Now announcing the Etsy Shop: Lightheart Paper Company

Finally, I'm proud to announce the launch of my Etsy shop, Lightheart Paper Company!

Here it is

To start, I'm selling some familiar prints as well as some newbies, and slowly expanding to home items. Here are a few of pics of what is available.

Grow wild print

Life of Love woodblock print

Remember this guy?

Roaming octopus woodblock print

And this one, honoring my great home state post Hurricane Sandy, or Superstorm Sandy according to insurance companies.  All profits still going to the Red Cross!

Still Strong NJ print

As usual, I'll be writing plenty of posts showing the creative process for my pieces and giving away all kinds of trade secrets (if I can think of any).  So check it out here and send me any feedback!

The wolf

The art store in my Jersey City neighborhood displays murals on their outside wall, and the current one is particularly awesome.

I love the contrast of the fierce, radioactive wolf against the sad Disney bunny and the geometric shapes mixed with the eerie forest. Or maybe I can't get enough of neons. Either way I'm going to enjoy walking past it every day.  

He won't think twice about eating you

Smoking is bad, especially for bunnies

Oh baby (announcements)!

Last week I returned from a two week trip to the Southwest, full of camping, hiking, having fires, and being unapologetically dirty. But more on that in the next post. While I was away, summer officially started, and it's the first summer in years that I have no weddings to go to. 

With lots of friends moving on from marriage to babies, so have I moved on from wedding invitations to baby announcements.  And the smiling face of this little babe will truly melt your icy heart. 

Look, a baby.

Though her parents didn't have professional photos taken, they still wanted to include a picture of their pumpkin for those family and friends who are long distance. In that case, it was best to make the photo part of the announcement, as opposed to having it take up the whole page. The photo is attached with a pastel green paperclip and can thus be easily removed for those who might want to hang onto it. The simple flowers, ladybugs, and butterflies are a cute alternative to storks and diapers and perfect for a baby girl.  The type is a mix of a fat bold font and a soft handwriting, and all is wrapped up in, what else, but a pink envelope. 

The illustrations feel a little Dutch, the colors, not so Dutch.

 

Hey girl, hey.

Looking forward to meeting this bugger in person and calling her all sorts of silly pet names to her face. 

Wedding at the zoo part 2!

Back in January, I posted this fun save the date for a wedding at the Bronx Zoo.  My post at the time was one of the alts that didn't make the cut, so here's the one that did.

Clockwise from top left: save the date, reception card, invitation, reply card

Busy springtime

With the collision of weddings, birthdays, and deadlines, it's been nonstop action this April.  My  conversations all begin with my asking, "When is it going to get warm?" to which my boyfriend sincerely responds, "I think this week it's supposed to be nice." And after one nice day, it goes back to 50 degrees.  But now that the storm has passed, I'm looking forward to a few creative weeks before a road trip vacation to the wild, wild west (this one, not this one).  The biggest news: the soon-to-launch etsy shop where I'll be selling my prints!  And now that I've written it here, I'm committed to it.  Here's a preview of the newest woodblock.

Here you are, a message of love. 

I'll be sure to make an announcement when it goes live!

Modern wedding invitations for Fall

Even though Spring is just beginning and autumn seems miles away, I'm posting this follow up to my previous entry for Autumn save the dates with the actual invitations.

As I mentioned in the first post, one of my favorite things about these is that even though they use a fall color palette, the graphic pattern and bold type are so unexpected. This set also really shines when it comes together as a suite that includes an invite, rsvp, envelope liners, and reception card all held together with a monogrammed band. The band is made of maroon ribbon and adhered to itself and the paper monogram with glue dots, the greatest thing ever.

A monogrammed band: wrap it up

The bride gets a lot of credit for these; she knew just what she wanted.  Elements of the pattern from the save the date are used throughout, and a berry purple was substituted for the golden yellow to better match the flowers.  Here are a few closeups!

The invitation

The reception card

The color palette and pattern could easily be changed to match any season or theme desired by a modern, anti-flower couple!

Celebrating 2 years with a throwback print

Taken by the Hand turned 2 yesterday and to celebrate I ran a few woodblock prints of an old favorite. This was the first block print I'd done since a long post-college hiatus from printing after being inspired by an old piece of poplar I'd found in my parent's basement. The design was one I'd done in Illustrator, something that started out as a doodle but just kept going. It was the melding of digital and hand-made that I'd been seeking.  But alas, my first few print runs were lacking pizazz, a problem quickly solved by jumping on the ombre trend. The original print blends pink and blue ink for a vibrant gradient. This guy holds a special place in my heart, and a specialer place on my wall and the walls of a few friends.

The words came first and inspired the twisting and curling lines,
alluding to graphic vines and roots

So for the refresh I added a third color and instead used yellow, pink and orange.

A little like a sunset

Oddly, these colors remind me of 90s era Oakley sunglasses, and you can judge for yourself whether that's a good or bad thing.  Number two color combo was turquoise-to-blue printed on a sheet of wood paper that'd been sitting in my stash for way too long.  I'd have loved to do the brighter colors on this but didn't think it would show up on the light wood.

