Christmas Place Mats for Kids - digital, printable

For those of you with kids, and a lot of holiday dinner plans with friends and family, here's an idea... printable colouring place mats for the kiddos (or easily bored adults ;)  I have two kids, and I know how fast they eat, and then how quickly they lose interest in being at the dinner table.  Why not have printable place mats (like they do at restaurants!). Have a cup of wax crayons at the table for the kids to share. 

I have created a few options for you, an 11 x 17 option (that you can get printed at any print shop), or a 8.5 x 11 option (if you are stuck and need a quick print at home!).   
Links to the PDF files are below each image! Enjoy and happy holidays.  

 

 

11" x 17" Elf in colour
11" x 17" Elf line only
8.5" x 11" Elf in colour
8.5" x 11" Elf line only

 

11" x 17" Woodland in colour
11" x 17" Woodland line only
8.5" x 11" Woodland in colour
8.5" x 11" Woodland line only

Spoonflower Winter Animals - fabric

I got my winter animal series done as throw pillows... and have the fabric available for sale on my spoonflower site, for those of you who sew :)

I envision these as the fronts with some fun geometric patterned back fabric, or maybe faux fur (in fun colours, maybe light blue for the polar bear?) I still have to sew mine (this one is just pinned to another pillow for the photo).  For those of you who know me, I am trying very hard to learn to sew, but it's a work in progress, eventually these will be my throw pillows!

They would also work well as shoulder bags as reusable shopping bags. They measure 16" x 16" (I chose this size because it's easy to find pillow inserts to fit this size (Walmart and Ikea both have them). 

Here are some close ups of a couple of the fabrics, I got these printed on Linen-Cotton Canvas. The print job and detail are terrific, I also love the texture of this fabric, something very natural feeling about these.

 Here's the spoonflower link again if you are interested! Feel free to send me pics of your sewing jobs too, I always love to see what you guys do with my fabrics!

Celeste

 New Maplelea Girl items!

This past summer I've been working a lot on new merchandise with the fine people at Maplelea! These hard working women come up with cool fashions for these dolls, and the quality of the clothing is terrific! I wish many of the outfits came in sizes for my kids (and the above outfit for myself!)

 This one does come in kids sizes! So there is a matching pj for the doll and the child :D

 

 

In all these items I did the illustration work, the patterns and the journal pages that come with each product. My job is so much fun ;) 

 

Each clothing item comes with journal pages with information on Canada, or the province the doll comes from.

 

Where to purchase these items:

Strong and Free
Kaleidoscope PJs for doll  for child
Brilliant Bedding
Night Owl Nightwear
Ice Cap Backpack Set
Clam Digger
Green Team

Photos of the dolls are from the Maplelea catalogue and are the property of Maplelea.  To order a catalogue of all their items visit their site here!

 Ginger's Cupcakes & Desserts - logo and character design

Here it is! The wonderfully fun project I got to work on this past month. I was asked to create the character Ginger as well as a logo for a local bakery.  Anna, the very talented baker who runs the shop (I know this because I got to sample the cupcakes today!) didn't want to go with the traditional pinks and browns that seems to be the trend right now with baked goods and cupcakes and chose a really cool clean retro feel to her bakery. So Ginger had to also have a very cool retro feel! Here she is! I am very happy with how she turned out :D

 

It was so much fun to work on this project with Anna, if you live in the York region, or the Toronto area, you need to stop by. Her bakery is colourful and cozy and smell WONDERFUL! Here is a link to her Facebook page, and her website. She does custom cakes and cupcakes too, her entire bakery is peanut free, and she can meet other dietary needs as well, because, let's face it, everyone loves cupcakes! Her grand opening is September 14, 15 and 16 with samples, colouring pages for the kids, sweet deal, and did I mention samples?! ;) 

 Seriously? After seeing this photo, how can you resist?!!!

 

Animation Job - digital illustration

Back in December I had the opportunity to work on something new. I was hired to design and illustrate characters and background by Untold Entertainment. They were doing a hunting game for Newfoundland and Labrador.  Now, you have to understand I don't agree with sport hunting... in fact, I do so much work for WWF Canada, and other environmental organizations that I almost didn't take this job. BUT the concept of the game was actually a little funny. The animals fight back (and when I tried it, always win, but then again, I am not the greatest gamer there is....).  It was also my first chance at doing any kind of animation work. So an experience I didn't want to pass up.  

The technical aspects of the job were interesting, making puppets out of my illustrations.  Working with Untold Entertainment was also a pleasure.  The characters were also fun, because as you can see, they are not my usual style.  It was nice to break out of what I always do and try something a little different. I am pretty proud of how these worked out, looking forward to seeing the game online!

Below are the rest of the characters I worked on.  All artwork belongs to Untold Entertainment. 

What I've been up to....

This post is going to be a big one! I can finally share all I've been working on for the past 6 months or so with you guys!

First of all there is the big news, Saila.  She is the newest Maplelea Girls doll. I did all the illustration and design work for this one, including fabric patterns and illustrations that are used on her accessories and outfits. It was a HUGE project, but obviously worth it since....

