Handmade Heart for Elevated Press

New letterpress cards are ready over at Elevated Press! You should order some right now :)

Introducing Woodhaven

This is is Woodhaven, a new Colorbök collection I designed that will hit the shelves of JoAnn stores next month. I got my product samples a few weeks ago and I'm really pleased with how the whole collection turned out. As you can see, there are tons of birds, bicycles, and branches - I was inspired by my childhood memories of riding my banana-seat bike down country roads and vintage wallpaper and tablecloth patterns. The goal was to preserve the essence of heritage and tradition, but present it in a fresh, modern way. The images below are just a few selections of some of my favorite pieces from the line, there is much more so be sure to look for the entire collection in stores. Special thanks goes to my teammates, Janet and Maria, for their much needed help to get this collection finished during yet another insane deadline!

Chipboard Alphas & Ransom Stickers ^

3-D embellishments ^

New letterpress goods on Etsy

Time to head over to the Elevated Press Etsy shop to check out my new letterpress designs!

Main Squeeze notecard

Gift Tags

Starboard Limited Edition signed print

And a Valentine's card is on its way soon so stay posted..

Handmade Ornament Swap '09

This year Brittany talked me into participating in the handmade ornament swap hosted by Freshly{Blended} and today was the deadline to mail out the goods. As I type, 10 tiny sparkly accordions are on their way to people scattered throughout the US and one person all the way over in the UK. You can see photos of some of the other ornaments made in the swap on flikr. So far the ornaments I have received have been so adorable and special, this is definately the beginning of a new holiday tradition for me.

Holiday Wallpaper Freebies

{ Click over to the Colorbök Studio Blog to get yours }

These first two are illustrations from a holiday stationery concept I recently designed.

And these two were designed by my sister Rebecca, using art from her holiday scrapbook page kit.

Love for Lucky You

My Lucky You collection is featured on the Colorbök Studio Blog today in a guest post by scrap-celebrity Heidi Grace.


Woot woot.

In the studio with Elevated Press

The new letterpress designs are almost here!

Yesterday morning, Michelle at Elevated Press, was kind enough to show me some of the ins and outs of the letterpress process as she worked on one of the prints I designed. It was fascinating to see all the tiny adjustments and problem solving that happens to get the print registered and the ink distributed evenly. It was also really cool to get to use this equipment that is so heavy and old and built to last forever - definately a nice change of pace from sitting in front of a monitor. I got to print a few prints myself, which was fun and also a little nervewracking and see some of the other new designs that have just been printed, like the Lucky Cat 2010 Calendar. So cute.


Here are some photos I took for the design nerds -

{ shelves of moveable type }

{ Leading! Which is actually um, pieces of lead. Who knew? }

I'll post the new designs when they're ready, should be soon.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Phoebe Gloeckner artist talk, tomorrow!

One of my all-time favorite artists, Phoebe Gloeckner, will be at the Michigan Theater tomorrow as part of the Penny W. Stamps Distiguished Visitor Series. You should all go! Info here. I can guarantee it will be fascinating, as Phoebe is quirky, intelligent, kind of crazy and often controversial.

I first became a fan of Phoebe's work when my professor, Holly Hughes, suggested that I might like Phoebe's part-novel, part graphic novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl. It immediately became one of my favorite books ever, and has since then been adapted for stage.


The year after I read that book, Phoebe was hired to be professor at my school, the U of M School of Art & Design. During our senior year, my friend Cristina and I both worked as assistants to Phoebe for our work-study program. What started out as a job creating a digital catalog of her vast comics collection eventually turned into us sewing tiny little pairs of jeans and beat-up looking shirts for the dolls for the Ciudad Juarez project that it looks like Phoebe will be speaking about tomorrow.

We also modeled for a lot of eye and mouth photos. From the photo above it is kind of hard to tell, but the dolls have real human eyes and mouths Photoshopped onto their faces. I don't think my blue eyes and lip ring probably made it into the final images - my appearance is about as un-authentically Mexican as it gets, but I'm pretty sure Cristina is in there.

Phoebe's work about Ciudad Juarez is also part of the I Live Here project, which you can read about here.

I am sure the lecture tomorrow will be awesome and I'm happy to be able to share a little about one of my favorite artists.

Celebkitty

So every Monday interior design blog Desire to Inspire posts a feature called Pets On Furniture - I couldn't resist submitting some photos of Sol lounging against our tufted button pillow that truly resembles his tufted little face!

Be sure to click over to Desire to Inspire to see the rest of the cute animals and pretty furniture on today's post.

Shout Out: Aaron!

Untitled as of yet, 4' x 3'

paper, oil paint, twine

This is a newly finished painting by my husband Aaron. I admit I might be a little biased, but I think its amazing! A photo really can't do it justice, the ends of hundreds of tiny flaps of paper lift away from the canvas creating cool texture and shadows. I couldn't resist, had to share.

[ a little shameless self-promotion... ]

This month was my turn for the Designer Spotlight on the Colorbök Studio Blog.. click on the image for the full feature.

