Custom Wedding Chalkboards

I am so excited to share these new custom pieces for a wedding with you!

I was recently asked to make chalkboards for a wedding. Each chalkboard was hand-drawn by Yours Truly. I am quite pleased with how these have turned out!

These were a joy to make and are something that I look forward to making for other happy couples in the future. Please enjoy this lovely piece featuring a quote from Julia Child. I really love this quote AND how this piece came out.

Hand-Lettered Chalkboards for Weddings

I also really liked how the Bar Menu board came out. This is something that can be easily customized for different venues and …well, menus! The wedding reception was held at the BEAUTIFUL Downtown Market in Grand Rapids, MI. One of my favorite places in the city!

 

Hand-Lettered Chalkboards for Weddings

I also really liked how the Menu board came out. I had a lot of fun experimenting with different fonts for this board. The menu is something that can be easily customized for different venues and …well, menus!

 

Detail shot of the Julia Child quote. I am so pleased that the bride and groom chose such a lovely quote to write for them. They said they may even hang this piece in their kitchen!

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New Card Design: Buffalo

I’m proud to announce my new favorite greeting card design. This design was hand drawn and hand lettered by yours truly. It’s printed in black ink on white or craft cards and is available in my Etsy Shop!

 Isn’t he cute?

Truly handmade in Buffalo, each card is hand folded and scored.

Craft paper card has a nice earthy look.

Send a “Hello” from Buffalo!

Spread some BuffaLOVE!

Hand-drawn and hand-lettered. Detail.

The Cold Never Bothered Me

Original poster artwork.

Winter seems to be in it for the long-haul. I’m in the last leg middle of my second winter after my move from Los Angeles and it doesn’t seem like the cold will be letting up any time soon. Fortunately the last few days have been warm sunny.

I hear this winter has broken all sorts of records: Snow (it would seem) every other day. Several days with -26 degree wind-chills (today is a balmy -13 degree with the wind-chill). Snowvember! The list goes on and on. Good thing the “cold never bothered me anyway” or so I tell myself.

This wintry piece was inspired by the lyrics from ever-popular Let it Go song from Disney’s Frozen. I created it using several programs and started off with a sketch on paper. I’ve included some of the steps below:

The original sketch with pen and paper.

Once the sketch was finalized, I took it into the computer where I used several programs to get the lettering “just right”. Manga Studio by Smith Micro is a fantastic program for sketching or inking AND it can work in vector and pixels. The program seems to be under-appreciated and under-used in the art community. My artistic best buddy uses the program all the time and puts out amazing work. It’s a GREAT program and version 5 is a huge leap from version 4.  I used Manga Studio for most of the original hand lettering and sketching.

Lettering almost finalized and color swatches are in the corner.

I then took the file into Adobe Illustrator to clean up the letters and curves. I wanted to leave some of the hand-lettered feel, so not every curve and flourish is 100% perfect. Once the lettering was finished, I took the file into Photoshop where I added the colors and final touches. Here is the finished piece again:

Look for prints in my Etsy Shop soon.

What do you think?