nina seven

happy leap year

2012-02-29T13:22:00.000-08:00

An oldie, from my pre-Illustrator days, but perfect for today. Happy Leap Year!

2012-02-28T09:42:00.000-08:00

dwinguler playmats

2012-02-24T16:27:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Just popping in to say that some new PlayMats for babies and toddlers that I designed a while back for Dwinguler are out now. They are available right here, on Amazon.

Fairyland

Green Garden

Violet Garden

Polka Dots

Here's the product description from their website: Create the perfect place for your children to roll, crawl, toddle, and play! Dwinguler Kid's Play Mat, made by I&S in Korea, has been created for kids. It is made of earth friendly materials, excellent cushioning with fun designs, and it is laboratory-tested to be absolutely safe for children. The Dwinguler Mat is the pinnacle of premium quality floor mats for kids selling in many countries in the world. Thanks to proven quality, the Dwinguler mat is used in over 80% of the households with children in Korea. Furthermore, it is recognized as the premier earth friendly brand that accompanies the all growth stages of children. This eco-friendly play mat can be used for many different uses. It can be used in the baby's nursery making a safe play mat or even for toddlers too! The whole family can use it for yoga, pilates or as a general exercise mat for the family. Its great for use while playing video games, watching movies, and even as a tent floor when camping. Use them in your kids room, play room, or in the living room to create a safe and fun play space for your kids and the entire family!

red shoes

2012-02-18T15:46:00.000-08:00

valentine cards

2012-02-01T07:34:00.000-08:00

download here

We made Valentine cards over on my group blog, We Love to Illustrate and they are FREE to download, print and give out to your friends and family. They are intended for kiddos, but I think a lot of adults might like to receive one of these, too! There are lots of fun designs to choose from!

winter CHA show

2012-01-27T12:54:00.000-08:00

The winter Craft and Hobby Association, commonly refered to as CHA, starts tomorrow in Anaheim, CA. This is a big show for scrapbooking, greeting cards and other crafty type products. My fabulous rep, Mary Beth from Pink Light Design, will be showing work from myself and all her other artists at booth 1738. This is the ad she put together for the show. Fun, huh? I've got some designs shown here - can you guess which ones are mine?

winter days

2012-01-17T16:15:00.000-08:00

I haven't particiapted in Illustration Friday in soooooo long, but I saw the word this week was "prepare" and I thought a winter illo would be perfect. These kiddos are preparing a snowman and they are prepared for snowy weather with their coats, scarves and mittens.

This illo is also perfect for the weather we are having here in Seattle. We don't get a lot of snow here, so when it does snow alot, it usually sends the city into a panic. Schools close at the drop of a flake, cars slide off roads then get abandoned, buses don't run on schedule, etc. It's not pretty, folks! And, tonight we are predicted to get anywhere from 6-15" of the fluffy white stuff! Are you prepared Seattlites? The forecast calls for SNOW!

happy new year!

2011-12-31T16:14:00.000-08:00

Whoo-hoo! We did it! It's another new year and we are here to celebrate it! 2011, you were good to me and I appreciate all the wonderful things that you brought me, but I have a new best friend and her name is 2012. Tonight we will drink a toast, watch fireworks and steal a kiss from our loved ones, like most people in the US.

I thought it would be fun to see what other traditions and customs are celebrated on New Year's Eve around the world. Here's a few of the ones I found.

In Spain - When the clock strikes midnight they eat 12 grapes one with every toll of the clock, to bring good luck for the next 12 months of the New Year.

In Hungary - they burn effigies or a scapegoat known as "Jack Straw" which represented the evils and misfortunes of the past year on New Year's Eve. Jack Straw is carried around the village before being burnt.

In China - For the Chinese New Year, every front door is adorned with a fresh coat of red paint, red being a symbol of good luck and happiness.

In Denmark - it is a good sign to find your door heaped with a pile of broken dishes at New Years. Old dishes are saved year around to throw them at the homes where their friends live on New Years Eve. Many broken dishes were a symbol that you have many friends.

In Wales - At the first toll of midnight, the back door is opened and then shut to release the old year and lock out all of its bad luck. Then at the twelfth stroke of the clock, the front door is opened and the New Year is welcomed with all of its luck.

From this website.

happy holidays!

