This sassy little print can be all yours! The DIY monster blog,  Little Pink Monster shows you how to create this snow leopard cover and the best part- you can make it for anything you want! Just imagine; pillows, pouches, couches, chairs! An entire snow leopard lair!

… Ok, that may have gotten a little carried away. BUT it does have the power to really spice up your space- take a look!

Before... booooring

After!!

To see more visit Little Pink Monster!

NOTE: LPM shows using a regular Sharpie marker but our NEW specially designed fabric markers, Stained by Sharpie, would be PURRFECT for this project!

Keep on scrollin’ to see what Dan has to say about his life in the design world and his AWESOME Sharpie chart…( it may have been the best thing to happen to my week)

ENJOY!

Sharpie Artist Interview– Dan Cassaro

WHAT. A. STUD. Dan Cassaro, Sharpie world.

Tell me about yourself! Where are you from? Interests? Likes? Dislikes? Pet Peeves?

I’m a designer, animator and illustrator living and working in Brooklyn. I live in the adorable Italian section of Williamsburg and I love it. The area seems to have acclimated to the gentrification more organically than other parts of Williamsburg. There are tons of great old butcher shops and old neighborhood mainstays that seem to exist pretty harmoniously with the new restaurants and bad art school haircuts. I grew up in Long Island and still have complicated feelings about the mall because of that. 

Instead of typing out a list of my likes/dislikes I decided to make a little chart for you (using a Sharpie, natch). 

 What inspires you and your work?

 Powerful rock and roll music, old train cars, Dads, the bric-a-brac section at the thrift store and various other ephemera. I think it’s important to try and pull from things that go deeper than a aesthetic level. Bruce Springsteen’s music is good because it sounds great and is fun to sing along to but there is something happening on a much more visceral level. I think it’s good to try to create work from that angle instead of just trying to make visually pleasing images. You don’t want to be making graphic design elevator music you know? 

How would you describe your style?

I don’t know, this is hard. As a designer I’d like to think that style is adapted and applied depending on the project. The illustrator part of me definitely has a common thread that runs through all my work though. I’ve been thinking that “clumsy modernism” is a pretty good way of explaining what I’d like to achieve with my work. I like the economy and boldness of modernism but all the pretentiousness surrounding it makes me want to barf a little. I want my work to be succinct but just “off” enough to give it charm and approachability. I spent a lot of time in college learning how to kern a headline and now I feel like maybe I’ll earned the right to intentionally UN-kern it. A little wonk goes a long way. 

 You seem to be quite the jack-of-all-trades; working as a designer, animator, and illustrator, what IS it about your work that gets you goin’?

 It’s a gift to be able to do this for a living. To be able to explore a bunch of different things and put them all under one roof. I’m kind of a poster child of a very non-committal ADD generation and it’s a real stroke of luck that I found a career that allows and often rewards that sort of eclecticism. Honestly, I am equal parts overachiever and lazy teenager. Doing something that I love for a living helps me bridge that gap I think and find a middle ground between the two. 

 How did you get started?

 I went to School of Visual Arts when I was a bit older (23) because as I mentioned before, I am a really non-committal person. I fell in love with design because it was so open ended. After school I started freelancing right away. I didn’t make a ton of “connections” at school (read: smooching your famous design teacher’s butt) but the Internet is the most democratic tool we have and I just tried to get a lot of my personal work out there. I’ve been lucky enough to have a lot of that personal work eventually turn into a paycheck. That sounds too romantic though. I have also taken tons of s****ty ( gotta keep it PG, here folks) soul-sucking jobs and made tons of things I am not proud of just to pay the bills. A little bit of both.

How did you come to contribute to the ACE Hotel’s (NYC) décor?

That place is so cool. I had worked on a project called 50 and 50 and had been talking to some people there about having an opening to showcase all the pieces. They invited me to work on a piece for one of the rooms because of that. It was a really fun project for me. I got to stay at the hotel for a couple of nights and draw all over their walls with Sharpie Oil based paint markers. They last time I got to draw on someones wall was at my friend Dan Volpe’s house when I was 16. That was mostly inappropriate reference drawings though. (sorry for the edits… This is a family establishment!)

