DuPont Country Club Fall Craft Show!

We had a fun time selling Artism at a fall craft show in our area! It was so much fun setting up, chatting with the vendors nearby, and walking around to see all the beautiful crafts for sale. There are so many talented people out there!

As you can see by the photos, Nick was very proud of his wares and he really enjoyed "chatting it up" with our customers by flashing that trademark smile and shaking hands with everyone.

Our next show is November 8, and in the meantime, we are busy filling orders for our customers who will be looking in their mailbox very soon to find the most original and unique Christmas cards they have ever sent!

The Holiday Workshop is Busy!

We have been very busy at Artism by Nick preparing for the holidays. We are creating beautiful greetings with personalized messages. As you can see by the photos, Nick has been prepping materials in anticipation of our workload.

Our customers are able to select their own personal greeting, font style, card stock color, ribbon color, and design scheme (green and red or blue and white). These will make for truly unique and memorable holiday cards! Nick's artist profile and logo will be on the back of each card.

The deadline for ordering your personalized holiday cards is October 1, and you will receive your cards by November 30 for mailing.

If you are interested and did not receive information about this unique offer in the mail, please email us and place your order!

Proud of My Sister Sara

Nick's sister Sara has been inspiring him his whole life. He has looked up to her and even though she didn't always notice it, he was watching her and learning from her all the time. (Because of her tutelage, video games are still one of Nick's favorite pasttimes...and boy, is he good!)

Unlike a lot of kids with autism, Nick loved the hustle-bustle of errands, outings, going to her school functions, and hanging with her friends when they came over. To say the least, there is a void in our house, but never in our hearts, for our Sara.

When she left for New York 3 years ago, I gave her a silver locket with a white feather inside. Engraved on the back was my wish for her - "fly". She certainly did - she is creating a fantastic career for herself in publishing.

She was hired as Assistant Editor for a beautiful startup magazine, Crochet Today (www.crochettoday.com). After 2 years there, she made a very brave and bold move recently to an Assistant Music Editor position at BUST magazine (www.bust.com), along with her ongoing freelance and web magazine work.

We are so proud of Sara! It's hard to have a blog starring Nick without talking a little bit about Sara. She is the apple of her parents' OTHER eye.

So please, right now, go to www.crochet today.com and click on the Editor's Letter - for a warm, wonderful tribute to Sara from Editor-in-Chief Brett Bara.

Our Art Keeps Getting More Fun, More Exciting, and More Beautiful!

Here is another card we made - six of these to go with the 6 black ones previously mentioned, for our customer Betsy who wanted understated cards for condolences.

We were pretty stunned by their beauty once they were painted, cured and trimmed! This is a shot of them on the table before curing or trimming. We REALLY like this border thing - it's simple for Nick to do because he just has to follow the outline of the card. (He still gets to select each piece as he goes!)

Our customer Cheryl made a good point in our comments section...these are NOT just for condolences!! We think people would like these among our selections, so we're going to offer them! Look for a sample to appear on the slide show at the top of the blog, and on the bottom of the blog in the card shop.

We can do them in ANY color scheme for you! What would you like? Purple border on white card stock with brushed gold? Green border on cream card stock with brushed silver? The possibilities are endless! We're waiting for your order!

Our customers have inspired SO many great cards - Betsy, this time, thanks go to you!

Our Sympathy...

We had another request for a card that was initially a challenge but proved to be a beautiful card! A lovely customer, Betsy, wished to have personal, hand-made sympathy cards on hand when the need arose for her to send one. She wanted something with a black border on cream card stock - something quietly stated.

We scratched our heads for a bit, because "border" means straight lines, and we don't do any straight lines! Our collage is done in very irregular lines.

We think our final product is rustic yet very elegant. We used black wallpaper with gold print, brushed gold around that, and added a simple, organic gold leaf.

While we won't be doing these in mass production or adding it to our sample book, we wanted to show you that we can take any request for a special style or color theme!

Thank You, Thank You!

Our first "Thank You" design is here! It was created out of necessity AND inspiration. We needed a cute Thank You card to express our gratitude to those who attended Nick's pool party and gifted him so generously. Our inspiration came from a wonderful art teacher, Katie Goedde (affectionately known as S'ghetti) who gifted Nick with a great array of supplies with which to make cards! There was "bubbly" tissue paper, polka-dot ribbon, and other beautiful colors of tissue. We added some "Thank You" text and turqoise embroidery yarn and voila! Our Thank You card was born! We hope you love sending this card as much as we love making it! Enjoy!