ASI 69 Unleashing Your Inner Artist: Card Making and Surface Pattern Designing with Laurel Beard

Jeff: 0:07

Welcome back to Art Supply Insiders. My name is Jeff Morrow and we've got a really special guest today. This person was brought to our attention and finding out that she's a very popular YouTube artist. Her name is Laurel Beard. Laurel is an artist, a card maker and a surface pattern designer, which I have no idea what that is. So, Laurel, how are you doing today?

Laurel: 0:35

I'm good, thank you. How are you?

Jeff: 0:38

Great, i am so excited to talk with you because, you know, since we were introduced, my wife and I have gone on YouTube and I feel like I'm talking to a star. So I'm kind of a starstruck here.

Laurel: 0:53

you know I'm YouTube-struck, so I'll pay you for that later.

Jeff: 1:00

So tell me a little bit about I mean mainly. I think you're known for being a card maker, i think.

Laurel: 1:06

I am.

Jeff: 1:07

So tell us a little bit about how you got started.

Laurel: 1:10

Well, it's funny because I didn't mean to get started. So I have a 17-year-old son, so this takes me back to how long I've been doing it. And I was at a play date when he was like two And this friend of mine kept talking about how she loves to stamp and she loves to do stamping. Well, i didn't know her enough to be like what are you talking about? Like I'm thinking postage stamps, like you just lick it, stick it on an envelope and you call it a day. But I didn't know her enough to be like girl. So we got to become good friends and I went over to her house and she had all this stuff laid out and she had this really weird contraption on her desk called a cutter pillar. Cutter pillar. I can hear a caterpillar, i don't even know.

Jeff: 1:50

Yeah, I've chatted with them. I know exactly who they are.

Laurel: 1:53

Yes, and I still have that cutter pillar. I bought it I remember buying it off of eBay for 50 bucks and I've had that for 17 years. It's a manual die cutting machine.

Jeff: 2:01

That's a great product. So when she started talking to me, about that.

Laurel: 2:03

Oh, i love it, i love it. And then she started showing me all these stamps and they were like clear and then you ink them and then you stamp them, and so all she used stamps for was to make teacher gifts. And then I just kind of fell into this world of card making with stamping and then die cutting, and then I got inks and then I got paints and then I did it. And she is just baffled because she just did the basics And then, because of meeting her and seeing these funny things and trying to figure out what she does with postage stamps, led me to this whole new world that I didn't know anything about. My son was like two at the time, so I was quite bored, so that's how I got into it.

Jeff: 2:45

But this whole world of card making had no idea it was so big and I made the fatal mistake of telling my wife about card making And a year later, after we have the cricket and after we have the Gemini junior. Which I have now too, of course, and after we have all of those things. But gosh, there are so many people out there that make such wonderfully sophisticated cards, right?

Laurel: 3:20

There are. It's a whole world. And I just worked off of my dining room table. We never ate at the formal dining room. I mean, get real, so all my stuff there and keep stuff in crates. And then finally I just I couldn't stop buying stuff. So I was like, ooh, so fortunately I'm able to have a room of my own where I can contain all of my mess. But yeah, for years I just worked right off my table.

Jeff: 3:41

Yeah, i see that every day. So tell me, are you a formally trained artist? Oh no, oh no, no, no, how did you? I mean, for those of you you can't see the same thing that I'm seeing, But I'm looking at a wonderful group of paintings on her back wall and they look like watercolor paintings, is that?

Laurel: 4:05

what I'm saying. They are watercolor, that is And funny, and that my husband is retired military. So we did have to move around a lot And the last place we were stationed at was in New York And I went on an online learning platform and I just said I'm going to try to learn how to watercolor, and so that's you know. Like last three years, i've been trying to learn how to watercolor just from watching YouTube videos and whatever. Whatever I can find.

Jeff: 4:32

You know I've done oil painting for a long, long time And I tried watercolor paint, watercolor, watercolor, watercolor painting and frustrated the holy heck out of me because I see an oil painting.

Laurel: 4:49

I'm the same with you, but with oil painting I'm like I stink at this. I'm going to go back to watercolor Plus. I can't clean my brushes and the sink with water with oil paint. You got to go. You know I'm lazy, i just want to rinse and go Yeah, yeah.

