Bee's Knees Industries

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Print: Love Triumphs

Hello, friends.

I've spent the past couple days processing the results of this year's election, and I'm trying to focus on ways to enact positive change. I know that we are much more powerful than the hate that overtook the election and that, in the end, love will always win.

Now is the time to remember the power of our daily actions. There are so many people who now need support, protection, and love, so please take time each day to be the change you want to see in the world.

I've created this little piece of art to remind me of an important mantra that I'm holding onto right now. Know that I love each of you very much, and, together, our love can change the world.

Peace!

Files:
• Download the "Love Triumphs" printable here (PDF) - prints on 8.5" x 11" paper
• Set your printer to photo quality for best printing
• Use regular printer paper or high-quality matte photo paper, depending on your preference

MATS Part A: Wall Art

This week's Make Art That Sells assignment really stretched me and the way I think about my work. The assignment was to create an abstract piece using floral elements, a word, and the colors blue and green. In case you haven't noticed, I never, ever create abstract art, and I didn't even know where to start. Instead, I used Lilla's technique of breaking down large projects into mini assignments and focused on one piece at a time.

I started with a topic that feels very comfortable to me (cats, of course) and started building up the floral element around it. I used some work by Emily Hughes as inspiration, since I love the way she uses pencil and florals to create some perfectly whimsical pieces. I found her work after last week's assignment as I was perusing the children's books at Powell's for more inspiration. (Sidenote: I cannot wait to paint this piece! I need more time for fun and silly painting, stat!)

The next piece of the puzzle was the word. I really enjoy hand lettering, so I decided to focus on the word alone to find a fun way to present the letterforms.

Once I had the word and the florals, the only thing left to do was combine them, and I was suddenly no longer intimidated by the project. I know this isn't a strict abstract (and I even managed to sneak in a little character), but it's something very different from my usual work that I enjoyed making, and that, to me, is a huge win.

We've just begun our last week of Make Art That Sells, and I'm very excited about this next project, so I'm off to sketch a few fun ideas.

MATS Part A: Children's Book Week

So, I just realized I haven't been keeping up at all with my MATS class progress here on the blog. Time to remedy that, and I figured I start with the most recent project: children's books.

(Click the image for a larger view.)

The assignment was to illustrate either a cover or a spread for the folktale, The White Cat. I decided on a spread because the process really intimidated me. I almost never create environments for the characters I create, and it sounded like a fun challenge.

To make the project a bit easier for me, I broke it up into smaller pieces and used Photoshop to assemble everything as I went along. This wound up being a great method for me, since it also allowed me to fix any mistakes I made in the paintings and gave me a chance to add in the elements as I created them and make adjustments to my plan as I worked.

Here are a few progress images of my illustration:

I also thought this would make a fun submission for this week's Illustration Friday topic: whimsical. See, the horse is a whimsical whim-cycle. Tee hee!

Now all that's left to do is make a dozen or so more spreads, send them out to publishers, and get a career as a children's book illustrator on the road. I'm practically there!

Wedding Invitations

I'm very excited to share with you my latest DIY project: my wedding invitations! These were quite the labor of love for me. I was completely stuck on ideas until last week, when we started working on hand lettering in the MATS class. I made a T that I really liked, and it all rolled from there.

(Sorry for the blur, but, you know, privacy and stuff.)

Other than the hand-lettered details, all the text was created using Poetica, my go-to super-fancy font. It's a great font for this sort of project because it has about 20 variations, with different swash capitals, ligatures, and ampersands to customize the look to your liking.

The invitations and RSVP cards were printed at Vistaprint. Their service and quality was really great for the price, and I was happy that they do very short runs of cards, since I really don't need 250 invitations.

The rest of the presentation came from Paper Source. I remember being a young art student, wandering that store in downtown Chicago, pretending to buy supplies for class while daydreaming about my future wedding. And yesterday I finally had the chance to fulfill the daydream! They have a tremendous selection of envelopes to match any size or color you have in mind, and I was completely smitten by these mossy green lovelies.

The gold seals are punched using my trusty Martha Stewart punch and Paper Source's gold label sheets. I like this option since it leaves me with plenty of extra gold to decorate the event.

I thought about printing address labels for the envelopes, but in the end, this tutorial inspired me to try my hand at some calligraphy. I've been playing around with a Noodler's Creaper flex nib pen lately, so I used that to letter the envelopes.

I hope you enjoy this little peek into my wedding planning process. I'm hoping to share more about it as we get closer to the date. It's fun to use all my new skills for such a personal project that I get to share with my loved ones.

Print: No Power in the 'Verse

I just can't stop with the quotes! I've been mentally collecting quotes for so long, just waiting for the skills to do something with them. Turns out, doing something with them is just the practice I need to have the skills. Funny how that works.

Just like the last ones, you can download the printable for this quote below. I hope you're enjoying these as much as I'm enjoying making them!

Files:
• Download "No Power in the Verse" here (PDF) - prints on 8.5" x 11" paper
• Set your printer to photo quality for best printing
• Use regular printer paper or high-quality matte photo paper, depending on your preference

MATS Home Décor Class: Week Four

The MATSies have made it through week four. Just one more week to go, and the topic is wood. I'm exhausted by this marathon of creation, but I'm also so pleased with everything I've learned. I feel so much more confident in my skills, and I can't wait to use my new knowledge for a few other projects I have up my sleeve. (I'm coming for you, Land of Nod kids' home decor collection!)

I have another hand-lettered quote for you guys today, too. This time, it's Thoreau. As usual, you can grab the printable file at the bottom of the post. I have another one to share later this week, and I'm working on a few cat quotes, as well. Mark Twain is quite the gold mine for those, as is Christopher Walken, surprisingly.

Files:
•  Download "Wild and Free" here (PDF) - prints on 8.5" x 11" paper
• Set your printer to photo quality for best printing
• Use regular printer paper or high-quality matte photo paper, depending on your preference