Fall in Love with the Blac Gurlz Ink 2010 Butches of the Bay

The Blac Gurlz Ink Babes would like to take February – the month of Love, as an opportunity to introduce a new product into our greeting card and gift line – Postcards!

AND to also introduce our selection for the 2010 Butches of the Bay!

In keeping with our mission statement to be “authentic” in our presentation of images specifically designed for the LGBT community, by using LGBT members as our models and to showcase the “diversity” of our community, we feel that the handsome women chosen, represent a cross section of the submissions we received, as well as our community.  They come from various walks of life, ethnic representation and gender expression within the dynamics of being “butch women.”  The Blac Gurlz Ink Babes feel that based on the models’ energy, personal expression of their “butch-ness,” in addition to being simply handsome…well, we’re happy with our picks!

We asked our models to give us a brief bio (see bios below) so that you would be able to get to know them as we have and come to “love the Butches of the Bay” as much as we do.  They are an amazing group of women; they were easy to work with and though they had only met one another during the photo shoot (it was an open casting call), their energy was so warm and welcoming that well…you can feel it emanating from their photos!

Who better to launch our POSTCARD series then gorgeous women who also endow such wonderful masculine energy! 

A set of 6 Postcards for $9.99 (assorted)

And there’s more!

We have also reduced pricing on our hand-crafted, couture greeting cards – in time for Valentine’s Day as well!

Now you can have one of these gorgeously crafted greeting cards for $12.99 – they’re great for expressing that “special” sentiment to the ones you love!  Our hand-crafted, couture greeting cards are great for weddings, baby showers, birthday, anniversary or any special occasion giving.

Valentine's Day You & Me Handcrafted Couture Greeting Card

We here at Blac Gurlz Ink strive to enhance your shopping experience when you visit us at www.blacgurlzink.com and hope that you enjoy your purchases from our greeting cards, gifts and NOW our NEW POSTCARD line!

Our products are also being carried in the following retail locations, so please show support for local and independent businesses:

Laurel Bookstore
4100 MacArthur Blvd.
Oakland, CA  94619
510/531-2073

Crumps Clothing
7416 N. Fresno Street
Fresno, CA 93702
559/449-8437

Rainbow Grocery
1745 Folsom Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
415/863-0620

VoluptuArt
http://www.voluptuart.com.

www.blacgurlzink.com

Please keep us ALL  in mind when making future purchases and Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

Model Bios

2010 Butches of the Bay Model: C. Svendsen

Christine Svendsen is a college instructor who is always busy.  She is the president of her local pride organization, president of a local Dyke on Bikes Chapter and president of an advocacy council, all of this while working on her PhD.  She loves to write and is finishing edits on her first book, which she hopes to see in print soon.  She recently married the first, an only, woman in her life Schileen.  She feels one of her greatest accomplishments has been raising three great sons.

Loretta Cannon is surgical assistant who likes to volunteer in countries who little to no access to health care.  She is a firm believer in promoting good health and well being for all women and their families.

Loretta enjoys making gourmet meals for friends and families and team members.  If she had one wish, she would want all lesbian couples to see and feel the safest and warmest memories within each other.

2010 Butches of the Bay Model: L. Cannon

Loretta is embarking on a new business endeavor where she will assist you in “wooing” your sweetie – so watch out for it!

Ericka Schneider enjoys spending her days dreaming of a future as a porn star, but when she is not dreaming, she is spending her time running her own company – ELS Plumbing, “where their specialty is snaking your pipes”.

She also enjoys donating her skills to various organizations that help better the community, such as – Rebuilding Together Oakland (RTO), First Christian Church of Concord (FCC) and the First Christian Church of Fremont, volunteer programs.

When she is not working or dreaming she can be found out on the softball field or at a pool table.  Ericka really enjoys meeting new people and learning new skills.

2010 Butches of the Bay Model: E. Scheider

How to Make a Greeting Card

Handmade Lesbian Wedding Card

It’s funny how things work out.  I never thought in a million years that I would be in the greeting card business.  Hell, at several points in my Life I have been content to be a worker bee…hahaha!

Blac Gurlz Ink, for me, came about due to two reasons…my first girlfriend lived on the opposite coast and when I wanted to send her a card just to say I was thinking of her — there was nothing out there.  The second reason, I love graphic design.  Somehow this Taurus decided that the two should form some breathing entity to catapult me onto the cover of Forbes! *haha, you’re laughing…bring me the issue and I will autograph it for you…hahaha!

I’m stepping way out of my personal comfort zone with this and excitedly so.  To be honest, though, this is ONE, of a few thing in my life, I am certain is the right thing to do!

Now being a creative cookie I am always on the lookout for info, ideas, and opportunities to expand and be better at what I am doing…I’m working on getting the formula just right.

Handmade Gay Wedding Card

I make handmade greeting cards, in addition to coordinating the various photo shoots that are subsequently transformed into our greeting cards.

So tonight, after a very exciting and energizing day I find I cant sleep and cant work because its late so I go looking for info and ideas to bring to you and what do I find…an article on how to make a greeting card!  I think it’s pretty interesting and of course if you put your personal spin on it…well, Viola!