Jeff: 5:07

So tell me a little bit about how you evolved as a as a card maker. I'm sure it started out simple And, before I give too much away here, your cards are very sophisticated and you have a lot of techniques. Tell us about that evolution.

Laurel: 5:25

Thank you. Well, i actually I started with I made these 3D cards. I followed this one person and she did all these folds and she can make boxes, so I would do all these things And then finally I was like this is taking too long, i don't want to have to do this. So I that's how I got into crime. I'm so lazy, so that's how I actually started doing card making. And then, you know, i would buy from just this one company.

Laurel: 5:46

When I first started off, so like 15 years ago, there weren't, there wasn't what is available. Now There was just very few things, or you could go to your local craft store and pick up stuff there. Now there's just too much, quite frankly, to choose from. So that's how I got into card making. And there's there's a lot of different types of cards. You can do mixed media. You could do like lots of layers and embellishments and glitters, but I again, am lazy, so I don't do all that And I just sit down and play And if it turns out, great, if it doesn't, i can flip the card over and start over again and try again.

Jeff: 6:21

Well, let me just jump right in Cause. I think when I was talking to you, i was talking to my wife about you. I use the word wacky And I mean that. I made that. I mean she's just wacky. This is the kind of person I want to hang out with. That's because that's kind of me And totally me. One of the first videos we saw and I don't know if you did this recently or not was you actually used shaving cream to make cards.

Jeff: 6:56

Oh, yes, how the hell, excuse my French do you use shaving cream to make a card?

Laurel: 7:04

Oh, that's hilarious. I don't even know. I mean, it's been done before. I'm certainly not an inventor of any of these techniques, but I let my daughter wanted to make I don't know. I had an abundance of shaving cream, like I don't know why. I can't remember maybe we made slime with it or something. I don't know what she wanted to do.

Laurel: 7:21

So we had all this shaving cream and I'm like, okay. So I just Googled, like how can I use shaving cream on cards? That's all I did. And then I figured out oh okay, so then I use my. I use whatever I already had. I already had the shaving cream. It's funny, though, because I didn't buy the scent free shaving cream. So the whole time I was making these cards, i was I mean so. So if anybody ever does that, please get the scent free shaving cream. But that's how I mean I just I usually just look around my room, i see what I have. Then I go to the internet and look for ideas, and that's so. I just had all the shaving cream and I'm like I got to figure out how to use it.

Jeff: 7:53

And that's how I tell them brief. It sounds like you're fearless, but tell them briefly how did you use the shaving cream? What actually did you do?

Laurel: 8:02

So what I did was you almost create like this marbling look, so you put like a blob of shaving cream on a dish or whatever. You don't need things special, you just need shaving cream. And then I have inquiry fills from all of my inks that I use for stamping And I just added a couple of drops into the shaving cream And then I took my finger and then just y'all can't see me.

Laurel: 8:21

I'm sitting here, and then just kind of move my finger through the shaving cream If you like. Don't like to get your fingers dirty. Use a knife, use a toothpick, whatever. And then, once you're done, you just take your card stock and then you just smush it onto the shaving cream, Just like again, you can't see me, Just smush it down. I don't know any other word to use it. You just smush it down and then you pick it up. You let it sit for a couple seconds, Then you take a paper towel, you wipe off the shaving cream and then the inquiry filler whatever you're using is left on the card and it makes a marbling look. That's it.

Jeff: 8:52

Well now, now this I'm assuming that this is not a porous card, I'm assuming that it's got to be kind of non porous, Yeah. You have to have a shiny surface or something.

Laurel: 9:03

No, regular old, cheap, cheapo card stock You can get anywhere, anywhere, no special. Like I said, all you need is shaving cream, some cheap card stock and some kind of ink or something to drop in. I think you could probably do finger nail polish too, but I didn't try that, so don't come back at me for that one.

Jeff: 9:24

So you kind of let it dry and then you use that as a background.

Laurel: 9:31

That's my background for my card.

