I Have a Happy Announcement!

Hello Everyone!

I am back again after a very long hiatus.  There were a couple of reasons for this, the first was SUMMERTIME!!! WOOT!!! We have about ten weeks of nice weather here in Maine and this summer was absolutely beautiful! We were outside a lot in the sunshine. It was nice.

Here's the second (this is so cool) about a month ago, my friend Janel Messenger posted a message on my Facebook wall telling me that this site, Lil Blue Boo, was looking for contributors for digital items for their online shop. I should mention here that I didn't know about Lil Blue Boo... apparently I'm the only person who didn't  because she has a HUGE following. When I told my mom about it she said "Oh Lil Blue Boo! That's a great site! I've pinned stuff from there." Not that my mom isn't internet savvy, it's just that I'm usually the one saying "Oh, I know all about that." Lil Blue Boo was named one of Babble's top fifty craft blogs for two years running! Talk about feeling out of the loop! Zeesh!

The back of the "Clean Your Room Guide"... Keep reading.

I took a look around Lil Blue Boo and I just loved it! Ashley Hackshaw, the creator of Lil Blue Boo is both hilarious and uber-talented. I thought it would be awesome to be a contributor there, so I spent the next day throwing a portfolio page together. Then I composed an email and sent it off, fully expecting to get a "thank you but no thank you" reply. The next day, Lisa, who is the "behind the scenes" person, for Lil Blue Boo, emailed back and saying that they wanted me to be a contributor! I was/am over the moon!

I've spent these past few weeks in a designing frenzy! The first product to go live was my "Clean Your Room a how-to guide" which is available right now for $6.00 as a digital download. I worked so hard on that and I'm just thrilled that they wanted it!

There seems to be a lot of interest in it too. Which is awesome! Now I'm working on other lovely and useful items for the shop. This is just plain old fun :-)

I had hoped that I would be a contributor to a blog one day, but I had thought it would be writing not design. Truthfully, I couldn't ask for a more wonderful way to be a contributor! I feel so validated, first being a featured student over at Nicole's Classes and now this! I'm like Sally Fields at the Oscars "They like me, they really like me!" ;-) It's like being discovered, it's really, really cool.

Design is one of my favorite things to do. I am hoping that now that my designs will be in front of a larger audience, more people will want my work!

Many, many thanks to Ashley and Lisa, for selecting me! I'm overjoyed!

On another note, I am going to be making a few changes 'round these here parts, not the least of which will be moving Home Again Jog to my other blog url, heatherbdesign.blogspot.com (don't look yet, it's not designed). I need to be consistent with the name for marketing purposes but more on that tomorrow.

I will see you all then,
Heather

Featured Student

Hello Everyone,

Today is a very exciting day for me because your's truly is this month's featured student over at Nicole's Classes! I'm absolutely thrilled that they chose me! Thanks guys!

I've been taking classes over at Nicole's Classes since January, when I took Photography 101 and learned how to use my new camera in manual mode. I've been averaging about one to two classes every month since and it's just been a fantastic experience! I have learned SO MUCH! I can't say enough good things about my classes and my instructors:

Nicole Hill Gerulat - Photographer extraordinaire who taught my Photography 101 and Tabletop Photography Classes

Melanie Burk - Uber-talented graphic designer and teacher of my Typography class.

Mike Loveland - Who can not only do most anything with Photoshop but can explain how he did it.

Alma Loveland - Amazing graphic designer and my teacher for five classes now. She is the fastest email-answer-er in the west, with whom I have shared an uncanny similarity in seeing potential project possibilities. (Translation - we had the same idea... her version was better though)

Everyone over at Nicole's Classes is amazing. They know their schiz-nit, they have an obvious desire to see their students succeed, and they are extremely accessible, giving their thoughts, critiques, and encouragement. I highly recommend taking classes there.

They even have lots of free downloads and tutorials in all sorts of things related to photography and design. You should definitely pop over and have a look!

Thanks so much for featuring me, it's truly an honor!

So what am I doing with everything I've learned?

