I have robots on my mind this week that I hope (fingers crossed) I’ll get to show tomorrow so I thought I’d show you what I found looking through the new Creative Teaching Press catalog. I did this bulletin board set for them last year and I loved every minute of it!

I love making Junk A Doodles robots and this is the robot that started my junk style.

Hopefully more on robots tomorrow!!

I don’t do much design and layout work anymore since illustration took over but I occasionally take some on and this time it was for one of my favorite clients (my church). There’s a mission trip to Alaska coming up and I designed a buff for a ministry there. Totally different illustration style, but I loved working on it. Here’s a snippet of the design.

And speaking of Alaska, the Woog is heading up there for her first mission trip to help with the Iditarod Race (don’t worry, my husband is going with her, plus some really close friends and if I think about it too much, I might not let her go because I’ll start thinking she’ll freeze her fingers off, get lost in a blizzard, get smushed by a moose, fly in one of those little Alaskan planes even when I gave strict instructions for her not to fly in one – I’ve seen Flying Wild Alaska and all the trouble and “close” calls they supposedly have right before the commercial break…humph! ). To help her raise money for the trip, I’m putting together an art fundraiser for her in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for that. I’m thinking robot junkadoodles!

This is my last post for 2011. I’m going off the grid. No blogging, social media and very, very little work. It’s been a hectic 9 months and the last 2 have been insane with all the jobs that came in, plus I never had a maternity leave back in January, so I just need an all around break. The hardest thing for me will not be able to keep up with my friends and family on facebook, so guys, if you’re reading this, go old school on me and talk to my face, call me on the phone or even email me. You know, like the good ole days. And when my mom says “I saw so-and-so did this-and-that on facebook” I will have no clue so don’t let me be the last to know. Come October 1st, I’m deleting my twitter, facebook & google+ bookmarks and phone apps so I’m not tempted, but I WILL be back in January catching up on all the new-to-me news.

Do I think this will hurt my career by not keeping up appearances via social media and promotion? I thought long and hard about it and you know, it’s only 3 months and being the end of the year, a lot of people are checking out anyway so I don’t think it will impact it at all. It was funny how when I decided that I was taking 3 months off, I got flooded with jobs but fortunately, most of those jobs have been completed and I only have a few ongoing projects the next few months. I’m so used to juggling 5-10 jobs at one time it will be an adjustment to only juggle a few.

There are a few things I wanted to get done before the 1st (like that e-book a lot of you have asked me about) but I haven’t had time yet so maybe I’ll work on them here and there and you might see them pop-up on my website one day.

Also, I’m going to start illustration career consulting in 2012. If you’re interested, please shoot me an email using this link so I can email you once the new year rolls around and I can give you some more info. There going to be a lot to do on your part so be prepared to work! Right now I think my pricing structure will be:

$200 for an intense 1 month
or
$325 for 2 month consultation

If this is something you are seriously considering, think about paying in advance to get the write-off this budget year, or ask for it as a Christmas gift. If you’d be interested in that, email me and I can set it up with you early.

That’s about it. I’m going to be taking a lot of naps, wear pj’s all day and just have time to PLAY. See you next year!!

It’s been well over a year (maybe 2) since I’ve participated in Illustration Friday but when I saw this weeks theme I thought of this piece from one of my latest books (which I’m giving away here). Done in my Junk A Doodles® style.

Here’s my latest published illustration for the November issue of Highlights:

Sorry to be such a slacker blogger over the summer and into the fall. I’ve been working on a very BIG project that is due to be “published” in February and it has totally thrown be for a loop. I’m really trying to get my groove back with blogging and such, so I thought I’d show you a Halloween card I designed for Ronnie Sellers:

Also, I am doing my Pumpkin Junkin’™ contest again this year (just haven’t gotten on the ball with promoting it!) so check it out and enter by the 31st!

Last week Kelly Light asked my to contribute to her fundraiser, ripple. It’s for a great cuase and a good way to get some original pieces from your favorite illustrators.

As a child I remember pouring through my 1981 edition of Childcraft’s Make and Do book year after year making things. I even had a little song made up for it and still sing it in my head when I see the book:

“Makin’ do, makin’ do. I just love o’ makin’ do.”

We went to the library Tuesday and they had their books sale going on and I spotted the 1974 edition and had to have it. Fifty cents later it was all mine! It wasn’t full color and the illustrations throughout are amazing and very Mary Blair’esk:

I had the Woog browse through the blue one this morning and see what things she could make by herself and of course she choose things that required supplies we didn’t have, like coffee can stilts. She then found a page about making clay animals and did that. My favorite things to make were:

I always wanted to make potato stamps but I guess they were too messy or we didn’t have potatoes. But I see potato buying in my future though. Looks like a good Woogie Wednesday project. Hey, maybe we can do a Julie & Julia type things and go through the entire Make and Do book in a year. Yeah, not likely!

In other news, since I switch my blog over to WordPress, my RSS feed seems to have changed so be sure to update your feeds.