What's new in the world of Cloud Nine Studios?

It's me again! I have a lot of things to cover today and I am all over the place, so let's just dive in shall we! Today I have been working hard on posting the Michigan Greeting Cards I have recently mentioned in a past blog on my Etsy Shop. It is a lot of work to post new items. This will be the first time I am posting Greeting Cards to my shop so I wanted to do some research on the normal listings of successful cards first. I found some of the cutest greeting cards! Here are some of my favorites!

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Making my Michigan Greeting Cards was just a spur of the moment idea I had to have smaller items and less priced items in my inventory for the DIY Art Festival at the end of the month. I had so much fun making them and now I am super inspired seeing all the wonderful cards on Etsy. Anytime I make any product even if it's sold, I try and take pictures of it and post it on my Etsy shop. If it is sold, then I post it on a made to order basis. The more images and listings you have in your shop the more chances to get noticed and create a sale!

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Also today I am getting ready to meet with my Artists Talking Art Group for the second time! I am not expecting many people as I have been so busy in the studio I admit I have been lacking on the posts about it reminding people to come. Either way even if I have one person show up I will get some relaxing time to drink some tea and talk about art. Can't complain about that!

**Cue adorable tea cup picture!

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Isn't this cute? Tomorrow's blog is going to be dedicated to collecting things. You'll get to read about why I love a good collection and how it can inspire us and increase happiness. Which reminds me of my next thought I want to mention today....weekly dream color scheme. I have so many dreams that I am always wanting to share but I have no reason to. The blog I did about creating color schemes from memories had such great responses, that I thought I would dedicate one day of the week of this blog specifically for a dream that I had where I will describe it in as much detail as I can and create a color scheme that goes with it. So FRIDAYS will not be dedicated to my weekly dream inspired color scheme. Any clever names I can use for the title? 

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Told you I was all over the place today! Still with me? Great, you are the best. :]

I have so many ideas for the blog that the more feedback I get the easier it is for me to post what you all want to read about! Is there anything that you would love to hear me touch on? Let me know in the comments below and help this happy little art blog bloom into a beautiful flower of happy goodness! 

Until Tomorrow - Dream Away

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios

Etsy Featured Item of the Day:

Hummingbird Rustic Hand Printed Wrapping Paper - Three Sheets by - HandmadeandHeritage

Song of the Day:

Alle Farben - She Moves feat. Graham Candy

Color of the Day:

Split Pea Green

Inside Cloud Nine Studios - Making Greeting Cards

The last two days have been SUPER productive! I spend the majority of the last two days off from my gallery job in my own studio kicking out work that I plan to display at the DIY ART FAIR next month. I thought today I would bring you inside my studio and show you how I made this fun Michigan watercolor greeting cards.

Supplies you'll need:

                   Watercolor paper

   Ruler

Painter's Tape

 Acrylic Paint Markers (Fine Tip suggested)

 Spray Adhesive

 Watercolor Paints

 Blank Greeting Cards 

Let's Get Started:

I started by measuring my blank greeting card 1/2 inch smaller on each side to come up with the dimensions for my watercolor piece. Mine ended up being 3 x 5 (my greeting card was 4 x 6 in).

I then cut out 20 or so watercolor pieces at these dimensions. I now had my template.

Next I used my painter's tape and taped the edges down on a flat surface. This is because watercolor causes the edges to curl up and this ensures that your paper stays as flat as possible. I applied some watercolor to the paper how ever I felt looked nice for each piece. GET CREATIVE!  I decided I liked the look of flicking white over the top of the watercolor for another layer. Feel free to do whatever you like!
Next I traced the Michigan mitten on the lower right hand corner with a fine tip pen. I painted it in with different acrylic paint markers depending on the colors I used for that particular card!

After I had made a good number if card covers I took my watercolor pieces and my blank greeting cards outside. I sprayed the adhesive to the back of the watercolor cover and placed it in the center of the blank cards.

I had such a good time making these cards! You really can do so many things and they are a great little item that should sell fairly easily. I will be so pleased to show off these little items at the DIY Art Fair next month and I just know that having smaller and lower priced items along with the rest of my inventory will really be key in having a successful booth.

One of my biggest tips with this project is really make sure that your watercolor piece is completely dry before tracing your Michigan stencil. If you want to speed up the process, using a hair dryer on a warm low setting helps a ton!