• Heather B Design is now open for business, I still have to build the website but I am taking clients. Check that out here.
• Home Again Jog for Etsy will be coming in September  (you can click over and see the nice empty storefront). That is where I'll have items that I've created for my home that I want to share, like the "Clean Your Room, a how-to guide"
• Heather B Design's Big Cartel Shop will be opening very soon ( yes, here's another empty shop... woot.) Here I will be selling some pre-made items for blogs and websites. First-up will be pretty social media buttons and some backgrounds.

I'm really jazzed to be moving ahead! Thank you guys for your support, it means the world to me!

See you tomorrow,
H

Suzani Prints

I have a thing about ethnic prints, like Indian block prints and Suzani prints, but I like them reinterpreted in modern colors with a modern flair.

This is the one that I posted yesterday, but with the updates that my Illustrator 102 instructor suggested:

I added some more little floral bits and some leaves.

So then I had the thought "Why don't a make a companion print with just the little flowers and leaves.

TA-DAH!!! What do you think?

I may have the start of a whole line...

Suzani Print

What I've been working on...

Yep, a new print inspired by Suzani prints.

What do you think?

Janel's New Identity

No, Janel isn't confused about who she is. She actually knows herself very well which is a very fortunate thing for me because Janel asked me to create a brand for her blog, Janel Messenger. It's been fun!

I've been a Graphic Designer for a long, long time. Waaay back in 1995 I was using the newest version of Corel Draw to make graphics for the manuals that my father-in-law, a technical writer, was writing. Drawing reverse osmosis machines was stimulating... OK, not really, but at least I gained a lot of practice with the pen tool. In 1999 I started taking design clients and I've been designing off and on ever since.

My favorite projects are the ones just like the project I'm doing for Janel, creating logos and identities for businesses that I "get" and I really get Janel. A big part of what I do is climbing inside the heads of my clients to figure out how to represent their businesses visually. Janel is a lover of fashion, sewing, romance, roses, red lipstick, Jane Austin, polka dots, high heels, & floral fabrics.

Sometimes my clients present me with a dichotomy that I have to reconcile. Janel was one of those. I was having a hard time combining Jane Austin, romance, floral fabrics, and her Edwardian sensibility with high heels, red lipstick, polka dots, and her other preference for a 1940's style. How to combine 1940's with Edwardian, hmmmm.

In order to circle in on her aesthetic, I decided to have her create outfits on Pinterest to see what her "look" might be. It's interesting to see what avenue I can use to get where we need to go. For Janel her love of fabrics and fashion was the route to see how to combine 1940's with Edwardian. She embraced the project wholeheartedly! BTW, you can follow Janel on Pinterest right here.

Here is Janel's original logo:

She made this herself. It's very nice! She really liked the J in the Janel and the burgundy color.

Our first stop after the Pinterest project was to choose a lovely typeface. After an extensive search we finally selected one that was perfect. Then came the search for the color palette, which Janel solved with her favorite fabric. I pulled her palette from the swatch and Voila! We also used it as the background for her business cards & Facebook cover banner. So after several iterations and adjustments we came up with this:

TA-DAH!!!! We have a pretty "J," the burgundy, colors from her fabric, a rose, and the lovely typeface that she choose!

Next we created her business card:

That's her favorite fabric right there. I also selected a complementary typeface for Janel to use as the body text for her written materials. I added the stitching, because she sews.

Today I made her a facebook cover.

Pretty huh?

Now we're making a blog banner, hang tags, blog buttons, blog labels, and other items to give her a completely coordinated look. WOOT! Such fun!

I've added Janel to my blogroll and I hope you'll have a look!

Thanks for working with me, Janel!

See you tomorrow,

H

* Yes, Janel gave me permission to blog about her ;-) *

So Ironic - Cleaning Instructions From Yours Truly

Hello Everyone,

Are you still here? I've been watching my readership decline a little lately, which makes me sad, but then it occurs to me that one way to avoid having that happen is to post something more than once every other week ;-) I mean, why would you read the same post fourteen times? You wouldn't, that would be weird, right? It's like going to the doctor's office and reading year-old magazines. Even if the articles are good it's still boooooriiiing.

So I'm back with a brandy new post. Hooray!!! At least I hope it's "hooray" and not "meh" You've read this far so I must be rating better than "meh" (I hope.)