2011-12-20T11:37:00.000-08:00

I made this cool sign with the ransom note generator over on letterplayground. Anyone can join in the fun and make some artsy letters to showcase on the site. Pretty awesome, huh? Try it, it's fun!

free holiday printables

2011-12-18T20:53:00.000-08:00

Kristin from papercrave always has the most fun and charming things to blog about. I thought I'd share a link to her roundup of free holiday printables. A one stop shopping trip to printout your holiday gift tags and other fun stuff. She even mentions my group blog, We Love to Illustrate, which really is an honor, considering the line up of super talented designers she showcases. Happy printing, cutting and wrapping!

fun holiday things

2011-12-15T16:44:00.000-08:00

Check out this cool idea for creating some unique packages, using kids art - from Martha Stewart, of course! I also love this pink felt stocking, from Rock Paper Stitch, it's just so cute!

holiday gift tags

2011-12-13T19:18:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd remind everyone about the holiday gift tags I did last year for We Love to Illustrate, since we are in the midst of gift wrapping season. You can download them right here. They are also available on the freebie page of my blog.

artist charity auction

2011-12-07T06:07:00.000-08:00

Have you heard about fab surface designer Khristian A. Howell's artist charity auction? Each daily auction will run from midnight to midnight (EST), and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Toys for Tots, American Humane Society, and American Red Cross. What a cool thing to do and so many awesome items to bid on. It only runs through Dec 9th, so go check it out, before it's over!

a new look!

2011-11-30T13:18:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! My blog's got a brand new look! So, if you're reading this on Google Reader or some other kind of feed, click on over and see it! A special thanks to Kristina from One Happy Mama for helping me with it. Web coding and I do NOT get along very well. She helped me create my vision for it and I couldn't have done it without her.

let's chat

2011-11-25T14:25:00.000-08:00

I love it when I get to see designs I've done used in fun, clever ways, like in the above greeting card design from the latest issue of 365 cards. I illustrated the retro phone as a stamp design for A Muse Studio a few years ago and seeing it again made me realize how much I like it. I particularly like the way card designer, Carly Robertson used it here. Love the little twinkle sticker in the center of the dial! and Let's Chat is the perfect wording to go with it.

new holiday photo card designs

2011-11-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

I've got some new Holiday Photo card designs over at pingg.com. Customize these with your own photos and you're good to go for your holiday cards!

pingg interview

2011-11-08T08:47:00.000-08:00

Pingg just launced a new Meet the Designer series on their blog and guess who the 1st designer interviewed is? Little 'ole me! I'm so honored - you can check it out, right here.

designs for Indigo Prints

2011-11-05T12:31:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of card designs over at Indigo Prints. A Baby Shower invite and a We're Moving announcement card. Indigo Prints is an online stationery company that produces beautiful, high quality personalized products, including invitations, announcements, notecards, address labels and more. There are so many lovely images from independent designers on their site, I feel lucky to be a part of it. You can go directly to my page, right here. If you are moving or having a baby shower, perfect! I hope to add more images in the future.

fabric for Robert Kaufman!

2011-10-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, several designers from Pink Light Design were asked to design a fabric collection for Robert Kaufman, called Menagerie. It's now available to view on their website and I was one of the lucky ones to have a pattern chosen for the collection. I did the chickens and they are shown in 3 different colorways. It's always so exciting to see my designs on products! In stores - Dec 2011.

FREE Halloween Cupcake Toppers

2011-10-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

download here

Happy October! We have a new post up over at We Love to Illustrate, where we are sharing with our readers some fun cupcake toppers for Halloween. And we have a guest artist this month. The lovely and talented Tamara Henderson joined us and not only did she take part in the challenge, she designed our monthly banner. So cute! You can see and download all the designs, right here.

Happy cupcake decorating!

what I'm working on

2011-09-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday...gonna have a party. It's gonna be a good one. Yeah, yeah, yeah! And since it's my birthday, I wanted to check in with all my blogger friends and say Hi! I don't blog as much as I used to, due to the fact that most of the work I'm doing is for licensing and I'm not allowed to show anything, until it's actually on a product! Which is hard, because I want to share!

I'm still doing some freelance projects, too, so I'd thought I'd show these little sneak peeks of a project I'm working on now, for Dwinguler. It's another playmat, like this one, that I did for them earlier in the year. The one I'm working on now, is all about fairy tales (obviously!), and I'm having so much fin doing it.

Hope you are all doing well, my friends, out there in Bloggerland. Please leave me a comment and say Hi, I miss you all!

another feature

2011-09-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

We Love to Illustrate is also featured on Sunshine Smile Publications for the month of Sept! Lucky us!

TDAC feature

2011-09-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

My group blog, We Love to Illustrate, is featured on They Draw and Cook, from Sept 1-4! We all did recipes for their Cooking 4 Kids Contest. Our Sept post is up, too, so you can see all the recipes we did on our blog or on the TDAC site.

TDAC - hidden treasure muffin recipe

2011-08-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

Did you know that They Draw and Cook has a Cooking for Kids contest going on right now? Yep, they do and here's my submission. You can see a larger version of it on their site, right here. The contest is sponsored by allrecipes.com and entries need to be in by midnight (EST) on Sept.12th.

I had a lot of fun with this pirate themed recipe and the idea of finding a chunk of chocolate hidden in a muffin sounds like a winning recipe to me! OH, yeah! Yum!

