Greeting Cards and a Winner!

Hi there.
My greeting cards, along with my business cards, etc from Moo.com came in!!  Yahoo!  The printing on them is so clear and sharp.  I'm in love!

In my last post I bribed you gals with some free cards if you helped me pick some of my art to make into prints.  Thank you to all who took the time to help a girl out!!  You're the best!!  Now I just need to figure out WHERE to get them printed, but first things first...let's announce the winner!  I used good ol' Random.org, and the winner is .......... Mandy!!  Congrats girl!!  You get to pick out FOUR of my greeting cards!

Here above are the cards to choose from.  Your choices are (top row, left to right): The Healing Tree, Paris, Bridge of Sighs, umm no name for this yet.. we'll temporarily call this photograph "Painting Girl" hee hee.  (bottom row):  Remember Flowers, Bird Journal Collage, and Celebrate.  The last one on bottom right shows what the back of the cards look like.

So Mandy, pick which four you would like, then email me your choices along with your address :-)

Now that I know how great they look I will be ordering more of these greeting cards, along with other designs too.  I only ordered a set of 25 cards to start with and I can already tell that's not enough!  I will be selling these when I finally open my Etsy store (not sure when that'll be).. but if you can't wait just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

I know that I was supposed to announce the winner on Monday night, but I had to wait until I could get photos of the cards to show the winner what she won!  First things first, right?  And with that I'm off to bed...

Prints Anyone?

            


Hi there.
 
I need input from all you creative, smart, lovely people out there.  Yes, that means YOU!!

I've been doing some thinking and planning.  I've finally ordered business cards, postcards, and even some greeting cards with some of my art on them.  They were all ordered from Moo.com, an amazing company, and I can't wait to get them and share them with you!!  It's a long needed step towards opening my Etsy shop.

So here's where I need your help.  My next step is ordering art prints of some of my art, so I was wondering if you had any favorites that you might like to see or buy prints of.  NO obligations to buy, of course, I just want your input.  If you go to the top of my blog and click on the link that says "artwork" or just click here, it'll take you to a page with my art, journal pages, and even cards that I've made.  Jot down the ones that you think would make good prints, and let me know in the comments.  I'll be so gratful!

Here's an example of a few I'm thinking of making prints of...

 "Ahh...Paris"

Who would't love a bit or Paris in their home? 

Since I no longer have the original, I think I want one of these prints for myself too!

"The Healing Tree"

I already have an order for an 11" x 14" of this so this ones a definite

 "Bridge of Sighs monoprint"

Love this one!

"Puddles of Inspiration"

I think this might make a fun print for a studio or even kids room, but what do you think?

I really would love your input!  What do you think?  Like any of these for a print?  Or any others?  "Unleashed"?  "Don't Lose Heart"?  I am totally open to any suggestions!  Don't be shy!  And like I said... no obligations, just tell me your favorites, there's no wrong answer here!   And what sizes  8 x 10 or 11 x 14?  Smaller?  5x7?  Too many questions?  ;-)

As a little incentive I'll pick one of you commenters to win a set of postcards or greeting cards (when they come in, lol!)  I'll pick the winner on Monday night, Dec 12th.  

Thank you!

Look At The Painting I Won!!

Yahoo!!!  I love this painting soooo much!!!

A while back I entered an amazing giveaway over at The Secret Hermit and ended up winning first prize!!!    I got to choose between one of Micki's lovely paintings in her Etsy Shop, or having one custom made!!  How generous is she?!!  After taking forever to make a choice, because there are several paintings of hers that I wanted, I finally decided on having one custom made.  I wanted a happy little artist girlie to hang in my studio.  She did such an amazing job of cutting through all the details that I gave her and making exactly what I wanted and more!!  I love love love this painting!!!  

If you haven't already see her blog and Etsy shop go now!!!  (the links are above)

 Thank you Micki!!!  You rock!!!

And The Winner Is...

Time to announce the winner of my very first giveaway!  I'm going to make this short because it's been a LONG week and I'm exhausted!  (I'll share photos of the finished cabinets I've been working on soon).

So...drumroll please......

The winner of "The Artist's Way" book (and a handmade card that's not yet made!) is....  Natasha May!  Hi! It's so nice to meet you and congratulations!!  Yay!!  I'll need your address so I'm on my way to your blog now to contact you!!  