Laurel: 9:33

Or I can use a die cutting Like I have big chunky word die cuts I'm a big fan of, because when you make a card, most of the time I put a sentiment of some kind on it. You can either stamp it or you can die cut it. And sometimes when I make backgrounds and they're just too much I mean that happens all the time I'm like this is ugly, i don't like it. You can take a die and split it all up and then you've salvaged your piece and it's not in your face design. That's what I do with all those backgrounds.

Jeff: 10:03

But I just file them away. Okay, for those of you listening out there, everything that Laurel is talking about, you can actually go to her YouTube page and you can see her do all of this with the finished product. So let's talk a little bit about. First of all. You have a website, i'm sure, right?

Laurel: 10:25

I do, it's just Laurelbeerorg.

Jeff: 10:28

And so that's L-A-U-R-E-L-B-E-A-R-D dot org.

Laurel: 10:35

That's my website. It's more of like it used to be a blog and I don't blog anymore, So now it's just where some of my watercolor pieces are hosted and stuff. But if you're really wanting to look at my card making, that's all on my YouTube channel.

Jeff: 10:52

And they just go to Laurel Beard and they just find you there.

Laurel: 10:56

Type it in the group or it's just Laurelbeerorg slash videos. Either one will take you there.

Jeff: 11:03

And I know that. What I looked this morning and it said you've got 548 videos. Is that right? Did I get that?

Laurel: 11:11

right? Oh do I. That's what it said. Don't look at my very early ones now. That's embarrassing. I should probably pull those down.

Jeff: 11:21

No, you know why they should is because everybody has to start someplace.

Laurel: 11:26

They do Start to start.

Jeff: 11:28

Just start doing it, and what they can do is that they can see the evolution of your art and your work from. if you just keep going, they could look at your path and how you got from where you were to where you are today, right, My very first piece.

Laurel: 11:46

It's not on a video, but it's basically. I took a clipboard and I just glued a bunch of pattern paper on the clipboard and gave it to my teacher. I thought I was hot stuff. That is literally all I did And I'm like oh, that is so embarrassing That poor teacher got that but ugly clipboard. but I thought it was something that fit.

Jeff: 12:04

Hey, i mean you can go to a museum and look at artwork on the wall and it can have just a blue dot and it can sell for $14 million, oh yeah.

Laurel: 12:16

For sure. I just went to an art museum when we were traveling and I walked in there and I'm like and it was actually a watercoloring museum, I can't remember where we were, sadly, That's sad And I walked in and I'm just like really Really, really. Like this is frameable art. that's thousands and thousands of dollars, but hey, there's a market out there for everybody, i guess.

Jeff: 12:38

I know. So another wacky thing at least it was wacky to me is you started talking about using gelato and I'm going wait a minute. First time I had gelato is when we went to Monte Carlo a million years ago.

Laurel: 12:57

Oh yeah, you had like real gelato.

Jeff: 12:59

So I'm thinking you're going to take this wonderful food and use it for card making And waste it on a piece of paper instead of putting it in your mouth. Thank you.

Laurel: 13:09

That is so funny. I cannot even for the life of me I don't know how I picked up. I might have been in Michaels or something and I saw them. I cannot remember how I got these, but I was one of the very few people that was actually using them on YouTube. So then the company reached out to me and then they provided me with their whole line of gelatos. So then I really started playing. But my little tagline was gelatos, the calorie-free kind. So they in any way. but yeah, they're like these little. they look like little chopsticks. They're like you just put it on. you know, put it on, don't put it on your lips, but you just they're like pigmented sticks and you can use them for watercolor, all kinds of things. They're just fun little pigmented sticks.

Jeff: 13:55

I don't know any other word to describe it, but yeah, As I was looking at it on the video, I think they're made by Faber-Castell.

Laurel: 14:03

Yes, Faber-Castell.

Jeff: 14:05

And they're water-based. Is that They're?

Laurel: 14:07

water-based so you can watercolor with them. You can actually take these little chapsticks and scribble onto your stamp and then spritz your stamp with water and then it kind of turns it into a watercolor And then you stamp that stamp and whoever think you get sends you that card is going to think you hand-painted that card when you did Oh. Don't spill the secrets.

Jeff: 14:29

I won't say a word. I promise Because I don't want my wife to buy 457 different gelato colors. Thank you very much.

