As everyone is recovering from the crazy whirlwind that is Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday and now Giving Tuesday?!, I’m up at 4 a.m. writing this.

Because of the influx of promo emails, I was able to unsubscribe from a bunch of lists (whoo hoo) but also missed the reminder about my daughter’s Girl Scout meeting last night (not cool – she made it – just in time). While we ran a Small Business Saturday sale for our retail business Crafted in Joy, this year we chose not to run any sales on AngSuarez Creative for many different reasons. I won’t get into the details (you’ve got things to do!), but basically, I chose my sanity over sales.

I have a feeling this is going to cause quite a few raised eyebrows but here goes…

We are not participating in Giving Tuesday, either.

There! I said it. Before you get those fingertips ready to leave a hot-and-bothered comment, please keep reading.

I think #GivingTuesday (or is it just Giving Tuesday?) is a great movement and an amazing idea, and we’re not trying to downplay the positive impact it will have on the world. But here’s what we know: I used to approach giving as an afterthought. I’d donate and feel great in the moment but wouldn’t give generosity another thought until I was prompted again… by an ASPCA commercial and the angelic voice of Sarah McLachlan. I’d give myself compelling reasons why I couldn’t give on a regular basis, but would gladly round up at the register when asked. This is kinda weird, right? Not really, it’s called guilt, but keep reading.

Generosity is a lifestyle. – Shawn Hennessey

Jorge and I have found that it’s more rewarding and the wisdom gained is deeper when we started to make generosity a part of our daily life. We give 10% of all our income year-round along with multiple hours of our time each week. I say this with a slight twinge of caution. We don’t think we’re special because we do this, we don’t want any accolades or awards, and I don’t assume you aren’t doing this too. If it were up to us, nobody would know and we’d never have to talk about it. But some of you need to know, and here’s why…

Guilt won’t make us good givers – or generous people.

Giving Tuesday brings great awareness, but what about causes that need support year-round?

What about giving even when no one is looking or pressuring us?

Even when it’s not tax-deductible? (gasp!)

There are times when it does not make sense for our family of six to give that much money or time away. We have four kids under age 10, we run two businesses, and often, we see where we could use the money for other things that we need but aren’t a necessity. You know what though? We always seem to come out ok in the end.

Disclaimer: this isn’t our original idea. We didn’t think to ourselves, “Oh hey, let’s give away a tenth of our money and watch our business grow slowwwwly over time. And even when we barely have enough money to pay our bills, we’re still going to give a big chunk of it away anyway. It’ll all work out.”

First of all, we aren’t that philosophical. Secondly, we started doing this after we became Jesus people. We don’t actually believe it’s “our” money, but God’s money. He’s trusting us with it and we think that’s pretty cool, so we don’t want to mess that up. We were both unemployed for four months in 2014, and there were some weeks we could only give $10. Whether we have $10 or $600+ to give, we believe life is better when we give with a good attitude. Not out of guilt or obligation.

We have increased our business tremendously over the past year while still practicing generosity.

To give you perspective, since 2014, I have consistently grown in revenue each year. In 2016, I doubled my income from 2015. At the end of 2017, we will have tripled that number. Jorge was able to leave his full time job – with benefits(!) – this past September thanks to our amazing clients and the continued growth. This growth has occurred all while giving more money away.

I don’t want generosity to be a part of a promotional plan.

As I sit here writing this, I don’t know what you’ll think of me or what you’ll think of us, or if you’ll even care. Maybe you’ll roll your eyes at me, maybe you’ll be upset with me, maybe you’ll think, “Who are they to say I should give more?” You’re right. We’re no one to tell you what to do.

But I thought you should know this is something we value deeply, and it’s a part of who we are and a part of how we do business. I don’t ever want giving to become a gimmick, reserved for a holiday, or part of a promotional plan. We plan to get this message out more in 2018 to make generosity front and center. I’m not a bragger, and there’s a lot of things I still don’t get right. But this is a message I cannot ignore anymore. This story is worth telling, and so is yours. So is everyone’s.

