Featured Artist Friday: Darcy Baldwin Fontography (and Scrapbooking) With 2 Specials You Won't Want to Miss!

Okay, enough of my wacky left-handed handwriting. Darcy created a monster by giving me my own printed font to play with...

Today our artist is Darcy Baldwin!
I'm very excited that Darcy's kicking off our Featured Artist Fridays!And, I'm thrilled at the SPECIALS she's offering our readers.But, I'm getting ahead of myself....
Darcy and I have known each other virtually 5-6 years now. And, when I say virtually, I mean it. While we’ve never met in person, I respect her opinion – and her talent – very much. Besides being a fascinating woman, a home-schooling mother and someone who knows her sweat from her sauté...Darcy’s a darn good fontographer.

Let’s jump in. Howdy Darcy! Tell us a little about yourself!

Howdy, y'all (and that is THE correct way to spell it).
I'm Dana's geeky friend that she picked up along the way when I was stalking Alton Brown a number of years ago. (I still stalk him..she puts up with me).

I'm a homeschooling mom to two brilliant little men who fill my days with Legos, Star Wars, science, cooking and lots of love. My husband is a computer geek who found me on the interwebs 15 years ago and decided he'd like to keep me. I'm a native Texan still living here (thus the howdy, though you can't hear my accent here. Folks here think I'm from Chicago, though, because I'm such a fast-talker.), dreaming of the day we can move on to other parts of the world!

What does your "shoppe" feature?

Primarily, my shoppe features fonts. I create custom handwriting fonts for people to use for business, memory keeping (scrapbooking or other projects) and gifts.

How did you first get into the font creating business?

A few years ago, a good friend, Kimberly Geswein (see her on dafont.com) took me in as an apprentice, trained me, and helped me start my own business. I'm forever thankful to her for the help in getting started!

What excites you about fonts?

My biggest excitement is helping people adapt their handwriting for a font and using them to help capture their memories through scrapbooking or other memory keeping projects. It adds that personal touch to their project.

One of the funnest ways I love seeing this used is kids' fonts. I love seeing my sons' handwriting when they are developing..the 5yo print vs. the 10 yo print. It's fun developing those for other families, too! Kids just have the cutest writing!

Memory keeping is important to me. My mom and my grandmother both had memory problems that developed early in life, and there are memories that are lost to me now. Seeing some of the same symptoms begin developing in my memory, it was important to me to capture those moments for my boys. I had them late in life, and I don't want them coming to the age of wanting to know about their life and me not being able to remember. Thus..scrapbooking came to be very important to me, so it excites me when I can help others with this part of their memory keeping.

Darcy’s sense of humor always makes me smile!

(Check this next one out!)

I also get excited about seeing unique and fun fonts...
dafont.com is a favorite place to just cruise for fonts!

What are some creative uses you've heard about?
I've love seeing typography sites where fonts are used to create a photo. It's a unique art form that still astounds me.

What is your favorite product (scrapbooking, anything) - right this minute?

Vintage canning jars is my current absolutely favorite anything. I'm redoing my kitchen and pantry, removing plastics where we can, and replacing them with glass or stainless steel. My pantry is in mid-changeover, and I love being able to SEE everything in their containers, have the containers be pretty canning and glass containers as we dump the junk and embrace the real food!

Pinterest.com is another favorite thing at the moment. A visual website of pretty stuff, much like tumblr, that I can get lost in for hours.

How long have you been blogging?

I've been blogging on and off forever. I had a Geocities website, way back last century, for our homeschooling journey. I took a break from it for awhile, then restarted a personal blog, Somewhat Muddled Musings of a Homeschooling Mom, a little over a year ago just to have a way to share what I love, helpful hints, and memories.

Any special deals you want to tell us about?

Just for your readers, I'd love to offer a couple of coupons to try out my products.

Custom Handwriting Font Services - turn your handwriting into a font!

Code: $2off-myfont

Expires April 1, 2011

Use on any of the custom/premiere handwriting font services
You must be signed into the shoppe in order to be able to use the coupon code.

40% off everything else

Code: djb-40%off

Expires April 1, 2011
Good on font packages and other scrapbooking elements.
Not valid on custom/premiere handwriting font services or scoops
You must be signed into the shoppe in order to be able to use the coupon code.

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Edited to add:
Custom/Premiere font services need to be purchased separately from the font packages.
Sorry for any confusion.
******

Anything else you want to share?

Just want to say thanks, Dana, for this opportunity to share my passion with your readers, and for being a great friend!

Aw, shucks. Right back at cha!

Isn't she amazing?
In addition to Darcy's work at SweetShoppe Designs she also has her font blog and
the Darcy Baldwin {Fontography} Facebook Page. Busy woman!

Stop back next Friday, to see what else we have in store for
Featured Artist Friday! But, for now...off you go! Grab those coupon codes up there.
And, and go get some really neat stuff at very special prices!
Thank you so much Darcy!