Detail from the cover:

Interior Page:

Sticker Page:

Here’s a little baby announcement I just finished for a family in Australia. They wanted a “subtle” kangaroo. Do you think this is subtle enough?

I want a dog.

I remember talking to a fellow illustrator a few years ago who said, “I don’t even use sketch books anymore, I draw everything on the computer!” I couldn’t believe that. I thought it was sad. But let me tell you, I’ve changed my opinion. It’s SO. MUCH. EASIER. I can make really detailed sketches, drastically change them, add detail, and make them the perfect size all in 1/2 the time. Even if I’m going to make the picture with a traditional medium (watercolor, pastel, etc.) I still sketch it out in Photoshop first. It’s quite amazing. And I can listen to pandora.com while I work. That alone makes me draw better…

Here’s the recipe card:

Click here (Cinnamon Roll Recipe Tags copy) for a PDF of the the Ready To Print version. Prints 4 recipe cards per sheet.)
We put the cinnamon & sugar in a little ziploc baggie, the flour & yeast in a gallon sized ziploc baggie, and took the cake mix out of the box. Then we put those three things into big fancy baggies to package them (found from a floral wholesale supplier), but you could just throw the three bags into another ziploc. You could even trim the ziploc part off and tie it with a ribbon if you want to get really fancy.

Here’s what it looked like all packaged up:

Ok, now I’m really REALLY done with Christmas.
xo

I finally finished my gifts for the nieces (I couldn’t leave them out after slaving over the $5 gifts for the nephews. I tend to get carried away with projects. Perhaps you’ve noticed.) Gretchen is modeling her Princess Hat and tulle skirt. And rockin’ the Lawn Gnome look.

Here it is laid out of the floor so you can see what it really looks like. And I could attempt to write down directions, but I’m not exactly sure how I pulled this off. Lets just say it involved my mother-in-laws surger, leftover canvas from college painting class, and a hot glue gun.

Happy Holidays!

Now it’s Christmas, and I’ve been brainstorming what I can do for my nephews. They all really really REALLY liked the treasure maps to their pirate pouches last year. I’m making them find their presents again this year (hiding gifts = no wrapping! Woo hoo!). But I’m getting nephews that are 8 years old now. Pirate Pouches aren’t going to cut it much longer. Dude, these kids have DS systems. They don’t need no stinkin’ pirate pouch! (Oh, the pressure!) So my creativity was tested sorely. With the help of my uber-talented sister Adrianne, we made the most awesome gift.

SUPER HERO KITS. With business cards. And incident report forms. Paperwork and Super Heroes. Can it get any funner? I know.

THE PLAN: They’ll get this letter here ( Federal Super Hero Welcome Letter ) that tells them they’ve been inducted into the Federal Bureau of Super Heroes. Then they’ll be directed to find their Secret Super Hero Kit in the cereal cabinet. Their kit is a 10×13″ envelope with an ID badge, business cards, a tri-fold brochure of commonly used “Spy Words” (we couldn’t resist the tri-fold), a clipboard full of Incident Report Forms ( Federal Super Hero Incident Form ), and aviator sunglasses from the $1 store.

ALL I HAD TO BUY: Aviator Sunglasses, 10×13″ manilla envelopes, ID badge holders & aviator sunglasses. Dude, so worth it…

The Incident Report Form (Yes, that does reference a “Yo Gabba Gabba” uprising. It’s coming people, are you ready?):

Badge (mustaches on kids = hilarity):

Another Badge:

BUSINESS CARDS!!!

Here’s a template for the badge if you want to make a kit too. It’s sized to fit into the standard “Name Badge” holders they have at most office supply stores:

Yay for $5 gifts! And kids with cop ’stashes!

And who doesn’t want a knitted bathing suit (such a bad idea, right? But SO CUTE!)

But since those would take hours upon hours, and her banner only took me maybe MAYBE two hours, I will probably just ask for a hat or something. I actually feel bad asking for anything. Does anyone else have this problem, where they feel bad asking for things?

