It was a great opening weekend. Lots of amazing window displays up in Beacon, NY. I’ll have to take another stroll down main street because it got dark before I could see all of them.
Here’s a close up of my stamp designs. My favorite one is the fireflies. There are so many fireflies in Beacon! Planning on turning some of these designs into cards or prints. Which one is your favorite?
Did you see the hidden message in the train stamp?
I just designed and put up my first window display! It’s kind of a mobile of stamps and envelopes with designs that celebrate the Beacon Centennial – the theme of Windows On Main this year.
Opening party is tomorrow (Saturday the 10th) and hopefully I can get some nice close up shots of my stamps to share with you.
the details:
Windows on Main Aug 10-Sept 14, 2013
My window is at Lorraine Tyne on Main Street, Beacon, NY & My husband’s window is at Beacon Natural Market
Opening party • Aug 10 • 6-9pm – free wine and food, lots of art – see you there!
Quick note: Lorraine Tyne has lots of great jewelry and the owners are all super super nice. Great place to stop in! Might have to get this when I visit my window!
My amazingly supportive friends have a lot of cynla art decorating their baby’s room! It looks beautiful the way they chose to display everything. They have each of my Starry and Cloudy cards in frames mounted on found plexiglass – such a good idea!
They also framed my Once Upon a Time and Land of Make Believe Storybook Prints I gave them as a baby gift. I really love how these look in the white frames.
This room gets nice light and there’s always soft music or a white noise machine playing.. I could (did) fall asleep in here it’s so cozy and soothing.
This last pic is not where they keep the print, but I couldn’t resist putting it next to this squishy bunny.
And here’s a quick pic of Ruby herself! ADORABLE little girl. I feel like the art you have on the walls in a child’s room is very memorable to them as they grow up – it was to me anyways. I hope she likes these dreamy animals and storybook prints!
Thank you to Leah & Brian for letting me share these photos!
Doesn’t iced coffee just get your attention? It’s very effective with me!
Anyways, I’m designing a window display! I’m participating in the annual Windows on Main exhibit along main street in Beacon, NY. This year’s theme is the Past, Present and Future of Beacon – relating to its 100th Anniversary. Not revealing my project yet, but it’s related to greeting cards!
There will be an Opening Party at Dream in Plastic, 177 Main Street, on Saturday, August 10, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. The exhibits will be up for a month. My display will be up at Lorraine Tyne.
More details here: www.beaconwindows.org
Images from the Windows on Main facebook page.
I sat down to write a quick post and realized this is my 100th post! A cause for celebrating..
Some successes I’m celebrating:
— I quit my full-time job to pursue my dream career as a designer– I recently hit 100 sales in my etsy store
— I did my first tradeshow with 144 cards and 17 prints in a catalog I poured my all into
— Started selling wholesale and my cards are on shelves in stores!
— And I’m having a moving sale — use code: MovingOnUpSale at cynla.etsy.com until Monday!
I’m so happy that people enjoy and like my work. It’s really rewarding to hear about people receiving my cards and loving them, and when people are so supportive. I’m really grateful to be able to pursue my greeting card business and really appreciate every card sale! Thank you for supporting me. It means the world to me to chase this dream of mine and live the kind of life that makes me happy. This is what I’m celebrating today and hope to celebrate everyday.
This 100 number keeps coming up.. I’ve been thinking of doing 100 designs of something. I’m narrowing down my picks and hopefully will be able to start that project soon. There are those websites like makesomething365 but we’ll see if I can commit to 100 first! 
I found this old mailbox in an antique store. Not even sure if it’s that old, but I love it. Haven’t decided what to do with it yet except take its picture. Maybe I can hang it up in my new office when I move? There are a lot of cute antique mailboxes out there.. I especially love the french ones that say “Lettres.”
I started collecting pretty stamps. That’s a cheap thing to collect, right? Cheaper than vintage mailboxes… But it’s even cheaper to collect them on a pinterest board – which is getting addicting!
I have a stamp project in the works too. More details soon! Happy Summer!
We’re moving! again.. Only a short trip across town. However, I’m staring at all of this great inventory I have.. I finally have become organized and stocked full of cards.. and I would prefer if all of these boxes were just a little lighter. So..
I’m having a sale! Help me move.
I’d appreciate your help with my move. Buy some cards, lighten the load and get that cynla card you’ve been eyeing. Here’s your chance to get 15% off! Use code: MovingOnUpSale until July 29th.
Bonus card: If you favorite my shop on etsy AND like my facebook page, I’ll throw in an extra card with your order (let me know in the notes of your order that you follow me on etsy and fb, and either specify what card you want from my shop or I’ll pick a surprise one).
Oh hi. I love how this one came out actually.. but I can’t seem to capture the white on yellow in a photo (although it’s really pretty in print!). I drew these flourishes on a pier over the ocean in Panama.. sigh… Don’t these flourishes look happy? I hope to carry that relaxed, carefree-flourish feeling with me all of the time.
Our 2nd wedding anniversary just passed (has it been 2 weeks already?). We went to Cold Spring, to the gazebo where we got married, visited the antique shops there and ate lunch at this great panini place. I made this lettering for Rob last year and this year it made it onto a card. Our wedding album is still in the works.. hoping to get that designed and printed before year 3 : )
FYI if you’re doing a photo shoot with mint, it wilts really fast! At least I could still stick it in my iced tea after.
Here’s my happy birthday jam card.
