creative blog hop!

I was recently tagged by Mary from Inside My Hideaway and Laura from I Love Crafty for two separate creativity-themed blog hops and decided to combine them into one post. I love both of their shops so much, so I'm really honored that they tagged me! I'm actually going through a little blue spurt with regards to my art and shops so maybe this will cheer me up a bit!

1. What have been the doings/makings/scribblings at your desk this week?

Last week I was in Disney World so I didn't get too much making done! But before I left I was knee-deep in projects. I just finished a custom flip book for a customer, something I don't normally do but I was too excited about working on it to say no! I took a lot of progress video so I'll probably be sharing that on my art blog this week.

I also just finished 20 new fan club designs last night. I included a few where I'm pretty sure I'm the only one on the planet who will want them, but I guess that's the benefit of being someone who makes things - sometimes you're allowed to just make things for yourself! :)

I'm also trying desperately to get my 2015 calendars done in a timely manner this year. All of my previous designs are available with 2015 dates in my store but I like to release a brand new set of illustrations every year as well. I'm also working on a sweet and lovely one that I'm really excited about, too! There just aren't enough hours in the day, haha!



2. Where are you currently finding your inspiration? (Influences, heroes, sources of inspiration, paths exploring)?

Right now I'm working on a project inspired by the suffragette movement, and one inspired by Busby Berkeley movies (the first drawing in that series is right here.) I'm basically always inspired by classic movies in some form or another --



And then there are some artists and people who inspire me but I've never found a way to channel that inspiration into my own creations. I am and will always be in awe of Mary Blair's work -- she designed the It's a Small World attraction at Disney World, did the concept art for numerous Disney films, illustrated timeless children's books and more. Her style is so classic and modern at the same time, and her work never ceases to make me happy.

3. How does your writing/creating process work?

When I get an idea one of two things happen - either I need to work on it IMMEDIATELY and then within a few hours I have the makings of a new shop/product/drawing, or I write it down as a future project and don't get around to it for months or years. My fan club shop came to fruition within hours after the idea struck me in the shower. In one night I already had the shop name, the basic design for the pins and ideas for my first 20-30 fan clubs.

My 90's time machine was one of the long-time-in-the-making ideas. It was shuffled around between numerous to-do-lists over the last year before I finally buckled down and designed the kit in February. It was another few months before I finally got around to even listing it in my shop!  It's funny because it's one of my favorite products and, I think, one of my most fun & creative ideas, but it just didn't have the same sense of urgency that some of my other ideas have.



4. Why do I write/create what I do?

This is going to sound so corny, but I feel like I have to. When I get an idea, it's almost like the same feeling as when you really have to pee in the middle of the night. You might want to just lay in bed and keep sleeping, but your body is like, "NOPE! We're getting out of bed and working on this bladder issue RIGHT NOW." It's an urge, something I literally cannot ignore.

When an idea shows up in my brain, I just feel compelled to bring that idea to life. It's part of who I am, and I don't think that will ever change. Ideally I don't want to be working as a freelance artist/shop owner for my whole life, but I can't imagine a life in which I'm not constantly creating things and testing out my ideas. Even if there comes a time when I no longer share everything that I make with the internet or try to make a living off of my creations, I still want to create -- I'll still need to create.



I know so many super talented ladies that it's really hard to choose who to pick for the blog hop next, but I'm going to go with Bianca from Goodnight Little Spoon and Polly from Paulie Antiques. They're both so creative and brilliant, I'd love to see what they have up their sleeve at the moment! :)

new new new

I have some new items I've made recently that I'm really excited about! First is this printable Halloween card.. it's blank inside so it can be used as a greeting card or party invitation, or it can be framed for seasonal decor! :) It's available as an instant download here.


I'm VERY excited about this one! I've been wanting to do some silent movie title card inspired items for Flapper Doodle for the longest time..  it's such a perfect fit for my 1920's artwork! This printable Halloween banner was hand-lettered with a white art deco border and grainy black background to mimic 80-year-old-film. I have all kinds of related ideas.. birthday banners, note cards, calendars, the possibilities are endless :D For now though, there's just this one little banner.. available as an instant download here.



Voila! The first drawing for my 2014 calendar (coming soon!!) I had to release this one early since it's just so perfect for October! It's available as a print here.


One of my best friends, Sarah, recently moved into a new apartment so I made this little card for her housewarming gift! I liked how it came out so much that I had to make it into a printable, too! ;) The download comes with files for printing it as a note card or an art print, and it's available (you guessed it) as an instant download here.



Last but not least, a digital printable blog planner! This year I got really off track with my blogging schedule and felt like I needed something to get organized, so I created this kit and decided to share it as a printable, too! It includes sheets for keeping track of giveaways, product reviews, deadlines, brilliant ideas and more. It also includes two different perpetual calendar designs that can be used for blogging or just keeping track of a busy life :) It's available (drum roll..) as an instant download here.

ps. I took the photo of my Happy Halloween banner at my new apartment! Words can't describe how exciting it was to finally have access to a plain white wall for product pictures. yay!! :D

something awesome happened yesterday...

First let me rewind to April when I got a message in my Puns Intended etsy shop from Mental Floss asking for wholesale pricing for my prints. I almost had a heart attack right then and there. I *love* Mental Floss. It's actually the only magazine that I read regularly... I even have the Mental Floss board game. For the last three months I was sure something would fall through and it wouldn't actually happen. It was just way too good to be true! When exciting opportunities are presented to me they hardly ever seem to work out.

Anyway! Yesterday morning my Mental Floss store newsletter hit my inbox and what did I see at the top of the message?! My paintings!! And an incredibly glowing write-up that makes me sound at least 200x more awesome than I actually am :D I'm still pinching myself because this just has to be a dream, right? There's no way my artwork is being sold on the Mental Floss website, right??

Oh, but it is. IT IS!!

ps. I'm sure some of you might be like "wait.. I thought you did Flapper Doodle and Sweet and Lovely? What is this?" because I don't usually mention this artwork as much on my blog. But yup, I have a third shop where I sell prints of my punny paintings! You can check out the other paintings (including my favorite, "Jackson 5" with five Andrew Jacksons) here! :)

designing woman

This is the design that I submitted (see the finished product in my post here!)

I've sewn some of my own dresses before, but my skills pretty much limit my options to plain cotton dresses. So I really wanted to design something that I knew I couldn't make at home. I *definitely* couldn't make this at home, lol.



I also submitted an inspiration board as well. I found products that were the same colors I had in mind -- I was worried the warm grey would be tough to pin down but Dahlia found the absolute perfect shade of grey for the lining of the dress! The sleeve inspiration is from All This Happiness (I die from envy everytime that blouse pops up in an outfit post! gah!) I included some examples of swooshy skirts (two from ASOS, one from Fancy Fine) to illustrate the fullness I was going for and some examples of delicate vintage frocks that have been hanging out in my etsy favorites forever, even though they're too tiny for me. That's the sort of feel I was going for with this design and I think the finished product definitely fits in with their daintiness :)

And then of course, Hypatia. She passed away shortly before I won the contest, and I was having a hard time concentrating on anything at all. Around that time my dad had suggested (since I was having similar mental blocks with drawing and painting) that I use her as inspiration, and then not only would I be able to work but I'd be creating things that would always remind me of her. I took his advice for the dress, too, and I'm so glad I did. I think it really captures her beautiful colors and her sweet, fragile beauty.

the vintage bedding sequel

Earlier this year I made a vintage bedding inspired digital paper pack and I've been itching to do a follow-up ever since! This one is a lot bolder than the last, but I love all the colors! I'm currently using the pink and yellow pattern in the top row as my desktop background, and I think once I'm caught up on some other projects I'll put together a pack of computer background files as well! The kit is available here The patterns are also available as Project Life cards too, here!



