Inspiration

Have you seen these adorable backpacks for kids? Isaac and I were in a local kids boutique the other day and I couldn’t resist getting him the monkey one! He keeps all his art supplies in it and says ‘ooh ooh eee eee aahh ahhh’ every time I bring it out. I love being inspired by other art and these bags definitely caught my eye.

Dante Beatrix is the company responsible for these amazingly cute backpacks for big and little kids. They are a New York based company who design fun and modern products that kids and parents will love! The designs are very unique and the quality is amazing.

So do you want one? CSN stores is generously giving away TWO of these bags to two lucky readers of my blog. CSN stores is a great online store that basically carries anything and everything you need at great prices (and often offer free shipping)! They carry everything from Corelle dinnerware to Timberland shoes and Ju Ju Be diaper bags! It’s definitely worth checking out :)

HOW TO WIN:
Please note: You MUST be a resident of Canada or the US to enter this giveaway. Sorry to my international readers :(
1. Comment on this post and tell me which backpack you like best. I’ve only posted a few here of the MANY designs available.  You can pick from any little kid backpack (age 2-5) or big kid backpack (age 5-10) at CSN Stores. This will get you 1 entry into the draw!
2. Tweet about this giveaway and receive an extra entry.
3. Join my Facebook group and receive an extra entry (please mention you joined my group in the comments).
3. Blog about this giveaway and receive an additional 5 entries (please link to your blog post in the comments).

I will make the draw August 12 so get your entry in before August 11 at 11:59pm EST. Good luck!!

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 ;)

I love cake! Don’t you? I especially love it when it’s as beautiful as this one by Ween from Love-a-Cupcake. She creates amazing cake decorations or ‘sugar art’ and has recently created some new sugar art inspired by my work! I made a post a while ago showing some of the first creations she did inspired by my work. I was so flattered and amazed at how she could translate my illustrations into sugar! She has created some new designs that I’ve posted here :) She is very talented at what she does, I couldn’t help but share it with you all! You can view more of her amazing work at her blog or website. Too bad she doesn’t live in the area… I’d love to hire her for Isaac’s 2nd birthday!

This has been some kind of week! It started with me coming down with the flu last weekend and then Isaac getting sick earlier in the week with a cold/bronchitis. It’s been a tough week to say the least. As a first time mom, it breaks my heart to see my little one sick. I feel so helpless and just want to cuddle him back to health. I’m really hoping we all get our health back very quickly!

On a happier note, while shopping for some much needed tissues this week, I discovered these adorable tissue boxes from Kleenex. I immediately fell in love and bought every design I could find. I feel bad using them and want to keep them forever! Aren’t they adorable? These cute designs were a little ray of sunshine in an otherwise cloudy week.

These cakes are too cute! I was just contacted by Ween from Penang, Malaysia who created these adorable decorations for her cakes. She was inspired by two of my illustrations: Prickly Passion and Be Mine! I am flattered that she was so inspired by my work and did such an amazing job reproducing the images. I had my own go at cake decorating not too long ago and it’s definitely not easy! Very cute :)

Thanks for showing me your amazing cakes Ween! To view more photos of the cakes or her other work, check out her Flickr account.