If you haven't been to the TDAC website, it's a must see. Nate and Salli have done a fantastic job putting it together.

Illustration Friday - swell

2011-08-14T15:24:00.000-07:00

FREE coloring pages

2011-08-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

Happy August! It's time for a new post at We Love to Illustrate. This month we all made coloring pages, based on birthday jungle animals. They are all FREE for you to download and print out. You can download mine right here. And to see them all visit our site, right here.

Printsource 2011

2011-07-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

Pink Light Design is featured on Print and Pattern today with our promo ads for Printsource. Here's my ad, using one of my brand new patterns from my woodland critters collection. This one is my favorite of the collection, because of the hedgehog. He just cracks me up!

etsy shop

2011-07-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

I opened an Etsy shop! Well, in actuality, I re-opened an old Etsy shop, with a spiffy new banner and I'll be selling illustrations this time around. My old shop sold original mixed media art pieces, way back in 2007! My new shop will have mostly prints for kiddos, and I hope to add downloadable activity sheets, greeting cards and digi scrapbook collections, some time in the future.

I'm starting small and will add things here and there, as I see how it goes. So far, I've put up some images from my animal alphabet series and one of my favorites from a We Love to Illustrate post.

You can check it out, right here.

Circus time!

2011-07-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

Happy July! Since it's the 1st of the month, you know what that means - it's time for a new post on my group blog, We Love to Illustrate. This month we all did a circus theme illustration. So fun! I really enjoyed making circus animals and playing with circus themed fonts.

Check out what everyone did, right here.

Launch

2011-06-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile...hello blogger friends! Thought I'd pop in and do Illustration Friday this week. This is a rework of a card I did for Indigo Prints, that ended up on the reject list. I do have a couple of cards that did get picked up by them that should be on the site soon, but this one didn't make it. I added the little boy's face to the rocket and changed a few other things and it worked out great for this week's topic.

It's a "fake" card, I don't really know a Nathan that's turning 4, but if I did, he would have a birthday party just like this one!

FREE downloadable Summer desktop calendar

2011-06-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hello and Happy June! Since it's the 1st of the month, it's time for a new post over on my group blog. This month we are celebrating our one year anniversary, so everyone did a summer theme and we decided to offer them as downloadable freebies for your computer desktop wallpaper.

You can download mine, right here 1920x1200 1680x1050 1280x1024

or click here to see all the lovely entries from the girls at We Love to Illustrate. We've had a great year blogging and emailing together. It's so awesome to be part of such a talented and supportive group.

Illustration Friday - soaked

2011-05-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't had the opportunity to participate in Illustration Friday for such a long time! I've been missing it, so I spent a little time yesterday making this little bunny in the rain.

Have a great week, everyone!

surtex promos

2011-05-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

It's almost here! Surtex is May 15-17, in NYC, and my work will be shown there, through my rep, Pink Light Design. Above is my promo ad and matching button. The buttons (from all Pink Light designers) will be attached to Pink Light Design tote bags and will be give-aways to clients. Cute, huh?

We were featured last week on Print and Pattern! Of course, I was absolutely thrilled to be on P&P. I've been an avid reader of it for years. Thanks so much to Mary Beth Freet, from Pink Light Design, for this amazing opportunity!

birthday wishes at We Love to Illustrate

2011-05-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

Our new post for the month of May is up over on my group blog, We Love to Illustrate. Everyone did a birthday themed illustration, so there are lots of fun colors and festive images to see. Check it out, right here. This is what I submitted:

Flower Garden PlayMat

2011-04-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

I designed a series of PlayMats for Dwinguler awhile back and the 1st one has come out and is available on Amazon. This one, called Flower Garden, is for baby girls, with it's predominately pink color palette. As you can see by the photo, it's double sided, with a large floral pattern on one side an an ABC pattern on the reverse.

I received one as a sample and I have to say, these mats are really top quality. They are thick and spongy, but very durable. They have a slightly bumpy texture and are super easy to clean up, if something gets spilled on them. You can just wipe them with a sponge. They are Eco-friendly, too, which is always a plus.

Here's some details of the designs:

And here's a link to the Amazon page. If you need a Mat for your baby room or playroom, or know someone who does, these are really fun and, like I said, very good quality.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

Just popping in to say Happy Easter to all my blogging friends. Hope you all had a fun day and didn't eat too much chocolate! I'm still working like crazy, getting ready for Surtex. Only a couple of weeks left, to finish all the collections I want to show there.

inspirational quote

2011-04-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

I really love this quote, by artist, Chuck Close. It's so TRUE!

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case."
— Chuck Close

Now, get to WORK, everyone!

Illustration Friday - bottled

2011-04-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

For Illustration Friday this week. Spring has been bottled up all winter - it's finally starting to come out. Hello Spring!

