I woke up like this

Here comes Peter Cottontail hopping....

I cannot believe that Easter is next month!! I just got through with February vacation for crying out loud! Okay now when will this crazy wheel stop so I can catch up on my life? Humm I do not know if I can take it much longer.

Easter has always been a fond little holiday for me, especially since I was born in April and its the sign of Spring! I still can picture that photo my parents took of me when I was about 10 years old in my short lavender mini dress with white socks and white patent leather shoes. My hair was about a little longer than a bob and naturally straight. Easter was the fun holiday to dress up for because of all the pretty colored dresses and clothes. No more black and red now its going to be purple, pink and yellow. Ahh the colors of Spring.

This design was done a few years ago and I just love all the fun elements in it. You could take out a bunch of
different icons and use them for stickers, plush, ceramics snowglobes you name it and well some of my clients have done this to many of my designs. I especially love the chicks with the bandanas on their heads, very cute and funny. If you haven't noticed by now most of my work has an element of fun to it. Life is too short, so we must have some fun.

Speaking of fun has anyone seen the video revenge of Jimmy Kimmel and Ben Affleck? sooo sooo funny.
I thought the one of Sarah Silverman and Matt Damon was funny but this just is out of this world funny!!
Go and see at You Tube a must see!!

Okay gotta get back to work!!

Ellen

IF-Multiple

A Multiple amount of bugs hanging around. I painted this up awhile ago and it goes with a bunch of coordinates for a bunch of categories, like baby bedding, bibs, blankets, giftwrap, giftbags, and maybe some fun plush toys and books.

Actually I have been working on a bunch of Christmas prints over the weekend that included multiples so this was an appropriate topic for me!

Have a great day all!!

Ellen

Character development

I am finally working on the series that I have been putting off forever this week. Meet my friend Charlie, he is a lovable little frog who lives in "friend pond" with all of his fun-filled friends. He is a vegetarian frog and so he never will eat any of his fly friends.

He has a little brother Tod the tadpole whom he is teaching how to swim and soon when he becomes a frog how to jump. Many of his other friends include Sheldon the turtle, Fiona the goldfish and Sydney the salamander.

Hopefully I will have this series all drawn out before the next SCBWI conference. I am trying to get my main work done as well as this so its going to be tough but I am sure I will manage.

I will be posting here and there this week since the kiddos are on vacation and not much can get done around here when they are home. It has been very tough with them here since there is not much to do. I have decided no matter what we are away next Feb vacation, hopefully somewhere tropical. The kids just need to get out there energy and when they can't it becomes a free for all of fighting and whining! My voice is getting hoarse from yelling at them to stop it!! Arghhh this is when I tell all my friends who are looking to get pregnant that kids are "overrated!" ha its only a joke but it sure is the toughest job in the world and some days I feel like I have lost control of the job.

Okay enough of that, off to paint up some fun characters!

Ellen

Happy Heart Day!!!!

Happy Heart Day!! These heart guys are wishing you the best Heart day ever! Some might call it Valentine's Day but they know its all about the heart!! Love, Love ,Love!! Despite my illness last weekend I did manage to create these fun heart guys for my boys. They went nuts over them this morning and I was glad to see that they liked them. We naturally got something else for them too, but this was made from mommy love!!

I hope you get all your heart desires today!! Nothing like a day to say "hey I love you!" but then again shouldn't you being saying it everyday? I know I do to my guys. Okay folks I am going to try and get some work done before I got out tonight.

Happy Heart Day from me to you!!

xo Ellen

Feeling better with some new products

Hello all again, I am feeling much better now, thank god! This flu ended up turning into a head cold but I am finally feeling like my old self again. The sickness was so bad around here that my niece's school closed for a day of deep cleaning. I like most of the people around here will be welcoming spring with open arms.

I want to thank all of those who sent me well wishes when I was ill and could not go to the SCBWI conference.
I will make sure to not get sick next year! Anyway a few lovely things were sent my way while I was resting.
A bunch of samples of my new Birthday design that is on paper plates, napkins bags and bottle tags. I just love how well it all came out and the client tells me it is doing quite well. I am not sure yet which stores you can find it in but when I know I will tell all of you.

