Christmas freebie

It's time for my annual post about belated Christmas presents!

Let's say it's December 24th and the post office still hasn't delivered that perfect gift that you ordered two weeks ago. No need to fret! This card has you covered. Simply print it out and put it in a standard greeting card envelope, or wrap it up so your recipient has an extra gift to open, and you're all set!

At Christmastime let's keep in mind that it's always the thought that counts. If your present arrives after Christmas, it's no big deal. If anything it just extends the gift-giving season a little longer, and having holiday cheer last past the 25th is a gift in and of itself! :)

This download comes as a 5" x 7" PDF as well as a page that prints two foldable cards per sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper. Files are 300 DPI and suitable for printing or framing! For personal use only. They're available to download (for free!) right here.

Updated shipping deadline for Christmas

This is kind of short notice, but I'm moving my deadline for all of my jewelry and ornaments up to midnight tonight. Like basically every other year that I've had an online store, I'm having crazy issues with getting my supplies in the mail. I had a laser cut supply order that shipped 2-day air last Tuesday and it still isn't even in New Jersey yet. I had another package shipped next-day air on Tuesday that didn't arrive until yesterday. It's insane!

I don't want to take any chances on promising orders for Christmas if more of my supply orders get delayed in transit, so to be on the safe side I've moved the deadline up. This applies to all jewelry and ornaments. Please be aware that ANY orders placed after midnight EST (even if they include a laser-cut item and something else) will most likely ship after the holidays. 

If you'd like art prints, calendars, pocket mirrors, buttons, note cards, or nostalgia kits they will still be shipping with a Christmas deadline of 12/14. And (obviously) printable products are always available immediately, even on Christmas morning! And if you already placed an order (or place one before midnight) you don't have any reason to worry!

Thanks in advance for your patience & understanding!! :)

black friday sale

Now through Monday, take 25% off any order of $15+ with the code "MISTLETOE" Also, if US customers spend over $25 (after discount) they'll receive free shipping, and International customers spending over $120 (after discount) will also receive free shipping.

I won't be doing any other discounts for the rest of the year after this, so now is the time to order! Also please keep in mind that all of my items are handmade to order and ship in about 7 business days so if you need something for Christmas (or if you're asking someone to buy you something for Christmas) the sooner the better! You can view all of my Christmas shipping deadlines right here.

Christmas ornament brooches!

These are probably my favorite new thing I've made all year long! I'm so excited about them! They're inspired by my Grandmom's vintage ornament collection. She passed down some of her collection to my mom when my parents got married, and every year I get so nervous hanging the "special" delicate ornaments on the tree. They're my favorites -- so beautiful and unique, each one with its own patina and signs of wear from Christmases gone by.

I picked four of my favorites and drew them for this brooch collection. These brooches are laser-cut from two layers of birch wood. Then I add a layer of glittery flocking powder which creates a sparkly, soft, fuzzy texture. It's almost impossible to really capture the velvety appearance of the flocking but trust me, it's beautiful!

So much love went into these, and they're so special to me because they remind me of my own family Christmases, my Grandmom, and every single time that my mom, my brother and I put on festive tunes and decorated the tree together when I was growing up :)

They're available in my shop right here. Please keep in mind they're made to order so if you want one to wear for Christmas don't wait too long to order!

Pocket mirrors!

Yet another example of a product that's been ready to go for months, just waiting for me to photograph and list on the website (I'm not even kidding, I posted a sneak peek on instagram 20 weeks ago!) but pocket mirrors are finally here!

I'm starting off with a little over 20 designs and if they go over well I'll be adding more in the future. I started with some of my personal favorites & best sellers. It's a pretty even assortment of Sweet & Lovely, Flapper Doodle movie artwork and one Puns Intended design. They're all available right here!

CMYK Best Friend necklace set

I've had about 3 dozen sets of these ready and painted since JUNE. Shooting the video for this GIF and uploading the product to my shop has literally been on my to-do list for over four months, eek!

They are finally in the shop now, right here. The set includes three necklaces that form a CMYK color model (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) when they're together or serve as pretty abstract geometric forms when worn alone. Perfect for sets of three best friends or anyone who has a soft spot for graphic design :)

Animated blog header

I've been wanting to change up my blog header on Silents and Talkies for a while. For a few years I've had a still of Monica Vitti from Modesty Blaise, which I loved, but it was time for something new. Still Monica Vitti, though, haha.

