Heather Peter graphic design

Doyle Family Logo

2011-10-31T19:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in forever, hello world!
While I've been gone (from the online world), I've had two different full-time graphics jobs.. my current job being brand new! As well as doing some courses online for starting my own business, so I've had a busy time of it :)
I have been working on a few freelance things, but it's all going along very slowly.
What I'm working on now is a logo for my family reunion. My family is HUGE, each year we have a reunion with about 200 people.. this has been going on for 50 years!
This year, being our 50th anniversary, we're having a celebration with some souvenirs (mugs and other little items). So of course we needed a logo for it and I volunteered to do it.
The family weren't sure what kind of thing they were looking for yet, so I had to put together a few ideas before I started on the final. These are some of the "pre-designs" I came up with.

The family decided on using the crest, along with the family name, and a year (specifically for the 50th - this would be taken out later).

I had to contact some relatives in Ireland to find out what our ACTUAL family crest is, since there are a ton of different ones floating around on the internet. He got back to me with the proper one being this:

Of course, being straight off the internet, once this file was on my computer it was a tiny size and also extremely low resolution, entirely pixelated. So I had to recreate it!

I did this entirely in Illustrator - with a whole lot of layers I might add. Here is the final product:

Took me quite a long time, but it was worth it in my opinion! I might even get to do another project for the family, such as a cookbook.. but I will keep you posted.

On another note, my graphics have been published in a book (collaboration with my sister Jessica Peter and I)! It's an travel, info graphic book put out by Lonely Planet called "How to Land a Jumbo Jet", and it comes out tomorrow!

Check it out if you can :).. I'm on page 80!

-Heather

Sister Haystack Vintage

2011-04-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

My newest post is about SISTER HAYSTACK VINTAGE!
Sister Haystack is an online vintage clothing store that I am starting up with my sister Jessica. We both love everything to do with vintage and we're constantly at flea markets, antique stores and consignment shops so we thought, why not!
Want to know why we are called Sister Haystack? It was the name of our planned folk punk band that never got off the ground because, well, we couldn't play any of the right instruments. We had to use the name somewhere, and it seemed just right to sum up our vintage aesthetic. That's why!
I thought I'd share all that info with you as well as show you the graphics I've designed for it. I had to create a whole new brand (FUN) so I went with the "Sister" idea and used some country-esque style.

This is our main logo I created (Not including the barn wood background but that has become part of our brand as well. ) I used the mud flap girl idea (two of them for sisters) and added some cowboy hats for the country style.

We each got personalized business cards, kinda neat I think.

Our banner for our etsy shop. Again with the barnwood

Our twitter background, which is also in the style of the business cards.

And that's all I've created so far. I will probably have more graphics coming as our business expands!

SISTER HAYSTACK IS OPENING ON APRIL 20TH. GREAT GIVEAWAYS! BE SURE TO CHECK IT OUT!

You can find us at http://www.etsy.com/shop/sisterhaystack

http://twitter.com/sisterhaystack

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sister-Haystack-Vintage/184865991560084

- Heather

IAAG

2011-03-31T17:25:00.000-07:00

Onto my newest project! IAAG!
IAAG stands for Interactive Alternative Art Gallery. If you check out the link I've posted you'll see what it's all about but I'll describe it in a few words. Basically this is started by a collective of alternative artists (alternative art being: graphic design, graffiti, music, tattoo art etc.). Each month we will have a different show with a different theme, put on at a venue. It will be a ticketed event with donations and lot's of fun! The basic idea is to get alternative artists some exposure, as there is not much of that going on for them. Alternative art wouldn't be found in a regular art gallery, so IAAG will help provide that exposure and really help out artists in the community! I've been working with Enigma Agency on this project. (Lexi's idea!)
I've been designing some things for IAAG, such as the logo, so I'll show that to you!
Lexi wanted something a bit futuristic and modern, and this is what we came up with together.

I really like how it turned out, any comments? :)

Also if you haven't checked out IAAG yet.. you probably should! It's going to be the next big art event in Hamilton, ON!

-Heather

Corset Top Recon

2011-03-09T06:46:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while, been workin' on graphics at ACTUAL work now. Haven't got the gumption to do more in my spare time.
BUT I have been creating clothes.
The past weekend I went to a Pimp N Ho costume party. Embarrassing, I know. Haha. I knew the perfect shirt I could use for it though. I had been working on the shirt for a long while and never got around to finishing it until now!
WOO
So check out what I've created. Here's the before pictures.

This is the horrible 80s dress it started out as, with my sister as the model. She actually got some use for this dress as well. (She went to a party that was themed 80s prom!)

This is the top of the shirt after I had cut the bottom skirt part off. A little easier to see.

And here's the final product. The front of the corset.

The back of the corset. Created with elastics and buttons for extra hold and comfiness!

And finally the shirt on me!

It fit real nice and I was able to wear this shirt (along with some more ho-ish items lol) to the party.

What do you think??

-Heather

Logo & Branding

2011-02-25T11:57:00.000-08:00

So whenever I get bored I've been working on those pretend businesses my sister, Jessica, gave me. I was having an especially anxious day, wanting to get some things done but not sure at all what to do SO I worked on one of the logos to calm myself down.

The one I chose today was called Avocado Designs. Here's the logo I came up with for it.

I think it turned out really cool, I like the different styles between the lettering and the actual avocado picture.

Anyways, after that I was still bored so I started working on a website for the avocado designs ( my fave) And this is the page I came up with.

Also may I just mention it's quite difficult to come up with a look for a business that doesn't exist! I'm not even sure what kind of design this place does :P Haha One day I'll get my sister to invent an entire business for me and I will create something off of that but for now I think I gave them quite a nice identity.

