February Newsletter: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Happy February, My Lovely Chocolate Cakes!

Que the confetti, it's Galentine's and Valentine's Season!

I've spent the last month organizing my work and goals so that I can move through 2026 with purpose and intention. I want this to be the year of less for myself, meaning I want to pare my intentions down to as few as possible so I can conquer those things with gusto! Every time I've gotten excited with a thousand ideas, I remind myself "Less" is the operative word this year.

We live in an age of MORE MORE MORE, NEW NEW NEW!! MORE work, NEW thoughts, NEW ideas, EVERY SINGLE DAY!! As an artist who likes to take her time, and likes to savor in the new work she made, this MORE vibe is EXHAUSTING!! It makes me feel like I can't keep up, and sometimes I don't want to show up because I fear the question "what's next?". It's tiring, but I'm learning that I don't always have to create something new from scratch. Instead, I can re-work what I already have. Cough Cough - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

So, when I got it in my head that I wanted to make some Valentine's cards for funsies, I decided I needed to pull from artwork I already had to save time. Then, I would add in cute sentiments with my hand-lettering to make them Valentine-y. This whole post is going to show how I forced myself to work smarter, not harder. How can I remake older work into something new?

I hunted for a few recent drawings that felt fitting. I made most of these at the end of last year (pictured above). For this post, I'm going to start by focusing on the tomato print to show you how to reduce, reuse, and recycle. And for fun, I have before-and-afters of all of the other prints below.

Okay, so I made this for my wholesale distributor for some kitchen art (she's cute, right?). But I love the sentiment "I love you from my head, tomatoes!" and I think it would fit so well with this print for Valentine's.

I started sketching out the words over the can.

Then I went in and blocked out the lettering and colored it in on my IPad.

It's cute how it is now, but I wanted to see what it would look like with a little more of a pink and red lean to it. So, I pulled it into Photoshop on my computer and fiddled with the colors and layout a bit.

This was what I came up with! So fun!

And here's a before-and-after side-by-side.

So on that note, let's see the before and afters for the other few pieces that I pulled from:

PUPPY LOVE!!!

I grabbed my Howl-o-ween pups, added lettering, and swapped out their costumes for sweaters!

SARDINES!!!

This was another print for my wholesale distributor. I added a cute phrase and edited the tone and vibrancy of the colors.

POSTAGE OF HEARTS!!!

Remember this illustration from my 2025 calendar? I removed the background and added in some cute lettering to go with the postage vibe.

ADVENTUROUS LOVE!!

I used this print from my camping collection, changing the colors a little bit and changing the sentiment.

SILLY GOOSE LOVE!!

Last but not least, the print on the left is from my silly goose collection! I changed her glasses, the verbiage, and the colors!

Okay, I'm a sucker for before-and-after side-by-sides, so putting this together was incredibly satisfying for me.

I do have these in my Etsy shop if you feel an urge to gift them to your honey, your bunny, or your bestie. I've been feeling a strong pull towards handwritten notes and postcards lately, so these truly fit the bill.

Shop the Valentine's Cards Here

I hope you all have a beautiful February filled with love and connection!

xoxo

Rachel