While I was at it, I also uploaded all of the patterns to society6 so they're available as iphone covers, laptop skins, pillows, note cards, what have you. I'm not sure why but I absolutely love uploading things there and then looking at the preview images. They just look so cool to me!! If any of the society6 stuff strikes your fancy, you can get free shipping through 6/16 via this link!

sweet and lovely update

I've wanted to keep busy lately, adding lots of new products to sweet and lovely, flapper doodle and kitschy digitals. You can view my latest flapper doodle updates here. For sweet and lovely I've added a lot of new jewelry and sweet and lovely versions of some of my flapper doodle best sellers- best friend items and bridesmaid cards. You can view all of the new products in my shop here!

And to celebrate Jurassic Park's return to theaters on April 5th, I'm offering 5% off plus free dinosaur temporary tattoos with any order! Just use code "rawrrrr" at checkout ;) This offer is good through April 5th. You can view all of my dinosaur products here!



home sweet home locket necklace



wooden cat brooch



ice cream cone earrings



ladybug earrings



pink lips earrings



red lips earrings

best friend art print set --- available as shown here, or customized here. In the custom sets you can change hair colors, add glasses and even add cats and dogs!



My new bridesmaid cards are SUPER customizable. I have four different dress options for each girl, countless hair color options (including fun ones like pink and blue and purple!) oodles of dress colors and 10 different hair styles. You can choose between thank you cards or "will you be my bridesmaid" they're available in my shop here.



I just re-listed the birthday version of the book fair kit! I had this available back when the book fair was its own shop, but for some reason I never listed it when I transferred the products over to sweet and lovely! The birthday version of the kit includes all of the items in the regular one, except the pencil says "happy birthday" on it and it comes with this cute BSC personalized card!





I also added two new digital kits to my Kitschy Digitals shop! These scalloped kits include patterned papers, scalloped borders and scalloped frames. They're perfect for digital scrapbooking or use on your blogs and websites. They're available here.

star stuff

I purchased this illustration from Megan Bentley on etsy last week. I'm so smitten with her work, and I can't wait to hang this up when it arrives! It reminds me of the line from The Pale Blue Dot, "that's here. that's home." It gives me goosebumps!

what my walls are wearing

I get a lot of comments and questions about this wall that serves as a backdrop in 99.99% of my outfit photos. So I thought I'd share a little bit about what's on it today! The color is Frosty (I can't remember what brand now, but this is the paint swatch for it) although I think it looks just a tad more blue in real life than it does in my pictures. Now here's where I got everything that's on it...



1. Striped painting with two girls by Valerie Pensworth. Her etsy shop is closed now and I can't find another place where she's selling her prints, but she's one of my favorites!

2. Girl with a prism shooting out of her eye by Dada Dreams. I have a couple pieces from her.. I absolutely love her bizarre quirky creations!

3. Two portraits by Elizabeth Bauman. The blue one is a commissioned painting of my Grandmom Eve! Elizabeth sells prints and originals on etsy, and I highly recommend her work! She's also an incredibly sweet person :)

4. "Home is where my cats are" embroidery by me

5. Dirk Bogarde portrait from Immortal Ephermera on ebay. If you ever are in the market for classic film memorabilia I highly recommend Cliff! He's a classic film expert and super nice guy!

6. Jane Fonda collage from catwalk on etsy. I have a few more collages by her, too! I'm really smitten with this one that's in her shop now.

7. Floating head on purple watercolor by Amanda Blake. I love Amanda's work and I'm thrilled to have an original painting from her. I also have a gocco print in my office (not pictured in this post) of a girl holding a levitating egg.

8. Everything Will Be Okay screenprint by AJB + MTK on etsy. They don't have this in their shop right now, but someone on flickr asked me where I got it & wrote me back later to say they were able to special order one.



I'm in love with this apple pie print I got from Everyday is a Holiday! It's perfection. (And the fact that it makes me think of cozy fall nights with hot cocoa and my mom's apple pie definitely doesn't hurt!)