And if you're wondering what the photo has to do with this, I couldn't find a good photo of a celebration or fireworks in my stash, so I figured this light kind of looks like fireworks!  I showed more of these dandelion/firework lights a while back in this post here.  xoE

One year Blog-o-versary Post and Giveaway!!

Lots of reasons to celebrate around here... even though I'm a bit behind.... OK...WAY behind.
 Last month, April 14th was my one year blog-o-versary!!!  WOOHOO!!    And April 15th was my 39th birthday... (eek...I'm almost 40!).   Kind of funny that I started my blog the day before my birthday last year.   I don't remember if there was a reason for the timing, but it doesn't matter....I'm just so darn happy that I did!  I had been reading and lurking around beautiful artist's blogs for a while, and kept thinking "one day I'll do this too...."  I wanted to share my art with others outside my small little circle and I wanted to inspire others the way that I felt inspired when looking at all the lovely blogs out there.

 I finally started E Makes Art so I could join a group that was forming online called The Artistic Mother's Group, which would go through the projects in the book The Artistic Mother by the amazing Shona Cole.  The group is hosted by Trudy Callan who was SO sweet and helped me get this blog started, so I really owe this to her!  Thank you sweet Trudy!

Here's a link to my very first post called "Blank Canvas", I'm still proud of it.  I think it was a good start.    Blogland was so new and scary, yet SO full of possibilities.  And now?  Still SO full of possibilities, but not so scary.

A lot has happened since then...

• I learned that computers have more than just an "ON/OFF" button
• I took my first online class and am now addicted to them
• I've met so many amazing people from around the world while sitting in the comfort of my home
• I now have my art represented in a gallery.  

WOW!  What a year.  I wonder what magic and wonders the next year will bring...

I made this mixed media cake on my birthday as a gift to myself to cheer me up! No calories and it never goes bad : )  The cake was formed from light molding paste, then painted once dry.  On the rest I used various papers, a clip art flamingo (love!) and a painted crocheted flower.  I also wrote and doodled details with a graphite pencil.  But no, this is NOT what I'm giving away!

To celebrate my blog turning one I would like to giveaway one of my all time favorite books, The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.  I love this book, and I know many of you have read it, but I also know there's so many more of you who haven't.  You need to.  It is such a phenomenal book.  It's a must read for anyone... not just artist's or writers... anyone!  So to win, leave a comment on this post and make sure to leave your email if you don't have a blog.  If you're having trouble commenting then I'll also accept emails as an entry.  My email's in my profile.  You have until June 9th 8pm PST (California time) to enter.

OH... and don't worry... I'll be sending you a brand spankin new book, NOT my very used and loved book shown here.  The new pretty one is on it's way here from Amazon as I type.  (and sorry you can't have my pen or journal either... don't be greedy!  Sheesh!  ha ha!) 

 Good luck to you!  And here's to many more happy, magical years with E Makes Art!

Edit :  Giveaway is now over!

Look What I Won!!

I'm the luckiest gal ever!  Check out ALL the fantastic goodies I won for OWOH!!  

I won the bracelet (above) from Deborah over at Deb's Vintage Soul.  I love the brass numbered piece, it's so cool!  I plan on adding some charms onto the chain to make it really jingle!  

Deborah's blog is where you will find her crafting adventures and where she also posts photos of the vintage goodies that she puts into her Etsy shop!  I bought some fantastic vintage flower trim from her that one day I hope to find a clever use for, but for now I just stare at it cause it's purdy!

These books....sigh...oh how I love these books!!  I won these from Melanie of M Ann M.  She described these books beautifully, so I'll just put her description here...

"... two vintage publications.  'The Country of Aunis and Saintonge' was printed in 1926 in French and is full of black and white prints on uncut paper.  'Coronet' printed in 1938 is one of only 18 issues and is full of black and white photography and color prints.  This will be great to use in your mixed media art or to actually read for a bit of historical reference."    


Go check out her blog and her Etsy shop.  She makes the most extraordinary things out of paper!!  You have to see her art dolls....NOT your ordinary paper dolls...oh no...you have to see them!!  Truly amazing!!

