New Business Cards...that you can play with!

Friends I've finally buckled down and made some bus cards for Mer Mag. And I have to say...I'm head over heels in love with how they turned out! Rowley Press did a phenomenal job of letterpress printing and I'm one happy happy happy gal.

And with all things Mer Mag...well it just wouldn't be as fun if you couldn't recycle it and turn it into a new toy to play with, right?! So that is just what we did.

After saving all the Mer Mag info into your smart phone, you can cut out this fun bear on the back, assemble and play with him! So fun right?

Oh and these have a new blog address on them...which could only mean one thing...Mer Mag is getting a face lift! And soon!!

And as ALT is...next week!...I'm happy to say that if I pass out while speaking during my panel ;) I'll at least have these lovely cards for you to remember me by.

So if you are attending ALT, please do stop by my panel (should be fabulous really, some great speakers lined up) say hello (and perhaps an encouraging word or two? :)!! I'd LOVE love love to meet you in the flesh.

And now I better get back to packing and preparing...so much to do...so little time! Eeep!

Magnetic Figure Skater Toy Download in the Shop!

School is out for winter break and if you are like me, you need fun activities to keep little hands busy, busy, busy. Well expert figure skaters, Sebastian and Sadie, are here and ready to help with that!

To get started, purchase the download here for only $3.99, complete with both figure skaters and three tree shapes. Print out the figure skaters (I recommend using fine art heavy card stock or taking the file to your local print shop for the best quality of print) and cut them out. Cut out support tabs and glue long vertical strip to back of skater for support. (I find it's also helpful to add a piece of thick foam or cardboard for additional support).


Now using hot glue, adhere magnet to the bottom of the flap of skater

Once the glue is dry you are ready to try out your new skater on the "ice"!

To create your ice rink, take a large discarded cereal box and place it on it's side. You may cover it in white butcher paper before hand if you like, leaving one end open. Create slits in the box where you'd like your trees to go. Print out tree shapes. (You can keep them as is or cover them in black duct tape as we did here). Place large tongue depressors to the backs of the trees. Now you are set to place your trees within the slits you created in your large box.

Place your skater a top the box and than place a corresponding magnet within the cereal box and directly below the skater. Magnets should meet up. You are now ready to move your skater around on the ice! So fun!!

These make a great stocking stuffer or craft/toy to play an create with friends and family members during these winter months! Hop on over to the shop to get started on your very own skaters now!

(download will be emailed to you after purchase)

Bear Mug and Scarf DIY's over at Design Sponge

If you are like me you relish the season of scarf wrapping, boot wearing and cocoa sipping. And if you have this cute little handmade bear mug greet you each morning with your favorite warm beverage, well 'tis the season to be jolly indeed!

So head on over to Design Sponge for this weeks DIY gift idea. This little guy is so super simple to make. I promise. You'll be able to mark off quite a few gifts on your list with this furry buddy!


And because we know you might still have a few last-minute gifts to check off that list, we are sharing not one, but two DIY's with you this week! This no-sew hand stamped scarf is the perfect thing to make in an afternoon.

And don't be afraid to let little hands help with the gift creating and giving. But be careful, they just might look so cute in your creation you'll have to keep one just for them.

Vote for June

Happy voting day America!

So I realize that I've promised more pics of baby girl and a birth story and such...and rest assured they are coming! But we are currently holed up with icky colds that just won't ever end. I was the last to get it and it's hit me hard. Just hoping that this doesn't turn into one of my brutal sinus infections that last a month. Baby girl is getting better but I'm so nervous she'll get a new strain and end up with RSV (both my boys got it when they were babies so I'm extra paranoid).

Anyway. I also have a slew of illustration work going on this week so I thought I'd share this pic of hard working all-American June with you. Fitting for today. She's actually a paper doll and this is one of her outfits. Way to go June! Thinking of you, my boys, my baby girl and all of America's future little ones today.

Vote well America.

Illustrating for Olive Us

Have you guys been keeping up with the darling Olive Us video's, put on by the Blair children? If so you might have noticed my illustrations in the last couple of episodes. And just in time for Halloween, they have launched a new video called Ghost Town!

Do you not just love ghost towns? I have the best memory of exploring Calico Ghost Town as a little girl. It stayed with me for some time.

And I had so much fun illustrating spooky ghosts for this episode. My Favorite was the shoot out. You'll have to take a look at it to see how Tiger in a Jar animated it. Love it.

And Gabrielle is so great to work with. I'm constantly impressed with both her business and mothering skills. I mean, just look at those impressive Blair Children. Maybe I need to just up and move my kiddos to France ;).

And if you missed the Study Space episode, take a look here. I had so much fun illustrating the Mayflower. And Shakespeare! Always love a good Shakespeare. (See a closer look of all Study Space illustrations here).

Back-to-School Lacing Bookmarks

Back-to-school for us always means a lot of reading (yippee!!) so the boys and I came up with a lacing bookmark craft to make the daily read that much more enjoyable. To see how to make your own, head on over the Handmade Charlotte for the full tutorial!

We are now in the process of trying to rearrange the boys small room to fit this new little girl (who is due to come is just a couple of week! ah! :)). One thing that I've wanted for a long long time is a wall full of books! I'm not sure we have to room to do it but I'm trying my best to see what I can do to make it work in some form or another. Because books are just so important to us.

Being a book illustrator (for the past 10 yrs or so-you can find my work under Tuesday Mourning) I've been collecting children's picture books long before I ever had any kids of my own.
 
In fact, we have a couple of collections. The first includes books that the boys can pull out and look at and read on a whim and the other is a collection of some of mom's favorite books (many of them from a past trip to France where I shipped a HUGE box of beautifully illustrated books. Precious cargo I tell you.) These ones come down on occasion and are read and loved but they have to go back up so that they stay in pristine condition. Yeah, I'm sort of a nut that way. Someday I'll pass them down to the kids and I'm hoping they will love and treasure them as much as I do.


Right now one of our favorite books is Big Rabbit's Bad Mood, by Ramona Badescu and illustrated Delphine Durand (one of my favorite French Illustrators). We love following Big Rabbit's adventures with his big and hairy bad mood following him around everywhere. A well written and perfectly illustrated book about dealing with your emotions...completely genius (I find it as helpful as the boys do! To personify a "bad mood" is really rather therapeutic).

For a bit older readers (A is really getting into chapter books and both boys love listening to them) I'm also a big fan of the Maggie Brooklyn series right now, written by Leslie Margolis (OK perhaps just a little bit because I did illustrate their covers). I love a good super sleuth young adult novel and one that takes me back to my Brooklyn days...well it's nothing short of perfect.

What about you? What gets you and your kids motivated and in the mood to read? And what are some of your favorite books at the moment? I'd love to hear!

Animal Character Badges for Gap Kids review and DIY

A big thank you to all of you that were able to make it out the the final Mer Mag + Gap Kids craft event this past weekend! Looking at all the photos of your little shining stars just makes me so happy. I simply love what they have created.

And if you missed this last Gap Kids craft, animal character badges, you and your little one can still make one at home.
 
Materials:

To make these animal character badges, you'll need the following:

1. 2" circle punch (or you can just cut out the animal images in a 2" circle by hand)
2. 2" wooden circular discs
3. Assorted colors of wool or acrylic felt
4. Pinking shears and scissors
5. Pin back
6. Hot or cool melt glue gun with glue
7. Mod Podge and brush or 8.5x11 printable sticker paper
8. Fine tip pens or colored pencils for coloring in the animals
9. PDF download of the animal characters

Start by printing out the animal characters on 8.5x11 white paper or white sticker/label paper. Then punch out your animals with a 2" circle punch (or you can adapt this to whatever size of punch and wooden disk you have).

Now, together with you little one, you can cut out ribbon shapes out of corresponding colors of felt.

To create the circular background for the badge, place a piece of felt behind your 2" wooden disc. Now take your pinking sheers and cut out a circle shape using the wooden disc as a guide.

Now that you have all the felt "ribbon" elements of your badge complete, you can glue them all a top one another with hot glue.

Now for the fun part. Break out the fine tip pens or colored pencils and have your little artist color in their animal.

You can now adhere the illustration onto the wooden disc with Mod Podge (or if you printed it on sticker paper, just peel and stick).

You can now glue on your pin back to the back of the badge.

Now your new animal character badge is finished and ready to wear! Pin it on your little star and let them shine!

And I just have to share a recap of the darling Gap Kids animal character badge events. I really wish I could have made it out to all of these events but seeing these great photos is almost just as good.
I completely love the colorful set up they had with all the different felt ribbons shapes alongside the rainbow of colored pencils. Just looking at this make me with to dive in and I can imagine our little creative friends felt the same way.

And just look at these little cuties working on their badges!
 
Just look at that focus. So so cute!


Love these color combos! and sisters! so perfect. 

And this little darling...well doesn't she just melt your heart?!

It's been so fun to work with Gap and A Squared Events on these projects. And such an honor to work with you and your little ones! I've loved every minute of it.

And if you missed the previous two Gap Kids Shine On crafts, you can catch up on them here:

Geometric Art

&

Journal Making

Geometric Art for GAP Kids Recap!

I just got back from LA last night and working on getting caught up on everything and enjoying seeing my Littles again (who I swear have grown in just a few short days!). The geometric painting for the GAP Kids event in LA at the Grove was a smashing success! I had such a fabulous time meeting so many little Picasso's and their parents. And the girls from A Squared Events, particularly Jen Truc, who ran the show, were phenomenal to work with. I love seeing everything all set up and ready to go. And then when the kids started coming, well it was pure magic.

I loved to see the many wonderful combinations and creative applications the kids came up with for our geometric art project. They were nothing short of brilliant! I am sharing a few photos from my Instragram feed from the LA Event, (as well as a few from other city attendees feeds), here to share with you. I'm just so thrilled with how everything turned out! (see the flickr page from all the geo painting events here! so inspiring!!)

And if you were not able to make it out to one of these events, and want your little ones to make some geometric art on their own you can now do so at home!

Materials:

• You will need either a canvas or thick sheet of watercolor paper (if you use paper, I would suggest taping it down to a firm surface). 
• A fun selection of bright acrylic or tempera paints
• A paint brush 
• and some masking tape (I like the 1/2" size)

Start by taping off sections of your canvas so that they make a variety of fun geometric shapes.

Now grab your first color of paint. Decide which shapes you want to be this color and paint them in within the line of the tape (overlapping is fine as the tape will be taken off). Then proceed on to the next color, until your canvas is filled with a variety of fun, colorful shapes!

Once the painted canvas is dry, you may remove the masking tape.

Now enjoy your new work of geometric art! I love how striking these turn out. There are so many options and directions you can with this.

I also love how this is a great art activity for kids of all ages. If your child is at the preschool age, and more into sensory painting, they can just go crazy and see what fun magic happens when the tape is removed. And if they are bit older, they can really get into disciplining their color selection and planning out their different shapes. They can be more precise and intentional, creating something really amazing.

If do this art project, we'd love to see pics of your final creations! And if you attended any of the geo art painting events accross the US and Canada, I'd LOVE to see your pics from that as well!

And for this weekend, get geared up for journal making! Your child's thoughts and acheivments will shine on throughout time as they record it all in their very own journal that they make themselves! See more about dates and locations for this event on GAP's Shine On Facebook page. And based on how successful this last weekend was, you won't want to miss it!!

Free Printable Domino Activity for Kids

Little O is going to preschool this year (he has an October birthday so he'll be one of the older ones) and we have been trying to get him geared up and ready. He's known his shapes for some time but I wanted to push him a bit further in this area. And these simple printable dominoes are just the thing!

To print out your own dominoes, head on over to Handmade Charlotte for the templates and game play instructions. It's so quick and simple, you'll be able to print them out just in time for your weekend camping trip!
 
(I also love that these can double up as great black and white baby flash cards for when little sister arrives! Maybe we'll make a mobile or something out of them...).