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Inside PaperLove

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Do you obsess about stationery, love the idea of creating your own books and boxes, enjoy sending real snail mail, and lust over the delight of words? Then our brand new creative course PaperLove is for you!

PaperLove is a five-week papery adventure, where we unwrap the possibilities of paper – getting stuck into a host of creative projects, sharing inspiration, hearing from people who have made paper love into their careers, learning about the fascinating history of paper, and connecting with other paper lovers from around the world.

Join us to discover the delights of PAPER (week 1), COLLAGE (week 2), WORD (week 3), BOOK (week 4), MAIL (week 5).

During this online course you will be encouraged to tap into your own stories, discover the book inside you, get creative and have fun. The clear step-by-step instructions will help you confidently create stitched books, gift boxes and all manner of other papery goodies, while the stories, images and resources shared will provide a feast of papery inspiration.

You can join us from anywhere in the world, and connect with other paperlovers from across the globe.

This has been a long time in the making, but finally we are ready to share the world’s first online course about paper with you – class begins on Monday and we are beside our paper stacks with excitement. Have you booked your place for papery delight yet? Sign up here!

2013 Global Talent Search winner Zoe Ingram shares her experience of winning

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12 months ago Zoe Ingram was working as a freelance web designer, earning a living but her ‘heart wasn’t in it’.  That was until she took Make Art That Sells, and then entered the Global Talent Search, and everything changed.

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Click below listen to an interview between Zoe and MATS/GTS producer Beth Kempton where Zoe shares her experience of the course and competition, It is hard to believe that she was nervous at the outset, unsure of whether her work was ‘good enough’, and never drew in a sketchbook. One year on she has been crowned the GTS winner, signed by Lilla Rogers Studio and in the last six months alone has landed licenses and commissions from a host of prestigious companies including a book deal, a home décor product line,  a fabric collection, greeting cards for IKEA, and seven foot tall garden totems!

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If you have are on the fence about the Make Art That Sells course, or worried about whether it is worth you entering the Global Talent Search, PLEASE take 20 minutes to listen to this interview and know that it could be you! Make Art That Sells begins on March 31. There are still a few places left if you hurry. Sign up here.

Scroll down to see Zoe’s GTS entries:

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Zoe’s GTS Round 1 entry

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Zoe’s GTS Semi-Final entry

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Zoe’s GTS Final entry

Are you next? Pre-register for the 2014 Global Talent Search now!

Pre-registration is now open for the 2014 Global Talent Search. By putting your name on the list there is no obligation to enter. It just means you will be notified when full registration opens in early Summer. So you have nothing to lose, right? Get your name on the list here now! PLUS if you get on the list before Monday March 31 you will be automatically entered into a giveaway to win a stack of goodies from Lilla Rogers Studio!

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You can change the trajectory of your own life

Lots of words are overused these days. Awesome. Gorgeous. Amazing. I’m as guilty as the next person, especially on Instagram. Perhaps the most overused is ‘life-changing’. This week my inbox made me think a lot about what that actually means.

At its most simple it means to change a life, which means for someone’s life to be different to what it is now, as a result of some action taken, or direction followed. It is a phrase people often use in the surveys we carry out at the end of our courses, and while incredibly flattering, I do sometimes wonder what it actually means for the people who use it. But for some reason, this week, we seem to have been flooded with emails from course graduates who have completely changed the trajectory of their lives with the simple act of taking one of our courses (and then putting lots of work in, of course).

Here are a few examples of real people making real changes that came into my inbox just this week:

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  • Our Design School students have won the Ideal Home Wallpaper Design of the Year competition two years in a row (Katy Hackney won it this week, following in the footsteps of Wendy Kendall last year)

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  • Linda Tordoff is taking Make Art That Sells: Assignment Bootcamp at the moment. Her assignment for February (a cuckoo clock-inspired iPhone case design) was spotted by Paper & Cloth Studio and she has now been signed as one of their artists
  • There are so many successes from Make Art That Sells (MATS) that we are doing a whole round up later this week, including licensing deals across the editorial, children’s apparel, wall art, fabric, greetings and gift markets! And you can hear an interview with our 2013 Global Talent Search winner Zoe Ingram on how MATS and GTS changed everything for her.
  • Since taking our business class a couple of years ago, one graduate has got herself out of debt (we are talking US-style law school debt) and is finally doing something she love

Every single one of these pieces of good news is a triumph, and we are so proud of them all. And every single one has been possible because

(1) These people followed their heart and instinct, and invested in themselves

(2) They applied what they learnt

(3) They kept going, and going.

