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Catch Up on What’s New From My Studio

watercolor of sleeping curled cat
World Cat, ink and watercolor, 9" x 12" © B.E. Kazmarski

This month I’ve got a few new calendars, prints, Halloween and Holiday cards and a coupon for you that’s good all the way through September.

tortoiseshell cat drinking water with watercolors
No project can begin until someone tastes the paint water.

I’ve been preparing new art and handmade merchandise through the summer in preparation for autumn and the holiday gift-giving season. But several of the new handmade items I’d planned just weren’t feasible for cost of materials, though they were fun experiments. Then in August I suddenly lost Kelly; I’d been spending ever more time with her, and with her loss I simply stopped creative work for a while. But she is featured in my desktop calendar for September, I have one special linoleum block print print that she inspired years ago and supervised the printing in July, and the art I’m working on that features her will be ready for upcoming offers along with the calendars I will soon finish designing.

This month I am offering 10% OFF YOUR PURCHASE. Details of this offer are at the end of this e-newsletter along with a downloadable coupon. As always, thank you for reading The Creative Cat, and for your interest in my work!


linoleum block print of cat
Kelly's Morning Bath 1, linoleum block print, 4" x 11" © B.E. Kazmarski

Kelly’s Morning Bath Block Prints

Printing these two designs on unique papers was part of the design plan, and when I began finding handmade rice papers with leaves and flowers embedded I knew I’d found the best choices. This package of handmade, fair trade, eco-sensitive paper (could it be any better?) provided a dozen varieties of prints with a white and a cream background, and shades of green, rose and rust for spring, summer and fall. Kelly was indeed on my work table to supervise the printing of this block print inspired by her daily morning bath in front of our favorite window. I am currently framing these; I had always used black frames for the black ink I am so fond of, but I recently found a line of simple but elegantly colored burgundy and forest green frames that I like just as well. I’m mixing and matching the frames with the prints, and will have them up in my Etsy shop during September.

You can read more about this print here. I am pleased to offer this special set of prints as an honor to my little, and very inspiring, Kelly.


Halloween and Holiday Greeting Cards and Customization

halloween card
Madame Mewsette Will Tell Your For-tuna

Halloween Cards

As an artist I turn to my surroundings for creative output, and what better to do with a family of five black cats during the festive Halloween season? The photo in the design shown began as a daily photo and quickly evolved into a card design—in fact, that photo is the reason I have Halloween cards!

I have six feline-themed designs in Halloween card collection, which you can purchase individually or as a mixed set or a set of all the same design.

Especially for veterinary and animal professionals…

Cards are blank inside but I can custom print a message for you for $2.50 per dozen for a minimum of one dozen of the same design, but for Halloween cards ordered during the month of September you may have your cards customized inside with black text or logo at no extra charge. Of course, you don’t have to be in an animal profession to order these—anyone can order customized cards!

Browse the selection of Halloween cards in my Etsy shop. You may order directly from there for single cards and sets of six or a dozen and use your discount. For larger orders and for customized orders, please e-mail me so we can discuss and I’ll send you a customized invoice that reflects your discount.

holiday card with tortoiseshell cat
Cookie's Full of Holiday Cheer

Holiday Cards

It’s never too early to consider ordering holiday cards for personal use or for your professional practice, and of course, I offer holiday cards featuring my cats! I also offer holiday cards featuring natural scenes, winter scenes and backyard birds; honestly, winter is my favorite season for art and photography. All cards are designed from my photographs and paintings which you can purchase these individually or as a mixed set or a set of all the same design. In addition to my commercially-printed cards I also have two designs which are hand-printed as block prints for a completely unique card which becomes original art.

Customized messages inside the card…

Cards are blank inside but I can custom print a message for you for $2.50 per dozen for a minimum of one dozen of the same design, but for Holiday cards ordered during the month of September you may have your cards customized inside with black text or logo at no extra charge.

Browse the selection of Holiday cards in my Etsy shop. You may order directly from there for single cards and sets of six or a dozen and use your discount. For larger orders and for customized orders, please e-mail me so we can discuss and I’ll send you a customized invoice that reflects your discount.


Calendars and Such

Great Rescues Day Book
Great Rescues Day Book

Great Rescues Day Book

Many of you may be familiar with the Great Rescues Calendar and Gift Book—this is the follow-up to that book.

I had wanted to introduce the Great Rescues concept with a product that everyone uses, a desk calendar. But by nature calendars are dated and the product I had in mind was a more timeless day book for tracking events and anniversaries and birthdays and other annual reminders and happenings, and for taking notes and organizing information to be kept over a long period of time. This way, the art and stories can stay with you for as long as you use your day book—I’ve used my current one for over 20 years—and I don’t have to wait another full year to publish the next calendar.

Sample page as I work on design.

