Erica Hite

Merry and Bright

2009-12-10T10:04:00.001-08:00

I got around to designing a Christmas collection this year for Scrap Girls. I love the bright colors; they match the ornaments I made from my patterns.

Crafty patterns!

2009-10-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

CraftSimple eBooklet: Christmas Ornaments
CraftSimple eBooklet: Holiday Garland: Peace
CraftSimple eBooklet: Holiday Garland: Merry

I finally got some new things I've been working on into the boutique yesterday. There are other things in the works, but I wanted to get some holiday projects out plenty of time before the holidays. I like to keep busy during the day, even when watching my son. I'm unable to get to my computer while he's awake, but I can sometimes grab a hands-on project and he doesn't object too much.

Isn't it funny how if you give your child all of your attention, they will play happily by themselves, but if you try to do something and turn your back on them for a minute, they want all of your attention? Ah, well.

Here are some images of my pattern samples. I donated some of my prototypes to the Sanderling Waldorf school we've been going to for our parent-child class. They had a craft festival in November.

ScrapSimple Club in the Boutique!

2009-10-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Cabinet of Curiosities

ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Specimen Jars

Christy VanderWall and Armi Custudio did some beautiful layouts for me using the club items.

Redefine

2009-10-02T20:59:00.002-07:00

I turned my alpha art from my new Redefine Collection into a brush set. I love this hand drawn and random style.

Doing something for me

2009-09-25T22:22:00.000-07:00

Let's not look at how many months it's been since I've last posted. Hey, I told you not to look!

Yesterday, I started a new online class called In the Fish Bowl, taught by Marisa at Creative Thursday. And this is why I have resurrected this blog. I've thought about this little abandoned blog almost every day. While my life is so busy at the moment, I feel out of touch with people I used to talk to, such as other fellow designers. I always wonder how other moms juggle writing on a blog, staying at home with their kids, and finding creative time.

Tonight, I'm going to post my answers to the questions Marisa gave us "fishies" for the first class. On a side note, I have to say that I have always been hesitant about revealing too much of myself on such a public blog. This is a brave step for me. Here goes...

What are you working on when you create?
Might be sketching or rendering in the computer a new digital scrapbook kit, designing sewing patterns, or stitching up something that I designed.

What are you working on when you lose all sense of time?
Designing, sketching, and sewing (a tiny bit). Sometimes I like to listen or watch tv beside my computer while creating. Usually I'm not concepting at that point, but working on the computer or by hand where I know what I'm doing without too much thought.

What does success mean to you? What does it look like to you?
I think it's mostly about feeling valued. Or maybe like I'm contributing something. I also like to be able to be independent and know I can provide for myself. I know I'm not supposed to mention money, but I saw my mother have the incredible challenge of raising me by herself and what that entailed, and I think that it is ingrained in me to make sure I'm not in dire straights. I've finally achieved the ability to work from home and not have to answer to a boss or have to go into an office to work. I can design and create whatever my heart desires. That says success to me. I have a young toddler right now though, so I don't feel very successful at the moment. My life and "work" feel very on hold. I feel on hold. I wish I didn't feel like the amount I output creatively was a direct relation to how successful I am. That's something I battle with every day.

How do you feel about yourself in relationship to your work right now?
I haven't felt like I have nearly enough time to do anything. That's a fact of my life right now. Some days I'm lucky to get near pencil and paper or my computer. I hate to say it, but I'm not so happy on those days. Being an introvert and a creative person, I'm much happier when I can find some time to myself to recharge. Designing and being creative also recharge me, and I feel like it's a valuable tool in my life that can relax me like nothing else. Of course, on the flip side, the beginning stages of my creative process where I'm feeling intense angst and self-doubt, I feel like I'm not capable of designing another thing. I worry that my previous successes were a fluke and the well has surely run dry. That's something I would love to change about how I work.

Are you feeling confident or a little vulnerable, deflated, inspired? Doubting yourself or sure of yourself?
As I mentioned above, I do feel doubt quite frequently. I feel quite inspired at times too, though.

Well, that's it for me right now. I'd better get to bed before the little one wakes up.

Ahhh, nuts

2009-02-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, nuts. Or nurts, as my mom would sometimes say. Or is it spelled nurtz? Well, anyway...sometimes projects (I should really call them experiments) do not always go as planned, or envisioned. Oh well. I learned from my mistakes. Mistakes are good things, right?

I learned not to use stabilizer as a stitch holder when it's the kind that won't tear away.

I learned that I should do a SAMPLE first, especially before making dozens of French knots on aforementioned non-tear away stabilizer.

I learned to print out a color SAMPLE of my design on plain paper before printing onto expensive printable fabric, especially when there's a big possibility that the printer heads are dirty or I'm out of an ink color.

I learned to make sure I buy the correct ink cartridges for my printer, especially before opening up the plastic shrink bag and trying to shove it into the open ink cartridge slot.

I learned that sometimes a sewing machine is better than my impatient hand stitches.

I learned leaving a white border on my printed fabric design for stitching up a seam is a good idea.

Whew. Lots of education going on here.

Oh, and I learned not to give up, even if things don't go as well as planned. I am not necessarily a nincompoop because I "failed" the first time. Back to the drawing board. Or stitching board.

Creative Spirit

2009-02-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

February is here and my new club is in the boutique! I loved working on this one. I was very inspired when concepting this kit. Thanks to my husband staying home for a week on vacation to take care of our little son, I had some time to tackle this. Normally, my days are so fragmented, I'm lucky to get any sketching time.

My main inspirations were folk art, Mexican cut paper, and milagros.

You can sign up for the club here.

Also, here's a glimpse of the mood board I put together for this (for inspiration while working) and a few sketches.

New Stuff!

2009-01-25T17:53:00.000-08:00

I had to get some folk art out of my system, and I did that with this Lovey Dovey Collection Biggie. I actually used yellow! I never used to use yellow in much of anything. Yellow has always been a color I stay away from for some reason. I once had a yellow shirt. Didn't like it on me. I love yellow ochre though, on the walls, in washed color. Ramble ramble.

I also made some digital scrapbook paper templates to coordinate. And at Christy VanderWall's suggestion, I made some a set of digital scrapbooking styles.

ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Lovey Dovey

ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Emboss 5401

And lo and behold, I actually did a layout!

In the above layout, I used:
ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Emboss 5401
ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Paper Textures 4902
ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Stitching and Holes 4101
Brush Set: Sketchbook Dotted Biggie
Just the Basics Paper Biggie
Dynamic Brush Set: Doodle Borders 5401
ScrapSimple Alpha Templates: Old Chipboard
Bouncing Baby Boy Collection
Alphabet Soup Boy Collection
ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Photo Transfer Frames
ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Photos that Pop 1801

my little guy

2009-01-08T08:24:00.001-08:00

8 months!

Beautiful art

2009-01-08T08:08:00.001-08:00

I sent a link to my husband before Christmas telling him how wonderful Elsa Mora's art was in her Etsy shop. Check out her sold items if there isn't anything in the shop. He took the link as the hint it was and gave me a print of hers for Christmas. Isn't it divine? She has a gorgeous blog and she gives a lot of information on papercutting as well.

Designing = Happiness

2008-12-29T21:26:00.000-08:00

I'm not saying I can't be happy if I'm not designing, but things always look much brighter in my life when I am. What a funny sentence. I don't usually have much time to design every day, but I've been trying to do something when I can. I love when I can put pencil to paper and sketch something new. But I've never been one who sketches every day or sketches for leisure. I've always sketched with a purpose. Probably has to do with my being a perfectionist. So annoying! I hope I can instill in my son the urge to create without fear and without too much perfectionism. Of course, if he doesn't want to do art, that's fine too.

This is an older layout, but it resonates with me right now.

Oh, hey, that's my avatar head on that paper body.

Up at the Villa products in the boutique

2008-12-28T09:49:00.000-08:00

While I'm working on some Valentine's Day themed products, I put some ScrapSimple things in the boutique. Thanks to Christy VanderWall for designing the layouts for them.

More positive outlook

2008-12-26T09:04:00.001-08:00

I was grumpy last night when I wrote my previous blog post. My husband had the idea of putting the ham in a pot or pan, and I worked something out. And I put a jelly roll pan over the scalloped potatoes! lol. I guess we made due with what we had. Dinner was delicious!

I'm looking forward to writing my resolutions for the next year. One of them will be my intention to have a more positive outlook.

Here's a fun website I found the other day. Pretty neat if you like clean modern design. Grain Edit

Holiday dilemmas

2008-12-25T15:34:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve
OK, Hungarian meatballs for dinner. Ummm, but we have a serious ant problem right now, and everything is out of the cabinets and there are dead ants all over the counter and crawling around and the dishes need to be put away. OK, well then let's just order Chinese and watch a movie.

Christmas Day
OK, glazed ham with scalloped potatoes and asparagus for dinner. Hmmm, wait, where is the aluminum foil?! Quick, call the grocery store down the street and see if they're open. Nope. Well, I don't want the ham to dry out like last year's.
OK, let's scrap our Christmas dinner idea and just go with the Christmas Eve dinner idea of Hungarian meatballs. Shoot, I put the ground turkey back in the freezer last night because we didn't make it. Well, I'll just take it out and thaw it in the microwave. Argh. The paper is stuck so fast to the frozen ground turkey. I'll put the whole darn thing on the plate and put it in the microwave. Set it to 5 minutes to start with, on power level 4. Start to pull out all the ingredients. Wait a minute! Where are the red bell peppers?! Oh for crying out loud. We forgot to buy them at the store. What are we going to eat now? Oh well. Pull out the ground turkey from the microwave, peel off the paper and stick it into a ziplock bag for later. I'm heating up some leftover hot and sour soup. Hmph.

December ScrapSimple Club!

2008-12-17T15:14:00.000-08:00

I do get on the computer sometimes to design, and here's some proof. I know I already scared away my blog readers from my lack of posts (OK, "scared away" is not the right term. Maybe abandoned? I was/am seriously preoccupied.), but I'm back. Months later! lol.

I think I've now accepted the fact that I cannot do everything I want to do in one day. Or maybe in a week. (Or maybe in a month.) And sometimes that just paralizes me. I have so many ideas, and my desk is so cluttered, and I practically hyperventilate with all the things I want to do. Sigh. I overwhelm myself too much. And I have to slow down. Take a deep breath. Make a list. Prioritize. Tackle things one at a time. serious adjustments have taken place in my life. I have resisted things are from the day my son was born. Right now, I'm grateful for his preciousness and the joy of him in my life, and I get other things done bit by bit. And somehow, I can get stuff done.

Anywho, I had the pleasure of designing the ScrapSimple Club for December with Theresa Kavouras. It's available in the Scrap Girls boutique until January 15th.

ScrapSimple Layer Your Own Brushes: Antiqued Photo Frame

ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Antiqued Bookplates

Brush Set: Watermark

My Little Pumpkin

2008-09-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

Almost 5 months old!!!

Lucian at 3 months

2008-08-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

What can I say? I've got a baby now. It's not that I don't want to make new posts right now, but I have my hands full. Here is a recent picture of the new man in my life...

Coming up for air

2008-06-07T06:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, I had a baby! Yes, that's why I haven't updated my blog regularly for months. Yes, I have new things in the Scrap Girls boutique.

But here's my favorite new thing, and his name is Lucian...

Minutes after he was born

Days after he was born

Dynamic Brushes!

2008-03-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

Scrap Girls has a fabulous new product line: Dynamic Brushes! These little suckers are cool! I had to try my hand at doing a couple.

Looking back at courage

2008-03-16T09:57:00.000-07:00

I was looking through my files this morning as I prepare to write an article for Scrap Girls later this month. I remember this layout and what I wrote about it and felt like sharing it here.

Courage

I'm sitting here the day before this Designer's Life is due and I've been wondering what on earth to write about. Maybe my life isn't that interesting or I can't seem to think of anything interesting to tell you. Is my life boring? Uneventful? Or does every day that passes mimic each day that has passed? It feels that time is marked most obviously by either really bad events or really happy events. The days in between can blend together and nothing might stand out as interesting. Some people might call these everyday days the "same old same old".

So perhaps to find something interesting to tell you, I have to look to the past. Maybe I should tell you the story of why I have a tattoo on my arm.

I did not always desire a tattoo. I might have seen them on other people and admired them for their confidence in expressing themselves in a very outward way, but it wasn't for me. I think I was always used to blending in and not wanting to stick out too much. My views changed a little bit in the summer of 2001. I was in a long-term relationship, a nine year relationship, that was unraveling at the seams and that was causing more pain than good for my health. I found myself wanting to do things but I had always been afraid to do them. I lived in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, a safe place to be. I had a great job at an excellent design firm, on the North Shore, and I drove 45 minutes in the morning and an hour and a half in the evening to get to and from work. My life felt safe, because I had a good job, and even though it wasn't rock-solid, I had a relationship.

But after awhile, something inside me screamed for a change. I felt like I was trapped in my safe way of living my life. Because certain things felt safe, I wasn't getting out there and living my life to the fullest. I didn't feel like I was experiencing all that I should be in my 20's. And so I got up the courage to set about making some changes.