I've been taking classes upon classes so I decided to create a project that was a culmination of the material I've learned in InDesign 101, Principles of Good Design, Making Patterns in Illustrator, Making Ornaments in Illustrator and the first couple of lessons of Illustrator 102 all of which I've taken with Nicole's Classes.

I was inspired by this info-graphic created by my lovely instructor Alma Loveland. I saw the "How To Do Your Own Laundry" poster that she made and had my very own "ah ha" moment. I am forever telling my children to go clean their rooms and they invariably stand in the middle of their rooms with no idea what to do or where to start. To remedy this situation I made a set of postcards with detailed "Clean Your Room" instructions. They are meant to be held together by a ring in the corner so they can hang them on a hook on their wall to keep them handy.

Here is the cover:

It's important to establish what the cards are for right from the get-go. I wouldn't want them to be confused.

Tools and tips for cleaning... It's almost like I know what I'm talking about.

There are some very wise families who don't let food in the bedrooms so they can skip this step. We are not very wise so there are always dishes.

I decided to be silly with the items that belong other places. We have never actually had a shovel or a blender in a kid's bedroom, in case you were curious.

For the record, that hamper full of clothes took me forever to draw.

There are nine steps in all. Here is the last page containing the final "finishing touches" I almost put "Now don't mess it up again!" at the bottom but I know that would be an exercise in futility. There will always be another mess.

Here's the back. Moo lets you have twenty separate images on the fronts of the cards and one image for the back for $19.99 for twenty postcards. That's a set for each kid so that works out well. I was thinking of selling these on Etsy. I may do that yet, I assume other parents have children who need instructions for cleaning their rooms. 

I'll post a pic of the finished product when I get it. My kids are SO EXCITED about this! No they're not.

Oh, the irony? I'm a really messy person, so those who know me will have a good laugh at this. They will probably suggest that I follow my own advice. They won't be wrong either.

See you tomorrow,

Heather

Liberty Prints

Here are the rest of my photos from my Tabletop Photography class at Nicole's Classes.

I know that "lol" means "laugh out loud" but whenever I read that, the first thing I see is "load of laundry" (I think that's because I'm a mom) and the second thing is see is "Liberty of London." Weird, right?

I got these LoL (ha ha) quarter yards from Purl Soho, I was going to use them for a design project, but now I'm not sure. I love these fabrics, they're even prettier in person.

I think these three are my favorites!

I'm slowing down on the blog a little... honestly, I'm feeling a little discouraged. I'm in stasis, kind of a holding pattern, but I don't feel like I'm getting further and I don't know what to do about it. Silly, I know, but I'll get past it, I always do :-)

I will see you Tuesday. Hun is taking Monday off so we can get ahead on some projects. That sounds good to me!

H

My "kate spade" Photo Shoot

OK, not really. It was my homework assignment for my Tabletop Photography class to pretend that we were doing a shoot for kate spade. I love kate spade so I had a lot of fun with this assignment!



There is my fabulous kate spade bag that I got for 60% off on the sale section of her site. That's the only way I could afford one of her bags. If you like kate spade but find her pricey, look on the sale section on her site. kate is all about stripes and travel so I wanted to include that in the pic. That rose in my bag was made from duct tape by Lu.

kate spade has a cute description of "kate" which starts with "She's Quick and Curious" but since I used Alice in Wonderland I added "and curiouser" to it. kate loves paper straws & reading. Those are my semi-beat-up kate sunglasses. I was fortunate enough to have three kate items in the house.

Here's a shot for her Twirl perfume, the box is really beat-up too (that happens a lot in this house). I decided to make this shot more ethereal. How do I know what kate likes? She tells you right here. This was so much fun!

The second part of the assignment was to take a photo for a magazine cover. I was thinking something like Country Living UK. I will be reviewing Sania Pell's new book next week. It's fantastic!

Doing projects for other people is fun but this week's assignment is to do five portfolio shots for myself. I'm looking forward to that too!

I will see you Monday!
H

Invitation for Typography Class

Continuing with the "posting schtuff I'm doing for class" theme, here is an invitation that I had to make for typography. Again, you can only use two typefaces (there are six fonts in two typefaces in the invitation below) one serif and one sans serif.

