Preparing the Two Year-Old

I'm a little anxious to see how things will go for Parley when baby girl shows up in a few weeks. I have so many emotions about my little boy and the fact that he is about to become a big brother, that they are practically spilling over. It's hard for me to imagine loving another little person like I love Parley. But, I know I will and I'm so excited. But I am a little nervous about this adjustment for all of us.

Parley has been my best friend since the day he was born and I want him to always feel that way. I've read several articles and received sage advice from family and friends which I'm sure will help us through the transition. The more Parley grows and the more I see his personality emerge (not that it hasn't been full-blown since like his second week of life...) the more excited I am for him to be a big brother. I don't know a more affectionate person.

About a week ago, Parley received a very thoughtful gift for his second birthday from his darling aunt. She really nailed it with this one. She gave him the gift bag to open and after removing the tissue paper to discover what was inside he squealed. It was a cute little stuffed leopard (he could be a jaguar, but we're going with leopard at this point) and an extremely soft and perfectly small Mickey Mouse blanket. I'm sure she intended the blanket to be for Parley to snuggle himself in along with his new stuffie, but to Parley that blanket has been the one thing that keeps his "baby", the leopard, warm and cozy at night time.

Try to ignore the mess in the background...

Now, I bring this experience up because I'm pretty confident that this leopard is going to be a huge help in the near future. :) You see, Parley IS baby leopard's daddy as far as he is concerned. He tucks him into a little basket-turned-baby-bed each night next to his own bed and smothers him with kisses. He even pretends to share his bedtime drink with him. And "baby" must always be wrapped up in the little blanket. Yes. It's very cute. And not only has it really helped me get Parley in bed each night without much wrestling, I think it might help when the "other baby" decides to drop in.

I'm planning on trying to have something for Parley at the hospital as a gift from the new sis and doing my best to make sure he is still my main man. But I am sure grateful for tender mercies and thoughtful sisters-in-law who unknowingly do things like this for me.

Craft Inpiration - Paper Source Glasses

I received the latest Paper Source catalogue this morning. I haven't ordered anything from them in a while, but this catalogue is such a great source of inspiration that I usually carry them around my house for a few weeks. As I was flipping through it today the owl glasses caught my eye.

Now, let me say that last night, I stayed up too late finishing another clipart set for my shop. This time featuring a parliament of particularly goofy looking owls. So, I already have owls on the brain.

Check out the whole set here.

Well, naturally, I thought to myself "How can I get MY owls on a glass like that!?" I would love to have my own set of quirky owl glasses, but I'd love to use my own artwork. So, I think one of these days I might have to give some glass paint a try and do some spiffing up of thrift or dollar store glasses. Martha Stewart has a fancy line of glass paints which come in a variety of colors an finishes, but like most of her craft stuff they are quite pricey. Does anyone have any experience with glass paints? I'd love to hear what you think.

I just might have to do a tutorial on this in the next couple of months if I ever get around to trying it myself.

Tutorial: Customizing PNG Clipart - A Photoshop How-To

There is a lot of really great clipart out there for free or can be purchased! I even have some in my own Etsy Shop! My own clipart is designed to be easy to customize. I do provide several different color options for each element in my premade clipart packs, but I know that for me personally, I would like to have the freedom to make purchased clipart work for ANY project I might have in the future. This is why I decided to include the transparent .PNG lineart in my clipart packs. Check this out:

The thing that is really exciting about having the lineart files with no background is that it gives you a lot of freedom. You can easily fill the lines in with any color of your choice and even change the color of the lineart itself. This makes it easy to get a perfectly matching bow for your cute blog graphic, invitation, etc. 

I'm going to show you my favorite ways to do this in Photoshop and then I will make a separate post for using GIMP for anyone who doesn't own Photoshop. :)

I am using Photoshop CS3 for this tutorial, but this technique should work for any version of PS you may currently be using.

We'll start with the clipart element you'd like to customize.

(I added a white background layer to make the bow easier to see.) First I'll show you how I add color to my lineart.

I always keep my lineart and colors on separate layers. Create a layer below the layer your lineart is on and call it "color". (Or whatever you want. Some of my layer names get kind of crazy when I've got more than 20.)

Now, I actually fill color in like a coloring book with my tablet and neatly color inside the lines, but since I know most of you probably don't have tablets, I'll show you how I did in my pre-tablet days. Select the Polygonal Lasso Tool from the toolbar. The hotkey for this is "L". If your lasso button looks different, simply right click on the button and select the Polygonal one from the drop-down menu.

Trace the linart (around the outside edge) with the Polygonal Lasso Tool. I did mine in two sections, but you can trace the whole thing at once. 

Once you have made your selection, select the Paint Bucket Tool from the toolbar. I think the default for this button is the Gradient Tool, so you will have to right click on the button to have the option of using the Paint Bucket Tool. Click inside your selection with the Paint Bucket Tool and VIOLA! A newly colored clipart.

And if you can imagine in, coloring the lineart is even easier. Make sure your lineart layer is selected. 

Now, for one of my very favorite (and most used) tools in Photoshop.

You see that teeny tiny checkered box in the layers window? That is the "Lock Transparent Pixels" button and it's seriously one of the most important tools I use for creating digital art. What this will do is make it so that the only thing you can make changes to on this layer are pixels which are NOT transparent. So, since my lineart is the only thing drawn on this layer, the lineart is the only thing which can be altered. So, I dare you to click on it. 

