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AmberLynnBenton_BlogHeader_SardinesThePaleoSuperfood-01.jpg

Sardines Tea Towel Available for Purchase!

Amber Lynn Benton December 15, 2017
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I'm very excited to finally announce that you can buy my Sardines the Paleo Superfood Design as a tea towel! I'm working on a better product shot as the lighting in this kitchen made accurate colors difficult. The actual colors are as they appear in the artwork and on the Spoonflower and Roostery mockups. The background of the towel is a very light sky blue.

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This is the image from my very happy mail day! I'm doing some color adjustments for the fabric samples but the tea towel colors came out perfectly. I'll post about the fabric and the different colorways that will be available as soon as I get those color correction done.  

 Sew Your Own By Ordering from SpoonFlower.

Sew Your Own By Ordering from SpoonFlower.

The tea towel design perfectly fits a fat quarter of the linen cotton canvas - which is how you should order it from Spoonflower if you want to sew your own. If you purchase this particular design on any other weight of fabric the design layout will be off because the fabrics are different widths.  I really like the weight of this linen cotton fabric. It has a very good hand for table linens.

I'm putting together a tutorial post to walk you through sewing your towel, but until then here are two very helpful tutorials:

Mitered Napkins Two Ways by Nicole at Home

Classic Mitered Corner Napkins by Purl Soho

 Order one already made from Roostery.

Order one already made from Roostery.

You can also purchase the tea towel already finished from one of Spoonflower's sister company Roostery. Just click on the picture above to go directly to the product!

Read the original post for the artwork which was created for They Draw and Cook.

 

