Rarely in our lives do we get to meet someone highly inspirational, unbelievably witty and funny, and yet so personal . . .  let alone get the chance to work with such a person every day!  Well . . . all of us at who work with Mary Engelbreit are blessed as we get the best of both worlds.  When you consider her massive achievements in the world of social expression, home furnishings, and overall licensing, we feel truly honored to witness all that she creates on a daily basis and to be a part of that world.  And yet she faces each day with an unabashed sense of humor and style which is reflected in her artwork – that of an everyday woman (albeit one that runs a multimillion dollar business, deals with a Studio full of crazy people, and has the same trials and tribulations of any working Mom and wife in America).

We marvel each day when Mary brings in her newest creations, and continue to scratch our heads wondering how anyone could be so creative and inventive after 30 plus years in this business.  We love what she does, we love working with her, and we love having her as a friend!

And now Mary is being honored with the Greeting Card Association’s highest award – the LOUIE for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement!  How fitting for a woman known and loved throughout the world!

Mary . . . on behalf of everyone at the Studio, and your fans everywhere, CONGRATUALTIONS on bringing so much joy, fun and inspiration into our lives, for being who you are, and for deciding to pursue art as a career!  We are so happy for the acknowledgment the industry is giving to you!

Well, HERE’S an awkward subject to talk about. Please don’t hate me for bringing it up. You can hate me for bringing up other issues, and plenty of you do, but this one is an artistic problem, so I think it’s a legitimate subject for this venue.

I was talking to several artist friends of mine and we were all commiserating about the business we have chosen. Some are on Etsy selling their wares, some are licensed artists like me, and a few only sell through galleries. We LOVE it and wouldn’t do anything else unless forced to by circumstances beyond our control. One of those circumstances is this: while we appreciate SO MUCH that people like our work and often tell us so, we can’t continue to create said work unless people actually BUY it occasionally. There. I said it. I know— crass commercialism. But there it is.

In the case of my “fine artist” friends, they realize their art is expensive and will only sell to a handful of particular buyers. They have come to terms with this, and have developed relationships with buyers and galleries, and they do pretty well, all things considered.

The artists who sell on Etsy usually have other things to keep them afloat, and they also try to only make a few things at a time or make things to order, so they’re not drowning in unsold product.

Oddly enough, the artists that are most affected seem to be the licensed artists. People see the things in stores and think, “Hey, these are cute. Maybe I’ll get one later.” Of course I do this myself; it’s called “shopping”.  Unfortunately for an artist, if this happens too often, the company producing the item, who paid the artist a licensing fee, doesn’t make their money back and they very quickly stop production.  When there is no artist involved, and therefore no extra licensing fee, they’re not so quick to stop production.  To me, it seems this process should be completely reversed! Give the thing you spent more money on more time to get out there and find an audience! But not only that—- if they pull a product because it’s not selling fast enough, they just assume that artist is a dud and they won’t produce anything else, either.

The other problem is that companies that have already spent money on a licensing fee are reluctant to spend any more money on publicizing the product. It’s a vicious circle! How can you buy it if you don’t know it’s out there?? How are people supposed to find out about it if its only out there for 10 minutes??

So it seems that the first two groups of artists, who are more in control of how they sell their art, are able to be a little more relaxed about things. Licensed artists (and their customers!) are at the mercy of both manufacturers and retailers. We are not relaxed about anything. Ever.

I know no one can afford to buy everything they want. But if you really, really like an artist’s work, and you have a little extra spending money, show your support, not just by liking it, but by putting your money where your like is!

We’ve been getting a lot of questions and comments lately like, “Why don’t you bring back your nativity scene?” Or “You should make your dishes (cookie jars, dolls, etc.) again.”

I thought I should explain what exactly it is that we do here at Mary Engelbreit Studios. We don’t manufacture anything. I draw pictures, and then we hope ( and make a million phone calls and presentations) and wish and pray that some company will decide to license my artwork to put on their product.

Believe me, we would like nothing more than to have our designs on every product imaginable, like we used to! But things have changed, as they inevitably do. Now most companies only want to license if they have a retailer already lined up to carry it. And retailers only seem to want things that people have seen on their favorite TV shows or in movies. This is why you are able to find all kinds of Swamp People and Twilight merchandise (lucky you!), but very little of mine in any of the big retailers.

I, of course, think the retailers are being extremely shortsighted about this, and are ignoring a HUGE base of shoppers— like yourselves—- but I have no control over the situation. Neither do any of the other fabulous artists who are trying to license their work. And trust me, we are all missing out on what would be truly amazing products, if the retailers and manufacturers would just open their minds a little bit, and realize most people are smarter and have more sophisticated taste than popular TV shows would indicate.

I also believe people have longer attention spans than stores give you credit for. Leave product on the shelves longer than 4 weeks, for crying out loud! (Although, giving credit where credit is due, Target has done that with the wonderful Rachel Ashwell and Dwell Studio).  Let artists build a following. Thanks to all of you, I’ve been around for 35 years, but believe it or not, in our “Whats new? What’s new? What’s new?” culture, that is seen as a detriment by the big retailers.

The other sad side of this is that there are many fewer small gift stores than there used to be, because of the competition from the big box stores and because of the economy. This makes manufacturers leery of producing anything they don’t already have a commitment for, since the small “mom and pop” stores tend to come and go quickly.

Sigh. Whine.

For the second act of my career, I’d love to get into manufacturing and produce all the things you and I both want to see in the stores! But that’s a whole different business. Right now, we still have lots of new products coming out all the time, and we’ll certainly keep you posted as to when and where you can buy them.  But if one day you wake up and think, ” I’d sure like to start some kind of manufacturing business”, give me a call. My mind is always open!

So you thought the paper dolls in the magazine were fun, eh? Well, we are introducing our brand new paper doll app for the iPad today, called Breitville, and these digital dolls can actually speak! You can dress them, talk to them,  pick out houses for them to live in, decorate those houses, take them to the playground and the beach, and put on shows! Once you make a show, you can send that video to family and friends. And I can work it, so that tells you how easy it is!

Our friends at Auryn developed this app based on our most popular dolls from the magazine, including—of course— Ann Estelle. My favorite part, though, is decorating the houses. Some things never change.

Give it a try! It’s a whole new way to play with paper dolls!

Buy the app here! http://bit.ly/paperDoll

And this week, we are giving away two free copies of the app! So enter the giveaway now!

And check out these videos we created explaining the new app!

I really loathe this time of year. The charm of the holidays is long gone and all we have to look forward to, realistically, is 2 more months of winter. Sure, the first 2 weeks of February are taken up with Valentine’s Day (my favorite holiday!), and there is always the promise of spring break at the end of March, when, if you’re lucky, you can go someplace warm and pretend it’s summer, but basically it’s the longest, darkest, boring-est part of the year. In my opinion.

So I get through it by looking at photos of gardens no one could possibly maintain without the help of at least 5 professional gardeners and wait impatiently for spring. In the meantime, I work on cards, calendars, and books for release sometime in the future, buy pots of forced spring bulbs at the grocery store , and try not to look out the window.

A girl can dream, right?

~Mary

I was working on this drawing (above) when my 12 year old daughter, Mikayla, wandered into the studio. She took one look and rolled her eyes. “Mom”, she said, “you have GOT to stop drawing these creepy looking ladies and those old fashioned clothes. Draw some young girls, in modern clothes from, say, this century. Maybe have them on their phones or doing something a YOUNG PERSON would do.”

Since I had just been wishing I could actually have the dress that I drew on the Queen Of Stress, I was somewhat insulted, but then thought the kid might have a point. And it couldn’t hurt to try to get those young whippersnappers wanting to spend their parents’ money on some Mary Engelbreit swag for themselves, could it? (Is “swag” still a word?) So I drew these 3 hip young things, on their phones, and sure enough, Mikayla and her friends loved them! I also drew an all-over pattern to go with them, of their tiny little dogs, because what girl, no matter what her age, can resist tiny little dogs?? The collection is cleverly called “Girls On Their Phones With Their Tiny Little Dogs”.

We’ll see where they show up– phone cases? Fabric? Makeup bags? But at least I momentarily  made my daughter think I was a little bit cool and not a complete lost cause. And as any mother of a 12 year old can tell you, that is no small feat.

But I still want that dress.

~Mary

I’m sure you’ve had one or two situations in your life that are just hard to move past. My husband Phil and I had one a while ago– your basic betrayal by a supposed friend– that we simply could not get over, even though we knew that would be the healthy and intelligent thing to do. The situation had ended, there was nothing more we could do about it, it was long past time to let it go and yet we found ourselves again and again saying, “if only we had done this” or ” we should have said that” or– my favorite– “we will never talk about this again”.

After our five millionth seven hundredth and sixty seventh time discussing the bleak event and all the shoulda, woulda, coulda moments we missed, we decided it really had taken up as much of our lives as we were willing to give it.

To commemorate the occasion of our letting go, I drew this picture for us. It hangs in our kitchen for the time being, reminding us that we have indeed moved on and can now spend our time planning our future, unencumbered by regret, anger, sadness, or jerks. It also reminds me that I really, really want a coat like this in real life.

Life is short! Be happy! Move on!

This image will be available as a print on the website by the end of the week and is available now as a magnet, in case you’d like a little reminder of your own.

~Mary

New year, new opportunities, new chances. I love starting over!  I love that feeling of a fresh start, and that things will be different now, (even if that feeling doesn’t last long as reality sets in). Too late for reality! The changes have already got their foot in the door, and things WILL be different, even if the changes aren’t quite as grand as we hoped on New Year’s Eve. We’ll all be moving forward whether we make resolutions or not—- may as well do it as well and as positively as we possibly can!

My resolution is to step away from the iPad and actually experience things. Learn new crafting techniques, go to plays and circuses, go outside for no other reason than to just be outside. How hard can it be? And how fun will it be??! I can’t wait, and that’s a great feeling to start the new year with!

I’m off to go play in the snow. Well, take a walk in it, at least……. I don’t want to flame out before 2013 is even here.

~Mary

Here are a few drawings I’m working on for Christmas 2013:

They’re not quite finished yet but I thought you might enjoy them all the same. Keep a lookout for these next year, and have a happy holiday this year!

~Mary

There have been some inquiries as to exactly what Club Mary offers for your sign-up fee of $75 and renewal fee of $60. Let me tell you about all the FABULOUSNESS  we provided for club members last year:

Last year's print

• Limited Edition print, for Club Members only, signed by Mary – valued at $85.00 (January)
• Give-Away of a hand-painted cupcake stand, created by Mary, to members only (February)
• Updated information on company happenings and new licensing deals (February)
• For the month of March, 20% off everything in the store (March)
• Preferential selection of all classes for any member participating in the Mary Engelbreit Home Companion Workshop (April)
• First Club Mary Conference Call with Mary herself (May)
• Access to the recording of the Conference Call to all members (May)
• Preview and Member only sale of Cherry Chick Jewelry one month before available to the general public (July)
• 20% discount on anything purchased in the store (August/September)
• Give-Away of three handcrafted necklaces by Mary (September/October)
• 10% discount for purchase of any item in the new Sub Urban Accessories line (September)
• “12 Days of Mary” preview prior to release to the general public
• Free Mary signature on the purchase of any book or print during the Christmas season (November/December)

Handcrafted necklaces by ME

And we have so much more cool stuff planned for 2013! I just finished this year’s exclusive print, which I really think you’ll love, and we’ll be premiering a little video tour of the studios later this month. If you’ve been happy with your membership, please let us know in the comments, and click here if you’re interested in signing up. The more members, the merrier!

~Mary