Zazzle Collections

I wasn't so sure about it at first, but I really like the new Collections feature on Zazzle. It's a great way to organize and group items that relate to each other and makes it easier for visitors to locate products they might be interested in. And besides all that, they're fun to put together. I thought I'd share a couple of new collections I just added.

Blank Greetings is a selection of quirky and playful blank greeting cards, ready to add a personal note. Owl Nursery is a mix and match collection on owl themed items for a baby or child's room. You can browse through more new art and collections here.

Blank Greetings
by Adrienne Saldivar

Owl Nursery
by Adrienne Saldivar

 

News from They Draw and Cook

I opened up the latest newsletter from They Draw and Cook in my inbox and was happy to find I'm mentioned in this week's Illustrators for Hire section. To read the full newsletter and see what's happening over at They Draw and Cook this week, click here.

Zazzle Store Collections

I'm adding some new products to my Zazzle shop and have started creating a few collections. Click the link below to browse through a selection of my ladybug art:

Ladybug, Ladybug
by Adrienne Saldivar

Thanks for visiting!

Blog and Buy Sale Celebrates Spring

The Blog and Buy Sale Spring Wish List is out - and I'm on it!

I recently discovered Blog and Buy Sale, a London-based site that showcases artists and product makers selling their craft online. Each quarter Blog and Buy Sale compiles a curated Wish List, and I'm pleased they selected three of my products - my Poppy Patch Pillow (above), Guinea Pig Print, and Pink Llama iPhone 6 Case - to be included in the Spring Wish List. It's great to be featured alongside so many talented designers!

Here's a sampling of some of the lovely items you'll find there. I did a little checking and it looks like most products can be shipped internationally:

Patchwork Vase by Clare Gage. A pretty porcelain vase combining ceramics with a playful contrast of fabric textures. How great would this look on the shelf, with or without flowers?

The Feather from Rich Little Things. A hand-finished print of an original papercut design. I'm always bringing home stray feathers I find. I love how the intricacy of this print so artfully conveys their beauty.

Bird’s Egg Marble Tile Magnet by littlebirdy designs. What says springtime better than a tiny bird and egg? The subtlety of this little watercolor illustration on textured marble is super sweet.

Spring garden cuff by Claire Gent.  A delightful spring scene you can wear on your wrist! The hand dyed aluminum cuff features a photo-inspired silhouette design.

Now that you've had a sneak peak, hop over to Blog and Buy Sale and find your favorites. The Spring Wish List will be available to view through May 19th.

Naming a Zazzle Store

I recently opened a store on Zazzle. I'd read up a little bit on Zazzle and thought I'd done my homework before diving in. Now that I've fumbled around a bit, I thought I'd share some things I've discovered.

My first obstacle was what to name the store. My own name is difficult to remember and harder to spell. I hoped someone browsing through the marketplace might notice my username and be able to find me again by searching. After much brainstorming (and an inexplicable stubbornness about including the word 'plum,' I decided on the short and quirky name 'Some Plum.' For my username, I omitted the space between the words to get SomePlum, which automatically became my store url. The username and url can't be changed after signing up, but I was satisfied my store name, username, and url coordinated perfectly.

Unfortunately, I've since noticed that actual store names aren't always searchable on Zazzle.  Typing 'Some Plum' into the search bar only brought up a bunch of plum colored products. Just by adding a space between the two words, they become too generic. Typing my username 'SomePlum' (no space) successfully brought up my products, but what if the natural tendency is to include the space between words?

I partially solved this problem by including my store name at the end of all my product descriptions. I hoped this would amount to background noise that would be skimmed over, but still give search engines something to pick up. Now searching Some Plum turns up some of my products. If I had it to do over again, I'd choose a unique ONE WORD name that could double as both my username and store name (good examples of this are the stores Stuccoloco and Scruffshop, two stores I referred back to occasionally while setting up my shop - for the simple reason that I remembered the names and easily found them again).

