2019 Gift Giving Season

It's that time of year again - time for holiday shopping! If you're like me, you've probably already started; if you're not like me - fear not! There's still plenty of time... and my Etsy shop has lots of great gift ideas!

Below are some of the products I have available that have proven popular during past holiday seasons.

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Michigan-Themed Notecards

Michiganders (and residents from other states bordering our Great Lakes) love to show pride in their geographic area. I have several Great Lakes notecards to choose from, all of which are high-quality scans of original watercolors I created. You can choose which color (or colors) you'd like, and build your own notecard pack. These designs are especially popular at the Paint Creek Center for the Arts Holiday Art Market in downtown Rochester, MI, where I have several notecards available for purchase. 

Click here to see my Great Lakes notecards on Etsy.

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Pattern Notecards

What if you know little about the person other than maybe their favorite color? Abstract art is the perfect option! I have lots of patterns to choose from, which range from fancier and almost lace-like designs to funkier, modern prints. Each pattern was designed digitally, traced onto watercolor paper, painted, and then re-scanned back into the computer and printed on blank notecard paper. Because I use high-quality scans, you can often still easily see the texture of the watercolor paper and paint, as if it were the original piece of artwork.

Click here to see my Sunrise Sunset notecards on Etsy.

Click here to see my Nighttime Desert notecards on Etsy.

The two sets pictured above are two of my more popular abstract designs, but I have lots of other colors to choose from, too! (Sunrise Sunset is the 6-pack, and Nighttime Desert is the name of the 4-pack.)

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Initial Notecards

These weren't available for sale last holiday season, because they are scans of more recent artwork - but they've proven popular at both the Paint Creek Center for the Arts and in my Etsy shop since I made them available. I have two design options - floral letters and rainbow/paint splatter letters. All 26 letters of the alphabet are available in each design. You can select the first or last initial of the person you're buying a gift for, and present them with a unique, thoughtful blank notecard set just for them - available in a 4-pack, 6-pack, or 10-pack.

Click here to see my Floral Alphabet notecards on Etsy.

Click here to see my Rainbow Alphabet notecards on Etsy.

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Floral Notecards

I have several flower-themed notecards available as well, which come from scans of my original floral watercolors and colored pencil drawings. There are close-up details of larger artworks, where the colorful flowers fill the entire printable area, as well as notecards that capture my entire original drawing or painting. 

Newer sets that have been selling well are my "Religious Bouquet" and "Gender Bouquet" sets, which feature close-up details of my larger colored pencil drawings "Religious Bouquet (Stronger Together)" and "Gender Bouquet (Stronger Together)." I particularly love the red, purple, yellow, and white color scheme I used in the "Religious Bouquet" drawing - I think that's what other people are drawn to as well. Meanwhile, the "Gender Bouquet" features a nice gradient between blue and pink flowers, with plenty of purple in between.

Click here to see my Religious Bouquet notecards on Etsy.

Click here to see my Gender Bouquet notecards on Etsy.

The details of my larger "30 Days" colored pencil drawing, featuring thirty roses, is also a popular set. And my "Vertical Flower" four-pack - one of my original notecard sets, which features scans of several 5"x7" drawings I created back in 2014 and 2015, remains well-liked as well.

Click here to see my Rose notecards on Etsy.

Click here to see my Vertical Flower notecards on Etsy.

As I already mentioned, many of my notecard designs are also available at the Paint Creek Center for the Arts Holiday Art Market in downtown Rochester, MI. And new this year I also have a few limited designs for sale at "My Sister's Stuff," an antiques and collectibles booth in Genesee County, MI!

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Framed watercolor sets

Besides notecards (which are a great gift that looks thoughtful but costs very little money), I also have my original paintings and drawings for sale on Etsy, as well. I have a particularly extensive collection of already framed, ready-to-hang abstract watercolor sets, which feature two, three, or four small patterned watercolor paintings that can be hung vertically or horizontally. It's fun, easy, unique home decor - and I have them available in SO MANY color options.

Click here to see my framed patterned watercolor sets on Etsy.

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Custom Artwork

Of course, I can also make you a custom watercolor or colored pencil drawing - personalized pieces always make great gifts! These do take a little longer, but there's still time to get something done if you order soon. (And given my impending due date of late December 2019/early January 2020, I would appreciate getting any potential holiday gift orders in sooner rather than later.)

My most purchased custom artworks are custom 8"x10" watercolor bouquet paintings, and 8"x10" watercolor name paintings. The bouquet paintings make great keepsakes to capture the look of someone special's wedding bouquet, and are also purchased as birthday and anniversary gifts throughout the year. And the name paintings make great wedding and new-baby gifts - I often paint these and give them as gifts myself to friends and family who get married or have new babies.

Click here to see my custom bouquet watercolor listing on Etsy.
Click here to see my custom name watercolor listing on Etsy.

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If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me (my email is afrownfe@gmail.com)! I love helping people find the perfect gift for their loved one to bring a smile to their face.

The Great Lakes in Blue-Green and Brown

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently painted one my "Great Lakes" watercolors as a gift for my sister-in-law, who just moved to Michigan. She likes earth tones and neutral colors, so I used colors similar to what I used for my recent "River Pebbles" patterned paintings - Olive Green, Cerulean Blue, and Orange-Brown.

Because I also planned to paint another "Great Lakes" painting (the Blue-Black piece I featured in my last post), I traced the outline of the Great Lakes onto two pieces of watercolor paper, and taped them both down at the same time.

In the photo below, you can see the three tubes of watercolor paint I used, as well as the still-wet, recently finished painting.

Once it was dry enough, I untapped it from the table, signed it, and took it upstairs to photograph.