Saila won the 2012 Children's Choice Award from the Canadian Toy Testing Council! 

 

And here are some examples of the journal pages. Again, all the illustration and design work was done by myself, BUT it is meant to represent Saila (the doll's) drawings. This book is in three languages, English, Inuktitut and French. What a project! (click on the image to make it larger if you want to see details).

 

While this big project was going on, I was also providing extra journal pages (design and illustration) for the other dolls, as well as illustrations to be printed or embroidered onto other outfits. It's so cool to see my work used this way, so much variety! What a blast! 

 

Above is a pair of pjs for the doll, but the cool part is, you can also get the pjs and slippers for your own child!  I did the pant pattern as well as the polar bear illustration for the shirt. I also did the snow flakes that were embroidered on the slippers. Very cool.  Also the illustrations and pattern for the bedding for the newest doll, Saila.  All of these items are now for sale at www.maplelea.com. 

Below are a couple more items. All patterns and illustrations were done by myself.  Illustrations that are placed in the photos are from the journal pages that come with the item of clothing.  Photos of the dolls in their gear are from the Maplelea catalogue and belong to Avonlea Traditions. 

 

To see some other items I've worked on in the past check out this old post... http://doodlesscribbles.blogspot.com/2010/11/maplelea-girls-clothing.html

 

They Draw and Cook Cookbook! 

So, I've been meaning to do a proper post about this for a while, but have been quite busy (a good thing! ) But here it is, the actual, real book!  It's a really nice book, full of terrific art, including of course Echo and her Brownies. It's so nice to be included in this book with so many talented people.  The cover has a gloss spot finish and the binding is unique and lovely! 

Below the Echo recipe I've included photos of 4 other recipes so you get an idea of the variety in this book, it's a worthwhile purchase, and with Christmas coming there is no better reason!

Here are links to the other illustrators sites I included in this post, you guys do terrific work! 

Daniel Jansson  inspiram.se

Joy Steuerwald joystewy.com

Jannie Ho chickengirldesign.com

Emilia Dziubak emiliaszewczyk.blogspot.com

 

Monster Cookies - digital illustration

Here is my most recent submission to They Draw and Cook. They are having a Cooking for Kids contest and this is what I came up with. It's a recipe my mom used to make us for when we'd go camping or hiking. Now I make it for my kids! Please feel free to click on the image to make it larger, I went a little nutso with detail ;) 

(full spread on top, pages individually below so you can see them better)

Celeste

Franklin - watercolour and pencil

I am cleaning my office space and found this! I did this about 7 or 8 years ago. This is where my career began :) I think I should frame him.

 They Draw and Cook, THE BOOK - book

I have not yet done a post about this, but I have spread the word around.  The website They Draw and Cook has come out with a printed book of over 100 illustrated recipes. They are all illustrated by different artist, and it looks INCREDIBLE! I am very lucky to be among these talented people. The book is available for pre-order over at Amazon. And you can also take a peek inside! I think this book is a must in anyone's kitchen who loves to cook, or just look at a terrific variety of art! Also lots of fun and easy to follow if you have kids that like to cook with you!

Hi guys!

I decided to do something different today and post the process I went through on a recent (very quick) project I did for WWF Canada . It's WWF's 50th anniversary and in celebration of that, they wanted a birthday panda illustration for the front cover of their children's newsletter. I was excited and honored that they chose me to illustrate it for them.  As you know, I've done work with WWF Canada for the past 10 years (wow, didn't realize it was that long until I wrote it!)  So it was exciting for me to do this for them. 

I started with a concept. They wanted a Panda bear celebrating his birthday, something cute for the kids. So I started by coming up with a cute panda character design...

 

Then once I did that I made a list of friends that would celebrate with our Panda. Since this is for the Canadian newsletter, I choose Canadian wildlife, that is on the endagered or at risk list. Animals that I know WWF has programs set up for right now. Then I worked them into the composition. (doodle right of the panda designs)

Afterwards I worked on some roughs for the other animals to be placed in the illustration. 

 

Then I worked on laying them out, and creating a couple options for the editor at WWF.  

I tried to keep everything pretty natural, the decorations, the "table" even the candles ended up being bees wax lit by two very accommodating fireflies! Here is the final art (text and logo are part of the mock up, their in house designer lays it out, so the final print might be a little different then this one below).

  

 

As I said this was a very fast turn around project, I had 3 days from submission of roughs to final art.  So there are not as many revisions or steps that can happen in other projects, but this gives you a nice idea of how I work.  Thanks to WWF Canada again for the fun project! 

Check out their website for info on the animals in the illustration.

Woodland Caribou

Polar Bear

Vancouver Island Marmots

Black footed Ferret

Monarch butterfly

Burrowing owls

Northern leopard frog

Thimble Cookies by Echo - digital illustration

Here it is! Another recipe featuring Echo. I will be submitting this one to They Draw and Cook come December.  Happy cooking!