I severed my long-term relationship. I felt if we couldn't reconcile our differences and if we weren't going to get married, then it didn't make sense to prolong the inevitable. I talked to a girl at work about my desire to find an apartment and get a roommate, and she was on board to do the same thing. We decided to go apartment hunting in Evanston, and also to try and see what was available in Chicago. Now this was a big step for me, because I was always afraid to drive into Chicago alone. I saw those crazy, busy highways as so intimidating and the city as so large, I never got up the courage to go there by myself.

The next thing I knew, I was leaving my safe apartment in the suburbs and moving into a third floor walk-up in Chicago. I loved the place. It didn't have air conditioning, and it was unbelievably hot in the summer, but it had lovely hard wood floors, and lots of space. This meant of course, that I had to drive to and from the city every day to get to my job, and then hunt down a nice, little, hard-to-find spot on the street to park every night, but that was OK by me. There was a bus stop a block away that took me to my favorite spots in the city to hang out and shop. I ended up meeting lots of new people and making lots of new friends because I moved into the city, a place I had even feared just to drive to by myself. I had such a fantastic time.

I found that summer so liberating that all of a sudden, for some unknown reason, I had an unquenchable desire to remember that time in my life with, get this, a tattoo! Now, why on earth would I want to do that? I don't know exactly why, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. And I knew exactly what I wanted it to be. Well, I found a great place in Elgin, Illinois, I walked right on in, and found just what I was looking for: the word courage in kanji.

Sometimes I look at my arm and wonder if I should have gotten a tattoo, and ask myself if I regret it. But I don't feel regret. I'm not disappointed in myself. It was my way of remembering a time that I should never forget. Sometimes it is hard to find the courage to do what we need to do, to make the right changes in our life, to get out of bad situations, or to do something that we're afraid of. I'm not talking about the courage to do something dangerous, or life-threatening. I'm simply talking about the courage to do things that our souls are crying out for us to do, or merely to do something that we've been wanting to do for years, but haven't given ourselves permission to do. It is so easy to do the same old same old every day. There might be a place you have always wanted to travel to, or a friend you haven't talked to for years because the relationship ended badly and you would like to make amends, or something you would to learn or go back to school for but you're afraid that time has passed. Sometimes we need to find that courage to do something and it evades us. I'm happy to have this reminder on my upper arm, because right now I'm feeling like I'm ready for something new in my life, and it is in fact on its way. But that story, I will have to tell you about next time, because I have now exceeded my 500-900 word requirement for my article.

Warning! Pregnancy talk. Avert your eyes if you do not want to read about pregnancy.

2008-02-12T09:14:00.000-08:00

I've been reading up a lot lately about pregnancy and giving birth. I found that I absolutely must have a doula in labor and delivery with me. A lot of people I've spoke too don't even know what a doula is. Here's a great website to find out more: Dona International, and there is a list of certified doulas to contact as well. I have an interview with a doula tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it.

On my possibly-to-be-doula's website, I found this awesome link to pregnancy podcasts, PregTASTIC Pregnancy Podcasts. All of the ladies and experts actually reside here in San Diego, so it's fun to hear about places near me. There are over 80 podcasts, ranging from a half an hour to an hour! The podcasts are pretty entertaining and really well done. I love being able to sketch and design while I'm listening to something. When I used to have my work area arranged with a tv next to me, I'd watch movies during the day while working. While not the best habit in the world, it was mostly for something to listen to and feed my brain while doing things on the computer or by hand that didn't take much thought. Is anyone else a multi-tasker like that? Do you like books on tape/CD as well while you're working?

How long has it been?

2008-02-02T05:36:00.000-08:00

You know, I think one of the reasons why I don't update my blog so often is because I'm still unsure of how much of my personal life I want to reveal to the world. Of course, the world in this context probably is a tiny handful of people, but you know what I mean. So I might as well confess to something that's been going on in my life for 6 months now.

I'm going to have a baby boy! Come Spring. Just 3 months to go. Well, OK, so now I can just get on with it and update this blog. That is if I haven't lost everyone because of my blog's neglect.

Hmmm. Well, not too much else happening in my life except that biggie. I've put up a lot of products recently in the Scrap Girls boutique. It still remains to this day the best dream job ever and I can't imagine doing anything else right now.

Colds suck

2007-12-14T20:26:00.000-08:00

I've been laying on the sofa since Tuesday, going through countless squares of tissues and slurping lots and lots of hot tea. I'm so behind on getting ready for Christmas! I still need to make and send out cards and get more presents. So if you're a recipient of any of these things, I apologize if they're not on time. I'm hoping I can play catch up this weekend.

I let Christmas sneak up on me every year. Starting next year, I intend to get going on gifts and cards early November. No more of this last minute stuff!

New stuff in the boutique:

Today is about

2007-12-02T14:26:00.000-08:00

Today is about enjoying the sunshine streaming through the windows, wearing my hubby's big warm slippers around the house, and making a yummy salad for lunch. There's nothing I love more than fresh salads.

I made the salad with organic baby greens, tomatoes, beets, red carrot shavings, kidney beans, cheddar cheese, and green olives. I made the dressing with 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, fresh ground pepper, sea salt, little bit of crushed garlic, 1 T or so of dijon mustard, 1/2 t or so of paprika, and oregano.

I also have a new font in the boutique now. Watch for it in the Scrap Girls newsletter. It's my very first font! I've always been curious about making fonts. While I was looking at the back of my moleskine planner last week, I saw that I had written down some goals for 2007. One of them was to design fonts. Well, there's one more goal I can cross off my list!

What I've been up to...

2007-11-05T21:24:00.000-08:00

While I was updating my laptop with the new OS X, I figured I should get on my blog and update it already!

Here are some new things I've been working on and are in the Scrap Girls boutique.

Skin Deep

2007-08-24T00:47:00.000-07:00

I just finished getting a new kit in the boutique. It feels like it has been awhile since I've had a new collection in the store. I had so much fun drawing the embellishments and word art for this.

The above card uses the Skin Deep Collection Biggie, Mandy Steward's Urban Gazette Collection, Rock and Roll Collection, Diane Miller's Tats Tribal Brush Set and Melissa Renfro's Splatter Brush Sets.

Scrapbooking Tips Calendar

2007-08-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

Awhile ago, I submitted some artwork to Scrapbook Dimensions to be published in a calendar. That calendar is now available here for pre-order.

Here's a preview.

Oh for goodness sake

2007-08-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

What do you do when you haven't posted to your blog in months, and you're so embarrassed by the lack of posting that you don't post anything at all? It's so easy to get out of the habit and be distracted with work and projects. But today, I picked up a special magazine by Somerset Studio, called Artful Blogging: Visually Inspiring Online Journals, at the bookstore, and now I feel like I should really get back into updating this thing. So here's a quick post of a couple of recent layouts I've done of my hubby and some new products. Gotta start somewhere, right?

