Experimenting with Art Prints

It's been ages since I worked in my bird journal, which is still available in my Etsy shop. I thought I'd revisit offering prints for the wall.

Sing
©2010 Vickie Hallmark
watercolor, acrylic, ink, collage on paper

So today I uploaded the back cover, one of my favorite pages, to a print on demand site to make an art print available for only $22. Matted and framed versions are also available, as well as smaller greeting cards.

You can read about my process for making the journal here. See the full set of images on my website.

Affirmations Continue

The affirmation journal is continuing slowly. It is definitely more fun to flip through it and focus on my daily affirmations than to flip through the boring, plain index cards that are the first iteration. More work is needed on every page, but I know that steady work will make it all happen.

Affirmation #3

If only it were as easy as writing it down!

Handmade Journal Part 1: Construction

I've had the paper torn and folded for my new journal for months now, but I was blocked at the question of what I would journal about this time. The answer came this week, so I quickly stitched the book together this morning in preparation for painting.

I used a variation on Teesha Moore's Amazing 16 Page Journal. I tore my sheets  from one large sheet of watercolor paper into pieces and folded to get 4" x 4" pages for the final journal.

Because I have more pages, I stitched them together with a coptic binding and included two heavier covers.  The next step is painting in the backgrounds, which I do quickly and randomly. This book will have all two-page spreads, so that's one reason I wanted it stitched before I paint -- all the page coordination is already done.

Front Page at Red Bubble

I'm a star today! RedBubble chose one of my bird journal page images for their front page today. Less than 3 in a thousand works make the home page, so I'm honored. The front page theme is Spring (now, for September 1st???)



And my Spring image certainly fits that bill. Click on the image in the rotation on the RedBubble home page, or go directly to Spring Songs.

Bird Journal Prints Now Available

For all those who have asked about prints for the wall, I've opened a Red Bubble shop. Here's your opportunity to get greeting cards, postcards, matted or laminated prints, canvas prints, posters, or even framed prints of my bird journal pages. This avoids the issue of me having to mass produce prints at high investment, but I still get a small profit from each purchase. So far, five pages are active, but I'll be adding more.

Prices for cards start at $2.60. Bird Journal Print Shop  I hope some sell so that I can buy a set for my own wall!

Free As a Bird Book Now Available on Etsy

Finally, the books have arrived from the printer. Here's your chance to collect all the bird pages for yourself, a total of 40 pages. Keep the book out for avian inspiration or maybe even cut the pages apart to frame for your wall.

Free as a Bird by Vickie Hallmark | Make Your Own Book

Order direct from Blurb, or for the same total price (more for the book, but less for shipping) you can order from me and receive it signed and gift-wrapped.

"Free As a Bird" Now Available

I finally made the newest book, "Free As a Bird," available to the public via Blurb. I've ordered a stash to put in my Etsy shop, for those who prefer the addition of an inscription and gift wrapping for a total price less than the Blurb direct price (their shipping for one book is a bit high, but then they use FedEx Ground and I'll just use the good old US Postal Service). But it will take another week or two before I have them, so if you just can't wait, go ahead and order direct to save a few days.

Click here to link to the Blurb preview and flip through the entire book.

Bird a Week #19

Here it is -- the final installment of my Bird Journal. Tomorrow I leave for a trip to Prague, Vienna and Budapest. I'll return on June 1, hopefully to find the first printed copy of Free as a Bird to proof. After any corrections, I'll be able to print off more to offer for sale. Feeling a need for a copy of your own?

Check out the other birds of the week at the blog hop:

Bird a Week #18

The next to last page in the current bird journal:

Not to worry! I ordered more watercolor paper yesterday to make another journal. I'm considering a small travel journal for my upcoming trip to Prague, Vienna and Budapest. I leave in one week. Yikes!

See the other Bird a Week challenge entries here:

Bird a Week #17

Only two more pages left in my bird journal! What will I do? Really, I have to decide if the bird imagery has run its course. I was hooked long before the "slap a bird on it and call it art" phase started. Perhaps it's time to see what else speaks to me and find something new to explore. Perhaps I'll precede the trend again.

 Check out the other Bird a Week challenge entries on the blog hop:

Bird a Week #16

I'm catching up on the Bird a Week entry that I'm behind, fitted in amongst furniture shopping with my father to replace items that didn't make the trip: an apartment friendly dining table and chairs, a new mattress, a smaller sofa, and replacement washer & dryer. Almost all the boxes are unpacked. The nonfunctional air conditioner (in new construction!) is fixed, at the expense of the nice stonework on the front facade. Lots of deliveries this week. It's almost livable.

