about the artist

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Karen Wood has been designing her whimsical characters and scenes for the marketplace since 1984. A math major in college, she is a self-taught artist. With the encouragement and support of her husband, Frank, and sons, Jason, David, and Rob, she and her best friend,(since 7th grade), Bonnie, combined their skills as artists, (Karen in painting, and Bonnie in needlework), to create coordinated needlework and painting designs for the craft industry.

They started by creating books and patterns, and soon Frank was enlisted to create the wooden cutouts they sold along with the patterns at decorative painting conventions. With over 400 patterns under the Best
Friends Designs logo, 25 books on decorative painting and needlework, for Leisure Arts, Viking Publications, and Darrow Publishing, plus numerous magazine articles over the years, she has been an internationally recognized designer.

In 1997, with Bonnie's blessing, she decided to expand her horizons and began designing for Crazy Mountain Imports (CMI) and the gift market. Since that time she has created hundreds of designs for CMI. Her artwork has been developed into a variety of products, including candles, figurines, pillows, tins, dishware, and just about anything else you can imagine.

In 1998, she added rubber stamps to her portfolio and has produced several holiday and every day lines.

In 2000, she and Bonnie (still her best friend!) decided to end Best Friends Designs so that Karen could concentrate on licensing for the gift industry. She has continued to design painting and needlework books for Leisure Arts, and in 2004, began creating stickers and papers for scrapbooking for them through their “Memories in the Making” collections. Those lines include, holiday, floral, and Kid’s Sports themed groupings.

In 2003 she created and sold her first Christmas cards to Crown Point Graphics and continues to license a variety of holiday cards.

Karen lives on 3 beautifully landscaped acres, (her husband's passion), with him and their 3 dogs, Abby, the black lab, Murphy, the golden retreiver, and Sadie, the mutt. She works from her home studio and draws endless inspiration from their flower and vegetable gardens,orchards, koi ponds,the wide variety of wildlife that inhabit their gardens, and the natural habitat that borders their property.

Karen creates her charming colorful designs in a variety of mediums. Acrylic, watercolor, watercolor pencil, colored pencil and ink are among her favorites.