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

What are friends for?

Friends build you up, they support you, they shine a light on your good qualities while looking past your not so good ones. They know that by building you up it doesn't take anything away from them.

Meet my good friend, Samantha Walker... She invited me to a special feature on her blog today, highlighting my brand new kits going on air on HSN on Tuesday at 2 am and Noon. Samantha also designs fabrics, scrapbook kits, stamps - just like I do. Go take a look on her blog at her wonderful designs, she's a terrific designer and an wonderful person besides! 

Her fabric lines are with Riley Blake, her paper collections, Creative Imaginations, her diecuts, Spellbinders. 

 

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NEW WORK!

Poppies # 2

This is a recently finished painting I did from my ongoing series of poppies. It's 24" x 48" , acrylic on canvas. You can read more about it on ColorCafe, my other blog which is all about highlighting artists & designers and how they use color in their work. Sometimes I show my own work but mostly it's about shining the light on others. If you or someone you know would like to be featured, I'd love to hear from you or them.

Thanks for visiting!

Henry Glass Jolly Holiday Party- Day 5!

Welcome! Today is day number 5 of the Henry Glass Jolly Holiday Party and that means I'm one of the featured designers.

My free pattern is for this little, make it in an evening apron. The piece work is inspired by and constructed in the style of Seminole patchwork. My goal was to use what I had on hand and to make it in an evening. I used mostly my fabrics from my previous collections. (And a little Kaffe just for fun!)

Download Brenda Pinnick Pieced Apron

Henry Glass Jolly Holiday Party- Day 4!

It's been really fun learning about the HG designers. We run into each other at Quilt Market and that's about it for getting to know each other. It's interesting, also, to see the variety of syles in the Henry Glass line up. They certainly do a good job of keeping the offerings diverse.

Today's featured Designers are:

Annie Downs of Hatched and Patched

Annie's style is so much fun! AND, she's got a new book out called A CHRISTMAS STORY. It has some really fun patterns in it and here is a link to get a glimpse of the cutest Christmas quilt! She uses color so well to tell her whimsical story! Click here for here blog and click here to see the quilt! I love the warm, cozy feeling of her quilt, accomplished not only through "hand of the artist" designs but also due to the coloration. Nice work, Annie!!

 

and next, Barbara Jones of Quilt Soup ( LOVE that name!)

The Quilt Soup store is a great place to shop for patterns and all kinds of things. I'm still drooling over this pattern (Barbara, I hope you don't mind me showing it here) 

It's playful, eyecatching and just plain fun! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Barbara Jones

Be sure to visit each day's featured Designer to learn more about them, see their work and enter to win a free prize. Each Designer has a Christmas Holiday word. Your job is to collect all the words, then post them to the Henry Glass Blog at the end of the hop. You might be the lucky winner of the fabric giveaway from Henry Glass! 

Henry Glass Jolly Holiday Party- Day 2!

Welcome back! This is the annual Henry Glass Holiday Blog Hop! Visit the Henry Glass blog to learn more and leave a comment there, too!

This is so exciting - a chance to win some amazing gifts, including fabric, of course! AND, qualify for the GRAND DADDY, AMAZING, MONSTER, HUGE prize at the very end- all by just taking a few minutes each day and visiting all the blogs on their highlighted days and leaving a nice comment! E.A.S.Y!!!!

Yesterday's featured designers:
Day 1-November 13, 2011
Jill Finley of Jillily Studio
Kari Ramsay of Fresh Cut Quilts

And TODAY'S featured desginers:

Day2 - November 14, 2011
Jacquelynne Steves of The Noble Wife and
Liz Hawkins and Beth Hawkins of LizzieB Cre8ive

 

Go to their blogs right now, give them some love and affection and download a free pattern while you're there! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aren't all these women beautiful? And sooooo creative and talented!