I'm pretty happy with it, I think it's fun and colorful. Again, I am always surprised at the nearly infinite variety of options you have even when you're so limited in the elements. Sometimes I think it's actually easier to design something when you have some constraints. Looking at a page where you can do anything kind of blows my mind sometimes.

I've also stopped trying to create my own palettes. there are people who are so much better at creating palettes than I am. For the invitation above I pulled the colors from this photo:

Which also happens to be a super-awesome project over at Little Bit Funky. I LOVE her color choices! So when I saw it I decided to sample all of them for the invitation. I may have to make these sometime, I think they are fab.

I used this palette from Design Seeds for Isaac's Pooch on the Move card:

She is just so incredibly talented! I will probably never make my own palettes again, I can't do it better!

I'll be back later today with the Photo Friday Challenge!

Happy Friday to you!!!

H

Pooch on the Move

I'm taking a typography class with Nicole's Classes and, as usual, it's great! I HIGHLY recommend it!

I've learned some very interesting things, for example, did you know that fonts are not actually fonts? Noooooo, they are "typefaces" a font is the specific weight and size of a typeface. So Ariel is the typeface and Ariel italic 15 pt. is the font. What I also did not know is that graphic designers who have had typography classes may snicker derisively at someone who uses the words "font" when they should say "typeface." Sort of the way the students who took music theory snickered at someone who called Wagner, Wagner or how the sophisticated smirk when someone calls a faux pas a fox pass as though calling a faux pas a fox pass is a faux pas (sorry, had to). Anyway, now you know, it's a typeface, not a font. Now you can go forth and use correct terminology!

Anyway, one of this week's homework assignments was to create a business card using only fonts. It had to be one serif and one sans serif and no other design elements. That's kind of a challenge for me because I fancy myself to be more of an illustrator, so type-only usually looks like it needs something to me. Anyway, in an effort to combine my classwork with other projects, I decided to make a card for Isaac who wants to have a dog-walking business called "Pooch on the Move." Actually, I'm very proud of that name, it just came to me and Isaac liked it. That never happens to me, usually I agonize over naming things.

So here it is, my text-only business card, both front and back, for Pooch on the Move.

The front

The back

What do you think?

See you tomorrow!
H

In Design

As you can see from yesterday's post I've got a lot going on. I want to write posts but I feel like my days are pretty full, you know what I mean? Of course you do, who isn't busy all of the time. I was feeling somewhat stressed about how I was going to add a blog post to my list when I had an apostrophe... (Smee's version of "epiphany" in Hook.) I'll write posts about what I'm doing for clients and in classes and stuff. It's ready-made blogging material. It may not be riveting reading but... Maybe you'll find it interesting.

Right now I'm baking firewood in my oven a 350 degrees. It's wet and takes sixteen newspapers to get it to light. Baking it actually works, I have not burned the house down yet so that's good... Stop laughing.

Any-hoo, right now I'm taking an In Design 101 class at Nicole's Classes. I'm making a set of calling cards for the young people in my life. I'm doing five designs with five variations of each. Here are three with the phone numbers blurred, they are not blurred in real life (you probably guessed that). The polka-dot is for the backs.

TA-DAH! I think I'm going to sell these on Etsy. I'm having fun with my class.

See you tomorrow,
H

Class Review & A Very Special Printable

Important Announcement: Home Again Jog will be going offline in the middle of October. This printable is now available on Heather B design on the right under "Freebies" Thank you! H.

I am made this poster for my daughter, using techniques I learned in the classes.

Hello Everyone!

First of all, I made another printable to share. As some of you know, we're almost finished with Lucie's room. I wanted to make her a quote for her wall. She's fast approaching her teen years and I wanted something to help remind her, in the midst of all of the pressure to be pretty, to focus on who you are, not just what you look like. So here's a quote from Audrey Hepburn that I hope will help keep that in mind. The one I'm making for Lu is 18" x 24" but I made one for you that is 8" x 10." You can get it here and over on the right under "Freebies." Enjoy!

Now, onto the review!

I just finished two fabulous classes with Nicole's Classes. One was Illustrator - Making a Pattern and the other was Illustrator - Ornaments & Embellishments. *Funny aside, when I told Hun that I had signed up for the classes he was a little annoyed. He said "You don't really sew and why would you want to take a whole class on making ornaments?" He thought that it was sewing patterns and Christmas tree ornaments...*

This is Alma's site where she features
her amazing work. Have a look!

