I’m back! It’s been a rough couple of weeks. They totally threw me off my groove and prevented me from posting to the blog. First I got sick. The kind where you’re wrapped in a warm blanket, drinking nothing but liquids and wishing the landscaping company would get silent trimmers and leaf blowers. Then I had this horrible back pain that prevented me from working at my computer. I could barely raise my arms, so I had to take some days off to get everything back to normal.

On top of it, my computer had a tantrum and I had to restore it to previous settings and uninstall some programs. I was a fun two weeks. Really.

I did manage to work on some graphics, but not enough to offer the sets. I didn’t want to offer half-complete sets or mediocre graphics, so I opted for not posting. My regular schedule will return next week with a new theme.

This week I’ll be posting some graphics I create for my Zazzle store (as soon as I figure out how to get the preview picture to show on my blog. LOL). Also some school related freebies. ^_^

Speaking of freebies – I created a new section for my free graphics. I want to organize them and list them all in one place. You can access it by clicking on the link on the top bar OR by clicking on the button on the sidebar.

Laters!

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After much tweaking, I’ve finally finished the new look for my blog, store and portfolio website. (If you’re reading this through a blog subscription service please click on the link to see the changes!) I’m very pleased with the new look and the new direction my blog is taking.

So, how did I get here? One day I sat down at a local cafe and decided to re-focus my business and give it some structure. You see, I was doing a bunch of graphics, but I was running around doing a piece of this and a piece of that instead of concentrating on a specific market. But, that was the past – this is the future:  Bonet Graphic Designs will now specialize in creating graphics targeted at the scrapbooking community, the hard working teachers and people who love to plan and give parties.

With that in mind, I’ve created three new sections:

Scrapbooking Mondays: every Monday there will be a new set designed for scrapbooking, be it digital or traditional. Sets will include clip art, digital stamps, patterns, etc.

Teacher Tuesdays: every Tuesday there will be a new printable set for teachers in PDF form. These sets will include: calendars, seating charts, hall passes, desk nameplates, bookmarks, notepads, etc.

TGIF- Let’s Party: every Friday there will be a new printable set for party planners (birthdays, baby showers, weddings, etc.). These sets will include: party hats, cupcake toppers, place holders, banners, goody bags, cupcake wrappers, cut-outs, invitations, etc.

Every week I’ll have a different theme from which I will create sets for each section. This also means that this blog will be updated on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Occasionally, I’ll have some freebies, like Wordpress themes, icons or miscellaneous printables.

The best way to keep updated is to: subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on Twitter (@BonetGraphics), or become our fan on Facebook (Bonet Graphics).

Here’s a sneek peek at next week’s theme:

Hope to see you then!

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Hello Everyone!

As you know, I’m working on changing my website’s design, which includes the Wordpress theme, the Cubecart store and my online portfolio section. I’m going to be doing a few changes in the store, so I’ve turned it off while I work on it. I’m also working with my hosting company to switch my domain. Anyway, the download files in the store are going to be re-located to another section, which will make them unavailable if anybody orders anything, so better safe than sorry.

The Wordpress theme is all set and ready to go. I hope to have everything up and running again by next week.

UPDATE::

The Cubecart design is done! My domain switching is done! Unfortunately, my Cubecart configuration got iffy in the process, so I had to re-install it. I lost all my written data (or I haven’t found it yet in my backup files). Oh well. I’ll have to re-upload all my files and write the descriptions. Good thing I didn’t have THAT many products at this point.

Which reminds me, the links on previous posts to my Cubecart listings are all broken now. I have to re-link them once I get all the products back into the store.

Thanks for your patience!

Stay frosty!

Changes are coming. I’m working on a new Wordpress theme and a new banner.
Yup. Yup.

Going to turn this blog around.
I have a new focus and a new purpose.

Wait for it!
It’s coming!
^_^

Here’s some exciting news: I am now part of the design team over at the AiFactory/AiVault!!!