 

The upcoming designers:

Day 3 - November 15, 2011
Vicki Oehlke of WillowBerry Lane
Mary Ellen von Holt, Alice Berg and Sylvia Johnson of Little Quilts
Lucy Morey of Hot Scott Patterns

Day 4 - November 16, 2011
Barbara Jones of QuiltSoup
Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched

Day 5 - November 17, 2011
Leanne Anderson of The Whole Country Caboodle
Brenda Pinnick of Brenda Pinnick Designs

Day 6 - November 18, 2011
Janet Nesbitt and Pam Soliday of Buggy Barn
Renae Allen of RGA Design LLC
Dana Brooks of Lazy Daisy Cottage

Day 7 - November 19, 2011
Linda Lum DeBono
Chelsea Anderson of Pink Fig Design

Tell 'em I said hello!

Henry Glass Blog Hop, 2011!!!

I just can't believe a whole year has passed since last year's mega Henry Glass Blog Hop!!! Can it really be that close to Christmas??? Wow!

Welcome to the Henry Glass Jolly Holiday Party! We are so glad that you're here to celebrate the holidays and to join in on all of the fun that we are going to have. There will be giveaways, stories and lots of inspiration.

Each day, two or three Designers will be featured. You'll find her wonderful holiday post and a special design that she's made for you.

Here's the exciting line-up:

November 13, 2011
Jill Finley of Jillily Studio
Kari Ramsay of Fresh Cut Quilts

November 14, 2011
Jacquelynne Steves of The Noble Wife
Liz Hawkins and Beth Hawkins of LizzieB Cre8ive

November 15, 2011
Vicki Oehlke of WillowBerry Lane
Mary Ellen von Holt, Alice Berg and Sylvia Johnson of Little Quilts
Lucy Morey of Hot Scott Patterns

November 16, 2011
Barbara Jones of QuiltSoup
Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched

November 17, 2011
Leanne Anderson of The Whole Country Caboodle
Brenda Pinnick of Brenda Pinnick Designs

November 18, 2011
Janet Nesbitt and Pam Soliday of Buggy Barn
Renae Allen of RGA Design LLC


November 19, 2011
Linda Lum DeBono
Chelsea Anderson of Pink Fig Design

Each day the designers of the day will post on her site. Click on the links above to go to the designers' blogs for some holiday fun. In each post you will find each designers'  secret holiday word. Collect all of the words and post it on the Henry Glass blog from November 19-24 and we will draw a name to win the grand prize. 

What's the grand prize? Lots of fabric, of course, and each designer will be sending you something special.

Have fun and be inspired!

Today's featured Designers!!! - 

A little help from my friends....

It's not often I ask for help. Almost never. BUT, I really, really needed some help these past couple of weeks and put out a call to some friends here in the States who work in the crafting industry. Carol Heppner ( Queen of Creativity )and Lisa Rojas ( The Stamping Queen ) were so kind and generous, I want to thank them publicly for their HUGE contribution to my HSN show, airing on Monday, 9/26/11. I also want to thank the Faber-Castell Design Team for their help! They created projects showcasing my stamp line and Faber-Castell gelatos, big brush pens and more from the new Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft line. 

I asked Carol to share a bit about herself here on my blog as well as a couple of pictures. First, look at the card she created using my stamps!

This card is a mini work of art! Thank you Carol! 

Here's Carol's information if you would like to hire her for project design. She's the consummate professional! Read all about her below-

Learn more about  Carol-

As a mixed-media artist, writer, and design member of the Craft & Hobby Association, I work with various craft manufacturers and national craft publishers, providing them quality design services to assist in growing their business and inspire consumers. 

Through my books, published articles, and Internet articles, I show crafters how to create fun projects in many different mediums.   I love working in paper arts, but I am also passionate about batiks, wearable art, and digital photography.   

