Sunday, March 30, 2008

Artism by Nick is Growing!




Nick is loving our new home business, and I am loving guiding Nick in his pursuit - teaching him technique, how to prep the materials, work the press, and do studio tasks.


We hope that one day we will even be busy enough to give other young men and women with disabilities the opportunity to work with us.


Here are some recent photos of how full our drawers and baskets are getting, as well as Nick showing our two latest creations!

A Rose is a Rose...


Warm weather is on its way, and we're celebrating with a card called Summer Rose. It features soft shades of mint green and light pink, rose motifs, and gold accents. You won't get any thorns with these cards ... just a feeling of sunny days and fragrant blooms!

Just for Laughs...


At Artism by Nick, we try to be as green as we can be - we use recycled papers, fabric, old blue jeans, string and other found objects as much as possible. We've even had an entire wedding dress donated for vintage lace! Besides using newsprint for our "What's New?" card, we have just created a fun new card that we call "Just for Laughs"! Nick uses colorful comic strips with images that make you smile and primary color papers, as well as gold or silver accents and string. Send one to someone you like..Just for Laughs!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Meet our New Baby! (Star Baby, That Is)


Among all the super suggestions we've had for unique handmade Artism cards, a request came in for a baby announcement/thank you card. (The inside of all Nick's cards are blank, so they can be whatever you wish! One nice idea is to write your inside information for your invite on your computer, print as many copies as you need, cut to fit and glue inside the card- we use a deckle-edged or scalloped-edge scissors when we do ours, for a custom look).

Our new arrival is called Star Baby, and it is made of soft flannel baby blanket featuring smiling heavenly stars, blue/pink/yellow tissue, silver paint accents, and glitter. (The photo doesn't represent the card's softness and sparkles, and darn it, we need a professional photographer to capture the true beauty of these cards!!) We hope it makes people smile as much as it did us as we made several batches for one of Nick's classroom teachers. Congrats and best wishes to you and the baby, Valerie!

Thursday, March 6, 2008

"Success is not what happens to a man. Success is what a man does with what happens to him."

- Aldous Huxley

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

To Honor Our Heroes


When Cheryl in Mississippi wrote us with her order, she included a very nice personal note in which she made a suggestion. She told us she has many loved ones stationed overseas and that she would love to see a patriotic card for our service men and women. We came up with "To Honor Our Heroes", a card which uses red, white and blue tissue, recycled quilting, and yellow ribbon. We think it has a nice summery feel to it, so the timing is perfect! So many have inspired us along the way, and we thank Cheryl for her request. We are now scheming to do a mass mailing to those who put themselves in harm's way - we think they'd enjoy hearing from Nick! No matter which "side of the aisle" we're on, we can all agree that our men and women in uniform have earned our admiration and respect!