Gesundheit and Stock Up on the Tissues

It has been a week now and I'm still yawning and trying to adjust to daylight savings time.  Here I am at 3:00 am not being able to sleep and so I'm here making stickers and thinking about blog posts.  Spring is certainly arrived with it's high pollen count and gusty winds so I'm taking preventive measures to head off any allergy side effects.  Hopefully I will be successful in that and stave off all that sneezing.


Other than allergies, spring is such an amazing time of year.  I grew up as a child in the Ozark hills of Missouri and the transformation that happens from the gray of winter to the vast color palette of spring is awe inspiring. 

Here in Las Vegas the transformation isn't as noticeable. I do have three chaste trees (vitex) in my yard and sometime in the month of April they are covered in brilliant lavender flowers that resemble the shape of lilac blossoms.  It only last about a week but for that week my yard is amazing. Oh how I miss the sight of the dogwood trees in bloom.  I am going to have to research doing a piece or two that features that beautiful tree.

Anyway, back to original blogging plan, which was to introduce these stickers sheets I designed with spring in mind.  They are a total of 111 stickers here and I had so much fun designing them.  Unlike most of my stickers, I used royalty free images in the designs.  I usually try to focus on my own original artwork but I think this spring set has only the chick that comes directly from my sketchbook. 

I made the 4 sheets available on my Etsy shop as a digital download so that you can print them out at your leisure.  I have provided the link below if you are interested in checking it out.  If you are working on your planner and need something new than you had best hurry and download this file because SPRING IS UPON US! 
So grab the tissue box and get ready to say
"GESUNDHEIT!"


Spring Flower Sticker Etsy Listing

Here is my newest Etsy Listing.  If you can believe it, I drew this little ballet dancing mouse just yesterday in my sketchbook and in the afternoon I took a little time to scan it and pull it into Photoshop.  I added some color, text and a royalty free watercolor background.  This is just Tutu cute. A downloadable and printable poster for a small cost, add a matte and frame and you have a perfect piece of art for a little girls room or any place that you want to brighten up. 

I created two versions to choose from on my Etsy Shop.  Here is the link if you want to check it out.

Ballet Dancing Mouse at Julie Townsend Studio on Etsy

A FREE gift and That's NO BULL

Just in case you missed it, I’ve started a studio news email that I am trying to send out monthly.  This goes only to my friends on my VIP list.  The purpose is mostly for marketing and building relationships with people who appreciate good Country, Farmhouse Style or good Cow Art.  This week I sent out my 3rd email.  With this email, I offered a link that allowed for the printing out of these cute “Cow Thank You” stickers.  It just seemed the least I could do to show my appreciation to all my new friends.

You can download the file to your computer and print out the sheet as many times as you like.  Of course it is for  personal use only and so you can't try to share, copy or sell them but you can print them out over and over.  There is however a catch......I ask that you fist opt into my VIP list so that you can keep up with my newest artistic creations and all the fun giveaways that I have planned in the coming months.

All you have to do is head over to my website and I have made that super easy by giving you this link to click on.
Julie Townsend Studio 

It takes right over to the opt-in form.  While you are there, you might just take a minute to browse some of the artwork in the gallery.  I've been told that the average attention span online is 2.5 seconds but I don't believe that to be the case for Country or Farmhouse style art lovers like yourself. 

That’s all you need to do and I will send you the link for these stickers and you will get other fun stuff in my future emails.

Here is one response I received just last night from a friend after downloading these cute "Cow Thank You" stickers-
"Julie, Thank you so much for the adorable gift.  I printed off a sheet on some of my HP 80 lb soft Gloss printer paper.  They are perfect!!!  I just had my 76th b;d so will use them on my thank you cards.  Surprise gifts are always the most fun.  you really brightened my otherwise boring day!!!

I was browsing through your studio. Your work is so precious. Makes me smile and warms my heart (not much does these days at 76 yrs. old and being alone)! Not quite accurate - I have my sweet little Honey, a 5 yr old male Pomeranian, cute, funny, smart, attentive/loving, etc. ANYWAY, I no longer wear jewelry, but I would just love to purchase a print of the cow with the chickadee on her head if you have it available. Please advise. I have several of your other chickadee pieces. I'm so glad you sent your stickers out today, because I haven't visited your site in some time. As usual, your work brightened my day. Looking forward to hearing from you. 
Thanks for your time,"

DS

Pretty in Pink

I like most flowers but peonies are hands down one of my favorites.  I can vividly recall my Grandmother's beautiful peonies and so I decided yesterday to create and design a planner sheet that focused on this amazing flower. I titled it, "Peonies and Lace" and it is now available on my Etsy Shop as an 8.5 x 11 digital download.  You can print it out yourself on your favorite sticker paper and even if you don’t use a fancy planner, these stickers are so beautiful that there are plenty of applications that you can use them for decorating on.

Here is the link to my ETSY SHOP LISTING so you check it out.  Let me know what you think of this design.  I would love to hear from you.  I also have lots of original artwork that can be seen on my website at JULIE TOWNSEND STUDIO.COM

Pink and Gray and Pink and Brown are two of my favorite color combinations.  I decided to go with the gray because I just love the contrast of the cold cement background and the cool pink with flowers cascading from the bottom.  I got all the images from pixabay.com and so I was free to use and modify them for this project.  I LOVE pixabay.com!

Here I changed to color of the lace from the Red and Black of the original image to shades of the pink found in the peony blossoms.  I'm still playing with fonts and trying to feel comfortable with which font looks and works best.  No more Comic Sans for me.  It has been quite a challenge to break that Comic Sans habit but with practice and determination I'm will be VICTORIOUS!

I downloaded this torn paper image for another graphics project but it was perfect for this sticker collection design.  Sometimes in life we get so drug down with the mundane grind that we forget to even look for the beauty that surrounds us.  We actually have to stop and seek out the beauty in things.  It isn't always easy at times and I felt this torn paper symbolizes the effort that we need to take.  Look for the beauty.