For this, I used: ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Enchanted 2 and Stained, Gathered Beauty and Aged Frames Emb, Make a Wish 1 Brush Set, SS Emb Tmplt: Flowers, AYO Beads, SS Tools - Actions: Photos that Pop B&W 1801.

For this, I used ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Scratched, Tats, and Stained, ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Photos that Pop Funky 1801, Dear Diary and Rock and Roll Collection, Chalkboard Embellishments, Oodles of Doodles: Flourishes, Paint Stroke, Pink Ink and Tats Brush Sets.

For this, I used ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Clothing Labels, Tats, Paint Stroke, Nessa Brush Set, and Oodles of Doodles: Hearts and Stars, SS Paper Templates: Animal Prints and Enchanted 2, Inked and Denim Collection Mini, Rock and Roll Collection, SS Tools - Actions: Photos that Pop B&W 1801.

Learning to Draw and Paint

2007-06-21T00:48:00.000-07:00

Most of my life, I've admired other artist's work and wished with all my heart that I could be an artist too. I've always had friends and boyfriends, and my husband, who've been artists. I've always seen them as exceptionally talented, and have seen myself lacking somehow. I've had comments from a couple of old bosses that I was not an artist or that I couldn't draw or paint, and that I should leave that sort of thing to other people. But it always frustrated me that I could so easily be written off, that I wasn't allowed to learn to get better. I always had an ache in my heart that I was missing out, that I was denying myself something I wanted to do. I guess it's sort of how I feel when I hear a violin or oboe solo. I think back to when I used to play music and how I wished I still did. I think it's the pang of regret, that horrible feeling in the heart.

I suppose we really have to just jump off of that cliff of self-doubt and submerge ourselves into the unknown to be an artist. I don't suppose you could give me a little push? How do I unlearn all the rules in school about coloring in the lines. I'd like to forget there are lines in the first place. I think being an artist is about letting go of the fear. Fear of failure, fear of being scrutinized, and fear of exposing who we really are to others. The first step is to sidestep self-doubt, the opinions of myself and others.

The only frustrating thing I've discovered on this journey is that I don't necessarily have the patience to learn how to draw people correctly, or at least to be scientific about it. The way I don't enjoy numbers and math, I don't enjoy measuring and drawing guidelines to place the proportions of the face correctly. I'll try and get more patient with that.

I've been learning that I'm more comfortable with painting than I am drawing. I like smooshing around the paint and making the brush strokes conform to the shape I'm trying to achieve.

I'm taking a couple of art classes again (Studio 2nd Street). It's been awhile. I was discouraged a couple of years ago from lack of support at an old job and an old boss. But that's another story. I've left behind that negativity and difficult situation. I decided to give it a go again. Since I've been working at home now, what other excuses do I have not to improve my skills?

It's Friday!

2007-05-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

You know, Friday doesn't always feel like Friday these days. I know it's because I work from home. Work can spill over to the weekend, and it doesn't have to end. I'm not complaining though, don't get me wrong. I love what I do, and therefore I can be found in front of the computer more than anywhere else. For the past few weeks, I was working on the Scrap Girls club. That's all I allowed myself to think of, dream of, and work on. Everything else was pushed away. And now that I'm done, I'm overwhelmed with all of the things I could do next. So why is it when I have so many options, it's even harder to figure out what to do?

I easily get distracted. I started the other weekend sprucing things up in this house. This house we've been renting hasn't changed much at all since we've moved in. Very blah. Now we've moved things around and I've hung (OK, my hubby did) these really cool fabric panels from the ceiling to divide off my work area from the living room. I can see through the fabric, but it affords me a bit of privacy. Check it out...

I've even put up a new shelf to stash my stuff, and I've been replacing the old drapes (yes, drapes, with those nasty hooks) with fresh white curtains. But now I've sort of lost interest and I've left the place in a state of disarray and limbo. The computer calls...

More Dear Diary

2007-04-28T00:32:00.000-07:00

I've started to add some ScrapSimple versions of the Dear Diary art. I can't stop wanting to play with scanned ink drawings.

2007-04-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

I'd like to interrupt my irregularly scheduled blogging to post about something important. It may be a sensitive subject to some. I don't know. But it's important. As I'm getting older and I think about even the remotest (is that a word?) possibility of having kids, things like global warming become even more alarming to me. It's something I've been seriously pondering lately.

I'm not going to be naggy or moan and groan about it, but I'd like to post a link to some things we can do about it. I found these suggestions here.

A few easy things we can do is to change out our lightbulbs with fluorescent ones, adjust our thermostat to be 2 degrees colder in winter and 2 degrees warmer in summer, replace air conditioner and furnace filters, use less hot water, wrap your water heater, use a clothesline instead of the dryer, unplug appliances when not in use, recycle and buy goods using recycled materials, buy organic, support local farmers markets, buy and use energy saving appliances, and plant trees. OK, that's more than a few and there are more things to do, but the above suggestions sound easy enough, don't they?

Back to my irregularly scheduled blogging.

Dear Diary

2007-04-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

I have a new kit and some coordinating things for sale. The entire kit and parts started with all hand drawings that I inked and scanned in. I really wanted a kit that would be fun to use for journaling or would have that doodled-in-the-margins look. I don't think it turned out like what I originally envisioned (if I did have an original vision, lol) but I like it! It kind of has that diy, 70's vibe to it. I've included things like highlighter lines and underlines, and even photo bands that can be applied to photos. There's even an embellishment of an "official photo id" that you can add your picture to. I thought it would be fun to have a silly photo id with a goofy picture.

Some of the papers are obscured, but there's a cool drawing of a tree blowing in the wind and there's a little owl on its branch. Another paper has drawings of clouds. I made this kit with the sort of drawings I used to do for t-shirt designs.

Thank you to Mandy Steward for the idea for the Chalkboard Embellishments and to my husband for the name.

I've started making some layouts about what I dream or hope for. You know, like visualization or dream boards. I went through some magazines and cut out pictures of homes that I liked the look of or studios I would love to work in. I think realizing or finding our dreams are easier if we know what it is we want. I have a lot more of these types of layouts to do, but it's a start.

Sometimes when I do layouts, I'll scrap about positive things, like my husband and my relationship. Even if things are touchy at the time, I'll journal positive words and use happy pictures. It helps me to remember the things I'm grateful for and that any briefly yucky times will pass.

I've been a bad bad blogger

2007-03-22T16:06:00.000-07:00

Does anybody still read this blog? I haven't written anything for months. I lost my counter when I switched to the new Blogger, and now I have no idea if anyone has been here. I'm busy working away on some big projects, but they won't be seen right away. In the meantime, here are some recent things I've designed for Scrap Girls.

I love this photo of Jason and me when we went to Disneyland about a month ago. We had such a fun time. This was the very first time I had ever been to Disneyland, and honestly, I have never cared if I ever go. But I'm glad I did go, because it was a blast. I have lots of photos to prove we were there and we were smiling the whole time.