Because I had a limited number of 2011-2012 calendars printed I am publishing my first Great Rescues Day Book with those same 16 portraits and stories so that others can still enjoy them, and I can continue work on the next one without worrying about a strict publication date because of the calendar in it. The left-hand page of each spread features the portrait and rescue story, and each month still has its theme reminder, but in place of the calendar is a page of lines with numbers so you can write in a birthday or annual event on the line for that date and not be concerned about the day of the week. These day books also come in handy for keeping track of your pets’ birth/adoption and health records.

This is one of the products I’ve planned that is not quite ready, designed but not printed, and I’ve decided I’ll actually build a new website for the day books, in addition to Great Rescues Calendar and Gift Book, but for now you can read more about the Great Rescues Day Book. They will be ready by the end of September if not earlier and you will receive information in my October e-newsletter, but if you are interested in purchasing one or more while I am having them printed and finished, please let me know.


In the Kitchen with Cookie

In the Kitchen with Cookie

If you’ve followed my daily photos on The Creative Cat you may be familiar with my photos of Cookie interacting with properly-warmed pasta bowls, enamel pots and glass salad bowls in the series called “In the Kitchen With Cookie”. I was lucky enough to catch her in the act through the years photographing a dozen amusing images of Cookie exploring alternate uses for these items. A number of readers requested a calendar which sounds like a wonderful idea to me, especially as a tribute to a part of Cookie’s unforgettable curiosity that still makes me laugh. The calendar I’m designing is a 7″ x 10″ spiral-bound wall calendar printed on 100# gloss text paper. Click here to browse some of the images included in this calendar. This will also be ready by the end of September if not earlier and you will receive information in my October e-newsletter, but if you are interested in purchasing one or more while I am having them printed and finished, please let me know.


five black cats in a line
Five in a Line in color!

The Beauty of Black Cats

Well, this is a natural for me, isn’t it?! I’ve been planning a calendar celebrating the beauty of black cats especially since Mimi and the Fantastic Four joined my life, only hesitating because I have SO MANY images and ideas that I can’t settle on one. But I find it imperative to create something that will also benefit the adoption of black cats because they are often left behind in the shelter. These five wonderful black cats will show the world that everyone needs to have at least one black kitty in their life, and, at least in my house, the more the merrier!

This calendar is also a 7″ x 10″ spiral-bound wall calendar printed on 100# gloss text paper. Click here to browse some of the black cat images I’ll include in this calendar. This will also be ready by the end of September if not earlier and you will receive information in my October e-newsletter, but if you are interested in purchasing one or more while I am having them printed and finished, please let me know.


E-Books? E-Books!

cover of book
Witness to a Rescue, e-book © B.E. Kazmarski

This year I began learning how to format e-books and e-book covers for two purposes: professionally, to offer this service to potential customers along with all my other design capabilities, and personally, to format my own manuscripts for publishing on readers and mobile devices. So far, so good—I have one little illustrated e-story on Amazon.com right now adapted from one I’d originally published on The Creative Cat, “Witness to a Rescue”. I’ve settled on software to format it for other online markets and for download from my own site, and am currently setting up my accounts and getting ISBNs for all the variations. This book is available for download on Amazon.com right now if you’d like to give it a try (and give me feedback!), though I’m sorry that I can’t give you any sort of a discount here. You’ll hear more about this in October when I have this book available in all the places an e-book can possibly be found.

One of the other print and recorded book projects I’ve been working on, the one that got me started with e-books, in fact, was “A Little Bit About Kelly”, wanting to publish that while she was still on my lap. I can take my time with the expanded story, photos and illustrations now, and I hope to offer that later this autumn.


Favorite Daily Sketches

watercolor of sleeping curled cat
World Cat, ink and watercolor, 9" x 12" © B.E. Kazmarski

Above and at left is World Cat, ink with watercolor, 9″ x 12″, my daily sketch from Sunday, September 2. I have actually sold the original, but I have it available as a digital print in my Etsy shop and it’s also available on my Fine Art America profile.

In the past two months I’ve been happy to sell several of these daily sketches, both in my choice of framing and custom framed for the purchaser, click here to see a few examples. Keeping my art moving keeps me doing art, which makes me very happy and makes my art better, it’s that simple. I do have several original sketches in my Etsy shop but while I can’t list them all I’ve figured out a solution for you to purchase if you are interested.

All sketches are 9″ x 12″ or smaller, so few pieces are larger than 18″ outside dimension of frame on the longest side, which keeps the cost of materials and shipping quite low in comparison to other artwork. The offer I have for the sale of original daily sketches is to have the sketch, matted and framed in my choice of materials, for $125.00 plus shipping. If you would like custom framing I can accommodate, and the price will be determined by the cost of materials you choose.

Visit my Etsy shop to see what is available already, and browse my daily sketches on The Creative Cat to see if anything interests you. All sketches will also be available as framed or unframed prints. I can often frame the print in the same materials or in similar style, or something entirely different if you’d rather. Read “A Special Print and Another Place to Purchase My Art” and visit “Ordering Custom Artwork” for more details.