Spring pattern shown above is available for licensing from Gibson and Holt.

FREE easter downloads

2011-03-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

download here

Our monthly post is up over on my group blog, We Love to Illustrate. This month, we all did something fun for kids to celebrate Easter. There's a lot of variety, we all did something a bit different and as usual, my fellow illustrators came up with some stellar images. We have such a great group! You can download my activity page, right here, under the image, or go check them all out, right here. Happy downloading!

pink light design

2011-03-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to share with all my Blogger friends some awesome news! I'm now represented by Pink Light Design! I'll be doing Licensing work for the surface design industry. I'll still be working with my kid-friendly images, but also mixing it up a bit and taking on some other subjects as well. I also have images available for licensing through Gibson and Holt, in the UK.

I'll be showing at Surtex, in NY, in May. Well, my work will be there, anyway, with Pink Light Design. So, if you're at the show, stop by their booth and say Hi to Mary Beth, she's an awesome designer and super nice, too!

Well, I better get back to work, lots to do to prepare for the show!

fan mail

2011-03-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

I had a delightful surprise arrive in the mail a couple of days ago. Fan mail! Ashley, a 3rd grader, from Mrs. Besecker's class wrote me the most darling letter, telling me how much she liked my designs and she also included a drawing of hers, that she did as a re-creation of my bunny face card. So sweet, don't you think?

I'm going to return the fan mail and send Ashley a special surprise, too. But, in case she reads my blog, I won't give away the secret, yet. I never thought in a million years that I would ever receive fan mail, so thanks, Ashley!

Illustration Friday - cultivate

2011-03-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a detail of a large piece I did recently for a product that's not been released yet. It was perfect for this week's Illustration Friday theme of cultivate, so I thought I'd show this "sneak peek." I'll post the whole piece once the product is out. It will be used on a PlayMat for babies. Have a great week, everyone!

illustration friday - stir

2011-03-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

These cats are ready to stir up some trouble! One of my new patterns, available for licensing from Gibson and Holt - gibsonandholt.co.uk

crazy about patterns

2011-03-09T19:52:00.000-08:00

Did you know I'm crazy about patterns? Yep, it's true and I've been making a lot of them lately. Most of what I've been working on is hush hush for now, but I did this one today and decided to post it here on the 'ole blog. I'm calling it Sweet as Candy, because it reminds me of chocolate and cotton candy.

baby images at WLTI

2011-03-01T07:15:00.000-08:00

Hello, March! Nice to see you! Since it's the start of a new month, that means we have a new post up, over on my group blog, We Love to Illustrate. This month we did the theme of Baby and we also are hosting our 1st Give-away, to say Thanks to all our followers! Head on over there, check it out, follow us, if you don't already, then leave a comment and you could win small prints of our Baby themed illustrations.

Have a great day, everyone!

Illustration Friday - sweater

2011-02-17T08:13:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't love a dachshund, wearing an argyle sweater? For Illustration Friday this week.

a new look!

2011-02-16T07:26:00.000-08:00

I finally took the time to spiff up this much neglected blog. A 3 column template and a new header makes it look all shiny and new! Thanks, Blogger, for making it pretty easy to do!

Illustration Friday - reverse

2011-02-09T10:46:00.000-08:00

Look at me, posting 2 days in a row! It's been so long since I participated in Illustration Friday, so I did a quick one for this week. Reverse ewes. Why did I choose ewes? Because ewe is a palindrone, it's spelled the same in reverse! I could have done other palindrones, like kayak, madam or dad, but ewe was easy to come up with, in reversing the black and white colors. So, that's it - hello IF, I've missed you.

my owl barn cards

2011-02-08T19:15:00.000-08:00

It's almost Valentine's Day! If you like owls, and who doesn't!, head over to myowlbarn.com and download some cards for free! The top one I designed and the bottom one was designed by Shivani, who is creator of myowlbarn. She says she's not really an artist, but looky - it's adorable!

My card

Shivani's card

She also features tons of adorable owl goodies, it's an owl lover's heaven on earth, I tell ya. Hoot! Hoot!

LOVE post at WLTI

2011-02-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

Wow! It's Feb. already! It's also time for our monthly post at We Love to Illustrate. We decided on a Love theme, in honor of Valentine's Day. Here's what I did and to see what the rest of the team came up with, just click right here. Fun stuff!

my owl barn Valentine's Day card

2011-01-26T10:57:00.000-08:00

I did this Valentine's Day card, exclusively for My Owl Barn. It's available as a FREE download and also comes with a matching envelope. Check it out right here. Can you believe I did a V-day card and didn't even use red?

Illustration Friday - chicken

2011-01-15T13:45:00.000-08:00

I just had to do Illustration Friday this week, with the fun challenge of illustrating the word chicken. I haven't had the opportunity to do any patterns for awhile, so I combined the two. Don't you just love pink and red together! Maybe I just have pink and red on my brain, because I've been working on some things for Valentines Day. Can't wait to see all the chicken goodness over at IF!

hello there!

2011-01-09T16:49:00.000-08:00

Hello out there to all my friends in blogland! I haven't been posting much lately, but I have 2 very good reasons.

1. I'm working a big, fun project, so I don't have much time for personal work, that I can share.

2. I'm reading The Hunger Games Trilogy on my new Kindle that I got for Christmas. Have you read it yet? I heard about it at a recent meeting of our local chapter of SCBWI. One of the co-chairs said, if you haven't read it yet, you should!

So, I downloaded the 1st book on Christmas Day and I've been a reading machine ever since. I'm on the 2nd one now. It's meant to be for the Young Adult reader, but it's got mass appeal, smililar to Harry Potter, in the fact that the main characters are teenagers, the story is set in a world unlike the one we live in, and you can't put the books down, once you start.

So, I'm checking in to say Hi and now I've got to get back to that book!

FREE downloadable Jan 2011 desktop wallpaper

2011-01-01T09:59:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! To celebrate, we have a new post up over on my group blog, We Love to Illustrate. We each did a desktop wallpaper or screensaver, with the month of Jan on it for you to download for FREE! It's our little gift to you to ring in the new year. You can see them all, right here. Everyone did such a fantastic job on these, you have to go check them out! We did them in 3 sizes each, so you can pick which one is right for your monitor.

You can download mine from We Love to Illustrate or right here. Cheers!

1920 x 12000 px

1680 x 1050 px

1280 x 1024 px

happy holidays!

2010-12-23T20:05:00.000-08:00

I haven't had much time for blogging, reading blogs or checking in on Facebook lately, but I wanted to pop in and say Hey to everyone out there in blogland. Wishing you all a jolly holiday! Cheers!

santoro's books

2010-12-15T19:46:00.000-08:00

I'll be at Santoro's books in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle, on Saturday. Here's what they said on their website:

Saturday, December 18th at 10:30 AM

Author Maribeth Stephens and illustrator Nina Seven will read their children’s holiday classic, Theodore the Tree.

Neighborhood minstrel Gary Paine will lead a few interactive songs to set the mood and Maribeth promises some of her homemade cookies. Life is good!

Nice, Huh? We're getting out Theodore from last year, dusting him off and showing him the town again. It will be fun to see Maribeth again and eat some of those cookies!

my paper monkey

2010-12-10T15:49:00.000-08:00

I illustrated a book! It's not exactly what you might think, though. It's not a picture book, it's a coloring book. Fun in the Forest, is now available on this cool website, called mypapermonkey.com. All the coloring and activity books are personalized with your child's name on the cover and on every page throughout the book. Just type in a name, on the right side of the web page, then hit Preview and you can page through the whole book. I love drawing woodland creatures, so this was perfect for me. I even threw in a few activity pages for fun. Help Mr.Squirrel find the Giant Acorn!

they draw and cook

2010-12-05T21:05:00.000-08:00

My Holiday Star Cookie recipe and illustration was featured on They Draw and Cook on Friday and I'm just getting around to posting it on here on my blog. You can see a bigger version of it on their site, right here. I'm really glad they decided to do the Holiday version of the challenge, since I never got around to doing a recipe for the 1st go around. For those of you that don't know anything about They Draw and Cook, you've got to go check out their site, it's really cool and they can explain it alot better than I could. Cheers!

FREE Printable Holiday Gift tags

2010-12-01T14:01:00.000-08:00

Our December post is up over at my illustrator group blog, We Love to Illustrate and we have FREE Printable Holiday Gift tags for you! Everyone did such an awesome job designing their tags, you have to go check them out, right here.
Here's what I came up with and you can download a full scale copy of them, right here. Happy wrapping!

IF - savour

2010-11-30T08:35:00.000-08:00

Savouring hot chocolate or a mocha on a cold day...pure joy!

IF - sneaky

2010-11-19T18:24:00.000-08:00

How lucky am I? I just finished this racoon for my animal alphabet and the word of the week on Illustration Friday is sneaky. Perfect! Even if they aren't all that sneaky in real life, they sure look the part, with those bandit masks they are always wearing.

now for something really different

2010-11-17T20:41:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd show you all what I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. Mixed media paintings for the Seattle Art Museum gallery. Each piece is 18" x 24". I'll be taking these to get framed tomorrow, then they will be available to rent or purchase through SAM. I usually just show my illustration work here, but my blog buddy, Julissa, encouraged me to post these, so here they are. It was fun to get creative in a different way, the hands on - messy way.

