Lifestylist® Blog

Summer is officially here, and many of us are wondering how to keep the kids (or guests) entertained. When I was much younger, we used to go to the beach on Lake Erie with my Aunt Julie who is an artist. She always had great ideas on how we could do art projects using found objects, and we used to love making animals by gluing river rocks together then adding color and faces using Sharpie markers.

When I started my first company - Memory Merchandising - I wanted to stand out from the crowd so I made all of my own business cards using rubber stamps for an imprint that I then tinted using Prismacolor pencils. I've been told that people still have kept some of those because they thought they were so unique.

Today while I was web surfing I found two great websites full of ideas that can keep all of us busy for the entire year, if not more!

Sharpie Uncapped is a really fun site that has all kinds of ideas on how you can get creative with a Sharpie. I personally love the mugs, and think I may be heading out to Staples today to buy some new colors and play. I also love how they play up the talents of various artists and how they are really embracing the art community. If we had more companies like this the world might become a more colorful place.

Prismacolor has an amazing site as well, and I can't wait to spend more time on it. You can upload your works of art to be showcased on their site, and a feature I really love is the color coordinator. You can use a virtual color wheel and they will tell you which of their products matches that color.

Congratulations to both of these companies for having websites that just aren't about selling but offer great information that anyone can appreciate and use. I have some thank-you cards I need to send out - think I'll be trying some of their ideas and making some handmade ones! Lifestylist Designed greeting cards here I come!