A WARM WELCOME TO FANTASY ARTIST, AUTHOR AND ZAZZLER KIRSTEN EDWARDS

Most people know Kirsten Edwards as Hinterland Harmony Illustrations by KLeighE. She also signs her art with the name KLeighE. Born in Kentucky, Kirsten has lived in Texas since 1969. She and her husband and fur babies now reside in Sanger, Texas.

Whimsical Tea Party Fairy Parody Print by KirstenEdwards

Kirsten enjoys being out in nature and listening to the birds sing. She loves books, especially old ones and loves reading. As Kirsten is fascinated with how imaginary characters come to life, her favorite moves are animation and fantasy.

Autumn Faery by Pumpkin Cottage Print by KirstenEdwards

As a child Kirsten loved coloring books and was careful to keep everything ‘in the lines’. As she got older she doodles and colored ‘Doodle Art’ posters. In 1977 she started drawing, but after high school she put it down and left it behind her. Kirsten began drawing again in 2001 in order to illustrate her first book ‘The Hinterland Faeries in the Quest for the Flower and the Pearl’. That project took several years as it involved coloring 44 pictures with Prismacolors and Kirsten was also working full time.

Gothic Faery Singer Roxanne Print by KirstenEdwards

Kirsten draws cartoons for children and adults who are children at heart. She loves drawing faeries, but also does child characters and likes to play with fantasy scenery. Her outlines are a darker color than the filled in area of the design and she likes to add lots of detail. Kirsten didn’t realize or pay attention until last year when she realized that Disney art is drawn in a similar manner. She has always loved Disney and thinks that has had some influence on her art.

Mushroom Faery and Butterfly by KirstenEdwards

Inspiration for Kirsten comes from things she sees in life, social issues or just ideas that pop into her head and insist on being expressed!

Valentine Faery with Sweets Print by KirstenEdwards

Kirsten is a self taught artist. In 2006, after an auto accident, she really began to focus more on her artwork. It was a diversion from the pain she was in. She says she is happiest with her nose stuck in her computer drawing a faery and bringing her to life. Kirsten’s style has changed some over the years as she has grown as an artist. She collects items from nature such as leaves, sticks, rocks and flowers, and scans them into her computer. Then she manipulates the resulting images in Photoshop to create fantasy realms for her faeries to live in, or wedding invitations and other designs. Her characters are drawn on paper with pencil first. These drawings are then scanned to create digital images, which Kirsten colors digitally using her Wacom tablet and pen in Photoshop. She is now teaching herself Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 and animation with ‘Toon Toom Animate’. This artist and author now has two published picture storybooks available for purchase and is working on several more.

DAVID SEIDLER writer of 'The King's Speech' with KLeighE's Hinterland Harmony Image Collection

POP STAR ASHLEE KEATING with KLeighE artwork


In July 2010, Kirsten became a member of ‘The IndiExibit’ and participated in the ESPY Awards Gift Lounge. It has been such an exciting adventure that she chose to send her art to more gift lounges this year. 2011 gift lounges she has participated in so far include the Golden Globes, the Sundance Film Festival and the Kids Choice Awards. The next lounge is in June 2011 at the MTV Movie Awards. In addition to participating in these events, Kirsten is also an administrative assistant for this group.







Recently, Kirsten has licensed her designs to several companies. Borealis Art Dolls is bringing Kirsten’s faeries to life through charming cloth dolls. They are all hand sewn with lots of love. Kats Magical Patches is creating fabric patches and iron transfers of Kirsten’s characters. Crafting stamps of Kirsten’s faeries and characters will be available from Queen Kats Stamps. Kirsten is also working on animating one of her books with the Toon Boom animation software.

Queen Faery and Unicorn Forest Print by KirstenEdwards

Other new projects in the work are some exciting new characters and stories. These include a black swan faery parody, an Arthurian Rocker chick, and a Karma and Dharma duo.

Raven Witch Faery Print by KirstenEdwards

Currently Kirsten’s art work is available online on t-shirts, stickers, mugs, aprons, prints, postage stamps, greeting cards, post cards, skateboards, Ked Shoes, necklaces and many other fun products through Print on Demand sites. Once Kirsten figures out eBay, she plans to offers jewellery featuring her faeries and ACEO cards.