Here’s Option One (she emailed me a few images as a “starting point”, which is always helpful. This is the most “ripped off” version.):

Then we tried something “grittier”:

And then ended up back at the beginning….

TAH DAH!!!
(Does anyone know why wordpress has decided to distort all these images? Yeah, I should figure that out…)
PS – Liz’s shop isn’t live yet, so I didn’t link to it. But she’s a really impressive knitter. Dude. Seriously.

Seriously. And so easy too. I highly recommend it. Here’s an “Action Shot” showing the kids in pursuit of CANDY.

So fun. Also fun? Watching a 5-year-old DANCE OFF. Oh yeah. These kids can move. This is the golden age for Dance Offs. In a few years they’ll be too self conscious. But now? Oh how they can work it.

CHAIRS
I’m in this great Mom’s Group hosted by a local church. They had a fundraiser a few weeks ago. The church gave us these AWESOME old chairs to make fabulous and sell. Since there were 10 chairs, I figured we’d better keep it simple. We spray painted them and I laid out some scriptures in Illustrator to stick on the chairs (shout out to my totally amazing sister-in-law Angela who cut the vinyl for me. YOU ROCK!) Then I used some enamel paint to add a little line art. Super simple. Super cute. Super.

CARDS
As I mentioned before, I’m in charge of crafts for our Moms Group this year. This week we’ll be making sets of cards. There’s this great project called KidsLink Downrange where MOPS groups all around the USA help military kids connect to their deployed parents by creating Card Kits the kids can use to keep in touch with their mom or dad. We’ll be making sets of cards to keep AND some to give away. And, since I try to make things as simple as possible, I made up the card designs in color AND line art. (So the people who want to be creative can be creative, and the people who want to mass-produce these suckas can mass-produce…)

Because I love to share, here are the files for you. As always, GLITTER GLUE IS NOT OPTIONAL. See how I made all the cute polka-dots on the backgrounds? They’re for you to dot glitter glue onto. Seriously, everything is better with glitter.

Random Bullet Pointed Tips:
* Buy envelopes before you make your cards. That way you can make the cards exactly the right size. Or, if you’re like me, you may have a stockpile already to pull from… (Because you never know when you’ll need 500 envelopes, right?) (Size A-2 envelopes are 4.375″ x 5.75″, and fit cards that are 4.25″ x 5.5″. That’s exactly 1/2 a sheet of regular card-stock folded in half. That’s what we’ll be making. Do a google search for A-2 envelopes & find lots of lovely options.)

* I buy reams of card stock to make my own cards, but craft stores carry nice little 25-page packs in a variety of colors that are lovely. I use a paper cutter to cut it down to the right size. If I’m really ambitious, I’ll use a butter knife to score where the paper will fold before I cut it. Then I get a pristine fold line. It’s very satisfying.

* Coloring Your Card: I think Colored Pencils are the best, but you can also use Acrylic Craft Paint to get some nice strong color on your card. Watercolors will work too (if you’ve laser-printed the designs, but if you printed it on an inkjet printer it will smear.)

* Glitter glue is your friend. Embrace the glitter glue. For best results, color the design in first & then enhance & highlight with the glittery goodness.

*You can glue or tape the designs directly on the cards, but the foam-ey tape makes it a little more 3-D & funky.

Click on the line art below & click again to magnify. You can save the file or print directly from here. I recommend using card stock.

HAPPY CRAFTING!!!

Ella: Mom, I want a Hawaiian birthday party.
Me: Really? That’s interesting? Why?
Ella: Because I want everyone to wear grass skirts and drink out of coconuts with little umbrellas.
Me: Ok, I’m not sure if that’s going to happen. How about a Fairy Princess party?
Ella: Ok, I will be “Tinkerbell”, Kelly can be “Wendy”, Kyle can be “Peter”, you can be the “Mom”, Gretchen can be a pirate….
Me: Maybe instead of a “Tinkerbell + All The Characters From Peter Pan” party, we can have a “Fairy & Pirates” Party.
Ella: Ok, that’d be good I guess….

