stuff about artstuff.

Be Bold.

"Be Bold for Change" is the theme for this year's International Women's Day.

Just taking a minute to honor all you women out there who have been putting yourselves out there, being bold. Those who have been marching and speaking out, empowering, resisting, PERSISTING . . . thank you.

A while back I posted a little drawing from my sketchbook on Instagram

and after receiving a few requests, I bethloganized that sketch

and now have it for sale now as a print in my Etsy shop.

More than ever we're all looking for a little peace these days, and for those of you who find peace in the meditative process of coloring I've got this: for the next couple weeks you can download this drawing (on me!) to print at home and color.

Just click here or on the picture for the full-size 8-1/2 x 11" jpeg.

A little "thank you" from me for being there, for persisting, being your beautiful selves. You go, girls. Keep being bold.

xoBeth

 

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Inkspirations!

You guys, I have been BURSTING to share with you one of the projects I've been obsessively busy with the past couple months! I've been lucky enough to team up with the amazing folks at HCI Books to create a super fun addition to their Inkspirations series of gorgeous adult coloring books (yay!). It's called Inkspirations for the Garden and it's full of my gardeny drawings for you to color.

This is just a sneak peek. The books officially hit stores on June 7, but stay tuned between now and then, though, because I'll be sharing sneak-peeky-ish goodies here, on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest including FREE digital downloads (yes, free pages for you to color!) and a fun little giveaway win free books (yay again!).

I was going to give you a little more of a sneak peek today but Lily had other ideas:

Oh and I forgot, did I say "yay!" yet? Just in case, yay!

Talk to you again soon!

xoBeth

Facebook Contest!

Hey there!

How would you like a nice little $10 coupon to use in the Etsy shop?

Today I'm (finally) launching into this whole holiday season thing with the first little giveaway (yay for giveaways!).

Just go to my Facebook Page and scroll down to the post with this little poster:

Leave a comment on that post, click "like" at the top of the page (if you haven't already) and you're entered! Want extra bonus entries in the drawing? Click to follow BethLogansArt on Twitter and BethLogansArt on Instagram, and your name goes in the hat an extra time for each!

Drawing ends Friday night at 8pm Pacific Time, so head over now and say hi and click - and you could soon be armed with an extra 10 bucks to spend on Small Business Saturday (or any other day, actually) in the Artstuff Studio Shop!

 

Last Chance (Winner Announced!)

As promised I put the names in a hat and drew a winner this morning, and the winner is (drum-roll please) Stacey Larson!  Stacey, please contact me privately at [email protected] or send me a private message on Facebook and I'll get your fabric bundle on its way to you!  Thanks to everyone who entered, I really need to do this more often, don't I?

Is it really here already?  That last holiday weekend of summer?  That last chance for family getaways before school starts, the last chance to wear white (is that even a rule any more? I'm too much of a klutz to wear white so I have no idea) ummm . . . what else? Well, it's my last chance for the little giveaway I'd sort of planned on doing - um, well (shuffles feet, mumbles) around the Fourth of July, and still get away with calling it a summer thing.

So here we go . . . let's have a giveaway, shall we?

You've seen my American Beauty fabric group.  You've heard me talking about it.  It's been around all year already - maybe you've even made something with it (if so I'd love to see pictures and share them in the gallery!).  It's been around long enough already that I just wrapped up final details on designs for a follow-up group.  Wait, what?!  That's a secret!  Sshhh, don't tell anyone yet!  I'll share more about this later, when it's official and details are available - but for now, this one's between me and you, ok?

So anyway, American Beauty has been on my mind again a little bit lately hah, who am I kidding, it's all I've thought about for weeks.  True story: I was out this past weekend seeing friends I haven't seen in months (it happens, not often - but it does). When asked "so what have you been up to lately?" I stood there with a blank look on my face and said, "I've been drawing paisley." Because honestly, that's all I could remember doing, ever.  Just.  Drawing.  Paisley.

Anyway, before I go and give away any more secrets about things no one is supposed to know yet, let's get back to this:

Here are some of my original watercolor and colored-pencil drawings I created last year, next to the actual fabric.

It's fascinating to me how my art translates to screen-printed cotton.

They do a beautiful job, don't they?

Um? Get to it Beth, you mentioned a giveaway?

Oh yeah, that's what I'm doing here.  Something shiny always catches my eye...

