Long overdue post but one I’ve wanted to do for a few years. Yes, years. The evolution of a product line.

This is the process of creating my “Peace Be With You.” product line for Carson Home Accents. Carson had told my agency that they were looking to expand their bereavement gift line so I concepted some ideas for a product line. What I wanted it to look like, the feel or it, materials, etc. This was just a sketch and a tiny little photoshop mock-up to get my ideas across in color. A lot of manufacturers really want a flushed out plan, color mock-ups, the whole nice yards, but since my agency had a good relationship with the client a rough sketch with ideas was sufficient to see if they had any interest in the product line.

So at this point, this entire line is just an idea in my head and a sketch on paper:

They passed on the idea, BUT my agency wanted me to do actual prototype mock-ups and send to them so they could really envision the line. So I hand sculpted two samples and sent them off to their office packed in prototype packaging as well:

Once they saw the actual 3D pieces, they loved it and wanted to pick them up as a collection for their bereavement line so now the major work comes in. They gave me this LONG list of categories and products (figurines, plaques, crosses, hanging ornaments, prayer stones, etc.) they wanted for grandmother, mother, father, general, pets, etc. I designed several figurines and prayer stones but only a certain number of products made it to the first (and really only) release of the line.

I scanned in lace and doilies my great grandmother made and used those as the main “art” in each piece. Then came all the sentiments. I don’t know how many dozen sentiments I came up with for this line, but after a while it got really depressing thinking of things to say that would be a comfort to someone who lost someone special to them. It was so trying that at the end of the day when I worked on so many sentiments a friends I saw that evening asked me what was wrong because I looked so sad. It was mentally and emotionally exhausting to be in that mindset all day.

A lot of licensing artist will just supply the flat color artwork and everything would then be created by the manufacturer to work on the 3D product. Since I have a design background, I was able to supply all the art needed for the factory. Renderings, b&w art for the molds along with the color layouts that the final product should match:

And here’s the final product line from Carson (It’s all available online through Amazon as well as some gift stores throughout the country.):

I have about four books released this month and I’ve been really excited to share these since I stared them last year. I had the opportunity to work with I See Me books on a couple of new board book projects. This was the first time I worked on a personalized book and it was such a fun challenge to make sure things were placed just right so personalization could happen at an automated level.

1-2-3 Blast Off With Me! can be personalized with images and text:

You can see the entire book here. There’s also a cute coloring book to match!

Hello World! is a book for new babies and can be personalized with images and text (love this cover!):

You can flip through it here.

I have a new Halloween book out from Innovative Kids (available exclusivley in Sam’s Club stores now). They are a very clever counting book with clear buttons to push on each character throughout the book. My kids have not stopped playing with them since I got the samples a few months back. It’s very much like popping bubble wrap that you can do over and over again.

There’s also a Christmas book coming out too. More to come on that, but here’s a little peek:

click to enlarge

Just in time for the summer sea breeze, I have some new coastal themed coasters out by the fabulous studio m. They are reusable, recyclable and there are 24 different designs. If you are a retailer, you can find a rep near you. If you are an individual, you can buy the, online here.

I also have some Christmas ones out that I’ll be posting about in the future, but you can take a peak here.

I have two books coming out August 1st written by Lisa Bullard and illustrated by me. Daniela’s Day of the Dead and Hailey’s Halloween. I love how the final printed books look and how the color pops off the pages.

Spread from Daniela’s Day of the Dead:

Spread from Hailey’s Halloween:

*links above are affiliate links via Amazon.com

Just in time for teacher gift season I have some products available in Dollar Stores around the country and each one is just a $1!!

Note pad, notepaper booklets & note cards. Each sold separately.

Note pad, notepaper booklets, note cards & gift bag. Each sold separately.

It’s almost May and that means it’s almost May 5th and that means “Cinco de Mayo” and that means you can learn all you ever wanted to know about the holiday from my new book with Lerner Publishing written by the fabulous Lisa Bullard called Marco’s Cinco de Mayo! I love how the completed book turned out. It’s a colorful 9.5″x9.5″ hardback.

Our family loves Cinco de Mayo simply for the fact that we love Mexican food. LOVE IT!! The Woog would live off of quesadillas if we let her. When I had Ocee, the hospital had some killer quesadillas so I ate them for lunch and dinner every day while I was there. 5 meals of them I think. Every since I have been on the search for quesadillas as good as those and I think I finally found them at Chuy’s. Ahh…

So in celebration of Cinco de Mayo and yummy food, I’m giving away 3 signed (by me your loving illustrator) copies to 3 lucky people. But there’s a catch. You have to give me your favorite Mexican food recipe to enter!

I’ve closed comments on my blog after months of dealing with spam ones, so you will need to go and “like” HOLLi CONGER studios on facebook and look for the post with the Marco image above. Then, leave a comment with your favorite Mexican food recipe (it can also be a link to it on the web). That’s it! On April 25th, I’ll randomly draw 3 winners and announce them on facebook.

The last 5 robots have been added for the fundraiser and the last chance to buy them in Tuesday, January 31st.

I mentioned in a earlier post that the Woog is going on her first mission trip to Alaska. I am so proud of her bravery and heart to go. She’s been raising money for the trip which is $1250 (big shout out to all her friends & family who’ve donated), she only has $250 more to go! So, to help her out I’ve made some original Junk A Doodles art to help her reach her goal. She helped pick out all the found objects and I put them together. Five are on sale now and five more will be added this week. All 10 are for sale now until Tuesday the 31st and then they are gone forever! They are only $20 (not bad for an original piece of art!) and shipping is only $0.20 to cover Etsy’s listing fee and I’m donating the rest of the shipping costs.

Go check out the shop for a look at them all. Here’s my favorite, little ERNIE:

If art isn’t your thing and you want to give a $1 or $2 to the Woog, she’d really appreciate it. You can donate any amount here:

I have some new baby bibs out this fall that your baby can spit-up and drool all over. Some if not all are available at CVS stores. I’ve heard my local CVS has them, but I haven’t checked it out yet. Here we have one cute little man modeling one of the bibs:

I think my days are over with him sitting still for a picture. All the pictures I get of him now are blurry.

And here are all the bibs:

And tomorrow will be my last post of the year because I’m going off the grid until January of 2012. No blogging or social media but I’ll post about that tomorrow.