So, I may not have blazed the easiest trail to my store, but it will be interesting to discover other ways to leave breadcrumbs. If you have experience with Zazzle as a buyer or seller, I'd be interested in your thoughts on the significance of store names.

A Lizard's Tail by Bish Denham

Here's a cover illustration I did for a recently published book by Bish Denham. I've worked with Bish before and love reading her blog for tales of her childhood days in the Virgin Islands. Both her previous book Anansi and Company and A Lizard's Tail are infused with island flavor. While working on the illustrations for Anansi, I enjoyed becoming more familiar with the rich folklore and language of the Caribbean. The new middle grade fiction story, A Lizard's Tail, provides gorgeous imagery of the islands as a backdrop for a quick-paced adventure story. A Lizard's Tail is available here on Amazon.

Back to the Blog

It's been a while since I updated this blog regularly. I keep thinking I'd like to return to it. After a string of super-sized life upsets, I'm still not clear on how to pick it up and move on.

Like a cat that slips off the banister and hopes no one's looking, I stopped to lick wounds and try to regain composure. I took classes, thinking I'd eventually go back to work in graphic design. As I was finishing up a certificate program a year ago, I had an internship and part time tutoring job lined up. Nervous but excited about a new start, I made it through my first day of the internship. The next day, I learned I had breast cancer. So much for getting my bearings.

This past year certainly wasn't the best year, but it wasn't all bad. When I felt better, I worked on new illustrations. I had the luxury of picking and choosing only things I wanted to do. I'm learning about plans and expectations. They're fine as a map, as long as you know the moment the map is drawn, the route is already changing. Expect detours and road blocks. Flash floods. If you don't look too far ahead, there are nice surprises too…unexpected things along the way that make the trip enjoyable. Sometimes, the destination changes entirely.

So, here I am. My blog map is sketchy. No doubt, there will be side trips.

Kicks Like A Girl

This is a book cover design and illustration I created for a new book by Melissa Westemeier. I just received my (signed!) copy in the mail and I'm excited to read it!

I'll tell you a little secret about the cover illustration: while doing the initial sketches, I couldn't get the phrase "kicks like a mule" out of my head. For some reason this made me think of mule style shoes - you know, the backless kind that make you walk like Peg Bundy because they're so darned hard to keep on your feet. That's how the single mule-clad foot came to be on the cover. The other shoe obviously went flying right off the page.

I'm looking forward to diving into some fun fiction. You can pick up a copy of Kicks Like a Girl on Amazon.

Tales of Anansi the Spider

 A while ago I created a cover and illustrations for a collection of Anansi tales by Bish Denham. I'm excited to learn that the Kindle edition of Anansi and Company: Retold Jamaican Tales is now available on Amazon.

Since I've been a reader of Bish's blog for some time, I already had wonderful impressions of the beauty of the Caribbean to inspire me. I also recall being introduced to the sly spider Anansi in elementary school, and enjoyed having the chance to read a whole collection of his adventures at one time.

The book is intended for middle grade readers, but I think younger children would enjoy hearing the stories read aloud. In addition to the colorfully retold folktales, Bish's  book includes a series of clever riddles (most of which I was not clever enough to solve).

Gluten Free Flour Recipe

What do you know. It's been over a year since I visited here. If we ignore the year in the post date, we can pretend it's been just a little over a week.

I've been experimenting with new things, like this latest illustrated recipe I submitted to They Draw and Cook (you can view it larger on their site here). I tried a lot of gluten free flour mixtures, and so far this one I came up with has the nicest taste and texture all across the board. Best of all, it's easy to make in any size batch. I thought I'd post it for anyone else who may be experimenting (and getting frustrated) with going gluten free.

I've also been experimenting with color palettes. I noticed that although I've tried many styles and mediums, I pretty much stuck with a favorite combination of colors. Time to get out of my comfort zone a little.

Mixing things up a little is good. In fact, it's been so long since I've written a blog post, it feels entirely new again! Yep, it has been that long.

Calculus Tutor

Recently I designed an icon and ads for a calculus app for the Android Market. It's an interesting challenge to design something that looks good at a variety of sizes and screen resolutions, especially knowing it'll end up on a small device. Plus, with so many apps out there to choose from, I really wanted my Calculus Genie to stand out.