Custom Greeting Cards, Canvas Prints and More

cropped version of illustration
A Day for Dreaming

Aside from a very few things that I decide I need to keep close to me, everything I create is for sale or available for reproduction, but I can’t possibly post for sale and reproduce every image I create as I create it, that would just be too time-consuming and expensive (I know, I tried!).

My choice of what to offer is usually made by what I like and what others remark about or request, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a reproduction of any image as a custom print on paper or canvas or as a greeting card, or even the original itself. I’ve been framing art and creating custom gifts for nearly 25 years, and I’ve been a commercial artist for over 30 years and making reproductions of images, whether in print or on a mug or on a piece of glass to display in a window.

Visit “Ordering Custom Artwork” on The Creative Cat for more details.

And visit my latest online profile for ordering prints and custom art of select image at Fine Art America.


This month’s featured artwork: Kelly in a Ball

colored pencil sketch of cat curled in ball
Kelly in a Ball, colored pencil on multi-media paper, 6" x 9" © B.E. Kazmarski

For something sweetto look at as the month of September rolls by, I chose an image of Kelly, one of my daily sketches of something I always found endearing about Kelly—the way she’d roll into a tight ball when she was really happy. She’s also in those wonderful warm autumn colors that I welcome in September.

And it’s a sweet moment as well, not only capturing one of Kelly’s sweet routines; it was also my daily sketch from February 11, 2012, just a week after we’d lost Cookie, and the first time after that when I’d seen Kelly relax and feel secure, getting back to herself.

Kelly has been sleeping a little more comfortably on my desk, right on top of everything. And there’s a lot there to sleep on.

But she has a totally endearing habit of rolling herself up into an ever-tighter ball of tortie spots with her legs all tangled and her tail twisted in there and her head turned sideways or upside down. Cutest of all, which you sadly can’t hear in her sketch, is how she talks to herself and to me, making little happy Kelly sounds, chirps and soft mmmrrrrrrrs, now and then a real meow, and lots of purrrrrs.

Download a desktop calendar featuring Kelly in a Ball

Kelly can be on your desktop too! I’ve designed a simple desktop wallpaper calendar featuring Kelly in a Ball. It’s too darned difficult to create one that fits everyone’s desktop, so I’ve created three basic shapes—full size, wide and square—that will probably adjust to fit most desktops; I can give you some help with this if it’s not working quite right.

  1. Click on one of the images below to pull it up in a new page.
  2. Click on the image on that page to pull up a full-size version of just the image.
  3. Right-click on that image and choose “save as desktop wallpaper” or “save as background” or whichever option your operating system gives you to be able to do this.
Regular monitor size 1000 x 1393

Wide monitor size 1000 x 592

Square monitor size 1870 x 1394

And Now For Your Coupon

I’m offering to my readers a 10% discount on anything you order from me during the month of September 2012. If you order from my Etsy shop, website or Fine Art America site, I will refund your 10% when I ship your order. If you order a custom product I will create your invoice to reflect that discount, and if you order directly from me in person I will discount at purchase. Download the coupon and e-mail it to me when you order. You may use it as many times as you like during the month of September. I only have PayPal to use for credit card acceptance, but you can use PayPal without having a PayPal account. Feel free to contact me if you have any problems or questions.

Using your coupon
Click here to open your coupon and download as a PDF file or a JPG. Download the coupon and e-mail it to me when you order. You may use it as many times as you like for orders placed through September 30, 2012.

Also, local friends can let me know I don’t need to ship their order. I will deduct the shipping cost from their order and we’ll make arrangements for pick up or delivery.


two tortoiseshell cats in studio
The girls are ready for work.

Special orders and requests

If you see a daily sketch on The Creative Cat you’d like to have, please tell me. Likewise, if you have a custom item in mind contact me to describe it, or if an item is out of stock and you’d like to know when I’ll be making that item again, please ask!. Send me an e-mail.

I couldn’t do it without my studio cats!

My feline inspirations and I thank you for browsing and for purchasing handmade goods and supporting a small business! Click here or on the photo to read about the studio cats in the photo.

 

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Click here to see other daily sketches, and for a gallery of the ones available for sale, visit my Etsy shop in the “Daily Sketches” section.

 

 


All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.

Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

4 thoughts on “Catch Up on What’s New From My Studio

  • Wow that is a lot of stuff. You have been hard at work. That calender with the black cats looks so good to me. Just have to see if we have enough money. Wish we were rich, but we aren’t A lot of that would make great christmas presents. Thanks for this whole review.

    Reply
    • Marg, we’ll see what we can do! Thanks for visiting.

      Reply
    • RumpyDog, I couldn’t have posed that if I’d tried!

      Reply

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