It'd also look a lot nicer with some photography in the spaces. Just picture it!

That's all for today everyone! Keep checkin ;)

-Heather

3D Books

2011-02-21T10:26:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

I haven't posted in a long time, and I promise I've been workin' on new stuff.. :P I've just been really busy. Haven't had time to show everyone my new stuff.

Lately, I've been doing some work for Chris Luckhardt of Motionblur Studios. Chris is a Drupal website designer and is getting me to design some graphic art for the websites he creates.
We've worked on two projects together so far and I'm going to share one of them with you!

The one project Chris asked me to do was a vector version of a book icon cover. This was for a website for Dan Falk (journalist and published writer).
Chris wanted the books to look quite real. This is what I created for him at first.

Chris and I talked over this illustration and decided that the perspective was a bit off for what Chris was hoping to achieve. I changed around the perspective a little and added the covers, a bit of a drop shadow and shading and here's what I came up with.

Here's the first book I created in white.

And the second in black.

This was actually a pretty fun project. I'm sure Chris and I will be working together on some more projects in the future, which I will definitely post here! Check for new updates :)

-Heather

Dudley Smith Metalworks Logo

2011-02-02T16:21:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

This post is another one of the "pretend" businesses that my sister Jessica invented for me. I wanted to work on one of the new logos, but as I don't have my tablet pen or cord (STOLEN! :O) I had to do one of the logos that would be straight.. and my tablet pen would not be needed.

The business I chose today was Dudley Smith metalworks. I forgot to mention before I have sketches drawn up for pretty much all the logos so I already know the basics of how they will look. This one I wanted the words to look like they were made of metal. I tried adding some metal shine but it looked pretty cheesy and I like how it turned out.

My first logo.

I added the blue edges to make it a bit more manly,

but I'm not sure if I like this one as much as the first.

What's your favourite? With blue or without? I'd love your opinion on it!

-Heather

Blog Header- Jess Gets Creative

2011-02-01T17:53:00.000-08:00

This is my newest project, a blog header done for Jessica Peter's blog Jess Gets Creative.

She didn't give me many specifications for this project other than she liked the curly pirate type font as well as the quill pen.

I know she likes vintage maps, so I added that as a background overlay/gradient. She has a published article about Van Gogh, and he is one of her heros so I thought that would be appropriate for her header.

She is also looking to publish a YA fiction novel about the Wild Hunt so I also added that to the header.

She really liked how it turned out, and probably will soon be putting it up on her blog. What do you think?

-Heather

Creative Allies

2011-01-31T16:04:00.000-08:00

I was recently referred to the website Creative Allies by my boyfriend Dan Auld and thought it was a really cool idea. Basically the whole idea around it is people post design contests, such as a logo, a poster and whatnot and get designers to compete for the winning design.
If you win you get prize money and sometimes a prize pack, depending on the contest, if you don't.. oh well at least you have some new experience and a new portfolio piece!
The contest I decided on was a static webpage design for Quannum Projects. I haven't posted it online yet, still have a full month, but I decided to show it off on here and see what others think of it.
That way I can still make changes and whatnot. For the project they asked for a static homepage as well as one template for the inner pages, they mentioned keeping the wordpress themes in mind.

This is the homepage of the website.

This is the inner page template of the website.

I'm not sure if I kept the wordpress theme in mind enough but I still really like how it's turned out so far. What do you think?

-Heather

The Newest Business Card

2011-01-28T09:10:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've found myself in the position where I'll be talking to someone about my freelance projects and it would be the perfect opportunity to give them my business card, but unfortunately I haven't got any printed lately.

I've made several different business cards for myself but for some reason can never decide on what I actually want. I find it's a lot easier to create things for other people than for myself.

Anyways, I came up with a brand new business card to get printed and I think this is the one! At least for now. :P

Front of the business card

Back of the business card

What do you think? Any changes I should make or should I go ahead and get it printed! Let me know, I'd love to hear what other people think.

-Heather :)

Logo Projects

2011-01-25T21:19:00.000-08:00

I recently decided I'm going to make a few new different logos for my portfolio and also for practice. My sister, Jessica, a creative writer gave me help with coming up with some pretend businesses.
The first one she came up with was Carol's Flowers. I drew up a few logo sketches and then after creating it using Photoshop and Illustrator, this is the logo I decided on.

My first all-black design

I changed it up a little with a lower opacity, I like this version better than the all-black.

And finally here's what it looks like in colour, though all the colours could be easily changed, keeping the same shades.

I figure this new logo project will also give me something to use as examples if I ever decide to start selling graphics on Etsy.

Keep watching for new logos! I have a lot of sketches (and pretend businesses) to create logos from.

-Heather

Presents for the Boyfriend

2011-01-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

Today is my One year anniversary with my boyfriend!

I decided he deserved a really good present, for being such a good boyfriend :P, so I made him some crafty items.
Dan is starting his own T-shirt company. He's recently bought himself a screen printing machine and has started drawing designs and printing some shirts. The present I made him was to help him really get into the business, and also for some inspiration!
This idea was somewhat like the Recipe Binder but instead of Recipe template pages each page would have a blank t-shirt for him to draw his ideas onto.

He would circle the "Front" or "Back" depending which it was, draw his design in, and write in what colours the t-shirt is as well as the print. Good idea?

I padded a binder from the dollar store and went to Fabricland to get man-ly type fabric. I found this stretch corduroy that looks like a mix between animal print and woodgrain. Pretty cool in my opinion and it feels VERY nice!

Outer Binder

I went out to Michael's craft store to get some felt for the innards. I found this dark brown snakeskin type felt that looked pretty manly-esque. This covered up all the rough edges from the fabric.

The binder all put together.