So how would you like an extra-bonus fat quarter-bundle of American Beauty?*  "Extra-bonus" because it not only includes all 18 coordinates, but 2 24-inch panels as well.

Oh what fun you could have making stuff with this!

To enter the drawing for this bundle, just leave a comment on this post, and tell me what your favorite thing has been about this summer.  That's it!*

You have until Saturday night to enter, and I'll draw a name on Sunday morning.*

In the meantime, can we just discuss once again how long paisley takes to draw?  Humor me.  As if I hadn't mentioned it before.

Like, a really, really long time.  Really it does.  But I'll admit: I sort of really, really love doing it.  There's something so peaceful and meditative about obsessing over this kind of creative detail. I'm all about that.  Just don't try to make light, friendly, easy (or at all interesting) conversation with me afterward, or you'll be sorry you did.

Ok, I'll stop now - leave a comment, enter the drawing*, and enjoy your holiday weekend everyone!

xo

* for this giveaway I can ship to US addresses only please! Thank you!

Goodies for You

Hey everyone, have you been visiting the Henry Glass Blog all this week for the Naughty or Nice Holiday Party?  They're giving away bundles of fabric every day - this is the last day! 

Today I'm one of the featured designers along with Dana Brooks, Anni Downs, Jacquelynne Steves, and the Lizzie B girls.  I share my super-simple recipe for one of my old favorites: Hot Buttered Whatevers

and to top the whole thing off today's fabric bundle giveaway is from my American Beauty collection!

Go visit the blog now and enter to win!  And while you're at it, entertain yourself by reading everyone's fun answers to the "naughty or nice" questions with great photos and recipes!  Enjoy!

Have You Been Naughty or Nice?

Well, either way you're invited to hop over to the Henry Glass Blog for this year's fun holiday party.  It's going on all week - every day there's a new post with fun questions & answers with Henry Glass designers, festive photos, and a fabric bundle giveaway (a new giveaway every day! Go now! Win fabric! You know you want it!).

It's been going on all week already - I'll be joining the party myself later in the week (I'm sorry to admit it has always sort of been a bad habit of mine, showing up late to parties) but in the meantime, go check out the neato stuff and enter to win some awesome fabric!

Snow Babies Giveaway: Winners Announced!

I started cutting bundles yesterday

just for this.

You already know how we do this here on the Artstuff blog: print & cut out comments,

gather appropriate hat,

(um, "tidy up desk first" was apparently not part of this contest, sorry . . . welcome to my cluttered, messy life)

stir up names inside hat and pull one out:

Tami Potter!

Didn't I mumble something under my breath last week about maybe picking 2 names?  If I was in a good mood, or something like that?  Well, I'm not in a bad mood, so what the heck, let's pull out another entry:

Dee Lane!

Then Husband Guy walks by the door of the studio and suddenly takes an interest in what's going on in here, and talks me into drawing a 3rd name.  Says "he'll go to the post office to drop off the winners' packages", among other things.

Alright, I can't argue with that:

Mary Ann Hurt!

Thanks to everyone who played along this time, you guys always make me smile with your comments . . . really, you make this fun for me.

Tami, Dee, and Mary Ann, could you please send me your mailing addresses by emailing me privately at: [email protected] and I'll see that Husband Guy gets your packages off to you ASAP!

This contest was overseen by the Accountability Firm of

Crow,

Crow,

and Crow, LLC.

Oh, and . . . those grinning little bright orange guys in the background clutter on my desk?

In case you're wondering, they're Sockolanterns I made last week, and they're in my Etsy shop right now.

Well, It's About Time.

I mean, really.

Didn't I say I was going to do this back in July?

Yeah.  That's sort of how I roll these days.

But finally, here I am.

Because it was so foggy and cold this morning I wished I had worn mittens on our dog-walk.  Because I've already made (and we've devoured) 2 big loaves of pumpkin-blueberry bread in just 2 weeks.  Because every morning just before 6am I'm gently awakened then softly lulled back to sleep by the soft airy whir of the furnace starting to warm up the house for the day.  Because it's homemade soup and biscuit season and that's all I want for dinner every night.  Because last week the flannel bear bedding came out of summer-hiding and the bed is cozier than ever.  And because I've been threatening to do something similar to that with this flannel since . . . well, June.

Or maybe it's because I have a brand new little baby cousin named...