I had to shoot a picture of Jason while he was sculpting himself. He set up a big mirror to look at himself. When Jason picked up the hand mirror though, I thought it would make an amazing picture of his face in the mirror reflected in the mirror.

This is a great picture of Jason too. We were waiting in line to get into Space Mountain at Disneyland. The wall was painted a cool metallic silver and it seemed like a great backdrop for a portrait. Hey, we had to kill time, right?

And there's more!

2007-01-14T14:11:00.000-08:00

This is a group of my latest baby scrapbooking products. I wanted to create a sort of scrappy record book for parents to be able to document pregnancy through baby's first year. I wrote book text and included lines with the templates so that the pages could be completely designed and then printed out. Before putting the pages within the album sleeves, all that needs to be done is to write in the information next to the journaling prompts. Or a font can be used and text can be written in using a graphics software program. I wanted these templates to be as customizable as possible. They're perfect for both boys and girls and all the parts can be moved around or removed, including the text or the lines.

The book is broken into 3 parts because the pages go through all the big milestones and include major topics that parents might want to remember later. There are 30 pages in all, across the 3 parts, and once completed, will fill up an entire scrapbook with your memories of having a baby.

The 3 layout sets are available in both letter size and 12x12 size and also regular and commercial licenses.

ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates - Layered: BabyBook 1 12 x 12

ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates - Layered: BabyBook 2 12 x 12

ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates - Layered: BabyBook 3 12 x 12

ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates - Layered: BabyBook 1 8.5 x 11

ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates - Layered: BabyBook 2 8.5 x 11

ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates - Layered: BabyBook 3 8.5 x 11

Even MORE baby scrapbooking products

2007-01-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

Is there a trend here? What's with all these baby products? I'll be working on other thems now for some variety, but I wanted to share some recent goodies that are now in the Scrap Girls boutique.

ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Precious 1

ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Precious 2

ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Precious 1

ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Precious 2

Been too long

2007-01-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

I got distracted by the holidays and haven't blogged for almost a month now. Bad Erica. The holidays were a little dreary because my husband left 2 weeks to be with family back home. His grandmother passed away and he wanted to help his mom out and be there for family. Tickets were crazy expensive as it was approaching the holidays and at the last minute. I stayed behind here and held down the fort.

Being here for two weeks over the holidays ended up being more difficult than I expected. I thought that I would be able to sit and work on lots of fun projects and enjoy the quiet and solitude. But I suppose it's one thing to choose solitude for a day or so and another to have it, like it or not, for two weeks, without any friends or family to talk to because they're all out of town. I ended up watching lots of tv and movies. I watched series like Battlestar Galactica on DVD in a single day. I found a different perspective on Christmas this year. Because I didn't have the people I love and care about near to me during the holidays, I missed and appreciated them more. I discovered I'm not as independent as I like to think I am.

Needless to say, when my husband came home, I was oh so happy and grateful to have him here again.

Baby Kits

2006-12-15T20:27:00.000-08:00

I finally decided to design baby products again. Here are the newest kits and templates in the boutique.
Precious Girl Collection Biggie

The album cover below uses the Precious Girl Collection Biggie, Retro Boy, Blossoms & Blooms Winter and Fall, and Quilted Embellishments, SS Paper Templates: Ratty Tatty, SS Tools - Styles: Punch Out 5401, and Thoughtful Font.

The layout below uses the Precious Girl Collection Biggie, Edging Brushes 3 and Definitions: Family Brush Set, Just the Basics and Silkscreen Solid Paper, Intuition and Retro All Girl Embellishments.

Precious Boy Collection Biggie

I made the below album cover with the Precious Boy Collection Biggie, SS Tools - Actions: Photos that Pop 1801, Thoughtful Font, Urban Influence Embellishments.

For the card below I used the Precious Boy Collection Biggie, ScrapSimple Layer Your Own Photo Tag, Gypsy Boots Embellishments and Thoughtful Font.

Toile and Vellum

2006-12-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about making toile patterns for a year now. I looked everywhere for toile reference and to see what's available out there for designers. I couldn't find what I was looking for. As a result, I decided to have a go at making the patterns myself. I really like how these turned out and the nostalgic and vintage feel of them.

ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Toile Children Mini

ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Toile Children Mini 2

This layout uses Toile Children Mini2 Paper Templates, Grow Collection, Street Grunge Transparency by Brandy Hackman, Thoughtful Font by Amanda McGee, SSTools Styles: Vellum5401, Actions: PhotosthatPop1801 by Mandy Steward, Lacy Borders Embellishment Mini by Valerie Randall, Blossoms & Blooms Fall (recolored) by Brandy Hackman, and Quilted Embellies, and Edging Brushes1 by Lori Cook.

I also have been wanting to do a vellum style for so long, I finally finished this set and got it up in the store. I tweaked these little things a lot to get them to interact just the way I wanted them to. In the past, if I wanted a translucent look, I'd just take a white layer and change the opacity, but these are much more interesting. There are some fun textures and patterns in these styles and they have a nice soft edge to separate from whatever is underneath, like paper or embellishments.

ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Vellum 5401

I love indie designers

2006-11-24T19:57:00.000-08:00

I get more excited about handmade things sold by indie designers than I do for mass-produced goods. Indie designers put a lot of love (and time) into what they do. Since it's Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, I want to post about some nice online boutiques that sell great handmade goods. And you won't find me out today shopping with everyone else. I think I'd rather poke around on my laptop while shopping online. I'm feeling under the weather today anyway. I'm not getting sick, I'm not getting sick!

Here are some of my favorite indie designer shops:
(I used to sell some necklaces at these few places, but haven't done much jewelry design lately. Lately, in this context, means in about a year).
Day-Lab
Copacetique
Cut and Paste

ishopindie
Fred Flare
Bittersweet Genevieve

Oh, and duh, I should definitely mention Etsy.com.

Wait, There's More

2006-11-24T19:32:00.000-08:00

If you like the art of the Nessa Collection Biggie, you'll like these new Nessa Paper Templates and Nessa Brushes I've put up in the Scrap Girls boutique.

ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Nessa - Biggie

Nessa Brush Set - Biggie

For this layout I used: ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Nessa, Letterpress and Framology Embellishments, Paint Stroke Brushes, Urban Influence Alphas, SS Tools: Actions - Photos that Pop 1801.

For this layout I used: Nessa, Burst, Sketchbook Pencil and Sketchbook Dotted Brushes, Friendship Alphas, SS Paper Templates: Nessa, Cherish Collection Biggie, Gypsy Boots and Fancy Stitches Embellishments, SS Tools: Actions - Photos that Pop 1801.

