November Updates and Holiday Stuff

ICYMI, here's what's been going on over on my Instagram lately...

I had lots of fun celebrating Halloween with my girls. They dressed as Anna, Elsa, and Olaf from Frozen. They enjoyed surprises from the Great Pumpkin and a candy hunt out in the park.

Now it's November! How is time simultaneously moving so slow and so fast this year? Gotta love 2020... Of course, this month got started with the crazy election. I made my own digital sticker for my planner to mark the occasion.

Free download - I Voted digital sticker

I'm sure glad that part's all over with finally, and we can move on! Let's start focusing on the best parts of November—Thanksgiving, family, pie, and gratitude.

One of my favorite hymns, especially during Thanksgiving time, is “For the Beauty of the Earth.” I created a coloring page inspired by it. It's now available as a printable download here:

For the Beauty of the Earth coloring page

I've been finding time to do a little more digital scrapbooking. I even used my scrapbooking skills to create my annual Christmas card, using my own patterned papers and photos as well. The result definitely feels more personalized and heartfelt than my usual predesigned card from a photo printing site.

Speaking of Christmas, I am already well into holiday preparations! The snowstorm we got last weekend in UT certainly helped get me and my family in the mood to start the festivities. We've already put up our tree, and I've begun making some handmade ornaments, which has become a bit of a holiday tradition for me. I made a miniature door out of popsicle sticks and painted it to look like Elsa's door, again from Frozen. My girls just love all things to do with that movie, haha.

One last holiday-related note, I have lots of new products up in my Etsy shop, including some fun stuff for Christmas.

Check out what's new here.

That's it for now!

—Nicole

New Shop at Holly Pixels

I’m so excited to announce that I’ve joined the design team over at Holly Pixels! They are an awesome resource for all things digital planning, scrapbooking, iPad lettering, and more. My first product is now up—a fun and spooky Halloween-themed digital planner sticker set for Goodnotes and other digital planners.

Stay tuned as I continue to add more fun stuff to my shop!

2018 Year in Review

Another year has come and gone. I am very happy with how 2018 turned out. I am excited for starting fresh with new goals for 2019. But first, here's a summary of 2018:

Developing Creative Habits

I really focused on creating art on a regular basis. I gave myself a few monthly projects that helped to keep me going, which included collections of floral patterns, fan art, and mandala sketches. I also participated in various online art challenges, such as Homwork, Paint Every Day, and Inktober (my most successful year yet!). I worked specifically on my hand lettering and digital illustration. I also played around with various traditional mediums like watercolor, gouache, acrylic, chalk, and colored pencil.

I Made A LOT of Art

With the help of regular sketching and painting, I was very productive in the amount of art I output this year, especially when compared to recent years. I have added many new pieces, including a few collections, to my portfolio (which has been updated! Take a look…). I am still experimenting and developing my process and style—though I think that is an ongoing thing for any artist. I was also lucky enough to be able to purchase an iPad this year, which has been a big help to my digital work. Below are some of my favorite pieces by category.

Everything is Made Out of Magic

I released my nature-themed journal Everything is Made Out of Magic in September. Working in publishing as a designer and typesetter has given me a love of creating and laying out books. I have been a little slow in getting some of my own books out there, so I was proud of myself for actually finishing a project this year. Hopefully there will be more in the near future, and perhaps even a book proposal to a publisher one day as well!

My Goals for 2019

Make Art Every Day

I want to keep the momentum from 2018 going into 2019! Perhaps EVERY DAY is a lofty goal, but doesn't hurt to try. 

Shop Development

I feel like 2018 was a lot about developing my portfolio and body of work, so for this coming year, I want to move on toward doing something with all that art I've been making, and will continue to make. I've opened up accounts with a few print-on-demand sites, as well as an Etsy shop for digital products and original paintings. I really want to focus on creating products with my designs for people to use and enjoy!

Focus on Handmade Crafts

I am always looking to learn new things. I've been particularly fascinated by all forms of folk art lately, which I'd like to incorporate into my work somehow. I also want to explore handmade, craft-centered media like paper art, embroidery, and collage—both the physical crafts themselves, as well as using them as inspiration for digital work. You may have seen the faux-felt flower and embroidery clip art I made recently. I'd love to add even more digital "handmade" products to my Etsy product line for digital scrapbooking. I would love to start selling original paintings, drawings, and crafts as well!

It’s going to be a challenge to implement everything that I want to do in this coming year, but I look forward to tackling it all! Happy New Year, everyone!

Sincerely, Nicole

Christmas Embroidery Clip Art - FREE Download

If you follow me on social media, you may have noticed that I’ve been hard at work developing my new Etsy shop. My vision for the shop is to provide a mix of artfully crafted handmade and digital items in the form of original art, patterned papers, clip art, and small crafts. It’s still at the beginning stages, and I have A LOT of ideas that I’m excited about—it’s just a matter of getting them done! It will be one of my main goals for the coming year.

Right now, I’m focusing my efforts on building up a stock of digital goods for designers and scrapbookers. Besides providing some of my pattern designs as digital paper sets, I’m also having a lot of fun using my crafting experience to create faux-handmade clip art. You may have noticed the digital felt flowers I just listed. My latest product is a set of digital holiday embroidery elements. As my Christmas gift to you, I’m providing these as a FREE download.

Click on the image below to access the zip file, which contains the 7 embroidery elements as png files and a bonus striped green textured paper used in the example graphics. (In the Google Docs screen, click on the download arrow in the upper right corner. File size is approximately 32.4 MB.) I hope you enjoy these, and if you’d take a moment to browse my Etsy shop as well, I’d greatly appreciate it. And stay tuned for more to come!

Sincerely, Nicole