Holiday Greetings 2013

I wish you and your family will have a wonderful holiday season!

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Black Friday through Cyber Monday 20% Off Coupon Code

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving day. My Etsy shop is offering Black Friday 20 percent discount with the coupon code "BLKFRI20" through Cyber Monday, and Free Shipping for USA and Canada Shipment!

Wishing your wonderful Thanksgiving holiday weekend! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wish you, your family, and your special someone will have a wonderful Thanksgiving day!

$5 Off Coupon Code for Bless Hue Etsy Shop Ends Dec. 31, 2013

To celebrate the upcoming holidays, here is a little something from Bless Hue.

$5 off over $35 purchase at check out on my Etsy Shop with the coupon code: SAVE5BLESSHUE. The code is valid till Dec. 31, 2013. 

Enjoy!!!

Buy Any 2 Get 1 Classic Snap-on Case Free!

Exciting offer from Kekacase.com!
Buy any of their two products and get one Classic Snap-on Case ($34.95 value) Free!
Use this promotional code at checkout: FREESNAP 
This could be a great holiday gift idea:)

Please click here to see my eight designs for Galaxy, iPad, and iPhone Cases!

Wonderful Introduction on Artfully Walls FB Page

Post by Artfully Walls.

Exciting Announcement!

I am very happy to announce that my arts are now available on the products by the two companies. 

•  Keka™ by Solid Line Products - They are awesome case provider for all iPads, Kindles, iPhones, and Galaxies in the US and the UK.  My designs can be found here. Now they are offering free shipping, and 25% discount with "SNAP25" on all orders! Expiry is not given, so please take advantage of this offer before it is gone!!! 

Some of My Designs  

• Artfully Walls - They are unique art print on demand provider that shows themed art collections on wall by curating from their artists' works and offers them in print.  They just launched the business with selected 36 artists including me :) To see my currently available works please click here. 

I could not be more excited!

Strawberry Dye on Paper

In the past post "Strawberry Project" I mentioned about strawberry dye on paper. I finally tried it and it turned out to be a beautiful hue. I found simple natural dye methods on some Japanese blogs so I referred them. Although all the method were for fabrics, I gave a try on watercolor papers. For fabrics, you need a container to soak in, but for watercolor papers, I just used a paint brush to color the papers.

First, I pureed a handful of strawberry (used uneatable quality) in a small bowl.

Then I squeezed a slice of lemon juice in the bowl and mixed together to preserve the strawberry color.

Several strokes were needed on one spot to keep the color vivid. The sweet strawberry scent was filling the room while painting, and even after the dye dried out. This one shows the difference of amount of strokes. The top got more strokes than the bottom. The bright color of strawberry transformed into pale pink after dried.

 This one was supposed to be hibiscuses.

The petals were drawn with the strawberry dye and I added newspaper pieces to complete the picture. The Kanji character means August.

This is my first "mixed media: strawberry dye and hand-torn newspaper" art. Not too bad for the first try!?

Happy August!

Summer-Related Canvas Prints Added to My Zazzle Shop

Are you enjoying the summer so far? Here are some of the canvas prints from my summer-themed works just listed on my Zazzle shop today!

Curious French Bull Canvas Print by BlessHue

French Bull At Beach Canvas Print by BlessHue

Happy French Bull Canvas Print by BlessHue

Sea Lions On The Water Nautical Art for Kids Stretched Canvas Print by BlessHue

Wondering Sea Lion, Nautical Art, 9 x 13.5 in. Canvas Prints by BlessHue

Friendly Sea Lion, Nautical Art, 9 x 13.5 in. Canvas Prints by BlessHue

Enjoy 10% Off to Celebrate the July 4th!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Enjoy 10% off with the coupon code HAPPYJULY4 at Bless Hue Etsy Shop  and Bless Hue Official Website!  

Valid through July 31, 2013, the coupon is applicable on all items except for  marked "Pre-Order" items. 

