I recently finished a new illustration for Illustration Friday, and I wanted to share it here as well. This one is special to me because it's inspired by my children, as well as by one of their inspirations.



We have the privilege of knowing and loving a kind and thoughtful and very talented violinist named Emily. Since the first time my daughter saw Emily draw bow across strings, she was obsessed with the violin. She constructed her own out of pencils (the bow) and books (the violin) or whatever else her imagination fancied was similar enough. We actually managed to find her a (surprisingly inexpensive) toy violin for Christmas, which she proudly wields for family and house guests, whether they ask for it or not!





Some time ago I sketched a little pencil drawing of a violin-playing sister and her attentive brother, inspired by my own children and the bond they share. When I saw that the theme for Illustration Friday was "duet," I thought of that sketch immediately and set to work digitally painting it.

It's not a duet of instruments, no, but a duet of hearts, one that I love to hear echoing through the house every day.

I had a nice piece of blue linen and some new perle cotton, and I just felt like winging it, so I went around and around freehand until I felt like it was done. I used a whole bunch of different basic stitches, which really helped add some texture. And I used the backing technique by onegroovyday (http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=359164.0), which I really like a lot. I liked the finished result enough to draw up a pattern for it!







Thanks for looking!

This is a slightly (deliciously) wonky mini quilt that I embroidered from my own pattern, which was based on an illustration of mine.

I did a raw-edge applique for the girls' clothes, some simple stitching with stem/outline stitch and a modified version of long-and-short stitch, some lazy daisies, and a little bit of special finishing to the yarn ball. My favorite part is the "yarn" wrapped around the girl's arms!



I don't normally do a lot with blue, but lately it's been appealing to me, especially the way it brightens this particular piece.



The blue fabric came from my mom's basement, and the green was something my four-year-old picked up while we were shopping. She chose green for me, since it's my favorite!



Thanks for looking!

This is one of the two embroideries I finally finished up this week. I kept it simple, using single strands of thread in a stem stitch on rough linen and a lacing technique (in bright red perle cotton thread) to mount it.





It's based on one of my original illustrations (you can see it here: http://www.juneatnoon.com/2011/01/my-creative-space-timid/), which I turned into a pattern.

Thanks for looking!

I've sort of had hearts on the mind lately, even though I'm not a huge Valentine's Day celebrator. So I did another drawing, but this time I wanted to stick with a very simple color scheme. It's called "Unexpected." It was drawn with pencil and ink, then scanned and colored digitally. Thanks for looking!

I'm a little nervous to post here, but I've had some nice encouragement from bloggie friends, and I really would like some (gentle!) feedback. I'm learning how to take my drawings and turn them into digital illustrations. (I'm using Illustrator and Photoshop.) I'm experimenting with different ways of drawing the line art and painting the drawings, trying to sort of figure out my "style" as I go. I think this is so much fun and would love for this to turn into something, whatever that may be. So thanks for looking, and feel free to offer constructive criticism.

"Catch"


"Ribbon Run"


"Will You?"

Yes, that's a two-page spread from The Cat in the Hat.
I started it in June, how about that?



I worked on and off for the rest of the year,
and right before Christmas the cat was finally here.
I worked on it all day and a lot of the night,
'though it didn't take as long as I thought that it might.



Black, white, blue, and some red,
it is mostly stitched up in one strand of thread.
It's primarily made of stem and back stitch,
if you're wondering which of the stitches was which.



Drawing it on fabric was not easy to do;
referring to the original was a necessity too.
With some tracing and some freehand and doing my best,
I got as close as I could and lived with the rest.



I can pick out the places that aren't as slick,
but then I remind myself real super quick
that no one will see them sans close scrutiny,
and that is entirely okay with me.



So there you have it, my cat and his hat,
With fish, books, and cake in a balancing act.
"Look at me! Look at me now!" said the cat.
Look, look indeed, how about that?

A couple of years ago I saw a tutorial for a picture frame made from rolled up recycled magazines. Over time I also saw coasters, bowls, and boxes, and I started to feel I ought to be making something like this as Christmas presents for some eco-friendly girls I know.

I will not lie: I didn't much enjoy this process. But, I really do love the finished result, so it was worth it.

In all, I made:

a small box,



a bowl,



two trays,



a set of four coasters,



and a box for holding them.



All it took was old magazines, Mod Podge, acrylic sealer, and patience.

I love the pop of color and abstract design that gets put into something so functional---and it was a perfect way to chip away at the stack of magazines sitting in the corner of my bedroom!

Our immediate family has taken a liking to the sport of geocaching, so it was an easy thing to decide on some geocaching kits for Christmas presents. As part of those kits, I made some custom rubber stamps to be used in logbooks as a means of identification. (This is more commonly used in letterboxing but can also be used with geocaching.)



They're mounted on thin wood blocks.



I stamped some paper to attach to each of the logbooks to personalize them.



This was really a fun thing to put together. I definitely gained more confidence with my stamp carving, too. Now we're all set for some serious caching!

My husband loves Legos, so for Christmas this year I wanted to make him a Lego shirt. I downloaded an instruction sheet for a simple piece and traced it onto the shirt with a fabric dye pen, then fine-tuned it with a few more layers of dye. I like the slightly sketchy, worn look it has.



Thanks for looking!