flower power

HAPPY FRIDAY! Oh man, did you ave a good week? My Trader Joe's finally has strawberry Kefir back in stock, so that was my big win.

JK GUYS, I've been hard at working doing a TON of promo work. After I made this baby shower invitation for my etsy shop I realized it might also work great as a ~*~*~motivational quote~*~*~ to send to potential clients, so I worked that up! Don't you feel the good vibes coursing through your veins? 

Alsooooo - can you believe it's June? I MEEAANNNN when did this happen? Perhaps it was the whole "planning a wedding at the speed of light" thing, but I am feeling like this year has been flying by.

To celebrate such a thing, here are some photos from lyfe.

fun outings & tasty eats: Mini Golf at the Arroyo Seco Golf Course, exploring Graystone Mansion, egg sammies at Eggslut, donuts at California Donuts.

stuck on you

It's been about a year since I whipped up those Easter downloadables, and with Valentines/Galentines/Anna Howard Shaw Day very very fast approaching I figured it was time to do another little set of freebies!

You like birds? You like cats? You like LAHV? We'll you're in luck, these stickers celebrate all three of 'em. I used one to fancy up a little baked good gift, but you could use them to seal envelopes for LAHV LETTERS or something! The world is your oyster. 

You can download the file for freeeeeee here, and if you want to be really fancy you can buy Avery's #22807 Round Labels, for which I formatted this file to print perfectly on. 

AND, finally, if you'd like to put these stickers on your blog I only ask that you link back to this post and mention my name. If you post a picture of these stickers in action on instagram you can totally tag me in the picture, I'll give you ALL THE LIKES.

here they all are! lil' babiesssss

date book

I've been working on several wedding invitation projects for the past few months - they've been such a blast and I'm lucky enough to know at least one person out of every couple, so of course that makes them even more special. They're all wrapping up (except for my brother's wedding suite, which you'll get to see later!) so I thought I'd post a couple!

Each one of these features some hand lettering, which is what really draws me to custom wedding invitations. If this is what you think you want in your wedding invitation (or baby shower invitation or 80th birthday party invitation etc etc etc) you should contact me! 

p.s. We've successfully arrived in LA! Once my head stops spinning I'll be sure to post about it.

band together

Here's a project that's near and dear to my heart. Fair Oaks is an amazing band out of Minneapolis, two of whose members also happen to be buddies of mine! When Molly and Andy came to me to see if I'd do their album art for This Is The River clearly the answer was yes. They were pretty open to the look of the art, but after giving some early cuts of a few songs a listen I felt like the whole thing just came together! That photo in the background is totally a polaroid I found at an antique store by the way - there was nothing else in the shot ... just that tree trunk. 

there are also totes and t-shirts available!

Seriously though, this album is worth giving a spin and then enthusiastically buying. You could go for my favorite track (THE CLAPS) or you could check out this awesome lyric video for another stellar song that my awesome fella made for them! 

The CD release show was last weekend, so all of this is fresh in my mind. The album is already getting a lot of positive spin, and I couldn't be more happy for them!

on the run

2014 is the year of the horse, but it's also the year of change for this moi. Yes, there was the whole "got engaged" thing, and now I've got another bomb to drop: we're moving! Come March we're packing up our beloved studio apartment and shuttling off across the country to Los Angeles.  Obviously I'm excited beyond comprehension, but I'm going to miss all of my wonderful friends here. They've become more like family, and it'll be hard to say goodbye to all of the charms of the Twin Cities. We'll be visiting plenty, luckily!

So starting now it's bucket list / road trip playlist planning / apartment and job hunting time. If anyone has any leads on some cheap cheap livin' in LA (Los Feliz preferably) let me KNOW. I'll be taking a mini mini trip in February to hopefully secure a place with the help of my spirit guide Katie.

In other totally unrelated news (except for the fact that I'm pretty sure he lives nearby the neighborhood we're looking at) I have finally arrived on the Donald Glover/Childish Gambino boat. Well folks, I'm here to tell you that if you haven't heard it already you absolutely must give Because The Internet a chance.

current events

  recent things: badges from Jen / it was colder in Minnesota than it was in Antarctica last Monday, so....
Hello again, world! I don't have a physical list of new years resolution anywhere, but I guess I should probably try to keep up with the blog. It's not as though I'm doing this professionally or even regularly, but it's a nice practice and I get a lotttt of satisfaction from going through my archives and remembering stuff from years ago. Does anyone else do that? Am I crazy? Bueller?

