Happy New Year

Happy New Year! This is my most recent card, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit - which starts on February 3, 2011. Legend says that the order in which the animals passed the finish line would determine their order in the Chinese Zodiac. The rabbit finished fourth, after the tiger and before the dragon.

Chelleline Cards in TimeOut New York!

Hello folks! I'm in the December 9-15, 2010 TimeOut NY issue, in a feature on local handmade holiday cards. You can also see more of my cards, along with those of other NY artists, on their slideshow here.

Birthday Fireworks

Seriously, I have the hardest time trying to think of ideas for birthday cards. I have no idea why. But I'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out!

Happy Holidays from Brooklyn

My latest card.

New cards

Between my two part-time jobs and a huge order for a stationery shop, I haven't had much time to work on new cards in the last month - until now!


This is why I need a camera (boyfriend broke the last one): the cake is light yellow, the dish is light pink, and the candles are light blue. But it all looks the same here.



There is a tic tac toe grid here, but you can't see it in the scan. I cut a tic tac toe grid into the cardstock with an exacto knife and then collaged the hearts and x's into it. (Update: new scan has the grid!)



A twist on the same concept. The Tic Tac Toe grid IS visible here!



It's about time I had an Octopus Christmas card! Octopi, having far more "hands" than humans, are more adept at juggling and can juggle more. Naturally.

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.

Baikal-inspired cards

I'm back! Sorry for disappearing again, but I was studying for the bar and then I was in Russia. That's a valid excuse, right?

Since I've been back, I've managed to crank out some new cards (two of which are inspired by my trip to Lake Baikal):

Baikal Seal - New Baby card.
The Baikal seal, aka Nerpa seal, is native to Lake Baikal in Siberia, and when born, it has a soft white fur that it sheds when it reaches adulthood. The Nerpa seals are found in the Ushkanny Islands in Lake Baikal, west of the Svyatoy Nos Peninsula. It's a mystery as to how they wound up at Baikal, thousands of miles away from any ocean. One theory is that a much larger body of water once connected Baikal to the Arctic Ocean. Another theory is that the seals swam through rivers from the Arctic to Baikal. In any case, they are the only freshwater seal in existence.

Unfortunately, something is wrong with blogger's image uploading system, so I can't upload anything else right now. Next time!