iPhone Cases and Wallpaper Oh My!

When I opened my Society6 page, I wanted to order an iPhone case with one of my prints on it. However, I had just bought a Pantone case for $35 and I just couldn't convince myself to spend the money on another. Slowly but surely over the past 6 months my phone started to quit working. Not answering calls here, ignoring text messages there . . . then the home button gave me the good old one finger salute and before I knew it, our relationship was over.

The death of my iPhone 4 came at quite an opportune time. The iPhone 6 had a release date which meant the iPhone 5 was on sale! Then, on top it being on sale everywhere, my Costco membership gave me an even better deal. I am now the proud owner of an iPhone 5 and with my new purchase, I saw the perfect reason to order a new case.

Now, the big question . . . what pattern do I order? It has to be one that I will want to use full time, colorful, trendy. AHH! Too hard to decide. So, what did I do? I created a new design and ordered that.

Introducing Feather Stripes. I know, not an awesomely creative name but my strength is design people!

I was so excited for the arrival of my new case, checking the mail eagerly every evening and checking the package tracking multiple times throughout the day. Finally, I opened the mailbox and there it was! A cute little white box with Society6 printed on the side. I ran inside and opened up my present and was so excited to see my phone case. Honestly, I am very happy and impressed with the quality of this product and I think the colors are nicely represented! After all, if I am going to tell others to buy my work on these products, I should know what I'm talking about right?

  

After snapping the beautiful thing on my phone, I thought, "It's missing something." The phone background was something silly I found online . . . it needed to match!

Now, my phone is all coordinated (are you surprised mom?) and I am a happy camper! Check back in the next week for free wallpaper downloads for your phone!

***SALE ALERT***  If you are interested in getting a phone case from my shop, you're in luck!! Until Sunday September 14, 2014 at midnight Pacific Time, you can get FREE shipping and $5 off your phone case!!! Just click here

Life's Greatest Happiness

Here is a card I designed with a fun quote by Victor Hugo. The card is printed on watercolor texture paper with gold foil on the lettering. Love this one!

Interested in buying some of these cards for yourself? Head over to Design Design Inc.!

More Succulents!

After completing my Global Talent Search entry, I wanted to expand more on my design. I came up with three designs that are now a part of my "Succulent Love" collection.

These are prints of A Little Love & Care and A Little Hope on stretched canvas. Both are available at my Society6 shop.

This is a print of All The Little Things on stretch canvas, available at my Society6 shop.

Global Talent Search

A couple weeks ago, I decided to enter the Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search. It's a wonderful opportunity for designers looking for representation in the licensing industry. After taking some of Lilla's Make Art That Sells this past spring, I thought it would be silly not to participate in her Global Talent Search.

The first round assignment was sent out to about 1,000 artists who had signed up. The topic of choice was to create a piece of wall art with a theme of "little terrariums." When I read all the details, I was so excited I couldn't stand it! What should I do? One large object in the center of the canvas? Multiple containers with multiple succulents? AHH! So many choices and thoughts flooded my brain that I started to struggle getting any of them out in my sketchbook.

Honestly, I let myself get intimidated by this whole contest and that emotion wormed its way around in my brain which prevented me from being productive. Then, I sat down at my computer and thought, "Why am I flipping out? This is far from the first time that I have created something on a deadline with a specific topic. Stop thinking about what other artists create and how well their work sells and just CREATE ALREADY!" One thing that I have learned throughout my years in design / art, people are drawn to the work that you are proud of. Art that you enjoyed creating. As Lilla says, people buy your joy! Of all the greeting cards I have designed, some of the best selling ones are ones that I loved working on. Why shouldn't I have this mentality with all my work?

With this revelation, it all just started flowing out. My goal with this contest was to be true to myself and my style. I like my style, why should I part from it? I wanted to create a portfolio piece that showcased my style and taste. So, this piece was for me . . . not necessarily Lilla. There have been some personal events in my life that have rendered me emotionally crippled and this assignment was incredibly therapeutic for me and I have turned a corner that I didn't think I could. When I completed this piece I felt so incredibly refreshed and motivated. I will never be able to thank Lilla in person for helping provide me with this platform to revitalize my mind, my heart and my life. However, I am approaching each new day as a chance to make something of myself and to become a better person.

When the first round winners were announced (50 designers of 1,000 moved on to the next round) I wasn't upset about not making it. I am still proud of my piece and am excited to finally show it to you!

  

Go check out the top 50 designers and see what beautiful pieces they created. Also check out all the other 950 designers. Best of luck to all the 50 working hard on their new assignment right now! Keep checking back at Lilla's Blog to see who makes it to the third round!

More on Society6

I have a promotion going on over at my Society6http://society6.com/StruthersStudios?promo=6ae17d page: free shipping WORLDWIDE!! Check it out, this special offer ends July 13 at midnight (Pacific Time).

I have a couple new patterns up with more to follow.

NeoCon

This past Monday, I got to travel to Chicago for NeoCon which is North America’s largest design exposition and conference for commercial interiors. My coworker and I drove down and walked all the showrooms for inspiration and ideas to use at work. Talk about visual overload! Suffice it to say, we were incredibly tired by the time we got back on the road.

We visited the Scott Group showroom and got to see some of our designs displayed in the new collections!

From the Eclipse Collection Carre II w/Silk

From the Eclipse Collection - Lena II w/ Silk

The Full Eclipse Collection

I tried to take pictures for inspiration, however, I know I missed so many things. So, here is a snippet of what we saw!