As well as the binder, I got him two shirts to print on, and a few arty items from Mixed Media on James St. N in Hamilton, ON. He loves that store and I figured it would help make the ultimate present for him!

I picked out a Hemp sketchbook (so he could draw up his pre-sketches for designs) a Juxtapoz art magazine for inspiration and finally a neat little notebook that says "Business" on it. (Dan has a print he's drawn with a cowboy-styled gun, I thought this would be appropriate.)

And that's it for today everyone! Keep checking for new updates, as I'm working on new projects all the time.

Comments are always welcome.

-Heather

Ruining the Surprise

2011-01-19T18:08:00.000-08:00

Okay I guess this is sort of ruining the surprise.. or maybe I've built up enough anticipation that it's perfect! I'm not sure but right now I'm sharing my newest business logo with you.
It's the lingerie business I'm starting..
I went through quite a few different logos before I found the one that was right for this project so I'll show you my process as well.
Here's what I started with in my sketchbook.

I got my inspiration from the Yogen Fruz advertisements. They have a cool little banner for their featured Frozen Yogurt.

Here's the writing I came up with for the banner. I curved it with the banners curves so it would all fit without being too small.

This is how it turned out once it was all together.

I didn't really end up liking this at all. Though I was going to add some filigree to it.. it just didn't seem like it was very professional.

So I decided to change it up completely. This is my logo that I'm working with now and I like how it turned out a lot.

The bow will be different, vectorized, as I just used a photograph of someone else's for the meantime to see how it would look.

Here's the banner for my Etsy shop to go with the logo.

So what do you think of everything? I'd love to hear comments!

-Heather

Recipe Binder and New Project!

2011-01-15T19:18:00.000-08:00

So I've been failing a little on getting my friend's Christmas present done and to her.. but I've finally finished it tonight and decided to show it off!
( I told her not to look at my blog :P )
I was working on a recipe binder for her. I know she really likes girly stuff and cupcakes so I made her the cutest binder I possibly could.

The recipe binder front. A light pink sparkly fabric, I got this at a thrift store for 3 dollars and I still have some left! Awesome!

The binder all put together, pink sparkly felt for the inside.

And finally a close up of it (just couldn't resist taking a picture of the sparkles)

In addition to that, I'm starting my newest project and THIS is what it involves!

That's right! A wedding dress! I won't tell anymore for now but let's just say I'm going to be making it into something else. Exciting.

Comments always welcome.

-Heather

A Brand New Logo!

2011-01-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

Hey again everyone!

So, recently I had been thinking about starting my own business. As I went to school for graphic design, I was thinking I should do some freelance stuff and start my own shop online on Etsy.

I knew I'd need a shop name and logo and everything so I started brainstorming with everyone who would help me out and eventually my mom helped me come up with the name Happenstance! ( My initials are H. A. P.) The name just seemed to fit perfectly.

I decided I would use a Dandelion as part of my logo as well, the original idea was to make some of the dandelion poofs blowing away across the logo but I didn't quite get to that part.

While I was going through this whole process, I came up with an amazing business plan for something completely different but I'm so excited about it! Unfortunately I won't be using this logo and a completely different logo is in the works.

Curious what my business is going to be?! We'll you're just going to have to wait as I'm keeping it sort of under wraps. I'll give you a hint though, lingerie! :)
Keep checkin' out the blog to see some super sweet stuff.

-Heather

Recipe Template Page 2

2011-01-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

Hi again!

As I mentioned before, for Christmas, my boyfriend Dan and I made a recipe binder for his mom! I unfortunately didn't get a picture of it yet but I do have the recipe template page that I created for it so I thought I would show that to you for now.
The idea was for Dan to draw up some artwork for the templates and then me to put that in and create the page layout.

This is what we came up with.

Dan drew up the flower in black ink and then we scanned it in and played with the whole thing in Photoshop. A while ago I had made the watercolour background for fun so I place that in, added some shading and highlights and it was ready to go. We went for a brown and blue theme, and the binder had some lace inside it so I also added that to the template.

And that's all I've got for today! You can check out more of Dan Auld's work HERE.

Comments welcome!

-Heather

New Crafts

2011-01-09T11:48:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!
Been a while since I posted, I've been so busy with Christmas, working and starting up my new business that I haven't had time to go on the internet much!
But, the good thing about not posting in a while is that I've got a lot of new crafts to show you :)
For Christmas, I made some crafty presents for a lot of people.. as well as a birthday present for my mom.. here they are!

First off I made some recipe binders, one of them I gave to my boyfriend's mom (unfortunately before I took a picture of it! but I will hopefully be able to get a pic in the near future) and one of them I gave to my friend Chelsea. Here it is

The front of the binder. I bought a binder, padded it with cotton batting then covered it in a purple animal print fabric. The inside covers I used a purple felt to cover up the rough edges and empty areas.

This is the inside of the binder. I made the recipe template as well using Photoshop

Hopefully she gets good use out of her recipe binder!

Another present I made was one for my mom. She had mentioned she wanted some padded hangers for Christmas... turns out padded hangers are extremely hard to find :S, so I made some for her!

This is the complete set. I took plain wire hangers.. bent the bottom part up to the top part (with the help of my boyfriend), wrapped them in cotton batting, covered them in fabric and sewed them up.

A close up of one of the hangers.

Action shot of the hangers!

As much as I like how the hangers turned out.. and as much as my mom liked them, I probably will not be making these again! They were really tough.

Mom's birthday comes soon after Christmas so I needed to think of another present to get for her. I had this chair sitting in my room for a long time waiting to be recovered and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity!

Before of the chair. Rusted Green-tone paint with grubby fake orange fur.

Redone chair. I chose the same fabric as I used for the hangers, as she's probably going to use the chair inside her walk-in closet. I repainted the chair a creamy white colour and the circular ends I dry-brushed them with a golden colour.

