May's Doodle Swap Featured Artist - Tracey Spates Newell

Our May Doodle Swap featured Artist is Tracey Spates Newell. I'm proud to call Tracey not only my co-worker, but a friend. She's also my constant cohort in artistic and crafty endeavors! Thanks to her for sharing her artist's profile on our Featured Artist page.

If you'd like to be featured, please email me for more details!

BuildASign Art Print Contest Winners

Thank you to everyone who entered the BuildASign Doode Swap Art Print Contest! The winners have been chosen and it was hard to choose just one. The 1st place winner will receive a 18x24 art print from our sponsor buildasign.com. One of our fellow doodlers told me that he tried buildasign.com after seeing their work with The Doodle Swap Project and he said his prints turned out fabulous on their aluminum material!  Very cool.

1st Place art by Lori W.

Without further ado, here are our winners:
1st Place - Lori W.
2nd Place - Celia C.
3rd Place - Natalie M.
Honorable Mention - Missy B.







Thank you to Megan at buildasign.com for all her help with this contest. Please visit our Sponsor BuildASign.com and take a look at their Art Print options! For questions about any of BuildASign's products, please contact Megan.

Dick Blick's Arist Trading Card Holder

I was on Dick Blick's site the other day looking for ATC supplies and came across this lesson plan for creating your own card holder. It's a pretty nifty idea and I'm sure you could easily modify it to your liking. Visit the Dick Blick site to download the PDF instructions!

DickBlick.com - ATC Album Tutorial

March's Doodle Swap Featured Artist - Christopher Tupa

Our March Doodle Swap featured Artist is Christopher Tupa. Thanks Christopher for sharing your art and time with us on our Featured Artist page. Don't forget to check out Christopher's other websites.

If you'd like to be featured, please email me for more details!

Build-A-Sign Art Print Review and Giveaway

24"x36" Art Print from Buildasign.com -
this print was made from a 5.5"x8.5"
scanned image!

Want to win a really amazing Art Print? Check out my print and see details on how you can win one at the bottom of this blog post!

I was recently invited to try some products by the company Build-A-Sign. I was really excited about the opportunity because that means I get to share with my doodlers! When I checked out their website, I noticed that they offered Art Prints and KNEW that was the perfect item to share with my fellow artists, illustrators, and designers.

Having recently completed the ArtHouse Coop's Sketchbook Project, I had a couple of sketches in my book that I really loved and made sure to scan then in before I sent them off. I was really excited about the opportunity to see a drawing that was originally 5.5"x8.5" blown up to 2 feet by 3 feet! Especially since the original art was done in Prismacolor colored pencils - the texture blown up that large would be very interesting to see.

About Build-A-Sign Art Prints
Build-A-Sign offers Art Prints in several different sizes at a very reasonable cost! They are printed on light-weight polystyrene which makes them extremely durable. The material is thin so you'll be able to frame your art without worrying about bulky materials.

These are extremely easy to order! You can upload ANY image to be made into a print. Fine art, Photography, Digital art - if it can be put into digital format, it can be printed. Here is a list of the standard sizes available.

• 8.5" x 11"
• 11" x 17"
• 18" x 24"
• 22" x 28"
• 24" x 36"
• 24" x 60"
• 36" x 48"
• 36" x 60"

Custom sizes may be available as well - just contact the company - they were a breeze to work with and answered all my questions and then some. I found Build-A-Sign really easy to work with and the turn-around time from upload to PDF proof to delivery was very fast. The print arrived in excellent condition!

It looks great without a frame!