What is the AiFactory/AiVault? It’s your place to find digital resources and vector illustrations. They have a little bit of everything: clipart. digital stamps, printables, digital papers, etc. Plus, they have FREEBIES!! Lots and lots of freebies!! LOL

You can also join the AiFactory/AiVault community and share your love of papercrafts with all the members. I specially like their weekly challenges. What some people create with stamps, color pencils and cardstock is just simply amazing!

Happy crafting!

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My beautiful cat, Emily, passed away yesterday. I wish I could tell you that she died of old age, but I can’t. She died of cancer- this stupid disease that debilitated her in less than a month and made her a shadow of her former self. Hama and I took her to the vet yesterday, so that she wouldn’t suffer anymore.

It was the hardest and most painful thing I’ve ever done in my life. But, it was also the humane thing to do. I couldn’t allow the disease to eat away at her any longer. She lost weight very fast, barely moved, didn’t eat, and developed lumps (the cancer tumors) all over her body. We spent the last weekend together, feeding her with pet syringes and bathing her with pet wash cloths. We decided to cremate her and spread her ashes somewhere- probably in Puerto Rico, since our current city is not the fondest of places for any of us.

But that is not how I want to remember her. I want to remember all the good times and all her cute mannerisms- with her little “Pom Po Pom Pon” music and her annoyed meowing when you petted her too much. She had a long happy life with us and she truly was la gata mas linda del mundo.

Emily spying something that moves

I used to wonder why Mustang (my newest cat) had arrived at my door. Now I know that God sent him my way. I mean, out of ALL the doors in my apartment complex, he chose to meow at mine and he refused to leave. I’m glad he is here. Not only does he help fill the void, but he keeps my other cat, Spooky company.

I miss her terribly. She will always have a special place in my heart.

Hello Everyone!

I know- I’ve been absent for a while. All I can say, without getting into personal details of my life, is that life sends unexpected curve balls your way and you have to deal with them and all the consequences that they stir up in their trajectory. My Christmas vacation wasn’t the escape to Paradise that I had hoped and planned for, but I still got to enjoy some part of it and share moments with my family and friends- which is the most important part.

Anyhoo. Thank you for reading and for hanging on patiently. The last 10 greeting cards of the 30 Days of Design will be forthcoming in the next days. I’m also working on some original designs using Illustrator, which I’ll be posting here soon.

Now, with all of that out of the way:

¡FELIZ DIA DE LOS TRES REYES MAGOS!

I know, the card says “Merry Christmas”, but it still has the three wise men on it. ^_^

Later days!

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That’s where I’ll be for the next couple of days!

Why, you ask? I’ll be in town for the 99th Annual NCTE Convention!

I was lucky enough to go last year when they held it at San Antonio, TX. My close friend, Prisca from the Once Upon A Book blog did a presentation and I went for some moral support. But you know what? I had a lot of fun too! Got lots of books (some free, some I paid for), I got to see lots of different presentations, learned a lot about what is going on in the world of teaching and I even got to see some famous writers! (Hey, I got some autographed copies of my favorite The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell). I’m really looking forward to this year’s convention. Not only will I get to see Philadelphia, but I’m sure I’ll get lots of wonderful books and meet lots of wonderful people. ^_^

Someday I hope to attend a Graphic Design convention. I’m sure they are just as fun as the English teachers meeting.

On a related note: I won’t be online from Thursday to Sunday (I’ll be too busy collecting stuff and catching the sites at Philadelphia), but I do have Internet access on my cell phone now. So I’ll be checking my e-mail and Twitter accounts occasionally during my mini-vacation.

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Hello!

I’m making some changes to my website and I’ll be moving the BLOG portion of this site to a new address. This may result in some broken links here and there or losing some entries ( hopefully not). ^_^

Our new address (URL):

http://www.bonetgraphicdesigns.com/blog/

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I went to the CHA Craft Supershow in Orlando over the weekend. Most of my hobbies, outside of working on Photoshop, include doing a variety of crafts. Most of them are papercrafts, but I also do some polymer clay and the occasional stamping. So, how was the show?

