Free Christmas Card at Zazzle!

"Keep Calm and Jingle On" is one of our brandnew Christmas Card Designs for 2011 and you have the opportunity to sample it FOR FREE!

Use the promo code VVIAICJMTMUV to get one free holiday card printed with the design above. Limit one per customer.

Go get your free card here

Spread the word!

100% of card net sale price (excluding shipping and taxes) is deducted when qualifying http://www.zazzle.com/137846641868172640 greeting card is purchased from http://www.zazzle.com/cfkaatje and the coupon code VVIAICJMTMUV is applied at checkout. Offer does not apply to create your own cards. Offer does not apply to card orders of two or more. Buyer is responsible for shipping and handling and sales tax charges. Failure to comply with promotional offer conditions may result in order cancellation. Offer is valid through November 24, 2011 at 11:59pm PT. Offer does not apply to past purchases and may not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or volume discount offers. If a volume discount applies to your order, you will receive either the discount set forth in this offer or the standard volume discount, whichever is greater. Offer valid on Zazzle.com only.

Cancer Sucks

In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month I thought I'd share my story on how cancer has affected my family. You can read all about it on the GCU Community Blog


  

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Only a few days to go before October and during the month we will be showcasing lots of our cards for cancer patients. You can see some of our collection in this video:

As you may (or may not) know, Nene and I have been designing cards for this special cause for a number of years. It is something we feel very close to as I lost both my parents and my brother to cancer.

Stay tuned for more!

I'm a Featured Artist!

The very talented photographer (and fellow GCU artist) Doreen Erhardt of St. George Salon of Art, LLC interviewed me in her bi-monthly newsletter. It turned out great! Go have a look :-)

Doreen's Newsletter 'My Point of View' is very informative and well made. She gives photo tips and tricks, showcases new GCU talent, does interviews and much more. If you haven't signed up for it yet, I suggest you do it here.

Thanks Doreen!

Flying Piggies

My flying piggy stickers got featured on the Creative Artist blog today. 
Next to stickers we have a lot more to show you, in fact we created a whole piggie world over at our Corrieweb Zazzle store!

I love to paint pigs as well. Here's one I did back in 2006, with the Dutch title "Op stelten" (= on stilts).

This one was part of a series on paper that featured in a book called "Het Stapelschaap en andere dierengedichten" (stacking sheep and other animal poetry). The book combines 29 paintings with original poetry written by Dutch authors. The project was a lot of fun to do, it took me about 3 months of solid paiting to get the collection done. 

The book launched at the opening of my galerie show which showcased the original paintings.

Piggies on paper (Greeting Cards) at Greeting Card Universe:

   

Lightning Round - Kitties

Furry Friends
“Animals are such agreeable friends...”
Painted Cottage, Judith Cheng

Cats Are Angels Among Us
“Let’s face it, cat lovers are passionate about their cats…”
Rycky Creations, Robin Chaffin

Jack and Lillie: The Story of Two Rescues
“Jack and Lillie are cats...”
DB Visual Arts, Denise Beverly

Friends with Fur
“I wish I could say I have kitties and cats running all over the place...”
Janet Lee Designs, Janet Palaggi

An Ode to Kitties
“I love cats...”
Diana’s Cards, Diana Delosh

For All Us Cat Lovers
“A life without cats?!? A love story...”
Aura2000, Aura 2000

Everyday Art: Inspirational Kitties and Cats
“The key to finding inspiration in everyday places and things is observing…”
Sun at Night Studios, Sun at Night

Feline Friends
“Cats can be great companions...”
Sunshine’s Creative Explorations, Donna Lorello

Feline Fever
“I fell in love with cats almost twenty years ago...”
It’s a Beautiful World, Catherine Sherman

The Kitty and the Mashed Potatoes
“Sulu was a rescued feral kitten...”
Kilter Cards, A Ley

Luna, a New Family Member
“My daughter and her boyfriend just got a sweet little kitten a couple days ago...”
I Love Cuttables, Cindy Johns

Cats in Love
“Could it be that cats in love express more with their body language than we can imagine?”
Naquiaya’s Cards, Naquaiya

Meow, Meow, Meow
“Being the owner (did I say that?) of five cats…”
Cherie’s Arts ‘N Crafts, Cherie

When the Cat’s Away
“Cats, can anyone truly resist them?”
Salon of Art, Doreen Erhardt