Laurel: 14:38

They come in different sizes now, so she'll get the little ones and the big ones.

Jeff: 14:42

Thanks so very much.

Laurel: 14:43

My pleasure.

Jeff: 14:45

So one of the things that I said about you when I introduced you is said that you were a surface pattern designer, and I had to say it slow so I didn't butcher it.

Laurel: 14:56

What is a surface?

Jeff: 14:58

pattern designer. What is that?

Laurel: 15:00

So that's new, because eventually, when you do card making for 15 years, you get a little board. So that's when I started picking up water coloring. and then after that I'm like, well, i have this iPad Pro right And I just watch movies on it, which is absolutely ridiculous. You do not need an iPad Pro to watch videos, you can watch your TV. So I got this app called Procreate and then again, the internet is a valid source and I was like what do I do with Procreate? And then I learned that I could draw all these designs. And then you can take these designs and you can upload them to different sites like Society Six, red Bubble, spoonflower, and then they basically can print your design onto coffee mugs, tea towels, rugs, i mean everything, pillows, the whole shebang. So whenever you're walking around the store and you see anything with art on it any kind of art, i don't care what it is, it's a surface pattern.

Jeff: 15:54

So that's what it is. So that's, you know, you just named two or three or four different companies that you could go to to do that. Would you mind repeating those again? Sure, so that, because it kind of went by pretty quick and I'm sure our audience has been thinking about, i'd love to put this on a coffee mug, absolutely Yes.

Laurel: 16:15

Well, really again Yes. So the ones I use and recommend are Society Six, so Society, and then Number Sixcom.

Jeff: 16:24

Okay.

Laurel: 16:24

Red Bubble. Red Bubble. And then Red Bubble. It's a funny, and I mean you put these designs on shirts, rugs, i mean I'm curtains, blankets, i mean everything. I'm looking around my room and I have so much stuff everywhere. And then the other one is Spoon Flower. Now that is just like for fabrics, like you can put your design on fabrics and textiles. But the Spoon Flower I mean, i'm sorry, society Six and Red Bubble, you can put it on anything non-fabric and fabric. And now I'm confusing everybody that's listening.

Jeff: 16:57

No, you're not, Because actually it kind of leads me as I was going through your website. you talked about that you have a new line at Spoon Flower.

Laurel: 17:09

That's the fabric line.

Jeff: 17:10

Yes, And tell us about that new line. What are you doing with that?

Laurel: 17:16

So it's funny Again. I don't know what made me get into that. Like I say, I get bored and I need to find new things to engage my mind, So I just sat down on my iPad and start now. I have zero artistic ability as far as drawing.

Jeff: 17:32

Oh, shut up, I'm looking at painting. Shut up. I'm looking at all of the stuff behind your on your wall, but if I had a pen, i couldn't have drawn that I.

Laurel: 17:44

There's no way I can even draw a circle. That's symmetrical, it's pitiful. But with the iPad you can just scribble it all on there and just erase. You know, whatever, if you hold the pen down, it makes the line straight for you. There's so many hacks in this program that's like available on your iPad, so I just played it. When you're on a plane, any place you don't have Wi-Fi, it's great to just scribble because you're bored. Anyway, you got. You're not connected to the world because you're flying and you're just like this is boring. You can just like start coloring. So anyway, i made all these fabrics. I had no idea how to make a collection, so I just figured OK, well, i'll just make sure that all the colors match. This is literally how I went into this And then I put them all. I said, ok, they look like they kind of coordinate. And then I put them on a spoon flower. That was it. That was it.

Jeff: 18:33

Wow, but you know what This is. This is really interesting because what you're doing is you're talking about how most successful artists create their unique vision. Yeah, is they're just not afraid to try stuff, right?

Laurel: 18:54

That's true, That's true, And I'm not a planner like by any means. And if it came down to because when I first started doing it like really getting into car mating, getting in my YouTube channel became successful, my husband was like, can you find a way to make money?

Laurel: 19:08

Well, no, he didn't get a job and I'm not going to do it anymore. And so he would get so irritated with me because I buy, just like you and your life. I keep buying all this stuff but I'm not bringing in any income. But I never. If it's work, i don't. It's not fun, it just sucks the creativity out of me. So I just kind of go with the flow And if I like it, i like it. If I don't, then I don't do it anymore. That's it Wow.