For any of you math types out there, the app is a handy calculus reference - anyone studying or using calculus should go check out the Calculus Genie at Google Play.

When So-So Will Have to Do

Here's the first of nearly 300 slides I want to put in a family slide show. It's my mom at her bridal shower. Nice haul, by the way - just look at that bin full of gifts! Unfortunately, this slide show has been far too long in the making.

During one rainy summer in Long Island, I went through thousands of old family slides (about 25 years worth) and narrowed them down to two slide reels. We got out my parents' dusty old projector, put on some music, and showed them on a bare white wall by the staircase. Then I carted them home with plans to scan them and create a DVD, music and all, to share with the family. Another great project for a rainy day.

That was eight years ago. Obviously we don't get many rainy days here. We've had our share of stormy times, though, and the slides were left to gather dust under my bed.

I finally dragged them out and enlisted my son's help in scanning them. He tore through both reels in a matter of days. Too bad we didn't notice in time that our scanner doesn't go up to a high enough dpi to make good quality scans from slides. Now I have to decide whether or not to go ahead with the project as is, hoping to pass off that grainy, old-timey look as "arty." I had to add a large black border to prevent the image from being blown up far enough to look like a hot mess of colored tiles.

So, what'll it be? Is a half-baked slide show better than no slide show at all? I could wait until I can afford to have them professionally done. Or I could wait until I can afford a new slide scanner AND find time to scan them all over again. I have a feeling if I wait for either of these options, the project will be on hold until we're all too old to remember who the heck any of those people are.

My Summer Bucket List

I think I can handle this.

Tee Shirt Fix

The trouble with brand new solid colored tees is they don't always stay new-looking for long. I'm forever trying to find ways to keep them out of the rag pile. Here's my quick fix for one that fell victim to a cooking spatter:

First, I hung the shirt in the shower and spritzed it all over with a diluted bleach solution (a.k.a. shower cleaner). I wanted to soften up the background color and give it a faded tie-dye look. After rinsing and drying, I lined the inside of the shirt with plastic and painted the design on with bleach. I went for the quick and easy approach and just winged it with a brush, but I think a stencil would work well for a more precise design.

After washing and drying, the design will be lighter. I like the faux batik look - and it occurs to me it might be nice to paint on another color using fabric dye. Lucky for me I'm kind of a klutz...no doubt I'll have more chances to experiment with the technique!

Seriously

What quirky impulse grabs your attention away from everything?

Century Schoolbook and a Flashback

I’ve been updating my portfolio to include some of my recent work. I’m pretty happy with the way this type poster turned out. Since the font was designed in the early 1900s with textbooks in mind, I wanted it to have an old-timey book feel to it.

A funny thing happened while I was searching for information on Century Schoolbook. I came across this picture on etsy:

Right away I had that skin-tingly feeling that I’d seen this before. When I peeked at some of the inside pages, I knew I was revisiting my first grade reader. The picture came up in my search because Century Schoolbook was designed for Ginn & Company, the same publisher of these elementary school readers.

I just love it when something unlocks a memory from a dark little recess of your brain. You never know what’ll pop up next. 

Response Fail

It was my intention to respond right away to all your considerate, helpful, supportive, encouraging comments on my last post. Since I was getting ready to leave on a mini vacation last week for Spring Break, I attempted to send personal responses by email. Unfortunately, in my hurry to get everything ready, I sent the replies before realizing some of you have no-reply email addresses.

Rather than try to figure out to whom I actually responded, I’m hoping you’ll forgive this considerably less personal mass thank-you, because you understand I’m still in a post-travel stupor and have about fourteen loads of laundry left to do.

Actually I’ve wondered how to adapt to the whole commenting thing, now that people seem to be spending more time on Facebook and less time blogging. I think responses to comments are nice, but on the other hand I don’t really expect people to have time to check back for one. I think somehow social networking keeps creating new ways to be socially clueless.