Check out the other Bird a Week entries in the blog hop:

Bird a Week #15 - Soar

It's interesting how the second journal that I began to have artistic busywork while visiting my parents is now coming to a close. I have just a few more pages, in various levels of completion. This seems to coincide with the removal of my need to travel repeatedly to visit them.

My father closed the sale of his house this week, 13 months after my mother's death, and moved to Texas. Over the weekend, Keenan and I flew up to Bartlesville, Oklahoma for one last round, to pack and supervise loading the moving van. After various bobbles and bloopers regarding paperwork for a new senior apartment, movers who didn't work out and had to be replaced at the last minute, and a scramble to get to Austin ahead of the belongings, it's all coming together. We are still dealing with issues, such as the AC in the brand new apartment that doesn't work on a hot day, but it feels like progress after many weeks of limbo while showing the house, getting estimates of various sorts and just general waiting.

Very fitting that the journal is coming to an end at just this time.

To see the other entries in the Bird a Week challenge, check out the blog hop:

Bird a Week #14 -- Feathers, Flight & Song

Latest addition to my bird journal below. I have only four more (semi)blank pages to fill, so I've started transferring images into a new Blurb book, available soon!

View the other entries in this week's Bird a Week challenge here:

Bird a Week #13 -- Bird Watching

Last weekend we went birding out to Pedernales State Park, where they have a nice blind. It's a great place to sit and watch all the wildlife coming in for the free seed, peanut butter and water. Now they've added a new blind as well, so there are two different spots (nice photos here). It's interesting to see that the established spot is much more active than the new, even almost a year after installation. This round we saw lots of goldfinches, house finches, cardinals, titmice, mourning doves, a red-wing blackbird, several types of hummers, various sparrows, chickadees, and my favorite -- a ladderback woodpecker with a red crown who would come and sit right on the window ledge to "people watch."

To see the other birds of the week, visit the blog hop:

Bird a Week #12

Feeling like Spring has arrived, I finished this daffodil colored page in my Bird Journal. I'm nearing the end, with only a few more pages to go until the book is finished. I've been scanning and uploading pages into a new Blurb book, so stay tuned for your opportunity to peruse a Bird Journal of your very own.

Visit the other entries for the Bird a Week challenge here:

Bird a Week Flickr Group

Bird a Week #11

Interesting that I've left a lot of violet pages in my journal to fill in last -- I noticed the last two were similar colors and I actually did a third. I'll leave that one until next week, in order to interject a gray page, that actually shifted more blue.

See the rest of the Bird a Week 11th week entries here:

Bird a Week #10

This week has been taken up with lots of kitchen research. The paperwork has been signed, and the first payment made, to start our full kitchen remodel. I need to have spec sheets to give to the designer within a week, so appliances must all be decided pronto.

Luckily, I have a few extra bird journal pages stashed for just such overwhelming times. Doesn't "the early bird gets the worm" seem completely relevant? The real hindrance to a quick remodel will probably be me, if I wind up dragging out decisions. I believe I have the cooktop, ovens and refrigerator finally selected. Granite is settled (if I can actually get slabs of my someone rare choice) and marble is either/or. Layout is the issue I'm most concerned about now.

Follow the other Bird a Week entries here:

Bird a Week #9

I'm just returned home from a week with my father (he is doing well -- tired and weak, but so very lucky to have caught the kidney cancer while still confined and to have apparently dodged even temporary dialysis). I'm trying to catch up with the house, after leaving the high school/college teen home alone. He did a great job, but a teenage boy's idea of a clean house is different than mine.

I am ahead on my bird journal, though, so I thought I'd jump in and post my Bird a Week entry early this week, to allow me time later to try to catch up on other commitments. This quote seemed quite apropos to my father, who it trying to sell his home in the midst of his recovery. Whether we wish to or not, sometimes we just have to move forward.

Check out the new blog hop links and visit the Bird a Week Flickr group.

Bird a Week #5

Texas may be further south, thus avoiding the brunt of this wicked winter storm, but it's still plenty wintry for me. High temperatures have been in the twenties for the past several days. Last night we got half an inch of snow, which only happens every few years.

Despite the sunshine this morning, quickly melting off the white dusting from roadways and housetops, it seemed a dark journal page would be appropriate to the prevailing mood.

Check out the rest of the Bird a Week entries here: