Tag Archives: Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Crafting

Amanda Curtin, Product Demonstrator and Crafter Extraordinaire

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Last month, when my card crafting products debuted at Create ‘n Craft TV in the United Kingdom, I got to “meet” an amazing bundle of energy and personality – Amanda Curtin.

She’s a demonstrator for my Scrapbooking, Paper Crafting Licensee “DOCraft” also known as Design Objectives.  We got to chat via telephone on air and after the show, I asked her a series of questions about herself for this article.

INTERVIEW:

1. When did you start cardmaking and crafting?
My parents bought me craft kits for every birthday and Christmas, right from when I was very little, and I loved trying out all the new things. My first crafting as an adult was making novelty cakes for friends and family about 15 years ago. The obvious limitation with cakes is that they have to be hand delivered! As my work responsibilities and hours increased, almost all my hobbies fell by the wayside though, and I didn’t start making cards until 5 or 6 years ago, when I took a lifestyle decision to step off the career ladder and work part time with my husband instead. I went to a couple of Do Crafts demos and became well and truly hooked!

2. Are you an artist yourself?
Definitely not! My Dad paints beautifully, as did my Grandad, but unfortunately I didn’t inherit their talent! I’m fine if I have a picture to copy, and I love painting stamped images, and creating backgrounds for decoupage, but I don’t think I could claim that my efforts were art 🙂
That’s one of the things I love about crafting, that you can create lovely images without huge artistic technique or talent.

3. How did you get involved with demonstrating and what is your favorite thing to do?
I found demos so helpful when I started papercrafting and, as my experience grew, I thought it would be great to be able to help people the same way. I generally craft alone, so demonstrating gives me a different way to explore my hobby, and I love to see what crafting means to other people. As for my favorite type of crafting, it has to be rubber stamping. There are so many stamping techniques, and I love to make projects from scratch, so that the finished masterpiece is made up of just paper and work. In the summer I do a lot of jewelery making and cross stitching too,as I can do these in the garden without everything blowing away!

4. What kinds of demos do you do and where?
Most of my demos focus on cardmaking, but I also do scrapbooking, jewelery making, and other papercraft projects. Until recently all my demos were in craft stores, but I’ve recently started appearing as a guest on the Create & Craft shopping channel too. It’s a very different way to demo, and very exciting as it’s all broadcast live!

5. What is your job at Do Crafts? (Am I right in believing you’re on staff there?)
My role is to show people how Do Crafts products work, and to give them ideas for how to use them. This is normally through demonstrating either in person in shops, or on TV, but I sometimes design projects for the Do Crafts website and “Creativity!” magazine too. I’m freelance, but Do Crafts keeps me busy enough that, apart from a few demos at local craft clubs, I don’t work for anyone else.

6. Do you have a website for your services that we can post? Any way for someone who would like a demo to contact you?
I don’t have a website, but I do have a blog: http://quackersaboutcraft.blogspot.com/
I’m a rather erratic blogger, but am trying to update it more frequently!

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Amanda as much as I have.  Thanks for sharing with us and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Daily Life with Audrey Jeanne, New Product Previews, New Releases

NEW! Puppy Love Digital Clip Art Kit

It’s been a little bit since I released a brand new art, digital clip art kit.  Today I released “Puppy Love 1” at www.aimeeasher.com.  It is priced at $5.98 for 26 pieces and if you are a crafter, you are allowed to use it to create products to sell at craft shows.  See the Angel Policy terms for the limits on usage.  Here is the link: LINK TO PUPPY LOVE KIT or simply click on the image to go to the store.

In the kit is 4 card fronts of various sizes, the puppy dog icons in borders and separated, 7 papers, 4 borders and a circular border that would be perfect to use on a paint can for a new puppy gift or packaging for a “Puppy Love” gift basket/can.

Now, my question to you… What products would you like to see made out of this kit for my Zazzle store?  Do you have some ideas for me to work on?  Here are my thoughts.  They’re perfect for purses and tote bags, magnets, greeting cards, note cards, T-shirts and maybe even some really fun shoes!  I used to own a Dalmatian and would have gotten a kick out of having a pair of shoes or shirt with a Dalmatian puppy on it.  Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!!

Daily Life with Audrey Jeanne

My Friend, Debbie Kingston Baker

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One of my favorite things about being an artist is the wonderful artistic friends I have met over the years.  Debbie Kingston Baker’s art has always touched my heart and when I met her in Atlanta at the gift show some years ago, we became friends and my life became a little richer.  We’d lost contact the last couple of years until yesterday when I got a little note from her.  I’m so glad to reconnect AND to show you her wonderful artwork.  If you would like to visit her Zazzle store all you have to do is click on any of the product shots I’ve included in this post or click on the link below.

Debbie has a shop at Zazzle that you can see here: DEBBIE KINGSTON BAKER’S STORE AT ZAZZLE Her style of watercolors is utterly unique in an industry full of copy cats.  Whimsical, detailed, childlike, innocent… all are words that aptly describe her style.

I think one of my favorite designs in her store is “Going to Nana’s House.”  What an adorable design to buy either for your grandchildren if they call you “Nana” or for them to buy for you.

If you’d like to see more of Debbie’s art, here’s her personal website:  DEBBIE KINGSTON BAKER’S PERSONAL WEB SITE On it there are e-cards you can send, links to some of her products such as Leanin’ Tree cards and some wonderful Christian/Inspirational items.  Enjoy!

New Releases

Home From the Licensing Show

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I spent two days in Las Vegas at the licensing show this past week.  It was really a treat to connect with all five members of my licensing agency’s team.  They were working really hard during the show, so I mostly tried to stay out of their way and let them do what they do best.

The show was a great time to connect with some dear artist friends like Phyllis Dobbs, fellow MHS Licensing artist Tina Higgins, one of my prior agents, Janie Seltzer, and the fun experience of meeting some new artist friends as well. The art licensing part of the show is so small that a single day would have been enough to take it in.  If you’re an artist and thinking about going to the show next year, keep that in mind.

The main parts of the show are absolutely overwhelming.  Disney’s 30 foot tall screens and massive booth, Paramount Studios and every other major film or TV studio, Nascar, NBA, even Lamborghini was there.  It can make you feel pretty small sometimes when you see how big the rest of the licensing world is.  My camera didn’t work or I would have brought some pictures home to show you.

I spent the entire second day sitting at a table and sketching pages and pages of designs to work on when I got home.  The inspiration came in response to a meeting with a long-time acquaintance in the gift ware marketplace.  We’ll be doing some work together and the assignments he gave me started the wheels turning.  I love that part of this job.

One of the collections I was mapping out is a new cupcake art set.  You can see some of the art I’ve finished since I got home in this post.  I haven’t come up with a catchy name for it, so feel free to make suggestions in the comments!

Tomorrow I’m going to feature a friend of mine that just found me on Zazzle.  I have adored her artwork for years and was blessed to become her friend quite a while ago but we’ve recently gotten reconnected.  Her work is so original and amazing I know you’ll love it, so stay tuned!

Daily Life with Audrey Jeanne

Today is Going to be Special!

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Why?!  Because I get to design the birth announcements for my brand new nephew.  My sister Nancy and her husband finally welcomed their son into a household with 5 daughters!!!  Chris is welcoming the companionship in a sea of estrogen and Nancy is reveling in a whole new vocabulary as she put it “there’s a whole new vocabulary in our house… boy, brother, son, lil man…”

So my task today is to get these set up and ready to go for him.  What a fun job it is to be an Auntie 🙂

Tomorrow I leave to go to Las Vegas for The Licensing Show.  It will be a treat to be with my entire Licensing Agency team.  I haven’t met 3 out of the 5 of them and am really looking forward to the time together and the inspiration.  I always come home with a million ideas on the direction I should go and usually very little time to work on those ideas because the requests from the manufacturers are coming in at the same time. If you are going to be at the show and would like to make contact, my agent’s booth is #4777 MHS Licensing.  They will know how to contact me so you can leave me a message there.  I will be in and out of the booth.  If you would like to see my portfolio books they will have them there.

By the way, as of yesterday, my existing free-standing digital clip art store has been disabled and all of my art is available in the Aimee Asher Elite digital store.  We had too many technical problems — especially guaranteed to happen the moment I left town, LOL!  So I decided to simply refer things there.  Same prices.  Same art.  Fantastic customer service if any issues arise.  To get there, simply click on the third page down from the top on the right hand side of the blog “Browse Digital products” and it will take you directly to my store front.

I’m off to “play with puppies” and get my nephew’s announcement done!


Products Available

Digital Clip Art Link Now Available

We have now disabled our own store and linked this site up to our complete storefront at Aimee Asher Elite.  If you look to the right you’ll see “Browse Digital products”  When you click on that link it will open my store in AAE here in my blog.  Be patient, it may take a few seconds, but you’ll be able to scroll through all 15 pages of digital clip art that is currently available, with more coming weekly.

In addition, on the left side column under the “Zazzle Store” products, you’ll see “New Products” previews.

To purchase any of the clip art, you will need to become a member at Aimee Asher and log in.  There are lots of other wonderful artists there, so go take a peek and enjoy!

Freebies

A Freebie Kit for the Fourth of July

A quick post this morning to let you know that I have a FREE patriotic card making kit available in my store at Aimee Asher.  It is a 3 card, 2 envelope kit that I designed to make writing to a serviceman or woman very easy.  If you have a group that writes to these people, feel free to make and send as many cards as you wish.

There’s also a blank card that can be made into a 4th of July party invitation or ?  Have fun with it and have fun with your summer!

You do have to log into Aimee Asher in order to download there, but there will be no charge.  While there take a little time to look around and see the other fun kits that are available.  If you like to make your own cards, one of my very favorite card making duos is “Kizzy Dizzy.”  They are my dear friends from the United Kingdom.  Their kits are amazingly detailed and creative.  They have made quite a few cards from my art kits as you can see here their “Hazy Hydrangeas” is from my Blue Hydrangeas clip art kits.  Here’s a link to their store:  KIZZY DIZZY CARDMAKING KITS AT AAE

LINK TO FREEBIE KIT AT AIMEE ASHER STORE

Happy Crafting!

Daily Life with Audrey Jeanne, New Releases

I am Going to Change my Blog

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I have some “housekeeping” items I thought I would throw all into one big post.

DIGITAL CRAFTING FANS:  I offer digital clip art kits on my blog store and have for several years.  In the next week or so, with Lynnie’s help (from www.aimeeasher.com) I am going to replace my blog store with a link to my store inside of Aimee Asher.

As those of you that have experienced it in the last couple of months know, my automated delivery system has been screwy and has failed to provide usable links more often than not.  The Aimee Asher system is great and well worth my sending the business their way instead of here. The prices are identical as are the kits and terms of use.  If you want to purchase any digital clip art kits, I would suggest that you use this link and go directly to AAE from now on.  LINK TO AUDREY JEANNE’S STORE AT AIMEE ASHER

Perhaps with fewer issues to deal with and without needing to upload and install a kit in two places I’ll be able to get some fresh new kits up 🙂  That is my goal anyway!

ZAZZLE STORES:  I have two Zazzle stores now.  One features “Everything Business” and is stocked with business cards, stationery, thank you notes, postage, address labels and more.

LINK TO “EVERYTHING BUSINESS by Audrey Jeanne”

LINK TO AUDREY JEANNE’S EXPRESSIONS ZAZZLE STORE

The other contains a wide variety of products from wedding invitations, baby announcements, baby onesies and tee shirts, scrapbook notebooks, recipe notebooks and pages and more.  You’ll also notice a new panel to the left with 3 of my Zazzle products shown in it.  Those three products change frequently so be sure to take a peek each time you stop by.  This format provides larger images that can be seen more clearly.  I had to give up the flash panel, but small moving objects aren’t really good for seeing anyway!

TWITTER: If you would like to follow me on Twitter, LINK TO TWITTER PAGE

FACEBOOK:  If you would like to follow my on my fan page at FaceBook, LINK TO FACEBOOK FAN PAGE I don’t play any games on FaceBook, so please don’t message me about that, but anything else I’d love to hear!

I update both Twitter and FaceBook daily and sometimes a couple of times a day and it’s very easy to connect with me there.  I love to hear feedback on designs I’m working on and often show the first peeks at Facebook as I’m working those collections out.

Okay, now off to bed after a long and wonderful day with my family!

New Product Previews, Products Available

Quilt Market This Weekend, New Fabric Collection Debut

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My newest fabric collection will debut this weekend at The Spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  It is called “Paradise” and is a William Morris Inspired collection.  I have been a fan of William Morris’ Craftsman era design work my entire life.

The Panel Fabric has been designed with home decor or gift making in mind.  The square designs could be used for pillows, central images in a wall hanging or a quilt, as pockets on a quilted tote bag or the front panel of an apron, in quilted potholders, place mats… the possibilities are endless!

Here is a list of the text on the panel fabric:  “We may not have it all together, but together we have it all,” “Our family is a circle of strength and love, founded on faith, joined in love, kept by God,” “Home is where your story begins,” “What ever is done in love is done well,” “Live – Love – Laugh,” “We do not remember the days, we remember the moments,” “And in the end it’s not the year in a life, it’s the life in the years.”

There are additional colorways in the blues and the persimmon that will either coordinate or take the look in a little different direction.

I particularly like a black ground when I’m creating a quilted bag for everyday use, or ESPECIALLY APRONS.  I’m quite a “slinger” in the kitchen and black covers a multitude of sins, LOL!

A personal favorite in this collection is the border stripe.  Usable on its own for pillows or an accent fabric in a room, it can also be cut up for the borders of a quilt.  I love designing border fabrics in varying widths that will look as though you picked different but coordinating fabrics to create your quilt with.

LINK TO FABRIC COLLECTION AT STUDIO E FABRICS

Finding the fabrics in stores and online will take a bit.  They ship by the end of June.  The best way to find the fabrics at retail is to look in Google with the key words: Studio E Fabrics, Paradise and Audrey Jeanne Roberts.  If any fabric stores would like to contact me and let me know that you’re carrying the line I’d be more than happy to pass your links on.

Daily Life with Audrey Jeanne

All Sold Out!

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I went to the Create and Craft website to order a kit and discovered they were all gone!  I guess that’s good news and bad news 🙂  The good news is that they’ll have them back in stock as soon as possible.  If you missed the kit like I did, and would like to be informed when it’s back in stock here’s what you can do.

Go to this link: LINK TO JADE TREASURES PAPER CRAFTING KIT click on “Buy Now” and it will tell you it’s sold out and ask if you would like to be informed via email when it’s back in stock.

My thanks for the great presenters at Ideal World, they are so filled with the joy of crafting.  You can tell that they use crafting products, love to create and enjoy showing off all the products they are entrusted with sharing!

Amanda Curtin, the Design Objectives designer and presenter that made all (or almost all) of the fabulous cards shown will be sending me some pictures of her work and I’m going to feature her here on my blog.  If you have any questions you can think of to ask her, send them to me and I’ll pass them along.

New Releases, Products Available

“Jade Treasures” Debuts Today

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On Create and Craft TV in the United Kingdom.  It is the show’s Pick of the Day and I believe there will also be 5 shows spread about through tomorrow but don’t know the times of them.

I am so looking forward to receiving my sets so that I can work on my Daughter’s wedding scrapbook.  This artwork was very much created with her wedding in mind.  It has lots of butterflies, dragonflies and paisley florals that aren’t shown much in these images.  It’s a MASSIVE kit!

My friend Amanda Curtin will be demonstrating the products today and I can’t wait to see her delightful creations.  Here’s the web page for purchasing the set: LINK TO CREATE AND CRAFT PRODUCT

Products Available, recipes and recipe cards

For Your Sweetest Chocolate Recipes!

A custom designed, chocolate brown binder with chocolate art scattered across it.  The text reads: “God sends no stress that prayer and chocolate can not handle!”  On a personal note, I love the chocolate brown cover to hide “less than tidy” fingerprints as I am one MESSY cook! You can customize the cover with a name, title or any message you would like to add — which makes it a fabulous option for a wedding gift for a new bride.  LINK TO RECIPE BINDER IN STORE

This binder is available in 1-2″ sizes depending on which you would need to contain all your sweetest dessert recipes.  If you have already bought any of my chocolate digital clip art, you can easily create your own pages to go in this book and make a fabulous gift for a Mother, Grandmother, friend or a family recipe collection book.

