Meet Carla Stout

Welcome to Creative Friends Friday. This month I’m really excited to introduce you to my friend Carla Stout.

Carla is a collage and jewelry artist and a collector of all the things; but she’s one of those collectors that manages to make things look like they are fresh from a magazine shoot and not an episode of the hoarders. It’s a treat to visit her home because there’s always a new mantle display, or a new wreath on the door, or a new vignette that she has made from bits and bobs that she has found or salvaged.

Carla sees beauty in things that I glance over and it’s not until she’s dragged it home and propped it up by the front door or wound it into a wreath that I even notice. She has gathered and created all of the years that I have known her. She created to make her home beautiful, she created to give handmade gifts that were thoughtfully wrapped. She created jewelry for herself inspired by catalogs like Sundance from which we would only dream of buying something.

But over the last few years I have witnessed a quiet transformation taking place. Her two oldest children graduated from homeschool and began college and her younger daughter has transitioned to a local charter school. And bit by bit her homeschool room has transformed into a studio space. And with that transition I believe that Carla has become to be a bit more bold about calling herself the artist that she has always been.

Carla works in found fabrics and needlework and papers creating handmade books and journal covers. She gathers vintage keys, buttons and beads and crochets them all together with her favorite gem stones into gorgeous necklaces that can alsow be worn as wrap bracelets.

As I write this she is just getting her first business, 210design up and running. 210design, named from Ephesians 2:10, is a "craft and design business with a focus on creating unique jewelry designed to tell a story and inspire wearers and onlookers alike. With a touch of divine inspiration, my designs are meant to encourage and spark conversations that are spiritual in nature."

And all of Carla’s work does just that - it draws you in for a closer look. It begs to be touched and that’s part of the plan behind her designs. She wants to share a story, to give joy to those around her, and awake eyes to the beauty that they glance over everyday.

I would like to invite you to follow Carla's journey as she launches her new business. You can find her on Instagram and watch for updates as she begins her launch.

Meet Beth Pinckney

Just before Christmas I was able to squeeze in a few minutes to visit and catch up with my friend Beth. She was just home from teaching sewing classes at Make Welcome and was beginning to prepare food for all of her children and grandchildren who were soon arriving for the holidays. Beth greeted me at the door fresh from the kitchen with the smell of stir frying veggies. And though were both feeling the busyness of the holidays at Beth's there is always time for a cup of tea. We chatted and sipped while she stirred up more delicious smells from the large cast iron pan simmering on the stove.

When we had finished our tea and were done chatting about skinny Christmas trees and setting up a playroom for the grandchildren who were going to be visiting, we headed in Beth's studio for a quick look at some of the projects she's been working on. Beth has dubbed her studio her 'Sew and Row' room since she recently rearranged to make room for her new rowing machine. I love that because it encapsulates so many things about Beth - her creativity, work ethic, perseverance and good humor. She modeled her new cross back apron for me and showed me the little wool vest that she just finished up for her grandson Levi.

Then she quickly rearranged her quilt wall so I could get a good look at the back of the most recent wedding quilt. Her youngest of six children was recently married and she gave them the quilt top as a wedding gift. During the wedding weekend she set up a table for all of the guests to personalize a quilt square that she's sewing together for the back of the quilt.

Her son Joel is an avid reader and a writer so if you look closely you can see a library card print fabric. And of course there was a special spot for Clara and Levi's drawings for Uncle Joel and Aunt Louise.

Now that Beth's days are not filled with schooling all of her children she has not been content to stay at home and be a 'retired' home school mom. She leads an organization called Make Welcome Refugee Sewing School which she helped found. Make Welcome is a unique refugee artist's cooperative that brings together women from many different cultural backgrounds helping them build community and friendships across language barriers - smiles are universal.

There are several different levels of opportunities at Make Welcome - some classes are a bit more social and for fun and fellowship while others are more serious and entrepreneurial providing students with the skills they need to learn small scale production sewing. All students are provided the opportunity to complete a sewing skill course at the end of which they earn their very own sewing machine.

(photo courtesy of Make Welcome Sewing School)

Over the past year or so Beth has cultivated a partnership with an organization in Charlotte, Project 658, which has provided this group with a much larger and a permanent space to work in. (No more driving around with sewing machines and totes of fabric anymore!) This partnership also brings together other services like counseling, childcare, job skills programs and ESL classes to the same location which simplifies serving her students.

If you would like to contribute to Make Welcome Refugee Sewing School you can do so through the Project 658 website. Click this link and in the designation drop down menu choose Project Support. Then choose Make Welcome Sewing for the project you would like to support. All donations are tax deductible.

Make Welcome Sewing School is a Christian organization whose students come from many different religious backgrounds and traditions but all are Made Welcome!

(photo courtesy of Make Welcome Sewing School)

Introducing Creative Friends Friday

Good Friday morning, friends! How are you this morning? I'm excited to share something I've been working on for a few weeks with you guys this morning.

Social media is often about me, me, me. (I'm guilty, too.) We work hard to cultivate a beautiful feed, attract our target audience, and grow our businesses and followings. In fact we can work so hard that we forget to be 'social'! 

To combat this tendency I'm starting a new series here on Instagram and on my blog called Creative Friends Friday. On the last Friday of every month I will be profiling a friend and fellow artist and or maker in my Instagram feed. I'll be sharing a bit about them and their work, and linking to their accounts. There will also be a longer article that you can find right here on my blog.

Copy this image and share it in your Instagram feed using #creativefriendsfiday!

I'm using this series to help me hone my storytelling and photography skills for another really big project that I want to begin tackling in 2018. I'm also using this series to share with you some of my really wonderful, creative friends who I think more people should know about!

I'm sure you have creative friends that you would like to recognize, too, right? That's why I'm inviting you to participate in my project. It doesn't have to be elaborate - it can be as simple as sharing a friend's post in your feed and using the hashtag #creativefriendsfriday. 

If you are one of those rare birds who still blogs I also created a blog button for this project! Just copy the image and set the hyperlink to www.amberlynnbenton/creativefriendsfriday

If you do participate please feel free to share these graphics in your feed or on your blog to spread the word!

Spaghetti Western Design on Spoonflower

I have uploaded my latest design into this week's Spoonflower Challenge. The theme this week was Center Stage. We were supposed to "create a repeating pattern inspired by the actors, dancers, musicians and entertainers who are stepping onto the center stage and into the spotlight."

I chose to celebrate the Spaghetti Western with my pattern repeat. Spaghetti Westerns are a subgenre of Western films produced and directed by Italians. Many actors spoke little English and so they are definitely B flicks but they have a bit of a cult following. Actually they helped Clint Eastwood launch his career. His first three films including The Good the Bad and the Ugly were Spaghetti Westerns.

WOULD YOU TAKE JUST A FEW MINUTES AND VOTE FOR MY PATTERN ON SPOONFLOWER?

I wanted to introduce quite a bit of humor in my pattern so I chose to draw several western icons in continuous line drawings and make them look like they were drawn with spaghetti noodles. I took all of these motifs and turned them into a half drop pattern. The pattern was well balanced and had a nice feel but it lacked the humor that I was going for - and frankly like plain spaghetti noodles was a bit boring.

So I hit upon the idea of adding cowboys into the pattern. Honestly I wasn't sure I could pull it off - I haven't spent a lot of time drawing human characters - it's definitely something I need to work on. I began each figure with a really simple stick figure template that I designed - each of them beginning in exactly the same way and then trying to 'bend them' into various positions before adding the clothing and details. It worked pretty well. They are so tiny that I was worried about depicting the hands. In the end I settled on LEGO man style hands and I think it worked well!

So I shrunk down all of my little cowboy figures and hid them in the pattern trying to make them interact with one another. The pattern still looked a bit plain, however so I took it one step further. I decided that since they looked like little comic characters anyway I would depict their gunfight as if it were in a comic book. And what better ammunition than meatballs?!

Below is the pattern pretty close to scale. I'm considering revising just a few things and then I will likely release this one for sale in my Spoonflower shop in the coming months.

I'd love to hear your comments and suggestions. Would you be interested in this pattern on fabric? What would you use it for?

Sardines Tea Towel Available for Purchase!

Follow me on Instagram.

