Inside The Studio: Into The New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

I know, I know,  I  know . At this point we are all tired of hearing it by the time I get this blog out especially with it being the middle of the month. I am just so excited to have you all with me on this journey as we go into the new year. I couldn't fully do this without your support and I am forever thankful to have you all on this journey with me.

This year I already have two shows that I will be attending. I have more that I plan on attending but am mostly waiting on applications to be made available so I won't confirm them yet. I will be starting up in March with the Spring Soulfest in Grand Island and then will be in Kearney the following weekend for Bearcat Cares Spring Craft & Vendor show.

Like always as applications open up and I get confirmation about them I will add their dates to the homepage and include them in the monthly newsletter.

2025 was an absolutely chaotic years and knowing me, this year will probably equally be as crazy. Especially since before last year was even over I had already started signing up for shows for this year. I don't fully know yet how many shows I plan on doing but I know that I will start vending for this year in March and we'll see how many shows I get in before I have to step away for the summer. June and July I will probably not attending many shows if any as they are the busiest time for me at my "day" job. I'll also need the time to be able to make art but the chaos of my main job absolutely drains me and I have just found out over the years that I am just not able to juggle that much.

I am proud to say that I have gotten my Spring Wildlife collection finally made into art prints and will have to versions, 1) with a leafy border and 2) with the plain white background. I am also currently working on getting a blank card version made up so that will be able as well. Last month I was finally able to get enough time to sit down and finish the leafy border design I had spent months attempting to work on. It came out so cute and I can't get over it.

At the time of this blog being posted they are not available to purchase yet. I need to get the photos taken for the listings and to finish making said listings. I'll hopefully be able to get a few of the designs up before the end of the month. I ran out of paper so I don't have all of them printed out yet.

Wildlife Prints

I will also be working on changing my sticker display/set up for craft shows. As much as I do absolutely love the cathedral display that I have, they unfortunately break  fairly easily and just don't have the height that I would like them to have and are so tightly packed onto the displays that I find it hard to see them all and takes forever to set up and take down. I do have a fun idea for it I just need to finish collecting everything to be able to make the new display. I can hardly wait to be able get to work on it.

I have also been taking the time, finally, to work on the mouse piece that I have been teasing for the last couple of months. I really like how cute it is with it's little berries! I can't get enough of it.

Work In Progress - Field Mouse With Berries

While I am not entirely sure how many of plans and ideas I'll get to this year I do have several things that I am looking into doing. I want to be able to provide plenty of options for everyone and am I am a craft goblin that doesn't know how to stop. One of the options I am looking into doing is making my own spiral bound notebooks. I still am doing a bunch of research everything from the equipment I would need to also different paper options for it. One of my biggest hurdles is how do I want to do the covers. I will soon start testing probably starting in February once I get files put together. If I do end up making notebooks they would probably end up being the same dimensions as the leatherette journals or maybe 8.5" x 11". That will all end up depending on how much everything costs though so we'll see.

I also have a plan to make larger versions of my coloring zines. Out of all of my wild ideas for this year it will be the easiest for me to do since the plan is make a few more designs and then combine the two zines I have with the new art. Instead of being small single sheets of paper folded up I plan on getting a long arm stapler so I can make it into a small book. I most importantly just need to get the art done and then build the files out currently so all I have to do is print them out. This'll allow me to have better control of the cost as well as make sure that I can fit them in the limited space I have to both store and transport them when going to craft shows.

I have ideas for mystery packs that I would have available only at craft shows but I'm not entirely sure how I want to do them so we'll see if I can actually make a decision on them. I also really want to look into making either notepads or weekly planner sheets but we'll see how that goes. I feel like currently the easiest would be just a regular notepad since I already have my leaf border. Whichever I end up doing with it, I would make it available as a digital download that will be available at first to newsletter subscribers and then possibly be made available on the website. I only started thinking about digital files like this during the last month so I still need to look at how it would work on my website before I can confirm to much.

I am so unbelievably excited for all that I have planned for this year. I could continue going on about other wild and crazy plans that I have for this year but I know realistically that most of the other plans are ones that won't happen this year unless something wild happens, like discovering a way to either freeze or make more time or winning the lottery (which would be really impressive since I don't play it). I will continue working on even more art and sharing that journey with you guys. It's going to be an interesting and eventful year and I can't wait to see you guys out there this year.

Here's to a prosperous and happy new year for all of us.