I woke up like this

IF- Packed

The Penquins are packed into the crowd like a bunch of Sardines! This is an illustration I did awhile ago that just fits this weeks illustration Friday theme. Also its on point for me these days since I am knee deep in designing for the Holidays. This illustration is now on fabrics at your local Jo-Ann shop, here is the final result.

I am hoping to make something out of this for the kiddies and maybe a little craft for the rest of my readers.

I am glad the rain has finally stopped here in Massachusetts, we almost had a major flooding on our hands yesterday. My husband went to put some old paint away in the little tiny room we store it, which is next to our sump pump, and there he could see the pump was overflowing! Thank god or my office would have been a mess. Its just about fixed now, and I am grateful. I would not have had major damage since most of my originals are up higher, but it would have been quite a nuisance. Did anyone else get this horrible rain? Lord help us in the winter, I hope its not piles of snow.

Anyway things are back on track and I am back in my driver's (desk) seat for some more design work. So I hope you had a great weekend and be glad the rain is gone for now.

Humm do I hear that coffee perking? Gotta go!!!

Ellen

New Products and a lovely gift

Hello all I hope your weekend was great, I have some new fun Halloween products in a Walmart near you. These are from my adult Halloween collection full of fun crazy cocktails such as, Halloweentini, cockroach cocktail,Eyeball Highball and Bloody Mary with her severed finger!

There are plates, napkins, treat boxes, plastic cups, games, recipe books etc. I was very excited to see them in the store and cannot wait to use them myself at our annual Halloween party.

Also during this weekend I received a fantastic gift....

Beautiful cards from fellow blogger and licensing friend Robin Zingone She is an amazing artist who has I say the best studio ever! I am very envious at how large and clean it is. I have been a big fan of her work since I discovered it about 5 years ago and when I knew she was going to be displaying it at Surtex, well then I finally had a chance to meet her in person. She is as lovely as her work, and its nice when you have others around you whom you can relate to in this field, not everyone wants to be generous with their time.

Look at all these beauties I have and wonderfully printed too from M J Zoom! Go onto their site and see the collection.
I have no doubt that Robin will be a real big name soon, and then I get to say, "hey I know her!"

Onto my fine weekend of cleaning and sorting. I have been trying to clean out the boys playroom forever and this weekend I finally had the chance to do it. It was full of these little toys they never play with and a vast collection of Thomas the Train items they do not use anymore. We plan on having a yard sale this weekend to get rid of everything in this house we do not use anymore, and that is allot!! I want to cleanse this place of clutter, if you know what I mean. Its amazing to me that before I had kids and lived in Park Slope I had this tiny 600sq ft apt which is the size of my office. You would think I could have tons of room, but its always funny how we fill it up fast. I am looking forward to a clutter free home!

Okay I must get to work and stop chatting for today. I am beginning to work on various Holiday designs which are in demand for my clients at the moment, and I might even have time to post a download soon, so look for it!!

Have a great Monday all.

Ellen

p.s. if anyone who has typepad knows how to put the link in text let me know, since they changed the format I am having trouble doing this and I want to put Robin's link up.
thanks!

New Print

I have been working allot the past few days on all sorts of new stuff, here is a preview of some Christmas designs I created. I did not get to sleep last night until 1:30 a.m. and I am feeling it today. I have allot of things I want to get done but there is just not enough hours in the day.

I seem to be all over the place these days designing all kinds of categories from Christmas to Everyday and its almost making me a little nuts, but such is the life of a designer. It actually suits me well because I get bored very easily with what I am working on, so its nice to switch.

Does anyone else have this problem? I know when I look at other illustrators work I see that they seem to always have the same style, whereas I am constantly changing it up. One day I will paint the other use the computer and sometimes college. Even when I paint there is a few styles I may do such as dry brush, watercolor, gouache flat graphic style and a more airbrush realistic style. I guess its the curse of a designer who is constantly looking for new and exciting things. Its funny back in college one of my friends during a critique said my work all looked similar and the teacher said that this was good for a illustration portfolio, I wonder what he would say now!!

In any event that is who I am and I am not about to change it now, so everyone will just have to deal with it!!

On another note, I am trying to figure a way to sit by this computer without having my shoulder blades getting bothered. If anyone has a clue which is the best way to sit let me know because my left side is really taking a toll.

Okay need some coffee bad!!!

Ellen

Welcome baby MAX!!