This last week has been completely manic here, with very early mornings and late nights – not easy when you have a tiny baby (and sunshine calling you outside to the sea). But perhaps that is why all these success stories came pouring in this week, just when WE needed to hear them to remind us we are on the right track with what we are doing.

What steps could you take this week to change your own trajectory? (HINT: If you are an artist you could start by getting on the pre-registration list for our annual Global Talent Search, which is back! See here for details) 

What are you waiting for? Do it!

Beth and the team

PS if you want to join one of the courses I mentioned above, ABSPD Modules 1, 3 and 4 started TODAY but you can still register here if you hurry. Make Art That Sells kicks off next Monday and you can join us here.

Want to build your professional design portfolio? This is for you…

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For many months we have been working with surface pattern designer Rachael Taylor on a brand new design course Module 4: Building Your Professional Portfolio, and we are thrilled to unveil our new Module 4 Brochure:

Module 4 is going to be amazing with technical video masterclasses from industry experts, real live briefs from leading companies, reviews from established designers, free access to trend-leading website Stylesight, over 200 stock photography images, over 200 gorgeous materials in our textures library to work with & exclusive, ready-made, styled room sets!

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If  you have a good understanding of how to create patterns but feel that your portfolio needs refining and strengthening, then you need the new advanced course from The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design… Module 4: Building Your Professional Portfolio.

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This course has been developed in response to popular demand from graduates of Module 3, but is open to anyone who has some experience in surface pattern design and wishes to concentrate on growing their body of pattern work.

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Module 4 is an intense seven week course, which consists of five weeks of class plus two weeks of design reviews. There is no course like it in the world, and places are strictly limited, so book yours now!

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Truly, madly, deeply… Behind the scenes of our PaperLove shoot

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For me doing what you love is many things, but one of them is having time and space for creativity. And when I feel like making something I usually turn to paper as my material of choice. It is so versatile, so beautiful, and offers so many possibilities. I have also had an obsession with stationery for as long as I remember, and often write snail mail instead of emailing. So when I met book artist Rachel Hazell, and realised there was someone else just like me, it was a revelation. Through Rachel’s world of book and paper lovers I realised that it wasn’t just us, but in fact there was a whole host of people who also revere paper and all its possibilities. A veritable tribe in fact. From the moment I set foot on a remote Scottish island to make paper books with Rachel, I was hooked. So it is with absolute delight that we are launching the world’s very first online course for paper lovers: PaperLove. We are very nearly ready for class to begin on March 31, but last week had to put the final pieces together with my very favourite part of the process – filming!

We packed our car (so much stuff with a baby!) and drove north to Scotland, to film the course videos for our new online course PaperLove, with Edinburgh-based Rachel Hazell. It was a veritable feast of papery goodness, with cutting, sticking, folding, writing, stitching, chocolate eating, tea drinking and a whole lot of laughing. We were blessed to work with a brilliant team including cameraman Simon Laidlaw of Cut Mustard, Elle Decoration interiors photographer Uli Schade and make up artist Jenni Muir. Mr K was on hand to do the lunch run, clear the studio, make continuity lists and entertain baby! (Images below by Uli Schade)

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You can see some of Uli’s stunning photography in our new course brochure here:

I hope you will join us for PaperLove – if you like paper, you will absolutely love it… Class begins March 31. Find out more and register here.

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This post is part of the PaperLove blog hop, connecting over 80 bloggers from around the world in a shared love of paper, in celebration of the new PaperLove e-course. Check out the other blog hoppers’ posts here, and discover all sorts of paper goodness (Creative tutorials, love letters, poems… who knows?