My Puffer Art Was Featured On ApartmentTherapy.com!

Happy July! 

I got so excited when I found my puffer fish art was shown on ApartmentTherapy.com today!

Please check out by visiting the link.  Mine is on top row No.3. 

Strawberry Project

 Seattle's summer time is back here again! We started to have beautiful sunny days recently, and my husband and I drove to a strawberry farm in Arlington, WA, on last Friday.

 I sensed great berry scent coming from the field as soon as we arrived there.

 We hopped on a cart to get to the pick-up spot and started to pick up strawberries. I love it when the hull of berry was split from the vine with a pop. We gathered plenty of strawberries for two.  The freshest strawberries we tried there couldn't be tastier.

 Next day in the morning, we had a strawberry breakfast with this really good, locally made scone.

 Also I made strawberry jam for the first time in my life (following a recipe) yesterday, and had it for today's breakfast. Mmmmm.... I did a great job!

 Now there are great portion of strawberries that already got too soft to eat, and these are kept frozen for my next project, which is strawberry dye on paper. I will post how it turned out when I have done :)

Display Samples of My Arts

 I created my arts display samples with an awesome app from Ariana Falerni Design. It is a very useful app and I enjoyed creating all the samples with my arts.  The shown below are what I created.  These samples can be found on each item listing on my official website and Etsy shop.

Looking Back SURTEX 2013

 It has been over two weeks since SURTEX 2013 ended. It was the first time for me to exhibit at the show, and I really had a great experience there. I was blessed with great booth location where it was surrounded by kind and friendly veteran exhibitors' booths, and stopped by wonderful visitors. It was also exciting to have been able to meet the people who I only knew online, in person.
 Actually I can not remember any people who were not nice while we were in NYC. My husband and I got to know many people during the 9-day stay in the city. Many many thanks to whom all we have met there for being such nice people and making our stay in NYC so much fun!

 It was true that the show takes a lot of time, money, and work to exhibit, but it is worth exhibiting as mentioned by many SURTEX exhibitors on their blogs, etc.  My network was expanded, my knowledge and software skill were developed, and more inspirations were poured in.

 I found many softwares in preparing for the show, and the followings became the most handy tools for me:

• SketchUp by Google (free ver.) : http://www.sketchup.com/  - for booth designing, very helpful tool. 
• ZXing Project (free): http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/ - for generating QR code for business cards, etc.
• Create Product Mockups by Phyllis Dobbs ($59): http://www.phyllisdobbs.com/Store%20pages/Create-product-mockups.htm - for creating product mockups with Photoshop or Illustrator

Mockup made with SketchUp

Real Booth at SURTEX 2013

     

And we are considering exhibiting at the show again!

It's 7 days from now...

 SURTEX is coming. My husband and I will be in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, seven days from today! Alex Colombo, a very sweet-hearted Designer/Artist/Art Licensor, who also exhibits at SURTEX created wonderful promo pages for other exhibitors including me to show our presence there on her blog, "The Moon From My Attic".  Visit here to view awesome exhibitors' beautiful promo images.

To learn about SURTEX, please visit here.

Bless Hue Instagram Page Just Opened

My husband and I went for a walk in the beautiful sun last weekend. I took camera with me and captured beautiful views while we were walking. I decided to open an Instagram account so I can share with you the moments that made me feel happy.

Visit the link http://instagram.com/keikoofblesshue to see what I got :) 

Have a wonderful week!

Featured On The Moon From My Attic by Alex Colombo

I was featured on the popular art licensing blog, The Moon From My Attic by Alex Colombo, Chief Editor, Designer, Illustrator, and Licensing Artist, today.  Many thanks to Alex for the feature!