Here is a close-up of the small giftbag and bottle tags. I am going to have to request more samples since I know I will be using them.

Here is some samples of some fun paper napkins, that I know I will use on my bar outside this year. I have been waiting to get these actually and glad they came in way before summer. As you may well know by now I love to entertain and we have a huge deck in the back of our house that we entertain allot on. So these little goodies will come in handy when I make my famous Pina Colada!! Yumm I can picture it now, nice and cool with a floater on top!

I am having a hard time thinking about summer when we have a monsoon outside right now. I do not mind rain but this is coming down hard and it makes it soo uncomfortable to do any errands. I nearly got soaked when I picked up my little guy from pre-school today. Yuck! He had his little Valentine party and came out with lots of goodie bags full of candy and cards.
Ahh that's when Valentine's Day is fun, not stressful and full of expectations. I think the worst is when I was in junior high and you could buy your friend or girlfriend a rose or carnation. How degrading to watch those who were so popular get tons of flowers while maybe you got one or two. I think it was such a horrible idea and it really hurts if you get nothing. I am not sure if this practice still is done today but I hope not., I hope the students are smart enough not to allow such a thing. No one wants to feel like a loser and especially on Valentine's day. I was never boy crazy and so naturally my flowers only came from friends, but it hurts when you think no one cares for you. Thankfully I was a much stronger person than most and just brushed it off, but I know that it crushed many girls who didn't get a flower that day.

So to all of those girls who may be feeling a little blue because they do not have a significant other, do not fret, as long as you have the love of friends and family none of the other stuff matters. I will always tell young women and even my friends who are much older and wiser never let a man define who you are. You should be content with yourself and never feel that without a boyfriend you are not complete. I so hate those words" you complete me!" what a load of crap!! The only person that completes you is YOU!! So this Valentine's day love YOU and all that YOU are about!! Embrace the qualities that make you unique and special and never let the amount of flowers, presents etc. define how much you are loved!!

peace out!!

Ellen

My illustration process....

In the beginning of any good illustration there is always a sketch. I sometimes will come up with ideas and draw them up in my sketchbook, but other times I just go straight to the tracing paper. Usually when I use the tracing paper it means that I will inevitability paint up the sketch. Here is a sketch I did recently of two owls in a tree. I was trying to paint up some quick illustrations to bring along with me to SCBWI conference. Since I had been working hard on designs for licensing products I knew I needed a few more illustrations that would be more useful in a book and not on a product.

After the sketch is complete I then transfer it onto a piece of bristol paper, I like to use the vellum finish not smooth it just holds the paint better. Then its onto coming up with a color palette. I paint most of my designs in gauche and here I create colors inside these little plastic paint holders. I keep the colors until I am done with the design and with licensing products I keep the colors until all of the product designs are done and then I might make swatches if the manufacture needs them. Sometimes I have to match Pantone colors instead but they never look the same as the paint you create. My gauche of choice is Holbein. They just have the best, bright colors, and I buy them from Dick Blick on line, great discounts.

Here is the finished piece although after looking at it for awhile I think I might go back in and add some lighter spots to the background that you can see better. It is just a simple little illustration but its colors and
characters give it its charm. I am always trying to illustrate designs that either make you laugh, are colorful or just brighten your day. I am not fond of dark and dreary designs and you will never see me paint subjects that have a heavy message, its just not my thing. I think life is hard enough without me having to paint that dark side of it.

I am still feeling ill today and feeling a little sad about not being able to go to the conference, but I am better off being home while I am ill and not somewhere else.

Since my other little sick guy is sleeping on the couch I am going to steal some nap time myself. Have a great weekend everyone and rest up if you are not feeling well either!

xoEllen

The Flu, and some lovely presents..

Okay all, today has not been the best of days for me. All week I have been nursing my little boys with 5th disease and then the flu and now guess what I woke up with this morning. Yes you guessed it the flu myself.
Now normally I would be okay with it since it is February and I have not had anything all winter, but I was supposed to go to the SCBWI conference this Friday and it looks like its a no go. I was so looking forward to seeing old friends from school and meeting new ones at the conference, but when your head feels like a truck ran over it well then you just stay home.

