Leftovers

I had a few retro kitchen icons that I didn't use in my Jello assignment, so I made this fun pattern I call Fruit Salad. Tea towel perhaps? Apron, oven mitt? Hey, and that orange matches my new blog header!

Pretty Please With a Cherry on Top

This month's assignment in Lilla Rogers' Bootcamp was Jello-inspired bolt fabric. To be honest, it took me a while to warm up to the theme. I drew Jello molds and looked at lots and lots of retro desserts on Pinterest. Quite amazing all the weird stuff we used to eat! Remember those Jello salads? My aunt used to make them with cream cheese in the middle.

I had a few different ideas, but this is where my assignment ended up: atomic desserts—with cherries on top. Boy, did I love those maraschino cherries…

I'll be posting some of my spin-offs in the next week or so. Stay tuned. There'll be one with happy faces.

Bring on the icons

This week I've been working on a little self-promotion. I'm using some fun icons from a bunch of past projects and a couple new ones. Here's the front of the postcard so far…

And the whale detail in alternate colorway:

I'm Cuckoo for Bootcamp!

I loved Lilla Rogers' Make Art That Sells (B) class so much, that when she announced her new Assignment Bootcamp, I signed up immediately. Her briefs are so fun and the talent among the students really pushes me to do my best work. And a looming deadline always helps!

Our first assignment was cuckoo clocks. So many fun elements to explore. And I love clocks. The final design needed to work on a smart phone case. I knew I wanted to explore both a placement graphic and a repeat pattern. The graphic designer in me also wanted to include text.

In the end, the placement graphic stole the show. I'll be ordering this for my iPhone. But I think it would also be really cute for kids pajamas, with patterned leggings. Don't you?

Here are my repeat patterns in various colorways:

Under the Big Top

One of the really great things that came out of my Lilla Rogers class last fall, is a fantastic group of artists that continue to be a source of support and inspiration for each other. A bunch of us formed a portfolio building group. Every month we have an assignment—given by one of the artists—a deadline and a place to post our work and receive valuable feedback. This past month's assignment was circus-themed bedding for children. Have a look at my take on it:

Happy Anniversary!

One year ago I decided to take my design in a new direction and explore the world of making art for products—with an ultimate goal of licensing my creations. I started a blog, created a web site and embraced social media. It's been a fun and fantastic ride—building my portfolio and discovering I'm not only a designer, but also an illustrator. Here are a few of the key highlights from my year:

• attended Surtex—the art licensing trade show—and helped my friend Natalie in her booth
• enrolled in Lilla Rogers' Make Art That Sells B class
• became a Minted designer
• honored as first runner-up in the Tigerprint competition for hand-lettering
• featured designer on the Tigerprint blog

It's been a great year of discovery and stepping out of my comfort zone.  I'm so excited to see what this next year will bring (hopefully a few licenses???!)… Onward and upward!

As always, thanks for reading.

Sweet!

So, apparently today is National Chocolate Cake Day! Yum! I wonder who thinks these things up? Is there a committee? Sounds like a pretty sweet job to me. Seems like the perfect day to post some new Valentine-inspired designs! Without further ado, here are a few peeks at my Something Sweet Collection.

Luckily it was my youngest daughter's birthday this past weekend so we have some left-over cake floating around our kitchen—chocolate of course! What will you do to get your fix???