The store ROOM SERVICE on West 25th Street diagonal from the West Side Market is selling things from local artists in the 216 & 440 zip codes----Made in the 216-----holiday event.

My greetings cards are here plus really cool Cleveland stuff and aromatic candles named after famous writers like Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen....

Cleveland Handmade Market successful!

I finally found a crowd that appreciated and bought my cards! I just created a skyline of Miami card for my brother's design & architect firm when it occurred me to do a Skyline of Cleveland. I only printed 6 of them, but I sold them like hotcakes. This is the one for Miami.

Ohio & Cleveland greeting cards

It has been busy at home and getting ready for the Made in the 216 holiday event at Room Service. I hope that people will dig these I love Cleveland cards with the Browns colors, I love Ohio with the official state bird, the cardinal and the Greetings from Cleveland, a wintery card with the CLE Browns hat on one of the penguins. OK, I know, Cleveland does not have penguins, but they are funny & popular. Besides, we do get a lot of snow...

ROOM SERVICE store Made in the 216 HOLIDAY sale until December 24th.

3 art/crafts shows coming up!

On Saturday, November 3rd, I will be at the Clarion Hotel in Hudson, OH trying again the Oddmall Holiday show. A younger crowd usually shops here, but all ages do come in if they want something different.
I am partnering at the table with Lisa Paladin from Green Yogini selling her beautiful crocheted hats, fingerless gloves and beards! Yes, beards! They are so IN that I will have birds with beards in my cards too!
http://www.oddmall.info

On Saturday, December 1st, I will be at the Cleveland Handmade show at Tower Press Building on Superior Ave., Cleveland. I am told it is a good show. Funky stuff from the Cleveland Handmade group from etsy.com.  I will be selling cards & my art prints/giclées of my colorful Caribbean paintings. Prints will be available at the Oddmall show too.

During the Holiday Season from November 23rd to December 24th---the MADE in 216 store - ROOM SERVICE will be open selling items from local artists! Located on West 25th Street and Lorain nearby the West Side Market
 I will have all those cards there. I hope to sell many of the I love Cleveland and I love Ohio cards. They are great for gifts for the local crowd here in CLE.

Sold one print!

Sold one giclée limited edition print of my painting titled Snorkeling in St. John at the NOIS show in Brecksville. I hope that person enjoys looking at it and wishing she/he was snorkeling, just like I do.

Prints are now available through etsy.com

I have 4 images available for sale as limited edition prints printed on fine art paper--giclées. Visit etsy.com to see the prints.

My paintings at the NOIS Anything Goes show.

Located at Brecksville Center for the Arts in Brecksville, OH.

I made greeting cards from the funny illustrations--2 of the texts was written by Marlene Hoffman.

Ready with 2 paintings!

I am done! This is part of the other painting for the NOIS show in Sept.

Frolicking in St. John?

Now I will find out how to reproduce them as giclees. Already my siblings are interested in having one. 

One painting for the NOIS show so far

This painting is finally done. I really love it now!!! The sea grape leaves looks awesome and I added some of those colors on the bottom of the sting ray.
Now I have to continue with the other one.

Pending, Fine Art Prints for sale in the future?

I was always interested in making prints on some of my artwork. Only when someone has asked is that I have finally taken the initiative to find out how that can be  properly done. Well, it is possible and I might eventually print them myself---after buying Epson watercolor & canvas paper a year ago! For higher quality print, I prefer to do the whole process with a professional. 

The above watercolor drawing was drawn in Tortola, BVI back in 2000. I have several nice drawings from the nearby islands. They can be framed and/or I can make greeting cards for them. I have given them as gifts set of cards from drawings of Puerto Rico, Tuscany & La Place des Vosges in Paris to friends.

The nicest thing is making a copy of my Dream - cocos and Soller, Mallorca paintings onto canvas gallery wrapped frames ready to hang. (You can view them in my website/portfolio) Let's see what happens with all this!

Rubber duckies that Ernie would love!

I found these curious personalities on rubber duckies in Germany (Bavaria) and Austria. To them, this is normal. I told them that I haven't seen them anywhere else. People I asked had no clue why they make them like that.

Yes, I have been away on vacation looking at many Gothic & baroque churches in those areas. We loved Bavaria with their beautiful houses and their window boxes filled with geraniums--some of them had frescoes outside of their walls or a crucifix!

The Alps are beautiful! There's plenty of lumber--a lumber mill in almost every town. It snowed up in the Zugspitze while we walked in the rain in Garmisch looking for some sneakers for me.
Grüss Gott!

Perfect for a Teacher!

My little shop in etsy is selling personalized cards for teachers--just in time for end of the year gifts.

I am finishing 2 orders now!

Made in the 216 shopping event will be held at the Dredger's Union on E. 4th St. in Cleveland, not in the Room Service store. Oops!

I created this card, which I will change to brown & orange for the Cleveland Browns fans too!

TWEET&FLORA cards will be selling at Room Service store--Made in the 216-- event on June 15-17

at W. 25th Street near the West Side Market.

After the show--

At the beginning of the show, there were many people, but it fizzled by 2pm. There were many cool things to buy such as the plastic animals painted in colors used for succulents. I bought a funky knitted mushroom by sae.whimsy.etsy.com. My son took it. 

I sold 3 onesies by Pingquik and cards--including Tweet that says I Love Cleveland!

This design I just made for BFF. It was very plain before, but it looks better now.

Printing NEW card design--getting ready for show!

