The Licensing Nook

Posted by: Lesley

© Lesley Breen Withrow

Here’s a holiday greeting card that I illustrated for Gartner Greetings last year. It’s a part of a four card box set. Happy holidays!

Posted by: Lesley

©Lesley Breen Withrow

Here’s a repeat pattern of birds that I’ve recently created. I have always been a sketcher and doodler and so it was especially fun to bring my sketchy pencil look into this art.

Posted By: Lesley

I went to the Stationary and Surtex show in New York City a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. I haven’t been to the show in a quite a few years, so it was nice to go again. I really enjoyed looking at the booths, trends, and it was great to see some familiar faces too! I was happy to see my book, Tooth Fairy Tales – My record of each lost tooth at the Potter Style Booth, and it was also very cool to see my snail notecards at the Papyrus store on 5th Avenue!

My Book is in the middle of the second shelf up from the bottom.

It was so fun to see my notecards there!

Posted by: Lesley

It’s that time of year again. Holiday music, Christmas trees, snowman and hot chocolate. No snow here yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long!

©Gartner Greetings

Posted By: Lesley

I had a wonderful time last night at the Premiere screening at Harvard of my husbands film about children’s books called Library of the Early Mind. It was great to see the film on the big screen and to be able to watch it with an audience. The panel discussion that followed with Lois Lowry, Leslea Newman, Jerry Pinkney, Padma Venkatraman, Roger Sutton and the filmmakers Edward J. Delaney and Steven Withrow was engaging. I’ll post some pictures from the night soon.

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!

posted by: Lesley

Posted by: Lesley

It’s nice to see the tooth fairy diary I illustrated  Tooth Fairy Tales – My Record of Each Lost Tooth for Potter Style (an imprint of Random House) is already available for pre-orders! It’s coming out August 10th of this year and I can’t wait to see the printed version of it. It’s a part of the Potter Style Summer 2010 catalog which is available on-line and is beautifully designed. So check it out if you have a moment.

Posted by Liz

Rachael Ray, you’re the tops. Once again, one of my designs has turned up in her monthly magazine, specifically April 2010!
The item is called Budget Cuts, and it’s a piggy bank with various budget-related “cuts” outlined on it. Get it?? Haha! So you, too, can save your pennies for lottery tickets and donuts. Mmmmm, donuts.

Here’s how it looks all by itself, from the FRED site: