Brenda Pinnick -news, ideas, events and more...

Baby Pearl

Some days we need CUTE...here's a healthy dose for today...

dang she's adorable! right???

random thoughts

I've been away for a while, taking a much needed break. I hope you've been enjoying the holiday season and are taking time to enjoy what really matters. 

Our Christmas was a very laid back one this year. Husband and I took a very short little trip to Tucsan, AZ for the weekend after he realized all he needed was one more cross country trip to gain the needed frequent flier miles to become medallion level status with our preferred airline. So, I cashed in some of my miles and we used our Marriott reward points to visit the most amazing resort, STARR PASS. I spent my Christmas money on an afternoon of absolute luxury at the spa and I WILL be going back! It was fantastic! 

My favorite saying is:

"JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD".

Coming up, I have three trade shows in which I'm exhibiting my art, two in January and the big one in May. So, that means I'm scrambling to finish up my new collection, create coordinates, print samples, book appointments, etc. 

I'm showing some of my painted pieces and the above saying keeps coming to mind. I've scanned them in and am now "cleaning" the files, but trying to balance that with keeping the hand of the artist is a challenge. The ability to view individual pixels provides a new temptation. Here's a close-up so you can see what I mean...

I mentioned this on twitter and was referred to this video:

Ursus Wehrli: Tidying up art

take a look

It's pretty funny.

Have a good week! 

CHA class-Power brainstorming

I want to invite you to join in the fun of this dynamic class at the upcoming Winter CHA!

Power Brainstorming…How to Lead Your Team (or just You!) to New Levels of Innovation

Business Seminar S130

Speaker: Brenda Pinnick

Room 206AB 

Don’t miss this exciting, dynamic class taught by industry expert Brenda Pinnick of Brenda Pinnick Designs. With proven success in stationery, crafting, and the home décor industries, Brenda will bring to life the techniques she has learned, developed and share with other designers and corporate product development teams.

We all want to be more creative and “out of the box” thinkers…Brenda will show you how! In this hands-on, high energy session you will:

• Actively participate with your peers, using fun props!

• Have crazy new thoughts and wild ideas!

• Then, learn how to reign yourself in and apply those ideas to your product cateogry

Plus…you will leave with a handout of techniques to use immediately on your next big idea!

If you're thinking about attending the show, I hope you'll come to my class and learn how you can be a better brainstormer!

Here's the link www.chashow.org This is a very fun, energetic class and you will certainly leave with the tools you need for innovation, wether it's for your personal growth, your retail shop, your design team or your entire company. All are welcome and will benefit, I promise!

*************HOLIDAY SNOW OWLS****************

Last year, I posted these Holiday Snow Owls I made using my big Holiday Kit sold on QVC. I have gotten so many hits on this blog because of these, I thought I'd run it again! Here is the link to the downloadable pdf so in case you missed it, here you go.

These make great little hang tags for gifts or ornaments, as shown. Have fun! Send me pictures!

New Painting

Hi all,

Thought you might like to see what's new in the studio...

This little painting is going out tomorrow to it's new owner. It's called "PLAYTIME" for obvious reasons. Yep, still painting cats and birds, started this series about 10 years ago. I think this is around number 35 or so in the series. The first ones were all really big, usually bigger than 36"x36", some going up to 48"x48". That was when I had a rented studio space with lots of wall space. I would buy roll canvas and nail it to the wall to paint, sometimes having as many as 6 or so paintings going at once. Now that I'm working from home, my space is limited so I've adjusted by making smaller pieces, which makes them easier to sell, too. 

If you would like a painting done for you featuring a similarity to your kitties, birds or dogs, or heck, even your cows or sheep, email me and I'd be glad to discuss it and give you a quote. 

Can you believe Christmas is almost here? I hope all of you stop the hectic frenzy to enjoy what matters most. I'm looking forward to a peaceful holiday spent at home, low key, quiet and heartfelt. I'm making some gifts this year instead of buying them and it feels really good. I can't talk about them here, certain people read my blog from time to time and I want it to be a surprise.

xxoo,

Brenda

Melissa's pug doll give-away

My buddy Melissa is having a give-away this weekend. If you're a fan of pugs, like our family is, or just a fan of dogs or little dolls...this is so cute. She made the pug art using block printing techniques then had it reproduced onto fabric via Spoonflower, a new print on demand textile source. Here's a snapshot of her pug doll...

and all you have to do is leave her a nice comment! 

OWL PATTERN FREEBIE!

OK, here it is!  After many requests, I'm finally posting the owl pattern, just for you! I broke it up into 3 pages to print on a standard printer, but the main owl set up works with a 12" x 12" paper. The beak and eyes are cut from scraps of different papers.

Enjoy, friends!

Download ©BrendaPinnickOwl.pdf 

And, the talented Gina Redmore sent me her advent calendar made from the BIG HOLIDAY KIT sold on QVC. I'm a wee bit late posting this, so sorry Gina, but many, many thanks for taking the time to email me with the reminder! Great job, Gina, what a creative use of the kit this was. I'm sure your family enjoyed this very much!

Here are a few pictures and a link to view the entire calendar on Gina's Photobucket account.

Thanks, Gina! This put me in the Christmas Spirit!

Thank You U.K.!

I want to send out a huge thank-you to my friends in the U.K. and beyond!!! I had such a great time and am so appreciative of the response to my first ever appearance on QVC and to all of our new products! We made soooooo many models and were not able to show most of them due to time restraints but I will be posting some photos in the coming weeks and hope that you will find inspiration from them.

Amie and Brandon were the rock stars behind the scenes and the best organizers I've worked with in a long time. Even though both were sick with colds, they worked like mad to make sure the set up was on target and efficient. They did an amazing job! 

Back at home, Lora, Matt and Phyllis were cheering us on after their relentless work on designing the boards, many of the models, and of course, the plethora of other tasks that it takes to get product to market. Lora is, as I have told her repeatedly, an amazing Designer who sets the standard of professionalism. 

Alison, my hostess, was a delight to work with. She made my job so easy and  put me at complete ease. It was amazing to me that she is not a crafter but dived right into the program and was truly excited about it. She is amazing...and the second we were done, she ran off to the next set and went right into the next segment without a moment to collect herself or prep. A little secret...she kindly removed her shoes while on air with me so she wouldn't tower over me, I thought that was very, very considerate of her. And...she's just tooo darn cute!

So, thanks to the entire team of people who worked so hard on this!

**************************************************************************************

I landed in London with a bit of a head cold and my two traveling companions were both sick as well. So, by the time I got to Paris, I was not feeling all that great but managed to do some trend research, a little shopping and to indulge in a few epicurean delights, of course! Isn't that why one goes to Paris??? Fashion, Food, Fine Wine. enough said. 

So, I got home and Brooke had come out for the day to watch the show with the guys and while here, decided she could no longer stand my pantry in the state it was in. She and her Dad cleaned and organized the whole thing. I claimed I could no longer leave home, all kinds of wild things happen when I do! (I will be traveling more often now that I know they clean when I'm gone.)

I started work on some new art yesterday and my machine is telling me my scratch disks are full, which means I need to clean house on both my hard drives...my art files are HUGE, HUGE, HUGE due to all the layers. 

All this cleaning, organizing and re-evaluating feels good, actually. Sometimes I just have to let things get really bad, to the point of total disfunction, before I can effectively and thoroughly make the changes necessary to re-structure. That's just me, I'm sure you're much more on top of things...right?

Tomorrow...pictures!