For those not quite so digitally inclined, I’ve created 3 separate page layouts to coordinate.  They are printed on 80 lb. letterhead quality paper and come 10 sheets to a pack.  You can mix and match the papers to create your own family heritage scrapbook recipe collection.  LINK TO RECIPE PAGES IN STORE.

You can also buy full page sheet protectors to put your recipes in and keep them clean and beautiful for a lifetime of use.  I love a full page size recipe format as it gives lots of room to type out the recipe.  If you create your page and type your recipe, you can print it as many times as you want to give to friends and family.  It’s a wonderful way to pass on the sweetest parts of your family heritage.

New Product Previews, New Releases, Products Available

Death by Chocolate Birthday Party Theme

Zazzle, Birthday Party Post CardI had the funniest thing happen today!  When you create postage for sale on Zazzle, it has to be approved by the US Post Office and meet their standards.  Well… I got a little notice this morning that they were pulling my product.  What product would that be?  “Death by Chocolate Party” postage, LOL!  It set me off in gales of laughter thinking of the tee shirts I could do “Chocolate torture — where can I go to volunteer?” and about a dozen other quips.

The postage shown here won a “Today’s Best Award” on Zazzle.com .   It’s really fun to have matching postage for wedding, baby shower and other events.  My daughter is really upset with me that I didn’t know about this before her wedding.  It would have been so fun to design her own unique wedding invitations.   Oh well… Grandma can  always do BABY invitations, LOL!

Postcards are a very inexpensive way to do custom party invites and I am in the process of creating Cupcake Wrappers and Candy bar wrappers to go with them so having an “instant party” will be inexpensive and easy!

By the way, I’m also working on a blue/brown and lavendar/brown combination on these invitations as well.  They’ll be a bit before they hit the store.

LINK TO BIRTHDAY PARTY INVITATIONS IN ZAZZLE STORE

New Product Previews, Products Available

Oh MY! Mother’s Day is Around the Corner!!

Have you thought of Mother’s Day gifts yet?  Neither have I, except to design them 🙂  I thought I would share a few ideas if you don’t want to run to the store and spend hours looking.  I am designing several coffee mugs both with and without specific Mother messages, this same design will have the text “World’s Greatest Mom” and will be uploaded some time today.  LINK TO COFFEE MUGS,

LINK TO APRONS AND MAGNETS IN STORE

Do you want to send a real card but hate to have to run to the store?  Zazzle allows you to pick, customize your message and send your greeting cards all for the same price you would spend at the store!  Pretty amazing and convenient as well.  This card is full color and fully designed inside and out.

LINK TO MOTHER’S DAY GREETING CARD

Tote bags are also available, I have two coffee themed and this first Mother’s theme.  LINK TO A MOTHER’S LOVE TOTE BAG

If you prefer to make your own cards, my digital clip art is available here in the blog store and at WWW.AIMEEASHER.COM STORE LINK What ever you do this Mother’s Day, make sure you convey all the love, honor and thanks that you have in your heart for your Mother!

New Product Previews, New Releases

More New Wedding Invitations Designed from Original Water Color Art

ZAZZLE store Wedding Invitations

I have been a busy bee on this beautiful spring day!  I have created three more wedding collections in my Zazzle store.

Now that I have somewhat figured out how to do this, it’s much quicker to do and I’m having a great time at it.

By the way, each design is offered in several sizes and layouts, RSVP cards, Thank You notes, Wedding Invitation Seals, Matching postage (custom designed US Postage stamps) and other coordinating products.

Today will be my last day for a while to create new designs as tomorrow I will turn my attention to the display images for the MHS Licensing booth for the Surtex show.  All of the designs that I am creating will also be available for licensing by any stationery manufacturer.  Should they be licensed I will simply pull them from my store.

LINK TO ZAZZLE STORE HERE