I really love how this chair turned out, as did she which makes me happy :)

Let me know if you have any comments about any of my projects! I love comments

More projects coming soon.

-Heather

Cupcakes and Mudpies

2010-12-07T15:23:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

I promised that there would be some more of Christy's birthday invites to come and here they are!

The past few days I have been working on a birthday invite for a little girl, as well as for the boys.

For the little girls invite, Christy was thinking she'd like pinks and browns, maybe with some polka dots and I came up with this!

This is the front of the invite.

This is the inside of the invite.

Cute? :)

For the boys, she has a birthday package about digging in the dirt brownie adventure. I thought I could do something like bugs but not so gross :P I made one that I didn't like so much, Christy thought it was cute but I thought I would keep playing around with it to see what I could come up with. Here are the two different birthday invites I designed.

Front number 1 (not so good)

Front number 2 ( a bit better?)

And finally this is the inside of the boys invite.

That's all I have for now! Let me know what you think :)

-Heather

Invitations and Blogs

2010-12-05T09:56:00.000-08:00

Hello again everyone!

I haven't posted in a while but I've been working a lot on some graphics for Christy and I thought I'd share them with you guys!
Christy ( the chocolate maker - check out her website here ) had the great idea of having kids' parties now that she has a big kitchen to work in! She has four different party packages: Wacky cake and cookie decorating, pizza cookie fun, digging in the dirt brownie adventure, and dippity do chocolate I love you. For her website she was thinking of having some fake polaroid graphics that you could click on for each of the four birthday packages. Here's what I came up with for her.
So far it is just a google image in there, not one of Christy's but you get the idea.

Looks great doesn't it?!

Another thing I've been working on is the invitations for her birthday parties. The idea behind this is that the mom's would go on her website, print out these invitations for the kids to bring to school and hand out to their friends. Here's what I came up with for the older female group.

This is the front of the invitation

And this is the inside of the invitation

The back of the invitation would have her company address as well as the map to the shop. My next steps will be to make a boy version of the invitation, as well as an invitation for younger girls.

I've also been working on Christy's new blog! Hasn't been ready for action at all yet, no blog posts, but I'm working on the design and the separate pages.

One of Christy's pages is a recipe page. Her idea was that for each recipe she posts, she will create a recipe card. Her "Recipe" page would have several different images of recipe cards posted to it, so everything will be right there and easy to find. Here's what I created for the recipe card.

I love how it turned out, it looks so cute!

That's all I've been working on as of lately.. I will have some more graphics coming up, and I may have a post of "fall finds" clothes, keep checking!

Comments welcome

-Heather

This Book Belongs To..

2010-11-24T15:22:00.000-08:00

Hello again everyone!

Just got some free time finally! So I decided to post another one of my projects. This one was done just the other day for my sister.She is involved in Craftster and was working on a craft swap.

The idea of this craft swap is the 12 days of Christmas, for 12 days.. there are 12 different gifts, at least I think that's how it works... ANYWAYS, for one of the days, my sister was planning on doing a book themed gift. She was going to send some handmade bookmarks and whatnot so she asked me if I could make this project to go along with it.

The idea was that this would be made into a sticker that the craft swap receiver could put inside her books, so that if they get lost the finder will know whose book it is! The specs allowed for quite a bit of creativity, the only thing my sister asked was that there be some sort of tree on the sticker.

Here it is!

I really like how this one turned out, I'd actually like something like it for my business card! Let me know if you have any comments about it! I'd love to hear them.

-Heather

Online Ad

2010-11-24T08:36:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

Another project for Christy's Gourmet Gifts I've been working on, this time it was an online advertisement for her store in Burlington.
Check it out!

Pretty easy to make, but I really like how it turned out, and it's already up online RIGHT HERE! Exciting :)

Let me know what you think of it.

-Heather

Kitschy Christmas!

2010-11-07T20:21:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!
Haven't posted in a while, just been working on a few things for my aunt lately as well as something brand new for my sister Jessica.
Every year she has a Christmas dinner/party at our house with a theme. It is always "A very ____ Christmas" Examples of what she's done are
A Very Glam Christmas
A Very Creepy Christmas
A Very Classy Christmas
Anyways, this year she's doing it again for the 4th year in a row and the theme this Christmas is "Kitschy".
She always makes a facebook event to invite all her friends to this so using my Graphic Design I make her an event posting picture as well as a thumbnail.
Check out what I made for the Kitschy Christmas!

This is the main facebook picture

This is the facebook thumbnail picture.

I really like how everything turned out. I think maybe the font needed a little something else but seeing as I only had a half hour - hour to work on this I had to stick with what I got.

Comments welcome!

-Heather

More for Christy

2010-10-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

I'm back in action again with some more stuff for Christy's gourmet gifts company!

Christy has been having me work on a few different things for her trying to get the hype up for the launch of her new website!

She's been trying to get going a Facebook account, as well as group, a Twitter account and her very own blog (involving recipes, event ideas, testimonials, and weddings/events they have been involved in).

For her facebook group we were thinking something that would also help with marketing.. I've noticed a few different companies/real estate agents and things like that doing a long sort of Facebook picture with information in it, as opposed to just pictures and I thought this would be something good for Christy.

This is what I created for her main Facebook group picture.

To link from her website to her blog, this is the button I initially created for her, but the pictures needed to be changed up afterwards, as she now has a different photographer!

Since the photography changed, we decided to change up the button a bit more and this is what we came up with. On her main website it will also be a lot larger than the original image that I created.

The last piece I created for Christy was a blog header. She wanted something with a lot of images to attract the customer to her food but also something that was pretty.

