Stitchable States on Southern Weddings blog

I'd just like to thank the kind folks at Southern Weddings for featuring my Stitchable States poster kits on Part 1 of their National Stationery Show recap!

                   

                                       

Tres Fridas Friday-First New Product Peek!

Hi! This is my first time posting via FB from my Instagram feed so hope it all loads for you quickly. I'd compose a completely new post but I'm honestly working day and night getting ready for the Stationery Show so I thought I'd try it. Please follow me on Instagram or Like my page on Facebook to see ALL my product sneak peeks (plus, full disclosure: more than a few photos of my cat and dog.) Just click on the page below to get to FB.

Post by Tammy L. Smith.

Photos From A Photo Shoot and Jumping The Fence From Surtex to National Stationery Show

A little before the end of 2013 I made the decision to change my business from doing only licensing and freelance illustration to designing and producing my own line of products. The decision to do this had been rolling around in my head for a few months but I never really considered it seriously until I realized one day that it was EXACTLY the direction I wanted to go in. I have some ideas for some products that I'm really excited about and I'd like to be in charge of having them made and getting them to market, so for the last few months I've been spending lots of time in front of my computer! I'm having a completely new website made, along with a catalog for the show. Below are some of the shots from the catalog shoot that we did last week. I can't wait to show you all the products but for now, here's a teaser of some of the items I've been working on. Stay tuned!

Layout for the cover

Abby Campbell straightening up the tea towels

The talented Ben Pieper moving in for a closeup shot

Ben and his assistant Annika (who is modeling one of my new tote bags)

Setting the mood for happy hour!

And last but not least, a grouping of several of my pillows

Fun Faux Photos!

Recently my wonderful friend Katrina Revenaugh let me use her beautiful home for a quick photo shoot of my faux taxidermy pieces along with my newest upcoming shop item: a DIY faux taxidermy embroidery panel. Soon you can stitch a pillow to go along with any of my faux taxidermy pieces!
I will be putting this in my Etsy shop by the first week of December and will post a link to it then.

Graphique de France Calendar and Pillow

I was shopping the other day at Office Max when I spotted the calendar that I did for Graphique de France in their lineup! So exciting to see the calendar finally in print! And it was perfect timing too because I just finished sewing a pillow that I made with one of my DIY chalkboard art panels from that calendar. Here's how it turned out. Next up I'm going to be putting DIY fabric panels for my faux taxidermy pieces in my Etsy shop so stay tuned. Just click on the photo of the pillow to learn more or purchase this fabric panel.

NYC and Surtex-the good and the....well, not so good

I'm happy to say I'm back from my second Surtex show and it was a really good one! I was able to make some fantastic contacts and I'm excited about the possibility of working with some great companies. Here are some photos of my booth--I was pretty happy with the way it turned out, although there is a bit of a story here....
I had shipped my box with all my banners in it to NY 8 days in advance via FedEx Ground and asked them to hold it at the 42nd st. location. When I checked tracking on it 6 days later, it said it was in NJ so I thought it was slow, but still going in the right direction and the delivery date was still correct so I didn't worry. The next day when I checked it however, it said my box was back in KS where I live!! I immediately got on the phone and found out that the 42nd st. location does NOT hold FedEx Ground shipments, even though they do say that on their website. The person I was talking to told me I probably couldn't get my box to NY til Monday! I was trying to keep calm and got ahold of a customer care representative, who said this should not have happened and she would do what she could...needless to say, I was really worried that I would not have anything on my walls, so I printed out about 17 more sheets of all my collections and cut them out in ovals to put up in case the worst thing happened. Luckily, the worst thing didn't happen--FedEx got my box there the next day (at no charge to me) and I was able to have banners in my booth after all! Color me relieved.
Sunday was a bit slow, but Monday at the show was a really good day...until the afternoon when my right eye, which had been feeling a bit blurry in the morning, started hurting so much that I had to ask my friend Karen to watch my booth while I took a cab to a minute clinic. It was a corneal abrasion, which I think occurred while trying to adjust my contacts. The rest of Monday was a little dark to me, because I had to wear sunglasses to avoid the glare of the booth lights--I'm sure that looked more than a little odd but it felt much better!
I intended on spending my final day in NY after the show doing some shopping, but by then all I wanted to do was relax so I had an awesome lunch at The Smith in the East Village, then a wonderful 1 hour massage right across 3rd Ave at Renew and Relax.
All in all, it was a very good trip and I was reminded once again how glad I am to be in this community of supportive people. At Surtex, I don't feel that I'm in competition with other artists--on the contrary, others go out of their way to get to know you and be kind and helpful. I look forward to building relationships with the potential clients that I met and also to future Surtex trips! Lastly, I can't thank my friends enough for being there for me when I needed help.

                                                          Here's booth 357 at 10:30am.....

                                                    and here it is around 10:50am..................

  and finally, here it is at about 11:00am. I couldn't believe that setup took so little time!

I really wish I had taken some photos without me in the booth, but I didn't...

always one thing you never think of!

In the background, you can see my "Big Wig" ladies. I'll post some closer shots of those in a few days.
They're each printed on fabric and contain hand-stitching elements in the hair and handmade wire frames. They're hanging from brown grosgrain ribbon.

Fall In Love pillow

Booth decor is my favorite part of Surtex. I've been really into hand embroidery lately so here's a pillow I've created from one of my hand lettering pieces.