Anyway, these classes are fabulous! They are taught by the uber-talented Alma Loveland who is an Illustrator guru. Both classes are just packed with information and both could be subtitled "Easy Ways to be Awesome at Illustrator" because she shows you so many simple ways to accomplish really cool effects. I have been working with Illustrator for about thirteen years now but I spent a large portion of time saying "WOW! You can do that?!?!" *record scratch* "Hey wait, you can do that? I can't believe I didn't know you could do that! I can't believe how many hours I've spent doing that the long way!" (I think it's best to just get off that thought train right there - no need to tally the hours spent doing stuff the hard way). It's truly amazing how there are shortcuts to making almost anything in Illustrator... Well, except for those "soul sucking" swirly flourishes that our instructor so graciously taught us despite hating them passionately ;-)

In the patterns class we learned how to make simple repeat patterns, random repeat patterns, geometric patterns like honeycomb, diagonal lines, wavy lines and squares, and the coup de grace, damask (this is mine). Alma shows you very precise methods for getting the repeats to work. Some of the patterns are not at all intuitive, like the honeycomb. So when she showed us how it was done, I couldn't believe how simple it was, but I realized that I never would have figured it out on my own. Nothing is quite as cool as working with a design, creating a swatch and having the pattern actually work! I kept celebrating... Hun was not quite as excited as I thought he should be when I showed him the damask. "You don't understand, I DID IT." "I see that." He'd say... I wanted him to clap at least, or something, geez.

In the ornaments class we learned how to make symmetrical objects and tons of different flowers (freehand, live trace, polar grid, etc..) She showed us how to create all of the different brushes, including the pattern brush with the start, end, and both corners (yes, there are two). She opened our eyes to the wonders of the Appearance Panel and how to use it to create graphic styles. You know all of those cute frames that you see everywhere? This is the class where you learn how to make them. What you can do with the pattern brush alone will amaze you! The fancy border, the dotted border, and the flowers in the printable above are all made using the pattern brush. It looks like it takes forever but it's really quick!

Every class has materials that are incredibly useful. You can open all of the documents and see what she did to create all of the different things. She even gives you artwork to use if you don't want to make your own. Alma also critiques your work and is always available by email for questions.

There is one thing that is very important, you must have an understanding of Illustrator to take these classes!  Alma is really wonderful about explaining everything that she's doing, but you will get more out of the class if you don't have to learn the basics. They say this right in the class descriptions, DO NOT be tempted to ignore it. Sign up for Illustrator 101 first.

The only wish that I have is that the embellishment class had some written instructions. The pattern class does, and you can save it all to reference later. The shear volume of information (which is awesome!) does make it difficult to remember. I took lots of notes but the instructions for the patterns class are concise. If they ever make a textbook for these classes, I will buy it immediately!

I loved these classes and I recommend them highly! I am hooked on Nicole's Classes! I'm signed up for a bunch more and I can't wait to take them. The only downside is that now I really want Adobe CS5... hmmm... And I want to redesign this blog (again) ;-)

Oh, and since I didn't take Illustrator 101, I'm ordering their textbook so I can be ready for Illustrator 102 later this spring! Their textbooks are wonderful too!

See you tomorrow!
H

HA!!! I DID IT!!!!

I made a damask. Yes my dears, I drew all that and made it repeat. I am feeling pretty happy with myself at the moment, like when you finally play a song perfectly or your recipe comes out just right. I'm in that head-space that the moment. My Illustrator pattern & ornament classes over at Nicole's Classes are paying off WOOT!

I made this to coordinate with this Serena and Lily print that I have for my room. I picked the color palette for my room from Design Seeds and I wanted something that brought all of the colors together in one place. TA-DAH! Mission accomplished.

That's a close-up of the print. The repeat is eight inches so it's pretty large. I'm going to have it printed at Spoonflower and then make it into some pillows or shams for my room.

Oh, I'm happy.

