Cotton Lane Market

Hi friends!

I just wanted to let you know that I will be selling my artwork this Saturday at The Cotton Lane Market in South Provo. :) There will be 30+ other awesome vendors and a couple of awesome food trucks so come stop by and say hi! Below is the flyer with the event info. The event address is: 1644 S State St, Provo, UT 84606. 

Party on Saturday!!! Sundance Harvest Market & Small Shop Roundup!

Hi friends!

I just wanted to let you all know that I am going to be selling my artwork this Saturday at two locations!!!  (I know it's crazy to do two... but we have our reasons.) So... Here are the event flyers. Please come! I'll be in Provo at the Small Shop Roundup and Scott will be up at Sundance at the Harvest Market... It's going to be a party at both so come to both- not just for me but for all of the other wonderful vendors that will be there. :) You'll love it! I promise.

Etsy Shop! Happy Back to School!

Hello everyone!

I think I start every blog post with something along the lines of... it's been forever since I've posted and then I promise I will post more... but it's hard and life is busy (especially with a baby- I didn't realize how much time I had before but it's been consumed with somebody with cute chubby cheeks.) So heres to trying harder and starting over. :)

School is starting again! Hooray! My little sister is starting college, and I'm SO excited for her. I remember my Freshman days- and haha they were hilarious, dramatic and so much fun. I loved college and sometimes I wish I could go back and do it again. But then I remember how much I like not having homework and I'm okay with being done and graduated.

I've recently started an etsy shop and would like you to visit! To incentivize you to visit we are having a back to school sale! To celebrate I am offering 25% off any purchase! Use the code: BACKTOSCHOOL2015 The sale runs through August 26th. So take advantage of that now!

Also I know that I don't have the custom prints listed on my etsy shop- but you can still order those for 25% off as well. Just send me an email (kelseycarlsonart@gmail.com) with the size (5x7, 8x10, or 11x14) names, and dates you want on your print and we will sort things out.

I hope everyone has a happy back to school season! :)

Exciting News & a little update on my art life.

Hi friends!

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything here on my blog. I am committing to try harder to keep it updated. This year has gone by SO quickly and I can't believe it's already October. So I'll just do a quick update for you. Last December I started working at American Crafts as a marketing designer. I helped with the packaging, instagram graphics, and ads/marketing material. It was fun, I made some new friends and learned some important design skills. Now I'm going to skip a few months ahead to May... and tell you about my travels.

One of my life long goals (for the sake of my wanderlust and love of art) was to travel to Europe. Well, Scott & I finally made it to Europe in May! We started saving when we got married last year in May of 2013 and we made our savings goal this spring. Europe was an adventure. We started in London, and worked our way to Paris, Zurich, Venice & Rome. It was two and half weeks of art, architecture, cultural experiences and endless walking. Now I'm wishing I could travel to Europe again, but for now I have other goals... like making beautiful art.

After about 6 months of basically doing packaging every day of my life at AC, I decided that I really needed a more creative job. I really would have liked to stay at AC and work on their product design team... but that wasn't an option, so I decided to move on. I applied at Die Cuts With a View (DCWV) and was offered a position on their design team. I took the job and have been there since. I'm on their home decor team and occasionally get to design scrapbook products. It's been fun and I have quite enjoyed working at DCWV. There is just something about being creative and using my illustrations skills that makes me SO happy.

NOW my exciting news. I've been doing a little bit of designing on the side after work and I have some good news that comes with that. I entered minted.com's fabric design challenge a few weeks ago and two of my designs were picked to actually be made into fabrics! I created a few different color varieties for each fabric and I'll let you know when they're for sale on minted. I'm so excited to finally have some of my patterns made into fabric.

So that's my update. My art life is starting to come together (I think.) It has been great to work full time doing creative things every day.



*So here are the designs that were picked my minted to be made into fabric. The first one of each bunch is the original coloring and the following designs are color variations. I hope you like them.

If you're feeling so inclined... Vote for my design!

Invitation design is so much fun to do. This last week I entered a birthday invitation into one of Minted's design challenges. This is the first time I've ever entered a Minted design challenge and I'm excited to see how it goes. Here is my entry:

The theme was "Oh Happy Day! Kid's Birthday Party Invitation Challenge. We were tasked with creating birthday invites especially for younger children. It was a fun challenge. 

They decided what to sell on minted based on the votes the designs receive... so

I would love it if you would follow the link below and vote for my design. Voting is open from today until Saturday March 29th. Thanks!

minted.com

A New Year and New Resolutions.

So it's a new year! (I know I'm a little late and January is truly almost over...) but Happy 2014! This year is going to be awesome I just know it. I have a lot of big goals & some crazy plans to achieve them. 

I love the beginning of the new year. I love setting goals and working towards them. I love writing them down and being able to look back and see what has been achieved. A few of my goals for this year are:

1. Develop my art portfolio, get my art out & into the world and find a market and a niche/job that fits what I want to do. (even if that means doing/starting my own thing.) Make more patterns, improve! I want to learn all of the in & outs of Illustrator, Photoshop & Indesign. 

