Reader’s Choice Buttons

You may remember that back on my first post about my Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration I asked for you, my blog readers, to suggest button ideas that I would select from and make sometime during my celebration. Well, the time has come, and here they are—see all six above, and now I will tell you who suggested them.

Era loves teapots and figs, so I made these two at her suggestion:

Margarita from Chocolate Creative suggested this thoughtful and self-empowering line:

Jaja is enamored of airplanes:

and last, but not least, Stacey from Pill’s Place got me chuckling with these suggestions:

These were really fun to make, and I want to make this process even more fun and celebratory by saying a big thank you to the above readers by sending these buttons to them for free. Originally, I was going to put them up for sale, but I decided it would just be more fun to give them away. If you are one of the above readers, I will be contacting you for your address. Thanks again for being a part of Blue Bicicletta! Only three more office-working days for me between now and September 15, my quitting day! Yoohoo!

Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration: week 6

I did it! I have finally reached lucky button # 100 in my Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration! It’s pretty cool to see them all together. This set, and all of the others are available in this special section of my Etsy shop. I will still be doing one small set of reader’s choice buttons (based on suggestions from you, the readers) to post next Thursday.

For now, here are the final 20:

While it did get harder as I went along, I was continuing to get more ideas even as I was drawing these last buttons. So, I think I have proved, at least to myself, one of the purposes of this project: art is infinite. There is really no limit to ideas. Also, the more you draw, the more ideas you get. It’s true! Always, always, once I put pen to paper, I could come up with something. The creative brain is an amazing tool!

Also, I thought you would appreciate this—here’s a look into how my brain works—one of my button idea pages:

I should say this is a fairly accurate representation of how my brain works—it is a bit of a mess in there. There are many random thoughts mixed in with creative thoughts, lists, etc. In general, it is a sprawl. This is also evidence of my inability to spell the word eavesdrop (I’ve got it now). You will probably recognize a lot of what’s on this page, as I ended up making most of these, but a few didn’t ever happen—which means there’s room for so much more! Although I’ll be happy to take a break from buttons, at least for a little while!

One last thing: Just wanted to mention that picture number 4 above (the one with the Vrooom Button) is based on sounds of things—can you guess what they are? You can find the answers in the button titles in my Etsy listing for week 6 buttons in my button celebration Etsy section.

Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration: week 5

I’m rounding the corner on my Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration. With 80 original hand-drawn buttons in the bag, I’m beginning to be able to see the finish line somewhere in the distance.

For any of you who submitted reader’s choice button ideas on the first post and others, I’m planning to do a group during the last week of my celebration (about two weeks from now), so stay tuned.

Some things about this week’s set:
-I got into a leaf theme, and as I am often inclined to do, I created a little mini-series of buttons with that theme.
-I tried out some black buttons, which was a fun twist.
-If you recently saw my girasole post (the one with the sunflower), you might check out the last button from this week. It’s a spiral inspired by the pattern in the center of a sunflower.

Yay for buttons! You can see all 80 so far in this flickr group. And without further ado, this week’s buttons:

Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration: week 4

I’m in week 4 of my Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration!

I have to admit, it is getting a little harder to come up with ideas, but I made it through 16 more buttons! One of my graphic design teachers always said that you have to come up with ideas until you have none left, and then come up with some more. The ones you come up with after you’ve completely wracked your brain really push you to complete creativity, and those are often the best ones.

Well, let’s hope that’s what happens with this—maybe button #100 will be an entirely perfect button—the most perfect button—maybe it should just be blank white? Nah, I’m not one of those types of artists who tries to make statements like that—I mean, I love to draw. Actually, if I saw someone with a blank white button, I would giggle, because it would be geeky, artist-like, awesome, but now that I’ve written the idea, I can’t do it. I may just have to make one for myself.

Anyway, here are this week’s buttons. Remember, you can see all of the buttons so far in the Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration Section of my Etsy shop or in this flickr page section.

Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration: week 3

I’ve made it to week three of my Quit Your Day Job button Celebration, and I’m almost half-way done, with 48 original hand-drawn buttons in the bag! If you’re new to this blog and wondering what in the world I’m talking about, read this post. Here’s a view of my button celebration on the road at a craft show last Saturday:

I put them on a special little table at the entrance to my booth so they would get the most foot-traffic. This worked really well—so many people were stopping and looking, and some even buying!

You can see all of the buttons so far in my special button celebration shop section.

Here are the buttons for this week:

I went a little French with the first set—what fun! Otherwise I just keep clipping along, drawing whatever sounds the most fun/silly/ridiculous/and in need of a button in its name. Mainly, if it makes me giggle, it’s in! I hope you’re all enjoying these! I will be doing some reader’s choice buttons soon, so keep up the suggestions. Again, read this post for more info.

Eavesdropping

Evidently, I missed that day in school when we learned the difference between the word “eves” and “eaves,” because I just realized I misspelled the word “eavesdropping” on one of my Quit Your Day Job Buttons! This is especially appalling to me because I love words, but darn the English language and its sassy spelling! Anyway, I have swapped out the faulty button from week 1 and replaced it with this one:

I call it the “Tree of Bars Button,” and it’s now listed as button number 9 over in the week 1 Quit Your Day Job Buttons listings on Etsy.

Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration: week 2

It’s week two of my Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration, and the buttons just keep coming. You can see all of the 32 buttons so far in the link above to my etsy shop celebration section, or in this flickr group, but here’s the new set of 16 from this week:

In case you haven’t looked at the official Etsy listings each button has a title, and some of them were quite fun to come up with.

If this whole thing I’m doing is new to you, check out the first post for a full explanation, and how you can get involved with Reader’s Choice buttons. Thanks so much to all of you who gave suggestions last week! Keep them coming, you can put your reader’s choice suggestions in comments on this post or the first post.

The Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration!

A couple of days ago, along with my big announcement that I had given notice at my day job to start doing art full time, I mentioned a coming scheme/celebration. Well, here it is—I’m having a Quit Your Day Job Button Celebration!

How it works: I will be making 100 completely original, one of a kind, hand-drawn buttons between now and September 15, my quitting day. Yes, every single button will be completely original and hand-drawn (and buttoned) by me! This means that each 2.25 inch button is a completely original piece of art! I have just posted the first batch here, and I started a flickr set here so you can see all of the buttons together as I go along.

This is a really fun project because I get to explore the depths of my creative brain in trying to come up with 100 button-worthy illustrations over the next 7 weeks. It also gives art-lovers a chance to get a completely original (and wearable) piece of artwork for $5.

Here are some pictures:

Each button comes displayed on a piece of textured pastel cardstock, so if you’re not a button wearer, you could frame them and hang them on the wall.

Each button is titled and signed on the back.

And here is the first batch—16 buttons in all:

There is one more part to this celebration, and I’m calling it:

Yes, I mean YOU! Got any great ideas for a button, or would you like to see something special on a button of your very own? Well, leave your ideas in a comment on this post, and you could see your idea come to fruition! I will be picking a selection of reader’s choice ideas and making them into buttons. If I do make your button, I will contact you via email and give you the option to buy the button (with free shipping) before it’s released to the public. You are under absolutely no obligation to buy, so suggest away! Depending on the number of suggestions, I will create a few batches of reader’s choice buttons during the next 7 weeks.

I hope these buttons give you a few giggles and laughs and bits of inspiration.

Oh, and please don’t keep this a secret, spread the word! You’re welcome to use the drawing at the top of my sidebar at right to tell people about it!