I am a bit of a chameleon in my style – or I should say, styles.  I am equally comfortable working in a grunge or aged look as I am with ultra feminine, frilly style and every style in between.  Many times, my style is inspired by the company for which I am working or the needs of the project.  It can be altered by the audience who will view it as well.  This is a plus when working with many different manufacturers, publishers and editors.  If there is one signature that you can pin to my style, it would have to be an asymmetric look.  I find asymmetric composition to be more interesting.  

I really enjoyed creating greeting cards with Brenda’s new Sizzix® Textured Impressions, XL BIGZ stationery die with a decorative edge and her new line of rubber stamps.  They made creating the cards so much fun and allowed me to be a chameleon -- because they worked with every style I tried.  Her rubber stamps worked beautifully and the images came out so crisp.  Each set can produce as many different looks as you can imagine.

 If you like the look of the cards I created, you may enjoy my new inking tutorial that can be found on my blog,http://heppnerstudio.blogspot.com.   Carol’s Chronicles is a new publication that deals with paper art tutorials.

*******Tune into HSN on Monday, Sept. 26 for a full day of incredible crafting values. See Brenda in the 12 noon hour, eastern time, showing and selling her Sizzix Textured Impressions and her own stamp line.
    

Color Inspiration from my daily walks

What a beautiful week this has been for walking! My country road is filled with vignettes of bursting color, subtle dancing shadows and fleeting spots of sunshine. I love the early morning walks the best, the air is still cool, the damp grasses and pine straw make for perfect "hunting" for my little Paisley. She's a born hunter and I'm not sure which accounts more for her constant pouncing - her keen eyesight or active imagination. Really Paisley, that many chipmunks on the side of the road in 2 miles??? And I managed to see not even one ??? Maybe I was too busy looking at all the beautiful color.

The azaleas are in full bloom and they are spectacular!

And you're not really a true Southerner until you confess your love for Dogwoods, grits and fried green tomatoes.

As always, I'm on some crazy deadlines for work...good thing I love what I do! Recently, in a linked-in forum for art licensing, a friend referred to art licensing as a "bad boyfriend". I love that, it's so very true. Sometimes it's the best, like when a check finally comes in or a new contract finds it's way to you. But sometimes things aren't so pretty like when a deadline is unrealistic or impossible or expectations are beyond what makes the business model work. Anyway, we all have trials in our professional life and we deal with them as best we can...I may need to call in some help on this one, though. Catching big fish requires a big lure, right???

Here's what's coming up in my schedule that I would like you to mark your calendars for:

 

See you there! 

Want to learn more about my BrendaPinnickColorU series of workshops? Visit my website at http://www.brendapinnick.com/color-u

I'm also going to be a speaker at Crafty Con in October, this is going to be an awesome event for crafters with some terrific presenters sharing all kinds of things related to professional crafting. I'm talking about color, of course! 

 

February color palette-v.18-just in time for Valentines Day crafting

brrrrrrr.......are you one of the many who are snowed in this weekend? 

When we lived up north, I never minded those snow days, that is, as long as I was prepared for them. Getting caught off guard was tough, however. It's a great chance to spend time playing or crafting with the kids, do some baking or just get caught up on some housecleaning. 

If you are surrounded by white snow, you might really enjoy this color palette, v.18 in my ongoing color palette series. Feel free to cut out the art and use it to make someone a special valentine!

Download BP color U_v.18

If you love color, please join me on Facebook  here!  

I'd like to invite you to watch Inspired at Home's LIVE Facebook pajama party on Wednesday nights at 10:00 eastern time. The fabulous Maria Nerius is hostess, joined by Tiffany Windsor who is the creator of Inspired at Home. Here's a playback link to last weeks episode - http://www.linqto.com/PlaybackRoom.aspx?roomname=inspiredathome&name=SingleExplicit_2010_02_03_21_00_04_649 where I showed a large painting I'm working on. I'll be joining in each week to show more live painting and will be giving tips and techniques and will take any questions you wish to ask about my creative process.