Jeff: 19:32

And that's probably not a good way to do things, but well, no, it actually is probably the credo of every artist that I've ever talked to, because artists in general get bored quickly.

Laurel: 19:47

Yeah.

Jeff: 19:48

And that's why they keep trying it, and that's why they keep pushing the edge and they keep trying new things. And they look over here and they go oh, there's a tube of lipstick. What can I do with that?

Laurel: 19:58

Yeah, what can I do with that? That's right.

Jeff: 20:01

Right.

Laurel: 20:02

Yeah, That's exactly. I've actually used a tube of lipstick on a card.

Jeff: 20:05

Oh, you have.

Laurel: 20:07

I mean, it didn't look great, but I tried it.

Jeff: 20:12

And that's the thing you know. it's kind of I don't know what the ratio is. Maybe it's five to one, Maybe it's try five new things to find one new creation.

Laurel: 20:20

Yeah. You know, Somebody invented something, any. I mean, all of my techniques are not like I didn't invent them, but I'm putting my own twist on them, if that makes sense. But somewhere someone out there came up with using a shaving cream on card It wasn't me, but someone did And so I took it and just rolled with it and had had a good old time. So I don't think it's copying, i don't think it's cheating. I mean, sometimes artists have that, what's it called, imposter syndrome.

Jeff: 20:46

Yes, i think it's called And.

Laurel: 20:47

I don't if you're copying it like verbatim, like every color, every line, then, yeah, you know you shouldn't do that, but you know, all these pieces that you can't see, for the most part are from a picture that either I took or I found on the internet or something, and then I just did it with. you know, however, i would do it. You know what I'm saying. So, yeah, it's almost like you could.

Jeff: 21:09

You could paint the Mona Lisa, but in your style and your style And then it's uniquely yours, right, right, and that stuff you can sell, that stuff you can do. We all know that it's probably the Mona Lisa, but you've made it into a the Mona Lisa look like a tree.

Laurel: 21:31

Well, that's right, right Right. That's not equal. Somebody should do that. Yeah, somebody should totally do that. I'd love to see that. So, as I like it more as I looked at your website.

Jeff: 21:46

you have a lot of content on your website. There are classes that people can take, You've got freebies. You've got blogs. You send people to your YouTube page. You have even a store that people can purchase a lot of the art that you've done. Just talk a little bit about all of that.

Laurel: 22:07

Well, it came down to, like I said, i was a blogger for a very long time And I just lost the appeal to blog. You go through all the effort of making your video and your tutorial and then you got to go write it all out. I'm like, nope, if you want to watch it, just watch my video. So I ended up taking my blog. I've already paid for it for like five years, so like I got to revamp it into something. So I just went on to Fiverr Fiverr, i don't know how you say it F-I-V-E-R-R And I found somebody.

Laurel: 22:36

I was like turn my blog into a e-commerce site, And they just did it for me because I don't know how to do it. And now that's where it's like my portfolio almost, Because if you want to look at something, you don't have to go find a video, scroll, watch the whole thing just to find a quick picture or a screen grab of something. So I try to put all of my finished arts, not my cards, unfortunately. I should do that, though.

Jeff: 22:58

Yeah you should. You should do that, i should Yeah.

Laurel: 23:02

Because, yeah, so I should do that. Just, it's like a portfolio for me, You know.

Jeff: 23:07

Well, it's very impressive. She has this wonderful way of doing watercolor animals.

Laurel: 23:17

Yes, i learned that from yep. I was Skillshare. I don't know if anybody's heard of Skillshare, but somehow I came across them. They're actually one of my sponsors standard sponsors from my YouTube video. It's called Skillshare and it's a. It's a learning platform, but when I was watercoloring, i would always watercolor flowers. Well, quite frankly, i'm really not that good at it. That's why you can't see any flowers in the background.

Jeff: 23:38

Yeah.

Laurel: 23:39

So then I don't know, somehow I stumbled across this lady Her name is Jane Davies, and she had painted a horse or I don't know what it was. I'm like ooh. And she has like 20 videos on there of stepouts on how she paints watercolor animals. So I took all of her classes and and now I know how to do it In my own way. She does it her own way. She's got a great spin on it. I can't do it her way, So I do it my own way. But if it wasn't for her, I don't know if I'd be able to watercolor animals.

