A taste of something sweet

I finally finished drawing my cupcakes :) now I need to just save them and put them up lol. However at the moment I am still garden focused and being like a jack in the box since I really wish to be outside digging in the soil and planting Dahlias and going and getting the three apple trees I saw yesterday in a nursery. ... but back to art . Since I got a baker's dozen, I will put a cupcake or two as a freebie in the very near future. The line art / digital stamp version of the set is also finished and is just waiting for me to save them too as single files and upload.
Hope you have a good day :)

Nature's Child 2 and yahoo freebie

Morning :), I am slowly getting the natures child series drawn - sort of like molasses moving up a hill. It's not that I don't like them, I love them it is just that life and spring (aka garden chores) are in making their presence known. Anyone know about coniferous trees? Pines, Junipers and the like- mine are not happy this year :( they are budding and then the buds are drying out. Maybe I need to water them . Oh well ...
I drew a second Nature's Child digital stamp / line art and it is now up at mygrafico. When I have the whole series (about 8 in total) I will put them up on my site, until then I will release the single digi stamp version at MG.
A really good book arrived in the mail last week "Illuminated Letters" and I wanted but did not have the time to do a MUM using on of the techniques as this month freebie for my yahoo group but since time was a problem I did a Nature's Child.
Until next time :)

Nature's Child 1

Nature's Child the first in a series of whimsical fairy creatures. To be rather honest they are rather popular with a number of artist at present and this is my version. I guess about 18months ago or more I saw something in this line and it reminded of some Danish seasonal plates an exchange student gave an aunt way back in the 1980's. When googling I was not able to find them, but if my faulty memory serves my right I think they must have been Danish Bjorn plates for the style looks similar to what I have found on the net.

The digital stamp/ line art for this first one can be found in my mygrafico shop :)

cheers

Mygrafico celebrates Earthday

Today USA time mygrafico has a sale!!! So if you got a moment click on by :)

EARTHDAY SALE 1 DAY ONLY - ENTIRE STORE IS 15% OFF.

Sale will end 22nd (Midnight Mountain Time.)

For the kids

It is funny how you come across things. In a recent freelancer job post someone was looking for freelancers to draw pictures and gave this cool site as references HighlightsKids.com .
Since then I have visited on a regular basis to print out the hidden pictures for my hubby to use with the kids to practice latvian grammar with our kids. The older one finds and the younger one colours in the found object on the search sheet. Once an item is found they have to say what it is, where it is and what they thinking is happening in the picture. The kids love this and I thought I would just share it. The kids can find the pictures via using a printed or or via the pc in interactive form. Besides this there are al ot of other activities on the site which are worth visiting. It is definately worth checking out if you got kids and a moment or two.

Win a Cricut Cutter with Blackleaf Studios

A fellow artist is celebrating her shop's 1st birthday and is having a little compo where she is giving you a chance to win a brand new Cricut Personal Electronic Cutting Machine!

She has two shops, one at Mygrafico and her own Blackleaf Studio site.

In order to enter the compo please read the below for her instructions, and Good Luck!!

Blackleaf Studios now gives you a chance to win a swanky and brand new Cricut Personal Electronic Cutting Machine whilst celebrating its 1st Birthday !

Here are 3 steps to your very own Cricut Personal Electronic Cutting Machine + Gorgeous SVG cupcake wrapper templates. All you need to do to is:

1) Create a project/card using 5 different products from Blackleaf Studios (www.shopblackleaf.com) and submit them here.

2) Link yourself by clicking on the "FOLLOW" button of our Blog (http://blackleafdesigns.blogspot.com) on the sidebar.

3) Link this give-away on your blog to refer it to your friends and co-bloggers, then link your blog post in the Simply Link below so we can find your post too. Post us your email and name too.. Its just that simple and here is a link to help you get there faster.

The winner will be announced on the 6th of May, 2010.
This give away is currently applicable to US citizens only.

SALE, SALE, SALE

Earth Day Freebie

On 22 April 2010 Earth day will be here. What is Earth day? Basically I think it is a day to stop and think about environment both micro and macro. Most folks would agree that old mother nature needs a helping hand. So while each and every day should be one where we are conscious of the things we do and the effects it has on our surrounding, on Earth day we should make a special effort to do something for our environment, something as simple as walking down a stretch of beach and picking up the garbage- it may save a turtles life; or if you walk down a country lane, pick up the discarded fast food wrapper some passerby dropped- a storks life may be saved.
In honour of this important day here's a clipart and line art I drew. To download the files please click here. Remember to read the terms of use :) File formats JPG and PNG.

A Slinky Kat

This month's yahoo group freebie is a slinky kat.

Dogs's Easter Bonnet Parade

When my pc was down last week I did a number of sketches. This is one of a set where the dogs are showing off their Easter bonnets. I had hoped to get the set out today, but alas that looks unlikely as while the sketches are fine I think I need to redo them again so that that I ink them out on the pc easier. This little dog's hat took almost 3 hours to sort out as I was unhappy with something :(
But the good news is I got the easter Eggs up. Both in colour and line art (digital stamps :)

Easter eggs on the march

Coming this week ( if my pc stays with me) is a set of Easter eggs who have had enough.

St. Patty day sale at MG

Super cool. Mygrafico's store sale starts today 17th March and last till midnight 18th - these are US times.

from an old shoe to a cat princess

Homework time again with my little monster princess- she may look sweet here but looks are deceiving. The old adage of "I hope your kids are just like you" is sometimes not far from my mind. Anyway she is a dear, almost 5 going on 25.

This week I was informed that my daughter, with my help, was to convert an old shoe into something "fabulous!!!". Princess monster being cat crazy (especially since we don't have one) decided we will make a cat.

So we found an old shoe ( sorry no pic of the old shoe before the paper mache (Papier-mâché) as I did not think about taking pic until later :( ); then I found some supporting material for the ears, tail, nose and hind legs. I used that white thingie with the holes as it was around the house but cardboard would do as well. I made the desired shapes; attached the shaped to the shoe - I did this by slicing the shoe in the appropriate place and inserting the shape. For the whiskers I used the inner wire some old compute cable, sliced the top are of the shoe and threaded it through.
While doing this the monster was shredding old newspaper- just a couple of sheets . Then we made the glue - water and flour. To add a little spice we added some rose oil and ground clove (no reason except the think the later may help stop it been eaten but I am not sure)

Next we dunked the paper into the glue and covered the shoe ( minus the straps because they have butterflies on them - you know).

We Papier-mâchéd the shoe twice, drying in between with a hair drier .
I added 4 wadded up Papier-mâché balls for the paws and papered them into the whole.

Next I painted the cat white with acrylic paint, got a long skewer and wrapped the wire around it to curl the whiskers. Then painted the whiskers white.

After it dried well (the next day) , I cut the tail a bit - it was too long. Then the long awaited fun began - up to the point princess monster was very unsure about her cat and was looking at me with suspect glances - we painted the cat, added some essential lace and it is now ready to be transported to school on Monday!!.