Are you planning a little party for May the Fourth? If so, I've got you covered. I have a FREE Star Wars party package printable for your personal use. (Scroll down for printable links.) 

I threw a Star Wars party for my husband's 30th birthday last year and made these prints for it. (Link to the party can be found here.) Everyone had a blast and I feel they would be just as appropriate for May the Fourth! Even if you just use the food cards, people love reading clever food cards.


May the Fourth be with you!

My typographic idea sure doesn't photograph very well on the computer screen, but I figure you can never go wrong with black and white. It matches well with many things and the words on it can only make you feel like a better, confident, modern woman.

I know it's too late to order this in time for Mother's Day, but they are still having their sale where if you buy 2+ items from the collection, you will get $20 off plus a gift box. Use code: LOVEYOUMOM at checkout for promotional sale.

About a month ago I was contacted by VIDA to make a small clothing collection!

What is VIDA, you may ask? Watch their video about them here.

Or a simpler version is VIDA collaborates with artists all around the world to make beautiful clothing patterns using their artwork with simple silhouettes.
What made me immediately want to work with them was their ethical methods for how the clothing gets made. I remember learning about American history with factories and how bad the conditions were. It wasn't until the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire when people started really taking factory conditions into view and giving workers decent conditions and pay. Fire alarms were also a result of this horrific accident, but it came with a cost. As much I wanted to believe we had learned our lesson from this and many other incidents, we have not. Instead we have taken it overseas where people don't have other options for work. Conditions, pay and human respect has gone back in time. If you aren't clear as to what I mean, then watch "The True Cost," which can be seen from Netflix.

That $5 shirt you got from H&M? Human cost.

Those $10 jeans from Old Navy? Human cost.

It's just like that saying we have here in America, Freedom isn't Free, except this could be said in the clothing industry, Clothing isn't Cheap.

I can't keep going on about this without getting riled up. If I could, I would shop at more ethical places, but pretty much every major clothing company uses overseas labor, so it's hard not to support them.
But anyways, what's great about VIDA is they understand how these factories effect these people and how they help them is they give them better working conditions and pay for them to go to school. Most of the adults can't read or write, but understand the importance of it and use every bit of money they have to send their children to school. Now they can gain the knowledge for themselves! This company is changing lives in such a positive way. We need more industries to do the same.


My small collection can be found here. Everything is made-to-order (except the popular collections) to keep the designs custom and rare. They will only produce the product if the product has 3 pre-orders. Then from there, the product takes 4-6 weeks to arrive. Remember, the artwork is sent overseas where the workers use real, quality fabrics and detail is acute, which is why it takes so long.

Here are some examples of my work (the photos above are not my designs):

Craters of the Moon - $85

Sun Flare - $40

By purchasing through VIDA, you can't help but feel good about it.

You're probably thinking this is a picture of my booth during the set up process.

Nope.

This is what it looked like when I was done setting everything up.

The wind was incredibly crazy. I didn't want to risk having my stuff getting blown away, which is why I kept them in boxes. And even the security of the boxes wasn't enough! There were a few times when I had to run out to save my prints! And someone else's table display got knocked down and a tent almost blew away!! Yeah, it was crazy fun.

I will admit that I left early because of the weather and people just weren't interested in buying anything. The festival crew only promoted their stuff, all of the free activities, not any of the artisans. (So, yeah, that was nice of them.) So families were only coming for the free Quidditch, puppies and ropes course, which, I don't blame them! They looked super fun! But it left all of us vendors out in the dust.

Although it stinks that I lost a bunch of money, at least I learned something: I can never ever do outside events. The weather is just too risky. My signage and products in general are just too fragile (I sell paper for pete's sake!). My first event I did, it was really hot. The prints inside my vellum bags were making condensation from the ink! So, my products were almost ruined. Then at this event, because of the extreme wind, I couldn't set up my displays. And I worked hard to make as much use of this space I had. Big plans. Sales. But I won't get into that. It just stunk.

So that's what I learned. I'll keep to indoor events, where the temperature and weather don't matter! What matters is if the event team does their job to advertise and promote the event, which is also something I learned from this event. They did not do their job in helping get the word out. I need to stay leery of event teams such as this. It's incredibly rude to take vendor's money and not do anything in their power to help!

Anyways, just getting the steam off my chest.

If you came, thank you for coming! If you came to see me and I was already gone, I'm incredibly sorry! It was just not worth it for me to sit there for 4 hours with no buyers. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't doing it for the money. Instead, my husband came to bail me out, take my tent down, got pizza, and we spent the evening watching The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. So a much happier ending than getting frozed to death with all of my product being blown away.
I was really proud of the chalkboard sign I made. The wording took a good half hour to master and keep straight.
My stuff all huddled together so it wouldn't blow away.

The making money part still hasn't happened, so I pretty much just forgot about it and just kept my nice little raspberry bowl to myself. It turned out ok with printing it onto the canvas, but it really looks more blue/grey than a white like how I want it to look.

It'll do.
So I don't know how long it's been since I made peace with myself that this idea will probably never happen, maybe 3 years, out of nowhere I finally came up with a solution to bring this print line back to life:

"Draw it. Yourself."

When this idea came to me, it scared me so bad! I am in no way that great of an illustrator! So I pushed it aside, but then it came again, and I was like, "You know what? It doesn't hurt to try. And I could either try and succeed or try and just be where I'm at. I have nothing to lose or all to gain."
I'm debating about making options to buy all 4 in 5x7 sizes (with only one having the "Eat Happy" on it), but I figure if there's a demand, I'll do it. But for now, all are available in my usual 8x10 size, ready for framing. I haven't posted them onto the shop yet because I want them to be exclusively available at the Provo Spring Festival this weekend. But later I'll add them on so they can be purchased at ease online.
And there you have it.

Eat Happy.