Anyway, the year has continued to be pretty great so far. I made quesdillas twice last week, which is a definite sign of success. Coming in at a close second for greatness was this little feature in Communication Art's typography annual:

All kidding aside, it was seriously so great to see my name alongside all the cool folks at Colle + Mcvoy. This project continues to be one of my dreams come true, so I'm feeling super blessed to have been able to work on it. Insert hands high emojicon herrreeeee~~~~

If all this career talk bores you, why not check out this most glorious moment I managed to catch on the Golden Globes last night? Some people seem to be insinuating that Diddy was stealing the moment, but they're just jealous that they didn't get to be on a boat with him.

merry & bright

I've been in Michigan for the past couple days, celebrating birthdays and holidays, last minute shopping and eating my heart out. In case you are jealous here's a recipe to start you on your journey to replicating Emma's Holiday Season 2013.

class act

When I signed up to take Lila Roger's Make Art That Sells class I was still working from home every day and wanted a little something to challenge myself. I'd seen a lot of amazing work practically pouring out of my peers taking the class and thought to myself "heck, sounds like it's time I took a crack at it".

And then I started that contract job in downtown Minneapolis that sees me leaving the apartment at 7:30 AM and not coming home till about 6:45 PM... the very same week that Lilla's class started. I'm not going to lie guys, a lot of my assignments (and by a lot I mean all of them) have been completed the day before they were due. I really really want to take all that I can from the class but unfortunately I also have a few small freelance gigs that also require my attention.

But I'm still mostly happy with what I've been creating, so I thought I'd give my blog a little looksee. Above is the very first assignment, bolt fabric with a vintage kitchenware and berry theme! It was so much fun, I'm thinking about making prints or cards of it!

 

The second assignment was to make art for fancy plates using bromeliads as our inspiration. I wound up liking my sketches a LOT better for this one - part of the problem being that I hardly ever like plates with actual art on them... but it was a learning experience nonetheless!

Last week's assignment, a spread for a children's book based on a Russian fairytale. I tried keeping some of my sketch in the final piece at Bryan's suggestion and was really surprised with the outcome. Guess I'll have to play around with that technique some more!

As per usual I'm running VERY behind on this week's assignment... guess I should spend less time blogging and more time working on that, huh? WHOOOOOPSSSS.

inspire/invite

I'm really starting to get into stationery, folks. A few wedding invites under my belt and now I want to do it all. It allows for hand drawn type and fun colors and cute things. So yesterday I decided I was going to challenge myself by making a small trend board for a theoretical party and then create an invite to go along with it.

It was so much fun. SO MUCH FUN, this is the kind of thing that I think is fun. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!

Just kidding! Nothing is wrong with me, I just like drawing fun fall harvest party things. And hey - if you're planning on hosting a harvest party you're in luck, because this baby has a nice big empty box for you to fill in the details via photoshop/word/mspaint/a pen.

Download the hi-res file here here (sorry for anyone who encountered a broken link! I fixed it. -Emma From the Future) for all your pumpkiny party needs! And then invite me to the party so I can try that roasted veggie pizza!

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pie chart

Last week I got an e-mail from Annie asking me if I wanted to help her make typographic pies. How could I say no? Lettering and desserts... it's too good to be true!

So I came up with some designs on the fly and made my way to her adorable apartment in Minneapolis and we scrapped some fancy pies together! 

A pro tip to everyone who wants to try this at home: maybe try a simpler design than I came up with at first, or try something on a flatter pie. The peach and apple pies were ever so difficult to get perfect.. and don't get me started on the intricacies of baking the negative spaces inside the letters separately!

Instead let's just admire all the gorgeous photos that Annie took...

We gave up on the pie above after having tested a few others - this one would've been impossible to read if I had cut out the crust, so we dusted it with cinnamon! WIN.

bonus! some behind the scenes photos I took on my phone...

 

pattern pals #2: vday

I have a new pattern for PATTERN PALS! Katie and I decided it would be too much fun to pass on a v-day themed pattern. Mine is of the French variety, avec les macarons et les... hand drawn type. And you know what patterns means right? FREEEEEBIEEESSSSS:

iphone wallpaper / ipad wallpaper / seamless tile

This time around I'm also going to point you towards my brand new (very tentative, I have to admit I don't know exactly what I'm doing here) Society6 shop! That's right, you can buy an iphone case or a greeting card WITH THIS VERY PATTERN ON IT! Say whaaaa...

 

Check out Katie's pattern - she's givin' ya TWO for the price of ONE!

love-love

Over coffee and cookies at Parka (A+, have to go back for food!) my "art husband" Bill and I came up with the idea of releasing a Perfect Pair font in time for Valentine's Day. Since neither of us have the necessary software to make system fonts, our little baby handset font was born. Perfect Pair The Font is an all caps collection of vector letters; each letter has two versions, one for Bill and one for me!