Witch with Bat and Cauldron Print by KirstenEdwards

HINTERLAND HARMONY ON ZAZZLE

KIRSTEN EDWARDS ON REDBUBBLE

HINTERLAND HARMONY ON CAFEPRESS

HINTERLAND HARMONY WEBSITE

KIRSTEN EDWARDS ON LULU

FOLLOW KIRSTEN EDWARDS ON TWITTER

Poinsettia Christmas Faery Print by KirstenEdwards

All Images Copyright Kirsten Edwards, All Rights Reserved

Edited by Ruth J Jamieson, Copyright Ruth J Jamieson, All Rights Reserved

MEET OUR FEATURE ZAZZLER SWEDISH ARTIST MARIANA EWA

Ewa Mariana Asklof is known as Mariana Ewa online. Mariana lives in Hassela, a small village in Sweden about 200 miles (350km) north of Stockholm. Home for Mariana is a small farm which she shares with her partner and her young daughter. Prior to an accident with her horses a few years ago, Mariana worked in healthcare for almost 25 years. Now she enjoys life with her family, her cats and her horses and she creates beautiful art.

Hitchhiking Print by MarianaEwa

Mariana has been a cat and horse lover since she was 12 years old and her hobbies and interests have always revolved around her horses and cats. She has also always loved to take photographs.

Horse #1 Print by MarianaEwa

For years Mariana used a Nikon analog camera. Her first digital camera was an Olympus 765. Later she bought a Canon 350D and now she uses a Pentax K10D, 18-55mm, Tamron 28-300mm. A photograph she took with the Pentax was the winner of a photo contest in a computer magazine.

Man's Best Friend #3 Print by MarianaEwa

Mariana does not have any formal training or education in using computers, software or in photography. She has learned what she knows along the way through trial and error. This includes creating fractals and digitally manipulating her photographs.

Illusion Print by MarianaEwa

Inspiration for Mariana’s photographs are her cats and horses and the beauty in nature. Photographing nature has brought her more awareness of the abundance of beauty in even the simplest things around her.

Shining Through Print by MarianaEwa

In 2006 Mariana started a site on CAEDES and she learned a lot. Caedes allows artists to create computer wallpapers and share them for personal use. Creating the wallpapers prompted Mariana to experiment with her photographs and she learned a lot about digital software while doing that.

Dahlia Inside Postcard by MarianaEwa

Next Mariana discovered Redbubble and opened a portfolio there. Her hope was that she might sell some of her artwork. She met many wonderful people who are now lifelong friends. Participating on Redbubble gave Mariana an opportunity to learn some new techniques of working with her photographs.

Cherry Tree in Spring by MarianaEwa

A couple of years ago a friend on Redbubble told Mariana about Zazzle and she took a look at the site. She started her store on Zazzle first to make things for her friends in her village. Mariana found she loved the Zazzle site and she made a lot more new friends. After awhile she opened her store to the public. Recently Mariana started a second store on Zazzle, Mariana Ewa Pattern. The store will feature digital art patterns on all of Zazzle’s products.

Leather Flower Speck Case by MarianaEwaPattern

Mariana also has a store on Artamatik where you can find her art on jewellery, watches, clocks and a lot more.

Mirror Pond by MarianaEwa

Coming soon Mariana is planning on adding more digital art to her stores on Wedding products. She is planning on themed collections in colors such as lime, lilac, blue and so on. As well she always has more beautiful photographs of cats, horses and nature in general

USA Woman Shoes by MarianaEwa

MARIANA EWA ON CAEDES

MARIANA EWA ON REDBUBBLE

MARIANA EWA ON ZAZZLE

MARIANA EWA PATTERN ON ZAZZLE

MARIANA EWA ON ARTAMATIK

MARIANA EWA ON FACEBOOK

MARIANA EWA STORE ON FACEBOOK

MARIANA EWA ON TWITTER

All Images Copyright Mariana Ewa, All Rights Reserved

Written by Ruth J Jamieson, Copyright Ruth J Jamieson, All Rights Reserved

TODAY’S FEATURE ZAZZLER IS AMY MARIE

Amy Marie currently lives in New Jersey, U.S.A. However, Amy loves to travel and has lived in New Jersey, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Africa and Germany … for lack of anywhere else to be!!! She is a very spontaneous person and if someone said to her tomorrow … ‘hey, wanna move to …’ they wouldn’t have to finish the sentence and Amy would already be packing, and wherever she goes, she takes her camera.