I'm calling these The Woodland Park Series, after the park near my house. The photos aren't the best, it was a gray day today and even though I was outside on the porch, the flash came on. That's Seattle in the winter for you. Gray skies. Maybe that will be the title of my next series of paintings.

PiBoIdMo

2010-11-15T09:08:00.000-08:00

I'm doing PiBoIdMo this month, are you? It's a challenge, hosted by children's author, Tara Lazar, to come up with an idea for a children's Picture Book, every day for the month of November. Here we are at the half way point and I gotta say, it's getting harder! I'm doing OK, though, and I think I'll make it. Some of my ideas are just a title, like "Oops!", others are a little more thought out and have a basic idea and characters with names. A few even have all of that and an ending! It's been fun and challenging. The endings are the most challenging for me - the payoff, it's gotta be good to make it worth the read, ya know? Only 15 more to go...how about a bear, who has to come up with 30 ideas in 30 days, hee-hee.

hello!

2010-11-11T20:18:00.000-08:00

Hello all my blog buddies, I'm still here, just been super busy! Thought I'd pop in real quick and show some more animals in my alphabet. I actually did these a couple of weeks ago and just found a minute to put them on the 'ole blog. Some of the letters of the alpha are a bit of a challenge - not quite so much fun as others. Newt was one of those for me. I was going for a cute newt, but didn't want it to look too cartoonish. I hope I did that. The quail was fun, though, with his funky head plume.

I've been spending a lot of time fulfilling my duties as the Arts Coordinator for my daughter's High School this week and I'm working on a series of mixed media paintings for the gallery I show at.

I miss you, Adobe Illustrator, but I'll be back soon. I promise.

pingg - staff pick

2010-11-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hey, check it out. One of my designs, Turkey Time, is the staff pick Winner of the Week over on Pingg! You can use this design, for your Turkey Day invites, for FREE! Yep, that's what I said, FREE! Link directly to this design, right here. Thanks to everyone at Pingg!

we love to illustrate

2010-11-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

The November post is up over at my group blog, We Love to Illustrate! We decided to celebrate Fall this month and everyone did such a fantastic job. The colors and imagery of Fall are so yummy, it really makes for some awesome illustrations. Check it out, right here!

happy halloween

2010-10-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween, all you goblins and ghouls, witches and warlocks, black cats and frankensteins. Have a super fun night! Meow!

vote for me!

2010-10-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

It's time to vote in this week's Spoonflower fabric design contest. I entered my Squirrel Fun pattern in it because it was a Woodland Creatures theme. You can vote for me and see all the other cool designs, right here!

i'm late, i'm late

2010-10-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

One of the most iconic of racers in children's literature - the White Rabbit, from, of course, Alice in Wonderland! I thought of him immediately when I saw the topic for Illustration Friday this week - racing. And, I had to put the Queen of Hearts in there, she's just such a fun character.

FREE printable halloween treat boxes

2010-10-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

It's getting so close to Halloween, that I thought I'd post again about our FREE printable Halloween treat boxes, over at We Love to Illustrate. Everyone in our group did such a fabulous job on these. Here's what mine looks like:

You can download the full size version of mine right here. And to view and download the rest of the team's boxes, go here.

facebook

2010-10-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally joined the millions (or is it billions?) of other people in the world and joined Facebook. I think I might be one of the last people on earth to join. Why did it take so long? I thought it would be a time waster and I didn't want anything to distract me from doing what I really want to do and that's to create art and illustrations. But I finally came to the conclusion that I want to be relevant and being on Facebook is relevant. I also want to promote my art, and being on Facebook can help me do that. I also want to connect with friends and family and make new friends and connections.

So, come be my friend, write on my wall or comment on my status. You can even poke me! I'll see you there, on Facebook, along with everyone else in the world.

Me on Facebook!

picasso show at sam

2010-10-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to play hooky from working and go see the Picasso retrospective at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). It was an extensive and enlightening show. To see his work evolve over the years and how it was influenced by what was happening in the world around him was fascinating. This piece, above, was one of my favorites in the show. Titled, The Shadow, it was painted in 1953 and is thought to be a self portrait.

Another favorite in the show was this one, titled Portrait of Dora Maar, painted in 1937. Dora Maar was his companion, lover and artistic muse. She was also a painter and a photographer and somewhat famous herself. He often painted her as sad and sometimes in tears, because of the tumultous emotional nature of their relationship. The guy was a real ladies man and had many lovers, wives, muses, etc. throughout his life.

patterns!

2010-10-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

I have a new passion (borderline obsession) to create patterns! I've always LOVED patterns and now that I know how to create a repeat pattern in Illustrator, I'm happily making my own. I have these two patterns for sale on Spoonflower. These would make cool decorative pillows, tote bags, tea towels or maybe even stuff for kiddos. I can see a cute dress out of the owls, for sure. I'm thinking of entering Squirrel Fun in an upcoming contest on Spoonflower, called Woodland creatures. Or should I enter the Friendly Fowls instead? What do you think? Which one is your favorite?

spooky

2010-10-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

For Illustration Friday this week. I vant to drink your blood, or just give me a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup!

