originals :: paper art & design

AT LAST! I’m back to work! Allen and I have been on a six week summer adventure to the west coast and back again! We traveled through ten states, drove over 9100 miles, participated in four official events (one triathlon, one half marathon and two bike rides) and visited numerous friends and family members along the way. It was perfect. Here’s a picture of my mom and I crossing the FINISH line of the Seattle to Portland (STP) bike ride. 202 miles in two days, the best way to wrap up our trip back home. I have lots of projects to post, so check back often.

It’s that time of year again. I designed these graduation announcements for another one of my nephews. I have ten (nieces and nephews) total… so I’ll have designed many when they’re all done with school. It’s my goal to make them all different and ORIGINAL! Imagine that!  Enjoy the recipe.

This is a slender folding card with a school mascot wrap keeping it closed. Slip the wrap off and it reveals the announcement and houses additional party information and/or pictures my sister decides to tuck inside.

Congratulations Brandon! Enjoy your final days of high school… because the real world is right around the corner!! See you soon.

Just a quick note to let my blog readers and inquiring clients know I’ll be out for a few days and doing my civic duty in the court house.  I’ll be a little slow in my communications, but don’t give up on me, I’ll get back to you as quickly as possible.  Have a great day!

I’ve been a little preoccupied the last few weeks and I apologize for neglecting my professional responsibilities. I’d like to share a little bit of my personal life with you… my beloved Charlie Brown.

Charlie Brown was my first dog as an adult and an extension of me for nearly 14 years. I was faced with the horrible decision of putting him to rest last week and it was the hardest decision I’ve had to make in my life (so far). Here’s a little something my father-in-law sent me when he heard the news. It makes me smile and cry at the same time.

If a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:
• When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
• Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
• Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
• Take naps.
• Stretch before rising.
• Run, romp, and play daily.
• Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
• Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
• On warm days, stop to lie on your back in the grass.
• On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
• When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
• Be loyal.
• Never pretend to be something you’re not.
• If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
• When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.
• Enjoy every moment of every day.

Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.

Rest in peace my Charlie Brown.

My sister came up with a fabulous gift for her guy for Christmas and recruited me to bring her thoughtful idea to life. Her guy is a snapshot photographer and loves to photograph flowers. She sent me her favorite photos (of his) to choose from along with the quote, “Earth laughs in flowers” by Ralph Waldo Emerson and told me to perform my design magic.  This is what I came up with:

I chose an old Polaroid picture frame to capture the essence of his thought process while snapping the photo, added a note to a random few using a casual handwriting font and scattered them around like you might do while admiring your favorite things (no matter what those “things” are). The quote was well thought out too… the word EARTH is sky blue and the words laughs in flowers is in a fluid and spiky font that resembles grass.

Here it is in all it’s glory! I went to STARBUCKS on New Year’s Eve and found a Create Your Own Tumbler just so I could photograph the finished product for my blog! However, I didn’t pass up the chance to get a seasonal Eggnog Latte while I was at it! Not until I was waiting for my husband to finish his First Night 5k race (while talking to my sister in freezing cold temperatures) did I realize just how fun this project was – and that I really wanted to do one for myself as well!

Have you ever considered a “create it yourself” project and wished you had some creative assistance? Let me help you! It’s very easy… I promise! My sister is 2,000 miles away in Washington state and she simply traced the template and emailed it to me. I used the template to design the tumbler and then sent her the final printed templates having never seen the actual tumbler – live and in person! It was a team effort to create this very personal gift for her special guy. He’s lucky to have such a thoughtful lady in his life!

While talking to my sister about this creative adventure we experienced together I got to thinking about what a great client gift this would make… hmm… think about it… I sure am! The options are ENDLESS!

Speaking of coffee… it’s a balmy 11 degrees here in Northeast Missouri and I need to go get a warm up on my coffee and get to work! Have a warm and wonderful day. A great big thank you to my sister, Paige, for recruiting me for this project… I loved doing it for her… for him. Cheers!

We had fun with pumpkin carving this year! Allen carved Captain Morgan and I did my best to carve a scary jack-o-lantern. Good times!

Day one… our first Host Town along with 10,000 of our closest friends and bike riders! Good times!

Day seven (the end of the ride) pictured in front of the Mississippi River! We did it!  We all completed RAGBRAI 2009!

Here’s a picture of my bike odometer… the ride was officially 442 miles… I racked up 456.6 miles in seven days!

In three weeks Allen and I will be finalizing preparations for our long awaited RAGBRI adventure. RAGBRAI stands for The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. We’re riding it with two friends and my mom! It’s a seven day ride and covers approximately 470 miles this year. Check out the website if you’re a wee bit curious!

I designed a RAGBRAI team logo for our t-shirts again, it incorporates the biker-dude from our 2008 STP shirts, the state of Iowa, the year of accomplishment and the names of the riders that rode as a team! Fun stuff!