Shout Out: Elevated Press

I'm so excited about some new projects I just finished in collaboration with Elevated Press and want you all to know about these super cool folks making beautiful letterpress prints right here in A2!

(From their website): "Elevated Press was founded in early 2008, by an artistic couple with a huge DIY spirit and the need for wedding invitations. Michelle Baker, an illustrator and art educator, and Peter Baker, a graphic designer and photographer, knew that they would be designing their own invitations, but it was their appreciation for the tactile quality of letterpress that compelled them to hand print the invitations on a press.

Elevated Press has since grown to become a full-service design and letterpress stationery studio, specializing in gorgeous custom wedding invitations and a charming line of greeting cards and prints. If you have a need for custom stationery such as wedding invitations, business cards, or personal stationery, please contact us, we'd love to talk to you about it!"

I will be sure to post my new designs as soon as they are ready, and in the meantime, here are some of my favorites from Elevated Press's current collection, available here.

ps - Elevated Press will also be at the 2009 Renegade Craft Holiday Sale in Chicago on December 5th + 6th - don't miss it!

Sault Ste. Marie, hot off the press

This week brings you the release of Sault Ste. Marie's debut album, Grab Yourself A Plot of Land. This project had a special place in my heart because I've been friends with these talented guys for almost a decade. John, Josh, Dan, Brian and Chris, congratulations! I love it when my friends make things.

You can hear a few songs from the album here and buy it here, or at the cd release show this Saturday, October 24th at the Elbow Room in Ypsi - see you there!

Fall Freebies

Two free desktop wallpaper downloads from my Rustle collection are available over on the Colorbök Studio Blog, get 'em while they're hot!

School's Out Forever!

So lately I've been having these reoccuring nightmares where I'm almost through a whole semester of calculus class and I have yet to show up for a single quiz or complete a homework assignment. It's driving me crazy because I really love being done with school and also calculus was torture! I've tried to analyze the metaphors for this dream, but really can't come up with anything. Maybe it is simply because it is September and that means back-to-school.

I recently was archiving my files at work and came across these kiddie badges I designed last year that never got used for our back to school products. A little random, but I still kind of like them. To everyone reading this who can read and also brush their teeth, give yourselves a pat on the back!

Oh my gourd, it's Fall!

My favorite season! These are art, branding and product concepts for a seasonal autumn collection I designed last October.


Patterned papers and 3D embellishments ^


Stickers & sample scrapbook pages featuring my friends Brittany and Dylan ^

All rights reserved and copyright by Colorbök, Inc, 2009.

Images may not be duplicated or reproduced without written permission.

Shout Out: Forth From Its Hinges 2009

I just got home from the opening of Forth From Its Hinges 2009 - the show looks great! I am so tempted to post pics of my favorite pieces, but I'm not going to because you should all go see the show in person. It's happening all weekend, so go check it out and support your local arts community!

Also, Aaron and Nick - double high-fives! I love your corner.

In Stores: Lucky You

We just finished a massive amount of new product designs at work, so while I wait to hear what new items will be chosen, I thought it would be fun to post some products that are currently in stores. The Lucky You collection was my pet project from initial concepting, design, and branding all the way through to final production. The art is derived from hand-drawn illustrations, so the design process was much more time consuming than usual, and in order to finish everything by our deadline, there were more than a few late nights at the office (and by late, I mean really late..like 3am late). The buyer was looking for a line that was "cheeky", and would appeal to a younger consumer, so we had a studio-wide brainstorming session thinking of things we could picture our teenage sisters and permanantly-29-years-old step-moms saying. I am pretty sure this was my one and only chance to slip the phrases "Rump Shaker" and "Yep, they're real" into a scrapbooking line, and even though it has been over a year since these were designed, it still tickles me.


Lucky You Vellum Phrases ^

Lucky You 3-D Embellishments and sample pages ^

Lucky You 3-D Epoxy Page Bubbles ^

The entire collection can be found at select JoAnn's stores and various online retailers.

All rights reserved and copyright by Colorbök, Inc, 2009.

Images may not be duplicated or reproduced without written permission.

A Delight and Honor!

I just received the most exciting call from our wedding photographer Tracy - she and her photography partner Riva submitted photos from our September wedding to Brides Magazine and they selected our wedding to be featured in the Fall/Winter issue of Brides Magazine Michigan! I am so shocked and honored - we didn't even know they had submitted our photos. Tracy and Riva do phenomenal work and they truly deserve this recognition - congratulations Tracy and Riva!

I will post an update when the issue hits the stands, until then here are pictures of our invitation and rsvp card, designed by moi with much input from my better half, Aaron. The top photo was taken by Tracy and Riva at Tracy Grosshans Photography, bouquet in the background by Corinne at Sebesta Design.

Shout Out: Animal Crack Box

Last week Aaron picked me up from work with a present waiting for me in the back seat - a fresh copy of the new limited edition 3LP Box Set from Animal Collective! Huge props to Aaron who screenprinted this amazing packaging himself at VGKids.

Design by Jon Vermilyea
For more about the Animal Crack Box, click here