Leaping Ahead to New Adventures

Leap Day is a special day. It only comes once every 4 years. What makes today special for me is that I will be leaping into new and exciting areas. The first is promoting my photography, a passion that I have kept pretty exclusive to my family. And through the encouragement of so many, I am now opening those doors and making it official specializing in on-location, natural lit portrait photography. 

Yes, this will include families, couples, friend sessions, senior portraits, children, adults, pets...you name it! I can’t wait to express my creativity through the lens. My focus will be on capturing real moments, natural emotions that portray the real people behind them. My photography mantra is “capturing images; creating memories”. I will be able to combine my photoshop & design skills to create even more unique portrait, event and vacation memories as well as bring that creativity into fun photo shoots. For a little sampling of just some of that creativity, take a peek at yesterday’s blog post or take a peek at the vintage look given to this portrait of Kylie and James with his State Championship soccer medal.

I am working on putting together a website that will house all of this creativity, for Cheri Wenger Design, Cheri Wenger Digital Designs as well as Cheri Wenger Design Photography. It is a huge endeavor, but I am up for the challenge. Updates on this project will appear on my blog, so check back to see the progress reports. Feel free to contact me at artz1@cfl.rr.com for pricing information or to book a mini session or full photo session.

Change breeds more change, as they say. And with this, I will regretfully be closing up my shop at mygrafico.com to concentrate on these new endeavors. So if you are dying to purchase any of my sets, you can still do that today, or you can contact me directly about how you can purchase those by emailing me at artz1@cfl.rr.com. 

There are so many exciting things happening right now. I will be hosting a blog giveaway for a very exciting product. Keep popping back and visiting my blog for more details on this, and as always, for inspiration on how to live life creatively!

Shop til you drop! The $1 three-day retirement sale at mygrafico.

What could be a bigger and better sale than $1.00 for an entire set 

of digital designs by Cheri Wenger?

For three days, you can get my retiring sets for just a dollar...and these are no crappy designs. We are talking some of my most popular sets are included. I am clearing out some of the oldies but goodies to make room for new, fresh designs so it is 

the perfect time to stack up on digi art & brushes. 

Be sure to spread the word and tell all your friends!

Vist this link, then click on the left hand column tab that says retiring sets to view all of the sets that are just $1. If you don't want to view all the designs, just mine, 

go to the designers pull down menu to select my name. 

It will pull up my shop including all sale and non-sale items. 

Happy Shopping!

Here is a preview of some of the sets that you can snag...

Relatively Speaking

Masculine Verses

Lovey Dovey Brushes

Woooohooo, A 2-Day Sale!

 

A brand new set in the shop plus 40% all of my products give you a big reason to shout WOOOOHOOO!

If you like the art in this banner ad, then you are sure to like several of my recent sets. 

For the digi stamp people, there is What a Hoot.

For card making, invitations, embroidery, scrapbooking, graphic & web design,

check out Owl Love U 4ever.

For printable cards to say I love you, Owlentines is a real favorite!

And for those who are sports enthusiasts or simply have a child who plays a sport, my Feeling Sporty set of versatile graphics is anything but basic. 

High quality dimensional clip art designs which can be used on so many creative items from embroidery to crafting to design...and also 40% off for the next 2 days!

Save today on digital art so you can live your life creatively!

Colors That Will Make Your Digi Garden Smile

Anticipating the latest cool front to move on out so that we can kick start spring time, I designed this set of coral, melon, yellow and brown flowers. You can use these designs individually or in groupings for graphic design, greeting cards, invitations, birth announcements, scrapbooking and crafting. These would make beautiful embroidered designs, too!

The Fresh Florals set is a combination of loose doodles combined with softly textured edges on the solid petal shapes. Coral is a hot color trend and these designs look great on a soft yellow or solid white background for a fresh, contemporary look.

If you still need to send a Valentine card, check out the email version I created using the photo card in my Owlentines Printable card and invitation set. I just personalized by adding photos in Photoshop and our family name.

Clean House = Creativity Interupted

When I saw this post on Facebook about housecleaning, I knew I would have to blog about it at some time or another. You see, housecleaning is one of my least favorite things in life to do. I joke that I am allergic to it, but seriously in some ways I am...well, at least to the cleaning products. The only other things I dislike more are prepping taxes and the length of time it takes to get hair color and highlights! O.K., enough dreariness for the day.

