Let It SNOW!

NEW Line of Hand-crafted COOL Wearables, Gear, and ARTful Originals!

New designs, new art, and a new brand just in time for adventuring! Though it has been a LOT of work, I have been feeling satisfied creatively and having a lot of fun creating new t-shirt art, new Growler and gear bag designs with Kristen (our daughter) for our new Crow Creek Coolture  brand.  Below is the new logo and a couple of the graphics for the weather-resistant Growler & Gather bags we are making. The water resistant vinyl bags are a perfect fit for a Growler (...from LaBodega Girdwood!) or even for berry picking this fall! 

Water resistant Growler Bag production on the sewing table! Just in time for our walk up to La Bodega Girdwood!

Our new logo and brand for COOL wearables, Gear, and ARTful Originals!

NEW Line of Hand-crafted COOL Wearables, Gear, and ARTful Originals!

New designs, new art, and a new brand just in time for adventuring! Though it has been a LOT of work, I have been feeling satisfied creatively and having a lot of fun creating new t-shirt art, new Growler and gear bag designs with Kristen (our daughter) for our new Crow Creek Coolture  brand.  Below is the new logo and a couple of the graphics for the weather-resistant Growler & Gather bags we are making. The water resistant vinyl bags are a perfect fit for a Growler (...from LaBodega Girdwood!) or even for berry picking this fall! 

Water resistant Growler Bag production on the sewing table! Just in time for our walk up to La Bodega Girdwood!

Our new logo and brand for COOL wearables, Gear, and ARTful Originals!

Raven Flags spotted in NC!

A bit of a flashback. Love this photo taken outside of my friend Tracey Broome's pottery studio in Raleigh NC where she hung a set of Raven Flags I had sent her. 

They seem to be beautifully weathering into the landscape. 

http://tsbroome.blogspot.com/

Happy HeARTs Day with FREE Valentine cards!

That's right! Download, print, cut and fold your FREE artfully designed Valentine card for the ones you LOVE! Visit: http://www.cindyshakedesign.com/ 

Happy HeARTs Day!

Printer Error with an Artful Fail

 I wasn't thrilled with how much ink was used when my art inkjet printer errored, but this is an enhanced image I created from the fail! A full page of saturated CMYK ink spit out instead of two pages of Word docs. Cool fail, huh?! I'm seeing some fun pattern works both digitally and in fiber. Normally, I use my commercial grade HP laser printer for graphic design but I also have an HP Photosmart inkjet printer that I use for making iron-on transfers and other artful projects that the expensive laser printer isn't suitable for.

Creating Your Personal Mandala

My personal Mandala created digitally was inspired by my Birth Chart Wheel.
Note  -I have edited the opacity intentionally for this post.

A new year is an opportunity to learn about and renew those things that matter to each of us -and hopefully, be mindful of them throughout the year. One way is to create a personal Mandala as a visual to aid in mindfulness. A Mandala is a symmetrical design that uses shape and colors as an expression. Most Mandalas are circular and I created mine digitally in Adobe Illustrator CC, as I wanted to efficiently incorporate various imagery and graphics (both vector and rasterized) that are meaningful to me. The basis for my original inspiration and design came from a Natal Chart or Birth Chart Wheel and then sprinkling in some numerology, my Tarot Birth Card from the major arcana, which is The Empress. I've provided links in this post that may be helpful should you want to explore some of these ideas. Starting with a spiral base design, you can easily copy, cut and paste imagery, write affirmations, hopes, and dreams. There really are no rules so use these base spirals as a template to enlarge or even reduce and copy for multiple smaller spirals to form a larger Mandala! Here are a couple of Mandala base spiral graphics I put together that you can download for free to start creating your personal Mandala.

ENTER the Moleskine - HOW HAS YOUR DIARY MADE IT THROUGH 2015?

My entry! Tossed to the bottom of my backpack, riding on the floor of my car,
accepting quick flicks from my Sharpie or stale glue sticks my
Moleskine kraft cover journal recorded ideas and flashes
of inspiration and thoughts I had already forgotten.
Thank you, Cindy Shake #M_myDiary 

How has your diary made it through the year? Is it bruised and falling apart from the beating it took the past 12 months, or does it look ready to go for 12 more?

For this Creativity Challenge, we're asking you to show us your diary at the end of the year. If your submission is the best among the three most voted ones, we'll send you a package full of Moleskine treats. Including, of course, a new diary for 2016.

Upload a photograph with the tag #M_myDiary.

You have time until January 7th.

Last year's winner was Merve Sariahmet. Will it be you this year?

#M_MYDIARY

First Batch of Botanical Inks Has Been Bottled!

The first "batch" has been bottled and shared with a few close artsy friends to demo!

OK, I admit the fun part is ALL OF IT! The gathering, the science, the waiting for the alchemy to surprise me, the design of the packaging and label design...and the PAINTING! What fun it is to be an ARTist. 

These are the various label ideas I designed for the different colors of inks.

I've been tracking and logging the different color strengths, alchemy and experiments using the lichens, berries, mosses, mushrooms with varying results -some are spectacular and others are getting scrapped. 

First bottles of ink!