Hello Jello!

March has been Jello month at bootcamp…jiggly, wiggly, colorful, and sometimes a bit gross (yes at some point in time it was all the rage to throw those left-overs into a jello mold….spaghetti, veggies, Spam?? I think my own dear mother may have snuck some mystery meat into the jello in the mid 70's…I'm dating myself here!) But my memories of Jello are mainly good and sweet….I even make a  yummy fruity jello salad for the holidays, so this was familiar and fun subject matter to draw.

I had a good time with the mini assignment, making a page of sweet treats with black pen and copic markers. I even got brave and played around in photoshop with my jello icons.

The main assignment was to create a jello-inspired design for the bolt fabric market. I went back to the drawing board and drew a gazillion fancy cake stands topped with all sorts of sugary confections. Lilla gave us her Monday surprise which was the "nougat palette" and some tips on using neutrals in our work. I was immediately inspired by the dusty and pastel pinks, soft blues and purples, and pops of acid yellow & lime green and envisioned a sweet little circus world in these colors. In my final piece I ended up going with a little brighter versions of the colors. Here are some of my initial sketches.

and my palette

painting the icons

I had a couple more spots planned, but time ran out, so off to the computer I went. 

I found some tutorials on making patterns in PS, but just didn't have enough time to practice, so I did what I could.

I submitted this one to the gallery.

I am looking forward to trying to make a true repeat pattern with some coordinates when I have some extra time, but for now its off to catch up on Etsy shop orders and prepare for MATS part A which starts next week…bootcamp has been the perfect warm-up!

January round-up

Busy month! I spent it basically cramming Lynda.com photoshop courses while making a whopping number of cake toppers (70 orders!)...not a spare second to paint or draw anything since december 31. But that will be changing in a few days as I am enrolled in Lilla Rogers' Assignemnt Bootcamp (click on link to read all about it),  and then later in the spring I'm on board for another round of MATS. I am hoping it will be a little easier now that I am armed with a few more ps skills!

I did take another really informative e-course this month, finishing up next week, The Art of Blogging with Alisa Burke....FABULOUS!! you must check it out if you have a blog or are thinking of starting one. I could go on and on about this totally inspirational course....instead go check out her blog. I have actually been blogging since 2009, but when I started this blog about a year ago, I accidentally deleted
my original....it would have been fun (or completely embarrassing) to look back and see the progression. Anyhow, I have been slowly applying some of Alisa's tips here, you may have noticed the facelift!

Here is a sampling of a few toppers that helped to celebrate January birthdays around the globe!

And a sneak peak of things to come in February!

Looking very forward to the month of love and the launch of my wedding collection. Keep an eye on my facebook page for the official launch date.

~have a wonderful weekend~