Graduation Cap & Diploma by GraduationStation

Travel is Amy’s life. She loves to travel anywhere and everywhere! She LOVES Germany, especially Heidelberg and she would move back there in an instant!

Pink Peace Now by PeacePeople

Amy has always been a doodler. Her mother is an art teacher and her grandfather was a professional artist. Amy’s Peace People shop is comprised 100% of these little guys she used to doodle on her notebooks from the time she was about 10-11 years old. These characters always held peace signs, as they do now, although now their message has evolved to reflect the broad spectrum of Amy’s liberal-hippie-tree-hugging persona.

Teal can't we get along by PeacePeople

Amy loves color. She hand draws and edits purchased clipart, always adding bright, vibrant colors. She also loves photography, especially bright vibrant flowers and architecture. When she lived in Germany her roommates made fun of her because 1/3 of the photos she took were photos of doors, windows, stairwells, awnings, chimneys, roof lines....and other things they would overlook. But Amy loved the artistic value in them and the shots came out great! Even they had to agree, after they saw some of her shots, that they never saw things the way she did, but that her shots were beautiful. Some of those friends even had copies of Amy’s photos of the old house they lived in as their screen-savers by the time Amy left.

Monkey Tree Hugger by shopaholicchick

Life is what inspires Amy... she is inspired by what she sees. She is also inspired by her customers. Amy lives by the mantra ‘I am not the shopper’. So she does a lot of work based on what the customers seem to want. Her Zazzle shops based on this mantra are the part of Amy’s business that make her the living and allow her the ability to work on the other shops with the art she loves. This includes her Peace People shop. She gets so much more excited when items from that shop sell than when a hockey design from Just Sports sells for example.

Toothless player by justsports

Amy took grade school art classes along with her classmates. In College she took a Ceramics class because she needed an art class. As a child, Amy went along to many of her mother’s college art classes and learned with her mom. Amy’s grandfather, a professional artist who drew the yellow pages (before computers), looked after her after school and she watched him drawing and stenciling letters into little boxes. He would give her some of the special papers and she used to color on them. For years after he retired she used sheets of that paper for her school notes and to doodle on. She still has a few pieces of her grandfather’s art, a painting and a sketch. Amy is completely self-taught on computers and graphic programs. She has learned a lot by trial and error. She says she makes a lot of errors, but some of them work out great.

Happy Mother's Day Bouquet by shopaholicchick

Amy Marie is a member of a small local art center near her home. She doesn’t actively participate in the gallery there, but she has given private lessons to members on how to set up a Zazzle store, setting up an eBay account and Paypal account. She will be teaching a class on beginners Photoshop this spring about how to do some basics of photo-editing in Photoshop.

Swan by BisforBirds

Lately Amy has been playing more with her Wacom tablet. She has had if for about two years and is still not very proficient with it. So she has been using it a lot lately trying to get better so she can expand more into freehand drawing.

Columbus Sailed by what_if

I asked what is coming from her easel in the near future. Amy said, ‘Ask me next week ;)’

9th Birthday Dragon by dragons_lair

Amy sells her art and designs online through Print on Demand sites. She currently has shops on Zazzle and Skreened. The Skreened shops are quite small right now because they require a different file type than Zazzle.

Polgglee by Kooblees

AMY MARIE’S ZAZZLE STORES:

Shopaholic Chick
Say I Love You
Dragon’s Lair
Alien Nation
Witches Wardrobe
Graduation Station
Binderific
Kiki Kitty
Edibility
Peace People
Same Sex Marriage
Triple Goddess
Anime Nation
What If
Occupation Station
Just Sports
Addicted To
B is for Birds
Chasing the Gnome
Kooblees
Left Handed Cards
That’s My Baby
Clown Town

From Santa’s Desk

Patchwork Moose by thatsmybaby

AMY MARIE’S SKREENED SHOPS:

Shopaholic Chick
Liberal Hippie

AMY MARIE’S BLOGS AND MICROBLOGS:

Zazzle Showcase
Shopaholic Chick on Blogger
Feature Designs
Printed Paradise
Feature Designers
Amy Marie Designs
Zazzle Collaboration
Design of the Day
Edge Postcards
Restaurant Couture
Just a Mugger
Zazzlerific
Doggie Fashionista
Shopaholic Chick on Wordpress
The Bichy Witch
Shopoholic Chick on WP Blog
Shopoholic Chick on Posterous

AMY MARIE ON TWITTER:

The Bichy Witch
Printed Paradise
Amy Marie Designs

SHOPAHOLIC CHICK ON FACEBOOK

All Images Copyright to Amy Marie, All Rights Reserved.

Edited by Ruth J Jamieson, Copyright Ruth J Jamieson, All Rights Reserved

CALIDA BIENVENIDA TO MULTI MEDIA MEXICAN ARTIST CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON

Christopher Johnson lives and works in the municipality of Cuautitlan in Mexico City, Mexico.

Bird of Paradise 10 Dreamy by LivingNature

Christopher loves to read, sing, watch movies, play computer games, go for long walks, visit parks, go to museums, hang out with friends and in general enjoy life in a responsible and calm way. In general Christopher loves to live simply. He sometimes jokes that he lives like a monk (but with internet). He says that the Monks probably have computers too. Christopher was able to show the priest at the cathedral in Cuautitlan his art gallery at Imagekind on the priest’s computer.

The facade of the Taxco cathedral by ChristopherInMexico

Christopher loves doing almost anything that is art related. He learned to crochet from a book when he was 19 or 20. He also loved art classes in elementary school. In 2007 Christopher got his first digital camera, a 3 megapixel Vivitar. At that point he began to post his artwork to print on demand stores. Since then he has upgraded to a 10.1 megapixel Casio camera.

Fuchsia 1 by LivingNature

While Christopher loves photography, he also works in other mediums. Digital art is one of those. Christopher works with his existing photographs and various graphic software programs to create digital artworks and he also creates original digital work such as fractals and kaleidoscopes. He says that floral artwork; particularly floral photography is his passion.

Happy Mother's Day! - Pale Pink Cut Rose 1 by HolidayGreetings

Last fall Christopher began experimenting with both acrylic and oil paint. The supplies are expensive, so he doesn’t paint a lot, but the experimenting continues.

Black Swan 1 Pond Ripples by WildAnimalArt

Instructional DVD’s and online tutorials provide some of Christopher’s art training, but mostly he tries new software, experiments and asks questions of other artists when he gets stuck on something. He has become a skilled user of Photoshop and Painter using these methods and continues to learn and grow as an artist in this way.

Yellow Daylily 5 Flare by LivingNature

Drawing and painting with Photoshop and Painter using a graphic tablet has become another type of digital artwork that Christopher does. He enjoys creating digital portraits. Recently he has also begun to experiment with graphic design to create specific designs for holidays and weddings.

Calla Lily 4 Love Wedding by WeddingArt

Christopher says he is planning to focus on developing graphic design skills and designs for this next year as a means to build a stronger customer base. Photography and digital fine art sell sporadically online and Christopher would like to build a more steady sales stream and income.

Pink Rose 3 Angelic by LivingNature

All of Christopher’s artwork is available as prints on Imagekind and Redbubble and on gift products on Zazzle. He also accepts special requests for custom digital artwork. Christopher offers his artwork on as broad a product range as possible on Zazzle to give his customers a good selection to choose from. This includes mugs, U.S. stamps, coasters, ornaments, necklaces, greeting cards, mobile phone cases, labels, t-shirts, stickers, magnets, posters, etc….