I'm very excited to finally announce that you can buy my Sardines the Paleo Superfood Design as a tea towel! I'm working on a better product shot as the lighting in this kitchen made accurate colors difficult. The actual colors are as they appear in the artwork and on the Spoonflower and Roostery mockups. The background of the towel is a very light sky blue.

This is the image from my very happy mail day! I'm doing some color adjustments for the fabric samples but the tea towel colors came out perfectly. I'll post about the fabric and the different colorways that will be available as soon as I get those color correction done.  

Sew Your Own By Ordering from SpoonFlower.

The tea towel design perfectly fits a fat quarter of the linen cotton canvas - which is how you should order it from Spoonflower if you want to sew your own. If you purchase this particular design on any other weight of fabric the design layout will be off because the fabrics are different widths.  I really like the weight of this linen cotton fabric. It has a very good hand for table linens.

I'm putting together a tutorial post to walk you through sewing your towel, but until then here are two very helpful tutorials:

Mitered Napkins Two Ways by Nicole at Home

Classic Mitered Corner Napkins by Purl Soho

Order one already made from Roostery.

You can also purchase the tea towel already finished from one of Spoonflower's sister company Roostery. Just click on the picture above to go directly to the product!

Read the original post for the artwork which was created for They Draw and Cook.

#ItsAdvent 2016 Wrap Up

So I fell behind posting my advent illustrations on the blog. I think I'm going to research posting here directly from Instagram for future illustration series to keep things simple. Below are all the remaining illustrations for this advent challenge.

When I started out on this challenge I imagined that I would have 24 illustrations that would all go together into one collection. It didn't quite turn out that way. I have the possibility of a few collections from these pieces - many need refinement and tuning. A few I will just discard or maybe completely redo. I've made a few notes about each illustration below mostly for my own reference.

I discovered that the Christmas season is a really busy season and it's a huge struggle to complete so many illustrations on such a quick timeline even when I started early. But I'm going to take what I learned and grow next year!

I like like the color combination and the pattern combination in this stocking. I think I should explore this as a stand alone pattern for a Christmas collection.

Pretty Stocking by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

I really enjoyed working on this gingerbread boy. I'm currently revisiting the baking pattern in the background. If you want to see this background as a fully developed pattern check it out on They Draw and Cook!

Gingerbread Boy by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

This swan is so dainty and so soft and the colors very calming. This illustration is where I began to deviate from the style that tried to carry through this challenge. But it's okay - I discovered something new for me. I think a nice nursery collection could be explored around this piece.

Swan Princess by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

I wanted to do so much more with these mittens but the number of pieces I was working with kept crashing my computer! I will go back to it in the near future as well. This illustration is where I realized that to do a challenge like this I had to work more quickly and simplify my ideas. That doesn't mean I can't explore more later.

Folk Mittens by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

This snowflake pattern is pretty straight forward. But for future reference  I learned from a friend that snowflakes only have six points.

Snowflakes by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

I got a lot of great feedback from this pair of clogs. I like the color combo here.

Klompen by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

This little rocking horse was done on my new iPad Pro completely in Adobe Draw. I did it while traveling. I had my logo saved into a Creative Cloud library and was able to create and post the entire piece while I was mobile.

Painted Rocking Horse by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

This church was also done remotely. This was the first illustration in which I realized that a square format did not suit all of my illustrations. There are a couple of illustrations like this which I felt were too far removed from the viewer because of the square composition. I'll note to plan accordingly next time around. Instagram does allow rectangular images to be posted now so that's an option if I desire.

Small Country Church by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

This Santa was also to tall for the frame. I got lovely feedback about the patterns on his outfit, though.

Santa Claus by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

This is my least favorite illustration of the entire challenge. After my 100 Patterns challenge maybe I'll do a hand lettering challenge.

Holly and Ivy Wreath by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

I really like the composition of this illustration as well as the color palette.

Joyful Noise by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

This illustration was also drawn on the iPad Pro but in ProCreate this time. I really like these stockings! I had fun being able to achieve subtle shading in this app. Again you can see that my hand lettering weakened the piece.

Ice Skates by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

For this illustration I continued my experiments on the iPad pro. This illustration was done in Adobe Sketch. It's very similar to last years Christmas illustrations which I painted in Photoshop using Kyle's brushes.

