by abby on February 8, 2013 | Comment
Valentine’s Day is less than a week away! Do you know how you will be celebrating? When I was young, one of my friend’s would host a Valentine’s Day party. I have such happy memories of those afternoons eating red heart jigglers (remember those from Jello?) and playing silly games.
I think it was those positive thoughts that inspire me to create my red and pink heart cupcake toppers. Don’t these hearts make you smile? They instantly made your cupcakes look fun for both kids and adults! And the best part they work for either store bought cupcakes or homemade. Whoo-ooo! If you want a delicious chocolate cupcake recipe check out the Magnolia Bakery one here.
Looking for a few other Valentine’s Day ideas?
Try this hot chocolate recipe.
See a great collection of funny Valentine’s Day gift ideas.
This video shows you how to say I Love You in a foreign language.
Don’t forget to enter the PICTURE BOOK GIVEAWAY happening on FEB. 14th at 10am!
You could be the lucky winner of this book! Simply click on the book and then on the “Win this Book” tab on our Facebook fan page.
Have a great weekend and stay safe and warm!
by abby on August 28, 2012 | Comment
Books take years to publish, so I was extra happy to finally see one of my first freelance book design projects sitting on a shelf at my local Barnes & Noble! Hooray! This new young adult book is called A World Away. It’s published by Hyperion Books. To publish a book it “takes a village”. There are authors, artists, editors, copy editors, art directors, cover designers, and production coordinators just to name a few. For this project, I was the interior novel designer.
As an interior book designer, it’s my job to be sure the voice of the story is conveyed through the styling of the text fonts, chapter openers, and all the front matter—pages like the title page that appear before the start of the story.
I believe its so important to read the manuscript before I start to design! And let me tell you this is a great story about a teen Amish girl who becomes a nanny for a Chicago family living in the 21st century. Imagine making your first phone call, seeing your first movie, or having your first photo taken at age sixteen! A World Away is an engaging story of finding out where you belong and self discovery. Oh and there are a few twists and turns on the journey! Be sure to check this book out at your local book store or library.
What piece of new fiction are you excited about?
by abby on August 16, 2012 | Comment
Have you seen these fun magnets? They are called Shadow Magnets. They have moveable joints, so you can pose them in a variety of positions. It’s like a marionette magnet! I was given the Artist Shadow Magnet, but there are several other characters. Be sure to check them out. Today, my Artist magnet is jumping for joy because finally the week is almost done and D and I are heading on vacation tomorrow!
Have a great week!
by abby on August 14, 2012 | Comment
With only a few more days still D and I take a beach vacation we are getting a little stir crazy. This was evident last weekend, when inspiration hit me to bake a very fun pie. D loves pie. Let me say this again, D LOVES his pie. So as a thank you for all his help with the Park Ave Festival I baked him a peach pie (with local farm fresh peaches…yum). But being an illustrator I can’t ever just leave the pie top blank! So with this pie I drew a skull with some of the left over dough. Pretty cool, right?! We now call this Skull Pie. Skull Pie is quite delicious, too.
How do you decorate the top of your pie?
by abby on July 27, 2012 | Comment
During difficult moments of my life, I gain strength in a simple mantra I created while in grad school and working full time (oh yes, it was stressful!). My words are written in thick Sharpie ink on a teal post-it note: Stay tough You can do it. I stuck my note on the outside of the freezer at eye level for a needed reminder every time I came into the kitchen. Several years, later it’s still on my freezer and still helping me to learn to run my own art and design business.
Yes, words are powerful. Artist, Kelly Rae Roberts, understands this too. She often adds in an inspiring “truth” statement into her collage paintings. She’s highlighted these beautiful mantras in her newest product: fabric cuff bracelets.
There’s a whole collection of styles of bracelets and phrases. Which one do you like?
All Images taken from the Kelly Rae Roberts website
Any one of these cuffs would make as a great gift. Not only are you giving a colorful bracelet, but you are also gifting love to help inspire and encourage.