Elegant Calla Lily Flowers 7 Modern by LivingNature

CHRISTOPHER’S ZAZZLE STORES:

Flower and Plant Art - LIVING NATURE

Travel Photography – CHRISTOPHER IN MEXICO

Kaleidoscope Art – KALEIDOSCOPE ART

Sepia "Antiqued" Art – ANTIQUED ART

Abstract and Fractal Art – ABSTRACT & FRACTAL ART

Holiday Greetings – HOLIDAY GREETINGS

Wedding – WEDDING ART

Outdoor Art – OUTDOOR ART

Animal Art – WILD ANIMAL ART

City Birds 2 by OutdoorArt

CHRISTOPHER IN MEXICO AT IMAGEKIND

CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON TRAVEL PHOTO ART ON REDBUBBLE

V Flame - Colorful Fractal Flame by AbstractFractalArt

JOIN CHRISTOPHER ON FACEBOOK

FAN CHRISTOPHER ON FACEBOOK

FOLLOW CHRISTOPHER ON TWITTER

VISUAL ART GIFTS BLOG

VISUAL ART AND ARTISTS

All images Copyright to Christopher Johnson, All Rights Reserved

Edited by Ruth J Jamieson, Copyright Ruth J Jamieson, All Rights Reserved

WELCOME TO GRAPHIC ARTIST AND PRINT DESIGNER ILENE STERNBACH ALDRIDGE

Ilene Sternbach Aldridge was born in NYC, but now lives in suburban New Jersey with her husband and daughter. After working as an art director and graphic designer for twenty years, Ilene became a stay at home mother when her daughter was born. She began doing freelance design work and was thrilled to find Zazzle, which allowed her to have the best of both worlds; doing creative work and being home and available for her family.

Fashion Diva Birthday Party Invitation by starstreamdesign

Ilene has a very busy schedule raising her daughter. Her other interests include hitting the gym at least three times a week, watching reality shows and reading. She also loves crafting of any kind.

Spotlight Bar/Bat Mitzvah Invitation by starstreamdesign

Ilene says that a creative streak runs in her family. Artists, musicians and performers abound throughout the family. Ilene was always drawn to artistic activities and that has been her passion as long as she can remember.

Modern Type Save The Date Magnet by starstreamdesign

Digital artwork, mostly vector based with an emphasis on typography is the primary focus of Ilene’s art creation. She tends to rely on graphic illustration of objects rather than photographs, and attributes that to her love of logo development.

Les Fleurs du Printemps Coaster by starstreamdesign

Ilene is inspired by many things everyday. She can be driving down the street and a simple sign will inspire her to make a new business series. Her daughter also inspires her every day and has even ‘art directed’ some products in one of her shops.

Skeleton Key Housewarming Invitation by starstreamdesign

Ilene’s art education started with her earning a degree in studio art. When she found she couldn’t get a job after college she chose to move towards commercial art and become a graphic designer. She went back to school at the top art schools in New York City and earned a certificate in computer design in addition to her graphic art studies. Professionally she then did a lot of web design, but as many others entered that field she returned to her true passion, print design. She continues to learn new graphic software and methods and keeps up with the latest in design trends.

The Word is Love Save The Date Sticker by starstreamdesign

These days Zazzle and other Print on Demand sites keep Ilene so busy that she hasn’t had time to explore other types of art. She is hoping that in the future when her shops are established she will have a little time to do that.

Papillon Words iPhone4 Speck Case by starstreamgifts

In addition to expanding her four existing Zazzle stores, Ilene is expanding her line of designs onto products on other Print on Demand sites. She has started developing a store on Miche and hopes to get to work on one or two other sites shortly.

Arched Window Business Card by starstreambusiness

In addition to selling her art on all of Zazzle’s products, Ilene also does quite a bit of freelance and custom design work for private clients. She does a lot of corporate identity project work in particular.

Big Bagels Business Card by starstreambusiness

Fresh bamboo massage therapy by starstreambusiness

Up until last year Ilene was also doing hand calligraphy on invitations for weddings and other events. As many of those clients are becoming computer savvy, they are doing their own ‘calligraphy’. So now Ilene has more time to ZAZZLE!

10 Year Anniversary September 11th Shirt by funshirtsandstuff

STAR STREAM DESIGN ON BLOGSPOT

STAR STREAM DESIGN ON POSTEROUS


STAR STREAM DESIGN ON TUMBLR


CUSTOM BUSINESS SOLUTIONS


STAR STREAM DESIGN ON FACEBOOK

STAR STREAM DESIGN ON TWITTER

STAR STREAM BIZ ON TWITTER

All Images Copyright Ilene Sternbach Aldridge, All Rights Reserved

Edited and Written by Ruth J Jamieson, Copyright Ruth J Jamieson, All Rights Reserved