I hope you enjoyed a look inside my studio today and hope I have inspired you to make some of these great watercolor greeting cards! What would you put on your cards?

Let me know what you think be commenting below and have a wonderful day!


Until Tomorrow - Dream Away

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios

Etsy Featured Item of the Day:

Watercolor pillow, home decor, watercolor accents, watercolor painting, abstract watercolor, throw pillow cover, modern home decor, colorful by- RoveStudio

Song of the Day:
Agnes Obel - Riverside

Color of the Day:

Henrietta

Finding Time for Art.

    Hello! Last night I unfortunately wrote out an entire blog and then when I went to post it and the whole blog deleted!! I was so upset. I stayed up just to make sure I could get one out and I couldn't stay up anymore. So here we are. What should we talk about today? 

                                              TIME TIME WHOSE GOT THE TIME!?!?!

Yesterday I had such a busy day. I had my first day back at work after being off for almost 2 weeks. After that I spend a few hours in a car dealership with my grandmother and father and I took home a new 2015 Ford Escape (which I named Ruby for her color). By the time I got home I was exhausted and just wanted to curl up in bed and play on my phone or tablet. 

(Some new Disc Golf minis or Coasters)

      Instead I decided to hit my studio for at least an hour. Now whenever I plan to do this most of the time one of two things normally happen. I either sit down and end up getting sucked into something for much longer than I planned messing up my schedule for things afterwards, or I sit there trying to start or work on something for only an hour and end up wasting my time and getting nothing done.

         Yesterday neither of those two things happened! It was a great breakthrough with me and my art. As I wrote about in a recent blog I am planning on doing the Ferndale DIY Art Festival. So I have two months or so to come up with a comfortable amount of stock inventory to do well. I think mentality has really effected my work process for the better. Finding time to do art when there is no reason to other then personal satisfaction is much harder for me than when I have due dates and time lines that I need to meet.

(Check out this lovely little Etsy item that fit perfectly for today's topic!)

        Finding time for art can be hard even if it is something that you want to do. Setting goals and deadlines is crucial for making sure you set aside even a small amount of time dedicated to art. It could be a goal of everyday do something whether it's working on that pencil drawing you've been trying to finish for weeks or doing a small doodle on a napkin while out at the bar with friends. Whatever your goals are make sure you stick to them!! This will make it easier to find time for art.

I am obviously no expert on this subject but I can tell you what has worked and not worked for me. What are some of your problems or struggles with finding time for art? Is it a young baby taking up your time and focus? Is it your strong will to procrastinate or distract yourself with other things? No matter what the excuse for finding time for you and your art I have come up with this list to help you FIND TIME!

I am going to create another post today to make up for yesterday giving you a list of ways to help you find time to make art!

Stay Tuned! - Dream Away!

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios

Apologies and studio session sneak peaks.

       How do I even begin this blog.  I am sorry sounds like a good start.  I really tried my best to blog while I was away but the area I was in did not allow me to keep my commitment and I feel deeply guilty for breaking a promise so quickly.  All I can say is that I am back and ready to make this the most amazing blog I can! The good thing is there probably isn't even anyone actually reading this yet so hopefully I have only disappointed myself. 

 

Click Here for MORE!

     Anyways I got to get into my studio today after what felt like an eternity. I knocked out a larger oil painting that is abstract.  I needed to feel the paint and hear whatever colors I wanted to on my canvas without too much thought.  It was really freeing and a great warm up to finish another littler piece I've been working on the is below. The Michigan piece is now available on my Etsy shop just click this link to see more. 

      This piece was painted with oil paint around do the border first and then I let it dry. I sketched the Michigan and the tree. I then took a wood burner and burned the design with three different tips. I have only been working with wood burning for around a year now but I really love give g pieces another depth. Also the feel of burner wood, not to mention the smell, is amazing! If you have always wanted to try it but never knew how I highly recommend it. It is very affordable and you can get a starter kit from your local craft store for most likely under 20 dollars. 

   I would really love to hear from someone and know what I can  blogging about is relevant or interesting  to you or not. I would even love to hear suggestions on how to make it better and topics you might like to hear me discuss.  ANYONE OUT THERE!?! well if there is I appreciate you taking the time out to read this. You get a gold star today!  

        Tomorrow I will be more in depth about a topic but I just wanted today to be quick and to the point. I'm sorry I did not blog while I was away and check out some work from today's studio session. 

    Until tomorrow - Dream Away

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios