The Licensing Nook

Posted By: Lesley

©Gartner Greetings

Here’s a bird that enjoyed painting for a greeting card I recently illustrated. I’ve noticed lately that I just love painting birds!

Posted By: Lesley

©Gartner Greetings

My 5 year old daughter got invited to a friends birthday party this weekend. Lots of of crafts, dressing up as princesses and strawberry cupcakes. Nothing can put a smile on my face as fast as little kids giggling. It was fun!

I have been sitting on this news WAY to long! I have fabric line coming out! I have practically told every single person I have met, at the grocery store, at my hairdressers, if you have a pulse I am sure I have fit it into a conversation. I am just so so excited about designing fabrics! And I am thrilled to get to know all the girls at <a href="http://www.ttfabrics.com/cgi-bin/fabricshop/designer.cgi?designer=62" I traveled to NYC last month and meet the staff in person and we spread out all the designs for my debut line due out in May! So exciting! I should have strike offs in a couple weeks and then I can show you photos of the entire line! Even though the process from start to finish can be a lengthy one, I have to stop and relish it all because I am girl who loves a textile and I simply could not be happier to be on this path!

This line is based a bit on my travels (although you will not see ANY airplanes!) It is everything you take to get you somewhere fun! As I designed it I saw it stitched up for mommies and babies or teens or even high school seniors! I love it because "Now I am goin' places!" woo-hoo!

Posted by: Lesley

We are what we repeatedly do. -Aristotle

©Lesley Breen Withrow

Hope you have a great weekend!

Posted by Liz

They’re not selling alumni or students, silly. But alumni from all over the country come to RISD on Alumni Weekend, and join up with some of the current students to set up on Benefit Street and sell their cool stuff. I will be there with an array of my hand-made goods as well as a couple of my books. Come on over for a grand day in the city, and visit me while you’re at it!

Here’s the official postcard. By the way, those are my birds in the middle!

Details:
RISD Alumni + Student Art Sale
Saturday, October 9th, 10-4pm
Benefit Street, between Waterman and Hopkins Streets in Providence, RI

Hope to see you there!

Posted by: Lesley

Here’s a quote I like and part of a pattern I designed on a card for Gartner Greetings. Have a great weekend!

©Gartner Greetings

Men always love what is good or what they find good; it is in judging what is good that they go wrong.

-Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Posted by Liz

Did you have an awesome summer? Didja?

I have been having a good amount of fun coupled with a lot of work, both in and out of the studio. So, I let my blog languish a bit for summer. Now is the time to bring it up to speed as we go into FALL!

Going back a couple of months, I don’t think I ever showed you this fabulous new book called lllustrating Children’s Picture Books:

It’s by Steve Withrow and fellow Nook memberLesley Breen Withrow, and I was most happy to contribute a couple of articles to it. This one is about writing and illustrating board books, which is truly one of my favorite subjects:

This page is about the “other” markets you can pursue with your children’s art. If there’s one thing I do know a lot about, it’s “other” markets! This encompasses toys, fabrics, magazines, and stuff like that.

Let’s see… what else? Ah, I have been illustrating almost monthly for Highlights High Five, mainly little snippets of recipe ingredients.

I am continuing to create the Newport Creamery children’s menus. The current one is summer-themed and has Newport’s Cliff Walk on the cover. Next time you’re there, go ahead and ask for the kid’s menu!

I haven’t managed to update my website in a while (it’s on the list), so for now I will show you a few of my recently designed Fred items, now available at a store near YOU! Keep your eyes open for:

Salt ‘n’ Pants! Oh, how happy it makes me to see this one on the market! The little guy is salt, and his pants are pepper. I know it’s weird, but I’ve been trying to get it made for a couple of years now. Huzzah! Hooray for pants!

Another item I am glad to see out there is the Candy Stash. It’s a zip-up wallet shaped like those candy buttons stuck on paper. Mmmm, paper…and candy!

Fresh into the world is the Desk Daisy- a little potted plant that has 3 stems full of paper clip “petals”, held in place by magnets. Perky, huh?

Also new to the market are Chewdrivers…little interchangeable tool handles that can be fitted with a knife, fork, and spoon. This one was challenging to figure out, but it came out well and works like a charm.

Last but not least, I spent a good part of summer ferrying kids to and from the Swamp Meadow Summer Children’s Theatre. They did a very fun musical called “Olivia”, which was something like a female “Oliver” but with all new songs, and a totally different plot. Anyhoo, I did the art that was used for the playbills, t-shirts, and media stuff.

That’s all for now… we now return you to your regularly scheduled blog posts!

Time to vote again! I saw that Spoonflower was having another contest that suited some art I had created. The contest was for “tractor” fabric and there are a lot  of entries! Who knew so many people were harboring a love of machinery? So here is  a look at my fabric above, my little red tractor  is all about farm life. I used to summer on my grandparents cotton farm in Texas and yes, they really had red tractors! And here is the link to vote (if you like mine, that is!) You have to click through the pages to find mine, there are 6 pages of entries, the order changes every time the page is refreshed, just click on the one you like and when it turns green-your vote has been cast!

posted by: Lesley

©Lesley Breen Withrow

I got re-inspired to create more patterns the other day while visiting a local sewing store with my mom. I loved seeing all the fabrics and patterns and COLORS! So fun and beautiful. Here’s a fun pattern I recently made of some circles with different textures and patterns.

posted by: Lesley

©Lesley Breen Withrow

Here’s a snippet of a repeat pattern I created a little while ago containing these cute little snails, bugs, flowers and leaves. I have been getting back into sewing again, something I enjoyed to do as a kid. I would love to see these patterns as a kids fabric someday!