Most of you know i collaborate with Ashley over at Lil Blue Boo quite a bit and have made many downloads available through her site…both freebies and items in the digital shop. Well, she is having one of their few annual sales and now’s a great time to shop!

Click HERE to check it out!!

Have you guys seen the amazing Beauty Salon Themed party thrown by Ashley at Lil Blue Boo? I made a printable graphics package for their online shop and what they did with its humble little self was spectacular!

Below is a little peek at the printables download that you can purchase here.

And you can check out LBB’s ginormous and fun party post FULL of inspiring photos like the ones below, here.

i hope my posts don’t become too sparse or too predictable over the next several months. The flurry of deadlines for my new book project begins in 10 days and goes thru summer. So i’ll have Creative Illustration & Beyond on my brain a lot. i’ll try to keep the posts on that topic to a minimum, but to kick off my excitement, i just wanted to share one of my favorite little sketches from the first series of character drawing lessons.

Have a great day!

Sometimes i need to cleanse my artistic palette if i’ve been doing a bunch of the same thing for a while. This time, it looks like this:

Glam-Ostrich is a cutie little 8×8 digital line drawing just added to my etsy shop. She is FAAAAANCY. i even turned her into a little simple repeating pattern.

….and now i feel so much better. i can jump back into stocking the digital stamp section and working on pages for the next book project i’ve got going.

Catch ya’ll later!

2013 Goal List:

- expand revenue streams

- reach broader market

- make more happy art

In truth, my 2013 goal list is pretty hefty compared to the short list above. i’ve got big ambitions, people. i am a total list-making geek. But the expanded revenue streams idea is no joke.  The rapidly approaching addition of baby #3 to our family has me more than a little bit nervous about how badly my capacity to work will be affected. YIKES!

SO, the idea is to add more avenues for volume selling that will help ease the transition.

To that end, i’ve added lots of new phone cases to my zazzle shop.

i’ve added more artworks to my page on DeNY Designs. (SO fun seeing your art on household items!)

i’m also continually licensing new art to GreenBox Art + Culture/Oopsy Daisy/Wheatpaste, and a few new retailers i am super excited about!

And lastly, there is the brand spankin new Digital Stamps/Clip Art section in my etsy shop. i will be adding to it continually. It will be slam packed full of illustrations. i promise you that! The $3 listings will be for personal use only (no reselling), but i will be adding 2 upgrade options for resellers in the next few days; a Limited Commercial License and a Full Commercial License. Stay tuned for more on that!

So thank you to everyone who has already been so supportive of the first 7 characters in the Digital Stamps section, and to the DeNY products and Zazzle phone cases. You make my life with these precious kiddos possible. Baby 3 will be here in April and i’m sure he will give a big shout out of thanks as well. -xo

I stay pretty busy, but house projects often get side-tracked in the name of work projects. The project above might set a record for me, though. i bought burlap, lining, cord, etc over 18 months ago to make new roman shades for our kitchen that we remodeled last year. i finally made them in the couple days before Christmas. To be honest, i’m shocked i didn’t break down and just buy some in the meantime. Better late than never!

What is the longest you guys have ever put off a project you had all the supplies for?

Here’s a fun little craft project to do with your kiddos. A quick Kittie Kat stuffie they can color and help you stuff. Older kids might even be able to help with the sewing. I’ve made a printable PDF download for you all. You have a few options:

1) print onto inkjet compatible, paper-backed cotton or canvas. You can get this at some craft stores or online. Dharma Trading Co. has some here.

2) print the download onto iron-on transfer paper. You can also get that at Dharma Trading Co. here.

3) print out onto regular paper and use a lightbox and fabric markers to trace the design onto your fabric.

I printed onto inkjet compatible cotton canvas. Then got situated with my trusty fabric markers and some fabric dyes for the larger areas so i could paint them in a bit quicker.

Here’s a detail of the fabric texture. (Click the image to see it larger on your screen)

And here’s how she looked all color-i-fied.

Then i cut out the kittie leaving about 5/8″ of the fabric all around.

I used this piece as a template to cut a piece of fabric for the back of the kittie. I just used some woven, fun fabric from my stash. You don’t need much. I pinned the 2 pieces with right sides together.

Next, I stitiched a 5/8″ seam all around. The fabric marker bled through, so it gave me a good guide as far as staying very close to the black outline of the kittie. I backstitched on either side of an approximately 4″ gap at the base of the kittie. This will be the hole for turning and stuffing. Before turning, i trimmed close to my stitching line and added some notches around curves to make the turned shape lie smoothly. You might want to add a 2nd row of stitching very close to your first row if this little stuffie is likely to get a lot of wear.

Next, I turned and pressed the stuffie so she looked like this.

Then stuffed her with fiber fill and hand-stitched the opening shut. I instagrammed her keeping me company at my desk, see?

She might need some sequins…..but that’s for another day. : )

Oh! and see her cute back?

Click the image below for your PDF download if you want to make a few of your own! Meow!

If you have some cardstock handy, you can print out some of these li’l Valentine’s cards i made for ya. Just click HERE for the PDF to instantly download.

TIP: if you cut 2 little slits near cutie-pie’s hands, you can thread the stick of a lollipop through.

Happy Heart Day!

That ARtsy Girl – 12×17 (image area) in acrylic and collage on watercolor paper

i painted this small as a color study. Painting small really helps me with freedom of color selection, layout and experimentation. It feels less “heavy” than when i am painting on a huge canvas – less pressure. And that often yields results that i really end up liking.

How about you all? Any strategies for energizing your creative mojo?

LUSH – 36 x 36 x 1.5″ Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

Recently, my paintings have been inspired by the idea of reinventing themes for nurseries or kids spaces. That’s not to say the finished pieces can only be used in those spaces. But i have been thinking a lot about how more “grown up” art can really work for kids. This piece was my take on a room with a jungle, animal, rain forest…even pirate island theme. i’d hang it over the crib as a statement piece. Wouldn’t stuffed monkeys and elephants look right at home with it? But yet, its not so obvious and literal that it couldn’t translate into other rooms of the house.

Here are some detail images of the painting:

You might remember another piece i did a couple months back, titled BALLERINA? Same idea there. A complement to a ballerina themed room, but in a subtle, abstracted way : )

What types of art do all of you like to use in kids spaces?