About Me!

My Story

As a child, I was always,...always drawing.
I remember at the age of 5 I had designed my dream wedding dress 🤣 🤣
(I wish I had kept that drawing!!).
I had your typical kiddie watercolor books with the pre-stamped ink and you just add water.
I experimented with puff paint in the 80's, and then real life set in. I had dreams of being able to be an artist for a living, but we're all familiar with the phrase "starving artist". And there is where my dream died, at that point.

I still sooooo loved drawing and art, so I took an art class at the local community college right after high school. I quickly decided afterward that I wasf wasting money if I were to go any further than that.
Fast-forward to 2019, I figured out how to follow people on Instagram... SLOW on the uptake, I know 🤣 , but I was drawn particularly to watercolor artists.

I watched, and I watched,.....and I watched, until one day, I realized that I'd been watching watercolorists for a whole YEAR I decided to try some watercolor myself. It was rather inexpensive, and I felt I needed some sort of artistic outlet in my life anyway..

Enter the infamous pandemic in 2020, and as a Respiratory Therapist in a hospital I realized that I was probably directed to watercolor for a good reason.
Watercolor was my escape, the one things that could take my mind off of what I dealt with at work. Watercoloring saved my sanity. In the beginning no one knew how this sickness worked, how it spread exactly, and if there was even a cure for it or a way to slow it down effectively enough. I needed a break from all that fear, and watercolor was JUST the ticket! I found solace in the paint with me videos I found on YouTube as well, and after a while I gained some confidence in my abilities. One of my very first watercolors is at the end of this page, boy have we come a long way!

I kept going, learning how the water and paints moved on different textures of paper. I fell in love with watercolor and started PackardBoutiqueArt, my little shop on Etsy. I quickly learned that I wasn't ever going to make a living selling my art this way (if that ended up being what I was after), as each piece took so much time, and I couldn't pump out even 1 watercolor a day, as I was also homeschooling my 5 year old little boy in addition to working night shift at the hospital. But I kept painting as time and inspiration allowed.

Then, we had a traveler that was filling in for an open position we had in our department there at the hospital. We befriended eachother, and I showed her some of my art, at which point she introduced me to the Procreate app on the IPad. I had heard of the app before, but didn't want to take the plunge and actually BUY an iPad JUST to use the Wonderful app.
2022, ... I did just that 🤣 . I bought a 5th generation refurbished iPad pro with a 12.9 inch screen, so I could use the wonderful app 🤣 🤣 . I started playing around, and looking up Youtube videos to learn what all the capabilities/possibilities were.

One evening on Instagram I came across a post BonnieChristine had made which talked about surface pattern design. I clicked on, searched for everything I could find out about her. She spoke of her own journey and I was HOOKED. Here was a woman that was drawing, doing ART for a LIVING! I had to know more about it. Was it actually possible that I could follow my passion in life and actually do this for a living??!!?!?!?

Upon scouring her website I learned that she was using Adobe Illustrator (AI) to create her art. I promptly signed up for AI to see if it was even a doable situation, as I had used Adobe Photoshop previously, so I thought there SHOULD be some similarities. WRONG, I was discouraged by the difficulty of using it. And I couldn't afford to take her class...😢

Discouraged, would be the TRUEST understatement of the year for me. I tried watching BC's free class on her website and things just moved so quickly that I paused a million and a half times trying to follow what she was doing. I did this for a bout 2 weeks before I gave up for a while. I had all but given up hope, thinking this was just too steep a learning curve for me to handle while doing everything else in life. So I hung it up for a while. UNTIL, I found an affordable class that I was able to follow and do at my own pace.

I am actually still finishing up going through that class at this point (today is 05/29/2023) and now feel confident that I'll actually be about to use All to create surface patterns just as easily as they are to create in Procreate. Anne Laffollette's $10 Doodles class was also invaluable. Great class to take, you should take it!

Why not just use Procreate to do all my surface pattern designing? Some do, however there are advantages to using AI by virtue of it being a vector based program. Procreate is pixel based. In case you're completely new to the game, the advantage of vector art is the ability to scale your images to whatever size is needed without becoming pixelated. I was off to the races once I figured that out. Surface pattern design CAN be done with Procreate, but it may limit your options as far as how many applications you will be able to use those images on. For example if you wanted to increase the size of your image to place it as a large print on a comforter, or maybe drapery, wallpaper or shower curtains.