Woodblock printed on wood: a world turned upside down

Here's a few more shots.

Group shot!

The block and tools. Pink!

I'm planning on doing a few more color combos when I get some more paper, and putting them up on Etsy along with the new woodblock that I'm working on.  Lots of projects have been done over the last two years and this one got me out of a slump and kickstarted them all!

A wedding at the zoo!

You can imagine how excited I was to be working with Rachel and Clay when they told me their wedding next year would be held at the Bronx Zoo!  What a unique and nontraditional venue that allowed for some really creative stuff.  After speaking with the bride, we'd have to find the right balance between zoo theme and classy wedding, so it doesn't look like a child's birthday party.  To keep it elegant, I went with simple animal silhouettes in black on bright white linen paper.  As a personal touch, one of the silhouettes is actually the couples' rambunctious mutt, Hannah!

I took several stabs at this, and here's one of the alternates, more modern and casual with different kinds of type mingling.

All the animals at the zoo get along swimmingly

The final invitations just printed and I'll post them shortly, along with the official save the date.

Making this year's holiday cards

Truth be told, I was pretty unmotivated to make Christmas cards this year, or even writing out store bought ones.  But after a lazy afternoon of watching Home Alone, inspiration struck.  I freehand carved this design into a speedball speedy-cut rubber block, and went for some glitz by using metallic inks.

Here they are drying on my clothing rack (a very good place to dry cards)

I even did a little experimenting with red paper and leftover white ink, which I'm totally diggin'.

The festivities start tomorrow night for my family, and the weather is predicting a possible white Christmas.  Well, 1-3 inches which will melt immediately but I'll take it!

DIY Christmas gifts for my bffs

This year, a few of my very good friends will be getting some very special Christmas presents: Ke$ha themed ornaments.  Be honest music elitists—Ke$ha sings a good party song. And although I don't really consider myself a party girl, my friends and I won't deny it's fun to dance around to her raunchy, catchy jams.  Now that I've defended myself I'll show you what I've created.

Hey girl, hey

These mini bottles purchased from Amazon were filled with glitter from confetti.com in the party rockin' shades of watermelon and prisma silver (because I guess there are a lot of silvers). I created the labels in photoshop with lyrics from her infamous single Blow, "Go insane, go insane, throw some glitter, make it rain."

Words to live by

In case you haven't seen the video, it stars Dawson Leary so I highly recommend watching it.  Tie some hemp cord around the bottle neck and you've got a top Christmas present perfect for the friends you met in Catholic school.

The hollerdays are a special time of year

It's pink, so you know it's for girls

Party on, friends.

Art for Hurricane Relief

As many people know, the East Coast was hard hit by Hurricane Sandy two weeks ago.  Here in Jersey City, we lost power for days, some for weeks, and had severe flooding, down trees, live wires, and other scary things.  It was the worst storm the area has seen in centuries and has certainly made me more empathetic to disaster victims.  Personally, I didn't get it nearly as bad as some others, which I'm grateful for, but there are lots of people whose lost homes, cars, and even loved ones.  Houses floated away—that's insane!

To raise money for hurricane relief, I'm selling these prints out of my studio shop.

All proceeds will go to the Red Cross of Northern New Jersey.  The 8" x 10" piece was created from linoleum block and hand printed, so each is unique.  For only $20, it's a great way to show your support, make a donation, and get a little something to take away. 

You can order with PayPal using the email address stillstrongnj@gmail.com.  Or visit Studio Heart to Hand for one click ordering.  

Thanks for all your support as we continue to rebuild!!

Here's a few more pics of the details.

A little line art street art

It's been a while since I've posted about street art, so two super cool and super different pieces.

The first is the latest mural on the Houston/Bowery graffiti wall.  Very Asian influenced (the artist is Tokyo-born Lady Aiko), I love the girly but edgy color palette.

I'm also picking up little Lichtenstein

Smooches

At the other end of the spectrum is this poster sized line drawing of some guys jammin'. It was spotted adhered to a wall in downtown Jersey City; artist of course, is unknown.

Love the fluid lines, oh and don't forget to vote

Funny how these pieces are so different in scale, subject, and line style, but both use lots of white space and defined black lines (though the first are actually made up of many small shapes). 

A Graphic Pattern for Autumn Save the Dates

When the bride told me that she wanted something bold and that she "hated flowers" it was certainly a breath of fresh air.  While there's nothing wrong with script font and a floral design, being able to do something different once in a while keeps designs from getting stale.  She knew what she liked: a pattern, Fall colors that don't scream "Fall", and the letter P as a monograph (both their last names being with it).  My job was make these things work together to create something cool.  The result uses mature Autumn colors to create something that's a little modern and a tiny bit rustic, with one big graphic statement.

I'm really into double sided printing right now.

A close up of the big P and banner.

Invitation suite is currently in progress!