for me to design and lay out the labels to print 3 on an 8.5"x11" sheet and make a ready-to-print pdf file available for her to purchase and download (at www.RosehavenCottageDownloads.com). Once she purchased and downloaded the file, she could take it and have the labels printed at her local copying center onto non-scored adhesive-backed label stock and then cut the labels herself. She found out she was able to get the label stock inexpensively by ordering online and only pay for the printing. She loved the idea.

Once she sent me a photo of her hens that are a variety of colors, I wanted to make the labels even more special . My original hen looked a lot like one of her hens, but her other hens looked so beautifully different. So I went about creating two more hens using the photo as inspiration for coloring. That way each sheet of labels will have 3 labels on it, each with a different colored hen.

Here's the first color variation I did

The photo of my client's hen flock was so good I could see all the nuances of colors in their feathers. I set about trying to capture it while keeping the renderings illustrative and simple at the same time. I think I pulled it off pretty well.

The second variation I did was based on a gorgeous hen with iridescent feathers

In the end, my client loved the final product and will soon have personalized egg cartons full of eggs. It makes me happy just thinking about it.

Personalized egg carton labels for great homegrown eggs

A couple of weeks ago, a very good friends of ours dropped by with a carton of homegrown eggs from their backyard hens. My friend chose the breeds of her hens so there would be a variety of egg colors--pale blue, pale pink and tan. We got to enjoy all three colors in one carton. One of the eggs was unusually large and when we cracked it open we were delighted to find it had a double yolk!

The carton the eggs had been transported in from their house to ours was a simple clear plastic egg carton from the store with the commercial label taken off. I thought it would be fun to design a label for the carton so we could return it to them with a very special touch.

Once I did and they had the carton back, I thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if anyone with backyard chickens could make their own personalized egg carton labels?" I started ruminating on the idea to come up with a solution.

It turns out the solution was easier than I thought. The online printer I use for all my personalized stationery designs (zazzle) can print customizable bumper stickers that are the perfect size (3"x11")! What's even cooler is the stickers they produce are printed on vinyl and are fade- and water-resistant! Sweet!

So I set to work getting the design I had made for our friends set up for print-on-demand at Rosehaven Cottage Stationers. I set it up so the labels can be personalized easily in the text and font of the customer's choosing.

Now I'm wondering what other color combinations and designs backyard chicken wranglers would like to see. And what other versions of the little hen should I make and in what colors? What do you think? I'd love some suggestions to get the creative juices flowing.

P.S. Because of county ordinances we can't have our own backyard chickens so I have to live vicariously through all of my fortunate local and blogging friends that do have them. I LOVE when you share photos and stories!!!

Once there was only Constance...

Last week, I had the choice opportunity to do something I love to do... customize an existing illustration for a specific need.

It started with an email from Norien of the Trenton Chapter of The Girl Friends Inc. She had found my "Play it again" design (above) online and wondered if I would consider doing a version with a woman of color for invitations to an upcoming event that the design was perfect for other than the fact that the singer (Constance is her name) is a redhead with a very fair skin tone.

My answer was, "You bet!"

It was such a privilege to be creating something for one of the 45 chapters of The Girl Friends, Inc.--the oldest social/civil organization of African-American women in the United States founded during the Harlem Renaissance in 1927 by eleven young women based on friendship and community.

Norien told me what the event's theme colors would be, and based on that a new version of "Play it again" was born showcasing a new singer I named Lena (below) after one of my personal icons, Lena Horne.

I then modified Lena's layout to create a custom suite of party accoutrements including everything from a design to be printed on CD's that would be handed out to those in attendance to a version of Lena on cupcake box tags.

Unbeknownst to Norien, I had been looking for excuse to set aside some time to do various versions of Constance. After I completed Lena, I took advantage of the head of steam I had and created girlfriends for Constance and Lena.

Astrud (below) is inspired by one of my all-time favorite singers, Astrud Gilberto. Known for her amazing Brazilian samba and bossa nova her most famous recording is "The Girl From Ipanema" from 1964.

And Doris (below) is inspired by a young Doris Day when she was a big band singer for Les Brown before she ever appeared on the big screen. Did you know that Doris was destined to become a dancer until, while a young teen, a car she was riding in was hit by a train? The accident severely crushed her right leg. During recuperation she taught herself to sing while listening to Ella Fitzgerald on the radio.

I love the quartet of girlfriends. And Constance isn't lonely anymore.

You can send any of the above designs free as an ecard or invite by clicking here.