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Love and Books

By Pam Winters

Love and Books watercolor illustration

Watercolor illustration © 2016 by Pam Winters

Two things I loved about grade school: Valentine’s Day and books. Even now, when someone mentions Valentine’s Day, my mind immediately goes to childhood days gone by, where I traded paper valentines with classmates, each of us filling one another’s decorated Valentine’s Day boxes with an assortment of handwritten cards. In much the same way, I looked forward to the monthly book orders and annual book fairs at my school. When the order forms for new Scholastic Reading Club books came in, I pored over the selection and carefully chose the titles that sounded the most interesting to me. It was always exciting when the books arrived and we got to take them home. Receiving and giving valentines and books were favorite parts of my childhood, and the memories attached to these things remain very special to me today.

And so, Valentine’s Day is here again already. As I recently discovered, February 14 also marks International Book Giving Day. Pairing these holidays makes a great deal of sense. Valentine’s Day traditionally being a day for showing others we care, our collective mindset is primed for opening our hearts, spreading joy and giving gifts. This is where Book Giving Day finds a warm welcome, with its mission to “get books into the hands of as many children as possible.” This means both new and gently used books are fair game—anything that will benefit a child.

There are a number of ways to get involved on Book Giving Day, many of which you can find at bookgivingday.com. Inspired by their list, here are several good ideas:

  • Donate books to a library, where they can be shelved or sold to raise funds for other books.
  • Donate books to a medical office or other such place with a waiting room (e.g., a car dealership, hair salon or spa).
  • Give books to/trade books with the children of family and friends (e.g., books that your children have outgrown).
  • Attach a book plate to any book you donate/give/trade that asks the recipient to read the book and then pass it along to another reader.
  • Spread the word about Book Giving Day on social media, using #bookgivingday.
  • Start planning your own 2016 book-raiser! Check out Milk+Bookies, a non-profit organization that helps plan events for collecting books in the U.S. and Canada, for more information on hosting one of these.

As we enter this day of cards, candy and flowers, consider also the simple gesture of passing along a book. Much like that paper valentine received from a classmate, one book has the potential power to make a young person feel special and valued. And if this were to help instill a love and appreciation for reading that lasts a lifetime, I would say that Valentine’s Day just got a whole lot sweeter!

Related links:
Scholastic Reading Club website
International Book Giving Day website
Milk+Bookies website

Filed Under: Creative Journal Pam Winters Studio, Illustration Projects Pam Winters Studio, Uncategorized Tagged With: Book Giving Day, books, child, children, donate, donation, drawing, Illustration, journal, reading, school, Valentine's Day, valentines, watercolor

Pineapple Expression

By Pam Winters

  • Pineapple Expression

    Inspired by the tools at hand, I let the project unfold. (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)

  • Pineapple Expression

    The journey began with a pencil sketch and quickly evolved from there. (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)

  • Pineapple Expression

    In order to “color in” the pineapple, I created shapes in Illustrator (left) and cut them on a CAMEO using special stamp material (right). (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)

  • Pineapple Expression

    The stamp pieces made by the CAMEO are mounted onto acrylic blocks, then inked. (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)

  • Pineapple Expression

    Once the colors are stamped, the pineapple image is inked and stamped on top. (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)

  • Pineapple Expression

    I started creating lots of gift wrap, cards and prints! (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)

  • Pineapple Expression

    I then decided to turn the image into digital art using Illustrator. (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)

  • Pineapple Expression

    Once the digital art was complete, I created a pattern and ordered custom gift wrap from Spoonflower! (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)

  • Pineapple Expression

    This project required a few tools and lots of patience! (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)

Pineapples have been dancing through our minds and hearts in recent years. Based on this trend, I had pineapples on the brain when I met with some coworkers for a craft night. Before long, while chatting with my friends, I found myself sketching a pineapple, and then began hand carving a stamp using the supplies I had with me. As we wrapped up for the evening, sharing our projects with one another, I tested out the pineapple stamp on a piece of scrap paper. Not bad, I thought. Someone suggested the possibility of making pineapple gift wrap with the stamp, so I decided then and there that was exactly what I would do! I mean, even at the height of the pineapple’s popularity, it’s not every day you see pineapple gift wrap, right?

I came home that night, and stamped it again using darker ink. I could see my pineapple vision taking shape. Within the next day or two, I got the image carved the way I wanted, and that’s when the process of surface pattern experimentation really began for me. The pineapple looked good stamped on its own, but it needed something—a bit of color to fill it in. I started with colored pencils, making a few cards for friends that way, before gradually expanding my reach to other tools, including the Silhouette CAMEO and special stamp material for the CAMEO to cut. I now had shapes I could stamp first for the color portions of the pineapple, with the pineapple stamp being layered in a darker (chocolate) color on top. This was happening!

There is something unmistakably special about handmade gift wrap, but it’s also quite a challenge. Encouraged to keep going, I decided it was time to take my art to the professionals for the production side of things. So, I digitally traced a scan of the stamped pineapple image in Adobe Illustrator, for the purpose of creating a pattern to upload to Spoonflower’s website. Soon, my first roll of custom gift wrap made with the pineapple pattern arrived in the mail, and it was literally just what I had imagined!

It’s fun to look back and see how this project unfolded, one bit of inspiration at a time. How many things inspire us every day that we could potentially turn into something we only dream of right now? Please take a moment to let me know what’s inspiring YOU these days in the comments section!

Filed Under: Creative Journal Pam Winters Studio, Illustration Projects Pam Winters Studio, Uncategorized Tagged With: blog, design, drawing, Graphic Design, hand carved, handmade, Illustration, journal, pattern, pineapple, Portfolio, project, stamp, surface design

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Email: pam@pamwinters.com

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Copyright © 2019 by Pam Winters