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

I liked all of the pieces of this composition but had a hard time fitting them together into the square format. It turned out okay in the end. This was also done on the iPad Pro.

Merry & Bright by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

This candy cane pattern was done using scanned and image traced artwork. Instead of keeping the brown linework like in the first illustrations I chose to use colored linework. It created a very different feel. I think this is a pretty strong pattern for a Christmas collection I'm just not sure what to pair it with. I think it could work well with the snowman.  I have a lot of playing around to do, though.

Candy Cane Pattern by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

This pattern was by far the most well received. I do like it a lot even though there are lots of small adjustments and finishing touches to be done before it is market ready. One things I really need to do is to simply the number of colors that I used which will be quite a challenge.

Fruity Christmas by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

The last illustration in this challenge was Christmas village. This little pattern was a lot of fun but it's not very Christmasy as is. I have a lot of finessing and many details to add. I worked really hard to get a repeat that worked. I want to do four versions of this pattern - one for each season.

Small Town Charm by Amber Lynn Benton for #ItsAdvent2016

#ItsAdvent 2016 Day 7

I hope you are all merry and bright and are enjoying this bit of colder weather!

#ItsAdvent Day 6

Can you believe it is already Day 6 of advent? Today is the last day of our co-op classes and tomorrow the boys leave for their annual Christmas trip to their grandparents.

I had fun creating this illustration. I knew that I wanted to do a patchwork tree. I created all of the little patterns that you see here - just super simple geometrics mostly. Nothing worthy of my 100 Patterns Project.

I'm also continuing to play around with my backgrounds for these illustrations. I'm not quite what to do with them sometimes. In this illustration I created my first vector plaid. That was fun and I want to play around with that some more.

In other news this was my first illustration using my brand spanking new iPad Pro. I drew almost the entire illustration using an app called AstroPad. It's still in that awkward stage for me but I know that I'm going to continue working in this way just for the sheer convenience. 

I can even sit at the school table with the boys and work while they do their lessons!

#ItsAdvent Day 5

I had a fun time with this candle illustration. I duplicated the light pattern around the flame and enlarged it in the background setting the layers to multiply to achieve a more glowing effect. I used the sienna in the background to better illustrate:

'a light shining in the darkness but the darkness does not overcome it'.

It's a good image for these dark advent evenings.

I feel like this illustration came together the easiest of any that I've done so far. That makes sense, right? I've begun to come up with a workflow that is suitable for this style.

#ItsAdvent 2016 Day Four

I really love the color scheme and folk painting look of this illustration. I began drawing a pear and before I knew it this sweet bird had decided to move in. It made me laugh to think of a partridge in pear rather than in a pear tree. I think she looks more like a Christmas dove, though, don't you?

#ItsAdvent 2016 Day Three

This illustration looks a bit out of place in the rest of my collection but I still like it. I think a couple of things happened here. There just wasn't a place to include some of the pattern motifs I've been working with (other than on the plate). The other contributing factor is that the brushes used in this illustration are not consistent with the first two illustrations (or the later ones).

I began this illustration in a new document and do not yet have my brushes saved to their own library. So I had to make some new brushes and the settings were different. It was after completing this illustration that I set up the template file that I'm using for the rest of the collection.

I drew this in honor of my friend Shelley Brandt of Figgy Pudding Designs. Merry Christmas, Shelley!

Advent 2016 Illustration Challenge

It's just a few short days until Thanksgiving and then the Advent season is upon us! 

I've already started rearranging furniture, cleaning, and making room for the tree. The boys annual Christmas visit to their grandparents is planned and maybe - just maybe - this will finally be the year of the Tasha Tudor gingerbread house. I can always dream right? (Especially when it isn't even Thanksgiving yet!)

It's hard to believe that it's been only a year since I carved out this little studio corner in my bedroom and began to take myself seriously as an artist illustrator. Last year I joined in another artist's Advent Instagram challenge and I had a lot of fun. This year I decided that I wanted to do all 25 illustrations for Advent for my portfolio which meant that I needed to begin planning in October!