Once you have clicked that button to activate the "Lock Transparent Pixels" all you have to do is fill your layer with your desired color. I use the hotkey "Shift + Backspace" (Foreground Color, Normal, 100%) to fill, but the clicking on the lineart with the Paint Bucket Tool works, too. 

If you look at the clipart pack that this bow comes in, you may notice that I combine both these techniques for a softer look. I love using colored lineart in my artwork and you'll see it in almost everything I do, even my big, complicated illustrations.

Now, go. Use your new Photoshop knowledge and make something fabulous.

Free Articulated Doll Craft - PDF

So, I've been busy working on new products for my etsy shop. I've decided to really embrace my inner kid and start making craft printables/kits for younger people. I spent the morning assembling one of my Halloween Articulated Paper Dolls, and had so much fun doing it, that I decided that it's something I'm going to make more of them for my shop. (Think party themes, holidays, etc.)

To kind of kick this whole DIY/Printable PDF movement off for Galactytes, I am making a cute autumn girl paper doll available for free! You can download her by clicking the image below.

She's extremely easy to put together.

○ Bust out your favorite coloring tools. I used crayons, but colored pencils would also work great! (We also did a few with markers.) Color your cute autumn lady.

○ Carefully cut her out.

○ Punch holes on the little X's. This paper doll is designed for smaller brads, so I would recommend using a smaller punch as well. I have this set and used the 1/16" punch for this craft, but the 1/8" would be fine, too.

○ Create the joints and attach the limbs to the body with your brads.

○ Position your darling creation however you like and VIOLA! 

Check out my shop here:

Brindille and Twig Sewing Patterns

We are having a baby girl in December. Yes, I'm ecstatic. Yes, I'm a little nervous about how much more money I'm going to be tempted to spend on this kid than the darling son I already have. There is just so much out there for girls. Dresses, leggings, headbands, cute little everythings. It's overwhelming enough that I've been able to refrain from draining our bank account for this Hatchling who still has 14 weeks to bake. (Well, almost. Paying for the delivery two months in advance has been brutal.)

However, Baby S has inspired me to start sewing. This wasn't originally in an effort to save money. I find sewing therapeutic and I have been wanting to make clothes for a long time. I have a hard time spending money on clothing and sewing give you the opportunity to have something just the way you want it. Color, pattern, fabric, all of that. And I love that. That being said, I think I can create personal, unique clothing for my family and do it on a budget.

So, I made some leggings//
I have been sifting through the many baby legging tutorials/patterns on pinterest for a couple of months. There are a lot of great ones out there, but nothing seemed to be exactly what I needed. For starters, a lot of these patterns were supposed to based off of pants you have for your child already. And most of them were patterns for one size, to be modified by you, the seamstress. I don't know about you guys, but patterns are already incredibly intimidating to me. I didn't want to waste time and fabric on that. I was looking for something legit. In desperation, I searched newborn/toddler legging patterns on Etsy.

Boy, did I hit the jackpot. Sewing friends, head over to Brindille and Twig and give the brilliant Melissa Hendrickson ALL of your money. The woman is an absolute genius. Not only are these patterns convenient PDF's, which means you're not wasting any sizes of your pattern by cutting out the tiniest one, but they are easy to read/understand and a breeze to sew. I immediately purchased two patterns. The first was her Baby Leggings. Okay, obviously this lady knows how to display her patterns. The fabric she chose for each of her products could make ANYONE want to sew. But the thing that finalized the deal for me was the fact that both these patterns range from size 0-3 month to 2/3T. Again, jackpot.

The fabric I used is from the Doodles Collection at Joann. It was on sale and these pants are tiny, so I had a ton of leftover fabric.
I finished this masterpiece in less than 30 minutes. Needless to say, I will be make more. Many, many more.

Pax asked me why they were "half crotch" and I had to remind him about diaper butt.
Hah. I love baby clothes.

And then the scariest thing I have ever sewn//
The second pattern I bought was the Envelope Neck Tee.
I'm just going to say quickly, as someone who hasn't really sewn in several years, I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this. I'm sure the cute example shirts listed in the shop had a hand in this, but perhaps I just felt like pushing myself. Not only does this garment have real SLEEVES, but the whole envelope nonsense going on that we all love on babies onesies/shirts. I'm SO glad I went for it, though. This shirt was easy to make.

Obviously, it's not perfect and I'm definitely going to invest in a serger since I've got the knit fabric bug, but I am very proud of how this turned out. The grey fabric I bought for this shirt required a LOT more of my patience, but it's soft and drapey and will make a great tee for my girl.

Let me also just add, really quick, that I was dreading the whole ribbing situation on this shirt. BUT! My rotary cutter and cutting mat made that a cinch and the rest was a piece of cake.

So, I'm going to wrap this up, because it's already really long, but the bottom line is, sewing is extremely rewarding and I'm excited to get even better at it. If I can get those tiny sleeves on that shirt made of extremely stretchy fabric, then by golly I can make whatever the cuss I want. Bam.

I'm most excited about the fact that both these pattern are no doubt going to be utilized for Parley too. Onward!

Please go check out Brindille and Twig. 

This is the pattern I'm getting next!

Lady Locke

More garbage I stayed up way too late to draw.

Bye.

Sera

Midnight drawings. Sometimes good stuff happens!

Sera, my original character doing what she does best. Reading instead of making potions.

New Web Design and a Late Night

I can't believe I am still awake.
I am going to be so pissed at myself tomorrow morning.

And yet here I am, after 2am, writing a blog post.
Updated my website tonight with a LOT of help from my fabulous husband.
Here's his cool website, www.paxhatch.com.

Good night.