Giveaway!!!

A while back I won a giveaway over at Vectips, and the prize was 1000 free business card printing from Uprinting.com. Now I am so thrilled to be partnering up with UPrinting to host a giveaway of my own here, to give my dear loyal readers a chance to win too! With these crazy economic times, we can all use some free promo materials.

One reader will receive 1000 free business cards printing and one reader will receive one 18" x 24" canvas printing!

If you don't remember, I ended up printing these wacky coupon/business cards, which I will be using at the Surtex show:
The quality was wonderful and I loved how I had the option to make it an unusual size (more coupon size like). I'm very happy with them and plan on printing some postcards next.

So, alright, on to the good stuff!

How to Enter

1. Leave a comment at the end of the blog post, describing what you would use the free business cards and/or prints for.

Prize

1000 free standard size business cards for one reader and 1 free 18 x 24 canvas print for one reader.

You can choose from any of their stocks for these items.

Rules

Winners in the United States and Canada qualify for free shipping. Shipping fees will apply to winners outside these areas.

I will pick 2 winners randomly on Friday, March 6th. Please make sure that I have a way to contact you if you win. Good luck, everyone!

Vector book Love

I realized if someone asked me what is the one thing I can't live without, and the answer might possibly be "Adobe Illustrator." So here is a book that gives vector art all the love, and I'm a contributor for it! Its called Vector Graphics and Illustration, A Master Class in Digital Image-Making by Jack Harris and Steven Withrow.

I'm in the pictorial narratives section, with a write up under "Chickengirl and Children's books." I was pretty amused by that.
There are also some tutorials and artist profiles (which I didn't get one, I must say I had to pick my ego off the floor from that!) But I am very honored to be with a bunch of fabulous vector artists-one of my favorites is Catalina Estrada-she is so amazing! There are very few books on vector art in comparison to books on photoshop and other programs, so this is a gem to me. Thanks to the authors Steven and Jack for letting me be a part of it!

And hey, I'm on the back of the book! There is my pirate bunny!

Thoughts on The Creative Genius

Alicia posted a wonderful video of writer Elizabeth Gilbert and her thoughts on creativity. I'm a big fan of her book, Eat Pray Love. I highly recommend watching it for inspiration here (thanks, Alicia, for the great post!)

Picture Book Directory 2009

Yesterday I received my copy of Picture-Book for 2009, A directory of Children's Illustration. And what is the first thing I do? Flip through and find my own page, of course!
And then I get that same feeling I always seem to get when I look at my own piece in Picture-Book: "Oh man! I could of done better than this!"

These ads for the directory are always done over a year in advance. Alot of time goes by before you can see it in print- along with alot of other talented illustrators in the book. I'd like to think I've grown with my art since a year ago.

So what do I do now? Make a better piece for the 2010 Directory.

Small Update to Website

I'm pretty guilty in not updating my regular website. But in preparation for the Surtex show, I've added an extra page for my licensing endeavors. You can see it live here.

This makes it more "real," doesn't it?!

As for the rest of the website...its literally 2-3 years old. I haven't done much updating in a very long time. If only I can find some...time!

Invites and Surtex

My wedding reception invites in pretty blue envelopes. I'm sorry I can't show the actual invite now- I will later and I promise there are some chickens involved!

Things are super CRAZY here with too many things going on, and I find myself not handling the stress very well. With work, a wedding, and now I added on another to-do: I will be exhibiting at the Surtex Show in May-exploring art licensing opportunities with a group of other artists. I'll post more as I get more info, but right now I am trying to build my portfolio. This is something different than children's books and right now I feel like I'm going into it blindly...but I am very excited at the same time!

I want to thank everyone who has tagged me, given me awards, mentioned me in the blog world. And the comments too! I've been very frazzled lately so I just want to let you all know I appreciate them even if you haven't heard from me in a while.:-)

SCBWI Conference

Just wanted to pop in to say that the NY SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) conference was this weekend. I didn't attend this year, but you can read all about it at the Official blog here. Alice Pope did a wonderful job with the live blogging. If you are interested in children's books, you should definitely check it out. Hope everyone is well!