I was curious about how trick or treating got started, so of course, I googled it and found this (among other interesting facts): The tradition of going from door to door and receiving food originated in Britain and Ireland, in the form of souling, where children and poor people would sing and say prayers for the dead in return for cakes.

giraffe road trip

2010-10-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

For Illustration Friday this week with the theme word of transportation. I'm trying to work on being a bit more loose and fun in the way I lay out my elements. Not quite there yet, but I think I'm getting closer.

animal alpha progress

2010-10-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

I've been working steadily on my animal alphabet and I'm happy to report that I'm over halfway! The addition of these four make 15 done! Only 11 to go! Whoo-hooo!

All of the animal images will be available on the Magic Murals website, (some are already there) but it takes some time for the designs to be prepared for the site, so check back every once in awhile to see if the one you want is there. Next up - K is for kangaroo!

IF - beneath

2010-10-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

A quick little illo for Illustration Friday this week. I know, the Witch of the East actually had on the ruby slippers, when Dorothy's house fell on her. But, I didn't want to draw little slippers, I wanted to make witch boots with curly toes, so that's what I did.
What kind of a witch wears ruby slippers anyway? They wear little black boots, everyone knows that!

FREE printable halloween treat boxes

2010-10-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

Our October post is up over at We Love to Illustrate, and this month we all designed Halloween treat boxes that can be downloaded and printed on cardstock. And they are Freebies! Yay! Here's what my design looks like:

And you can download it right here.To see what the rest of the group came up with, visit our site, here.

IF - old-fashioned

2010-09-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

My Mom still has a corded phone in her kitchen. The same phone I remember using as a teenager, unwrapping and stretching the cord as far as it wold go, until it reached the pantry. And that is where I had my most intimate teenage conversations, away from the prying ears of my parents and siblings.

Not only is this type of phone now considered old-fashioned, long intimate phone calls seem to be out of style as well. A teenager today would rather text than talk. No need to hide in the pantry anymore.

p is for pig

2010-09-21T11:59:00.000-07:00

One more done for my animal alphabet! I'm almost half way there. Gonna have a little party at the half way point, then a HUGE one when I'm all done! Are you all getting sick of me posting these animals yet?

I do have some other news. You can get my animals and some of my other work as wall murals now. I'm thrilled to be one of the artists at a new site called Magic Murals. The murals come in a variety of sizes and 2 different types. One is like wallpaper and fairly premanent. The other is repositionable and lasts for about 5 years. Sounds really awesome. They have some great images, you should check them out.

bird day

2010-09-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's my bird-day today and nope, not gonna say how old I am. Celebrated over the weekend and saw The American with George Clooney. How does he keep getting better looking as he gets older? I don't know, but he looked sure looked good in this movie! Ate some Thai food, too. It was nice.

If you like this card, there's a similar one over at Pingg, and you can e-card it to someone for free. That's right, free!

more animals

2010-09-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

Two more done on my quest to do an animal alphabet series! What's up next? hippo, pig, and owl. There are a few coming up that I'm not really to thrilled about - the letter I is one of them. Iguana? Inchworm? hmmm, not really feeling either of those. If anyone has any great ideas, please let me know! You can see all the animals I've done so far, right here.

IF - dessert

2010-09-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting the 'ole blog, so I thought I'd put up this Oldie but Goodie for Illustration Friday this week. It's a mixed media piece, appropriately named Time for Dessert. I always liked this piece, maybe I'll rework it in vector someday. Hope you are all having a great week so far. The kids are back in school, starting Wed. Whooo-hoo! I somehow got talked into being the Arts Coordinator at my daughter's High School...not sure what I got myself into and why I said yes, but TAG, I'm it!

FREE Back to School Printables

2010-09-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

It's time for our Sept post over at We Love to Illustrate. This month, we are doing a really fun thing - FREE Printable stickers for downloading. Back to school book name tags, lunch box stickers, labels, etc. Each artist did their own unique take on the subject and there is something for everyone. You can see all of them and download your favorites, right here. You can also play along and do your own set, by attaching a link to your set through Mr. Linky at the bottom of the post. ENJOY!

IF - immovable

2010-08-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

For Illustration Friday this week - the theme word is immovable. "It was pure gridlock on the Old MacDonald Expressway. No one was moving an inch and some people (er, animals) were getting a bit testy. Beep, beep! HONK!" Please click on the image for a bigger view.