 Any cool new projects you can tell us about?

This is a dream project but I really want to do it. I want to put on a classic rock laser light show. Like rent out the planetarium and serve beer and blast some Zeppelin while watching some amazing animated horses or something. Wouldn’t that be great? I think that there are a lot of outdated but brilliant art forms out their that are just waiting to be brought into a more modern context. These are the kind of projects that I dream about. 

 Your designs are have a cool edginess to them; how do you come up with new ideas?

 I try to stay open to things just happening. Too many people treat design like an assembly line and it makes for a lot of visually acceptable, but flaccid design. I’d like to treat it more like an adventure, more like fine art. I don’t stay too married to the sketches that I do (if I sketch at all) and that lets me discover new ways of working. I like having that moment when you discover that you can create something that you didn’t know you were capable of before and have it happen almost by accident. My end results often looks very different from my original intentions. That system isn’t really conducive to the standard system of client approvals but it’s a very exciting way to work. Adventure! 

How do you use Sharpie markers in your work? Favorite Sharpie? Why?

I do a lot of my pen work and doodling with Sharpe Fine Point. I usually like using cheap paper and letting the ink pool up in the edges and bleed a bit. It’s nice to take those drawings that show a human hand and bring them into the computer and add that dimension. Using pen on paper helps keep me tied to the physical which is something I never want to lose touch with. I used Sharpie paint markers for the mural at the Ace Hotel. It was all kind of fancy type work so I wanted to keep the line work loose and fun. I made sure to only use really wide tip pens for this to keep myself from getting too fussy. 

Mural for the Ace Hotel... I know where I WILL be staying...

 Best part of your “day job” and if you weren’t doing this what would you be doing?

The best part of my day job is that I don’t have one. It’s more of this amorphous work blob that floats around and gloms onto other parts of my life infiltrating weekends and late nights. I mean that in a really good way. I’m sure I end up working a lot more than 40 hours a week but there is nothing better than fitting your work life into your regular life and not the other way around. This summer I spent three months driving around the country in an old camper with my girlfriend and a laptop, seeing America and doing design work. It really got me excited about work in a totally new way; driving across the country is like being in the most amazing graphic design inspiration blog. I feel like I am the luckiest guy in the world to be able to do my job in my basement or on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. 

If you could have one super power what would it be and why?

To have a magic playlist that plays the right song all the time, even when you don’t know what the right song is. I am willing to accept that 90% of that playlist would be Heart’s “Crazy on You.”

 What trends do you see making it big in 2012/ what are you pumped about in 2012?

More pizza parties, true love triumphing over evil, and a renewed interest in Brenden Fraiser’s “earlier, funny films.” 

 Umm who doesnt love a solid pizza party!?! Aka count me in for Dan’s 2012 plans, FO SHO! And that, ladies and gentleman, concludes one of my favorite interviews to date; to check out more on Dan, his work and his sparkly personality- pop on over and check out his website and follow him on Twitter and tumblr!

How perfect would this be for toting around all your new Sharpie goodies from the holiday season?!

For the complete lowdown on how-to- make this purrrfectly totable gift  and more amazing ideas check out Erica’s blog!

 All through the month you can count on us to showcase our favorite holiday and winter inspirations and to start us off; how about a Sharpie tablecloth that says more than “dinner’s ready.”

D.I.Y Blog, Big Cricket Design, recently showcased a table worth giving thanks for, and it was completed all with Sharpie! Now, it may be a little late for turkey talk, but just change the words around and you have a holiday hit.

Want to know how to create this wordy winter wonderland? Head over to Big Cricket for the full tutorial!

Feels good to be on top.

Not only is the Stainless Steel Sharpie refillable and therefore good for the environment, (and the bottomline), it’s also the most powerful Sharpie out there- a Sharpie that will prompt them to think of their new favorite employee everytime they uncap…

Now, take a minute and honor the ORIGINAL boss and tell us; how does your boss rank as the ”El Capitan?”  

