Annual Gift Sale begins

My annual gift sale has begun!

This October, I thought, I would catch up with all the things that fell by the wayside during my September 'painting a camper a day' project. It has not quite worked out that way. Even though, I was lucky enough to tackle a couple of projects from my to-do list.

I have been busy designing and ordering gift items to fill my web-store for the upcoming Christmas and holiday season.

I packaged more greeting cards, nice quality- thick and glossy with vibrant colours. The sought-after calendars have also arrived and orders are coming in already. New this year are mouse pads, a cute hostess gift or stocking stuffer or 'thank you' for a vintage camper fan.

I am still waiting for a couple more items and look forward by mid November to have my shop all filled to the brim.

To have a web-store is more work than what it seems. (I am learning)- first, design and order your items, then after shipments arrive, inspect and package and photograph items. Then photo edit items to smaller scale for web, then upload them and write your store description.

I just had an unexpected 'surprise':

While my dear hubby takes my bunch out to trick-or-treat, I was hoping to post my greeting cards online in my gift shop. It has taken me over an hour to take the photos a couple of days ago and I wanted now to edit them for web... Oh, well, they are nowhere to be found! I must have deleted them- both from my camera AND from my computer (probably while downloading). Oh, my, my artist mind has gotten the better of me today... So, tomorrow, I will go at it again and take more photos- and hopefully it won't rain, haha!

Update: I JUST found the 'lost' photos while searching for this family photo below- so, guess what: I'll be editing and posting as soon as I am putting my period on this sentence, haha! Have a good week everyone and Happy Halloween!

Here's a family pic we took recently... wishing you a wonderful week!

Calendar Voting Winners

The voting to select the feature glamper paintings for my monthly 2017 calendar is over!

Today I can share the calendar voting winners with you!

So many people have participated, asked friends to vote for their camper and invited others to cast their vote. It was so much fun!

There were a few minor hiccups, too. But I learn as I go and hope next time around I can have those straightened out. Actually, the first day my website seemed very slow and unresponsive and I called tech support. They checked and all was set-up correctly. Well, I then checked and saw a spike in visitors- and with everyone trying to vote, this might have caused my little website to wave the 'white flag' of surrender, haha! Thanks though for all of you who stuck it out with my newbie-troubles here and letting me know what paintings you liked best.

You can see all the 12 favorites that will be feature models in the calendar on my website blog by clicking here.

Thank you everyone again for participating- by sharing your campies, by voting, by sharing and by your encouragement along the way! You are so dear and I am so blessed you have taken time to journey along! Thank you, thank you!                                                Simone

1956 Kencraft Christmas Camper

1956 Kencraft Christmas Camper

orig. watercolor 11x14in (mounted to 16x20 archival matting and backing)

more info and purchase: click here

The month of October just seems to fly by in lightning speed- already half the month is over!!! Where has the time gone? Here I am, getting ready for the Christmas Season!

Well, I know, this might seem a bit early, doesn't it? But I have started to order so many things in and they are specialty print items which take time. I want to have my gift-giving shop ready to go by November as many people order online and have their gifts shipped. 

So, in the spirit I just finished my first Christmas Camper Painting! I hope a few more will come!

The owner of this 1956 Kencraft submitted the photo as part of my September Camper-a-Day Project. Somehow I couldn't make out it's Christmas Decor in the small thumbnail pic that opened in the email, so I dismissed it! Lucky for me, she sent me a note about her campie after reading my call-out for Holiday Glampers. And I'm so glad she did!

I was still looking for a feature holiday camper to include in my 2017 Calendar to fill the December slot- and was so glad to have received this photo! 

As I am talking about it again, I want to give a great, big 'thank you' to all of you who so generously shared your campie photos with me! I enjoy each and every one so much and would love paint them all if I would have the time! Thank you again!

If you are interested in gifts for the glamper in your life, I invite you to check out my shop again beginning of November. I will be adding many more gift ideas starting at $15 and up.

Red VW Camper

Red VW Camper

orig. watercolor, 11x14in approx. (matted to 16x20 archival mat and backing board)

more info and purchase: please click here

Today's post is about this darling red VW Camper. It was parked at our campground this summer and the owners are local people! This old VW is not road worthy anymore. The owners have her towed each year to the campground for an annual VW meet! How cool is this?! The rest of the year, she resides in their backyard as a special guest. The owners have lived in her for months at a time  and travelled the continent living full-time in this tiny camper! Yeah, the good ol' times!

I couldn't resist painting it, but didn't have time this summer. But now with the camper-a-day just over, I had to get going and include her in the voting for my 2017 Vintage Camper Calendar.

Oh, yes,the voting: Please stop on over to the Voting Page and 'like' your favorite paintings from the September Camper Painting project! Voting is open to all and I'd like to know from you which paintings you'd like to see in the calendar! There will be a give-away as well:

Each camper-owner who wins, will receive a free calendar! Plus 3 of my newsletter subscribers will win a calendar as well! So, please spread the word to make this a fun voting- selecting your favorites!

Now, more exciting news: 

As a special 'Thank You' I will be offering 20 Greeting cards FREE with each painting sold $400 or more! My print-house has made it possible for me to order smaller quantities and direct-ship, so I am finally able to offer this great special to you!

Why not treat yourself to an early Christmas gift, a truly one-of-a-kind piece of art, artist direct and made with love?! And enjoy 20 FREE Greeting cards to keep or give-away?

See many paintings in my Shop.

Special Commissions welcome- please drop me a line (allow 4-8 weeks for completion before Christmas).

Camper Painting Project September 2016

September has come to a close, and my Camper Painting Project September 2016 has successfully finished, too. Here in a collage featuring all campers and paintings that I have painted for this project. There might be one or two more added later, but here you have them all from September 2016.

I promised to host a voting where you all can choose your favorite campies to be selected the feature campers for my 2017 calendar.

Right now, I am still working behind the scenes to get that voting platform installed and working *yikes*. So let's hope by Monday or Tuesday I'll be up and running. I will announce that on this blog and via my social platforms (FB and Instagram @SimoneRitterArt). It will be so much fun and I hope you can participate!

Please keep an eye out for it!

Thank you to all of you who submitted your wonderful photos- I was overwhelmed with your many, many photos that you sent in! If I had another month to paint, I couldn't even feature them all! It was a great honour to paint each and every one of them, and to share a story with each painting. I hope it brought a smile to your daily life- it sure brought a lot of joy to mine!

Thank you again for journeying with me and stay tuned for the voting after the weekend!

Happy Trails!                    Simone