So, I stumbled onto the free Japanese printable stationery goldmine. I found soooooooooooo many adorable envelopes, letter sets, memo sheets, calendars and more. Take a look at some envelopes to enclose gifts of money for the new year. Killer cute <3

I'm thinkin' "THAAAAT's it! It's really way past time for me to design my own stationery." I'm excellent at designing adorable characters. I even have a few just laying around: Vice and Virtue (tiny devil and angel), Hannah (an adorable little witch who uses a feather duster instead of a broom because she's so small), and her friend Bugs, the fox. They're currently languishing in my sketchbooks and sketchbox.

I have so many ideas for various art projects right now. Arg! My current plan for 2009 is to wake up about 3 hours before the Studio Kensai workday starts so that I can work on my own stuff. (More ideas: Oiran stationery. Kokeshi stationery with my characters.) I know I'll always have more ideas than I have time, but if I don't get to actually draw, design and create, I'm going to explode!

Today was actually a lot less busy than I expected. I did get to cut out an entire cow's worth of Locksley quivers. I didn't spend 6-7 hours working though. Another small success: I can cut out the deep "u" at the top of the quivers with just the cutters now, instead of having to go back in with a knife. That saves a little time.