Some might say, “why would she tell folks how to make a card vs. buying one of hers?” Well, the way I see it, some days you might want to make them yourself (and why not have a guide of some sort) and others you might feel like  “oh bust it, I’ll just buy one from Blac Gurlz Ink!” hahaha!

I think our greetings cards are a hot item and once folks learn about us and that we’re using “real” lesbians vs. professional models in our design concepts, to give our product a more “authentic” look and to provide a more “accurate” representation of the lesbian community…well, we have no worries…there is enough of everything for us all!

Now for the instructions and check out our greeting cards, we currently have 3 series up and the 4th, Butches of the Bay will be released late 2009!      http://www.blacgurlzink.com

One Love,

Spring Opara
Supreme Challenger of the Status Quo

INSTRUCTIONS provide by brokengirl (an eHow community member):

1. Go to your local arts & crafts store and get all the necessary things you need. I would also include paint on the list…a tricky ingredient in making the greeting cards is the feather quill pen that can be found at Barnes & Noble or Michael’s.

2. Cut the large sheets of handmade paper in halves and then bend them together so they have a crease down it’s spine…You can open and close them at this point and you are on your way to creating a greeting card.

3. Write the greeting. It can be words of inspiration or a poem. Do the writing in india ink with the feather quill pen and it will look magnificent! Choose the celebration greeting, from Christmas Eve to Congrats to the newly weds or proud parents.

4. Decorate. It is always fun to decorate a surface. Now you can attach any images you may have or write more words with coloured markers. Stickers are always a good choice when decorating.

5. Are you just going to give the person the greeting card or are you going to put it in an envelope send? Make sure you buy over-sized envelopes to fit your handmade cards!

http://www.ehow.com/how_2218834_greeting-card.html

The supreme court, prop H8 & Us!

Though I have a BS degree (how appropriate…haha!) in Political Science, I dont consider myself an activist/feminist by any stretch of the imagination.  I do, however, believe that in order to “play the game”, or avoid playing it, one must first KNOW what the RULES of game are, thus, my reasoning for pursuing my degree.  The politics which exist in the United States, hell the World is One Big Game and I learned at an early age that I needed to know the game, if for nothing else but to avoid falling victim to its far-reaching grasp.

The furor over California’s Prop 8 decision by the state’s Supreme Court, has everyone in an uproar. As humans divisiveness seems to be an acceptable programming and so I am not surprised at how this issue has splintered the world.  Humans often choose interesting measures of worth and unfortunately two of the most prominent ones pervading us today is equal rights for tax paying citizens who identify as gay/lesbian and cold hard cash, considering the economic diabolical of 2008!

So I’ve been doing some market research and what I discovered is this, “gays and lesbians spend more than $600 billion, annually!” according to the article, Guide to Marketing to Gay & Lesbian Consumers, authored by Matt Alderton, for Business.com

WoW!  We have that much economic wherewithal and we are in the streets PROTESTING for our Constitutional rights? Seriously?

I think we need to take a step back, breath and look at this from the “game” perspective.  If we, as a group, have that much economic POWER why are we protesting in the streets?

Even more poignant — Where are we spending these billions of dollars?  In who’s establishment?

No take inventory. I’ll wait.  How many businesses do you patronize, other than the clubs, that are LGBT owned?

Are our dollars fueling the machine that would silence us, deprive our children and keep our partners/families from us in our last hours?  How many of you walk pass a queer business and opt for someone who smiles in your face, yet may be voting your demise behind your back?  Im just saying.  I know there may not be many LGBT businesses, but that’s another good question as well…Why arent there more LGBT owned business?

Perhaps, we dont support them so they close? Where’s Mama Bears?  Or they dont even open because the statistics show that “we, their community” wont spend our dollars with them?  So again I say…where are we spending our $600 billion, annually, in economic power?

In the scope of the game, money has power, thus, if we as a community stop spending our dollars with those who do not support us, then the machine will have to listen.  It is the sound of money that it understands  — or the lack thereof.  The caveat to this scenario…we must do it as a collective!  As an ECONOMIC COLLECTIVE we can yield great influence of change for us all…but we must do it together.  Afterall, that WAS how the Civil Rights Movement succeeded…as a economic collective they won the war!

Think carefully my people about the PEACEFUL tactics of Martin Luther King Jr., if it is his platform we pluck ideas and ammunition of change.

Boycotts are effective.
Peaceful sit-ins are effective.
Peace Rallies vs. Protests signal to the Universe that it is a, peaceful and fair outcome, that we seek.

But back to the game.  I say to us all that WE are responsible for the Supreme Court decision and even the emergence of this machine of hate.  We fed it with our hard earned cash!

So I say…Take back the power that fuels the machine.

I challenge us all to the following:

1) Lets have “days of withholding” where we spend NO MONEY at all,
2) Lets boycott businesses/organizations that do not support us,
3)On the days we do make purchases, we endeavor to find out who is “family” and spend our dollars with them,
4) We support organizations who are on the front-lines with donations and
5)We petition our elected officials – vigorously. but peacefully.

I personally feel that the “days of withholding” will be the most effective, but lets change the rules of the game.  You see in this “game” cold hard cash fuels the machine…take away the fuel, the machine goes quiet.

Think about it…

Peaceful Wanderings,

S. Opara
Supreme Challenger of the Status Quo