IF - entangled

For Illustration Friday this week - When I saw the word was entangled, I immediately thought of a spread in the picture book I recently illustrated, Theodore the Tree. It's the last double page spread in the book and Timothy is having some trouble with a tangled up extension cord.

I had some time over the long weekend to do something new, so I decided to take Timothy and Anna out of the spread and make a holiday card with them and some other elements. (Since I seem to be obsessed with card designing right now and can't stop myself!)

So, it's a two for one Illustration Friday this week.

interview

Little 'ole me was honored to be interviewed by Sue, from the Nottingham Craft Mafia, for an article as the featured artist on their blog, and it was posted today. You can read it right here.

There are Craft Mafias all across the US and in the UK. The first Craft Mafia originated in Austin, TX and was created by nine crafty business women who came together through a shared love of craft. As it developed and spread, it's now a forum for networking, promotion and shared ideas, plus, of course, a love of crafts!

Isn't it so cool how blogging has brought people from all over together in the most amazing ways?

new blog banner

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it was time to take down my Fall blog banner and put up a winter one, so I revised my Frosty's Ice Cream Shop illustration a bit to fit the banner size and it worked out pretty well. If you're on Google Reader, click on over and visit. See ya Fall. Hello Winter!

feliz navidad

For Illustration Friday this week, the theme word is music. Santa is taking a break this week, so these chickies can celebrate. Happy Turkey Day, everyone!

I'm a PAL

I'm a PAL. Published and Listed, that is. With the release of Theodore the Tree last month, I now have PAL status at SCBWI. The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, for those of you who don't know. All these acronyms! I didn't even know what PAL stood for until a couple of months ago! I finally had to ask someone, because I kept seeing and hearing the term, but there was never an explanation for what it meant, everyone just seemed to know!

There is a certain criteria that has to met to qualify, no self-published books, etc., So now we know, PAL means Published and Listed and I'm so thrilled to be a PAL!

directory of illustration

I recently signed up to advertise in the Directory of Illustration. I won't be in their book until 2011, but I'm online as of today. Yippee! It took me a really long time to resize and upload all my images to the specs they needed to be for the site and I'm only half way done! Hopefully, this weekend I can finish it up. You can find my DI portfolio right here.

IF - unbalanced

I couldn't believe my luck when I saw the word of the week on Illustration Friday. Unbalanced! Perfect for my next card design in the Santa series - Skiing Santa! Poor Santa, he's about to take a header into the powder, big time!

flying santa

I'm currently obsessed with greeting card designs. What can I say, they are really fun to do!
Skating Santa really needeed a companion card, so I did this Flying Santa. What's next, you say? Maybe a whole series - skiing Santa, snowboarding Santa, jump roping Santa, reading Santa, Santa drinking a margarita. I could go on and on, but you'd be bored and so would I.

This Flying Santa is based on a stamp design I did a while back for A Muse, Rocket Elf, which is currently on sale on their website. It was such a cute idea, I wanted to explore it a little more.

IF - blur

I can't believe another week has gone by and it's time to post another Illustration Friday challenge. I decided to do another greeting card, because I had so much fun making last week's.

"Santa skates so fast sometimes, he's just a blur of red and white". I don't know, maybe that's a stretch for the theme, but I didn't really want to make a blurry object or person. That's what's so great about IF challenges - you can do whatever you want, there are no rules! Just imagine he is blurry, OK?

IF - skinny

For Illustration Friday this week I decided to make a greeting card, featuring a bird with really long, skinny legs. I first thought of illustrating someone drinking a tall, skinny latte, then I thought of a kid with really long, skinny legs, but neither of those ideas really formed a clear path for me. The bird plan just felt right and I'm happy with the way it turned out. Plus, it was just so fun to do! Don't you just love it when that happens!

a muse window sneak peek

What have I been working on? Playing with paint and glitter, making props for the A Muse window. Now that Halloween is over, it's time to start decorating for the holidays, so I made these oversized ornaments to hang in the window of Linda's shop.

She had the brilliant idea of painting them in lime green and pink instead of the traditional red and green. I think it's such a fresh, modern take on holiday trimming and they will look so fab in the window!

This is a little sneaky peek - the window will be going in tomorrow.