1. I got this French cat print at a little poster store in New Hope, PA but it's also available online. I found a 24x36 one on amazon here, but basically if you search for "Le Chat Domestique" you can find a bunch of them!

2. "You never know what's around the next corner" print by Heidi Burton. I LOVE Heidi's work -- it always cheers me up! Her shop is currently on vacation but you can view a close-up of this print here.

3. Another Heidi Burton print! This one says "Let your inner child out of its box sometimes to help with those important decisions" with word bubbles reading "Let's wear pajamas to the bank! And speak with Russian accents!" It's adorable! You can view the close-up of this one here.



1. Anna Karina painting by me. You can get prints in my society6 shop if you're so inclined ;) (ps. I also have prints of that portrait I posted two weeks ago here.)

2. Dress pattern painting. It's just a painting I did of some of the patterns on my favorite dresses. That's also available as a print in my shop, here.

3. Another painting by Elizabeth Bauman. This one is also very special, it's a commissioned piece of my grandmom and mom on Easter when my mom was a toddler! My grandmom and my mom both have prints of this one and I have the original :)



1. Only my cat understands me air freshener from Perpetual Kid. I love the look on the cats' face.. it's like "SAVE ME!!"

2. "Make art" mantra collage by Catwalk on etsy

3. Watercolor painting of the Dunder Mifflin Office building by Pam Halpert (ok, technically it's from the NBC store lol... it came in this kit)

4. Giulietta Masina collage from Catwalk on etsy (told you I liked her stuff!)

5. Eureka sheriff's patch from The NBC store.



1. This office cat is something I just printed from home. I couldn't find the original source online (I saw it on pinterest) and the highest quality images I could find were like 500px wide, so I just printed it in super bad quality then touched up the edges with pencil. It looks pretty cool though, regardless of the pitiful resolution since I fooled around with it once it was printed. If anyone knows the original source though I'd really like an authentic print!

2. Dwight bobblehead from The NBC store

3. All of the tulips are from Michaels. Maybe a DIY project though? hmm..



1. Print of an oil painting by Vivienne Strauss. Vivienne works in watercolor, oil and collage and I love ALL of it. This particular painting is one of my all time favorites!

2. Sunday in New York lobby card. I can't find another one of this exact card on its own, but it's available in a set from MoviePoster.com here. (Although please don't buy it, I might want to myself, haha! It's my favorite movie ♥)

3. Girl with the pink beehive that's actually a cat by Carol Roque. Was this made for me or WHAT?! I'm in love with it!

wishlist wednesday

I hope asos has a coupon code soon because I'm pretty sure I need this tasty dress. I'm such a sucker for this shape to begin with, but paired with a design this cute I'm absolutely weak in the knees. I think of fashion as art, and I wish it was commonly accepted as such, instead of so often being regarded as frivolous. Somebody drew that sweet pastry pattern, and whether it's framed on your wall or adorning a beautiful frock, I think it's beautiful and deserves to be appreciated.

hello paintbrush, my old friend

I haven't painted in almost a year, and until last night I completely forgot how much I love it! I always wanted to be a painter, from the time I was old enough to hold a paintbrush, but I gave up on that dream when Flapper Doodle became a full time endeavor. Last night I was reminded of why I love painting so much, and realized I need to find the time to do it more often. The process itself is cathartic -- the world and all my troubles just melt away while I'm painting. And then seeing the finished product (if I like how it turned out...) makes me so happy. I'm not an incredibly confident person, but my paintings are the one thing that I'm very proud of. After I finish one I just can't go to sleep at night without constantly turning the light back on to look at it one more time. One more time.

Until yesterday, I had forgotten how much painting means to me, what a sense of accomplishment I feel when I finish a piece, and how euphoric I feel while I'm working. I know it sounds super corny, but I feel like there was a little hole in my life for the last couple of years, and I finally figured out what was missing.

If there's a hobby or passion that you've forgotten, try to revisit it this weekend. I hope someone else can feel as fantastic as I do about rediscovering something that makes you happy :)