New Patterns + A Sale!

Happy Thursday friends!

I have a few new patterns to share with you today, and a great sale in my Society6 shop!

My Pattern Camp group has weekly challenges and the last two have been really fun and gotten me out of my comfortable box of typical motifs. The first was to create artwork inspired by Mexican folk art and this is what I came up with after some Pinterest searching for inspiration...

And this week's challenge is terrariums which were SUPER fun to draw...




Of course I'm a bit obsessed with these in real life too. Faux succulent lovers unite!

And speaking of patterns, all home decor products in my Society6 shop are 25% off and free shipping today! 

Woohoo!!

Use THIS LINK to grab the sale on pillows and lots of other goodies!

Hope you're having a fantastic Thursday!

Lovely Things

You guys. I'm feeling really blissed out after this weekend. 

It has been a lovely mix of crazy big art dream time and super sweet and fun family time.

On Saturday morning, I enjoyed a bit of quiet coffee time before the rest of the house was up...

And then I welcomed a new friend into our house to film two drawing classes for me. 

The classes will be online with Big Picture Classes, which is a subscription class site for the creative and crafty.

I'm OVER THE MOON about being invited to teach for them. I've been pinching myself over the entire thing. 

And then when they said they were going to send their guy to film me?! Who's life is this?

I mean look at his awesome set up there right on my little art table. 

I'm not gonna lie...I was SUPER anxious about this whole shebang.

But Joe, their videographer, was so sweet and encouraging and made the whole process SO much easier than I expected it to be. 

AND we bonded over a mutual love for all things You've Got Mail. I mean...what are the odds? I told him that I have always secretly wanted to be Kathleen Kelly, who he said is the perfect mix of organized and whimsical. Yep...maybe that's why I want to be just like her. 

I can't wait to share more about these classes with you once the teasers are up online and they are ready for registration. I hope you all love them! 

Today we had a slow morning and I got in some pattern making time...

This week's challenge for my Pattern Camp group was Mexican folk art, so these are my take on folk art flowers. Had a lot of fun with these!

We also took the boys to see the new Captain Underpants movie. So funny and the perfect 9 year old boy movie. I had more fun watching the boys' faces as they reacted to the movie than watching the big screen! 

This was certainly a weekend for my highlight reel, and I'm so thankful for the balance of exciting out-of-my-comfortable-box things and relaxing family time. 

Nothing keeps you in check like some good poop jokes after your class filming debut! ;)

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend friends!

XO,

Creative Process + Dream Art Supplies

"The creative process is not like a situation where you get struck by a single lightning bolt. You have ongoing discoveries, and there's ongoing creative revelations. Yes, it's really helpful to be marching toward a specific destination, but, along the way, you must allow yourself room for your ideas to blossom, take root, and grow." -Carlton Cuse

I've been learning a new creative process over the past week with my new iPad and Apple Pencil (dream art supplies!). Let me just say my poor sketchbook is lonely! I'm amazed at what I can create, and how quickly, with them. 

I've been playing around with a new technique I learned that I used in the floral motifs up there, and in this lettering...

I am really loving the smoky, etherial effect. 

I'm also having fun replicating my usual pen and paper lettering...

The Apple Pencil is truly amazing...I didn't expect it to be so similar to using pen and paper but it really is.

I also created my first pattern using it...

I could seriously create ALL day!

Hope you're having a good week friends and follow me over on Instagram if you want to get a daily peek at my illustrations!

XO,

New Pattern Collection

I seem to go through spurts with my pattern making, and I've been in a major ON phase the past few weeks!

I was going through my old sketchbooks and came upon a page full of fun floral motifs that I hadn't done anything with yet, so of course they became a bunch of happy patterns!

Here is the original image from my sketchbook to give you an idea of where I started...

And here are the patterns!

This last one is my favorite because of the flowing movement to it, and I have a ridiculous love for those little balloon-ish flowers. I want to draw them on everything!

Happy Tuesday friends!

New Pattern Collection

I sat down last night with the iPad and drew some happy flower motifs and then went nuts making patterns!

Goodness these make me SO happy. 

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend friends!

New Pattern Collection

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably know that I've been more than a bit obsessed with drawing on my ipad the past week or so. It is seriously addicting!

So much so that I created an entire pattern collection, my first ever (!), with motifs I drew entirely in Adobe Draw. I imported all of the images and created the repeating patterns in Illustrator. 

Here are the patterns! 

I'm excited to add these to my Spoonflower shop, and would love to license them for stationery or bedding! 

XO,

Free Holiday Printables

Hello friends and Happy Monday!

I've been busy making you things, and I have two free holiday printables for you!

First up is a coloring page:

The idea behind this page came from my son Ben, which makes me love it even more. Who wouldn't wish for presents and candy falling from the sky? No one I know, that's for sure! 

Click here to download the coloring page!

And if this isn't even coloring fun for you, You can also grab my printable holiday coloring book with six fun pages here! These pages are perfect for holiday parties and family gatherings.

And for that second printable, I got so obsessed with the different motifs in the coloring page that I turned them into a set of holiday gift tags!

There are eight different cheerful tags, ready to be attached to gift bags, boxes, or any package you desire! They would also be fun embellishments for your holiday scrapbooking. 

Click here to download the tags!

And because I couldn't stop there, I also turned it into a pattern!

I pretty much want to wrap all of our Christmas gifts in these happy houses. Or move into one of them. I mean a candy cane roof? Come on. 

I added it to my Zazzle shop as wrapping paper and ordered a roll...SUPER excited to see how it turned out! You can see it here. 

If you share the printables on social media, I'd love to see how you use them! Tag me @mandyfordart! 

Happy printing & even happier holidays!

XO,

{in my sketchbook}

Hello friend!

Are you ready for a new week?

Thought I would share a few recent pieces in my sketchbook with ya...

Finished piece...

And watch me draw this one!

And in color!

And here is a new pattern!

Speaking of patterns, I was interviewed recently by Jessica Swift for the Pattern Camp blog and you can read it here!

XO,

{new pattern}

The pattern camp group I participate in on Facebook has a weekly pattern challenge going on, and this week the theme was "portraits". I decided to do some portraits of my favorite letters to doodle. 

This pattern reminds me of junior high when I would fill my notebook pages up with doodled words. Oh the memories. Do you think kids even do that these days, or are they too busy texting? Sigh. 

Do you have a favorite letter to write or doodle?

XO,