stinkerpants design

A few months ago, my friend N (same N who told me about the chicken article!  She has my back!  Thanks N!) told me of an animal rescue in need of some help.  Hopalong & Second Chance Animal Rescue is an awesome animal rescue here in the bay area; but they don’t just rescue animals.  Their mission is to eliminate the euthanasia of adoptable animals in NorCal, and they offer spay/neuter services, after-school programs, and community education about the necessity of spaying/neutering and the need for animal adoption.

As you guys know, I’m a BIG animal fan.  Our furry children are all adopted from various humane societies, and I feel very strongly that people should support shelters instead of breeders.  So when given the opportunity to donate my illustration and invitation services to a VERY worthwhile organization, I jumped at the chance!

Every year, Hopalong & Second Chance Animal Rescue hosts a fundraiser called the “Fur Ball” (which seriously couldn’t be a cuter name!).  This year’s 5th Annual Fur Ball featured invitations, RSVPs and ads by Stinkerpants!

Because the organization is moving, we decided to do a “moving” theme for the drawings.

I love this little kitty, throwing balls out the back of the moving truck for the dogs.

You might remember my sharing a little snippet of these drawings a few months ago…I’m glad I could finally share the whole thing!

Last year was the first year I did custom holiday cards for clients, and I had a great time drawing Christmas trees and santa hats!

I’ve never been one for holiday cards myself–I’m admittedly much too lazy to put together a newsletter like my hilarious friend Kathy (maybe I could pay her to do one for me?)–and I figured that people would be bored to get a photo and nothing else.

After doing holiday cards like these last year, though, I’ve changed my mind:

S & H bought their first house a couple of years ago, so I drew them in front of it.  And of course, their adorable kitty Lola!  S said that her family loved the cards, which are more unique than your average Christmas card.

I’ll be doing Chrismukkah cards to send out to our friends and family this year, featuring our whole family: dog, cats, chickens, etc.  I’m excited!

As you may recall, last week Stinkerpants & Elizabeth Anne Designs joined forces for an awesome giveaway!  And although I announced the winner on Facebook and Twitter, I’ve got to do it here, too.  :)

The winning entry was a tweet from the dear @abbyroad, who has two super cute pooches that I can’t wait to draw–and because she wants me to do a Family Portrait, I definitely get to!  Yay!

The response for the  Family Portraits, by the way, has been totally awesome!  How exciting!

On my blog post announcing the portraits, Rachel and Katie both asked about the pricing structure and when I’d be adding it to my shop.  At the time, I thought, “I’ll make a new post to answer that question!” and then suddenly it was September 3rd.  Sorry for the delay, guys!

Family portraits start at $300 and include printing on thick acid-free art paper, which is ready to frame.

Actually, when I say, “starting at,” I should really say, “for most people,” because unless you have 13 cats and a dog like my newest client (super excited about that one!), $300 is it. ;)

I hadn’t even thought to add it to the shop (thanks for the suggestion, Rachel!), just because I work so closely with my custom clients that I prefer they contact me.  However, most of my custom work aren’t set prices, either, so I decided to add it!  Well, sort of.  ;)  It’s in the shop, but I still ask people to contact me if they’re interested.

Hopefully that answers all the questions, but leave a comment if you have another one, and I’ll answer you!

Thank you so much for all the support, you guys.  I seriously feel so loved.  I’m at 199 Facebook fans, too, which is awesome!  Thank you!

 On our wedding day, Y and I wanted to give one another something really special and unique–not a piece of jewelry that could be given for any special occasion, or an iPod that will be obsolete in a few years.  We wanted to be romantic and sentimental, and do our wedding day justice.  I think the best “day of” gifts are simple, sweet and creative.

Awhile ago, I started thinking about wedding day gifts, and I came up with what I think would be a great gift: an illustrated family portrait.  I suddenly got really excited; a family portrait is a fun piece of artwork to grace your home for years to come, and it can also have a lot of sentimental value by including thoughtful details about what makes you you.

The drawing above is an example of a family portrait I did for a past client.  In addition to your family name, you could also have your wedding date, the day you met, or any other detail included.  As your family grows, you could even add more family members (pets and humans alike!), creating a wall of artwork that changes with the years.

Obviously, these family portraits don’t have to be “day of” wedding gifts.  They’d also be an awesome gift for the holidays, or to celebrate a pregnancy.

After all, I’m not sure there’s a better sentiment than, “I’m so excited to start a family with you!”

Hey everybody!  Guess what?!  We have a winner for the “I Do!” book!  The winner is commenter #15, Michelle!  I was admittedly excited to see that she won, because her comment cracked me up!