How fortunate for me that I would receive such a wonderful little surprise in the mail, just in time to cheer me up. This box has a special gift that was made for me by my good friend Carol and how nice and colorful it is. Anyone would have to feel better when you open up such a gift.

Inside the beautiful giftwrap was this cute little love nest! How cute are those little tiny polkadot eggs! They feel light as a feather too. I wondered how she painted them w/o smudging them but on her blog you can see how she did it. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends. I myself had made Carol a little treat that she received last week. Here is a photo of the heart pillow I made.

The big pillow is the one I made for Carol and on the other side of it is the letter "C" so she could place it either way. I also stuck a little lavender inside so it smells so sweet. The other small little pillow is a sachet
I made for Angela this has the letter " A" on it with a bow. I think they came out great and if you notice I used my heart fabric I designed for Robert Kaufman that will be on scrubs.

Remember this? I finally get to show you the whole picture, and this I made for my other blogging friend
Jennifer she told me that her husband thought she made it. How funny! I did it in glitter since I know she likes glitter, I also made one for Charlotte too but for some reason I cannot find the picture maybe its in another camera card. Charlotte's has a slightly different look to it with a different paper and color scheme. If you didn't recognize by now the paper on Jennifer's well you only have to look at the top of my blog to see it. This floral was put on scrapbooking papers and so I use it when I can.

Okay everyone my head is about to explode so I must take some rest and try and get better and if by some miracle I am well tomorrow, maybe I can still head to NYC for my conference but I am weary that will not happen. Time to get some fluids and close the lids!

xo Ellen

IF- Blanket

Here is my illustration for IF- Blanket. I did this illustration awhile ago and its for a get well card. The sunshine
is cheering up the daisy. Isn't the daisy so cute? I am starting to begin my journey back into the illustration world while still doing surface/product design. It has been a life long passion of my to design children's books and so while at the age of 40 I begin this journey.

Funny but I never thought it would take this long. Life has a way of just creeping up on you, and before you know it your 40!!

Okay all, I just have to talk about the sad, sad, news of my beloved Patriots! Why I say, just why did you let this one go? I thought I watched someone die right in front of my eyes last night and well I guess they did.
Poor Brady and boy does that Offensive line need work! I mean he was getting sacked all over the place. It
is almost like the time the Sox lost to the Yankees a few years ago! Oh well what are you going to do, life goes on.

well onto another day!

February is here!!

© Ellen Crimi-Trent

Ahh yes its the month of Love, ground hogs, Super Bowl (go pats!) Presidents and school vacation oh and yes this year is a leap year! What can you say about February except that its here.

Love may be in the air but right now I wish I was in a warm air climate. I am looking out my window at the moment and see tons of hail coming down. How I long for those hot summer days, feet in the sand, waves crashing about and the echos of children constructing a masterpiece out of sand. I as you may have guessed by now not a fan of the winter, in fact I hate it. The only time I seem to enjoy it is when we get a chance to go to the mountains and do some skiing, and even that with all its preparations leaves me feeling a little crazed.
It kind of takes the fun out of the whole experience when you have to bundle up 2 kids get them geared up as well as yourself, by the time I get all my gear on I am ready for a nap. However once we are out on the slopes all of that just melts away.

Okay so this weekend we are gearing up for my oldest sons first penance and then of course the Super Bowl!
Now if you haven't guessed by now I am very excited for the game. It is not often you can see history being made and I have a feeling our boys (Patriots) are going to pull it right out ! I am soo sick of the crap that NY
has been doing all week with their trash talk that they are almost asking for it!!

Since we have 2 kiddies that require sleep for school will have to watch the game at home by ourselves but thats okay, my husband and I will have a little spread set out just for us and lots of fun cocktails and beer!

Well I know I am not saying much today, because I have the kiddies early and one guy is not feeling well and the chicken fingers are ready and I am hungry so its time to go and make some lunch. Then I have to figure out a plan to keep them busy for the rest of the day.

So all have a great weekend, and I will talk to you later!

Ellen