← Spaghetti Western Design on SpoonflowerMotherhood in an Art Museum →
100Patterns
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29/100 #100daysofipaddoodling for the #100dayproject.
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This little polka dot has all of the colors in the color palette that I'm playing around with.
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I'd live a pair of tights or two sticks with this pattern. I think they'd look great with my yellow shoes don't you?
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#100daysofipadart #artistrun #artparty #handdrawnpattern #polkadot #childrensdesign #artlicensing #printandpattern #adobedraw #ipadartist #itsamber #illustratorincharlotte #charlotteartist
28/100 #100daysofipaddoodling for the #100dayproject.
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I'm playing around with a new color palette for the next few doodles or so. And what goes better with daisies than lady bugs?
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TAGS: #ladybug🐞 #ladybugpattern #childrensdesign #artlicensing #printandpattern #adobedraw #ipadartist #itsamber #illustratorincharlotte  #charlotteartist
27/100 #100daysofipaddoodling for the #100dayproject .
Sneaking in this evening with a simple daisy doodle.
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TAGS: #floralpattern #artlicensing #printandpattern #childrensdesign #109daysofipadart #ipadartist #adobedraw #itsamber #illustratorincharlotte #charlotteartist
26/100 #100daysofipaddoodling for the #100dayprojectwithalieve⠀
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I hope you enjoy this little moth pattern doodle. I think I like moths at least as much as I like butterflies. I tried to pick colors that were warm and reflective of those hours just before dusk.⠀
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I think this little doodle has a good shot of being turned into a real pattern sometime soon. I could see it as a twirly skirt for a little girl with a larger moth printed on a coordinating t-shirt.⠀
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What would you like to see this pattern on?⠀
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TAGS: #mothillustration #mothpattern #childrensdesign #wingsandthings #artlicensing #printandpattern #100daysofipadart #ipadartist #itsamber #illustratorincharlotte #charlotteartist
25/100 #100daysofipaddoodling for the #100dayproject
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I love that this project has allowed me to play with pattern without getting caught up by the technical aspects of pattern creation. It is also allowing me to be freer in my color explorations.
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I’m really itching to move into my new studio so I can begin some new explorations and have walls to hang stuff on. I have to finish the new homeschool room remodel and move us back in and then it’s my turn!
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TAGS: #ipadflorals #artlicensing #draweveryday #iamacreativemom #homeschoolmom #itsamber #illustratorincharlotte #charlotteartist
It’s April and the beginning of a new #100dayproject. This year I’ll be trying to finish my project from last year! 😂
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Last year I began #100daysofipaddoodling and made it to 23 days. So that makes this doodle number 24/100.
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As you can see I’m still having a love affair with hot pink. And lemons...lemons must be the new avocado - they’re everywhere right now aren’t they?
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TAGS: #pinklemonade #lemonillustration #artlicensing #printandpattern #100daysofipadart #ipadartist #itsamber #illustratorincharlotte #charlotteartist
I flew back into Charlotte this afternoon and as I write am on a four plus hour drive to get the boys. .
I'm still processing so much from this trip. If you saw my stories earlier this week you know that I discovered the artist Walter Anderson while visiting Ocean Springs, Mississippi.
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My life is not the same. I'm currently reading his biography and will be spending many hours studying not only his art but also his philosophy and practice of design.
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What artist has completely random the way you see the world?
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TAGS: #walteranderson #walterandersonmuseum #oceanspringsmississippi #studentoftheworld #digitalnomad #surfacedesigner #illustratorlife #rainbowmural #rainbowart #abmlivecolorfully #whatinspiresyou #whatinspiresme
Some sights from my afternoon in the Garden District with @mrsdrcc. New Orleans is definitely full of color and texture and layer upon layer of things to see. We only had a short afternoon before we needed to head into Hattiesburg we decided to focus on good food and branch out from there.⠀
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We found ourselves lunch at the Rum House on Magazine Street and it was the perfect. Then we went for a stroll up and down Magazine Street before heading into Mississippi.⠀
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1) I took several iconic street shots down Magazine Street to show the boys. Lots of brightly colored two story buildings - shops below with I'm assuming sometimes apartments above. Balconies over the street, electric cables strung everywhere, trees draped with Mardi Gras beads, etc.⠀
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2) Many of the houses and duplexes in the side streets off Magazine Street are brightly painted with beautiful tiny gardens out front.⠀
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3) Mardi Gras was not long ago and there are still lots of bright and shiny beads draped everywhere.⠀
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4) This is one of my favorite sightings of the day - the "Throw Cabbage Here" sign from the St. Patrick's day parade.⠀
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5) We took a couple of selfies - it was a lot of fun to hang out and I think we were smiling all afternoon. It's been well over a year since we've seen each other! Plus I just loved this jazz mural.⠀
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6) This little house had beads hanging all up and down their front fence. Some of them looked like they had been hanging for a long time. I liked it so much more than the bright purple and greens.⠀
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7) Even though it has been 13 years since Hurricane Katrina there is still lots of evidence of the aftermath of that storm if you drive around a bit. Andrea showed me some of the spray paint codes on some abandoned houses used to mark rescues and deaths. Having driven through some of the poorer sections of the city with lots of things literally gone to seed the bright and shiny superdome was quite the contrast.⠀
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#digitalnomad #designlife #illustratorlife #thisismylife #creativehappylife  #mycreativebiz #theinstagramlab #findyourpassion #somanymemories #travelforlife #bestlife #friendshipgoals #travelinggram #nolalove #neworleansstyle  #gardendistrict #m
#MarchMeetTheMaker Day 11 |Branding
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At Surtex two years ago I listened to a talk about what you should name your business - should you use your name or not? I came away from that discussion with a decision not to use my legal name but to create a 'brand name'.⠀
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When I left messages or texted clients I noticed I always say, "It's Amber!" So when I purchased my domain and first set up my website I used that phrase as my email address. ⠀
