Otterly in love with this otter!
New enamel pin in my Etsy shop! Plus see how this otter has evolved in the three years since I originally drew it.
Back in 2016 I created a fun little pattern that I called Significant otter that featured a happy blue otter clutching a pink heart, I redid the design last year (2018) because I loved the otter but didnt feel like the pattern had a good flow to it. When I changed the pattern I also changed the color of the otter. Then this year (2019) I decided to bring my otter back into the spotlight and make it into a pin so here it is! With another color change. Now she’s white and with a touch of blue. I just love this little pin and I’m expecting she’ll be a hit in my Etsy shop. It’s fun to bring old designs back and make them new again.
To buy this pin for yourself or to give as a gift visit my Etsy shop: ShopJackieHurd.etsy.com
Recycle your Boxes into DIY Gift Tags
If you’re like me and forgot to buy gift tags but are so over Christmas shopping that you don’t want to step foot into another store to pick some up, this is your opportunity to recycle some of those boxes into gift tags.
Tis the season for lots of shopping and if you buy online, almost everything comes in a box or with cardboard inserts. Sometimes the cardboard is kind of nice, fancy on one side, blank on the other or in such good shape that it seems like a waste to throw it away. If you’re like me and forgot to buy gift tags but are so over Christmas shopping that you don’t want to step foot into another store to pick some up, this is your opportunity to recycle some of those boxes into gift tags. I did just that with a few small boxes I found in my studio. They were white on one side and plain on the other. I dug out some acrylic gauche and painted the white side. The photos I took are pretty self explanatory but for those who just like things that come with instructions, here’s a few tips and things you might need to make your own DIY holiday gift tags.
Supplies:
Cardboard- on the thinner side will be easier to cut
Scissors or cutting board
Ribbon or Twine
Paint or markers- I used acrylic gauche
Hole punch
Make It
Trim your cardboard into as many rectangles as you can. 2” wide and 3” long is a good starting point Mine are various sizes because variety is fun.
After you have your rectangles made, trim off the top two corners, be careful not to trim them too much, you’ll want the middle of the tag to remain straight.
Punch a hole in the middle of the two corners about 1/8” down from the top of the tag.
Get out your paint or markers and add your festive flair. I left enough room on each tag to right names, but you can always paint or draw on the entire front and save the back for names.
Cut your ribbon or twine into 10” pieces and then loop them through the holes leaving the ends untied so you can secure them to your gift bags or gifts.
And that’s it, it’s that easy! Save those boxes and make some tags.
Tags cut from extra gift boxes
Have fun and paint whatever you’d like on your tags.
Once your tags are dry, add the ribbon and then tie the to a wrapped gift.
You can find the gnome enamel pin I’ve used to pin the ribbon in my Etsy shop.
Take me to the Pines
To all of my art, there’s a story. This is the story behind my latest Enamel Pin, “Take me to the Pines”. When I was 11 my mom’s husband at the time, Jim, went on a trip to North Carolina. At the time we were living in New Britain, Connecticut. Connecticut was where I was born, where my whole family lived and a place I never imagined I would leave.
To all of my art, there’s a story. This is the story behind my latest Enamel Pin, “Take me to the Pines”.
When I was 11, my mom’s husband at the time, Jim, went on a trip to North Carolina. At the time we were living in New Britain, Connecticut. Connecticut was where I was born, where my whole family lived and a place I never imagined I would leave. When Jim came back from his trip he announced that he got a job for a NASCAR driver and that we would be moving to North Carolina. Within 6 months we found ourselves in a little town called Siler City. Talk about culture shock. From a big city where I fell asleep to sirens and honking horns to a house surrounded by nothing but drab looking pastures and cows for at least a mile. There were even cows in our front yard! The silence was odd. I wasn’t used to falling asleep to crickets.