Momentum Textiles

Momentum Textiles

Rodolph

Interface

Kohler

Kohler

Kohler

Kohler

Designer Spotlight

I am honored to be featured on Scott Group's blog this month! Head over to get a little glimpse of my work and of course a cute picture of my baby Payton: Designer Spotlight

Summer

I can't believe it's June 1st already! Since my last post, which was the end of my Make Art That Sells class, I have been crazy busy with freelance work. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to design for multiple companies and flex my creative muscles.

I've been able to squeeze in a bit a family time as well . . . Memorial Day weekend was full of family, yummy food and lots of happy slobber from two sweet four legged babies!

Payton (who will be 7 in August) got to meet her 7 month old cousin Louie! He is already taller than she is, not quite as fast but full of P and V and the sweetest little guy.

I have more to post about, but for now Happy June 1st and have a great week!!
~ Courtney

Make Art That Sells - Week 5

This was the last week of Make Art That Sells part A and I'm not sure what I will do with myself until it starts back up in October.

This week was dedicated to the Gift Industry - SO MUCH FUN! Our assignment was to design a hyper-lush zipper pouch with images (photos, paintings or graphic) of something you collect. Well, I don't collect much . . . I actually prefer to throw things out because I can't handle clutter. When I asked my husband if he thought I collected anything, his response was laughter, then he told me, "You collect ideas in your head and inspiration for what you are going to be working on." So, that made me think, what do I think about the most when I am deciding on what to create?? FLOWERS!

Here are some images I have collected over the years

 

My sketchbook is full of florals but this is the sketch for this project (first with pencil and then with pen).

Then I scanned my drawing and brought it into Illustrator. I made my lines vector work and then started adding color.

Then I set it up in the correct format for a zipper pouch and created three key chains to match.

 

I am actually very happy with this . . . I would buy it for myself if I could!

Make Art That Sells - Week 4

My apologies for my lack of posts, I've been a bit busy. Between traveling to see family and working I haven't had the time to sit down and blog.

Last week in the Lilla Rogers Make Art That Sells class, the topic was Wall Art. I was very excited about this because my background is painting and I was bursting at the chance to sit down to paint again. The assignment was to paint / draw something (square format) and to have some type in it. We could use any neutral color, then we were all assigned two colors determined by our zodiac sign. Since I am a Pisces, I got red and yellow . . . honestly, I am not a fan of those colors. But the whole point of this class is to grow and push myself outside my comfort zone, so I stuck with them.

It is kind of weird how quickly my layout idea came to me. I knew the quote I wanted to use because I had used it in the past for a "Inspiration Board" I made for my Grandpa when he was dying. Then, I just went with it . . . turned on some music, opened the windows for some fresh air and just had fun!

My sketches to get my ideas out:

Then on to painting with acrylics.

My helper in all things . . . there were five babies in my studio before I finished.

The completed piece (19" x 19")

Here are some mockups of this painting in an environment.

Make Art That Sells - Week 2

Hello all and happy Tuesday! Last week in the Lilla Rogers Make Art That Sells course was all about Home Decor. The topic . . . Succulents. We were to create a series of 1-4 plates (square or round) that could be presented to an art director in the Home Decor market. Companies that look for this kind of work are Crate and Barrel, Land of Nod, Anthropologie, West Elm . . . you get the idea.

I decided to challenge myself a little bit on this assignment. If you have seen my work, I have a more refined and detailed style. One of my goals as an artist is to expand my style and be able to do a more "messy" look . . . less refined, not as many clean lines, more sketchy. This has seriously been a struggle for me and I am envious of those who can do it naturally. For example, my watercolors are very tight and clean and I would love to be able to sit down and just throw some paint down to create a flower without all the details but have more brush strokes. However, my OCD takes over and a mental block comes up full force and my end product is nothing like what my intentions were going into it.

So, I started thinking, why do I put so much pressure on myself to create like someone else? Why spend so much time trying to "create my style" when I already have a style? It hit me like a ton of bricks . . . I'm not messy! I like things clean and detailed and it comes through in my artwork. My version of "messy" will always come out clean because that is how my brain works!

With these thoughts flooding through my head, I started my assignment for Lilla. Starting out with some sketches in pencil and then going over them with black pen.

Then I started drawing just with pen on some marker paper. I did this because there is a certain finality while working with pen . . . no erasing!

When I finished these sketches, I scanned them into Illustrator and created vector art with them. Then I just sat back and let the creativity flow. This is the result . . . . the Courtney version of "messy."

Make Art That Sells Week 1

Week One is done . . . it went so fast! So, this week, in the Lilla Rogers Make Art That Sells course, we learned about the Bolt Fabric industry. Our assignment was to create a collection that we can use for our own portfolio. The theme given to us all was tropical fruit and Pyrex inspired kitchen dishes.

First I started with some sketches in my sketchbook to get my thoughts out.

After I worked in my sketchbook for a couple days, I sat down and started my digital creation. I have the main design and then some patterns that match in the theme and color scheme. I just uploaded it for Lilla to see and I am pretty happy with it. :)

Make Art That Sells e-course

The wait it almost over!!! Tomorrow classes start for Lilla Roger's Make Art That Sells Part A. I am so excited I can't stand it. Ok . . . . I am a bit nervous too, but the excitement makes it all worth it.

My studio is ready to see some creativity . . . .

And my helper is ready and waiting . . . .

Check back here over the next five weeks as I post assignments in process and final ones. Wish me luck!!!