When I started this I wasn't actually sure if animated gifs were even possible for headers on Blogger, so I uploaded a tester gif and tried it out on Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. They all worked so I took the plunge and started hours, and hours, and hours of work on this. If you're interested in knowing a bit about the process, keep reading! :)

I knew that I wanted to use video from L'Avventura, so I found the clip that I wanted from the DVD, ripped it to my computer, and then narrowed it down to a fraction of a second in Quicktime. Then I imported the video frames as layers in a Photoshop document. Then I used this tutorial for creating a cinemagraph, which is basically an animated gif in which only one part of the image is moving. Monica Vitti turns her head slightly in the clip that I chose, so I masked off everything except for her hair. I had to use the puppet warp tool to make sure that her ear and hairline were lining up in each frame, and then I used my tablet to carefully erase the background.

This is one of those rare instances where the finished product came out even better than I imagined! I'm so happy with it!

New brooch designs inspired by The Nanny and The Craft

Three new brooch designs! The first one, above, is from The Craft and the other two are inspired by The Nanny. They're all available in my shop here.

Last call for postcards!

Today is the last day to get a postcard! Just place an order at shopkategabrielle.com before midnight EST and use code "SHIPAHOY" to get 15% off and a hand-written postcard! The discount will still be active through 11/7, and the postcard offer only applies to US customers.

Postcards and 15% off!

On Sunday I set sail on my first cruise (yay!) and I'm bringing back my favorite shop promotion to coincide with the trip! Starting today, if you use the coupon code "SHIPAHOY" you will receive 15% off and a hand-written postcard from me! In order to receive a postcard, your order must be placed on or before November 5th.

The best part? All US orders of $25+ ship free, even if you're also using a coupon code! Yay! If you placed an order recently (even if you placed one this morning) you should have already received a shipping notice. Your order will be shipping today or tomorrow, no need to worry! :)

Click here to shop!

This discount applies to all orders worldwide, but unfortunately the postcard offer is only good for US orders. I will make and ship the orders as soon as I return home. You can still use the code to receive 15% off through November 7th, but keep in mind that the postcard offer is only good through the 5th. This offer can not be applied retroactively, and it only applies to orders placed at shopkategabrielle.com.

Patches!

I just listed my first patch in the shop! These are embroidered, sew-on patches. There are a limited amount of these in the shop right now and I'm not planning on restocking again until after the holidays, so if you want one don't wait too long! They're available right here.

Mindy Kaling brooches

Mindy brooches are now in the shop, right here!  Also available as a print, here.

Headstone brooches

When products of mine don't go over well I seem to take that as a challenge to keep trying rather than give up on the whole idea. Case in point: my Halloween stuff this year hasn't sold much at all, so naturally I took that to mean I should make MORE HALLOWEEN STUFF! And release it like one week before the holiday, to boot. This is why I consider myself an illustrator and not a businesswoman, haha.

Anyway, I made some more Halloween brooches! These are laser-cut from wood and hand painted. I thought it would be fun to do some punny headstone names, but I also have an option to choose your own custom text as well! They're available in my shop here.

This is uncharacteristically early for me, but I actually have a batch of Christmas brooches that are ready for me to photograph and list in the store! I didn't wait until December 20th to make them, it's a holiday miracle! ;D Keep an eye out, they're coming soon!

I, myself, am strange and unusual

New Beetlejuice-inspired brooch in the shop! Also I'm on snapchat now if you're interested in seeing some behind-the-scenes peeks into my workday (and lots of pictures and video of my cat because I wouldn't be a bona fide cat lady if I didn't, right?) I'm kate.gabrielle on snapchat.

society6 shop update

It's been a while since I added anything new to my society6 shop! Yesterday I uploaded all of the new drawings I've done over the last several months and most of them are available on tote bags, phone cases (they offer basically every version of the iphone and a few galaxy models), pillows, clocks, t-shirts, mugs, even duvet covers! It's all available in my society6 shop here.

Mark of the Vampire necklace

My Mark of the Vampire design is now available as a necklace in my shop here. And I know the dress is probably more interesting to everyone so here's a link to it.

Halloween cards

My Halloween designs are now available as a card set, in the shop here!

Halloween brooches!