That's it for today! There will be a lot more to see in the future so keep lookin' back and I'd love to hear your feedback!

-Heather

Web Pages

2010-10-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
Disappeared for a while there. Been working really hard on the graphics for a website. I did this for a lady, Christy, who makes her own chocolate gifts, specializing in corporate gifts.
For this project I was doing all the graphics, sending them over to a web designer and he was putting them all online and adding in e-commerce.
The web designer already had a few pages set up I was just changing them up and adding different features and what not.
Christy wanted her website to be pretty and girly with lots of photography to entice people.

Here's the main home page we came up with as a collaboration.

This second picture is a view of what the buttons would look like when you scroll over them. They would be linked to different pages on the website.

Here is a layout of one of the pages her main page would link to.

Each page would have a different picture on the top as well as the side. These pages have the same tiled background as the main page, it is just a creamy-type colour.

When you click on the product link on the top home bar, this is the page it would take you to. Each picture of product would take you to a separate page which is seen in the second image I have posted. Each top of the page would be different according to what product it is.

A few things have been changed on these webpages since going online. As some of my pages didn't work properly with the way the e-commerce was designed, it had to be tweaked a bit but otherwise I am very pleased with how it turned out :) I will post the link to the website once it is online and ready for the public to view.

Comments welcome!

-Heather

Recipe Template Page

2010-09-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

Hello again everyone!

So my latest project has been a collaboration with my sister, Jess. She's made recipe binders in the past that have turned out really nicely so I asked her to make one for me. We picked out fabric together which she will cover a binder in and pad it as well as embroider a felt piece with the word "Recipes". So far it is turning out really nicely.

I wanted to add some of my own flair to this project so I decided I would make the graphics for the inside. I would make one template that could be printed up several times and put between dividers to organize all the recipes.

This is the fabric and felt colour that we chose for the binder.

And here is the recipe template I made for the inside of the binder. Changes are still optional as my sister hasn't finished the binder yet so there may be some slight differences to the final product. The white square at the left hand corner with the line is for your recipe name :) The little circle thing is an Ernst Haeckel design ( I LOVE ERNST HAECKEL ) that I thought looked somewhat like a dandelion, which matched with the front fabric.

I'm thinking I might need some little something near that top left-hand white rectangle. Not sure what it needs yet. Opinions anyone?

-Heather

Sketchbook Project!

2010-09-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

So a long while ago I signed up for the Sketchbook Project, I don't know if I've mentioned it before but basically you sign up, pay the money, pick a theme and they send you your very own Moleskine sketchbook. You fill it up, send it back, and then all the sketchbooks that are submitted go on a tour around the world!
The theme I chose for my sketchbook is "Storybook". I've only got starts of pages drawn up so far but I've been getting some good things done lately. I have some great plans for this sketchbook. I hope I can finish in time!!
Anyways, usually when I have a sketchbook I cover the back of the covers in a pretty paper, makes the sketchbook feel a lot nicer to me so I did it with this one as well. I went on a hunt for different papers and ended up finding a scripty writing one (perfect for a storybook) as well as a paper with a toile print.
The papers were a bit too white for how creamy colour the sketchbook paper is so I decided to dye the paper with tea. ( Cinnamon tea :) It smelled so good! )
After the paper had dried and everything I went over some things with a thin tip gold paint pen, as I'm going to have a lot of gold going through my sketchbook to make it sort of like the letters you would find in really old storybooks! Here's the first pictures of what I've done

Front Cover

Front Cover Close- Up

Back Cover

Back Cover Close-Up

That's all I got so far! So much more Sketchbook Project pages to come in the future!! Keep lookin

-Heather

Vacation Time!

2010-08-11T19:33:00.000-07:00

Finally I've got some time off work and I'm going to Cuba with my mom and my sister tomorrow! I won't be back home 'til next Thursday so I probably won't have any new posts before then but I have some exciting information!

My dreads have finally been cut off! I went one day out of the blue and cut my hair off, I thought I'd be too hot in Cuba and that's what started it all. I took a before and after picture, here they are!

before

after

I didn't necessarily like how they styled my hair, but I think the hair cut is really cute and it looks pretty nice now! :)

I'll be back soon with pictures of my Cuba trip most likely so stay posted for that! Yay for vacation time :D

-Heather

Vanity Desk REVAMPED

2010-08-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

This is a project from long ago but I recently discovered the pictures I took before I revamped the furniture and got inspired to write a blog post about it!

I was in the midst of redoing my room when I created this vanity for myself. The table was one we had for years, it used to be a sewing table, then it was a craft table for my sister and I when we were little. When we stopped using it for crafts it just sat in the laundry room all paint-covered and I rediscovered it!
My ex boyfriend sanded it for me and I washed it down and then painted it a nice white. Here's the before and after of the table.

before

after

I found the stool for my vanity at a flea market in Brantford, ON for 5 dollars! Awesome deal :D It was kinda retro cool but the texture of the fabric was soo irritating it definitely needed to be changed. I found some excess blue velvet fabric in my house (only enough to cover the stool!) and I used that to recover it. I love the fabric so much I wish I had more. Here's the before and after of the stool.

before

after

Unfortunately I didn't take a before picture of my mirror but it cost me 5 to 10 dollars ( I can't remember! ) at the other flea market in Brantford.. What's with all the awesome deals?! :P The mirror was black and gold and I painted it with the same white as the rest of the furniture. And here's my last picture.. a full out picture of all the pieces together!

I had a ton of fun working on this project! I'd love to hear what you think of it. :)

-Heather

New Projects

2010-08-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

Hello again everybody!

So I've been working on a whole bunch of projects.. maybe not actually WORKING on them as I've recently gone from working as a barista 3 days a week to 5-7 days a week. EEK ! So basically I've just been collecting things to work on and then thinking about them a lot. :P Haha fail.