A few final things we wanted you to know:

When you work with us, you:

are supporting non-profits like Eye Heart World, an organization that fights human trafficking.

help single moms who put food on the table.

support families battling cancer with warm meals and handmade gifts.

provide care for kids who are growing up in the lowest economic conditions.

are providing people with hope.

On that note, I’ll wrap this up with sincere thanks and an invitation to join us in 2018. We’re looking forward to releasing more tutorials for bringing your creative business to life, getting you more traffic to your blog or website with Pinterest and optimizing your content to bring clarity and cohesiveness to your brand.

Click here to learn more about working with us.

I hope this has inspired you to make giving a daily intention, because we think you’re pretty special and can make a huge impact on the world with your gifts and your generosity.

Hey there future Illustrator pro – yeah, I’m talking to you! I know how frustrating it is when you open Illustrator and quickly realize things that should be simple (like creating custom color swatches), well… aren’t really that simple at all.

Like maybe the custom swatches feature? How long have you been clicking around trying to figure out that gem? Or, actually, maybe you figured it out, only, you didn’t because now you can’t find your saved swatches?

I know this one tripped me up for awhile before I really got my bearings in Illustrator. But first, let’s talk about what a custom swatch actually is and why you’d want to use it.

What is a Custom Swatch and Custom Swatch Library?

Custom swatches are colors that you can save for later use when working in Illustrator and other Adobe applications like InDesign or Photoshop.

A custom swatch library is a group of custom swatches that are saved together to create consistency in your documents and graphics.

How do you save a custom swatch?

Saving a custom swatch is easier than you might think, but it’s not straightforward, so don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t figured this out quite yet. To save a color you’ve mixed or plugged in from a hex code, simply drag the color over from your toolbar over onto your swatches panel, like this:

Easy peasy, right? Now, let’s learn how to save our custom colors for later use.

How to save custom swatches as a custom swatch library:

How to save custom swatches into a custom library:

• Open  your swatch panel. You can head up to Window > Swatches if you don’t already have it open.
• Once you have your custom colors in your swatches panel, you’ll want to select all the colors you want to save into your library. This is fabulous for branding colors, or seasonal color palettes, etc. Seriously, do this one thing consistently and you’ll stop fumbling for the same “look” every time you make a graphic.
• With your swatches selected, click on the folder icon at the bottom of the swatch panel. This will bring up a dialog box asking you to name your group. Go ahead and do that now. Congratulations! You’ve just saved them into a ‘group’ which acts like a collection of colors, but you’re not done yet!

This is where some people might mistakenly think they’re finished and close their document, but wait! If you do that, your swatches will only be saved in that document, and not stored within Illustrator for later use in other documents. We still need to create the custom library, so let’s keep going.

• Select your new group that you just created, and select the library icon at the bottom of the swatches panel.
• Choose “Save Swatches…” from the library flyout menu. Name them and save as Ai (for Illustrator only) or ASE (for use in other Adobe applications too)
• To access them, you can find them by clicking the library icon and choosing “User Defined”. The library name will show up and there are your custom swatches!

BONUS TIP:

To make sure a swatch panel always pops up in a new document, be sure to choose “Persistent” from the hamburger menu in the upper right-hand corner of your custom swatch window.

This will take effect the next time you restart Illustrator and open a new document.

Did this help you? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Pssst... I'm retiring my flagship course, Clean Cut Illustrator and it's 75% off! But you can snag it before it's gone for good. Click the image below for more info.

Have you ever felt frustrated trying to color in Illustrator* knowing there had to be an easier, faster way? I’m here to tell you there totally is using the Blend Tool.

(*This post contains an affiliate link for Adobe Illustrator, a program I use each day in my illustration business. I earn a small commission if you purchase from my link but the cost is the same for you.)

In this quick 5-minute photo tutorial, we’ll add some depth to each orange section, just like you see in the image above.

