We normally share our comings and goings with our subscribers via email, but we had SO much to mention, so many exciting things we’re working on, so many future projects and so many changes, we thought it best to put it in a blog post along with pictures and share it with everybody. Expect good things for 2024!
Personal updates
Lisa is now living in Scotland and has braved her first, rather brutal, winter there. Oh the stories that she could tell about that first winter glamping in the wilds of Scotland. (Check out a sampling of the photos from the drive to the new land.)
The blog took a longer break than we had originally intended, mostly because winter became a game of Survival of the Fittest for Lisa, but we’ve not been idle in the meantime as you’ll see below.
A sampling of photos from the drive to Scotland.
New Cards
Not only are we now offering our cards for wholesale (we’ll do a separate post on that in just a minute), but we’ve added a whole new range of cards including two using Naomi’s digital art. We tend to do that at the beginning of the year because we need to bump our Christmas cards off our shop front page, so that’s usually the first thing we do. Some of them are on our shop front, but some have already gone into the general pages of cards.
Here are some of them:
We’ve also improved some of our old ones and deleted some we thought we didn’t really need. It was a massive cleanup to get ready for …
We are now trialling Pinterest to see if there’s any interest in our cards, notebooks, gifts, artwork and designs there. We’ve only been on for a few weeks but so far, so good. People are seeing our posts, at least. You can follow us there if you like. We are Willow Lane Art and Design. It really helps us when people follow us or pin our posts, so if you get a spare minute, jump over and take a look.
Notebooks – Hardcovers
We have a few new hardcover notebooks now. Look for Peaceful Poppies, for instance that come in three editions: A notebook, a journal and a prayer journal. And then there’s the popular art Cosy Camping that we’ve now turned into a notebook and print. (Look for it as a ceramic and enamel mug as well, and a set of cards.)
We’ve also gone back to selling some through Amazon for faster shipping times, so if you type in Willow Lane Notebooks, you’ll see some of our range.
Soft covers
We’ve been asked by several people for a range of cheaper soft covers. People wanted soft covers that still had beautiful art but could be purchased en masse for conferences, or gifts, or scribbled in and shoved in bags without worrying too much about what you put in them or how they’re used. While we were always going to be high quality hardbacks, we realised that a range of soft covers was a good idea. So we’ve created a pilot range. We’re only printing these and selling them through Amazon because it just wasn’t cost-effective any other way. All other options included high shipping costs that wouldn’t allow us to sell them affordably.
A new book
Speaking of books, Lisa just worked on her first job as an illustrator for a book, and Naomi did the cover design and all the interiors for it. It is a particularly special project because it is a book our father wrote to the two of us and our older sister, Kristie, many years ago about his journey of following God in his life, part memoirs, part advice.
It was such a privilege to be able to illustrate it for him and to design the book itself. And it brought the two of us back to the days when we ran a small press with our father, the three of us producing many books together.
“Along the Way” has fourteen black and white sketches in it. You can see on the right Naomi’s gorgeous cover design.
We’ll tell you more about the book when it’s out and post a sample chapter. It’s coming very, very soon and should be available internationally through Amazon.
Another New Book
We are about to embark on a very special project doing a photography book based on a photo shoot Lisa did back in Australia. A book was already done for the project, but it was only a gift to the client at the time to commemorate the project. We want to do it again and properly as a piece of coffee-table art for others to enjoy. No words (probably); just photos. This is a bit of a nostalgic journey for Lisa, something near and dear to her.
We’ll (hopefully) tell you more about it as things progress.
The original book cover (a taster for you):
New Prints
Lisa has also been working on adding more prints to the collection. She has a lot of art but cards and notebooks have been our strong focus up to now. Her plan is to focus more on prints over the next few months and update our range.
And, on top of that, we’ve created our first-ever photographic print. You can read about the print here and see the fantasy art that was based on this.
Mugs
And lastly … We have some new mugs in our range as well, including the absolutely gorgeous Harey (see below), available in two colours, and a new mug using Naomi’s digital art called “Vintage Balloons”.
See our mugs here.
A tip: Did you know our shop front usually shows our latest products? If you want to see what’s new, drop back from time to time. www.thelonelycreative.com/shop
About the Author: Lisa Saul
