valentines day - doodle

This little lovebug was doodled for the kid's homemade valentines day cards -- but before he would even consider giving them out I had to remove all the "girly things" according to my 8 year old son....BUT, BUT he chose my lovebug drawing over a robot rubberstamp so that made mommy feel all warm and fuzzy on this valentines day :)

February 14 is a big day around here -- lil' girl's birthday also. lots of fun!

xoxoxoxo

image note: bug doodle by me, swirly doodles are from a free digital set by designer angie briggs (from digitalfreebies.com)

With Every Christmas Card I Write

for my 100th post....a christmas card

Christmas Card Illustrations

"What Girl Elves Dream About"
by maria

Shoes of course, duh?
I bet she gets so tired of wearing green and red. Red and green. Good thing for that touch of black on the belt buckle. Oh, and everyone knows that good elf shoes are sooo hard to find.
Give the girl a break.

ooooh, I get to add to one of my new categories, Today's Doodle....the doodles were actually done over the course of several days {and evenings.}
This is the first year I have tried this.....putting the "doodles" to good use that is.
I just always put my doodles away in a personal art journal. Okay, I decided not to this year. Instead it will be on some of our holiday cards. But I'm so chicken of my own work :}

I finally had the chance to sit down and finish the doodles that lead to the idea for this Christmas card this morning while keeping little guy {just turned 4!} busy with his own set of pencils and paper.
I Love to bring out all the colored pencils and color!
Because I tend to doodle on different sheets or scraps of paper I have to clip my favorites from the various pages and get them together in a cute arrangement. The next step is to then scan in the artwork.

The December 2007 issue of Good Housekeeping has a ton of holiday planning guides and lots of tips and ideas for this cheery time of year. One of the articles {pg. 141, if you have it} rates the 5 Best Sites for Holiday Cards. On the list is this site I've never visited {might try it this year} It says that the site, zazzle, will let you scan in your artwork or your child's to have printed as part of your card's border or background. Sounds interesting...going to check that out later. Also, if someone else wants to use your design, zazzle will pay you royalties. That's new, don't know of another card site that does that.

Today's Doodle: #1, #2

#1 Pink Mums from the front yard make a wonderful "real flower" or dandelion stamp:
This was a test to see if they really looked good once stamped. I've seen this technique in many stamp/craft magazines. Not only did the flower's petals image show nicely, but it also reminded me of dandelions. Specifically, a rubber stamp of a dandelion that I have seen on many of my shopping trips. I didn't use paint as some articles suggested, it seemed too gloppy for a smallish flower such as this. I did use just a basic stamp pad [and I just happened to find the black one first, any color would look nice] hand drew the stem but now I think stamping the stem would look better.

#2 'Twas Doodling before Christmas:
Done over the course of many days. While shopping the internet for stamps to use on our Christmas cards this year. I love anything with branches, trees, leaves, wreaths, vines, etc. This one scene from the Basic Grey -- Figgy Pudding line of papers gave me the inspiration. It was so cute...It had a vine or wreath with almost bare branches; the middle of the image looks like a house. I chose to go with a quote behind the stamped image [idea from another site]. It's coming along. Found the perfect wreath stamp through the angel company...in a set named "christmas joy" And one more note: there will be some sort of hand drawn element on the cards this year.

a little messy...I know...fuzzy, sketchy lines and such, but that's how i doodle.


additional note: I will include more of the steps in the next posts. This just shows the "doodle" phase.

One week ago...

I started a blog post....then the kids got sick. Do I need to say more? Can't believe how time flies when you have a good idea in your head. Or, how the idea never really comes back full force the second time you try to express it. So, I had a pretty busy week and weekend with no, repeat, NO! fun creative time in between. Could make me cranky, if I let it.

I ended up just jotting down my thoughts in my idea journal and in a quick word document until I could get back here.

So, from the book of scribbles, I add here....

Tuesday Oct/ 9

#1 today

I sit remembering all the things I thought about in the car ride today.

Things I wanted to blog about --- my brain starts to wander and all of a sudden I have a blog post, but no where to record it. It’s a dilemma.
I think I should get one of those mini voice recorders so I can just talk into it with all my ramblings. Today I chuckled as I thought about that. It would make me feel ultra cool & hip. Like I was on some secret agent mission. Sprinkle in little Jason Bourne aka Matt Damon. And what if I had me some of that secret spy gear stuff on. On the other end, a person with a first letter for a name would receive my transmission.

That’s it - I gotta get one of those.

#2 today

I thought about redundancy in my life. I was returning a fleece blanket at the store. Why did I feel like I needed more blankets/throws? Why do I have so much stuff? I mean, why do I keep buying the same thing over and over? Well, in the case of cool plates and bowls and platters shaped like leaves, I love to collect those. But blankets? Really, I didn’t need anymore.

#3 today

There are some brand new ideas I have in mind for my blog and it all started with the idea from her newsletter of sharing what you love to create, or sharing how you create something. So, mainly staying true to scrapbooking, cardmaking and handmade art related stuff I will be adding some ideas called:

Today’s Doodle Not one everyday, but I find that while I am on the internet or chatting it up on the phone I am in some extreme-doodling zone, some are cool, some are just plain goofy, some bring more inspiration. Why not add them here.

How-I-Do Not a how-to, there are plenty of those out there, but more of a- this-is-how-I-do-it thing. I find that sometimes I try to re-create a card look I see in a magazine, but I might not have all the same materials. So its been a way of using inspiration I find in other places and brainstorming on how the same idea can be applied to a card or scrapbook page using a different technique. I simply think that I do this sometimes to save a little money since I can't go buy ALL the stamps/pretty paper I love, and there are just soooo many I fall in love with. Or maybe, a little bit of that DIY in me that comes from growing up with a mom who wanted to make everything from scratch [she still does-she thinks its very "practical"]

Still working on the names {actually, I’m liking those now}

I will find some of the latest doodles in the idea notebook and post it next.
The how-I-do will probably be the project I'm into now, which is Christmas cards.