This tool is especially helpful when you need to add simple shading or highlights to individual sections of an illustration.

Let’s get started:

Step 1:

Using the Direct Selection Tool (black arrow), select each element you’d like to shade holding down shift (if selecting multiple shapes)

Step 2:

Head up to Object > Path > Offset Path to create a copy of the shape inside

Step 3:

Type in offset measurement you’d like to use. Use a negative measurement for creating an inner copy, use a whole number for an outer copy.

Step 4:

(not pictured) Choose a contrasting color for the inner elements that will blend with the object below. (I chose a darker orange and removed the stroke color from the inner segments.)

Step 5:

A) Choose Blend Tool from Toolbar (located right under eyedropper tool)

B) Click once on the outer layer

C) Click once more on the inner layer to create blend and repeat steps for each item or section you’d like to blend.

Easy, huh?

Pssst... I'm retiring my flagship course, Clean Cut Illustrator and it's 75% off! But you can snag it before it's gone for good. Click the image below for more info.

As a creative person, I’ve dabbled in everything from painting, to dancing, to drawing, to ceramics. I love it all and focusing on one passion, or one medium has always been something I’ve struggled with. I’d learn a little of this, and a little of that, and never became a PRO at any of it.

Not only did this make me feel like I was left behind by my art buddies, but it made me question what my passions truly were. I had no idea that almost 10 years ago, I’d stumble upon a computer program (of all things!) that I would fall in love with.

See, back when my girls were little, we couldn’t afford daycare for two babies under two. Going back to work just wasn’t an option, so I had to come up with a way to use my creative energy and the resources I had available to figure something out.

That ‘something’ just happened to be a free trial of Illustrator that I downloaded on a whim. I was determined to figure this program out even though I had zero Illustrator experience and zero knowledge on how to actually turn a passion into an income.

My first project was a birthday invitation I created for my daughter’s first birthday. Can you believe this took me a few hours? I was so proud once I was done.

 

Or how about my first stamp designs? It included one robot that I spent 9 hours rendering! Ahhh!! You can see him below:

 

Despite my humble beginnings, I’ve been teaching Illustrator for over 5 years now! I LOVE it. Illustrator is my #1 digital design resource and I make 80-90% of my worksheets, printed products, and art with it and 100% of my income with it. It’s a fantastic program, and I couldn’t run my business without it (check out my portfolio, where most of the work has been done in Illustrator).

It’s incredibly empowering to learn how to professionally design your own materials. Not only does it put you in the creative driver’s seat, but builds skills that enable you to make a little side cash too (or create a full-blown design business like I have!).

Why has it become my passion? Quite simply, because of how versatile it is.

Want to design printables? Check.

Want to build high-quality patterns? Check.

Want to create easy-to-use templates for your blog posts? Check.

Want to create your own professional invitations or party decor? Check.

Thinking of pursuing art or design as a career and/or selling your own products? Um. Checkkk!

That’s why I am so committed to helping others find the same freedom. Let’s think about this for a second:

What would you do if you had more time to create and had to spend less time at a full-time job?

How much would your confidence improve if you knew you had a marketable skill that was only limited by your imagination?

What if you knew that your career or side gig was completely portable and you could move anywhere and have a seamless transition?

If you’ve been curious about my process and creating your own art or designs, I’d love to let you know a little more about my flagship course, Clean Cut Illustrator.

Currently in its second edition, Clean Cut Illustrator is the course for aspiring designers and creative bloggers. I’ve had the opportunity to help my students create their own products, designs, and printed materials from scratch and I fully support them along the way.

The best part of being a part of the CCI Community? I take suggestions and continue to develop curriculum based on your needs. It’s more than a course on Illustrator, it’s like having me next to you, guiding you along the way with encouraging words and the know-how to back it up!

 

Pssst... thinking about learning Illustrator? I'm retiring my flagship course, Clean Cut Illustrator and it's 75% off! But you can snag it before it's gone for good. Click the image below for more info.