I was the new kid in 7th grade at a school called Silk Hope, also surrounded by fields and cows. Instead of walking through busy blocks of brick buildings with city sounds and smells to get to school, I rode the bus for what seemed like hours with weird sounding country kids and farm smells. In the months leading up to the move, I imagined that being the new kid was going to be a fun new start with fun new friends. To my disapointment, everyone had already made their friends; way back when their own parents were in Kindergarten at the very same school. New kids weren’t very common in Silk Hope, plus I was way too different to fit in. I talked funny. I was weird. I was a “Yankee”.
Being the new kid in a small town was not fun. Even though I eventually made a few good friends who remained my friends throughout high school and beyond, the new kid feeling never wore off. Siler City never really felt like home. When I found myself on my own and able to leave at 16 (long story that I’ll save for another time), I bounced around from Connecticut to Florida and then back to Siler City before finally joining the Air Force and escaping to Missouri.
I thought I had left Siler City for good, but after the Air Force I somehow ended up back in Siler City. Had I lost my mind? I was a single parent and my family (though now scattered and divided) lived in Siler City. I kept telling myself that eventually it would feel like home. I enrolled my daughter in kindergarten at Siler City Elementary and drove from Siler City to my job on Fort Bragg every single day. An hour drive each way. The thought of moving closer didn’t cross my mind because the other cities and towns I drove through weren’t any more appealing.
But then something happened that changed everything.
A friend of mine insisted I join her for dinner one night in a town sort of near Fort Bragg that I had never heard of called Southern Pines. We dined on the patio of a neat little downtown restaurant called The Bell Tree Tavern and I was in awe! Afterwards I drove around admiring the cozy downtown with buildings and houses that reminded me of New England. I knew instantly that Southern Pines could be my home. Within a few weeks my daughter and I were living in Southern Pines. Soon after I met and fell in love with Tom, we got married, bought a house with a yard full of pine trees and our family grew to 6. It didn’t take much for this place to become home. Here in this town surrounded by long leaf pines, everything seems to fall perfectly into place, this is where I feel happiest. This is home.
Because my flowers are gone
Here’s the first of my “because my flowers are gone I will just draw them until they come back” illustrations.
We finally had our first frost here in North Carolina and it was heart breaking to see how fast my Japanese Maple dropped its’ leaves! And all of the flowers except my camellias are done for the year. Thank goodness for camellias! They’ll get me through until the spring along with a strong drive to draw flowers until the real ones return. I think that’s why there is so much floral art out there- we artists long for the wild colors, shapes and textures. So get ready- I might be producing excessive amounts of floral illustrations and patterns over the next few months. Here’s the first of my “because my flowers are gone I will just draw them until they come back” illustrations. I’ve made it available as a set of note cards (there’s also a separate listing for an individual card). Coincidentally, they go nicely with my unicorn pin!
It starts off sloppy
Read about why I’ve gone digital for most of my art, this cute Weimaraner waiting under the mistletoe card and watch the time-lapse of me drawing it.
I fought the digital transition for a long time because I REALLY love pens and paper- I love ink! But there’s a major problem with pens and me- there’s no undo. I didnt even realize this was a problem until I started drawing using procreate on my iPad with features like tap once to undo a mistake! Amazing. After a few iPad drawing sessions, when faced with ink on paper, I found myself attempting to tap to remove a misplaced line- with no luck of course! As a result I’ve been drawing exclusively on my ipad pro for a few months now. My poor pens are feeling awfully neglected- and my sketchbooks are being filled with fire trucks by my 6 year old, Miles. But I’m having too much fun to turn back. The best part about drawing digitally is that I can record my process, that’s actually the real reason I’m writing this post. I wanted to share how sloppy a drawing originally starts off. I feel like this is important because artist or not, we all start off with a sloppy sketch and more often than not, abandon that sketch thinking it’s a waste. In this video you’ll see that my initial sketch looks nothing like my final drawing. After I was finished I exported my drawing into photoshop where I finished it into a greeting card.
What do you think? If you’d like to see more of these time lapses, let me know!
Also, you can buy this and other greeting cards in my Etsy shop as a single card or as a set.
Small Business Saturday- Visit my studio!
Visit my Southern Pines studio located at 175 W. Pennsylvania Ave., this Saturday, November 24th from noon-5pm.
My enamel pins (they make great stocking stuffers) will be available for purchase along with a variety of illustrated holiday greeting cards.
Options for personalized cards will also be available.
Here’s a peek at some of the cards that I’ll have available with more on the way.
You can buy them in my Etsy shop now if you’d like but I will be offering special pricing for in-person orders this Saturday.
Special holiday gnome pins available! Aren’t they cute?
Will you be stopping in? Let me know in the comments or send me an email.
Downtown Studio and Jax
Read about my studio in downtown Southern Pines and our new Weimaraner Dog, Jax.
Jax keeping watch in the studio while I work
News to share: I now have a little studio that I work out of in down town Southern Pines on Pennsylvania Avenue and I love it! I’m happy to have visitors but for now I prefer that people call ahead or email to schedule a visit to discuss design and illustration projects.
Jax wearing the Halloween bandana I made him using one of my designed fabrics- available exclusively through the Textile District.
Around the same time I moved into my studio, my husband, Tom, and I were told about a 3 year old Weimaraner Dog who was surrendered to the Moore Humane Society. After meeting the dog with our youngest child, and spending an hour with him at the shelter, I just knew it was meant to be. I returned for a second visit with Tom and our dog, Lola, to make sure the two dogs would get along. The visit went great! A few days later the shelter called to tell us we were approved and he was ours. We renamed him Jax and now he’s part of our family. Jax seems to have a little anxiety and does not do well when we have to crate him- he rubs his nose against the crate until it bleeds. Because of that, I bring Jax to work with me every day and he sleeps in front of the door while I work. He’s my shop dog :)
Here comes Halloween
Once again another holiday has totally snuck up on me! With four kids I should probably be all over it with a Halloween Advent calendar, baking spooky cookies and sewing up Halloween costumes. My kids haven’t had a single pumpkin spiced anything yet and neither have I, although I did put some cinnamon in my coffee the other morning. That’s a start right? BUT now that I’ve realized I’ve only got 15 days until Halloween, the hourglass has flipped and I’ve got to make the most of it before we move on to the turkeys!
Featured in this post is my Happy Ghosts design, available exclusively at The Textile District as fabric. Click here to visit their website and get a few yards- I will get a commission for any fabrics you purchase from their site that were designed by me.
Once again another holiday has totally snuck up on me! With four kids I should probably be all over it with a Halloween Advent calendar, baking spooky cookies and sewing up Halloween costumes. My kids haven’t had a single pumpkin spiced anything yet and neither have I, although I did put some cinnamon in my coffee the other morning. That’s a start right? BUT now that I’ve realized I’ve only got 15 days until Halloween, the hourglass has flipped and I’ve got to make the most of it before we move on to the turkeys!
I’m going to write about something I haven’t shared publicly… I always feel nervous about offending family member who might read my blog- but I don’t think they read it so here’s a bit about me and Halloween and why I love it so much now as an adult.
I’m originally from New England- Connecticut to be precise, where when the seasons change, they really change! When I was really little I remember having to wear my winter jacket under my Halloween costume, talk about ruining the wicked witch look with an ugly pink jacket! Halloween was a big deal, the decorations, the build up, the parties and then trick-or-treating. I loved it.
When I was five my mom and dad divorced and eventually my mom re-married. Soon after the trick-or-treating stopped. Instead of occasionally going to Catholic mass with my Polish grandparents, we went to a new church with my step-dad, a louder church where people spoke in tongues and REALLY loved Jesus. My step-dad would let us hand out candy but we couldn’t participate. The magic stopped. Magic we were told, was evil- any tv shows with reference to magic, my magical toys (rainbow bright, the smurfs,) eventually disappeared too. I never bought into this new lifestyle though, no matter how hard I tried it just didnt make sense to me and it wasnt fun. I would look forward to weekends I could spend at my grandmother’s house, she had a stash of witchy books with spells and stories of magical things and she would encourage it- soak it up, here’s another one! Was it that she loved to see me read or she felt like I needed some magic in my life? Whatever it was, it kept my imagination flame going.