Happy Hanukkah

2006-11-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

Well, no it's obviously not Hanukkah time yet, but I've created a collection mini for those that celebrate Hanukkah. It's a fun kit to use to make greeting cards too. I love the rich colors and textures in this kit and the glittery details. I just got these up in the store today.

Happy Hanukkah Collection Mini

Happy Hanukkah Embellishment Mini

Happy Hanukkah Alpha Mini

Happy Hanukkah Paper Mini

This card uses: Happy Hanukkah Collection Mini, ScrapSimple Card Templates: Square Biggie, Trendy Dude Solid and Gypsy Boots Paper, SS Tools: Styles - Stitch 1801 and Punch Out 5401.

This card uses: Happy Hanukkah Collection Mini and ScrapSimple Card Templates: 4x6 Photo Greetings.

This layout uses: Happy Hanukkah Collection Mini, ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates: Scrollwork, ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates: Quadrants, SS Tools: Styles - Stitch 1801 and Glitter Metals 4102 (recolored).

Advent Calendars

2006-11-16T12:34:00.000-08:00

I used to love it when my mom would get me a new advent calendar every year. I'd get so excited to open a window every morning. My mom also had made a quilted advent calendar that hung on the wall every December. Each day had a piece of candy in the pocket.

I couldn't get it out of my head that I wanted to do an advent calendar project myself. So this weekend, I hunkered down at my computer and came up with these. I put together 2 mockups and I was so surprised at how fast and easy they were to do. And I don't know where the time went when I was putting them together. It was like being a kid again, cutting and gluing. I've been used to doing most things on the computer day in and day out, and it was nice change to make something by hand. Both the pre-designed set, A Joyful Season Advent Calendar, and the template set, ScrapSimple Craft Templates: Advent Calendar (commercial too), are available now at Scrap Girls. Detailed instructions with screenshots specific to each product are included with the files.

Blog Banners!

2006-11-14T18:58:00.000-08:00

OK, how ironic is it that I created blog banner templates and put them up in the store last week, and only now did I actually add my own banner to my website. The one I'm using now is one of the examples I made for the templates. I'm probably going to change it soon though, because I don't think I want to stare at myself everytime I load this page. I should add though that the predominant product that I used in the banner design was Sarah Batdorf's Heart in Hand Papers.

It was Keri Schueller's idea to do the blog banners and she was nice enough to ask me if I wanted to design some too.

I used the instructions Keri found on Lindsay Teague's website to add my banner.

Here are some of Keri's new blog banner products:
ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates - Blog Banners: Centered

ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates - Blog Banners: Embrace

And here are some of mine:
ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates - Blog Banners: Assorted

ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates - Blog Banners: Paris

Happy Friday

2006-11-10T21:03:00.000-08:00

I have no idea where the week went. I barely remember what happened, I was so busy trying to catch up on projects.

Over at Scrap Girls, during the two year anniversary celebration, there was a neverending story contest. A story was started on the message boards, and each person would post a piece of the story. The story went on and on and on. The winner, who was chosen randomly, won a gift certificate and a kit named after them. Well, I got to design the kit!

The lovely customer who won is Nessa, and here's the kit I made for her. She was sweet enough to let me use some of her great photos for the layouts.

Nessa Collection Biggie

Nessa Paper Biggie

Good night, or good morning?

2006-11-09T00:36:00.000-08:00

Well it seems I'm back to having insomnia again. I try to get to sleep by midnight or so, but my brain won't shut off! I think once it starts cooling off here, (it's been over 90 degrees during the day!) I'm going to start taking walks around the neighborhood again. I don't want to become this crazed person working at my computer for days on end because I can't sleep.

I've started reading this delectable book, The Time Traveler's Wife. Just from reading the first few pages, I knew it was something special. The book is so unique and such a joy to read. If you happen to come across it in a bookstore, read just the prologue and you'll have to keep reading. Thanks for the recommendation, Mom!

A Joyful Season

2006-11-05T11:34:00.000-08:00

I'm so happy I got a Christmas collection in before going to NY last week. My husband had an art show that opened on Halloween, and we decided to fly out for a little bit while staying with Mollie, our cousin, in Brooklyn. We had a great time, but came home with sore feet from all the walking. I'll post some pictures from the trip soon.

A Joyful Season Collection Biggie

Layer Your Own: Nutcracker

Layer Your Own: Nutcracker

Trick or Treat!

2006-11-05T11:10:00.000-08:00

OK, it's not Halloween anymore, but I wanted to post the products and layouts I made for Halloween. You can't call my kit cute, but I really like the spookiness of it.

It's November already!

2006-11-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

Oh my, so it's been a month since I've posted. Well, I could say I've been busy, but rather than make excuses, I'm going to do better at keeping up. And I'm going to sum up what's been happening so far.

So what happened last month? I was very fortunate to participate in Scrap Girl's October club. I created the Bookworm Collection Biggie along with other various products. I was thinking of my mom when I designed the kit. She is very much a bookworm and the most well-read person I've ever known. I got her to scan and e-mail lots of wonderful old family photos and had so much fun creating layouts with them.

This is my mom as a teenager. Wow! I think she's reading a cookbook, maybe The Joy of Cooking?

Here's my mom with her mother. I wanted this layout to look like an open book with the marbled paper as the endpaper.

These are my grandparents with Aunt Susie.

This is my Grandpa Faulkner in his Navy uniform.

Quilted

2006-10-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

Another new collection I put together last week is Quilted. I also have some paper templates available with just the stitching. They're a fun set to add to layouts to create allover stitching.

Spirit

2006-10-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

Last week I created this collection biggie, Spirit, for Scrap Girls. I had a lot of fun working on this kit, especially the embellishments. Earlier in September, I went to Arizona, and was inspired by so much of the beautiful Navajo silver jewelry on display in the gallery windows. When I came back a few days later, I just had to sit down at my computer and try and come up some silver embellishments of my own. I simulated the turquoise and coral stone, and for the fun of it, threw in some lapis stone, and some green and yellow stone.

The Science of Sleep

2006-09-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

Has anyone seen The Science of Sleep yet? I really want to see this movie.

I've actually had a nutty past couple of weeks in the sleep department. Meaning...I haven't gotten much! I haven't been able to turn my brain off or shut down. But I've gotten a lot of design work done lately, which I'll be posting about today or tomorrow.

Floral

2006-09-16T12:18:00.000-07:00

Oh my, it's been forever since I've updated my blog. I'm going to be better about that again. I have my first set of ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates up on Scrap Girls.

I've been tagged

2006-08-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

You just had to tag me Mandy, didn't you? I have some blanks right now. I'll have to fill them in when I think of answers.

1. One book that has changed my life: Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting: the Astonishing Power of Feelings by Lynn Grabhorn.