This live event is a place to join in the fun, show off what creative endeavors you happen to be working on, or just chat! 

Last Sunday night, I was also a featured guest on Inspired at Home Blog Talk Radio, along with TerriO and Julianna Hudgins of Sizzix! You can listen to it here- http://www.blogtalkradio.com/inspiredathome

whew! That should keep you busy for a while! 

Paper fun with a message

http://www.whencreativityknocks.com/craft-and-hobby-episodes/for-the-love-of-paper/piperoids.html

I LOVE this! When Creativity Knocks, the growing and fun website of Ana Araujo and her daughter Megan, are interviewing and showing a fun and unique product they spotted at MakerFaire. 

I love the ingenuity of the Designer who made these little kits! Here is the direct website for a quick look. 

http://www.piperoids.com/piperoid/

Here is what they say about their new products: 

Cut, Fold, and Connect

PIPEROID is a paper craft robot designed and produced in Japan. The robot is made out of just paper pipes with pre-drilled holes and marks to cut, fold, and connect the pipes without the need of glue or tape. All you need is a pair of scissors, and with minimal assembly you can bring your own PIPEROID to life!   Expand Your Imagination When was the last time you made paper crafts that you can brag about? Many components of PIPEROID can either move or be swapped with other PIPEROID's body parts. Expand your imagination and make your own original PIPEROID! About the Designer Takashi Tsunoda With the motto "Teaching Values Through Handcrafts", Takashi Tsunoda designs toys that use your hands and stimulate your brains. His work, PIPEROID, aims to make people think about the world we live in through hand crafting. In our society full of pre-made goods, he wants us - especially adults - to think about being more responsible when developing products. Feel the deep message behind the cute designs he brings to the world.  -I really like it that you can swap out pieces and parts of the different kits to create your own unique robot. These are so much fun, I'm ordering some for my nephew who will love making these.  Be sure to watch the video of Ana and Megan as they cut and glue one of these little guys together.

http://www.piperoids.com/ - It's nice to see some paper crafting which will appeal to girls AND boys both!

What a fantastic Designer and his message is a wonderful one indeed! 

Inspiration!

Nothing like a spending a day with someone whose work is the likes of the fabulous Kathy Fincher!

Kathy invited me to visit her last week so I drove up to her beautiful home, about an hour away from my house via the back roads. I've been a huge fan of Kathy's work since I first met her about a year and a half ago but I have to say, seeing her paintings in person takes your breath away. They are extremely beautiful, meaningful and inspired. And Kathy herself is a true inspiration. She is an accomplished tennis player, water skier, and probably the smartest business person I know. When I say smart in business, I'm referring to the kind of smart that sets an example of trustworthiness, of honesty and of character. It would never occur to her to be anything less than a reflection of her faith, whether someone is watching or not. And isn't that the test of character? Doing the right thing even if no one is watching? She is such an inspiration and was kind enough to give me some private lessons in pastel painting. Here are a couple of pictures...the first one is Kathy working on her current painting.  Kathy's work is used for all types of wonderful products including her "Mama Says™' series of figurines available through Demdaco.

And take at look here... 

This just makes my heart flutter and my mouth drool! I'm pretty sure I have to go shopping at Dick Blick this week! 

I've started my next surface design collection after what seemed like a lifetime of "what next?". Sometimes that's just the way it works. I bought myself a big roll of paper from IKEA kids section, got out my pens, my pastels, my gouache paints and started to just play. It's amazing how simply changing your tools will set you off on a path you never would have thought of going down. I get bored doing the same thing more than once. I love exploring new looks, new color ways, new techniques...In fact, I'm a technique junkie. That's the designer side of me. Sometimes the Designer and Artist in me have to fight it out. As a Designer, I'm all about form follows function and I love simple, clean and organized. BUT, my artist wants to fill up the space with curlies and squiggles and polkadots. 

I hope you have an inspired week!