And before she could change her mind we made up the invites. (Of course, since the invites have been handed out she’s also wanted a “Clown” party {shiver}, “Cars”, and “Ballerina” party…)

And of course no detail was left to chance. Since I’m planning on spending less than $75 total (including lunch for approx. 15 people), I’ve had to interpret her requests creatively.

For The Invites
Ella’s Request List:
-Stars in the background. You know, like space.
-A picture of the earth WITH OUR HOUSE (she means North America)
-Me in a Fairy Princess Costume
-Gretchen as a pirate.
-Can you make the, what’s that thing that princesses carry? (”Her scepter? Or her Magic Wand?” I ask.) Yeah, make it more sparkley.

The End Result:

There is something seriously wrong about Sweet Little Gretchen’s head stuck on a pirate lady’s body. But it makes me laugh every time I see it.

Remember last year’s Piñata Project? And how we had to literally tear it from the tree and beat it with an aluminum bat to get the candy out (not that I’m complaining, it was pretty fun). Instead of a piñata, this year we’ll be going on a treasure hunt for a box of CANDY, complete with a treasure map & everything. (You know, to work the whole “Pirate” theme in.) We found chocolate covered coins in the grocery store & invested heavily in them. And then filled up the rest of the space with suckers, fruit gems & other super-bad-for-your-teeth delights.

And, since I hate buying things that I know will clutter up someone else’s house & then be thrown away, our Party Favors turned into THIS AWESOME PROJECT!!! (Well, hopefully someone besides me thinks it awesome, and not inappropriate to give 5-year-olds something that says “Booty” on it… It’s for the Pirate Treasure/Booty that they find. Get it? Right?)

Supply List:
Black Bags (We got the black bags at Michael’s for $1 each. Such a deal, I know!)
Print out of your design
4 sheets of cardstock or coated cardstock (if you’re a freak like me with an overwhelming paper addiction, you will have some coated cardstock on hand…)
glue stick
xacto knife (or in my case “box cutter” since I couldn’t find my new xacto blades…)
Spray Adhesive
Spray paint
newspaper or something disposable to catch the over-spray

Directions
-Print out your design on regular paper. Remember that this is a stencil, so you can’t have any “floating” pieces (like the skull nose. I had to make a line from the mouth to the nose hole so that it was all one piece)
-use the glue stick to TOTALLY COVER the back of the print out. Glue it to cardstock (I guess you could just print out your design on cardstock, but I liked the extra layer to make it a little more durable)
-Cut out the design with your exacto blade.
-Cut up the extra cardstock into strips & tape it to the sides of your project so you don’t get overspray on your bag. (See photo below)
-Take your template outside, place it upside-down on newspaper & spray it with the Spray Adhesive.
-LET THE ADHESIVE DRY FOR APPROX. 3 MINUTES. This way it will be tacky, but not sticky.
-Allign the template on your bag. Press down to make it stick. (Since the adhesive has had a chance to dry, it shouldn’t stick too much to the bag. Kind of like a post-it note on steroids.)
-HOLD THE SPRAY PAINT AT LEAST 12″ ABOVE THE PROJECT. And spray from directly above. Chances are, you’ll get a little leaking under your template anyway (it’s cool, it just makes it look tough and “urban”, right???) Short bursts of paint worked better for me.
-You can wait for it to set for a minute & then do a 2nd coat if you want.
-Carefully peel the template off. I had better luck peeling from the sides instead of the top or bottom. I think that may have just been my template design.
-Repeat.
-Make lunch later and realize you still have spray paint on your hands. Sigh heavily.

Look at the lovliness…

Since the bags were made out of some incredibly NON-natural material, the spray paint was pretty light. But I think it still looks cool.

And maybe, just maybe, you might go back inside from your successful crafting and find that your husband was NOT watching the baby. And that the baby has emptied the salt shaker on the table and danced in it.

Please wish us luck next week. We will return & report back.