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When I sat down to design my logo I wrote out my email address and looked at the @ symbol. I thought that would be interesting to play around with.⠀
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I had just recently completed the watercolor self portrait of my name with all six of my boys playing on the letters (you can take a look at it on my website.) I based that illustration off of the American Typewriter font which I love. So I designed my logo mark to be an @ symbol but with a capital A. Then to complete the logo I continued with the circle theme and included that phrase "It's Amber" and my website.⠀
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It wasn't entirely intentional but my logo is my email address! (Without the apostrophe of course.) And the phrase "It's Amber" has by default become the name of my brand. I have stuck with the sepia brown color from the very beginning because it is the same color as the ink that I like to use in my watercolors. But beyond that I wasn't sure where to go with any further branding. ⠀
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Last year I began to use this bright golden yellow - it's such a happy color and I try to make my illustration and surface design work bright and cheerful. I want to make people smile. I will occasionally add flowers or seasonal bits to my logo (like for Advent) but I have never really felt settled on anything permanent.⠀
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But this year this little butterfly (which is an icon from a collection I'm working on) flew into my work and has just sort of stuck around. And from it I've really been drawing a couple of new colors into my brand. I'm not sure but I think this little winged creaturbe is going to be hanging around for a while.⠀
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TAGS: #itsamber #llustratorincharlotte #illustratorforhire #logodesign #brandcolors  #mybrandstory #brandingidentity #creativebranding
#MarchMeetTheMaker Day 10 | Time To Relax
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This is me for the next few hours. The van is quiet because all the boys are with their grandparents for the week as I prepare for next week's travels.
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We stopped at Starbucks on the way out and I treated myself to a mocha frappuccino. I think this is my fifth one of these ever - they are very sweet!
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I'm working on some mindless doodles that I hope to turn into swatches in Adobe Illustrator. Have you watched @esilverdesign newest Skillshare class? She has me dreaming of an AI Library full of my own textures and brushes.
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It's really nice to just doodle with no plan in mind.
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TAGS: #homeschoolmama #quiettime #timetorelax #travelinggram #doodleoftheday #doodlesofinstagram #skillshare #zendoodles #illustratorlife #illustratorincharlotte
#MarchMeetTheMaker Day 09: How It's Made (I'm behind...)⠀
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All this week I'm traveling and attempting to be a digital nomad.⠀
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I am sharing my method for creating hand drawn geometric repeats. It's a bit of a mashup of techniques learned from both @smcnabstudio and @goinghometoroost. I recommend both of their classes. If you join Bonnie Christine's #roostribe she has a great video tutorial demonstrating this technique.⠀
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Per Shannon's method when I am drawing motifs for a pattern I now take a few extra minutes to draw as many doodles as I can that sort of coordinate with my pattern idea. It is very easy then to turn these doodles into coordinating patterns. Shannon goes over this in more detail in her class.⠀
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1) The 'Final' repeat -- it's late and I'll probably tweak a couple of bits and bobs later...⠀
2) Almost all of my patterns begin as a very rough sketch in my sketchbook and then get redrawn on my iPad. This one in particular was drawn in ProCreate and then image traced in AI. I also picked out a color palette based on other motifs in this collection.⠀
3) In AI I just begin adding some color to the shapes and playing around tiling them. I didn't like the regularity of the first try so in the second one I flipped the scales. But the color here is boring.⠀
4) I found some lovely colors and began again. This was beginning to go somewhere but it needed a bit of a pop.⠀
5) That's more like it! Let's build it!⠀
6) Start by finding the natural repeat and drawing a rectangle with all four corners close to touching the same point. It won't be exact.⠀
7) Delete all extra scales except those necessary to build the repeat. Check the size of the rectangle and adjust it to nice round numbers.⠀
8) Build the repeat as you would any normal pattern. I had to fiddle a bit with the size of the rectangle and bump a few scales around to get an exact repeat.⠀
9) At some point in the process you will inevitably bump a wrong key and make a 'mistake' that looks much nicer than what you intended!⠀
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#digitalnomad #surfacedesignstrategies #coordinatepatterns #geometricpatterndesign #artlicensing #availableforlicensing #surfacepatternprint #printandpattern #itsamber #il
The winds of change seem to be blowing a lot lately. Have you felt them?
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Lots of new changes and growth in my art and business, changes in our home and school as the boys continue to grow way too fast. Everyone is in school this year - no more toddlers or pre-schoolers!! .
We are continuing to work on our land in the mountains - serious conversations about building a small structure. And I've gotten a lot more serious about this illustration and design business.
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All of these things have had me thinking about this space. I have felt like I've been straddling a line between personal and business here. I want to post more pictures of school and the boys and be able to connect with my close friends here in Instagram. (What I really want is to order @chatbooks !! 😇) .
But I don't want to share so much personal info in such a wide open public forum. If your new here, thanks so much for your presence and attention. You all keep me motivated and engaged to dig in and  work hard. I'm glad you're here! Honestly, the changes in making won't affect my feed or your experience here at all.
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I'm doing what many of you do already - using a private personal account. I'm using my original @amberwbenton which was my original IG account.
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So, if you are a close friend and want to see more pics of family life please follow that account. Of course I'd love to have you continue to follow this illustration journey that I'm on, too! You may also notice that I unfollow some of you with this account and then follow you with that private account. That will allow me to better manage my time and attention. Thanks for your patience as I work it all out! 💕🦋
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TAGS: #dandelionlove #aquaandpink #windsofchange #homeschoolmom #procreation #illustratorlife #iamacreativemom #itsamber #illustratorincharlotte #charlotteartist
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Old School Blog Roll

Fernwood
Missy Kemp
Ebenezer Storyteller
Posie Get's Cozy
Geninne's Art Blog
Turkey Feathers
Attic 24
SouleMama

© Amber Lynn Benton 2018