Majo Bautista / Tona Bell / Louise Best / Cathy Bluteau / Jennifer Bomgardner / Giova Brusa / Lindsay Buck / Beka Buckley / Joanna Caskie / Jonathan Chapman (Mr Yen) / Halle Cisco / Sarah Clare / Cathryn Clarge / Dawn Clarkson / Rhiannon Connelly / Jenny D’Fuego / Molly Dhiman / Ian Dudley / Ayisatu Emore / Akmal Farid / Monika Forsberg / Claire Fritz-Domeney / Louise Gale / Chrissy Gaskell / Julie Hamilton / Emma Hawman / Rachel Hazell / Holly Helgeson / Claudine Hellmuth / Kim Henkel / Sarah Hoffman / Joanne Hus / Paula Joerling / Beth Kempton / Julie Kirk / Eos Koch / Katie LaClair / Kristy Lankford / Michelle Manolov / Doreen Marts / Rosie Martinez-Dekker / Tori Mears / Maria Mederios / Lise Meijer / Debbie Miller / MaryJane Mitchell / Suzy Naidoo / Grace Noel / Hannah Nunn / Camilla Olsson / Jo Packham / Rachelle Panagarry / Monette Pangan / Melanie Paul / Nicole Piar / Jen Pitta / Liz Plummer / Julie Reed / Michelle Reynolds / Lisa Rivas / Angee Robertson / Natalie Ryan / Aisling Ryan / Elisabet Sapena / Kyrrha Sevco / Jamie Sprague / Elizabeth Steele / Terri Stephens / Juniper Stokes / Mary Tanana / Maike Thoma / Linda Tieu / Gabrielle Treanor / Tammy Tutterow / Deborah Velasquez / Jordan Vinograd Kim / Cat Whipple / Brooke Witt / Katie Wood / Amelia Woodbridge

Knowing when to say no, and when to say ‘Hell yeah!”

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Here at DWYL HQ we receive emails almost weekly proposing new collaborations. We spend time evaluating each one closely, but most of the time end up saying “Thank you but we have to say no.” Sometimes this is because we simply don’t have the capacity to turn the project around in the time suggested, but more often than not it is because it doesn’t quite fit with our mission.

So what is different about those emails which get the response, “Hell yeah!”? Well partly it is if the project idea lights us up, and partly if we are excited to work with the person proposing it. It matters to us if they have their own following, as that shows their work resonates with others. And it matters to us that they have thought about our company, and why the proposal would work for us – and ultimately for you, the Do What You Love family. But in the end the decision always comes down to a gut feeling. In the end you have to ask yourself, “Does this feel like a ‘Hell yeah?’” If it does, go for it. If it doesn’t, politely walk away.

It’s the same in life outside work. Time is too precious to spend with people who don’t lift you up, doing things that don’t feel good, in places that don’t inspire you.

This month’s blog theme is ‘Love to learn’ – and we want to spend the month embracing all nuances of that word ‘learn’. As a provider of online courses of course we are big believer in the value of education, whether formal or informal. We also know from experience that if you want to do something different, or better, in an evolving world you will need to be constantly learning.

But we also want to reflect on the learning to be had in our every day lives. Learning to listen to ourselves, learning to notice the world around us, learning what makes us happy. Every day this month ask yourself, “What have I learnt today?” Your answer might surprise you.

Happy learning!
Beth and the team

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Want to learn about online marketing? Or about how to create an online course that sells? If so, read on…

Do What You Love has grown rapidly over the last three years, and in the past year alone we have sold over $1 million of online courses, supporting the dreams of thousands of people in 50+ countries worldwide.

But we didn’t always know how to create e-courses that make a real difference, or how to market our offerings and generate an income online. We had to learn it. We learnt about e-courses the hard way – by investing thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in taking other people’s, by experimenting with technology, by making mistakes and correcting them. We learnt about online marketing the easy way – by taking Marie Forleo’s B-School in the early days. We are now a proud affiliate of B-School because we know that it works – and we want to enhance your B-School experience by teaching you how to create an online course which you can then market with your new-found online marketing knowledge – the perfect combination!