The link to the full post is here: http://creativeconceptsdesignstudio.blogspot.com/2013/04/an-art-licensing-true-story-artist_26.html

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Happy April! Free Downloadable Calendar Anyone? (Valid through Apr. 30, 2013)

It is April! Seattle is getting warmer and sunnier these days, and I love it:)

I created free downloadable calendar sized 5.5" x 8.5" in US/UK/Everywhere Else, Canada, France, and Brazil ver. and linked here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3ZDMfK5U_WWeGVjN0R2NTVJaFE/edit?usp=sharing

It will be connectable till the end of this April.

Enjoy!

SURTEX 2013, 61 Days to Go!

SURTEX, "the show" for art licensing is getting closer and closer. I am exhibiting first time, and I have been learning a lot about art licensing, booth designing, press kit preparation etc... , the things to learn are uncountable, but I have been enjoying all these learning process.

My banners are now on the SURTEX marketplace and top of the directory on the website.  'Wow, I am going to be There...!' is the only word comes up in my mind with a mildly quickened heartbeat when I see those banners.

If you are attending SURTEX 2013 show, please come and visit me at booth no. 525.  I will be there with my husband :)

Now I should get back to preparing for the show!

 - The banners on the SURTEX website -

Marketplace

Directory

Happy March! Free Printable Calendar (available through Mar. 31, 2013)

Happy March, everyone! I created a free printable calendar for this month. Available from now through the end of March, 2013. There are USA & Everywhere Else, Brazil, France, and Canada & UK version on the link: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3ZDMfK5U_WWM0FlRmszZVBDTEk/edit?usp=sharing

Enjoy:) 

Featured On Blog "Recyle Craft"

A fellow Etsy seller, Laurie Hannegan, featured my bobtail cat art on her blog article titled Newsworthy Recycled Art from Etsy.

Each of the listed recycled newspaper items are beautifully made. I am amazed by all creators' creativities.  To see her great selections, please visit http://greendivadesigns.blogspot.com/2013/02/newsworthy-recycled-art-from-etsy.html

Also check out her gorgeous jewelries created with salvaged items here! : greendivadesigns

Have a wonderful week!

My Favorite Etsy Vintage Finds

I love my recent purchase from Etsy shops. :)

Shop links:

• Hanger - http://www.etsy.com/shop/elizabethwrenvintage
• Textile - http://www.etsy.com/shop/thelittlegrasshut
• Letter Holder - http://www.etsy.com/shop/DivineOrders
• Bill Spike - http://www.etsy.com/shop/DearViolette
• Table - http://www.etsy.com/shop/npebaysale

I personalized the table a little bit by adding burlaps on the table legs.

They are in all great condition and definitely made great additions to our room. 

Free Downloadable Calendar for February 2013 (Expired)

February is just around the corner. Here is the free printable calendar for the next month :)
I have the US, Brazil, France, and Canada/UK/Everywhere Else ver. on the link:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3ZDMfK5U_WWNVpTZi1vNVRoUDg/edit

Enjoy!

Cool Shoe Box Transformation

A Happy New Year!
I hope you will have a wonderful 2013 filled with happiness and prosperity.

My first post of this year is what I DIYed the end of last year. I like to reuse things such as newspapers ( ;) ), boxes, twines, and bags and so on before discarding if they have any "potentials".  And there was this one shoe box I was temporarily using to put all small electronic items like a camcorder, an iPod, some digital cameras etc. in one place since it was a perfect size for them.  It was on our shelf as-is but I really wanted to do something to the box so it will blend in the surrounding decoration.

shoe box

Then I happened to have found this beautiful Washi paper at a Japanese book & stationery store I stopped by on my errand,  so I decided to use it to cover the box with it.

Washi paper

The one sheet of the Washi paper covered the shoe box perfectly. However, it still need 'something' to completely match to my nature-themed & oriental interior decor.

Then this idea came up from a bamboo lunch basket on my wishlist - adding a toggle. (*This shoe box lid is connected to open one-side.)

I used one of my twigs from stock (collected at a park), tied it with a jute twine, then attached it to bottom of the box and added a loop of braided jute on the lid.

toggle 

I am happy about how it turned out. The little addition of natural piece made a difference :)

finished looks