In this case, that stumble led us to Reaper in Sicily, a new, unsigned (hint hint record label folks) group from across the pond that put together their entire music video for their new single, “Worlds End” using black Sharpie markers!

Check out more music from the boys on i-Tunes and hit them up on Facebook!

Grace inking it Pink!

Ready to Ink it Pink this October alongside your favorite celebrities, sports superstars and fellow Sharpie lovers?! This month we are making pink the new black in the autograph world as we kick off our annual “Ink It Pink” campaign to help fight breast cancer. 

We are challenging celebrities, our incredible fans and YOU to ink it pink for the cause.  For every pink autograph submitted to www.sharpie.com during the month of October, we will donate $1* to City of Hope, one of the nation’s leading cancer research, treatment and education centers.

The movement is already underway as rock star, Grace Potter from Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, has already signed on to the Ink It Pink effort!  Potter helped kick-off the campaign Saturday, September 24, during her band’s concert in New York City’s Central Park where she inked pink autographs for fans and encouraged them to do the same and send them over to sharpie.com!

You may remember last year was a HUGE success as hundreds of A-listers, from Hollywood movie legends and hall-of-fame athletes to revered rocks stars and respected media icons, lent their signatures to the effort.(Miley Cyrus’ Ink it Pink video is STILL our highest viewed on the Sharpie YouTube channel!)

Well this year is no different! The pink signatures have already started rolling in, including Shay Mitchell from Pretty Little Liars and 19-time Olympic medalist,  Michael Phelps, and you can help, too!

Shay Mitchell from ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars

How YOU can Ink it Pink and support Breast Cancer Research 

Want to lend your own Sharpie-fied signature to help out the cause?
Just follow these few simple steps and you’ll have your name alongside your favorite celeb in minutes:

1. Visit www.sharpie.com, (where you can also check out all the celebrity signatures.)  

2. Accept the Ink it Pink challenge and submit yours!  

You can also support the Ink it Pink mission and City of Hope by picking up your favorite Pink Ribbon Sharpie products, including the NEW Sharpie Pink Ribbon Pen, Sharpie Pink Ribbon marker, the Sharpie Pink Ribbon highlighter!  Sharpie has been a City of Hope partner since 2006 and in that time has donated more than $2 million to City of Hope’s lifesaving research and treatment programs by commiting to donate ten cents from the sale of each pink ribbon product.

So, join us this October and Ink it Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness!

From NY Fashion Week to Sharpie’s own print campaigns, these little data hubs are the gateway into a new world full of opportunities to unlock exclusive content from your favorite brands, including Sharpie! Now, the question is what do you do with them? Well, fear not because we are here to give you a step by step tutorial on how to unlock all the secrets of the QR code!

Lets start with a quick glance at our own beautiful renditions featuring this year’s advocates; Erica Domesek for Stained by Sharpie, Mark Rivard for Sharpie Mini, Cheeming Boey for Sharpie Pen and Marirose Weldon for Sharpie Liquid Pencil. 

To check out the secrets that lay just behind this tiny digital door:

1. Whip out that smarty, smarty, smartphone (iPhone, Windows Mobile, Nokia, BlackBerry, and other app-based phones with a camera built in)

2. Boot up your favorite QR reader, or, in the event your phone didnt come pre-loaded with this handy little app, you can download one, like RedLaser, ScanLife, Barcode Scanner, Shop Savvy or i-Nigma. (Caution: some code readers work better with certain devices. For instance, BlackBerry users may have greater success with i-Nigma and ScanLife.)

3. Point your camera at the code…

Scan ME!!

4. Congratulations! You are one step closer to revealing a whole new world of exclusive content AND look like a digital baller doing it. While you’re at it, scan the Sharpie ads above for a behind the scenes look at all of our advocates (yeah, I had to)!

Read on to hear Caitlin’s take on the duct tape craze that is adding a little something extra to the Sharpie world. 

Sharpie Markers are meant to help you express yourself. You’ve always known you can use them to show the world what you can create, but now you can express yourself just by how your Sharpie marker looks!

The new, hot trend of duct tape flowers has made its way to Sharpie Markers.  With dozens of colors and designs of duct tape, the flower on top of your Sharpie marker can be anything from Hello Kitty to bright yellow to zebra print.

