Art designs by
Cynthia Bainton

Cindy and her artwork featured in Christmas 2003 Orlando Sentinel story!

Cynthia Bainton is a free-lance artist with more than 25 years experience in a variety of styles. Having backgrounds in fabric design, botanical drawing, and watercolor art, she is most known for her playful greeting cards (over 200 designs printed) published by Recycled Paper Greetings each year.

Sample Greeting Cards Sample Postcards Sample Notepad Designs Sample Clothing Designs Sample Wrapping Paper

What are Hokeybirds? Cindy's favorite characters to draw are playful, colorful little birds. She calls them Hokeybirds, because very often they do not behave like normal little birds. They can be seen defying gravity, standing on each other, wearing clothes, etc. Although several other greeting card artists now draw similar birds, Cindy was the first. Almost every card design will have one hiding in it somewhere.

Where can I buy Cindy's products?

GREETING CARDS
Many of Cindy's card designs are published by Recycled Paper Greetings, and can be found at most places selling their cards (some information is available at their web site). This includes Rocs Card and Gift shops (we've been finding these at car washes believe it or not), many Target Dept. Stores, some major college book stores, and various card shops not dedicated to Hallmark products. Places carrying current Recycled Paper Greetings cards should be able to order anything that is in print if it isn't on display in their store.

A single design tends to only be published for 1-3 years. Many of them, including most of the ones appearing on this web site, are out-of-print and may now only be available through her online store. Only a fraction of her designs have been printed, so you may see some appear in the store that are not available otherwise. If you are interested in a card that you cannot find send an email. It helps to know what people want.

CALENDARS Calendars will be available in Cindy's online store. We are also looking into the possibility of publishing them in lulu.com. WRAPPING PAPER, BUTTONS, MUGS, BAGS, CLOTHES These are being made available through the online store. Again if you can't find something let us know. If there is a demand we'll try to make it happen.

OTHER PRODUCTS
Other products (notepads, car shades, etc.), although in-print at one time by various companies, many are no longer available at all. We are investigating possibilities for producing these products, so if you are interested let us know.

How can I recognize Cindy's designs?

Sometimes this can be tricky because Cindy is accomplished in several styles of artwork. The backside of most of the greeting cards will either mention that the design is by Cindy or Cynthia Bainton, or will display the same "paintbrush" logo that appears at the top of this web site. Most of them will also have a hand written "CB" at the bottom of the design. For designs that do not indicate the artist, you can usually find a hokeybird character in the design somewhere.

How did Cindy get into this business? Cindy is getting paid for doing what she loves. She has had a desire to design greeting cards most of her life, as have other designers. A complete description of her background and professional experience can be read HERE, but basically she kept submitting designs to her favorite publishing companies for several years, improving on the designs as she could. Eventually her persistence paid off. Her designs now look far more professional and polished than her very first submissions (which she now considers embarrassing). Her advice to anyone wanting to get into the business is to not give up, to purchase a copy of the annual Artist Market book and follow the guidelines requested by the individual companies you wish to submit to. Also consider showing your designs at the annual stationery trade show in New York City.

How is a card created?