2020-2022, were tough years for me at work. And I realized that this might not be something that will be as sustainable for the long term as I once thought. I completely expected that Respiratory Therapy was going to be my ride or die. I will probably always do it in some capacity, but there is a lot of emotional trauma involved with being a first responder level care giver in a hospital setting. I love being able to save people. The whole reason I chose to be a Respiratory Therapist was because I wanted to live a life of service, in a capacity that would help people in a way they couldn't help themselves.
I say a prayer at the beginning of every shift, asking that my Father in heaven guide me in the exact ways He needs me to be there and serve those that are with me there in the hospital. I always ask that I be directed in partnership with angels, being the physical hands that need to be there during critical moments, in order for miracles to happen. In direct answer to these prayers, I have actually been called an angel by several of my patients. I Know this was my heavenly Father's way of telling me He has heard my prayers, and IS working through me. I cannot count how many times I have had VERY pointed promptings, influencing me to do things I wouldn't have normally done on my own, that have either saved a patient's life, or circumvented some serious things happening.
The promptings of the Holy Ghost, are constant when I am in the hospital, he walks with me...why would I want to leave that life behind?
Learning to constantly listen for those promptings, has translated directly into hearing more clearly what the Lord wants for ME. What I'm supposed to do for Me, as well as a large way to serve others in the same boat I am in. Still a field of service, just in a different area! I don't think I could have ever learned Truly, what a spiritual prompting was like, what it felt like enough to be able to ACT on it without practicing many times, To be able to see the blessings of the outcomes first hand.

How is Surface Pattern Design going to fill the void of this kind of profession?

For a LOOOOONG time now, I feel I have had the CONSTANT prompting to do something with my art. I've produced a few works of art that I've been told are amazing. But they are pieces that were very inspired. Inspired by what a friend might say, an experience of thiers. Or something I'd painted after being inspired by the overwhelming beauty of my surroundings. My belief, as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is that we are all sent here with certain gifts to bless the lives of those around us, and those gifts are developed over time as we experience life.
There are many ways one person can bless the lives of others over time, in different capacities.
I know I have been blessed with the capability to produce art for a HUGE reason. Whether it be that it may allow me to actually be home to teach my son more efficiently, or to be able to serve those around me in my surrounding community more. OR, this is the big one,...to be able to eventually teach someone like MYSELF, how to set up their own art and surface pattern design business, in an easier way, so THEY TOO can be in a position to be there for their families and serve those around them more. All this, AND be able to draw, paint, ...and just LIVE. To be able to have more freedom. To be able to see my family more. To be able to provide meals to those in need. And be in more of a philanthropic position than I am currently with my current wage. My first tiny why, for why I wanted to open my own side business was to earn enough funds to provide rocking chairs for the pediatric oncology ward at Doernbecher's children's hospital in Portland, OR. A friend of mine had a child there, and told me how there were only 4 glider rocking chairs that the parents kind of fought over to rock their babies in. They were the kind with the shorter seats that cut the circulation off at the back of your legs. I thought to myself, wow, those parents are there just as long as their babies are. Wouldn't it be great if more than just 4 parents could rock their babies tin comfort? This is STILL my goal. Hopefully the first of Many to come. I'd soooooooo like to do so much more than that.


So, whether you're someone that just wants to learn how to use AI and Procreate, Or how to use WordPress to set up a business of your own, or even just do a little watercolor for your own pleasure, I hope I have inspired you.

Come along with me, watch as I grow!

I will be sharing everything I learn as I go, without the huge price tag that a lot of others have. We will do this together in shorter actionable segments! Eventually I will have a class of my own that I will offer, but for now, SMALL, bite sized actionable amounts of information anyone can chew
-Short weekly blog posts
-Short video tutorials
-Some freebies along the way, and how I made those freebies.

Thank you SOOO much for reading.

LETS GO!!!! LETS DO THIS THING!! 🙌