This weekend I'm going to get started on them and really get some stuff done! I decided I'd show off my before projects see what people think of them and then show my recons and revamps later on! Are you excited?! I am.

Lately I guess I've been drawn to the colour orange, don't ask me why.. not like it's one of my favourite colours or anything. Just happened lol.

This is the first project I'm working on. I needed a dress to wear to my cousin's wedding, coming up September 10th so I better get workin! It's an orange silk fabric, floor length with some billowy transparent fabric on top. I can't think of what the word would be for the actual fabric. Here's a picture of the dress ! It's really pretty but floor length is not really my style and it is too low in the front so I'm going to fix it up. I got this at Value Village for around 25 dollars. Totally worth it.

My plans for this dress is to make it above my knee and poofy! Im thinking with a slit in each side or something with a cream coloured fabric underneath. THEN under that I would use some crinoline. Also I would add a tie up bow under the bust. Here's my drawing of what I want it to look like :)

And last but not least.. I am working on an outdoor wrought-iron stool. I found this at a flea market for 22 dollars.. kind of pricey for my budget but I kept thinking about it after I left the store and I had to go back to get it! Here's the pic of the before

Some past owner decided it would be a good idea to upholster this cute chair in this hideous fake orange fur (mom thinks it's cute LOL). The wrought-iron is all rusty and paint chipped so I'm going to repaint and reupholster and REVAMP! It should look really cool. Updates will be coming in soon.

I'm also going to be looking for some accessories for this wedding. Hair accessories especially. If anyone knows some cool jewellery I could look at (online or otherwise) let me know please!

-Heather

Anniversary Present

2010-07-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

Hellooo there!

This is what's been going on in my life. It was my anniversary with my boyfriend Daniel the other day (6 months) and we were exchanging gifts so I decided to make him some of his presents.

The first thing I got him (not made) was a gift card for an aquarium store as he really likes frogs and whatnot and is always building his aquarium with plants and more fish and all sorts of fun stuff. His favourite pets are his African Dwarf Frogs

See them here

Hahah, I love them, they're so funny to watch. Anyways, since he likes these frogs so much I made him this artwork (he moved in not too long ago and has no art on his walls) SO I made him this!

The frog was made with fabric we picked out at the Value Village a few days before and then I did the background kind of tie-dye looking with gouache. I mod-podged the whole thing and added a white acrylic paint outline to the froggie and there we go!

Also Dan was mentioning he needed a new wallet so I went on etsy and searched up some wallets I thought he'd like and I came up with THIS!

A leather wallet that is screen printed with woodgrain pattern! I love it. Unfortunately I didn't order it from the internet in time and it hasn't come yet.. so I had to improvise. This is what I ended up giving him.

I printed out a picture from the one online and packaging taped into into a wallet shape.. with the help of newspaper lol. He still liked it anyways but I did put an IOU note on it.

And that's all I got for today, keep looking for new crafts and graphics I'm up to!

-Heather

New Logo!

2010-07-17T19:11:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about starting up my own business redoing furniture and whatnot so I decided I should make my own logo for it.

I'm calling it Fresh Start furniture because I take old furniture from flea markets/garage sales/thrift stores and redo them and give them a FRESH START :P
Here's the logo I came up with. I really like how it turned out.

I have two colour choices as well, not sure if I'm going to go with either of them but I was testing them out. If you have some comments on which one you like better, I'd love to hear them!!

Also, let me know what you think about the logo. I might make a few changes on it still!

-Heather

First Ever Resin PENDANTS!

2010-07-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
Here's the scoop. Lately I've been trying my luck at making some jewellery. My sister and I bought some resin recently (neither of us had used it before but wanted to try it out!).
My boyfriend and I collected seashells and cool stones and that from the beach and wanted to make some jewellery with those found objects.
Here's the ones we came up with. Again.. a bad quality picture but as I just moved recently I can't find a camera or anything better to take pictures with.

This is all the resin pendants we made, for now!

Unfortunately my boyfriend worked on this one while I was out of the room and he used the wrong colour background :P Looks good anyways I think though. It's still a bit tacky at the front.

This one was a cool rock we found at the beach. Hard to see the details in the picture but it is quite cool. I like this background a lot as well. We found all the backgrounds in pieces of artwork out of the art magazine Juxtapoz.

This one was my favourite at the beginning but unfortunately got an airbubble in it that we couldn't pop. :P It still looks alright to me, looks like the seashell is floating on top of water or something.

This one is my very favourite out of all of them. It was the one my boyfriend created so I can't take credit for it unfortunately but lucky for me I still get to keep it as jewellery. Hahaha :)

Let me know what you think!

There will probably be more jewellery coming up on my blog in the future as I am making a piece of jewellery out of a bone we found at the beach. I was thinking it was a fish bone, but now I'm not sure. If anyone can tell me what kind of animal this bone comes from I would love to know.

Here's the bone all lacquered up!

Thats all for today, I've been really busy with working at 5 30 am everyday and I need some sleep!

- Heather

Hermit Crab

2010-07-08T20:51:00.000-07:00

SO! I read an article online (posted by one of my twitter friends!:) ) that gave some tips on how one should go about making a Promotional Postcard as an Illustrator. Reading about all these tips made me want to make a new promo postcard, as I didn't much like my last one, never mind use it.
Anyways, I like hermit crabs, I felt like drawing/painting one so that was the first piece of art to be created for my promo postcard. I drew it with pencil, filled in with watercolour paints and pencils, added shading with pencil crayons and inked the edges. I like how it turned out, here's the picture of what I have so far. (You really don't get the full effect with the cell phone pictures, but I promise I'll scan it in later on!)