2. One book that you've read more than once: I can only name one? Harry Potter series. (I do read adult books too!)

3. One book you'd want on a desert island: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle.

4. One book that made you laugh: anything by Janet Evanovich or Douglas Adams.

5. One book that made you cry: the last Harry Potter book in the series. If you read it, you know why. (But honestly, I do read adult books too!).

6. One book you wish had been written: I like Mandy's idea. But maybe mine would be called, How to Make A Delicious Dinner by Merely Snapping Your Fingers.

7. One book you wish had never been written:

8. One book you're currently reading: Nothing at the moment. How sad is that? There's nothing I love more than reading. Edited to say: I'm reading The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant.

9. One book you've been meaning to read: everything good and the classics

10. One book you'd like to write:

100% Original

2006-08-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

You can get this fun little special free of charge this week at Scrap Girls.

ScrapSimple Club

2006-08-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been so busy with a freelance project for a client, I haven't added anything new to the Scrap Girls boutique this week. I thought instead I could mention the ScrapSimple Club happening right now at Scrap Girls, that features Lori Cook's and my designs. The set of 5 products will be available for a great price only until mid September.
ScrapSimple Club

The above image shows some ideas of what you can do with the Layer Your Own Garden Stone. I love the idea of creating a set of alphas with these.

The above layout uses ScrapSimple Alpha Templates: Le Jardin, ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Le Jardin, ScrapSimple Layer Your Own: Garden Stone, Edging Brushes 1 and 2, and Dinny's Sage Brush Set Mini.

One of those days

2006-08-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

My whole day has consisted of looking for spiders in the house and trying to get my laptop computer to start up.

We found a black widow in the garage the other day, where my husband works a lot. I saw it on the floor hanging upside down in its web. I had noticed strange, crazy looking webs lately outside of the house and in the garage, but this was the first time I really got a chance to check out one of these spiders up close. Jason took care of the spider, and I tried not to think about spiders too much when I would try to fall asleep in bed, with my toes curled up in anticipation of being nipped. I know, I sound paranoid.

But today, while perusing my bookshelf for some art inspiration, I saw this crazy web reaching from the leg of a chair, to my camera bag, all the way into my shelves and over my books. I don't know how many spiders spin webs like black widows, but the first thing on my mind was, "Uh oh, they're in the house now!" So I spent some time getting quotes on having an exterminator come out. I looked at some websites trying to figure out more about the spider and to see if they are really dangerous. I found out that they aren't really that bad and don't do much damage. It's the brown recluse that's more scary. Then I started to think about all of these certain kind of brown spiders we've had in the house since we've moved in. Well, my mind went off into the great wonderland of worry. I made some calls, got quotes, was totally shocked by the prices, and then later discovered that brown recluses are not likely to be found in this area of California anyway. I hope that's true, because I feel better now. And I cancelled my exterminator appointment. Yes, I'm going to brave the widows. I have some spray here that I'll be using in all the nooks and crannies. It's been really good at keeping all other pests out of the house.

Then after the spider fiasco, my laptop computer froze and even after like 30 restarts, I couldn't get it to start up. I was on the phone with Apple for forever waiting for someone to talk to me. Sounds like it isn't a hardware problem, but now I'm trying to back the files up and then I'll have to wipe the computer and start over. And hope that the problem will be fixed.

So much for productive days. I'm not bummed really, but sometimes I think I'd have been better off staying in bed all day. Thanks for listening to my drama today.

Wallpaper

2006-08-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

I have some new products in the Scrap Girls boutique today. I've made my Wallpaper patterns available in both ScrapSimple Paper Templates and also as a fresh new paper set in bright sunny colors. For some reason, I never use yellow in design (would never wear it either, it just doesn't look good on me), but I made myself give it a try, and I like it!

ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Wallpaper

Sunrise Wallpaper Papers

For the above layout, I used the ScrapSimple Sunrise Wallpaper Papers, Tonya Doughty's Itty Bitty Alphas, Henna Borders Brush Set, ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Labels, Fancy Stitches Embellishment Mini, and Just the Basics Paper Biggie.

For this layout, I used ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Wallpaper, Amanda Sok's ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates: Freestyle Circles, Paint Stroke Brush Set, and Just the Basics Paper Biggie.

The Prestige

2006-08-06T00:28:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite books, The Prestige, by Christopher Priest, has been made into a movie. And one of my most favorite actors, Christian Bale, plays one of the lead roles. If you love mysteries, I highly recommend the book. Here's the trailer for the movie.

I've also seen the trailer for The Fountain and it looks amazing. I didn't realize that the director Darren Aronofsky also wrote the book by the same name. I believe the book is a graphic novel with the art of painter Kent Williams. You can see the trailer for The Fountain here.

And while I have your ears (or eyes), I want to mention that I cannot wait until the movie 300 comes out. I saw a juicy trailer for the movie at the Comic-Con last month. Too bad there isn't a trailer I can point you to yet, but here's the website. Gerald Butler plays the lead role and was there in the 300 panel at Comic-Con along with David Wenham (Faramir in Lord of the Rings). Mr. Butler provided lots of visual interest to the panel and lots of comic relief.

Adio Footwear

2006-08-05T15:56:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some apparel graphics for Adio for over a year, but finally some of my designs are available! I'm so excited! Here are some of my original designs I submitted. The designs are available in various colorways on Adio's website.

Crazy camo

2006-08-05T15:33:00.000-07:00

Camouflage is getting more popular right now in fashion, and it doesn't always have to be the usual military patterns. I created some ScrapSimple Paper Templates in some fun camoflauge patterns. I found that the pixels paper makes a really great overlay layer on top of the other ones. You can see how that looks in the upper right thumbnail example of my marketing graphic.

ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Camouflage - Mini

More Oodles of Doodles

2006-08-04T17:43:00.000-07:00

I've been behind so behind on my blog. I don't know if I'm just too busy to write or I don't have much to say.
I have new Oodles of Doodles in the boutique: Mix and Flowers2.

Thank goodness it's Friday!

Oodles of Doodles: Mix

Oodles of Doodles: Flowers2

ScrapSimple Birthday and Flowers

2006-07-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

It was a busy week, and it's not over!, but I managed to squeeze another few products into the boutique at Scrap Girls: Birthday Cake, Birthday Present, and Flowers. I think these would be really fun to work with as printables. I'd also like to print out the flower brushes onto card stock to make into paper templates. Then I can make fabric flowers and stitch them on my sewing machine. So many possibilities!

Here are a few layouts I made using my new brushes!