We’ve found a great blog post to help all you of you get started with your own duct tape flower. So, check out some of the samples we found below and then get going on your own creation.

Like the flowers that you see? You can find the site to buy them by clicking here.

The bike took NASCAR artist Nick Pastura more than 120 hours and 275 Sharpie markers to complete.

In Asian culture, dragons are considered symbols of good fortune and protection. In both Chinese and Japanese mythology, the dragon is closely associated with water and is often surrounded by water or clouds.

The Koi fish symbolizes energy and motion and is sometimes interpreted to mean non-conformity. Koi also means strength in time of adversity, persistence, and the ability to overcome resistance.

According to the Buddhist tradition, the breathtaking but brief beauty of the cherry blossom symbolizes the transient nature of life.

 

ARTIST NICK PASTURA SHARES HIS SHARPIE SECRETS

While Nick rarely shares the secrets of his trade, he agreed to give us this interview about his use of Sharpie markers on this classic motorcycle:

After you landed on the overall design concept, what were the next steps for contributing that vision to paper?

I started out doing a lot of research on traditional Japanese imagery and colors. I wanted to stick with the classic Sharpie colors as my main stay…after that, it was just a matter of what tip shapes and sizes would work well together on each motorcycle part.

How did you transfer the design onto the bike? Transfer paper.

What type of Sharpie marker did you use to:

• Outline: Industrial Fine Point & Extra Fine Point in black.
• Fill: First a base coat using the Chisel Tip and then I filled in with Chisel Tip and Fine Point
• Embellishment/added detailing: Fine Point with three similar colors in each color family to blend in a circular motion.

Were there any special techniques you used to ensure the marker ink lay down properly or covered the area properly? I used small, tight, circular motions.

Did you blend any of the marker colors to create custom colors, and if so, how? Again using three similar colors to add to the main base color to complement it and blend.

Were there any other techniques or tips in the early stages to note? Yes. When blending colors, make sure the ink is still wet in order to blend easily.  You have to work quickly.

Once you completed the finished design, what did you do to seal it?  What type of sealant did you use? First, I applied three light mist coats of Dupont 622 Intercoat Adhesion Promotor.  Then I let it sit for four hours to dry thoroughly.  The final clear coat was Dupont g2 4500S Fast Activator.

Did you encounter any special challenges with the ink application and if so, how do you suggest managing them?  Make sure the colors are dry before moving on to the next color or they will bleed.

Do you recommend lay artists give this a try on their own bikes?  Any tips for a practice run? Yes, but try to practice on an old gas tank or fender if possible.

What do you like best about Sharpie markers for creating your designs?  What makes them unique? What do they bring to the design that other art tools, i.e. spray finishing, don’t? Sharpie markers give you the ability to blend three similar colors together.  In automotive painting, it is just not the norm to blend colors like that. Using Sharpie markers was both exciting and intimidating at first but I got the hang of it quickly after a few test runs. It was great to have the markers right at your reach…the color reference is so visual that way.

Ben's sons, Helmut, 13, and Julius, 10, at the Fox River Harley-Davidson dealership in St. Charles, Illinois, just after the new Sharpie-drawn tins were installed.

This weekend, the bike will make its debut at the Irwin Tools Night Race in Bristol, Tenn., where Ben will take it for a lap around the track during pre-race ceremonies tonight.  Sharpie is a partial sponsor of the NASCAR race.  Irwin Tools and Sharpie are sister brands, both part of the Newell Rubbermaid family.  Here’s a sneak peak of Ben’s trial run Thursday night:

Start With Sharpie

The Sharpie Harley couldn’t have come at a better time as Sharpie launches its new Start with Sharpie campaign.

The campaign focuses on the legions of Sharpie fans (almost 2 million on Facebook alone) using Sharpie products in inspiring and creative ways, challenging them to start something with Sharpie.  To find out how you can submit your Sharpie creation to the Sharpie gallery and be part of Sharpie’s You Tube Takeover, visit www.sharpie.com.

If the president of Sharpie can start something this cool, what are you gonna start?