Do you have your own mantra?
by abby on July 17, 2012 | Comment
My best friend is visiting me this week and she is a huge animal lover. Beasts large and small make this gal smile. So in honor of her, I thought I’d share a fantastic artist who creates tiny animal sculptures. Laura is the creative power behind the company Le Animale.
She calls her tiny (and I mean tiny under 2 inches!) animal sculptures totems or spirit animals. All her work is handmade. She creates them from clay, adds paints, and coats them in a clear varnish. They are so adorable!
There are so many I would love to collect. They even have my favorite animal, an otter! Eee—so cute!
{All images from the Le Animale website}
Le Animale does custom work, so your own favorite animal could become a beautiful animal totem too. What animal totem would you want?
by abby on July 13, 2012 | Comment
This week I came across Momeni’s ‘Lil Mo Whimsy rug collection. These are handmade rugs design especially for kids and tweens. Aren’t they amazing?! It’s art for the floor!
I think parents will enjoy these rugs as much as children. They are so playful and have such vibrant color. All the ‘Lil Mo Whimsy rugs are hand-tufted and created with soft mod-acrylic.
{All images from Momeni: Genuine Handmade Rugs}
Colorful Balloons! I so want this rug in my studio. There’s color everywhere else in the studio, but the floor. This rug would take care of that! Be sure to check out the Momeni Kids Rugs section. They have many more rugs that are just as vibrant and playful as the ones here.
Which rug would you add to your child’s room?
by abby on June 26, 2012 | Comment
This morning I came across designer/illustrator, Stefan Bucher’s, new app for your iphone or ipad—The DAILY MONSTER Monster Maker. It’s a spin off on his own personal Daily Monster project. Now you get to create your very own monsters using exclusive inkblots and eyeballs and other monster parts Bucher has specifically created for this app.
But wait there’s more! Your monsters can speak their minds with custom speech bubbles or pose for photos and it all the results can be posted to Facebook and Twitter. Or if your monsters are real divas, you can have them printed on t-shirts with the new Zazzle button.
What would your monster look like? I found my very own monster in the backyard over the weekend.
This handy monster helped me with a Corn Hill Arts Festival preparation. He made FABULOUS tent weights! The Corn Hill Arts Festival is next weekend—July 7th and 8th. (It’s finally here!) I hope you can attend!
by abby on June 22, 2012 | Comment
I am totally in love with Little Free Libraries! Aren’t they so adorable? I want one in my front yard too. Happily, this fantastic organization has been getting some due props this week from the Etsy blog team and from artist, Jessica Swift.
Essentially, it’s an organization that supports sharing of books: “Take a book, return a book” now appears on each and every recorded Little Free Library. The idea started in 2009 by Todd Bol, to honor his mother, June. He built a schoolhouse structure, filled it with books, and mounted in on a pole. Voila—a little free library!
From the start of one, there are now more than 1,500 Little Free Libraries in more than 40 states and 20 countries. Interested in creating your own? The Little Free Libraries website offers fully built structures or directions for creating your very own one-of-a-kind design. There are all sorts of libraries—bird feeders, British phone booths, cute cottages, and barns. Some even have elaborate painted exteriors too! But above all, these structures are easily to use with a plexiglass door so about 20-50 books can be seen.
(all images from Little Free Library website)
Each new library can be registered with the Little Free Library organization and get an official number and be added to a Google map where interested book lovers can search for nearby little free libraries. I looked in Rochester, New York and there aren’t any here. Maybe D and I can be the first to build one! Little Free Libraries are great community builders. Neighbors can meet neighbors as books are browsed/returned or their curiosity draws them out. They simply make people smile. Do you have a Little Free Library in your neighborhood?
by abby on June 19, 2012 | Comment
Over the weekend D and I traveled to Pennsylvania for a family party to celebrate my grandparents 65th Wedding Anniversary. We stayed at a restored turn of the century healing springs hotel that still had a natural spring bathing pool. The hotel was situated at the bottom of 2 ridges and offered several hiking trails around the grounds. On one of our hikes I spotted this beautiful shadow on our path. Mother nature is quite the artist! It was so cool and comfortable walking in the woods. I’m missing that cool breeze now as Rochester is going through a 90 degrees heat wave. Stay cool!