Welcome Baby Max! Here he is our new Nephew Max who arrived 5 weeks early yesterday morning at 11:30 a.m.! He weighed 6 lbs 12 oz and is 19inches long. He is quite the cuttie if I do say so myself. Funny story is that earlier that Sat night we all went over my brother's house to celebrate his birthday and kept telling my sister-in-law that she looked like the baby had dropped allot. So many people thought it would be a girl but we always knew it was going to be a boy, which is why I put a Sox rattle in with her shower gift! She woke up in the middle of Sunday morning around 2 a.m to find her water broke! Oh if only I had such luck when I had my boys, early!! who wouldn't want that. That last month is always the worst, and so she is very lucky, except for one thing now we have another member of our family with a birthday in Sept. That makes both my brothers, my nephew Caleb, my niece Taylor (Max's older sister) and now Max!! I will have very limited funds come next Sept. Its a good thing we had her shower last week, don't you think? Okay I must get myself in gear for another work week!! ciao! Ellen

IF- Clutter

the clutter in their minds!!! I tried a new way to do this by scanning in a blk and white drawing and then placing color behind in illustrator. I been having fun doodling these days so here is one I came up with for the subject. I hope you like it! Ellen

Diary of a baby shower favor

Here is a photo of the baby shower favors I made for my sister-in-law this past weekend.I really like the way they came out and I can tell you that this took no time at all and the final cost was $1.17 per favor, yes you heard me right only $1.17!! I bought the glass jars at Michael's for only .50 they were on clearance, but you can find other cute jars for 1.00 there and if you use their coupons you can save some money. The bath salts I bought at Walmart and each jar was around $3.00 and I could fill 5 jars from it. Here are some other items you will need, ribbon which I purchased at Michaels on sale as well, scissors, hole punch, pinking scissors that have a fun round edge to them, and a print out of the card for the jars. Here is the front of the card which I printed on cardstock and here is the back of the card. It was a little tricky to get them to line up when I printed on the other side. I don't know if anyone knows and easy trick for that if so maybe you could tell me.I am sure there is a much easier way than what I did. Anyway so not too bad for a cute baby shower favor and they looked great all lined up on the table. I am hoping this will be the last thing I have to do for awhile, since I am so bogged down with other projects and such. School is in full swing and I have to get back in full swing at work too. There just seems to be not enough time in the day to do everything if you know what I mean. Okay folks so there you have it my version of a cute baby shower favor, I hope this inspires you to create something fun and inexpensive as I have or at least give you some other ideas! Okay back to work, I must finish this Christmas design I have been working on for a client. Ciao, Ellen

New Print

I have been working away and here is a preview of some new prints I have playing with on the computer. I am finally trying to figure out how to manipulate the computer to look like I almost painted it. So what do you think
did I achieve it??

Have a happy weekend all!!

Ellen

Back at work and lots of new goodies!

I am back at work and just in time too, lots of new things to share! On your newstands now the new Better Homes and Gardens Halloween issue with this fun thing in it....

My treat bag!!!!! I think it looks great and what a great photo job too.

I am on the search for the other Halloween item in one of their other magazines too, when I find it I will let you know.

Okay I am way too jittery on coffee today I and I usually drink decaf but today its regular and I think I will never do that again. I cannot even type right now.

Here is another fine treat I have that is in Lowe's right now....

Flags!!! and quite a few of them, I think they came out great and I am looking forward to finding them in yards real soon!

ghosts....

and pumpkins....

and a moose!! Have fun decorating with these guys, I know I will..

I was pleasantly surprised to find this fantastic gift in the mail for me today.....

A beautiful fabric covered notebook fromJennifer Paganelli a fabulous fabric and gift designer with such an incredible heart!! She became one of my dearest blogging friends in the beginning when I could barely get anyone to comment and put me on their list. Also because of her putting me on her list I had the opportunity to have my designs in Better Homes and Gardens so thank you, thank you , thank you Jennifer I LOVE it!!!

Okay folks now that I am back to work I promise to start to show new and exciting things on this blog and hopefully get that darn Etsy site up this month. I am sorry but I do not know how anyone can possibly work and take care of kids at the same time, I know some of you believe that these very popular bloggers can do it but I think there is something fishy in Denmark!! If you know what I mean, there is noooo way they can do that and maintain a normal life, I only have 2 boys and I cannot do it so I would die to know the truth about that. I have had many emails asking how I do it and I tell them that I have my boys in school and daycare. I could never, never work otherwise and if I did that would mean they would have no mommy time, so here it is people if you can do that well more power to you but I certainly cannot not and I am not ashamed to admit it!! I am just trying to keep it real and on that note, I gotta try and do some work today.

I am looking forward to the Fall and lots of new work , happy to be back again!

Ellen