Jeff: 24:07

So I think we could make you the poster child for not being intimidated by anything, by just literally Try it What's?

Laurel: 24:17

the worst you may like it, you might lie. I always just say, for the most part I'm a paper crafter, even watercoloring. Everything's paper Like it's just paper. If you don't like it either, throw away.

Jeff: 24:29

You know, stuff away.

Laurel: 24:30

It's okay, people, it's really okay or flip it over and do another side.

Jeff: 24:33

I throw it away and start over, but there's over that run it through your, your Gemini Jr, and you know, cut a kid, cut a pattern out of it, and now, all of a sudden, somebody thinks you're brilliant.

Laurel: 24:48

Yes, that's true, that's true. I do that a lot because when I'm pick, when I'm making my, my recent like in the last years are They're usually a bunch of doable cards. doable, i want to say doable, because I, i Want, i don't want people to think they need as rocket science degree to make a card.

Laurel: 25:07

No it needs to be Stepouts. You and I'm all about using what you have. I've already been through it. You, you and your wife have been through it where you go buy everything under the sun Because you want to design like that person, but you can buy all the same products and it's still not come out the way Necessarily that you want it to. So I'm just like man You need some ink, you need some paper, maybe an acrylic block, and you're good to go. You don't need to buy a whole room full of stuff, you know so. I always try to use what I have. A lot of my stuff is is is old, it's retired, that's okay, i'm still gonna keep it. I like it. Get rid of it just because it's not available anymore. There's probably a Something similar out there, but I like what I have.

Jeff: 25:51

So for those of you that are listening, you can tell that Laurel is the type of person that you'd really like to be around. I mean, just talking with you Makes me smile in and I got. I got that same feeling when We went to your YouTube channel. Now you're gonna cost me money. Thank you very much, because my wife is gonna watch you and And all of a sudden I'm gonna have shaving cream cream missing.

Laurel: 26:26

Yeah, go, take your husband shaving cream. Don't go by. No, don't go by no one.

Jeff: 26:30

Yeah, and, and I'm gonna go and get a gelato. The next thing I know it's disappeared and smudged all over a piece of paper. Please, please, please, go to Laurel Beard. What was it? Laurel beard org? You know? real quick, tell them the kind of freebies that you have on your website. Oh.

Laurel: 26:55

Yeah, I am. Years ago I discovered Canva.

Jeff: 26:59

Yeah, like yeah.

Laurel: 27:00

I, yeah, i love that site. I'm like hello, so I make a whole because they made it so easy. Now I make a whole bunch of downloads, worksheets, freebies, all Designed on Canva. So because they make it so easy, i easily make it and I offer it up for free. Yeah different things. They might relate to a video there, they might be just Out the top of my head, whatever.

Jeff: 27:23

Yeah, and, and there really isn't any downside to doing it's not like you take their, their information and sell it or anything like that. This is just just a freebie where you say, hey, check it out right.

Laurel: 27:36

It. Usually it requires your email address for me And that will enroll you in a newsletter that I provide like once a month, if that. But if you don't, you know, if you don't want to be on my newsletter, then after you download it, just unsubscribe, just like do it right then and you'll never ever hear from me again. I don't want to talk to people who don't want to hear from me, so I I know that whatsoever, i.

Jeff: 27:59

Told you just before we started this interview that the time was gonna go by fast, didn't I? I know I didn't believe you and We're almost a half an hour in and we could probably Talk another 30 minutes about all sorts of different stuff. So you know, maybe you would consent again to sometime in the future Talking with us again. For sure, for sure, i love to you are.

Jeff: 28:31

You are an absolutely Wonderful person to chat with. You are a very good and accomplished artist and I can now say that I've asked you for your autograph and you know, like a signed glossy or something like that And I know, i know a genuine YouTube star.

Laurel: 28:50

Oh, you're the sweetest. Again I'll be there.

Jeff: 28:55

Thanks so much for joining us today.

Laurel: 28:57

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Jeff: 28:59

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