You have to admit there is a certain amount of truth to this statement. Anyone who relies on their computer for work feels at a total loss when things aren't working right. Just the other night my husband booked a hotel which turned out to be a time share with no internet. He woke up at 6:00 to go to a coffee shop just so he could check countless emails that would have taken forever on his phone. For me and the world of creativity, I can get lost in the creative process. I would feel at a real disadvantage not to have use of my scanner or computer. I still have my sketch pad and laptop to fall back on, but the day my house looks like a museum means I have quit being creative.

On the creative front, I have a set of digital Valentines called Owlentines. Yes, I have admittedly become obsessed with Owls. That is my college girl's school mascot and I hadn't designed anything with owls up until now. My 3 latest sets can be found on Mygrafico...What A Hoot, Owl Love U 4ever and my soon to release Owlentines set. Locate my shop under the designers pull down menu > Cheri Wenger :D.

These are my three favorites from that set. One is a photo Valentine that you can use, the other two are single panel printable or emailable cards. Here is a peek at those:

On another creative front, I had the opportunity to do an impromptu photo shoot of our 16 yr. old daughter, Kylie. She looked so adorable in her scarf and the jean jacket she borrowed from her sister's closet. I would say shhh, but she saw the photos on facebook and busted Kylie 6 seconds after I posted. She just doesn't like to share her possessions, LOL! My lifestyle photographs are taken with available lighting. This session had me dodging the sun’s brightness as it crept in and out of the clouds.

Photo Tip for the day: Did you know that the best times for shooting photos are when the sun is low in the sky? That means early morning hours or right before sunset. The warm glow the sun gives photos at these hours is magical. But when the sun is shining bright, tuck around a shaded corner that still has some bright light to get that warmth you are looking for with out the shadows. You can also set your SLR camera's fill flash to a low setting to counter those shadows when shooting in sunlight.

Here are my favorites from that photo shoot using a vintage effect on the photos.

Today, I regret to say that I am doing more housework than I care to be doing, but I will get it out of the way so I can get back to creating, illustrating, photographing, and just plain living life creatively!

The Flight Continues

I really find it interesting knowing the story behind projects. Inspiration comes from many sources: our surroundings, personal experiences, favorite colors, images or designs, and even favorite products. These are but a few of the many things that can inspire a project. This card creation was designed to thank so many people who thoughtfully and generously reached out to our family during the loss of my mother-in-law, Jackie.

Mom’s favorite color was cobalt blue, but she just loved blue in general, so that is what I made it the main color used on this thank you note. I wanted to include some symbolism of her transition from her life here to a life in heaven. I believe this montage of butterflies does just that.

Supplies: (Stampin’ Up!®) Asstd. Blue Cardstock; Sizzlits Beautiful Wings Die; Thanks So Much verse; Finial Press Texture Embossing Plate; (Offray) Blue Satin ribbon; (Glue Arts) Extreme Adhesive Squares and Glue Glider™ Pro with high tac adhesive cartridge.

Butterflies also are a visual symbol for me of the life/death/after life transition since my uncle’s death in 2000. I would often get butterfly visits on my walks and have many other tales of this connection, too. Using a monochromatic color palette (different shades of the same color) creates a very elegant look that you can use in all your card designs. The cascading size of the butterflies adds movement and interest. This also serves to remind us that even though a loved one’s presence fades, the memories remain even though their flight continues.

I wanted to share another butterfly card created by fellow card designer, Diane Bove. She created these 3-D butterflies using a brush from my Stylish Butterflies set combined with patterned background.

Here is a preview of that set art which contains, editable eps, jpeg, png and abr (brush files).

The set contains 3 butterflies: one solid, one with transparent swirls to use over color or patterned backgrounds digitally and one butterfly with white swirls. If you use the photoshop brush file you can change the black to a color or patterned background. I will be creating some tutorials to show you how you can use digital brushes and png art in Photoshop. So check back to my blog for updates!

Let your creativity take flight with using a butterfly on your next card creation.

A Sale that's oh so tweet!