2 more for the animal alpha

2010-08-27T09:07:00.000-07:00

Whew! Two more down on my quest to do an animal alphabet. Only 18 (gulp!) more to do. Will I make it? Yes, I think I will...up next? F is for frog. You can see the rest of my animals, right here.

Pingg

2010-08-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

My designs have been chosen to be in the Designer's Spotlight over at Pingg. I'm so excited! What an honor! Pingg is a really cool site, where you can download e-cards and e-vites for free! They can also do snail mail cards and invitations, for a fee. You can see the rest of my designs, right here. I'll be updating the site with new designs, periodically, so check back now and then.

C is for cat

2010-08-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

I'm on a roll with my animal alphabet! I also thought I'd post this for Illustration Friday this week. For every animal, from A-Z, I'm creating an atmosphere for them, that fits them and their varied personalitites. Is that a stretch for the theme? I don't know...it works for me!

M is for monkey

2010-08-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

Whoo-hoo! I can cross one more animal off my list in the quest to do an animal alphabet. 5 down - only 21 more to go. Next up - the letter C. Guess what animal I'm going to illustrate. Yep, my favorite little furry creature - a cat.

IF- caged

2010-08-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

For Illustration Friday this week. Allie was caged on a small island, but he didn't care. With birds for friends, coconuts to eat and a big swamp to swim in, he was as happy as an alligator could be.

I finally started back up on my animal alphabet! At this rate, it might take a year to complete, but I consider it a long term goal that I work on when I can, so it's all good. More to share soon.

cat tales

2010-08-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

Today, I cleaned the back of the couch. You know, the one where the cats sleep, so they can be by the window. Let's say, I attempted to clean it. It's been hot and the cats are shedding and I should do this job more than just every once in awhile. There was enough hair on the back of that couch to make another cat!

I would love to find a great way of getting cat hair off furniture. Those masking tape lint roller thingies? Nope, they work, but it takes about the whole roll to do any good. Vacuuming? Nope, doesn't pick it up well enough. Those cat brush hoops with the teeth? That's what I used today and it does get a lot of it, but not all and it's teeth tear up the back of the couch a bit.

Dear readers - If you have cats and have that same problem, what do you do? Leave me a comment with your cat hair problem solving advice, I'd love to hear from you!

Dog Days

2010-08-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

We have a new post up over at We Love to Illustrate, with the theme of Dog Days for the month of August. I entered this pattern of doggies for the challenge. It's so fun to see what each team member did, they are all so unique and wonderful, you'll have to go check them out. Each month, we change the banner, too. Cally did this month's and it's so cute!

IF - double

2010-07-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

I just got back from my week in the Midwest, so I don't have time to do something new for IF this week, but I did have this anniversary card that fit the theme. So, here it is - last minute, down to the wire.

How was the Midwest, you want to know? Hot and humid, thank you very much! I had a good time, anyway. There's lots of air conditioning there...

new from a muse

2010-07-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

A Muse has just launced their latest Halloween and Holiday stamps, so I thought I'd show a few of my favorites of the ones I designed. I know, I know, Christmas - already? Yep, Christmas, already, but Halloween, too! I love designing spooky things for Halloween. Anyway, if you want to see more, you can, right here.
I'm off on a little vacation, see ya in a week!

IF - breakfast

2010-07-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

For Illustration Friday this week. I don't eat bacon or eggs for breakfast, but if I did, I'd want it them to be in a smiley face like this.

sixteen

2010-07-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

My "baby" turned 16 today! I made this for her, printed it out on nice paper and framed it. It will be a nice little memory for her when she gets older. Next up - a driver's license.

IF - diary

2010-07-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

This one speaks for itself, I think.

a litle trip

2010-07-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

We took a little trip and headed over to Sequim (pronounced Squim) for a few days. It's about 2 hrs from Seattle, when you combine the driving and ferry riding times together. It's on the Olympic Peninsula, which is an amazingly beautiful place.

I love Sequim's Welcome sign.

They have a lot of lavender farms in the area and they were in full bloom when we were there.

We went hiking on the Dungeness Spit. The sun was out and the water actually looked almost turquoise.

hallmark card

2010-07-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

I won something! I entered a contest at Hallmark and was one of 19 winners in their Christmas card competition. We were to create a Christmas card inspired by any of these words: wish, peace, fruitcake, ho ho ho or joy. I chose Ho Ho Ho, but as you can see, I had the kitty saying Whoa, instead of Ho, as he starts to fall off Santa's head!

You can actually go to Hallmark.com and buy my card online! How cool is that! If you're interested - once you get to Hallmark.com, click on Paper Cards, then Cards, then Contest Winners, Holidays, then Christmas. Scroll down and you'll find my card.

There's even a chance my card could be sold in their stores, as well as online. I'll know more about that next month. Wish me luck!

IF - giant

2010-07-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

Mama giraffes must look like giants to their newborn babies.