While I am printing cards & having the printer do other new designs, I have been working on a canvas for a September art show!

Creating Quinceañera Invitations for a friend. Here is one of them:

I just created this & I love it! Did it in Hello! Now I can offer other languages, like Hallo for German!

Getting ready for a Craft Show (Hudson) & a Weekend Store Sale (West Side)

On Saturday, May 12, I will be sharing a table with another etsian artist at The Oddmall Emporium of the Weird (which has a bit of that) at the Clarion Hotel in Hudson, Ohio. I went last year & I liked a lot of the stuff people were selling. 

My partner that day is Lisa from Green Yogini selling friendship bracelets & other handmade things. See http://www.etsy.com/shop/greenyogini

Then on the weekend of June 15-17 the store, Room Service on West 25th St. & Lorain will be selling MADE in the 216 products. Here is one of the card racks I bought so they can be properly seen. Last time all my cards were jammed in a basket so it was hard to spot them.

Planning to offer Birthday PDFs in etsy

This is one of the special Birthday invitations I will be posting in etsy. I have 4 models for girls to choose from. This is definitely NOT a theme character birthday--but a creative & fun attraction to announce for a birthday. This was a custom request from a client in PR. 

It's that time of the year---First Communion invitations

I just created this version for a client. Waiting to see if they like this.

Workshop with illustrator William Stout

My son & I participated in a workshop where the famous illustrator, William Stout gave us tips on drawing dinosaurs & mythical creatures. Marco was a bit cranky in the morning. By the end of the workshop, he was happy to be there. An interesting note about Mr. Stout is that he was the inspiration for Michael Crichton to write the book Jurassic Park. At the last page of the book, his name is mentioned. He did gave ideas to the set designer for the movie.

Following is William Stout's Phoenix--Marco requested this one.

This one was made by Marco.

This one was made by me.

Mexican inspired kitschy shrine to my mother

My mother was almost a saint. She spoke quietly, which Marco misses a lot. She was a sweet and elegant woman who loved to be with her children, family & friends. She loved fashion and dressed in a chic bohemian style. She loved Sóller, Majorca; she had an affinity for the place because she thought that Sóller could give her energy & peace.

She is dressed in the traditional Majorcan headdress-the payesa. This picture was probably taken when my parents took me to Majorca when I was turning 2 years old.

I miss her voice & her calmness & her laughter & her advice & her intuition...

VERY CUSTOM MADE First Communion Invitations

My shop in etsy already has 2 styles for the invitations. Two for boys & two for girls. These are some ideas of the dresses & looks for the girls. Check them out!

Happy St. Valentine's!

Today I am cutting invitations for a wedding shower.

This card was done for last year's holiday at Heights Flower Shoppe.

Much going on...

Lately, I have been substituting at schools. I like doing this, specially at my son's school. It is also a nice little income to help out at home.
I am moving along contacting WBU stores, sending out flyer or PDf catalogue, but so far only one store has bought. I need 10 to 15 stores to carry my cards. There are over 200 stores nationwide.

I went to a COSE Leads group to check if it would be good for me. Not sure yet.
Last night I attended a talk at our NOIS meeting with Chris Morris, illustrator & art director for the Plain Dealer newspaper. He is very talented.www.chrismorrisillustration.com

I have been in contact with a fellow etsian that lives south of here. She made a crocheted baby booties (BOTINES) for my sister.
Her name is Ana and her shop is www.etsy.com/people/AMarteBaby
Got an order from etsy for my General Greeting cards--to a customer nearby!! I will meet her next week.

WBU Good News & resolved the printer problem

Well, Epson cannot fix the problem, but I can save an Illustrator file to a PDF & then print. One way to do it from my new mac.

I got my first order from one of the WBU stores yesterday!!!! WBU stands for Wild Birds Unlimited. So exciting! I am getting the order ready to mail on Monday morning.

I have also added my First Communion invitations to etsy. Getting ready for that too!

I am really mad at Epson...

I cannot believe that I spent so much money buying a new Mac with Lion operating system and the new Adobe CS5 Illustrator and I CANNOT print properly. The image looks jagged!!
Had a Chat w/Epson and this is what they said:
I need a Third party software RIP
because my Epson R1900 is a non-PostScript printer. The new CS5 cannot print to that. It needs a PostScript printer.
So we searched online to find that and the only thing that popped was this PowerRIP that does not support the Lion OS.
OK, so now what? Epson does not have a driver nor it recommends any software. That is ABSURD!
The guy suggested I imported my Illustrator file as a PDF into Photoshop. This is just ludicrous!!
I am looking for their Feedback & boy are they going to get it.
I think I can still create the design in the new CS5, but I have to transfer the file via flash drive to print. Nightmare!

Proud of Cleveland

I have learned that making things about Cleveland---there is a pride movement in this city---will sell. I love my Rock & Roll Pingquik. 

T-shirts, prints for framing? Wouldn't they like a mascot?!

New Year 2012...

Well, I went on vacation to PR and it was definitely NOT calm. Plenty of activity: flying kites, parrandas (Puerto Rican caroling), parties, getting together with family & friends...
I did sell cards at the Room Service store and I mailed flyers to the WBU stores and one responded so far. I sold almost 100 Tweet&Flora cards at the Heights Floral Shoppe last year.
What is next?
Finishing my Tweet catalogue to mail out to one store, while approaching more stores.
Creating a HNY & promo postcard (almost done) to send out as a reminder to the WBU stores & previous clients.
Here is Jim and Jorge, the creator of my website.