In the Studio: a process video

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This past summer, my talented former studio mate Lauren (of Monster Tea Party) and studio floor mate Matt Kaiser (designer at PillPack) from college got married! Obviously I had to make a commemorative piece of art for the occasion. I had so much fun with this one! 

A while back Matt had made a comment to me about how I should make more timelapse drawing videos so I thought this was the perfect chance. Check out the video below to glimpse at the process.

((Sorry for the not top notch quality, I did this one with my phone as opposed to my DSLR for ease so its not as crisp as the last one--that being said, make sure to set your video quality, auto plays at a less clear version))

Hope you enjoyed!!

-b

In the Kitchen: vanilla extract

For the holidays each year, I like to make at least one special homemade thing to give to family and friends. I love using this time to make a special crafty project! Last year I made wood burned spoons and now have a serious urge to wood burn every blank wood spoon I ever find... This year I decided to give vanilla extract a try. I had pinned a recipe for this well over a year ago and have been wanting to give it a try ever since. Plus, this was a fun excuse to paint up a little design for the labels.

I used this recipe and these vanilla beans for mine. I found these to be the best value vanilla beans I could find and they came vacuum sealed and super fresh! Sadly, raw vanilla beans smell kind of strong and a little gross in my opinion. I guess I expected to pop open that vacuum sealed package and have sweet sweet extract smell coming from them. I wanted to buy the IndriVanilla beans that Alexandra recommended in her recipe I used because of the raving reviews and quality/price, but they were sold out at the time I tried to order them.

The one thing that I didn't do was make these early enough. You really do need to leave plenty of time for this recipe or you're just going to end up with slightly flavored vodka... This is why I made sure when I gave them to family and friends at the holidays to put an "enjoy after" note on them. 

Of course, my favorite part of this project was making the labels. Once I painted out a little design, I printed as many as I could fit on this Avery sticker paper, cut them up, and adhered them to the bottles with a little piece of beautiful Studio Carta classic twine underneath. I used these bottles, which were a fantastic deal and seriously great quality.

I loved putting together this little project. As you can see above, I used the same Studio Carta twine for wrapping the gift that I used to add the decorative element to the banner style label I created. The only thing that could have made it even nicer would have been if I had used this awesome gold tissue paper instead. Next time!

Let me know if you give Vanilla Extract a try and let me know how it goes for you! This was such a fun project for me to complete. Make sure to check back soon to see images of the soy candles I also made this year! Usually I stick to just one craft but I was really missing strictly for fun, no rules projects and decided to give both a try this time around!

-b

Full disclosure: Some of the links used above are affiliate links but all opinions are mine and affiliations were not the reason for choosing the specific products! They truly were the best deals and value.

In the Studio: a video & lots of news

Clearly I'm not made out for the blogging world since I have horrifically lacked at updating this page in a very  long time. BUT I do have some pretty good excuses.

I officially have a home studio space (!!!) as of almost two months ago and I couldn't be happier with it. I moved into a new apartment with my boyfriend and fat cat and the second bedroom has been converted into an amazing office/studio space.  I hope to share photos of it and it's beautiful light soon. Here's a little peek that's only new to those of you who don't follow my instagram. 

While moving was my big excuse for lack of updates for a while, the bigger "excuse" now is work related and will cause much more updates in the near future! I'm working on a pretty big and exciting project right now & my part will be finished at the end of May when I will be updating my site with around 30 (!!!) new illustrations. The project itself will be releasing this fall, along with a few other things I have been working on, so that's all going to be really great.

I can't wait to share all this new work with you all, so long as I make it to the end of May without passing out in my paint water. (Make sure you follow along on Instagram where I frequently post sneak peaks and updates more rapidly than I do here.) I also completed two small projects prior to getting this one that I haven't had the chance to post yet, so there's lots to look forward to. Here's looking at early June and then September for lots of new things on my site, in stores, and in my Society6 shop.

For now, I've uploaded one of (my favorite of) the 30 illustrations so I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do (click on the above image for a full view). 

I took a video of the painting process to share with all this news. Make sure you watch in 1080HD, please please please. No other qualities give it any justice.

Enjoy! Thanks for hanging in there during this update lull! -b