These wonderful notecards of original collages by Cathy Horner are fantastic!  Check out her art on her blog Cathy Horner Collage Art or on her website Cathyhorner.com.  I love her collages.  She uses vintage images, handmade paper, paint, found objects, etc...  And I'm not the only one who likes her art... she's received awards, had solo shows, and even been in a 9 page article in Victorian Homes magazine.  Very impressive!

And last but NOT least ...this beautiful dichroic glass cabochon was made by the multi-talented Terry over at Aviya Glass.  I can't wait to use it!  She has two blogs (I can hardly manage one at times), Aviya Glass has her latest fused glass pieces and jewelry and Aviya Designs is for her paintings, multimedia collages and beautiful photography.

Thank you Deborah, Melanie, Cathy, and Terry!!!  Thank you sooo very much!  You are all very talented and admired for what you do!!  And everyone, please go and check out their blogs, websites and shops! We must all help and support one another.  xo

Oh, and I've been meaning to share more about the gallery that I'm now in, so I'll try to get to that soon.

OWOH Winner Announcement

Well, the brilliant madness is over!!  What a crazy time!  This OWOH blog hop was so huge, I didn't even make it to half the blogs on the list!  I still plan on hopping around now that it's over.  I am always looking to find new artsy blogs to inspire me, but now I'll do it at a much more leisurely pace (big sigh of relief).  I had a blast though and man...there are some very inspiring people out there.  My reading list is growing...

So enough of the chit chat...the winner of my mixed media Eiffel Tower art piece is the lovely and talented Andrea of My Everything Corner!  Congrats Andrea!!! Go check out her wonderful blog.  I love her jewelry and am very jealous of the person that won Andrea's OWOH giveaway necklace! sigh..so pretty!

Oh, and if you're wondering what the top photo has to do with this post...nothing!!  I just wanted to put a pretty photo there and this one goes so well with my painting!  It's that same church in Pasadena, that I've already showed tons of photos of.

One World One Heart 2011. It's Here!

Intro
Hi there!  The One World One Heart event is here!  Grab a nice cup of coffee and let me officially introduce myself.  I'm Esther Orloff, the "E" behind E Makes Art.  I am a mixed media artist, photographer, and occasional jewelry maker from So. California.  For 15 years I worked as a decorative artist and muralist, and I am now a stay at home mom who sneaks into her studio whenever she can...or else nobody's  happy!

Some Of My Favorite Things

• learning new techniques
• travel (esp. to Europe...sigh...)
• rusty bits 
• copper
• peacock blue
• tons of texture and personality
• beautiful light and shadows
• THAT moment......you know....that excitement you feel when you've perfectly captured "it"....in whatever medium you are using at the time.

What It's About

My blog is a place where I share what I've created with a bit of my process and details/materials, etc, in part  to document it for myself and in part to hopefully inspire and help others.  My photography is also a huge part of my blog.  I LOVE taking photos and carry my camera with me most of the time. There were MANY times in the past when I missed the perfect photo and still kick myself for not having my camera with me...such as the time I saw that fantastic dog sitting on his owner's lap in the front seat of the car, hanging out the window, with I swear the biggest smile I've ever seen, and more importantly...wearing red goggles!!  So now my camera is pretty much attached to me permanently...it's become part of my personality.

One of you will win this!  Ooh La La!!

One World One Heart
Find inspiring blogs from around the world and have a chance to win fantastic goodies at every stop!  To participate and/or see the lists of blogs participating click on the picture at the TOP of this post.  I will announce the winner of my giveaway on Feb. 17th by posting the name on my blog and contacting by email.  For a chance to win my giveaway you must...

• leave a comment on THIS post
• leave your blog link/email 
• Again...PLEASE make sure I have a way to contact you if you win, or I will have to pick someone else!!

What Can You Win?

My giveaway is the mixed media Eiffel Tower piece up above.  It's an 8"x10" canvas board with my photograph taken in beautiful Paris.  I embellished it with lots of texture from gel medium that was troweled through a stencil,  painted it with fluid acrylics, then drew over areas with a pen.  Here are some detail shots...

I figure since this is an international event (and I love Paris)...why not celebrate that with an international art piece!  Good luck everyone!!

If you don't want to win my giveaway, but at least want to say hi and/or have me come visit your blog that's fine too!  Just tell me to not include you in the drawing in your comment.


Comments for the drawing are now closed.  Thanks everyone!