Here’s the 2008 STP (Seattle to Portland) team logo I designed for our ride last summer. We’ve decided the biker-dude will be the one element that will be incorporated in every bike ride logo I design for our future rides!

We haven’t ordered the RAGBRAI shirts yet… but here’s what the STP logo wear looked like. I got a baseball cap with the smaller logo. The smaller logo was also on the front of the t-shirts and full logo on the back. We got many compliments! Some even asked where they could buy this shirt! Hee Hee!

That’s it for today… gotta get back to work! Have a great day… and wonderful weekend!

I’m on the board of the Kirksville Arts Association (KAA). It’s the one organization I’m passionate about and my main pro bono account. I’ve had the privilege of designing a large variety of projects for KAA… but this is the “largest” of all! Our exterior building signs.  They started as just pencil sketches well over a year ago…

Last Saturday Baker Outdoor Advertising spent their day hanging these beautiful works of art!  They’re not your average sign purchased from a sign company… they’re an original by Matt Farrell, metal artist, living right here in northeast Missouri.  I designed the signs and he manufactured them along with guidance from Terry Baker on how to best engineer them for hanging.  It was a team effort… and we had a great team!

This is our wayfinding sign.  It’s approximately 30 feet tall, around 700 pounds and located on the corner so that it can be seen from all directions.  The rusty area will continue to rust… it’ll turn more brown over time vs. the orange color it is now… and the stainless steel letters will continue to shine through the years!  It’s amazing to see something of this caliber come to fruition.  It could not have happened without the generous matching donation of an anonymous donor.

This sign was designed to hang above the doors on the front of the building.  It incorporates the Kirksville Arts Center logo.  The concept was presented to Matt and given creative license to make it pop!

We all knew he’d do an incredible job!  And he did! Pictured below are Allen and Matt positioning the sign.  The remaining members of the Building Committee were on the ground directing them on placement!  Up a little… down a little… ahh, just right!

This sign has great depth built into it… three layers in fact. The white tube you see is an amber LED rope light.  Yep, this sign lights up at night. So cool!

Here’s a picture at the end of the day once everybody was gone.  These two signs are a fabulous addition to the building and now everybody should have no problem finding the Kirksville Arts Center!

Pictured below is me with metal artist, Matt Farrell, before the “arts” sign was hung.  Ahhh, another project laid to rest!  What’s next you ask… keep checking back! My queue is never empty!  Have a wonderful holiday weekend.

If you follow the weather at all you know Kirksville was hit by a tornado on Wednesday afternoon. I was in town at the coffee shop meeting with a potential bride and heard it was headed into my neighborhood. I was paralyzed! Allen was also in town and met me at the coffee shop. We waited for it to pass while making multiple phone calls to family and friends. I was so scared for Allen’s grandma and our puppies. They were all alone… we were separated by this storm… it was awful.

We are quite shaken (mentally), but safe and sound (physically). We are two of the lucky ones. Nearby neighbors lost their lives when the tornado destroyed their home. Our house is five miles north of town… and the tornado traveled between us and town! This means it was way TOO close for comfort. I’ve been a nervous wreck for a few days… and am slowly recovering from the shock and horrible sadness.

The three photos below are taken by Allen the morning after.  For more close-up photos check out Studio | 1004 blog… friend and photographer, Hector Contreras, captured some amazing aftermath destruction photos.

I’m a dog lover through and through. Always have been and always will be! Currently we have five dogs (we lost one at Christmas – we did have a six-pack)… I know it sounds crazy to most, but we live in the country and strays wander into our lives annually it seems. I swore to Allen no more strays – that together we’d find the next one a loving home.

The next one came last week.  This dog was snooping around our yard Wednesday morning and after getting a good look at him from inside I was pretty sure he was a stray.  We often let them stick around a couple days, while we ask around, just in case the owner is out looking for them.  But this one looked like he’d been on his own for awhile and was perfectly content to hang out on our deck and stay the night in our garage.  It was time to take action before my heart took over my head!

I contacted Field of Dreams Rescue here in Kirksville.  After one failed attempt to place him in a foster home they made an appointment for me to drop him off at the Vets office for some medical attention and then they’ll place him in a foster home.  I took him in yesterday, just 48 hours after he showed up in our yard, and I cried all the way home.  How can I be so attached to a dog I’ve only known for two days?  I thought about it and it’s more about the sadness I felt for this helpless dog.  He was the victim of something much bigger and has no voice.  It breaks my heart. This poem sums it up.

This is the first dog I’ve handed over to somebody else to rescue and it opened my eyes.  I plan to donate to Field of Dreams Rescue often and volunteer when I can. If you’re an animal lover too, you should find a local no-kill animal rescue in your neighborhood and do the same.  We named him Logan because he looks very similar to the first dog that inspired Field of Dreams Rescue… read about it on Logan’s Page.

Thanks for reading! Have a happy weekend.