Last day of 2008...really?!

Man, oh man...I have been really bad about updating my blog. Sheesh. I guess a few trips late in the year and some holiday guests are partially to blame. I also took some time off to regroup and reorganize...I had a busy (and fun!) 2008.

Looking forward to 2009 with a new cooking project, that will tie into my recipe card line, and of which I will be blogging about (it's going to be cool, I promise). New products, designs and collage projects are a given and hopefully some more arts/craft shows (as I claimed for 2008). I will also be able to delve into the world of archival prints and preprinted goods with my new fancy-pants printer which means the possibilities are endless!

I wish everyone a healthy, fun and creative 2009!

A whirlwind few weeks!

It's been a crazy few weeks...back from our two week trip to Europe, and what a fantastic time we had. I can't believe it is over. We had been planning it for so long and it went by so fast, but we certainly enjoyed every minute. Above is a picture of the Dom in Koln (Cologne Cathedral), what a spectacular structure it is.















Then got home and had one week to prepare for Handmade Arcade. It was a fun show in a new space, the Hunt Armory...much more light and wider aisles. Every vendor that I talked to said that they did well. I was happy with the turnout and my sales.

Now it's back to normalcy and trying to get some wholesale and custom orders out the door! And the holidays are right around the corner...where has this year gone!

More photos here.

Hello and much needed break!

I will soon be using my very own Jet Set Journal! The Pink Bathtub studio will be closed for two weeks starting the afternoon of Friday, October 17. Yup, we're taking a vaca...I will let you know all about it upon our return!

And upon our return, I am going to be crazy busy getting ready for Handmade Arcade which is the weekend of November 8 + 9 here in Pittsburgh. If you are in the area, come check it out. There are tons of great vendors and is an excellent place to start your holiday shopping. (I know, I really did just say "holiday shopping"...eep).

What else...oh yes, I finally gave in and climbed aboard the Twitter ship! You can follow me here. It's actually quite fun and doesn't take up too much time.

(Oh, and I am having a free shipping special in my Etsy shop today only!)

Be well!

1000th Etsy Sale!

Another cool milestone...my 1000th Etsy sale! My Etsy journey began back in February of 2006 and I actually sold something the first day I listed items. What a fantastic experience it's been and continues to be. Not only have I grown my business on Etsy, but it's been fun to watch Etsy grow as well. There have been so many improvements since I began selling. Thank you Etsy!

It's that time of year!

Apple, walnut, cinnamon, chocolate chip cake here I come! Oh, gosh, it's my favorite thing to make with apples. It's an older recipe from Cooking Light. It doesn't call for chocolate chips, but I gotta have 'em in there.

Here's the recipe.

Oh, right, it also doesn't call for walnuts, but again, they are a must for me!

Geeky, I know.

I was really trying to think of something other than 3.14/pi to use, but just kept coming back to it, so I gave in...

Fall Cards

Well football is back (Go Trojans and Steelers!) and the humidity has subsided, so Fall must be in the air! Today I was in the mood to come up with some new cards utilizing more subtle, autumn-inspired colors.

These are 4-bar size, 3 1/2" x 4 7/8" folded, which a bit smaller than my normal size. They will be in my Etsy shop available in packs of two with 100% recycled, kraft envelopes.

My time management skills.

Are quite flawed. I seem to always come up with new designs and/or products when I am the most busy. I have 7 wholesale orders to work on and yet I felt compelled to whip up and list these new flat notes. Perhaps it's a bit of procrastination? (Oh, and what do you call blogging? Procrastination.)

I'm loving that they are a smaller size (4-bar) than my usual flats. My hope is to come up with a new line of these smaller cards.

I call these "peach sangria" and they come with 100% recycled, kraft envelopes.

Available here.

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!

What does one do with a very large bushel of roma tomatoes? One spends an entire Saturday afternoon watching many hours of the Olympics (kinda sad they are over) whilst making many batches of roasted tomatoes and tomato sauce! Then one freezes everything to enjoy come winter when all one can find are pink, mealy tomatoes at the grocery store.

Portland Neighborhoods Series

I spent a large portion of yesterday whipping up some new Portland ACEO's. I decided to focus on the close-in neighborhoods which I am pretty familiar with as we used to live in the NE section of the city. I even came up with a new bungalow stamp which adds some accuracy to my pieces. You can't cruise around these old neighborhoods without marveling at these architecturally significant homes. In fact, it got me thinking about our old bungalow (pictured here). I loved it from the outside, but over the years the interior got kind of chopped up. It definitely had a funky floor plan. But, oh, we did love her and spent many nights sitting on the front porch! The current owners have painted her a brick color which looks great.