We got my mother-in-law a cherry pie themed birthday present: Cherry pitter, mini pie baking pans complete with crust cutter, and a bag of cherries (to come). Maybe when I have some cherry pie, I’ll make a pie card. Til then, some jam would go nice with this birthday card. I love cards that go perfectly with gifts! Which is making me think about my next card line.. hmm…
It’s been an emotional weekend for me and it has been hard to focus on anything design or work-related today with everything going on in my life. I’m looking for some energy to focus, and some motivation to create happy things.
Focus 8×10 print. I’m adding it to my wall right now.
I made this for a friend who’s wedding I went to in May. They both said this in their vows and they are definitely both young at heart. I hope they never grow up and never get old!
I’m finding some time to relax this weekend. Maybe some cherry picking?
I did a Storybook Print photo shoot with the actual book I used for the background of these illustrations. The book is signed a “Present from your mother” to Henry Hirst in 1884. Maybe someone will have my prints in 2084 and say, “Wow, this was a gift in 2013!”
Did I mention these make great wedding and new baby gifts?
Storybook cards and prints now in my shop.
Happy weekend!
Yay! I hit 100 sales on etsy! I can’t believe it. It’ll be all gorgeously uphill from here.
Or smooth sailing after this.. or insert your own metaphor.
Also, I’m almost 2 years in business!
AND my 2nd year wedding anniversary is today (Tuesday)!
Lots of reasons to celebrate.
That and I’m going for a new blog look and goals. More sketching, more lettering, more designing and more getting stuff done. What do you think?
I’ve decided to bring you less talk, more drawing! Here’s to a drawing-filled summer! Now if it will only stop raining so I can go outside and draw..
Just wanted to share the stamps I’ve designed for my mailings.
Please Do Not Bend Elephant is the newest one. Not to mention any names, but I would see people at the post office(s) bending my envelopes to see if they were bendable. The cards I mail out are technically “bendable,” but I would rather not have people test this out on the products I am mailing, right? I decided to take some measures and designed this stamp. An elephant was the sturdiest, unbendable animal I could think of.
And here’s an example of how I package my etsy orders. Packaged with care. I try to include two business cards — share one with a friend! — and for a limited time, orders will include a Bunny Haven pattern bookmark! There is space on the back to write notes – you know, to write down those tough words that you need to look up later. [Do people still do that now that smart phones are so available? I’m going to start again, now that I have a huge supply of bookmarks handy].
I’m back from the National Stationery Show – physically and mentally (I think). It was a whirlwind of meeting new people, taking in all the excitement, being inspired by all the artists, and paper, paper, paper!
Since then, I’ve been busy scoring and folding cards for orders (see image above from my studio), following up with stores, mailing catalogs, and settling back into a work schedule with designing and nannying for two wonderful babies.
To tell you the truth, about two months before the show, I didn’t have time to do any drawing! My days were FILLED with preparing for the show — marketing materials, booth design, getting all of my product ready, logistics of electricity and getting my boxes into the Javitz center… I don’t know how anyone does this by themselves. My husband was such a huge help. And it also held him up from doing his own painting.. we’re very excited to get back into designing!
In case you missed these new cards in the shop:
A Bunny Card card – part of a developing series of playing card greeting cards.
You Mean the World to Me – literally, because they’re worlds.
Once Upon a Time – becoming a best-seller!
Just wanted to post a couple quick photos from my booth on my way to Day 3 at the National Stationery Show. Here is our popular Happily Ever After Storybook card.
And here is a quick snapshot of our booth! It has been my dream to exhibit at the NSS and get the Cynla name out there. I’ve been getting a lot of great feedback and networking with people in the industry I’ve admired for so long. Here’s to another great day at the show!
Will post more details after, including the complete new line we are offering that should be hitting some store shelves soon!
Remember the Cat Card Card? Well, now he has a friend… a bunny playing card greeting card! This one is a 4 of clubs because the bunny is looking for 4-leaf clovers always in his garden of carrots.
I think they go well together. I’m planning on doing more (the 52 cards sounds a little ambitious), but after the National Stationery Show, I’ll decide if I can release one a month or one a year.
Hope you like it!
Also, between all the non-stop working and trying to live up to my cynla motto and not stressing, I just wanted to add that a lot of good things have been happening!
1. My newest of the new Cloudy Dog card (releasing at NSS) was featured in Stationery Trends! It’s not online, but if you have an issue, I’m on page 84 right at the top! Very exciting!
2. My awesome card boxes came in. (another pic below)
3. The walls of my booth have been built by my awesome husband! No pic yet, but I’ll be sure to post a lot of pictures of the finished booth at the show. He’s been so awesome doing a lot of the business side of Cynla, building and painting walls, shelves and furniture and putting up with the non-stop talking about cards and the tradeshow. It’s really all I’ve been thinking/talking about for weeks/months and hopefully all of the work will show.
Would also like to mention my mother-in-law Carole! She took me “booth shopping” which means you can’t look at anything else besides potential booth furniture, table, stools, baskets, pencil cups – we got it all. I even got a tradeshow outfit and comfy shoes! Ok, it wasn’t all furniture, but she kept me on task and it was a lot of hard decision-making. It’s all coming together!
about me
Hi! Thanks for visiting. Drawing and creating has become a way for me to de-stress. I'd like to do it more often. This is a space for me to share my art and inspiration, my card designs, and to remind myself to stress less.
My card business and moving outside of NYC [gasp] is a new adventure in my life and I'm happy to be able to share it with you. Feel free to drop me an email cindy [ at ] cynla.com, leave a comment or two, or visit my website (www.cynla.com) and shop (cynla.etsy.com).
Happy de-stressing!
~ Cindy