So if you want to learn how to package your expertise into a profitable virtual programme, reaching people in every time zone, 24/7, and if you want to learn how to sell that expertise online, we have the perfect opportunity for you. If you take B-School with Do What You Love, together we’ll show you how.

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As a proud affiliate of B-School we are offering a special package to help you build on your B-School experience.

Having taken it myself, I know that many people come out of it with a grand plan to launch their own online course, as they realise that it can be both powerful and lucrative, allowing them to work with people all over the world without leaving their desk.

The problem is, they don’t know how to do it. Fear of technology, perceived lack of resources, writer’s block or a host of other reasons holds them back from sharing their genius with people all over the world, and getting paid well to do so.

But if you take B-School with us, we will share our secrets to building an online course which makes a difference, and makes you profit you can be proud of. This is literally priceless, because it is not on general sale.

Here’s what you get in the Do What You Love B-School bonus package:

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*Click here for the small print

Please note that in order to benefit from this bundle you need to click on THIS REGISTRATION LINK before you make your purchase.

Registration closes on Wednesday 5 March. Don’t miss out!

Register now DWYL

{PAPER} with papery giveaway!

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An assortment of potential

Over the next few Wednesdays we are delighted to welcome book artist Rachel Hazell to introduce a series of giveways for paper lovers. Rachel is a woman truly doing what she loves. She is also our collaborator our delicious new course PaperLove (starts March 31), and over the next five weeks she will be giving you an insight into each of the five themes of the course (Paper, Collage, Word, Book, Mail) and offering you the chance to win a delicious book. Enjoy! 

Now that other scrap hoarders and stationery addicts are coming out of hiding and declaring their passion, signing up for PaperLove with joy and delight, I too can come clean about the main material in my life: Paper. In nearly all of it’s forms. (Exceptions include hospital knickers, tax bills, scratchy napkins…)

Paper gives me unadulterated, uninhibited, sometimes unexpected pleasure. For fifteen years I have taught how to bind books, how to cut and fold and sew books together, how to fill them with your stories. I have travelled far, to inspiring workshop places, and tried to sculpt icebergs from paper pages. I ran out of days to make…. I love teaching and creating. What to do?

Creating an e-course about paper was the obvious solution for someone in my position – spreading PaperLove even further round the world. Fortunately Do What You Love thought so too. And now here we are, mere weeks away from the start, getting far too excited about what’s in each Treasure Box Kit, and trying out the exercises over and over again (Just checking…. heh heh…)

The general sense of celebration overflowing the page edges has reached such a peak that it’s time to pass some round.

THE FIRST GIVEAWAY

“What do reading a book, smoking a cigarette, throwing confetti and voting in an election have in common? The answer, of course, is paper. PAPER: AN ELEGY builds a museum of paper and explores its paradox – its vulnerability and durability.”

The handsome paperback

This splendid volume is utterly comprehensively convincing and can only enhance the life of anybody who has found their way to this blog post.

“A timely meditation on the very paper it’s printed on.”

Paper: An Elegy. Detail from the back cover.

If you would enjoy reading this book, pop over to Rachel’s blog HERE and enter. You will find the details of the giveaway at the end of her post. Good luck!

MATS Assignment Bootcamp February class gallery now open

Our hot new class ‘Make Art That Sells: Assignment Bootcamp‘ with art agent Lilla Rogers is underway and the work coming out of it is incredible. Check it out in the class galleries below!

Over the six months of class we will be sharing five galleries of participating artists’ responses to the monthly assignments in February, March, May, June and July 2014. The galleries will be unveiled here each month, featuring hundreds of pieces of art. If you want to find out more about any of the featured artists, just click on their image to make it larger, then click on the link above it to go to their website/blog.

FEBRUARY GALLERY

The class was challenged to create iPhone covers with cuckoo clock designs. Click here to see what fabulousness they produced:

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WANT TO JOIN IN?

If you want to get professional level assignments to stretch you to create fresh signature pieces that are ready to sell in multiple markets, then Bootcamp is for you. Although class has begun, you can still squeeze into Bootcamp if you register here*

(*Be quick! Registration is only open until Thursday 13 March, and this is the ONLY time this class will run this year!)