We made a few extra swatches and faces, so you can go to town on making your perfect valentine's day card!! Seriously, as long as you have a vector editing software like Adobe Illustrator it will be SUPER EASY for you to make a valentine - for instance I just went onto my instagram feed and found a nice picture, came up with a punny line, slapped a few extra bits on there and VOILA. Ch-ch-check it out:

Not a valentine's person? Worry not, we think this font will work for a lot of applications. And hey - it's ONLY A DOLLAR. That's right. We wanted as many people as possible to be able to afford this without making it totally free, so get this font while you can!

grounded

HEYO! You may have seen this over your social networking instawhats or facethings, but the font I designed for Caribou Coffee has officially debuted! I was so excited to have the opportunity to work on another font again - and especially in a style that I feel super comfortable in. It's also pretty crazy to look down at my latte (no flavor shots please!) and see something I drew. Go, little font! Live your new exciting life!

I collected a few images from the website, e-mail blasts, and from the cups themselves for my lil' bloggie...

another cup (thanks for the photo kate!) / coffee packaging / some instore signage / font on the website!

Anyway, I hope someday I can do another project like this. Currently I'm researching font creation softwares - Fontgrapher is the only one I've used, so if anyone has any opinions on the matter PLEASE!!! let me know. 

p.s. I changed my header! Nothing crazy, but it needed a little update. 

party lines

Awwwww yiss, it's December. Time to be FESTIVE. Time to BAKE SOME COOKIES AND WRAP SOME PRESENTS. And, best of all, TIME TO GO TO SOME HOLIDAY PARTIES. I love me some holiday party fashion - there's no other time of the year when sparkles and gold and more sparkles are SO socially acceptable. To me, at least. 

So, let's imagine our dream holiday party outfits! This year I'm thinking it might be fun to add lime green (instead of pink or coral) into the mix. What say you? I whipped up two versions (cheapish and spendy) for your viewing pleasure...

CHEAP / dress / headband / clutch / hairpins / shoes / rings

SPENDY / earrings / top (can't find the one in the photo, which is Michael Kors, but there's a similar one here) / skirt / shoes / purse

prints charming

Have you heard of Minted? It's a pretty good website to get completely sucked up into, only to come out an hour later dreaming about baby shower invitations and moving announcements - even though you're in no way planning on having a baby OR moving. 

The nice thing is that they sort of have a Threadless-style system going, with themed challenges for artists and designers to submit too... with promises of prize money and a cut of the profits if you're picked! Obviously there are more direct ways to make money as an artist, but I sort of like the homework-esque feel to these challenges. After all, the pressure of a deadline always works well for me.

So here's my little plea, oh Dear Lovely Readers of My Blog. Would you go vote for my submission to their latest art print challenge? I'm quite happy with what I came up with, and hopefully you are too!

And even if you don't vote for it, at least go look around. There's a lot of fun stuff to find, and a lot of talented people contributing!

hand maiden

Isn't the internet great? Thanks to the internet I met Lisa and got to work on a cover for her amazing chapbook, thanks to the internet we kept in touch, thanks to the internet we started scheming about something pretty cool. Seeeecrreettsssss......

While scheming, Lisa invited me to do something else with her: the Analog Challenge! In a twist of fate, this project is about doing something weekly for the entirety of June off of the internet (and then, of course, logging back on and reporting about it on our respective blogs). Spending all my time on a computer has changed the way I think and create, and that's a double edged sword.

I'll still be online and probably creating things digitally this month as well, but each week I'm going to take care to enjoy myself away from my computer. You should do it, too! I mean, look at these things that I'm going to attempt:

For this week: cook something new out of a *gasp* COOKBOOK. I know, I won't have the endless chasm of my recipe board on Pinterest, I'll have to pick something from a finite book. It's going to be great....

Okay this one's cheating, since I've already started taking photos with a film camera AND posting them here. Instead, I think I'll either order some polaroid film and use that instead of Instagram for a week OR learn how to use this fancy camera we have stashed away somewhere.

This one might seem like cheating too, but I honestly haven't made full illustrations outside of a computer in ages. It's going to be a big challenge!

I'm not sure if I have too much for the whole month or not, but either way.. I want to write some people letters.... do you want a letter? I can write you one! SNAIL MAIL AND EVERYTHING.

(p.s. if I'm going to be doing all this painting and such, I'm going to really need a new scanner. I might be the only one that noticed this, but it has a BLURRY spot, which is really against the whole point of having a scanner.)