Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

For all who celebrate ... wishing you a safe, healthy, joyous Christmas!

Christmas Angel

Finishing all my last minute Christmas errands. Finally mailed my Christmas cards. I'll post them later - don't want to ruin it. But here's one I just got back from Sunrise. They ended up not using all the verse in calligraphy (I did 2 versions). But I really like this one.

Merry, merry!

Erica

Christmas presents - personalized bottles

I hope I won't be giving this away for any of our gift recipients but I wanted to post about the idea I came up with for teacher's presents.

We have many, many teachers to give to because each of the kids has 3 teachers and then specials teachers. It's hard to find something nice, affordable, and universal!

But there is one thing we love and that is maple syrup. And only real, pure maple syrup which is expensive and not a luxury many people purchase for themselves. So I thought it would be nice to give bottled maple syrup. Then I thought, hey, wouldn't it be nice if I could somehow personalize the bottle. So then I looked into glass etching.

As it turns out, I can etch the bottles with my calligraphy! There is a small machine which makes the stencils here: Glass Etching Kits. Has anyone tried this? All of you calligraphers out there - this could be a great money-maker!

So I was able to purchase the bottles via Specialty Bottles. I'm so excited! Then we purchase our favorite maple syrup, etch, bottle, and voila - gift!

I am posting the camera ready of the etching below. I drew the snowflake and did the lettering (except the font). I will be sure to post pictures of the finished gift.

I'm really excited about this! I think I may have found our "annual gift." When all said and done, if all goes as planned, it will be a nice, yet affordable, personal gift. I hope! :-)
Truly,
Erica

Holiday Season is upon us!

I honestly think time has sped up. I am still floundering back in September somewhere. Even the days feel short now and the months whiz by. I am so happy I didn't procrastinate this year and our tree and decorations went up on the day after Thanksgiving. That is a record for us! Each year for the past 8 years or so we've been piece-mealing it together so that we finally have all decorations and such complete about the day before Christmas. So this year, I made a huge effort to make sure we got it done. Even my shopping is done! Not wrapped yet but done!

I play Christmas carols every minute of every day until Christmas because it still feels like Christmas in July for me here in Florida.

I am starting to work on the teachers' gifts (we have 9 teachers because the kids go to a charter school and work in groups with several different teachers each). It's hard to find something nice to make or buy for teachers. But I'm working on something! Last year I did personalized stationery for each one - calligraphed and gocco printed. So this year I'll have to come up with something different. Maybe a Zenspirations monogram?

I just completed my 2nd American Greetings design yesterday. Ugh! It was like pulling teeth. It was a combination of monoline and slight thick and thins. Since I am not polished at brush lettering, I tried it with several different tools. But patience and perseverence paid off as I finally was able to do something which they liked. I used a straight fountain pen. It was frustrating at times but I loved the process and I am learning sooo much with every design.

I suppose it looks kind of stark without the design but thought I'd post anyway just to help your curiousity. :-)

Thanks for visiting!

Erica

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobble, gobble! Not the best calligraphy I've ever done but you get the idea!

Hurry - there's still time! L Letterpress machine give away

OK - I just found out there is a new home Letterpress machine! It just came out. I am so excited! I found it on this great blog: http://www.i-do-it-yourself.com/2009/11/psa-update-on-the-l-letterpress-giveaway/comment-page-10/#comment-4732.

There is still time to get in on the give-away. The deadline is 11:59p tonight!

I *love* letterpress. Many of the invitations I designed in early 2000's were letterpressed by an amazing artist in Scarborough, Maine. Letterpress just gives an amazing textural quality to your project. I had my business cards and brochures letterpressed. I could just sit and feel them for hours!

I've always wanted to do my own greeting cards with letterpress but could never afford it. Now maybe I can! They hope to come up with a custom process soon!

So cool!

Life is getting in the way!

So life is getting ridiculously bogged down and I haven't been able to do any art related fun things lately! But I have managed to squeeze in a little Zenspiration stuff at night after the kiddos are in bed. I'm still in the rough learning stage but I thought I would share the fun.

I still can't figure out why you can't click on my new images to see the larger one. You used to be able to do that in my earlier posts. So I must have somehow changed my settings. Sorry about that. I'll try to figure it out. :-)

In the meantime, here are some roughs.
Truly,
Erica