Inspiration Post: Sugary Sweet Wigs!

It's about that time again! Yep it's the end of the month which means another installment of "What Inspires Laura." A post dedicated to things that inspire me which I can only HOPE bring you, the reader some inspiration as well!!

This month's theme is "Sugary Sweet Wigs." I am a big fan of wigs and sweets so I was sure I could find some inspiration merging both themes together! And sure enough I did! Tons of beautiful yet delicious looking candy-coated wigs all OVER the internet! It was tough to narrow it down to only a top 5 but I managed!

Marie Antoinette Pink Cupcake Print

This is a print available on Etsy by shop owner LeilaniJoyArt. I am a big fan of the Marie Antoinette inspired hair. I mean, I've only illustrated my very own Marie Antoinette inspired party invitations before! Our girl is a bit of a rebel as she samples some sweets baring a lot of skin and showing off her "Sweet" tattoo in a perfectly pink bakery!! I love the added touch of texture by adding a real ribbon. This print is available for sale so if it speaks to you as much as it speaks to me be sure to purchase only on Etsy!

Bolli Darling - Cupcake Delight!

The higher the hair the closer you are to heaven so this girl must be straight up angelic! The photo is a costume by "Bolli Darling," an 18 year old company specializing in unique entertainment and fabulous costumes to add to delight to your next party! The site describes her costume to be "Inspired by Willy Wonka and traditional sweet shops." The wig itself reminds me a lot of an ice cream cone. Check out their website at http://www.bollidarling.com

Let Them Eat Cupcakes, Apples and Lychees - Rhondda Scott Photography Photoshoot

This wig isn't exactly stuffed with desserts much like the others on this post but it definitely fires up my imagination. The light pink tightly curled whisps look like cotton candy and I love the pastel lavender and white mixed in. Another Marie Antoinette stylized photo except more traditional with the long sleeves and the model is holding a cupcake so that has to count for something!! The full shoot can be viewed on the RScottPhotographyWeddings Blog here: http://rscottphotographyweddings.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/let-them-eat-cupcakes-apples-and.html

Will Cotton - Candy Curls Portrait

This is a long time favorite of mine, a portrait created by Will Cotton. He is the man behind Katy Perry's beautifully painted candy-candy portrait on the cover of her album, "Teenage Dream!" Even though it's not covered in cupcakes it's tangled with ribbon candy, sugar cones and tons of other candy-coated delights that sure look sweet! Get lost in a sugary paradise by visiting his website at http://www.willcotton.com/

Candyland Courtesan's Cupcake Wig

And now the holy grail of all sugary sweet wigs, a wig by Candyland Courtesan FILLED with cupcakes! A towering, elegant hair piece stuffed with feathers and cupcakes on top of ringlets of pink curls. Anyone would feel like a character straight out of the Candyland game wearing this!! The photo ads to the fantasy with a matching cupcake corset and sweet treats spread out on the floor. You can view lots more of their beautiful wigs on their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/CandylandCourtesanWigs

That's it for this month!! Hope you all enjoyed the crazy candy-coated hairpieces. Halloween is just around the corner maybe you'll construct a sugar sweet wig of your own! Hope everyone has a great week and stay tuned for next month's inspiration post!

Laura Cooks: Death by Oreo Cupcakes!!

Hey everyone and welcome to another mouth-watering post about baked goods! A great follow up to Oreo Brownies is "Death by Oreo Cupcakes" found on Instructables by user "Food Snots." If you go on Pinterest you have probably definitely seen the pin for "Glowing Cupcakes," yeah, same food whiz who brought you that recipe!

I was at a bit of a disadvantage though. I was baking at a friend's house who normally doesn't bake. No electric mixer. No food processor to destroy cookies in. Only 1 muffin tin. No cupcake wrappers and no eggs! So supplies had to be bought. And since there wasn't an electric mixer I had to CHEAT a bit for the frosting. 

The recipe didn't exactly say how many cupcakes it would make. The batter DID exceed our expectations of a dozen so the rest was baked in a small cake pan and smothered in leftover oreo frosting.  

The recipe got rave reviews though! Both for the cupcakes and the mini cake by everyone who indulged in the treat. I would definitely make it again. And what's a blog post without an illustration?? SO of course I doodled up a cute little "Nerdy Cupcake" with oreo frosting (above).

To try to the recipe for yourself check it out on Instructables here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Death-By-Oreo-Cupcakes/ or on her blog, Recipe Snobs at: http://www.recipesnobs.com/2011/05/death-by-oreo-cupcakes.html

Hope everyone has a great day!!

Farm Aid 2012 - Print Ad

Hey everyone! Just wanted to update the blog with another ad that I did for the Lebanon Daily News. Over the weekend was a big concert here in Pennsylvania called "Farm Aid." Honestly I have never heard of it before but I go assigned the task of creating a print ad, letting people know that full coverage can be found from the newspaper.

From their website, http://www.farmaid.org, I learned, it is not only a HUGE concert event, but a social movement. Their mission? To raises money to help keep family farmers on their land! Pennsylvania, as most people imagine it to, does have a lot of farms so I can see why we were picked for this year's location for the event.

The ad is itself is a 2x5 that unfortunately ran in black and white. If you ever find yourself in this quickly declining industry you have to have the ability to roll with the punches. Everything is always needed "yesterday." The ad was something that I had received on my desk the day before it ran.

I hope everyone has a good weekend! I baked so expect to see another addition of "Laura Cooks" coming up soon!