I purchased a two-tone white and wood frame, cut the painting to size so it would fit, and then gifted it to my sister-in-law. I love how this frame looks like it has a wooden mat around it between the white paper and the white frame.

The Great Lakes in Blue-Black

I recently painted two other 8x10 "Great Lakes" watercolor paintings - one as a gift for my sister-in-law, who just moved to Michigan (that painting to come in my next post!) and this other "black and blue" themed piece, created with Ivory Black and light Cerulean Blue watercolor tubes.

This first photo shows my new "The Great Lakes in Blue-Black" watercolor painting while it's still fresh and wet. You can see how the two colors dried differently, with the black staying wetter longer than the blue pigment.

When it was dry, I untaped it from the table and took it upstairs to photograph. Here's the finished painting, dry and signed in the corner, below Lake Erie.

This painting, and all other "Great Lakes" paintings I've created that are still available for purchase, can all be found here in my Etsy shop. Each painting is $49, and includes a white mat.

Great Lakes - Dramatic Sky

I recently had someone purchase my watercolor painting "Dramatic Sky" from my Etsy shop, which was an assignment I completed several years ago for a watercolor studio class in college. This person also loved my "Great Lakes" watercolor paintings, and requested that I make a custom "Great Lakes" painting for them, in colors matching the "Dramatic Sky" painting they'd purchased.

In this first picture, you can see the "Dramatic Sky" painting, which I kept and referred to for color reference while I painted the new piece, as well as the outline of the Great Lakes traced onto a new sheet of watercolor paper.

I taped down the new painting-to-be (to keep it stretched taut while I worked on its surface with paint and water), and dug through my watercolor collection to find tubes that I thought would best match my "Dramatic Sky" painting.

Because I painted "Dramatic Sky" so long ago, I didn't remember what specific colors I'd used, and had to guess.

There are two types of yellow I often use - one that's a warmer yellow and one that's a cooler yellow; for the "Dramatic Sky" piece, I was quite sure I'd used the cooler one, called "Lemon Yellow," which I'd favored more back in college and had since used less and less frequently. (In fact, I'd noticed just a month before this commission came in that I didn't even have any Lemon Yellow still in my box of watercolor tubes - which is why I'd included it on my holiday wish list this past December. Thankfully, my in-laws bought me one, so I had Lemon Yellow to work with again when I got this commission!)

For the greens and blues in the painting, I figured I'd used some mixture of Phthalo Green, Phthalo Blue, Hooker's Green, Viridian, and Ultramarine Blue. I got all of these tubes out so I could easily access them, and made sure they were all represented with fresh paint on my palette - though I may or may not have used all of them as I went. Hooker's Green in particular (a very dark green) I likely didn't end up using, instead going with the brighter Viridian, and getting the dark colors with dark blues instead.

The predominant color in my "Dramatic Sky" painting is a dark blue-green/teal, with just a little bit of brighter green, and even a smaller amount of Lemon Yellow. I tried to duplicate these proportions in the new "Great Lakes" painting as well, though ultimately ended up using more green than I had in "Dramatic Sky," just to add more visual contrast between the dark blue and somewhat lighter green.

Here is the finished painting below, still wet.

Once the painting was dry, I signed it and untaped it from the table. The person who commissioned this piece specifically requested that I sign it so that it did not look like a print, but an original painting. I always do this for my original paintings, often signing my "Great Lakes" paintings with my last name and date just under Lake Erie. For this piece, because of her request, I signed it slightly larger than I normally would have.

I love how this painting turned out. I think the dark blues and greens are very striking against the white paper, especially when paired with a matching white mat.

For comparison, here is the "Dramatic Sky" painting next to the finished "Great Lakes" piece. I packaged these two paintings together to save on shipping costs, and sent them along to the buyer.

I charge the same for a custom "Great Lakes" watercolor as I do for the ones I've already painted (which are for sale here in my Etsy shop). Each "Great Lakes" painting is $49 (not including shipping), and comes with a white mat.

Do you want a custom "Great Lakes" painting in a very specific color scheme to match another piece of artwork in your home, or a general color scheme for a particular room? Leave me a comment below, send me a message on Etsy, or email me at afrownfe@gmail.com. I love making custom pieces, and would love to work with you to create exactly what you envision! 

Holiday Gift Ideas

The Holiday Art Market at the Paint Creek Center for the Arts in Rochester, Michigan is in full swing! They have several of my original artworks for sale, as well as stacks and stacks of my notecards - available as individual cards or as packs of 4, 6, or 10.

Here are some pictures I took as I prepared the notecards to take over there in late October (a process which includes updating my inventory sheets, packaging the sets in plastic boxes and the individual cards in plastic sleeves, and adding price tags/SKUs to the packaging).

Don't live in the metro-Detroit area? All of these notecards are also available for sale at my Etsy shop!! If you want something but can't find it on Etsy (i.e. a 10-pack of cards where Etsy only has a 6-pack listed) just let me know. You can make a comment to this blog, or send me an email at afrownfe[at]gmail.com.

The flower sets and Michigan-themed sets are especially popular to give as small gift items. My new "White Poinsettia" holiday cards are also available for the first time this year. The blank insides are just waiting for your personalized holiday messages!

The PCCA Art Market and my Etsy shop also both have several original pieces of artwork for sale, including large scale colored pencil drawings and watercolors, framed watercolor sets, and acrylic paintings.

And don't forget one of my most popular Etsy listings - custom watercolor bouquet paintings! Just supply me with a photograph of a flower bouquet and I'll turn it into an 8x10" watercolor painting. (If you want to get these in time for the holidays, place your orders ASAP - they can take up to 1-2 weeks to complete, plus up to a week of shipping time. A limited number of rush 5-day orders are also available.)

Happy shopping!