...Fox (welcome sweetie, I can't wait to kiss your warm little peachy baby-head!).

Because of all that and more, it's about flippin' time for me to finally give away a fat-quarter bundle of this cozy and cute flannel.

Just leave me a comment on this post: tell me something you like about fall.  Or fog.  Or flannel.  Or furnaces.  Or foxes.  Or anything you're liking this week; it doesn't even have to start with an F.  And that will enter you in the drawing to win a fat-quarter bundle of Snow Babies!

I'll draw a name next Thursday, October 17, and announce the winner on Friday, October 18.  Thanks for playing along! xo

"Life's a Beach" Winners Announced!

Thanks so much to those of you who entered this little giveaway, because reading each one of your comments made me smile - and I will have to remember to come back and read them again some time during the blah grey months of winter (and fall, and spring, and sometimes summer...).  What nice thoughts and happy memories.

So.  It's Sunday . . . and you know what that means.

Those of you who've followed this blog for a while are already familiar with my fancy, super high-tech methods when it comes to random name drawings.

I'm Old School.

Shake the hat around,

and . . .

winner #1: Tina KC!

winner #2: Leslie Morrison!

and last but certainly not least, winner #3: Lee!

Yay!

Tina, Leslie, and Lee: please let me know your mailing address in an email or a private Facebook message and I'll get your card set mailed off to you this week!

Life's a Beach!

Well, here we are already with summer in full-swing!  I hope you've been enjoying yours so far.  The weather's been lovely here but I seem to be getting a bit of a late start on the laid-back summer-celebrationy vibe myself, busy with work and other indoor distractions.  This doesn't really make sense, if you believe this page of my little sketchbook from January.

True story.

But then, one of those distractions has been a new family member.  Meet Ted, everyone.  Ted is a shy, mature gentleman who will come out for scritches

or a little catnip

but for now, is mostly content in his hidey-hole in the corner of my studio.

He's had a bit of an unstable life in the last couple years and had been at the shelter for several months, but we're hoping he starts feeling more at home here soon.  We've grown awfully fond of him in a very short time.

Outside the little studio, my funny little garden is in full-swing.

I'm gorging on raspberries right off the bushes daily.

They rarely, if ever, make it all the way into the house to be used in a recipe, or even washed, or shared for that matter.

We've been enjoying fresh salads

and other goodies

although the real stars, as far as I'm concerned, are yet to come.

I've enjoyed sitting in the back yard in the evenings, soaking in those moments between the sun disappearing over the trees on one side and the first stars coming into view on the other, watching our neighborhood bats quietly and gracefully working on pest-control (batspotting is a favorite summer-evening activity, and I'm a nerd about keeping track of what time and how long they flutter about nightly).

Everything around me is bursting with summertime goodness but for some reason, I have not yet been to the beach.

I know. 

What's with that?

Even if I haven't yet had a chance to get out to our cabin at the coast (just 3 short hours away!) seaplanes fly low over my house every day reminding me how close all the wonderful local inland beaches are.

It's a little pathetic that I've been landlocked like this here in my studio.  I know, I know.  So I thought maybe it's time for a motivatingly beachy-themed giveaway:

I'll be giving away 3 of these neato greeting card assortments from Leanin' Tree.

It's filled with 20 beachy-themed cards for whatever occasion might pop up this summer: birthday, friendship, thank you, anniversary, encouragement, even get well, for those seasonally-unfair ailments (isn't it the biggest rip-off ever to get a cold or flu on a beautiful summer day?).

Along with my fun "Birthday-Schmirthday" girls

there are summerlicious designs by Andrea Tachiera, Drew Brophy, Paul Brent, Postmark Press, and many more awesome Leanin' Tree artists.  20 cards I'm telling you!  20!

What a bunch of great designs.  These cards are all super colorful inside and out.

How much more summery can you get than this?!

Just leave a comment on this post telling me something that makes you happy about summer, this year or any, and you'll be entered to win a set for yourself.  I'll draw 3 names from a hat 1 week from today, on Sunday the 14th, and announce the 3 winners.

And while we're getting into the summery celebrationy beachy barbequey fun-in-the-sun spirit, there's a party going on all this week over at the Henry Glass blog!

We're all celebrating their summer releases with goodies and giveaways, head over to join the fun!  Did someone say free fabric?!  You know you want it!  These folks know how to throw a summer party - it's going to be great!

And happy summer, everyone!