Why was Halloween taken away from me as a kid? Because of religion… I don’t want to put the blame on Christianity as a whole because the Catholic side of my family loved and has always celebrated Halloween. Some people use religion as a guide and some people become consumed by it. In my case, my step-dad was (at the time) really religious and we went to a church that had a lot of influence over him and my mom.
Halloween’s origins are Pagan. It began as the Celtic Festival of Samhain celebrated on October 31st, the transition between the summer into the cold dark winter, when it was believed the boundary between the living and the dead was at the thinnest. Eventually the next day, November 1st was designated by the Catholic church to become All Saints Day. I don’t think my step-dad knew this or would have put much thought into it, because according to the preacher, pagan was pagan and pagan was wrong. But I’ve always known better.
So when I say I love Halloween, it’s not just a simple “ooooh spooky time, so much fun” kind of “I love Halloween.” It’s a celebration of the strong-willed child that I was who always thought for herself and remained curious no matter what.
Pins Pins Pins!
New pins are here! Hank the Goat and a Lucky Potion pin.
New pins are here! Hank the Goat and a Lucky Potion pin. There were some issues in the manufacturing process with Hank so I don't have many Hanks in stock- more coming towards the end of September. Earlier this month I released my first pins, the bee, the unicorn and my Smug Llama. I'm experimenting with both Etsy and Shopify as selling platforms to see which one works out better for me and my products, I worry that it might be confusing to my audience if I'm on both, but maybe not- time will tell I guess. Next week I am planning to release two more pins. One of these will be glow in the dark! Just in time for Halloween.
My Trade Show Experience and What's Next
It's been a few months since I attended the May 2018 Blueprint Surface Design and Print Trade Show in New York City. The purpose of the tradeshow was to hopefully sell or license my artwork to companies who would then manufacture and sell my art on their own products. I thought this was the path for me and so I dedicated an entire year to prepare, invested thousands of dollars, my time and my talent. What came of this experience was not what I expected, the result put me on a completely different path.
It's been a few months since I attended the May 2018 Blueprint Surface Design and Print Trade Show in New York City. The purpose of the tradeshow was to hopefully sell or license my artwork to companies who would then manufacture and sell my art on their own products. I thought this was the path for me and so I dedicated an entire year to prepare, invested thousands of dollars, my time and my talent. What came of this experience was not what I expected, the result put me on a completely different path.
I've been sitting on my trade show experience since the day I returned not sure if I should share it with the world or not. I spent almost 4 weeks post show feeling completely crushed by the way the show changed my perspective on an industry I thought I wanted to be a part of. Since it was my first show and I was "inexperienced" some people recommended I keep quiet, be polite, not step on any toes incase I wanted to try again or maybe just shake it off and focus on something else. But that's not me, if I choose not to be forthcoming about my experience I'd be misleading those who look up to me or anyone who stumbles across all of the cheerful Instagram posting I did leading up to the event. (I'll probably delete those posts sooner or later, at least the ones promoting my attendance at the 2018 Blueprint show.)
I've been struggling to find the appropriate words to put in this post. I've been stopping and going with this post for weeks now. The experience was just so strange, so not what I thought it would be. So disappointing. But was it just me? If i really say what's on my mind, how will that compare with the experiences of others? Why does it matter? It matters because leading up to this show everything was all about buying, studying and following trend forecasts, prioritizing Instagram posts (and getting social media perfect to avoid being unfollowed because who wants to buy art from an artist without a social media following), taking Make Art that Sells courses and Make it in Design courses to stay relevant. Spending money to make money. Don't be like everyone else, but be like everyone else was the message.
I think I have a good sense of intuition.
Sometimes I feel it and hope like hell it's wrong.
My husband and I drove to NYC from North Carolina. It was a 12 hour drive. On the way up we listened to a Joe Rogan Podcast where he was interviewing Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. Steven Tyler was telling Joe how how predatory the music industry is. He explained how much the managers and record companies make but how little of that money actually makes it to the artist, the musician. I spent some time pondering what I had heard and couldn't forget it. I knew this was also relevant to the same industry I was driving into. How much money had I spent preparing for this show? And did I have any guarentee that I would make any of it back?