Today I have three tweet things to share with you...the details of my 4 day sale, a new set to reveal and a hybrid birthday card for your crafting inspiration. If you have some craft or design projects to create, now is the time to stock up on some of my digital designs while they are 30% off!

This is also the perfect time to get started making those Valentine’s cards and I have just the set to get you started. It is my latest release called Big Mouth Valentines. This is just the first of a couple Valentine sets that I am working on. Let me know what you think of it!

It retails for $4, but is also on sale in my shop at MyGrafico. You can layer the art over digitally colored and patterned papers for scrapbooking, print the b&w designs out and hand color to create fun cards or valentines. The bird, monkey and lion have hearts in their mouths which can be fun to add flocking, glitter and shine to! I hope to make up some samples soon and post here on my blog.

Here is a hybrid card created using color clip art from my Cuppy Cakes build-your-own set. It is a birthday card I made for my dad. 

 I am also including this photo of the inside of it where I also used clip art to dress it up! This is a perfect set to have for making cards for just about any occasion.

Christmas Clip Art makes Holiday Card Creating a Snap!

For years I have spent endless hours stamping lovely Christmas cards to send our friends and family. Even when I get an early start to the process, it seems that I am lucky to get them in the mail the week before Christmas. My husband always asks why we don't just do like everyone else and get photo cards made and “be done with it,”  but it is hard for him to understand the dreaded workings of a creative mind. Not to mention the thrill of accomplishing something beautiful that you can take ownership of! Well, this year, I may just have found my compromise...designing our own photo card. With two fun,  new Christmas sets of clip art, I have already designed a couple potential cards. And to fill my stamping void, I may save that for making some amazing handcrafted gifts. See what you think of these ideas. I am also including a couple that are non-photo cards.

These are ideas crafted using clip art from my 
Simply Christmas Set!

Here are some samples created from The More the Merrier set:

And some inspiration from my latest set, Mod Trimmings!

(I am working on some hybrid samples, combining digital & traditional 

cardmaking techniques, so be sure to check back for more ideas inspired by this set!)

Hope you have gotten your daily dose of inspiration to get those Christmas projects under way.

Right now, I have 40% off on all my digital designs, from Nov. 16 - midnight on the 19th. Gobble up these sets to make your holiday card creations easier than ever!

Gobble Up the Savings before Thanksgiving!

Yesterday, I shared with you some old and new sets that may spark your creativity for the holidays. Today, I bring good tidings of a pre-Thanksgiving 4-day sale. Yes, everything in my shop at 40% off!!! Time to gobble up lots of digi sets before the sale ends at midnight on the 19th.

You can check out all the creativity at MyGrafico, then locate all the products in my shop by going to the side designers pull down menu and locate Cheri Wenger. You can go through all the sets available in my shop. If you want to be part of my community, click on the mygrafico community link to go to the groups or to get inspiration from the gallery photos. You can join my group to get info on newly released sets and special info.

Want to get cool graphics for FREE to play and create wonderful things? Check out the new Brag Party group just added to the community. If you are interested in being a part of this group, email me to receive a personal invite to the group.

This fall card is an example of how you can make use of a Halloween set, Hallowettes 2, in creative ways long after the holiday has come and gone. Lesson: Don't let a set name limit your creativity or let you pass it by. Look at all the graphics included in a set and challenge yourself to use them for other occasions or purposes. If you check out the gallery for this set you will see that it comes with 4 sheets of various size leaves and 1 sheet of frames for cutting on your personal die cutting machine. For this card, I used the frame cut from grey card stock with leaves cut out from patterned and solid cardstock to make a get well card for a friend.

Wanna know how I made that crinkled leaf on this card? Keep following my blog for a tutorial!

Some of my latest designs

I have been pretty busy creating some new digital sets for my shop at mygrafico. From flourishes to frames, or getting a jumpstart on Christmas, there is something for the creative niche in all of us! Check out the latest design releases & some "oldies but goodies" from Cheri Wenger Digital Designs:

For the frame and flourish lovers...

Get inspired for Christmas...

Need some early Christmas card inspiration? Check out these digital creations made using designs from some of the sets above. Digital cards are great for emailing to friends and the graphics can also be used to dress up your holiday newsletters that some of you send out with annual updates.