Anyway, between all your uplifting comments AND several days away from home with almost no responsibilities, I’m having trouble getting back to reality. I’m feeling like this big kitty we spotted at the Living Desert Zoo in Palm Desert:

I could really go for a nap. Followed by a snack. Followed by another nap.

What's Next?

First of all, I really appreciated the comments cheering me on. Second, I didn’t win. Not only didn’t I win, I also had the pleasure of paying a fortune to replace a busted water heater the same day the results were posted. So much for dreaming of little extras. This came after a week sprinkled with family disappointments, so…no point dwelling on it. You can see all the illustrations I’ve submitted so far to They Draw and Cook here. I also have a map posted on They Draw and Travel. I did really have fun working on them – I’m sure I’ll feel inspired to do more.

Now, on to other things. One thing I planned to focus on this year is trying to drum up some illustration work. At the beginning of the year I bought a copy of the Artist’s and Graphic Designer’s Market, and was all fired up to tear through it, highlighter at the ready. Unfortunately, I got a little discouraged going through the listings. Most wanted such specific things – one wants only wooden boats, another traditionally rendered vegetarian food…you get the picture. My highlighter barely got a workout on the first pass. It’ll take some digging to work up a decent mailing list.

Since one of my interests is illustrating book covers, plan B was to visit the bookstore in search of publishers that might be a match for my style. This plan produced a long list, but once I started researching individual publishers I noticed that as with writing, few houses accept unsolicited artwork. I'm caught in a familiar catch-22: you can’t get anyone to look at your work unless you’re already established, and you can’t get established because no one will look at your work. Or, you can manage to find time to produce work or to promote your work, but not both. Even though this is kind of a new start, I’m not a total newbie to the art and design world. I feel like I’ve at least paid some dues, but I'm back at square one.

If this sounds like whining, it isn’t meant to be. I’d just like to work! While I’m trying to figure out plan C (along with school, a tiny amount of freelance work and the usual abundance of other craziness), here’s a promotional postcard I started working on:

Where and how to send it, that’s another matter. It helps me to remember we’re always in transition – a thought summed up by a phrase I just heard in an Understanding Buddhism class: we are always practicing for what we will become next.

Yes, I Do Want to Win

After planning to focus on something besides illustrated recipes, they announced a big contest on They Draw and Cook. I entered two illustrations and thought I’d do what I always do - keep quiet about it. That way I could: A) not jinx it; and B) pretend it didn’t really matter anyway.

I’m questioning the value of this strategy. I’m pretty sure I’ve never swayed an outcome by keeping my mouth shut, or felt better by lying to myself. I conclude that this strategy stinks. So for the record, let me state that I would really prefer to win.

To say the last few years have been tough is an understatement. I’m ready for good news. I fantasize about what I’d do with the prize money. This mama needs a spa day. Should my treatments involve hot rocks or some form of wax? Could I actually treat my family to dinner someplace that doesn’t have freakish cartoon mascots? And let’s face it - Mama would really like to feel accomplished at something other than knowing forty-something ways to prepare potatoes.

If you’re interested, you can follow the link to browse through the Kraft Foods contest entries. New entries are added daily. No doubt I’ll be checking back regularly to recalculate my odds of winning. Doesn’t everyone do that?

If I don’t get a mention, I’ll probably go into the kind of slump that has me licking peanut butter laced with chocolate chips off a spoon while questioning my direction in life. Then I’ll get over it, and move on to the next thing.

So whatever happens, it’ll be okay.

But it would really be so much better if I win.

Marzipan Recipe

I noticed I get a lot of traffic to my blog, particularly in the springtime, for a recipe I posted years ago for Marzipan Easter Eggs. Since it seems to be a popular one, I decided to illustrate it for They Draw and Cook. It turned out to be as much fun drawing and coloring the eggs as it is to roll and shape them out of edible clay!

Click on the following link to see the entire illustrated marzipan recipe.

My original blog post, with photos of the finished confections, can be seen here.

If you have any special Easter or springtime traditions, I'd love to here about them!