Let me know what you think of it :)

-Heather

Twitter Background

2010-07-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

So I was working on a Twitter background for myself, check it out here, and my sister mentioned she would like one for her blog as well. We didn't really speak about it at all yet but I made her one for now, just for the sake of it.

She's a writer and a crafter so I decided to do things that related to that. Here's the background I created for her.

Not sure if it would be tiled or what but I tested it out on my own Twitter account and it looked pretty neat. We shall see if she likes it or not ;) :). You can check out my sister's twitter here.

Thanks for reading, be back with some more graphics soon!

-Heather

Powerpoint Presentation

2010-06-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

Here's another piece of the branding I created for my Real Estate Agent Aunt. It is a powerpoint presentation based on her neighbourhood, trying to get clients interested in buying in her neighbourhood.
This is just one piece of the powerpoint but they all look quite similar, with pictures and whatnot.
Check out the page!

:)
-Heather

Real Estate Branding

2010-06-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
Sorry I have not posted in so long, I recently moved and there was a lot going on lately, not much time to upload pics and post to my blog! But here's the update.
Lately, I've been working on some work for my aunt. She is a real estate agent in Mississauga and right now is very focused on getting new clients, as well as branding herself. I've been working on a powerpoint presentation for her for a while now (we keep thinking up new ideas to add to it so it is a never-ending project! :):P)
BUT I've also had a bit of time to start working on some branding for her. She wanted a logo type of thing for her name so that people would see that and KNOW that it is her. She is a very family oriented person and loves her Irish heritage so we were thinking something along
the lines of celtic.
Anyways, here's the first stage of a logo I've created for her.

You can check out her website HERE.

Let me know if you have any comments or criticisms on the logo! I'd love to hear them :)
- Heather

Logo Creation

2010-05-02T17:28:00.001-07:00

My first real freelance project just got finished today! It was a logo I created for a company called J. Price Photography. I think Justin Price and I worked really well together and this special logo was formed.
Here it is!

I am so excited to be finished my first freelance project. Hope you enjoy. Comments and Criticisms welcome.

-Heather

Yet another business card

2010-04-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

Two posts in one day! I made another business card, this time for myself as I said before.
I also have a flyer for real estate graphic design that matches this business card so it's going to be a good brand identity.

Check it out!

The Front

The Back

Well on my way to doing freelance!
Comments/criticisms are welcome :)

-Heather

Business Card

2010-04-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

So this week my sister, Jessica Peter, (check out her blog HERE) is going to a writing convention to pitch her new novel to some people.
Of course she needs some business cards to market herself so I decided I'd make her some to add to my portfolio.
I had a lot of fun making this!
The plan is for me to make some business cards for myself as well so that if people ask where she got the design done she can hand out my card as well. PERFECT!

Here it is!

FRONT

BACK

Comments welcome :)

Art Kit Design

2010-04-14T22:33:00.000-07:00

Hey again everyone!

For class this week we're creating the front of an art kit box for my school. I did this in Photoshop and Illustrator, so far I've created the front, though I will be creating more of the box soon.
Here it is

Comments are welcome

-Heather

Illustration Friday: Dip

2010-04-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.
Here's my new artwork for illustration friday.
It's actually from last weeks word *Dip*. I didn't get it in in time but without further ado, here it is!

I made it using photoshop and I did it based on the saying "Hippy Dippy".

Enjoy

-HP

New blog!

2010-04-08T07:07:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
last night I got going on my new blog! This blog is going to be specifically for my culminating project for school.
The idea is to create a cooking zine based on eating locally, called "This Little Piggy". Nothing is quite solid yet but I've posted a few things up there.

Check it out!
NEW BLOG

As always, I'd love comments on my new blog posts :)

-Heather

Illustration Friday: Rescue

2010-04-01T06:44:00.001-07:00

Hello again!

I have been working on the illustration for this weeks Illustration Friday *Rescue*.

This illustration friday seemed a little bit more difficult for me, I couldn't seem to get away from all the most basic ideas. BUT after researching I decided to do something GREEN. Rescuing endangered trees. I chose an African tree because I love Africa, as you might have noticed in previous art. I finished this all in photoshop with my tablet.

Here it is!

Until next time,

-Heather

Final Storyboards

2010-03-29T07:42:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

Took me a while to get my storyboard up but finally I am posting it!

In my last post with the storyboard thumbnails I explained my tv commercial. Anyways the idea was that this cereal was supposed to be "fit for royalty". The storyboard is not completed but here are my finished pieces.

Storyboard Piece 1

Storyboard Piece 2

Storyboard Piece 3

Storyboard Piece 4

enjoy

-Heather

Self Promotional Artwork

2010-03-25T13:48:00.001-07:00

Hi people,

This piece I created in Corel Draw. It was supposed to put Vector and Bitmap objects together using the powerclip effect, while being self promotional.
A lot of my artwork has something to do with nature so I decided to do a piece promoting myself as well as nature.

Check it out :)

-Heather

Illustration Friday: Expired

2010-03-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Here is my new artwork for illustration friday. It is based on the word expired. I was looking up quotes about expired and whatnot and I came across quotes from the Monty Python skit about the expired parrot. I love monty python so I decided to do a piece of art on this.
I did the parrot with markers on paper and then I took it into photoshop and added the shadows and background.

Here it is!

Please leave comments !

Postcard- Cancer Research Fundraising

2010-03-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Here is the postcard I created for the Cancer Research Fundraising. Rather than focus on the bike race I decided to focus on the overall idea of the fundraising, so I did a piece on "hope".

Leave comments/criticisms please! :)

Promotional Postcard

2010-03-23T13:25:00.001-07:00

Here is the promotional Postcard we created for Leif's illustration class. The elephants picture was posted earlier but I added some type to it as well as doing a back. Here's the front view.