See you tomorrow,

H

Another pattern & 2,000 Pics

I'm zooming in to say a quick "hello" before getting sucked back into my classes again. I am LOVING these classes! Here is another pattern I made that is inspired by traditional Mendhi designs. I love Mendhi, Lucie got a Mendhi kit for Christmas last year and I gave it a try... as it turns out, I'm not very good at the practical application. It's truly an amazing art form! I can do Mendhi in Illustrator though, I have lots of opportunities to fix my mistakes (which is a good thing).

So, here's my pattern: (It looks better as an Illustrator file)

On another note, not even two months after I got my camera, I took my 2,000th picture. I wrote "take 2,000 pictures" on my 40 x 40 and now I can cross it off! That wasn't much of a challenge. I have to take a lot of pictures in order to take a good one. It's a good thing I don't shoot with film or this would get very expensive.

Until tomorrow!
H

Two New Classes!

Hi, I'm back. I just wanted to share two classes that I'm taking with you. One is Illustrator Ornaments and Embellishments and the other is Illustrator Making a Pattern. Both are with Nicole's Classes and both are absolutely awesome! They could be titled "The Easy Way to be AWESOME in Illustrator." Class started yesterday and I've already made two random repeat patterns and one symmetrical object, all shown below.

Nothing too fancy but still a lot of fun :-)

I can't tell you how simple this is! It's SO COOL! I'm going to be able to use these when I make websites and blog designs for clients. My very own patterned backgrounds and flourishes! How cool is that?

I'll be posting more of the things I make as I go through the class. I'm going to be learning how to make my own brushes, flowers and damask patterns.  I'm really excited!

See you tomorrow!
H

Photo Friday Challenge... On Tuesday

This week the theme of the Photo Friday Challenge, with Carly Robertson of The Simple Things Blog was LOVE. How does my darling daughter know how much I love her? Because I made sixteen pairs of heart-shaped cellophane sunglasses to go with her Martha Stewart "secret message" Valentines. Oh my, were they fiddly. She loved them though, and I love her. As my friend Sarah correctly observed "The things we do for our daughters."

My cutting skills were diminishing by the sixteenth pair... They are cute though. If you would like to make your own fiddly-yet-cool Martha Valentines, you can find them here.

And a Valentines lunch for my dear girl too. The heart shaped sandwich cutter was from Williams Sonoma but it appears to be gone now... Well boo.

Happy Valentines Day!!!
H


Up next - I'm finally going to review my Photography 101 course. It was good!

10 on 10

Hiya!

Yet another cute title from Carly's blog.

I'm participating in the 10 on 10 challenge over on Carly Robertson's blog The Simple Things. The challenge  is simple: pick one day and take ten photos of whatever you're doing throughout the day and then publish them on the 10th of the month.

Here are mine:

One of the sweaters on the sweater list (see # 3).
I'm almost one month into my 40 X 40, I need to knit faster...
No, that is not a tulip. How dare you accuse me of gratuitous tulip usage!

I got the blogging pages I made into my blogging binder. Now I just have to fill them out.

Maisy, trying very hard to ignore me. "What are you doing laying on the floor
with that thing on your face?" She seemed to say.

Not pretty. Hey, stoves are dirty but keeping the fire going is a big part of my day.

Lucie's pouf that I need to mend.
*Note to self* double-sew the seams on things used by kids.

The engine in the shrub in the backyard. It was a "present" left for us by the former owners.
It was scheduled to leave this weekend. but it's still here...
Oh well, it adds a touch of class to the yard.
This is an example of "framing," see I framed the lovely engine with the lovely branches.

The tree outside our house. It took a bunch of shots to get just that tree.

My sky scarf is progressing. See above for color reference.

Lucie watching Isaac play Skyrim. It gives me motion sickness but Lu seems to like it...

Day six of the month of bed-making (See # 38)
No, those aren't tulips either. I think you're seeing things.

That's my 10 on 10.

Two things that I am noticing as I'm learning photography: one is how much "schtuff" is in the background, at least in my house. I took the first pic of the bed and realized that I needed to clean off a whole bunch of stuff from around it and try again. Two, I am painfully aware of it when I've taken a really bad pic. I can't post them anymore. I wound up retaking a couple of these because they were either bad or boring the first time. It's a good thing.

I will see you tomorrow!

H