The Good

- Tons of booths with lots of activities (make-and-take) for all levels of crafters.
- Lots of raffle opportunities and door prizes.

The Bad

- The line of Day 1 was incredibly long, but they kept us happy by passing some freebies
- Most of the make-and-take were time consuming and you had to wait around for people to finish in order to get a try
- There wasn’t a way to get the make-and-take goodies without doing the project, so you couldn’t customize them to your liking, everybody did the same thing (in most cases), and you had to do them in a hurry. I don’t like to craft like this. I like taking my time, choosing my themes, doing it my way and not having a bunch of people looking over your shoulder as you work.
- It should have been called the Scrapbooking Supershow. There were no polymer clay booths. The yarn booths were few. There were no booths dedicated to cake decorating (except for one JoAnn’s demonstration with cookies)
- The prices were a bit high, not enough “show specials”

What I Got For Free

- A tote bag from Provocraft (everybody got one) with a promotion for their new Gypsy handheld design studio.
- The Learning Light -yellow from ottlite: I picked a colored pebble from the jar and got this prize. It comes with stickers so you can add some personality to it, but I prefer to keep it yellow.
- EZ Cuts It! kit: I got this from the JoAnn’s booth just for trying the product on Day 1. It includes the EZ Cuts It! machine, a bag of foam alphabet letters, a sheet of glittery foam, and a pack of foam zoo animals
- Bamboo knitting needles in two sizes: one big and one small
- Tape measure from Clover
- Two knitting magazines
- A sample of Art Calendar magazine
- Make it Fun! T-shirt from the Styrofoam booth
- Two mini-jars of Extreme Glitter from FolkArt (gold & rose): I can’t wait to see how these turn out! I’m itching to buy some black and orange to make a Halloween sign for my apartment door.
- Lots of patterns

What I Bought

- One Crafter’s Companion: I had to have one! It makes creating boxes for my projects a lot easier. Plus it embosses and creates envelopes.
- One 12×12 clear storage box (papers not included)
- Eleven Foulard scarves from the Antique Collection (they were going for a dollar each, I had to get one in all the colors and some for gifts)

The Booths I Liked

- DiyBangles: turn a wooden bangle into your own custom made bangle. I’m itching to get some extra bangles to do all sorts of designs on them
- Photo Pearls: turn any picture into a pixilated version and create it with the nabbi beads. Their portrait of President Obama was awesome! Below is the make-and-take I did using their product. I spent an hour standing next to my friend while I created this because all the chairs were taken. (I went to this show with my friend Prisca from the Once Upon a Book. She made one of these too. Check it out over on her blog.)

- Easy Arranger: a circular wire net for holding your flower arrangements in place. It can also be used for hair embellishments and other craft ideas. I loved the cupcake center piece example that they had on display.I made this flower corsage at their booth.

- Styrofoam: you can make all sorts of things with their product, including a picture frame. I made this one to hang in my apartment.

- Scrapblog: I liked this idea, though I still haven’t tried it. I have a lot of digital photos in my PC that are just sitting there not really doing anything. This service allows me to arrange my pictures as if I was doing a scrapbook, but without having to buy ALL those stickers, punches and papers.
- Little Windows: beautiful photo jewelry that you can put on almost anything
- BagBundle: an excellent way to stay organized
- Dianna Effner Porcelain Dolls: had some cute babies and doll faces that could be made from a very soft clay
- Craftwell: one of the many personal cutting systems, but this one draws and cuts
- The Queen’s Ink: they had some beautiful stamps, but their prices were too high
- The Crop Shoppe: this booth had the Sizzix Big Shot Machine for $69.99. I spent a while learning how the machine works and getting samples. I didn’t buy it (though it was on special) because if I buy the machine then I have to buy a bunch of die cuts and embossing plates. It’s just not worth it at this time.

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