Yellow House

A happy home has flowers growing out its windows...

A New Year

Obviously things are a little behind if I am just now posting about 2014...things are busy, and that makes finding time to blog somewhat of a challenge. However, 2014 is off to a promising start, and that is good. I am taking part in a studio tour in the Pontiac, where I grew up, this coming June, which is very exciting. I am also attending the spring edition of the Urban Craft Market on March 15 with lots of new cards and prints and possibly a new stuffed creature if I can get one finished in time. Kokito, a lovely little shop in Bloomfield, Ontario that specializes in Canadian Design, is now carrying Butterbean Design's iconic creature, the yeti! And last, but not least, two of my submissions to Minted's  State of the Art Challenge back in November were selected as Editor's Picks and will soon be available in the Minted shop. Thank you, Minted!
It has been a long and cold winter here in Canada, which is the way it should be, but spring is hopefully on the way. Here are a couple of bird pictures to put you in a spring mood:

 These are available in the Butterbean shop as cards, along with some other new cards and prints. Happy Valentine's Day!

Hang a Froebel Star Upon the Highest Bough...

Christmas is coming soon, which means it's time to start folding Froebel Stars again. I discovered Frobel, or Germanic, Stars last year and spent many hours happily folding as a result. I followed the Youtube tutorials found here and here, which may seem confusing at first, but are actually pretty easy to follow if you pause the video often to avoid getting left behind. The slowest part is cutting the paper into the strips. I used 1/2 inch strips and I would like to experiment with a paper shredder so see if it could be set to that width. However a guillotine for paper would probably work quite nicely as well.

In other news, I am in the process of listing Christmas items in my shop:

Birds of a Feather Gift Tags.

Shining Star Christmas Card, with a Froebel Star to keep it company.

Hand Lettered Christmas Card.

There will be lots more items coming over the next few weeks. For those in the Ottawa/Gatineau area Butterbean Design will be at two upcoming artisan fairs: Idle Hands Art, Craft and Vintage Sale: Holiday Edition On Sunday, December 1, from 10:00 - 5:00 at St Anthony's Banquet Hall, 523 St Anthony Street in Ottawa, and also at the Urban Craft Christmas Fair, on Saturday, December 14 from 10:00 -3:00 at the Glebe Community Centre, 175 Third Ave, also in Ottawa. Both shows are juried and have great vendors with a wide variety of items for sale, so it is definitely worth a trip out. 

Lake Winnipeg

Steve and I just got back from a ten day holiday in Manitoba where we stayed with Steve's family in his parents' cottage on Lake Winnipeg. The weather was kind of cold and rainy, but we had a great time anyway. I packed a sketchbook and some gel pens and did some sketches, which I will post shortly....

New Shop Items

I added some new work to my shop recently. The feather rose print has since sold, but I am getting it reprinted and it will be available again soon. 

Yin Yang Fawns Print

Hybrid II: Feather Rose Print

Hybrid II Card

Lichen Heart Print

Lichen Heart Card

Lichen Heart II

Saturday Morning

Musical Bear

I just finished a commissioned piece for Ottawa area musician Catriona Sturton. Catriona is multi-talented, but harmonica is one of her favorite instruments. I haven't done any vector illustrations in a while and I had forgotten how much fun it can be.
To learn more about Catriona, hear some clips of her lovely tunes, or purchase a harmonica playing bear t-shirt please visit her website. Thanks for sending such enjoyable work my way Catriona!