The ACEO's are available in my Etsy shop.

Portland ACEO's

Works in progress.

Pie time!

About a month ago I blogged about our raspberries just starting to produce fruit and how we were slowly collecting these red and gold babies for a pie. Somehow time has flown and a pie has finally been made!

I used Bob's Red Mill whole wheat pastry flour and his recipe for the crust. I cooked my raspberries on low with some sugar and a hint of water, but they came out slightly runny. I wasn't sure if I should reduce them or just strain some of the liquid. I did the latter as I didn't want all the raspberries to break up (which they were starting to do). Even with having to kinda wing it, the pie turned out to be a hit. The crust was flaky and tasty...I'm sure that had nothing to do with the obscene amount of butter I used!

So, I'm not thrilled with my vague recipe for pie filling. Would you mind sharing yours?

Etsy shop ACEO promo.

I'm not really a big "sale" person...but I thought it would be fun to do an Etsy ACEO promotion. I've got a rather large inventory right now as I just love making them! So, in hopes of finding happy homes for these little guys, I thought I would give it a go.

Here's the gig: buy two, get one free. "Purchase" three of your choice then I will send you a revised Paypal invoice. Easy enough, right?

Sale ends: Sunday, August 3.

Oregon and Washington series ACEO's.

California series ACEO's.

My card making process.

I thought I would share with you how I go about making my cards from inspiration to final product. So, here goes...













Inspiration usually comes directly from my garden. Today it was nasturtiums.




















From my photos or just being out in the garden, I draw the subject matter then trace it onto tracing paper.

















From the tracing paper, I transfer the image onto the carving surface by rubbing the traced image onto the block with my carving tool handle.




















I test out the stamp on scrap paper to see how it looks and to do some fine tuning. I might need to add some more lines or clean up around the edges. Personally, I like to leave some extra little bits here and there to add character and give a sense of motion.















Once my blocks are good to go, I then play around with different designs and colorways until I come up with something that is visually pleasing. Not all stamps become final designs or products.


















And then voila...the final product!

Artwork in DIYcitymag.com!

I recently created a collage for diycitymag.com for their New Orleans issue. It's an online magazine chockfull of local artists, cool shops and diy resources.

They also included a nice write-up about me. (There are three pages). I feel quite honored!

Definitely check it out...I'm tempted to drop everything and get on the next plane to New Orleans!

In the garden: raspberries!

We are slowly collecting the ripe ones in which to someday make a pie! We harvest a handful each day, then freeze them.

Have a happy Thursday!

Etsy Featured Seller!

Yay! My Jet Set Paper Etsy shop is featured seller, 6/23/08. It's been tons of fun, but kinda crazy!

More Press!

My JFK Jet Set Journal made the June/July 2008 issue of Ready Made magazine. It's on page 26 if you have a copy. My Jet Set Journals + Area Code Notes (and now stationery!) can be found in my Jet Set Paper Etsy shop. I am slowly but surely adding more cities. And I can always do custom ones.

Etsy front page today!

For a brief moment today, one of my ACEO's was featured on the Etsy front page! (It's the one in the top left corner). I was honored to be among such wonderful artists.

Another fun Etsy stat...I passed the 2000 hearts mark!

Home from the show!

Well, I am back from California. It's nice to be home.

The show was a lot of fun although I didn't do as well as I had hoped. The fair was a mix of handmade, mass-produced and corporations, such as The New York Times trying to sell subscriptions. So probably not my ideal target market. But, I did see lots of family and friends and met some great people which made it worthwhile. I don't think I would do it again unless they changed the focus to handmade/arts & crafts or at least had a designated section. A few other handmade vendors that I talked to felt the same way.

There are more photos on my Flickr site.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Holy cow, it's been forever since I've updated the blog! I've been a busy bee trying to get ready for the Palos Verdes Street Fair which is next weekend. If you're in the Los Angeles/South Bay area come by and say hi! This is my first really big show (I think they said over 20,000 people will come through!) and my first show away from home. So, I have to be quite thorough in getting everything packed that I'll need. And I finally gave in and had a banner made, Kinko's did an outstanding job.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Memorial Day weekend! We will be watching our Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup finals...go Pens!

Cheers!

Noelle

Happy Weekend.