I used the following products at Scrap Girls for this one: my SS LYO Flowers Biggie, Rock and Roll Collection Biggie (the word "LOVE", silver stud, piece of lace), Thao Cosgrove's Hana Paper Biggie), my Oodles of Doodles: Hearts and Oodles of Doodles: Frames, my Alphabet Soup Embellish Biggie (zig zag stitching recolored), Tonya Doughty's Jubilee Papers, Ann Hetzel Gunkel's City Texts Papers, my ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Menswear Paper Templates, Birds of Fancy Brushes, Wild Child Papers, Valerie Randall's Postal Stamps Brush Set (HANDLE WITH CARE, FRAGILE), my Henna Borders Brush Set, Keri Schueller's Eye Candy Papers, Tonya Doughty's Just Dotty Paper Templates (top red dotted paper), my Paint Stroke Brushes (behind "HANDLE WITH CARE"), Keri Schueller's Silk Screen Papers, Just the Basics Paper Biggie (that teeny, tiny dot of kraft paper). What a list!

Pizza!

2006-07-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

These are photos from my first experience with making pizza at home. I thought I would share what I did because it turned out so yummy!

I preheat the oven to 450 degrees. I grabbed a big wood cutting board and patted it with flour. I slapped my already made whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joe's on the board and spread flour all over the dough. Then I held up the dough and let it stretch and hang down while I rotated. Then I put the stretched dough onto the board again, put wax paper on top, and with a rolling pin, rolled the dough out even thinner. You might need to put flour on the dough periodically so it doesn't stick.
I brushed olive oil onto a jelly roll pan and layed the flattened dough down onto the pan carefully. After I spread the dough to fit nicely, I spread minced garlic on the dough, sprinkled sea salt, parmesan cheese, and some oregano all over.

I then spread some yummy Trader Joe's pasta sauce with a spoon, and sprinkled chopped basil, capers, and sundried tomatoes.

Here I added sliced fresh mozzarella, vidalia or sweet onion slivers, and sliced roma tomatoes.

And here it is after it's been baked for about 14 minutes! I think after 10 minutes, everything is melted, but I like the cheese a little brown and the crust a little crispy. I think I got all of the ingredients from Trader Joe's. And no, I do not work for Trader Joe's, but I love them! Although I end up spending way too much money there.

More on the Comic-Con

2006-07-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

At the Comic-Con, we had two wonderful neighbors to the left of our booth, Miss Mindy and C.J. Metzger. They're both very talented and very friendly artist sisters. I fell in love with their booth and all of the amazing pieces of art for sale. On the last day of the show, I purchased these two little goodies.

The booth

2006-07-22T22:59:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of quick shots of my husband's booth. There's usually one of two responses when it comes to his work: eewww, scary or "Sick!", meaning cool. The booth definitely sticks out among all the other ones. He's got a gazillion lights in the setup and also in the mask and skull on the right.

Day 5 at the Comic Con

2006-07-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

OK, I left days 2-4 out. I've been getting home so late, that all we're doing is eating dinner and then going to bed. It's hard sitting in a booth all day long and only getting up to use the washroom. I did however do a few fun things yesterday and today. Yesterday, I bought a really cute Owl purse/messenger bag from Gama-Go. I saved $22 off the retail price.

I've also been walking past Allen Spiegel Fine Arts booth several times a day on my way to the women's bathroom. I couldn't help but notice Dave McKean sitting around and also periodically signing books. Well I couldn't resist yesterday not having him sign something, so I bought his Narcolepsy book.

I just stood there and handed him my book, and didn't harass him at all, and he drew a cat head with his signature. Look at this!!! I'm so excited.

Day 1: setting up the booth

2006-07-18T06:37:00.000-07:00

With four hours of sleep, we're heading out the door to set up at Comic-Con. I haven't been used to getting up this early in a long time.

My New Cafe Press Store

2006-07-17T23:40:00.000-07:00

I finally got a Cafe Press store running, although I'm still slowly adding things to it.

Layout Fun

2006-07-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying making layouts more and more. I try not to worry whether they're going to turn out or not. Here are some of my favorite recent ones.

This layout uses my Just the Basics Paper Biggie, Lori Cook's Asian Tranquility Brush Set, Paper Templates, and Embellishments Mini, and Angie Brigg's ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates-Layered: Tear it Up 2. I also added some white paint splatter to the upper right corner.

I used a kraft paper from my Just the Basics Paper Biggie, the P from my Cherish Alpha Biggie, the lace and star doodles from my Rock and Roll Embellishments, a cut out piece from my Damask 2 Paper Templates, Lori Cook's Stains Brush Set (wine stain rings), Lori's Distressed Brush Set, Melissa Renfro's Splatter Brushes, Lori's Grunge brush from the Refresh Collection Biggie (I brushed it on the background in blue and also over the damask), and my Henna Borders Brushes, whew! Everything is from Scrap Girls. I also added some of my own paint splatter and some photos of dandelions that I blended in. As far as fonts, I think I used Voluta Script for the quote, Fette Fraktur (Dream), Rosewood Regular on Wish Dream Love text, and Juniper for Believe in Yourself.

Oodles of Doodles

2006-07-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

Last week I made some doodles and created brushes with them. I'm amazed I found the time to get them into the boutique. I created other sets, but ran out of time on making layouts for them. I did get the Paint Brush Stroke in there though; I think it's my new favorite tool.

This layout features lots of great products from Scrap Girls designers. The products I used are: my Oodles of Doodles: Frames and Flowers Brush Sets, Amanda McGee's Bloom Papers, Angie Briggs' Gypsy Boots Paper Biggie, my Alphabet Soup Embellishments, Just the Basics Paper Biggie (kraft paper), Rock and Roll Collection Biggie (silver stud), Paint Stroke Brush Set, and Wild Child Paper Biggie (the notebook paper).

Crazy week this week

2006-07-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

This week is going to be nuts. Well, maybe I'm borrowing trouble by assuming that it will be, but it is going to be busy. My husband has a booth (Hite Studios) this year at the Comic-Con. The convention takes place at the convention center in downtown San Diego. My husband has been working non-stop for this event since February. We'll be renting a truck tomorrow and filling it up with all of the dvds, t-shirts, sets, and sculptures that Jason will be showing off, plus print outs of the comic he just finished writing and designing. Setup day for the booth will be Tuesday, and pro-night at the Con is Wednesday. Then it'll be 4 full days manning the booth by ourselves through Sunday. And then the fun clean-up part happens Sunday night.

I'm hoping our lives will be a little simpler and less chaotic after Comic-Con.

Some of my new kits at Scrap Girls

2006-07-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

I've been working with every nook and cranny of my spare time to create products for Scrap Girls. Here are some recent kits. I really loved doing the Cherish Collection Biggie. It's one of my favorite kits and really reflects my love for ornate pattern, ironwork, and texture.

My very first post!

2006-07-16T16:18:00.000-07:00

I created this blog to let people know what I'm up to and what I'm working on. I'd also like to post things I find inspiring.

To tell you a little about myself, I'm a freelance graphic designer working from home. I work way too much, anyone I know can tell you.

Erica