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Love letter to all parents

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Are you a parent? Then you are awesome. And brave.

Are you a single parent? Then you are even more awesome. And even more brave.

Our baby girl is 2 months old this week. The time has flown since she came into our lives on Christmas Day, and it really has been an amazing time. I can’t really remember what it was like not to have her in our life, and she brightens up every single day, especially now that she has learnt to laugh. And I never knew how much I loved her daddy until I saw how much he loved her. Family. What a gift.

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But, and here’s the but… I was totally unprepared for how different things would be. Of course everyone tells you that, but you never really believe it. Those of you who know me well know that I am a planner, and a ‘resource investigator’, i.e. if there’s a book on it I have read it. But none of that prepared me for having to feel my way every day, relying heavily on my intuition to work things out, and on Mr K to help me out.

Perhaps more than anything, nothing prepared me for the worry. Is she breathing? Is she hot? Is she cold? Is she hungry? Why’s she crying? Is she sleeping enough? Is she sleeping too much? And so it goes on. I guess that will evolve into “Does she have friends at school? Is her boyfriend bad news? And on and on for the rest of our lives. For someone who has never really worried about much, this is a whole new scenario for me.

Somehow, together, we have found something that looks like a rhythm. It’s messy and chaotic, and I have never danced around the room or sung so many Disney songs in my life (and she’s not even a toddler yet), but we are getting to know each other day by day and Sienna is a lovely happy baby.

Becoming a parent is a giant leap of faith. It is one of the bravest things you can do, and often you don’t realise just how much courage you need until it actually happens. Two months into this parenting lark I don’t yet have much advice to share (learning, learning, learning) but I do know this:

Every single one of you who is a parent is brave, and amazing.

And every one of you who is doing it as a single parent is, in our opinion, even more brave and amazing.

Parents, we salute you.

Beth and the team

 

Want to learn about online marketing? Or about how to create an online course that sells? If so, read on…

DWYL_BSCHOOL_ROTATING-ADVERT-GRAPHIC-5_550X200PX

Do What You Love has grown rapidly over the last three years, and in the past year alone we have sold over $1 million of online courses, supporting the dreams of thousands of people in 50+ countries worldwide.

But we didn’t always know how to create e-courses that make a real difference, or how to market our offerings and generate an income online. We had to learn it. We learnt about e-courses the hard way – by investing thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in taking other people’s, by experimenting with technology, by making mistakes and correcting them. We learnt about online marketing the easy way – by taking Marie Forleo’s B-School in the early days.

So if you want to learn how to package your expertise into a profitable virtual programme, reaching people in every time zone, 24/7, and if you want to learn how to sell that expertise online, we have the perfect opportunity for you. If you take B-School with Do What You Love, together we’ll show you how. Find out more here

The Art & Business of Surface Pattern Design: ‘Inspiring Quotations’ Competition

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Hello ABSPD community! We were so impressed with your gorgeous testimonials from our last ‘Inspiring Quotations’ competition that we have decided to run it for the second time! This is an exciting design challenge for students and alumni of the e-course as well as a chance to practice your typography skills!

The Challenge

We would love for you to create your very own beautiful typography, testimonial design! The winning designer will be given a free place on the e-course Module of their choice! (This includes 1, 2, 3 & the brand new Module 4!). Below you can find the competition requirements:

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  • Create an inspirational typographic design in your own style and media (this can be hand-drawn or created with different fonts)
  • The quote should include your own testimonial on how you have found a Module or the e-course as a whole, for example: “Maybe this course should come with a health warning as it is so addictive!”
  • Please supply a 550 pixels wide, ‘save for web’ jpg & send to [email protected] with your full name, website and social media links
  • Deadline: Midnight (GMT) Wednesday 5th March
  • You will also need to share your design on social media. This can be on our Facebook page or tweet to@MakeitinDesign or @SurfacePatternD. Use hashtags #makeitindesign, #surfacepatternecourse or #ABSPD

See below for inspiration from our previous submissions and some of my own new designs! The winner will be announced on Friday 7th March along with a supporting showcase on the Make It In Design blog the week after.

Good luck Beth and Rachael x

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