I’ve added five new backgrounds:

Also a wallpaper:

One of these days I am going to figure out something productive to do with all my designs besides just post them on the internet. I feel like this website is kind of a hole-in-the wall.

Love,
Sarah

Greetings,

I’ve added four new backgrounds to the site, and they can be linked to directly.

There’s a new feature here as well- Free printable address labels. Just type in your address and you’ll instantly have your own custom labels. There’s an assortment of twelve designs, all done in red. Here’s a preview:

Please note that this label maker only works in Firefox or Internet Explorer. I tested it in Safari and Opera, but sadly it doesn’t work, and I am not sure if it works in Google Chrome because for some reason Google Chrome doesn’t have a print preview. I had to write this little tool using the very basic level of Javascript I know, so bugs were inevitable.

Till later,
Sarah

Hello.

I’ve added a new wallpaper, available in three sizes, and here is a preview:

There are five new backgrounds, as seen below:

The Gallery Hanahou show closes on the 27th, so my crazy little embroidery adventure is just about over.
For some inexplicable reason, my Price is Right embroidery went a little viral. It got a mention from BoingBoing, Pop Sugar, CRAFT, BuzzFeed, and a whole host of other blogs. It also wound up (albeit very briefly) on the front page of the Huffington Post, between pictures of Obama, Jesus, and Bono.

And with all that press, this website got more hits than a Cheech and Chong movie.

I really didn’t see that one coming.

-Sarah

Howdy!

I did a little remodeling to the site, so now I’ve got pink and gray as the main colors. Gray is the color of classiness, you know. I read an article a while ago that asked "How many graphic designers can the world need?" I decided to put a variation of that quote as the subtitle of this site.

I’ve made six new backgrounds that you can you use to decorate your website, blog, or profile. Three of them are kind of St. Patrick’s Day themed (it’s a little early, I get it, but there are not nearly enough holidays that celebrate both booze and redheads).

I experimented a bit with making 3D objects. They make a very cool effect, but I probably won’t be making too many of them in the future because my poor old computer doesn’t have the energy to handle them.

All 82 backgrounds are now available for direct linking, so when you click on any background you will see the necessary coding. Have fun!

I made another embroidery. I thought this fellow looked so dapper that he warranted his own embroidery. It’s based (loosely) on a photograph taken in 1915, so this gentleman was probably born 100 years before I was.

Ciao,
Sarah

In honor of every single girl’s least favorite holiday, I’ve added four new backgrounds done entirely in red.

There are two other new backgrounds available (in addition to the other 70) that are a little less Valentine’s themed, if you’re not in the mood to celebrate. There’s six new iPhone wallpapers available as well.

I’ve added a new section to the site that has seven new printable papers that you can use for scrapbooks, collages, origami, wrapping paper, or anything else you can possibly think of to do with pretty paper. They are high quality PDF files that can be printed on your regular inkjet printer, or can be loaded onto a USB drive and taken into a print shop. They are all free for personal use.
I just wanted to say a quick thanks to any subscribers of the RSS feed. Last month was Totally Severe’s busiest month ever, due in no small part to the fine folks at CRAFT magazine, who mentioned my embroideries on two occasions.

Don’t forget about Forget Me-Not! The above embroideries will also be for sale at the show. I am curious to find out if a market exists for hand-sewn portraits of minor television celebrities.

Yours,
Sarah

Greetings,
I’ve sent off my little embroideries to New York City, and so very soon they will be on display in a gallery on Broadway. A bit more info about the show is below, or you can visit the gallery’s website.

The great part about all this is that I get to brag that I was in a show on Broadway. Much in the same way that I brag about attending Stanford (I was there for three days being trained how to make a high school yearbook. Really, does it get any nerdier than yearbook camp?).

Here are links to the other artists participating in the show:
Aimee Ray, Apol Lejano-Massebieau, Diem Chau, Emily Eibel, Emily Katz, Heidi Kenney, Jenny Harada, Jessica Marquez, Joetta Maue, Kate Durkin, Katherine Shaughnessy, Kayte Terry, Kris Garland, Kristen Rask, Mary Yaeger, Molly Dilworth, Nicole Licht, Orly Cogan, Pamela Davis, samski*art, Shanna Fiorucci, Shannon Rankin, Vanessa Lauria, Vivienne Strauss

Anyway… I’ve added four new very bright and very eclectic backgrounds to the site, and here they are:

There are now 70 different backgrounds available. I am thinking about making some free scrapbook/craft paper with some of these designs in the future, if I can manage to keep the quality up and the file sizes down. No promises yet.

Ciao for now,
-Sarah

Howdy visitors!
I have been busy sewing some new embroideries because I was invited to participate in an embroidery show at Gallery Hanahou in the SOHO district of New York City. They have a show called ‘Forget Me-Not’ and I am sending in three of my embroideries. I live 3,000 miles away from New York, so I won’t get to see my poor little creations on display, but if you just happen to live in or near the area you should definitely visit. The show runs from February 6th through the 27th. Here’s a look at what I’ve been making over the past week:

Anyway, I’ve also added two new backgrounds, and a new section of printable silhouettes. I don’t know if anyone will actually use them, but at least they were fun to make. I used public domain images for the profiles, so the silhouettes are mostly of Civil War soldiers and wanna-be Gibson girls.

THAT IS ALL.

-Sarah

Happy holiday greetings!

I’ve added one new background and one new wallpaper. The newest wallpaper fits into the possibly running theme of ‘adorable-animals-that-look-like-paper-cutouts,’ and now I know the joy of spending a Saturday night trying to draw lipstick (à la Clara Bow) onto a cartoon reptile.
I’ve also uploaded some brand new holiday gift tags. I don’t suppose gift tags are all that useful one day before Christmas, but there you have them.

There’s also a small collection of iPhone wallpapers available on my Flickr account that you are free to download. Since iPhone wallpapers are only useful to a small percentage of the population, I’m posting them in the Flickr pool to give them a better shot at exposure. I myself do not actually own an iPhone, so somebody has to please tell me if these things actually work.

Also, now that this site is a blog I feel a little obligated to find some good ummm… blog friends. The other day a lovely site called iDIY gave a shout-out to my little Christmas Stationery collection, and I somehow got an email in my inbox telling me they had linked to my site. I think my own blog emailed me. There’s probably a technical explanation for this, but I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s ***BLOG MAGIC***!!! My point is, if you or someone you know has a kooky graphic design website and wouldn’t mind being associated with this place, then please leave a link in the comments.

Happy Holidays!
-Sarah

Two new wallpapers, and one new background.
One of said wallpapers answers the age old question, "Do bears crap in the woods?"

The answer is: Occasionally.
Also there’s this wallpaper, which is bound to confuse.

That’s all for now.
-Sarah

Greetings!
I’ve added four new backgrounds, including one that was actually drawn by hand.

Lately I’ve been exploring some get-rich-quick schemes. My favorite so far has been Google Adsense, which (theoretically) paid me $0.49 for doing nothing! Hurray! Sadly, I removed the advertisements once I learned that at my current rate of income it would have taken 16 years before I got my first check. Another hiccup in the plan was that the advertisements were totally unrelated to the content of the site. When I first posted the ads, I got some pretty hilarious results.

Buy a car! Date a Muslim! Buy some anti-wrinkle cream! Treat your spinal decompression! Ever wanted to have your DNA tested in the Netherlands? Now you can! Or perhaps since you enjoy free stationery you’d also like to purchase a cryogenic processor! It’s no wonder I didn’t make any damn money.

The robots used to index websites are not that bright, and my site has two things robots do not understand: images and eclecticism. Robots index text, ie not pictures, and this site is like 90% pictures. Also, when robots are confronted with posts like this one, entitled “Ricky Gervais in a Cavernous Laundromat,” their robot brains explode and they assume my visitors are viewing the post because they want to own their own laundromat. Despite having a wealth of original content and getting a healthy number of daily hits, search engines don’t seem to know quite what to do with me or my wacky site.
This is by no means a recent problem for me. Amazon.com’s robots seem to have the same problem when they recommend books for me to read. I know this because they suggested I read an English-Swahili dictionary and something written by Ann Coulter. No matter how much I tell the iTunes “Genius” that I don’t own or want to own any Frank Sinatra music, it never seems to learn. C’est la vie.

In conclusion, Google owes me 49 cents that I will never ever see. Google’s going on the same list as that kid in middle school who borrowed 50 cents from me and never paid it back. You know who you are.*

*Actually you probably don’t. But I hope you enjoyed your free chocolate milk.

Yours,
Sarah