I am so excited about these!! My new brooches were inspired by 1930's horror movies, which are my absolute favorite to watch this time of year. If you want to enjoy some truly creepy movies this October, I highly recommend Mystery of the Wax Museum and Doctor X. They were shot in two-strip technicolor, which gives them an eerie green tint that amplifies the creep factor x100. I also love all of the classic Universal horror films like Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and The Mummy. You just can't beat 30's horror!

If you're familiar with these movies you know that they have a unique brand of fright that you just don't find in scary movies from other eras. They're stylish and stylized and filled with full moons, lots of fog and a healthy helping of cobwebs. I really wanted to capture that atmosphere in these brooches and I'm very pleased with how they turned out!

Of course I was running behind schedule as usual and didn't get these ready until one month before Halloween, oops! If you're interested in wearing one of these for Halloween festivities please keep in mind that I make all of my items to order and take about a week to ship. The brooches are available in my shop now, right here! Happy early Halloween!

new self portrait

If you follow me on any social networking sites you might have already noticed that I changed all of my icons a couple weeks ago, so this isn't really new news. But I'm so happy with my new drawing that I wanted to post about it here.

I drew the portrait on the left in 2011, and it's definitely served me well for four years. It was actually one of the first digital drawings I ever did when I was first learning how to use a tablet. I still like it, but I really wanted something that reflected my personality more. The one on the left is cute but it's just almost too cute and demure and perfect. It needed to be a little sloppier. I noticed that I tend to make the same face in a lot of my photos (kind of looking off to the side and smirking) so I incorporated that into my new portrait. I think my personality shows through much more in this one now! I also added a decent amount of fly-aways in my hair and my shirt is a little crooked. It was a challenge to figure out how to draw transparent glasses frames but I'm pretty happy with how they came out.

Aside from wanting the drawing to look more like me, I've also learned so much about digital drawing since 2011 and wanted to update it for that reason as well. I feel like the new one looks a lot more like a drawing and not just a digital rendering... I created the 2011 portrait almost entirely using paths and fills and not with actual pen strokes (the only part that I used my tablet for was the lines in the hair.) Whereas the new one was drawn exactly like I would have done it on paper, only with digital colors instead of ink.

Overall I'm really pleased with how it came out, and hopefully I won't need another new one for another four years :)

New vibrant brooches!

I've been trying to come up with a way to make colorful brooches for a while now. My first attempt was to make laser-cut wooden brooches and hand paint them. I really love how they look, but they're SO time-consuming and I still haven't really mastered a good technique for making sure they all come out perfect. There's so many little crevices where paint can get stuck and I've ended up throwing out at least 1 brooch for every 2 that I got right. So days are numbered for my hand-painted brooches. They're still in the shop for now while I work on transitioning all of the brooches to my new style so if you really had your heart set on one this is your last chance to get them.

I'm switching over to a new method that I've been working on instead. It's still kind of time consuming but I feel like the results are way more consistent and I like how they look a lot more than the hand-painted ones. It's basically still laser-cut wood, but instead of paint there's a layer with my printed illustration and then a layer of satin varnish.

I started out with five of my older designs (Liz Lemon, Shark Week, Dinosaurs eat man woman inherits the earth, Clever Girl) as well as the Leslie Knope one that I just released last week, and two brand spanking new designs - my Heathers dinosaur drawing and Movies are my drug. I can't WAIT to wear that one basically every time I go to the movies now!



I'm just so happy with how these look, the color is so vibrant and the print is perfectly sharp. And I think this will make it easier for me to customize colors and text if anyone wants more personalized jewelry. I can't wait to start packing these up and mailing them to new homes :D All of the new vibrant brooches are available right here, and if you wanted to grab one of the last hand-painted ones they're available here.

Leslie Knope is my spirit animal

New brooches in the shop here.

Free tattoo choker with purchase, today only!

Happy Labor Day! For today only, take 10% off any purchase of $10+ and receive a free rainbow tattoo choker (while supplies last) Use code LABORDAY to redeem this discount.

Click here to shop! :)

ps. Don't forget, all US orders over $25 ship free and all International orders over $120 ship free. No code required and the free shipping offers can be combined with the labor day discount.

Chaos is what killed the dinosaurs, darling

I'm now up to three sayings to go with this raptor drawing, I just can't be stopped! This one is a quote from the 1988 movie Heathers. The print is available in my shop here.