 Michelle Says:

:-) *crossing everything crossable twice then subtracting one* Can you imagine if I planned my ceremony using this sorta logic?? I need your book!!

I’m about to email you, Michelle!

And because I don’t want to bore the rest of you, I recently decided that it might be fun to randomly post snapshots of what I’m currently working on.  The quality won’t be great, most likely (from my iPhone!), but that’s okay.  :)  So to start it off, I’m currently working on (among other things) invitations for an animal rescue fundraiser.  I love how they’re turning out!  Check out this little snippet:

I can’t wait to show you guys the whole thing!

I’m so excited!  Last week my friend Sarah asked me to create a blog header for her.  She purchased a template from Rainy Day Templates for her cooking blog and felt like it needed a little something extra to make it personal.  She also wanted a way to rate her recipes.  Here’s what I came up with:

As you may have noticed, I don’t typically do eyeballs.  I usually just do happy little smiley eyes.  But Sarah has very striking blue eyes, and I really felt like I needed to include them.  :)  Sarah requested a vintage apron and asked to be holding a kitchen tool of some sort.

And for her rating system?  Little spatulas, of course!!

If you’re looking to update your blog but don’t have a big budget, check out the templates over at Rainy Day Templates.  They’re really modern and cute!

Sometimes I wish that Y were a massage therapist.  In my fantasy, Y loves massage therapy so much that, even after a full day’s work, he comes home to give me a massage after dinner.  He doesn’t do it every night, but definitely most nights.  As a result, I have no tension in my neck and shoulders, and my arms and wrists have stopped hurting from sitting at the computer so much.

Unfortunately, this is a fantasy.  Not only is Y not a massage therapist, but he actively hates giving massages.  Sad face.

His sister, on the other hand, is a very talented massage therapist. When she told us that she was planning to go to school for massage therapy, I (secretly) felt that I’d won the lottery.  I may not be able to convince her to give me nightly massages, but maybe I could cook her dinner three nights a week in exchange for a weekly massage?!  In my head, this sounded like an excellent plan.  Then she added that she’d also be moving to Utah indefinitely.  So much for that (haha).

When Katie graduated from school, she asked me to draw her with a massage table for her business cards.  I was, of course, happy to do it!

Katie’s pretty handy with a computer, so I did the drawing and sent it to her, and she added the text and had them printed online (in case you’re wondering, PSPrint has great quality for business cards!).   I love how they turned out.  They’re a lot more fun and unique than your average massage therapist’s business card, so hopefully she’ll stand out in a crowd.

Congrats, Katie!

(and don’t worry, I’m not going to try to guilt you into giving me weekly massages!)

The other day I was contacted by an exceptionally nice woman named Laura.  She runs the website Mitzvahlicious, which helps people plan Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.

Despite being Jewish, it never occurred to me that there are TONS of sites out there for wedding planning, but hardly any for Bar or Bat Mitzvahs!  These parties are often just as big as weddings and just as fun (one of my cousins had his at the San Jose Tech Museum–it was amazing), so it really doesn’t make any sense.

Luckily, Laura’s site is awesome and has a ton of great ideas (so if you know anyone planning a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, send her info along!).  I’m super excited and flattered to be featured on her site right now.  Click here to check it out!

The drawing above is an example of an Event Theme for a Bar Mitzvah, but I can imagine lots of fun things I could do for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah.  I’d be really excited to draw someone’s Tikkun Olam project for a Save the Date, for example!

Thanks so much, Laura!

 I did this project ages ago, but I never posted it!!  Oops!

C & T were married in 2007, but they wanted a fun piece of art for their home.  Here they are at Heavenly Ski Resort.  Those are their doggies in the background!

I adore these!  I finished these a couple of weeks ago for an awesome couple who were married at the beginning of November.  They love Calvin and Hobbes and wanted something inspired by a drawing they showed me.  As true cat lovers (like me!) they definitely wanted to include their kitties.

J & P will be using these as thank you cards for their wedding.  The great thing about them, though, is that they can be used for more than just thank you notes!  They’ll be using them as regular stationery after all the thank you’s are done.  :)

Here’s the back:

It’s obviously far less exciting than the front, but I wanted to show you guys–I’ve been using this style for the past few projects I’ve done.  I decided to remove my logo from it because some people weren’t too wild about it.  What do you think?

I met J to give him the cards, and he was so sweet–he gave me this awesome custom-made cookie, which was a favor for their wedding!  How awesome is this!?  And it was delicious, too.  :)

Thanks so much for hiring me, you guys!  I *love* these so much, I wish I could use them for my own stationery!