Why I love my Build-A-Sign Art Print
The quality is truly amazing! I would never want to print any art print on paper or canvas again! Why do that when you can have this durable lightweight material? You can see every detail of my original drawing and many people who have commented thought it was an original piece of art. One thing I absolutely love is the fact that the material has a matte finish and you can hang it on your wall without glare interfering with the art. The print quality maintains it's integrity when you look at it up-close as well. It looks great without a frame. It's just BEAUTIFUL. The colors are just as bold and brilliant as they appeared in my digital file. I have my art hanging in my office and it has gotten rave reviews. Everyone asks what it's printed on! Another great thing about the materials that Build-A-Sign uses, is that it's perfect for art that you might want to display in a bathroom or kitchen - the polystyrene (plastic) would be easily wiped off and you wouldn't have to worry about damaging the art in a humid environment. The prices for their prints are VERY reasonable and they offer some outstanding price breaks on multiple items – so, if you were looking to stock an online store with some awesome products, you might want to check this company out! Ordering 10 18x24 prints gives you a price break of almost 50% per item - that's a great deal!

Other Build-A-Sign items

This print has great detail and texture up-close!

The good folks over at Build-A-Sign also gave me some free 4x4 stickers! They offer all kinds of different products including banners, bumper stickers, magnetic signs, magnetic bumper signs, flags, and window clings. Want to know more about Build-A-Sign? Check out their website or contact the incredibly helpful Megan Edgeller.


How can you WIN a FREE 18"x24" Art Print?
This is the best part! I love my print so much and I get to share with you guys. Build-A-Sign is sponsoring a Doodle Swap Giveaway! They will ship an Art Print of YOUR ART directly to the winner! You're going to want to win this! :)

What are the Rules?
There are only three rules, but they are all important:

1. You must have a mailing address within the continental USA to win the grand prize Art Print! (So sorry to my international doodlers, but unfortunately, they cannot ship outside of the USA) However, to give international doodlers a chance to have some fun, you can enter to win one of the "honorable mention" prize packs from me!
2. You must have participated in at least one Doodle Swap (1-9).
3. All entries must have been created as part of one of the Doodle Swap Project's swaps and conform to the guidelines of a regular swap in size. However, art created for round 9 is eligible and since round 9 has yet begun, you can have a fresh chance at something masterful!

How do you enter?

1. Select 1 to 3 of your favorite doodles that you have swapped during your experience with The Doodle Swap Project's swaps 1-9 (this gives you up to 3 chances to win!).  This CAN include a doodle from the current swap #9, so you can create your doodles for the theme Under The Sea, with the contest in mind.
2. Submit these doodles to doodleswap@gmail.com in JPG format. 
3. Deadline to enter is April 30th, 2011 at Midnight EST - Winner will be announced May 3rd, 2011 at noon EST.

How is the winner chosen?
The winner will be determined by myself and a panel of judges that I put together (folks who are ineligible to win). We will be looking for the following criteria:

• Artistic merit
• Conceptual creativity
• How interesting your doodle would look blown up from 2.5"x3.5" to 18"x24".

What will you win?
The grand prize winner (U.S. resident only) will receive a 18"x24" Art Print made from your own art shipped directly to your door. Your print does not have to be made from the winning doodle, but it would be really cool if it was. I know that many of you do not scan in doodles at a high enough resolution to have prints made from them. Therefore, I decided that the Art you choose to have made into a print can be anything that you would like. However, the art does need to belong to you so that you retain the right to have the print made. Along with the Art Print winner, some "honorable mention" artists (open to my international pals!) will receive some very special goody packs from The Doodle Swap Project!

If you have ANY questions about the way the contest will work or your eligibility to participate, please email me at doodleswap@gmail.com!

February's Doodle Swap Featured Artist - Kim Morris

Our February Doodle Swap featured Artist is Kim Morris. Kim has participated in several swaps and we are very happy to have her share with us! Please check our her interview on the Featured Artist page. Don't forget to check out Kim's other websites for more insight on our fantastic featured artist of the month!

If you'd like to be featured, please email me for more details!

January's Doodle Swap Featured Artist - Jose Gonzalez

Our January Doodle Swap featured Artist is Jose Gonzalez. Check out his interview on our featured artist tab or by clicking here. Each month we hope to have another artist featured and archived on the site! Make sure you visit the artist's blogs and websites as well!