Art School Dropout will be a vendor at Otakon 2019!

Otakon 2019 {an Art School Dropout's life}

I mentioned a few weeks back that I had been accepted in to two conventions this year…

Well, here is the second one! Art School Dropout will have a table in Artist Alley at Otakon in July!!!

This is pretty big for me since my family and I have been going to the con the past few years and loving it. Now I wont get to walk around and enjoy it, but I will still get to see all of the amazing cosplay getup’s and just be surrounded by everything anime. I’m super excited!!!

The convention is held in the exact same place as AwesomeCon in DC, except instead of taking over half a floor, Otakon takes over all five floors, the building next door and half of the Marriott on the other side. It’s crazy!

Im trying to decide if I should change up my product lineup for this show, or just add more pastel colors? Your thoughts?

Art School Dropout will be a vendor at AwesomeCon 2019!

AwesomeCon {an Art School Dropout's life}After a rough craft show season last year (mud, rain, flooding, high winds, destroyed tents, etc) I decided that I will never do another outdoor show AND decided to change things up a bit and apply to a few local conventions!

Lucky me, our local conventions are some of the biggest around! They aren’t San Diego ComicCon big, but they still have up to 20 times more foot traffic than any craft show I’ve ever done. I applied to two, and I got in to both! Though I’m only announcing this one for now, and will talk more about the other one (which is way way way bigger than this one) in a few weeks.

So yeah, Art School Dropout will have a table in the new Makers Market at AwesomeCon in April!

It’s held at the Walter E Washington Convention Center in Washington DC. and is THREE WHOLE DAYS of awesomeness! I am really excited and I can’t wait to start adding in more nerdy pieces in to my lineup! Anything you’d like to see?

Modern Sewciety Podcast!!

Modern Sewciety Episode 53

Last month I did a short interview with the lovely Stephanie of the podcast Modern Sewciety. It’s part of Episode #53 and it just went live two days ago!!!. It was way more fun than I expected and I sound way less nervous than I thought!

If you’d like to hear me talk about my “eclectic home”, how much I love my Silhouette CAMEO, What my future plans are or if you just want to know what I sound like, then you should go check it out!!! (or listen to the embedded player above)

Keep Moving Forward: Changes To Art School Dropout

"Keep Moving Forward" {an Art School Dropout's life}

 ”Around here, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney

So this might be the hardest blog post I’ve written to date. I’ve been writing and rewriting it in my head for weeks, no, months. Always changing it, tweaking it so it sounds right. I figured in the end the best way was just to be blunt and say it in as few words as possible…

Starting June 15th, the Art School Dropout shop will be temporarily put on the back burner. At least in my head. I will not be creating new products and I will not be taking any new custom orders. The shop will be paired down to just Home Decor and Party Supplies (minus custom listings). All orders placed will be shipped out by my husband, not me, on Saturdays. From now until June 15th, all Accessories, Jewelry / Juxtapose Necklaces and Craft Supplies will be 40% off to help clear them out. Everything else will be 25% off just because. (discount will be applied in the cart, no coupon code needed) Shipping may be slow at first while we switch over, so please have some patience with us!

Now I will explain a bit about WHY I’m doing this…

For the past 6 months or so, my mind has been going a mile a minute with ideas and things I would like to create. It usually goes fast, but lately its just out of control. At times it was getting to be a bit overwhelming and was causing me to forget important things, mess up on orders and such. I have been writing all the ideas down in hopes that I will one day have the time to try them all out. Well, when I realized Art School Dropout was turning 11, something just clicked in my head. I love creating for the shop and I love seeing my goods out in the world, however I have been doing the same thing for 11 years. I love learning new processes and I feel like I could be improving my skills. I have more unfinished personal projects than I do finished. I am my own boss, I have the power to cut back on business related stuff and work on personal stuff for once…

So that’s what i’m going to do. This may be a temporary situation, it may be permanent. I’m not sure yet. It’s scary to walk away from something that you’ve put so much of your life into. Actually it was almost my entire 20′s. Most of my adult life. The fear is what’s making me hold on just a little, and with the help from my husband (who’s been offering for years and I just never took him up on it) I think I can start chiseling away at my “Things To Try” list.

In a nutshell, I want to see what I’m capable of when I’m not tied down to a brand.

In the coming months I will be prepping for BlytheCon. I am scheduled to learn how to quilt using a longarm machine (and be certified to rent one). I will finally finish all of those quilts I’ve been working on for years. I am signed up to properly learn Illustrator. After that I would like to learn more about customizing wordpress properly. I would like to finally write patterns for all of those quilts I made. I want to paint CT’s room. I’d like to finally decorate our bedroom and bathroom. I want to build some furniture… and so so so much more.

I plan on sharing all of it here on the blog. So I won’t be disappearing into the mist, but possibly instead I’ll be around MORE!

I feel like I forgot so much that I wanted to say, but I also feel like this is good! I know it will be good for me, and that really is all that matters, making myself and my family happy.

Pin It

2014 – 2015 Silhouette Design Team

I have some super exciting news to share!!!

About a month ago Silhouette America (the company that makes that awesome little machine I use) put out a call for their 2014/2015 Design Team. The whole thing sounded like a lot of fun, and would force me to think outside of my little Art School Dropout world. I sent in my application and crossed my fingers and toes…

DT-designteamphotos

…which apparently worked, because I am proud to announce that I am now part of Silhouette America’s 2014 – 2015 Design Team!!

Now you may ask, what exactly does this mean? Well, it means I will be contributing project ideas and tutorials on their blog (and sometimes my own) using my Portrait and a huge array of Silhouette products. I’ve already started brainstorming, and I’m even prepping for my first project.

I am seriously SO excited to be included in this awesome team (I’ve been visiting all of the other girls blogs too) and can’t wait to show you whats coming!!!