2. Exercise at least 5 days a week. Scott & I are working on this together. It's going quite well. We bought passes to the Provo Rec. Center and we wake up at 5:30 every morning to work out. It's been good and as much as I really don't like waking up that early, it's been really nice to work out and feel healthier. 

3. Take lots of pretty pictures with our new camera! Scott and I spoiled ourselves, and used the rest of our wedding Target gift card money to buy a nice Nikon SLR Camera... and I love it. Here are some pictures from a Sunday adventure a few weeks ago:

It was a beautiful sunday afternoon, and oh how I love the light and how it just makes everything glow.

4. Learn lots of good things at my new job. I started a new job at the beginning of December at American Crafts. I work there as a designer on their marketing team. We do everything from catalogs to web, and packaging design. Some of it's really boring... (haha) but overall it's been good and I'm learning how to be better designer.

5. Travel to Europe- this has been on my to do/wish list for forever, and we've finally figured out a way to make it happen! Saving! We've been saving for the past year and we've made our goal. We are thinking we will probably go for a couple of weeks once the semester ends for Scott... so maybe May? I'm SO very excited for this adventure, and if you have any tips for traveling in Europe let me know!

6. Run another half marathon... and maybe a full if we put in the time to train. Which one? That I also need to decide. I'm excited for it to be decently warm in the mornings again so that Scott & I can run outside in the mornings. Spring needs to come faster.

7. Read & study all of the standard works- Book of Mormon, D&C, Old Testament, New Testament & Pearl of Great Price. Also read nightly from the Book of Mormon with my cute husband. We've recently started doing this, and it's amazing how quickly doing something that simple can invite the spirit. I love it. 

8. Post on my blog more... more art and maybe some crafts! Maybe I will also learn some basic coding for website design if I'm feeling really ambitious. 

I love making goals, and I hope to achieve all of these things and more this coming year. It's going to be great! :) I'll keep you updated along the way as to how everything is going.

Sunday Quote

Yesterday I had the opportunity to help my mom make this cute handout for her Young Women's lesson. This quote is from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. He said, "The most effective way to preach the gospel is through example. If we live according to our beliefs, people will notice. If the countenance of Jesus Christ shines in our lives, if we are joyful and at peace with the world, people will want to know why. One of the greatest sermons ever pronounced on missionary work is this simple thought attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.” Opportunities to do so are all around us. 

I really love this thought. I want to live my life as a witness of Christ and share my testimony through my actions and words. I try to live righteously every day, and I know that I am blessed for doing so. 

Day 16 - Confetti Dots!

Here's day 16. This patterns colors match day 15. I like making companion patterns- maybe one could go on the front & one could go on the back of "my paper."

Day 15 - Flower Patch

Here is day 15 Pattern... about a week & a half late. I started a new full time job this last week at American Craft! It's so exciting and my life is about 10x busier, but that's alright. :) Im happy. I'm still going to finish out my 30 days of patterns and make up the ones I've missed. So here is the first make up.

With all the snow in Utah, i'm wishing for warmer weather and flowers...

Day 14- Just some stripes.

Just a few stripes to go along with the triangles. :) Not too exciting, but I worked all day today and made dinner... isn't that good enough?

Day 13! Just a few little triangles

Day 13- Inspired by quilts maybe? and "fallish colors"? :) It didn't quite line up along the bottom, I'll post a fix on it after I figure out how to make it line up. 

Day 12- Little Orange Polkas

I love polka dots. They make me happy, so I created a small orange polka dot pattern. I used a variation of this pattern for the umbrellas on the last pattern. This one I've added texture too and I like the worn, distressed feel it gives to the pattern.

Day 11- A few days late... but for good reason.

So Scott & I spent the weekend in St. George mountain biking in the rain... it was just a little bit chilly, wet & soggy. We managed to have a lot of fun and I neglected a few days of pattern making. Meanwhile I caught a cold and my patience for pattern making diminished but I am on the road to recover & am working on making up the days I missed. This is the first of them, Day 11! (inspired by Rainy St. George... I think it was only the days we were down there that it rained and I was really hoping for sunshine but that's okay. :) life goes on.)

Day 10- A little folk influence

I've always loved the simple yet complex design of Nordic Folk Art and so I decided to base a pattern off that influence. I used some simple colors, shapes and patterning to make something that I think is beautiful.

Day 9- Christmas Tree Galore

Day 9! Already! This pattern is simply Christmas trees. :) Hooray for the holidays!

Day 8- Letters to Santa Claus

So I'm still on a Christmas holiday kick. I might have spent a lot more time on this one than I should have... but it was a lot of fun and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I used to love writing letters to Santa and getting letters back, so I decided to capture that in a pattern. Here it is:

Day 7- Christmas Mints

Stripes & Holiday Mints. :) Hooray for the holidays!

Day 6- Fishies!

Fishies. Tropical, and multicolored.

30 Days of Patterns- Day 5

Another quick pattern. I'm working on a more complicated one currently, possibly to be posted tomorrow. Look forward to it! :)

Day 4- Everything is Cuter with Eyeballs.

Case in point? I think so. This one is kinda random, but fun I think.  Only on day 4 & I barely made it. Posting something new everyday is harder than I thought it would be.