Lora Warnick's Illustrated Portrait!!

Hey everyone!! Today is a dark, dreary and rainy day, the perfect time to stay inside and update my blog!! Just wanted to feature a portrait I created for an awesome photographer named Lauren Warnick!!!

Photo via Facebook Page

We crossed paths on Facebook where she contacted me about my famous illustrated portraits. Her idea was to feature both her and her boyfriend, Michal, with their favorite things in the portrait. Hers obviously being photography and his being golf. Here is a collage she created with both the photo and my portrait:

It came out super cute!! It was a fun concept and I appreciated getting creative!! It was definitely something different.

As a photographer, Lauren has worked with many different celebrities as well as clients I have worked with too like Jackie, Tracy and Brittany from Jerseylicious!! We crossed paths on Facebook and she was interested in having her own special portrait made of her and her boyfriend, Michael!

Jackie from Jerseylicious via Lora Warnick's Portfolio

If you want to check out more of Lauren's Photography visit her website at http://www.lorawarnick.com or "like" her Facebook page www.facebook.com/pages/Lora-Warnick-Photography/114375205268276!! Both are full with tons of high quality, professional pieces photographed by her. There's also information to contact her on both pages. Hope everyone has a great day!!

Laura Cooks: Cookies N Cream Brownies!

If you haven't read my first September post I mentioned that almost all the birthdays of people I know happen in September. And after making 10 thousand cakes and cupcakes I thought it was time for a change of pace when baking up a sweet treat to celebrate my awesome Dad's birthday.

My dad is one of the COOLEST people that I know. He always believes in me and my pursuit of the arts. Heck, he even goes with me to events. Here he is at a fashion show, you know the guy on the FARRR left:

He likes brownies. And he likes oreos. There has to be a recipe that combines both SOMEWHERE on the internet. To my luck there's only about 1000 but this particular recipe from lauren's latest seemed the easiest. In fact her slogan is, "everyday ingredients ~ extraordinary food."

So how about dem brownies? They came out AMAZING. The only thing I changed in the recipe was add 1/4 of water because the batter was PRETTY thick. ANDD I mixed about 4 crushed up oreos in the frosting portion of the recipe; guilty!

Also since this is an illustration blog I had to doodle-up a cookies and cream brownie of my own. Not one of my best illustrated brownies I will admit that but it was still a good challenge.

If you want to give the recipe a try, be sure to check out the blog, lauren's latest for the full recipe. I hope everyone has a great weekend!! I'm going to be busy working on my Ren Faire costume :O

Rachel's Illustrated Business Card!

Hey everyone!! Since I recently posted Aisha's illustrated business card, I realized I must have forgot to post my FIRST illustrated business card and that was for a professional figure skating instructor!!

Rachel got in contact me and sent me a few photos. She really liked her photo of herself skating in a blue dress but wanted a pink sparkly dress instead. Here is what I came up with:

Step two was building the perfect layout to compliment the adorable cartoon in a sparkly pink dress! The front of the card featured my illustration in a vertical format with a flourishy hot pink background.

The back of the card changes things up a bit with a horizontal format to feature all her important contact information. The background was repeated tying the back to the front. The entire card is eye catching and expresses both elegance and fun!!

Once again, if you are interested in your own business card design be sure to fill out a contact form on my website, http://www.violet-ink.com ! Have a super day everyone!!

Marvel Comic's Revisable Bag

September is always a tricky month for me. Why? Because so many people I know have birthdays in September. And there's nothing wrong with that . . . don't get me wrong. BUT that means I have to get that brain buzzin with gift ideas!

My friend Chelsea (pictured above) loves the Thor and Marvel comics AND is also very eco friendly so I decided to go about making her a re-usable grocery bag for any produce she just happens to stumble upon at a Farmer's Market IN an Thor printed fabric.

I grabbed a pattern off the verypurpleperson blog that looked easy enough and went about sewing. I was lucky enough to find a great Marvel fabric from Joanns fabrics and crafts that didn't skimp on the Thor. We tried to center it to feature maximum Thor.

The bag didn't take very long. At most, maybe 2 sittings total. I haven't sewn in awhile though so my mom was able to help me. The first sitting we got everything but the handles done. The handles were probably the only challenging part. Well that and the top stitching around it.

(Yes my table DOES have a glittery table cloth) I forgot to take a photo of it reversed, it is reversible after all but if you can't tell it's yellow on the inside like Thor's hair. Overall it came out great though and is definitely a bag I would make again. Maybe Hello Kitty on one side and Batman on the other. . . hmmmmm.

If you want to try making the revisable bag yourself be sure to check out the craft tutorial here: http://verypurpleperson.com/2010/04/making-reversible-bag/ I hope everyone has a great day!!

Aisha's Illustrated Business Card!

Hey everyone just wanted to upload the blog with a business card / banner design I recently did. A make-up artist known as Aisha was looking into getting a customized designed business card, complete with cartoon of herself on it!!

She was wearing a great slouchy off the shoulder top and wanted to be featured with her tools of the trade, a MAC makeup brush and NARS compact!! First check out her illustrated portrait:

Cute, right?? It turned out great! I made sure to bring lots of details into her make-up equipment and capture the careless slouchy quality of her blouse. The business card design was kept simple and very modern in a horizontal format.

This wasn't my first business card featuring a cartoon of the client on the front!! Want a card like this for your OWN business?? Hit up our contact form on http://www.violet-Ink.com/contact. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!