It should be a low-key weekend involving some yard work and house cleaning. But it will also involve going to my first Penguins hockey game! It's the second round of the playoffs. Good times.

Have a great weekend!

Baby Announcements and thank you notes.

I just completed a custom order for baby announcements and flat note thank you's. They celebrate the baby being born in the year of the rat. I am really happy with the result.

New ACEO series - Washington State

I've had so much fun with my CA series, that I bought some old map books on eBay and delved into another state...one that I love, Washington. I decided to do something a bit different with these. I felt that each little scene has a story to tell. So. That's what I did. I wrote a little, silly blurb to go with each one. You'll only get a few sentences, so the rest of the story is up to you!

I have a few already listed in my Etsy shop. Many more to come. I will post a few here with their stories. I'm almost having more fun writing than making the ACEO's! Almost.

Here's one of my new ACEO's:

mount baker evening:
Laying in that tattered old tent from our first camping trip those many years ago, I think of him. I promised myself I wouldn’t, but he just came to me with his gracefully aged face and emerald eyes. It feels like our first encounter. I smile contently and whisper “good night.”

Available here.

Is it really March?

Oh my, I haven't blogged since Valentine's Day! The days are flying by and the orders have been pouring in (which is a good thing, but daunting when I have to hand print each card!) . I recently started working with a sales rep in Oregon who has been kicking butt! Yay. In fact, if you are in Portland, you can find me at Oblation Papers in the Pearl and Tigard.

This crazy busyness has led me to ponder the idea of doing a preprinted line for wholesale. I've always been kind of against it, as it isn't a completely handmade process. But, if I want to grow my business and my line, I need to start researching the possibility. I determined that it's still a completely handmade process up to the point of reproduction. I would have them professionally printed on a laser printer reproduced from my original hand printed scan. So, I think they would still have that handmade look.

It's a pretty big step (and investment!) but I think it's the next logical move if I want to go to the next level. I will always have my handmade line, I think that's important. I just think in terms of wholesale and getting into more stores, this makes sense.

I'll keep ya posted. Have a great weekend!

Happy Balentime's Day!

Another Etsy shop.

Oh boy. I can't believe I've opened up yet another Etsy shop, jetsetpaper.etsy.com. (This one makes 3). I wanted to give my Jet Set Journals their own space. They tended to look a bit out of place with my other designs and products. I like keeping things together.

I have also started experimenting with using my Gocco to print them. Before, I was hand inking each letter or number and hand stamping it. That is super time-consuming.

So, armed with a full box of brand new Moleskine cahier journals I eagerly await the postman's delivery of new Gocco screens. It's quite frustrating when you are brimming with ideas and motivated to create, but have run out of needed supplies. Hopefully they will come today.

Have a terrific Thursday!

Some local press.

This month's Pittsburgh Magazine has a blurb about yours truly and features one of my Valentine's Day cards.

The "Be Mine" card is available here.

ACEO madness.

I'm not sure if I've blogged about ACEO's before, but I recently began making them. An ACEO (Art Cards, Editions and Originals) are miniature works of art the size of a trading or playing card. They can be framed or stored in a trading card album. They are tons of fun to make as well as collect. I, myself, collect bird ACEO's.

The original inspiration was an old map book of Los Angeles (my hometown) that belonged to my grandmother. I didn't want to throw it out, but it was very outdated. I've always wanted to incorporate maps into my work, but wasn't really sure how until I discovered ACEO's. I started experimenting with the maps and my designs and came up with some interesting pieces.

So today, being that it was cold and snowy, was a perfect day to be holed up and create! These are a bunch in the process...some will make it and others will not. I think they look really cool all together.

A bit of great press!

Some nice press for the ol' Pink Bathtub... I recently started advertising on a super cool designy blog based in the UK called Print & Pattern. It is a fabulously dizzying treasure trove of colors, patterns, textures, great design and, of course, cool products. The blog gets thousands of hits a day. I guess as a benefit of being a sponsor, she did a very extensive posting on my cards. Check it out here.

Thank you P&P!

Ready to roll!

StoveTopics®, my line of hand printed recipe cards, is ready to hit the streets! One of my goals for early this year was to finally get catalog pages made for ST. I got on a roll yesterday and did it! They've been selling pretty well in my Etsy shop and I've had some wholesale success, but now I can officially market them.

I just listed my new "go green" recipe cards in my Etsy shop. They feature my spinach design and would make a great gift for a vegetarian! I will also be putting together some new mixed sets which seem to be a hit.