Design

My background is in graphic design so it’s fun to go back to my roots and design a logo – especially when it involves using my illustrations. I designed this logo for Emma Brodie who will soon be starting her own dog training and dog walking company. She asked me to illustrate herself and her dog Floyd showing a sense of love and respect. This isn’t the typical logo I’m used to designing – I’ve certainly done my fair share of corporate logos! I love the fun, playful side of this design because of the use of my illustration. Would love to hear your feedback :)

Seeing as Emma is just starting out, if you’re interested in any dog training of walking services in the Edinburgh and Midlothian areas of Scotland, I’ve included her info below:

Email: dogedevotion@yahoo.co.uk or Phone: 07521 454958

Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever resurface on my blog now that I’m juggling two little ones …but I seem to have a free moment right now so I’m going to take advantage of it :) We have finally achieved a bit of a sleep rhythm with our now 2 month old and it’s giving me a bit more down time. Yay!

I don’t have any new work to show just yet but I really wanted to share some beautiful birthday card designs that were created by Danielle over at Paper Inspirations. She used my ‘Birthday Parade‘ stamp design to create two very different (but equally cute and fun!) card designs. I love the colour palettes in both of them and all her wonderful attention to detail!

Hope to be posting some new work soon!

I’m continuing to expand my licensing portfolio by creating these image series that show how one illustration can be expanded into complimentary illustrations, patterns, and borders. I decided to take my latest giraffe drawing and add some other elements. I imagine this series being very cute for a little girl’s pyjama set or a nursery bedding set :)

I love to find inspiration from everywhere and everything. Even when I buy the simplest item, I will only buy it if I like the design. Just recently I couldn’t make myself buy a pair of scissors because I didn’t like the colour of the handle. Ok, this sounds extreme and you’ll likely think I’m crazy but I observe everything and care that my environment is well designed!

I find inspiration in the design of things like kids backpacks, stuffed toys, Christmas decor, and so much more! Lately I’ve been excited about decorating and preparing for Christmas. I wanted to do an advent calendar with Isaac this year to start teaching him the real meaning of Christmas. In my search for the perfect advent calendar, I found some really cute and inspiring designs that I wanted to share with you. These are my top picks for advent calendars this year. We decided to go ahead with the one from Stampin’ Up (#4) because it has the most storage room for hiding little toys, treats, and messages. My plan is to tuck in a Bible verse, holiday activity, and little treat or toy into each box :)

Are you doing advent with your kids this year? I’d love to hear about your traditions or unique advent calendar ideas.

The Advent calendars pictured above are as follows:
1. Martha Stewart
2. JulieMarie’s Etsy Store
3. Pottery Barn Kids
4. Stampin’ Up
5. The Land of Nod

As a children’s illustrator, having a toddler has been the best thing for my career (in terms of inspiration, but not time!) Not to say that there are a million other reasons why my son is the joy of  my life, but there are definitely some benefits to being immersed in a kid’s world. I think I have a small obsession with boutique toys and craft supplies. My friends would probably concur… I love good design and I love shopping to nice products for my son. One brand I’ve encountered several times is eeBoo. They are a toy manufacturer that specialize in creating beautiful, very high quality items for kids. They value good design and always use amazing children’s illustrators for their products. They never license artwork and always get illustrators to design for them individually. I love this! I love that each illustration is unique to their products.

I would LOVE to design for this company. It’s important to me, as an illustrator, to know that my work is going to be featured on high quality products or produced in a high quality manner. I know with this company, I wouldn’t be let down. I wanted to write this post to share this inspirational company with you but also maybe they’ll read it and get back to me ;)