Movies are my drug

This year I've been using movies a lot as an escape from reality, watching (and re-watching) favorites so I can slip into an alternate universe for a few hours and leave my worries behind. I was sitting in a theater today, about to watch The Man From UNCLE for the fourth time, when this little image popped into my head (and yeah, it'll also be a brooch soon because I have no self control when it comes to movies *or* turning my drawings into jewelry)

I'm lucky that my drug of choice doesn't mess with my ability to form coherent thoughts and make rational decisions. It's available legally and it's usually pretty cheap. It won't make your teeth fall out. It is, however, incredibly addictive. Some movies (cough, The Man from UNCLE, cough) should come with a warning label: may be habit-forming.

The drawing is available in my shop, here.

Three new brooch designs

Three new brooch designs in the shop! These are all laser cut from wood and then hand painted. Live every week like it's shark week is a quote from Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock. And below I have Jake Johnson's character Lowery from Jurassic World showing off his vintage Jurassic Park shirt a la superman. He and Blue are my favorite characters from the film.





I think I must have done at least 5 prototypes of Neapolitan Napoleon before it finally came out the way I had envisioned it. I tried laser-cut plastic first which didn't work out too well, and then wood. I've gone through at least a dozen different paint colors trying to find the perfect versions of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry before finally landing on this. Neapolitan is one of my favorite color combinations and I love a good pun, so this is easily one of my favorite products in the shop.





The two new drawings are also available as art prints. The Neapolitan Napoleon brooch is based on a painting that I did a few years ago (prints available here.)

Everything is available right here.

Liz Lemon is my spirit animal

New brooches in the shop! Liz Lemon is probably my favorite tv character ever (she might even be edging out Fox Mulder, I just love her that much) I think the only thing I can't relate to is her obsession with cheese, otherwise we're basically the same person.

This is one of my favorite things I've ever made, so it figures that no matter what I cannot seem to photograph or edit the product photos well. I'm not sure if it's just my own monitor that's making this look kind of green-tinted, but in reality it's all warm tones. I painted the skin a light cream, the glasses are black, eyes and teeth are white, and the hair is a warm milk chocolate. The shirt and jacket are unpainted birch wood. It really looks so nice in person, I wish I could just invite everyone over to look at it instead of posting pictures online.

The brooches are available in my shop here.

Jurassic World + Beyonce = ♥

Sometimes I get an idea in my head and I can't tell if it's really cool or really stupid, but I execute that idea anyway. This is one of those ideas. The beloved raptor Blue from Jurassic World, paired with the lyrics to Beyonce's song 'Blue'. Genius or craziness? Only time will tell. I'm personally leaning towards 'really cool idea', but then I've never had a good handle on what's actually cool...

It's available as a brooch or an art print right here.

I liked The X-Files before it was cool

New hand-painted brooch in the shop! I'm really enjoying how these colorful brooches are turning out. I have a lot more coming up soon! This one is for anyone like me who has been obsessed with The X-Files for as long as they can remember. My friends in middle school used to make fun of me for caring so much about a "stupid alien show" but I've held the torch tight for almost 20 years now. They're available in the shop right here.

Hand painted pastel jewelry

I've had a lot of requests over the last year for me to make my black and white jewelry available in other colors, and I'm happy to say that day has finally arrived! Honestly I prefer wearing colorful jewelry myself, so I'm pretty excited about these new offerings, too!

These are laser-cut from birch wood and hand painted. With one exception they are all existing designs that were already available in my black-and-white acrylic. I did a lot of color testing for each piece and I'm very pleased with the final products so I will not be offering custom colorways. That being said, I couldn't decide which version of Clever Girl I liked best so it's available in purple, yellow, pink and mint green. eek! All of the new hand painted designs are available right here.

The only brand new piece here is this BFF texting pendant set --



I'm thrilled with how these turned out! I don't think the photo does them justice. I went through three prototypes before finally landing on this final design. These are available as pictured, with "Friends Forever" in the texting bubbles, OR you can get custom text! I think this would be such a fun, special gift for besties who love to text. These are available here.

Order deadline for Double Indemnity brooches

Double Indemnity is being re-released into theaters this coming Sunday and Monday, thanks to Fathom Events & Turner Classic Movies! If you're planning on wearing a Phyllis Dietrichson brooch and haven't ordered yet, this is your last chance! If you're on the west coast I'd recommend contacting me for an upgrade to Priority Mail, but east coast customers should get their brooches in time.

The pins are available in my shop here.