Fall Collection: Fairy tales, octopi and Baikal

Now that I've been able to get blogger's image uploading device to work, here are the rest of my new cards:



This card depicts the Chinese folktale of the famous archer Houyi and Chang'e, his wife. Rewarded with a pill for eternal life for his heroic feats (namely, shooting down nine of the ten suns that were scorching the earth), Chang'e accidentally swallows the pill one day and flies up to the moon. She then commands the Jade Rabbit on the moon to make a new pill for her so that she can be reunited with her husband. Legend says that the Jade Rabbit, to this day, is still pounding the herbs for the pill. Available here.



My second Baikal-inspired card. I call this "Love is color-blind." The seals depicted are a harbor seal (brown) and a Baikal Nerpa seal (white). Available here.



This is another Octopus Love card, and it was a rejected sketch from my customer back in July. However, I do like the idea, so I made this Octopus card. Available here.



This card is an illustration of a Swedish folktale I read when I was young, about a girl who outwits a giant. Story can be found here.

More Octopus Love

A customer who bought my Octopus Love card a few months back commissioned me for a custom-made Octopus Love card. I love it when people come back, so I was happy to oblige (plus it gives me another break from bar-studying and a chance to use my brain in a different way). Here are some sketches I made:

The wedding cake

This is my latest card - the wedding cake.

It's hard to do wedding cards without resorting to all the stereotypical images - the cake, the dress, tux, etc. I tried my best to create a unique and different look using one of these traditional images. The 'congratulations' was handscripted (backwards!) and handcut on the same floral pattern as the flowers, which were also individually cut from the pattern. And yes, it resulted in a severely cramped left hand but it was worth it!

A New York Valentine

This new Valentine's card is the result of a collaboration between me and my boyfriend. I wanted an ice skating theme, maybe a couple ice skating a heart around a lake, or ice-skating the words "Happy Valentine's Day" but I thought it might be too complicated for collage to make the couple. My boyfriend thought I should make the card more New York-centric and added skyscrapers to my sketch. After I made the lake and the skyline, he suggested adding a small bench with a couple, although in his sketch, the bench was a lot smaller and closer to the lake. I decided to place the bench and the couple closer to the viewer. And, voila! A new card is born and available on Etsy.

With Love from Paper Source

I've been ordering my cardstock and envelopes from Paper Source for almost two years now. Apparently, that's the amount of time it takes for the company to tell me it loves me:

Saturday, August 22, 2009 12:43 am

Hello Michelle Lin

Your order 487323 has shipped!

You may track the package by logging into our website at
http://www.paper-source.com.

If are not registered at Paper Source online, you can track your order
at http://www.ups.com. Your tracking number is: 1Z13357EPP42021034

If you have any questions regarding this or any other order, reply to
this email or call 1-888-PAPER-11.

Once again, thank you for your order!

Love,
Paper Source
http://www.paper-source.com