Hey folks. We know it’s late in the month, but we wanted to go ahead and throw a quick challenge out there for you. And, since we know how awesome you are, we know there will be several diehards that will get it done :). So… here it is:

Using any three “items”/”subjects” in the following list, please create a beautiful image. ANY MEDIUM is ok!

-Shark                  -yahtzee

-Lion                   -Motorcycle

-Flower               -A Pug (dog)

-Doughnut          -Mechanical parts

-Tank                  -Candy Cane

-Bricks                -Sea turtles

-Pizza

Best of luck! Stoked to see what you come up with! Deadline: March 31st.

So if you happen to be one of our loyal blog followers, you can probably deduce that it has been many lunar cycles since our last blog post. A fortnight times four (maybe more?)  So while we have been absent from blogdom for a few weeks, we would like to point one thing out: We are still alive.  Heres a quick update.

We have released (3) new product lines:

-Hard Cover Classic Journal (Each featuring an elastic strap, bookmark ribbon, back inside cover pocket, inside detailing and of course, some solid artwork on the cover)

-Double Large notebook 

-Mini-Pocket notebook

Landed a few solid retail locations:

-Blonde Grizzly (http://www.blondegrizzly.com/) 

-Wellers Bookworks (http://wellerbookworks.com/)

And sent off samples to Urban Outfitters and Barnes & Noble in sleek custom designed crates that would make any seasoned carpenter raise a furrowed brow in approval.                            

Until next week folks.

-Denik

Soon after we showed up at the Naked Foot 5K people started to gather around our booth.  After a few minutes, we noticed a little boy that kept coming and looking at our journals.  Being able to tell that he was too timid to say anything, Tyler asked him, “Which do you like best?” He slowly pointed to the back of the table at a journal with the tiger printed on it.  “Wanna meet the artist?” Jake asked.  Gabriel nodded with a growing smile as Tyler raised his hand as the guilty party.  After talking his older brother into buying the journal, he had Tyler autograph it and went on his way.  His brother told us that he had no clue what the little guy was going to do with it, but, it all became very clear after a few hours—we spotted Gabriel intensely drawing in his journal.

Gabriel was stoked to show us what he had done.  He opened the journal and showed page after page of Angry Birds he had drawn.  This little guy was making a statement… why play the game, when you can draw the game and create a whole new world?

Thanks for inspiring us, Gabriel. Keep creating!

Since the creation of Denik, we have been working with Dr. Matthew Sanders, a professor at Utah State University and Board Member for Mali Rising. One of the things he has been working on for us is obtaining some artwork from young students in Mali…and as of this past week, we have some! Thank you Dr. Sanders!

We received over 100 drawings done by students in Mali, so we will post them occasionally. We will also try to get them all published on a new page. We will be narrowing down a few selections of the artwork to be printed on Denik journals as well. Keep an eye out!

It’s inspiring to see their work (This giraffe is one of my personal favorites!). Hopefully, in the near future, we can put together a short documentary of the students producing their artwork. It would be interesting to see the techniques of young students across the globe, and to have them participate in painting murals on the walls of their new schools.

Have a great week!

Cheers,

Tyler Tolson