As I got well into the planning and working I was having such fun that I decided to invite other friends and fellow illustrators to join me. You can use this challenge in whatever way you want - draw handmade Christmas cards or ornaments, create finished pieces for your portfolio, or just have fun while you're cozied up on these dark evenings. (Be sure to use my hashtag #itsadvent or #itsadvent2016 so I can see your work!)

Below is the Advent Challenge Calendar. Feel free to pin and or copy and share the image. I'll be posting this to my Instagram account in just a couple of days. If you want to join in on your own Instagram account just regram the calendar! 

Click to open a larger version to download and share!

I also created an image for Instagram that is unbranded (without my logo) for your to use on your own accounts.

Click to open a larger version to download and share!

Here's a blog button! (Until I figure out how to do a grab box on Squarespace, though, you'll have to just download the image and then use this posts url --  http://www.amberlynnbenton.com/blog/advent2016illustrationchallenge -- as the hyperlink for your image.)

Click to open a larger version to download and share! Don't forget to link to: http://www.amberlynnbenton.com/blog/advent2016illustrationchallenge

And here is a pin for your Pinterest boards! I hope your enjoy the challenge and I can't wait to see what you create!

Make Art That Sells Bootcamp

So this year I have been taking classes. I have a lot of things to write and share but I thought I would start by just sharing where I am right now.

I'm currently enrolled in Lilla Rogers Make Art That Sells Bootcamp course. Bootcamp is a five month long class. Each month we receive a mini assignment to explore and play with. Then on week two we receive our assignment in the form of a brief.

Our first mini assignment was 1920's hairstyles. I began exploring the 1920s pretty deeply that first week. I watched a couple of TV shows, created a Pinterest board, and after a lot of sketching I even did some watercolor pieces. I discovered that I have spent a long time avoiding drawing faces and this assignment forced me to face that fear. 

The brief that we were given to work from was to design an adult coloring book cover. We were given leeway to make the project fun for us, so I turned my project into a color your own desktop calendar. Here is the layout I came up with:

View fullsize

Personal Goal: 100 Patterns

If you've been reading along you know that almost two years ago I decided to dust off my art skills and try to return to some freelance graphic work. I spent the majority of that year relearning and mastering Adobe Illustrator and becoming familiar with Photoshop and LightRoom. I was also determined to learn how to use my camera and do some simple video editing. At the end of that year I had not only dusted off my skills but had grown in my design capabilities. I began doing some custom graphics work - mainly logo and identity work. It was good to be working again, but I wanted to do something a bit more creative.

I had always wanted to learn to design fabric. As a little girl I would lay under my great grandmother's flour sack quilts and study all of their patterns. Before all the boys were born I used to follow designers like Kaffe Fassett and Susan Singer Sargent mainly because I couldn't get enough of their colors. I began drawing designs by hand with markers and exploring different ideas for collections, but I didn't know how to create the repeats. I did get access to a technical book via interlibrary loan but it was hard to learn just from a book - especially when I could only keep it for such a short period of time.

Then along came all of my boys, a couple of moves, and then the decision to homeschool and all of my art just got shoved in a box. Last year I dusted off that box and began pulling out all of my work. I discovered Creativebug and SkillShare and sites like Make It In Design and Make Art That Sells. In short, I found an entire community of artists with dreams just like mine. I saw many artists who are not only creating designs for fabric, but for a whole host of other products and markets.

I began taking every class I could and I learned multiple ways to create repeat patterns. But the patterns I made were a bit stiff and and I had no idea where to go with my style. One line from Bonnie Christine's Intro To Surface Pattern Design  echoed in my mind - "That year I made hundreds of patterns." That seemed like a good solution - just make pattern after pattern and see where that would lead me. So sometime in December I decided that I would make 100 patterns. I began the project in a rather amorphous way and I didn't really have a way to keep track of and count my patterns.

So now I am attempting to keep track of each of my patterns on my website and be consistent to number them when I post them on FaceBook and Instagram. To meet this goal I am only counting technical repeats not 'surface designs' that don't repeat. It's going to take me a little time to format and catalog the images for all of the patterns I have done thus far but keep checking in and I'll post an update when it is current.

(You can view the gallery by clicking the image above or the blog button to the right.)