And here is the back of the postcard. Hope you like it!

Comments welcome

Illustration Friday: Subterranean

2010-03-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Here's the artwork I created for the illustration friday word *Subterranean*. I was trying to think of animals that live underground, and meerkats came to mind as one of them so that's what I created.

I painted the meerkats with watercolours and then drew the background and some of the meerkat body in photoshop.

Here it is!

Hope you like it! Comments are welcome

Nerpa Seal

2010-03-13T18:07:00.000-08:00

This illustration has been a long time coming. I've been telling my sister I would work on this art for the longest time and haven't gotten around to it 'til now.
This artwork is a drawing of a Purple Nerpa (play on words here people!), I made the seal using watercolour and the rest was put together in photoshop.

I love comments! Please leave some :)

-Heather

India Artwork

2010-03-13T17:29:00.000-08:00

Hi there,

I created a new piece of art this weekend. This illustration was supposed to be for a promotional postcard, not sure if I'm going to use it yet but I like how it turned out.
It was inspired by India, wasn't originally supposed to be like a "wedding" type thing but the more I worked on it the more it turned into that :P. And again, I like elephants. :)

Here it is

I did the patterns for the background with watercolour and then scanned them in and created the rest with photoshop.

Enjoy! Please leave comments!

Illustration Friday: Brave

2010-03-11T15:57:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!
This is my artwork for Illustration Friday, this week the word was *Brave*.

I decided to do a lion because what is more brave than a lion?
I made a collage using piece from old magazines and then I painted over it with acrylic and then cut out a paper heart.
Here it is!

Comments are welcome! :)

Background: Corel Class

2010-03-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!
Been a while since I posted a blog but I haven't been feeling very artsy fartsy lately. :( This week I've gotten a couple things done and I decided I should show them off!

For my Corel Draw class we are working on using Bitmaps and Vector Images together to create a promotional piece of art. I painted flowers using watercolours, put them on to the computer and put them together using Photoshop to create a background image. Here it is!

Also, my boyfriend and I got into carving wooden beads this week, lots of fun but cut my hand a few times! :O :( There will probably be more wooden beads to come, here's one of the ones we worked on.

A little mushroom! Let me know what you think ! :)

Visa Advertisement

2010-02-26T11:40:00.001-08:00

Here is a visa advertisement I created for class. The idea was to have a 5 second reaction time. I made my advertisement target women who like expensive things. I did it using gouache paint (this is only my second piece of art using gouache paint!) Enjoy!

Editorial Art

2010-02-26T11:26:00.000-08:00

Hi all!

For class we were asked to create some editorial art for Rick Court's blog. I created all my illustrations using Photoshop, here they are!

This is the main illustration I did, it has two meanings really. The first one being obvious, the chestnut tree that was in the area of Mohawk College beforehand AND trees are always growing and putting down deep roots and this is what Mohawk is doing in the same place.

Here are my two Spot Illustrations for the blog.

I really enjoyed working on this project! Comments are welcome :)

Illustration Friday: Adrift

2010-02-24T16:37:00.000-08:00

Here's another Illustration Friday piece I created based on the word "adrift".
My idea was a mind drifting so the artwork is a lot of doodles of things that came to mind when I actually thought of the word Adrift. Anyways, hope you like it :)

Comments please!

Laptop Skin

2010-02-23T13:34:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been working on a laptop skin for myself as a project for school. I finally finished it up this week and here is the final product!

For a while now I've been inspired by Africa, and I've always loved animals, elephants being one of my favourite so I thought "why not?"

Let me know what you think!

-Heather

Storyboard Thumbnails

2010-02-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

Hey people!

So for class this week we are working on thumbnails for a cereal commercial storyboard. The commercial was supposed to appeal to adults (same idea as the cereal ad I posted earlier), so my idea was to appeal to people who are into "gourmet" things. Here's the thumbnails I created for this project.

Sorry about the bad quality photos but I hope you like them nonetheless.

Comments are always welcome!

-Heather

Illustration Friday: Muddy

2010-02-11T05:19:00.000-08:00

Hey guys :)

This is the new artwork I created for Illustration Friday. The word this week was "Muddy" .

One of the first things I thought of was my cat Puddy tracking mud into our house, so this is what I did.

I made this picture using watercolour and watercolour pencil crayon. Here it is!

Yes, she is very large. :)
Let me know what you think of it

Illustration Friday: FOCUSED

2010-02-04T06:17:00.000-08:00

Here is a piece I created for Illustration Friday based on the word "Focused".

I had originally planned to do this by hand using Watercolour and Ink but unfortunately did not have enough time this week to work on it. :(
BUT I am still pleased with how it turned out.

Let me know what you think!

-Heather

Cereal Ad

2010-02-04T05:26:00.001-08:00

Hi Everyone!
This is a cereal Ad I created for Illustration class.
It was supposed to be an advertisement for a kids cereal that would appeal to a different target market, such as adults.
I used the slogan "stop and smell the cereal" as a spoof on "stop and smell the roses", as in slow down and enjoy life as a child would.

Below I have added pictures of my process in creating this ad.

Here is my rough sketch.

Here is my comprehensive illustration. I made this using Illustrator.

This is my final illustration. I added shading to the flower and a background texture to create less contrast. This was done in Photoshop.

Please leave comments! I'd love to hear from you :)

-Heather

New Illustration

2010-01-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone!

Here's a new illustration I've been working on this week based on the word *Wilderness*.
I used my tablet to draw this in Photoshop.

Comments are appreciated :)

My First Post

2010-01-21T06:27:00.000-08:00

Hey, this is my first post on my new blog about my artwork. Enjoy!

Please leave a comment and tell me what you think. Thanks :)