Our Beautiful Gypsy Kitty
“One day probably 20 years ago a gorgeous seven toed calico cat just showed up literally on our doorstep…”
Dragonfire Graphics, Betsy Bush

Here, Kitty! Kitty! Kitty
“DogBreedz isn’t only about Man’s Best Friend…”
DogBreedz, Peggy Mundell

My Rescue Cat Speckles: A Love Story
“On one blazing hot summer night in 2006 in Plano, Texas, a cat wandered outside next to the large patio of my apartment…”
This and That, Rick McBride

CorrieWeb is the Cat’s Meow
“I love kitties!”
CorrieWeb, Corrie Kuipers

I Was Always a Dog Person
“Kitties were an acquired taste for me...”
Cottage Creek Greetings, John H. Johnson

My Cat Loves Birthday Candles
“I live with a cat who is fascinated by fire…”
Blessing Art Cards, Sharon Fernleaf

New ‘Kit’ On the Block
“Introducing Abby, our newest critter kid!”
Cards from the Heart, Lisa Charlton

Corrieweb is the Cat's Meow!

I love kitties!

I didn't have kitties untill Nene moved in with me. She was a real cat person whereas I only had dogs before. Not having kitties in my life didn't stop me from painting them, though. They're an irresistable subject.

In 2004 Miss Minny walked into our lives. Having a dog, birds and two guiniea pigs we weren't ready for a cat, but the universe decided we needed one, and that was that.

Miss Minny was very special and we loved her to pieces. So did Mo, our Cairn terrier. They died within a month of each other in 2007 (Mo of old age and Minny after a car accident) . That was a very rough time for Nene and me.

Zelda Mae came shortly thereafter. I found her on the internet, saw her picture and was sold!

We raised her well and now she is the scurge of the neighborhood. She loves to hang out with her best friend and neighbor kitty Baby Grizz.

Kitties inspire me a lot. They feature heavily in my work. So much so, that I filled a video with some of my favorite kitty designs.




Here are some other GCU artists inspired by their love for cats:


 

Loonies on the Yukon

As you are reading this there is a monster race happening in Alaska, called the Yukon River Quest.

The 740-kilometer (460 mile) wilderness adventure paddling race is held on the Yukon river from Whitehorse to Dawson City in Canada's Yukon Territory. Held during the last week of June, the YRQ is known as the "Race to the Midnight Sun". Paddlers race round-the-clock, as the sky never gets dark. It is a true marathon with just two mandatory rest stops of 10 hours over the course of the entire event.




There are 71 teams from 10 countries (Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, Japan, Latvia, Sweden and the USA) participating in tandem canoe, tandem kayak, solos and voyageur canoes.

One of these teams is an all female group from the USA called Loonies Les Femmes. This 8 women Alaskan/Texas blend is racing in a voyageur canoe. One of the team members is Nene's aunt Chris, a very enthausiastic first timer.



We are rooting for the fierce Loonies and hope they will finish in one piece and on time!
Aunt Christ is crazy about Alaska and Moose in particular, so I thought it very fitting to design a paddling moose in a YRQ canoe for the team.

Featured - 2 Giraffes

Our 2 giraffes stickers are featured on the Creative Artists Blog today. Thanks Emily :-)

Behemoth

This morning I finally trimmed the Corrieweb site.

Most of it had become very old hat (we added no new content since 2009 and that on itself looks very unprofessional!).
I know from experience that if I have to jump throught too many hoops (building a page in Dreamweaver, ftp it to the server etc.) I just won't keep up with it. A blog works better and faster.

I can't say goodbye to Corrieweb though, it has been with me since 1997 and a lot of people know the site. So it will stay up, but mainly as a portal to the rest of our projects.

So stay tuned to this blog (the one and only) to find out what I'm working on. I promise to be a good girl and post more regularly (yeah, you've hear that before). It will help now the behemoth is off my back.

Passover Greeting Cards

April 19th is Passover - one of the biggest of the Jewish holy days.

We've added some new cards to the Pesach collection at our GreetingCard Universe store.

Tree of Life


Inside text: Shalom!

Or this card with traditional Passover elements (matzo, wine and bitter herbs):

Shalom at Passover


inside text:
May you have many reasons
to rejoice this Pesach
and all the days that follow

To see our whole Passover range, please visit our GCU store.