Hotel Hell
We arrived in the afternoon. Hotel Pennsylvania. Normally I spend a lot of time checking hotel reviews but in a pinch to save money I canceled the 4 star reservation I had previously made and asked my husband to book us something cheaper. $260 or so was the going rate for Hotel Pennsylvania and the website photos looked average, kind of like a holiday inn would look. Plus the location was cool. I could elaborate here, but I'm just going to say, we checked in to hotel hell at 3:00 and finally escaped it at 1:00 am. It was probably the dirtiest and scariest hotel experience I've ever had. If you want to know more, I encourage you to read the Yelp Reviews. Rats and bedbugs!
The show: I think bullet statements are the easiest way, otherwise I'd have to write a book.
The music selection was super strange downer music consisting of either industrial techno, bad eighties, or The Fray on repeat all weekend.
Advertised refreshments meant my husband having to tell the event coordinator they were out of water. A case or two of bottled water would then be fetched from the convenience store only to run out again within the hour. No snacks. Bummer.
Rooftop party? Serve yourself and enjoy warm slices of sunbathing cheese.
Three days of people walking by my table and maybe five people actually sat down to talk, most of these were students who wanted to know more about getting ready for a trade show.
A big art buyer walking by my table stuck his hand in my face and briskly walked away when I introduced myself. He came back the next day and took a card. One of his people later contacted me for a portfolio review. These people think they are gods I guess.
The event coordinator who hails from the U.K. decided he wanted to have an unprovoked conversation with me about Donald Trump, the U.S. President and then questioned my political affiliation after his rant by saying "I hope you aren't a republican". What! Regardless of my political affiliation, I served in the U.S. Air Force and my husband is still active duty Army, I had an odd feeling that he already knew that about us.
The final hour... the first two days were slow but the last day was like being in a strange time warp. It was rainy and hardly anyone walked through. The two biggest shows of the year were happening just down the road- SURTEX and The National Stationary Show. No one seemed to know we were just up the road having our own show. I wonder how much of the money we paid for the show went into marketing? About 30 minutes before the end of show several of us exhibitors decided enough was enough, especially those of us who had planes to catch or long drives. Apparently this was not allowed. The biggest source of entertainment that day was watching the coordinators dash from table to table telling people not to tear down yet. What were we supposed to be waiting for? More crickets?
The finale: You have to use parking garages in NYC. Since we were in such a hurry to get the heck out of there after the show we didn't realize until we got home that the parking garage attendant smashed the front end of my 4runner so on top of the bad experience, that had to get fixed too.
I could probably add a few more things to that list but I'm just going to leave it at that, BluePrint Tradeshows won't be getting another one of my hard earned U.S. pennies again. The signs were there but they came a little too late, I was already there and I couldn't turn around so I had to experience it. I feel like everything happens for a reason and I kept hoping something would come of it, but what I was hoping for was an art buyer or a licensing deal. The Joe Rogan/ Steven Tyler podcast kept playing itself back in my head. Was that really what I wanted?
I make art because it makes me happy, it entertains and satisfies me. Creating is like breathing, it's like magic. I didnt sell any of my work at the trade show and it's ok because what I know now is that it wasn't meant to be, here on this different path, I don't think I'd be happy if something I created was now exclusive to someone other than me.
So what's next?
I'll certainly be worrying less about the wider world of art, agents and contracts and focusing more on putting my talent to work where it feels right. I've decided where I want to be is here in Southern Pines. Local is just enough for me. My studio is downtown and in the fall I'll have a day each week when I am open to the public. I've started creating my own line of products! I'm currently selling the first of my cute little lapel pins, now available in my online store.
Up on the roof with Tom, he kept me smiling despite everything else.
This was the room door at Hotel Pennsylvania room. Welcoming!
NYC is so friendly. Parking garage smashed our 4Runner.