Cyber Monday Sale!

Are you ready for Cyber Monday shopping? 

Society6 has already pulled the trigger on their sale and it is a GOOD one friends! 

Everything is on sale up to 40% off + FREE shipping! 

That means mugs start at $11.99 shipped, tote bags start at $14.69, and a throw pillow WITH insert is $20.99! 

The sale will go through the day tomorrow! 


XO,

illustration process

I thought it would be fun today to share the entire process of an illustration, from the idea to the sketch to the finished piece.

This one came to me as I was putting away laundry the other day, laughing about how I had told a friend earlier in the week that I had gotten so good at self-care that I was worried I was spoiling myself. But really...isn't reading a good book with a warm mug of coffee way more important than dusting? 

I think so. 

So here's the beginning sketch...

And a video of inking in the lettering... (I almost always use a Papermate Flair pen)

Inking in last night's lettering while sipping on a latte! ☕️🙌 #howidochurch And this isn't boomerang but I'm gonna go with it for today's #marchmeetthemaker prompt!

A post shared by Mandy Ford (@mandyfordart) on Mar 5, 2017 at 6:44am PST

A few close-ups of the lettering...

The full illustration after ink...

And the finished illustration with lots of fun color!

Remember to practice self care this week! Those dishes can wait. 😉

Sending good vibes your way!

New Tricks

Hello friends!

Happy Wednesday!  I hope you are well today and ready for all of the holiday business right around the corner. I'm fighting a cold today but refuse to let it put a damper on my Christmas excitement! 

And speaking of excitement, I have a few new illustrations to share!

I was so giddy the other day when I figured out a new trick in Photoshop to give my lettering more dimension...

See how there is another layer of color underneath? Yep...that is what I'm giddy about! I also played around with a translucent layer of color underneath the pine branches which turned out nicely. 

Here is the pencil sketch of the above piece...

I'm thinking about possibilities for my next Skillshare class teaching these tricks. My first class went amazingly well so I'm itching to create a second!

And here is another fun lettering piece I did last night. Can you guess the movie this quote is from? 

(I know...suuuper hard 😉 )

I've been focusing on creating artwork that I want to see out in the world. Something I would buy if I came across it on a notebook or canvas at TJ Maxx or Target. And these illustrations are getting me closer to that goal. 

Yay for new tricks! 

I had another giddy moment a few days ago when I opened up my first roll of wrapping paper with my own artwork...

Ahhh! I basically want to re-wrap all of our gifts now. But it is a small roll so maybe just a couple special ones. 

It is so awesome that there are online shops out there for artists to create these products without needing to have a license with a company. So many possibilities! (this is from my Zazzle shop)

Thanks for sharing in my illustration excitement! And I hope you are finding time to rest and find joy in this holiday season today.

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,

{new illustrations}

I've been busy working on a fun fall favorites collection, based on all of my favorites things about the season. 

Here are all six I've created so far!

Campfire favorites...

Favorite treat...

 

Comfort foods...

Fall nature walks...

Orchard favorites...

And favorite outfit...

This has been such a fun collection to work on. Did I miss anything? What would yours say?

XO,

{new products!}

Happy Monday friends!

I hope your week is off to a happy start and you are fully caffeinated to start the day!

I have some fun new products available that I wanted to share with you. 

All I have to say is NOTEBOOKS!! Ahh! 

OK so if you aren't a stationery junkie like me you might not appreciate this. 

BUT I am obsessed with cute notebooks and it has been a dream of mine to have my artwork on the cover of one. So when I discovered Redbubble a few days ago, and saw they had the option of spiral and hard bound notebooks, I uploaded some of my artwork right away. And then ordered some samples because...I mean it was a no-brainer. 

When they came in the mail over the weekend I decided what better time to do my first Facebook live video to share them with my friends. You can check it out here. 

Aren't they fun? I really, really love the graph paper print and pockets in the back!

Redbubble has a big selection of products to choose from too, like tops...

And some of the same items I have in my Society6 shop including mugs and tote bags. 

But I basically created this shop solely for the notebooks. Don't they just make me want to doodle and make all sorts of lists?

They are offering 20% off today too if you want a little Monday pick-me-up! 

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,

{process of a pattern}

Hello friends and happy Friday!

I've been busy making new patterns which has me all sorts of excited, and I thought it would be fun today to give you a peek at my process for creating a pattern. 

My pattern-making confidence was given a big boost when my owl greetings design won one of the editor's choice prizes over on Minted. It will be available soon for sale as fabric! I'll also have fabric for sale soon over on Spoonflower <<< click that link to see the patterns I've added so far. 

I just feel like someone should pinch me..this is my dream and SO darn fun to see it becoming a reality. 

But back to my process. I'm always finding inspiration in nature, and last week seed pods caught my attention. So first I saved a bunch of pretty pods over on Pinterest.

Then I used those as inspiration for a bunch of pod doodles.

And last night I started turning them into a pattern...the most fun part! I scan the original, save the individual motifs in photoshop, and then create the pattern in Illustrator. Thank goodness for Jessica Swift's Pattern Camp...best class I've taken to teach me practical and highly useful design skills. 

I'm still playing around with colorways but I'm kind of liking this one. No turquoise or yellow in sight...I'm trying to move away from my favorites. 

Here is another pattern I recently finished that is available in my Society6 shop on a bunch of fun products including mugs, tote bags, pillows and even a shower curtain and duvet cover. I'm also going to have it available on Spoonflower as fabric...

So that's the process! I am having way too much fun with this and am beyond excited to have fabrics available for purchase soon!

XO,