Illustration Friday - Zelda's "Disguise" Cupcake

Hey everyone!! Hope everyone had a good week. I really am cutting it close with this week's "Illustration Friday," piece. The topic chosen was "disguise." I thought pretty long and hard about disguises and settled on my favorite alternative personality:

Sheik from the Legend of Zelda. If you've never played the Zelda games, spoiler warning, that guy who helps you out along the way named Sheik? Yeah that's Princess Zelda. . . in disguise. Dun dun DUN! I decided to keep on imagining and create a Sheik-cupcake. And now I'm half tempted to create other characters in the Zelda universe as cupcakes! Have a great weekend everyone!

One Sweet Mistake!! Octo-cake Illustration!!

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to update the blog with a quick doodle I did. I haven't done an "Illustration Friday" topic in a while but still work on lots of sketches and plenty of doodles. I decided to share a simple piece I made for fun this week.

 Oops look like there was a mix up at the bakery!! Mr. Octopus just wanted to join in on the fun of cupcake baking. Everyone makes little mistakes at their job. Try not to sweat the small stuff today and have a SWEET time doing whatever you do!!

Illustration Friday: "Sweet" Ballerina

Hey everyone!! I nearly ran out of time to do an illustration Friday post but the challenge word was WAYY too tempting for me to pass up this week!! This week's theme was "Sweet." I love cupcakes, candy, sprinkles, sugar just EVERYTHING sweet. I wanted to combine all my favorite sweets into one piece so I created this illustration:

A SWEET little candy girl with peppermint stick arms and legs, a donut tutu, chocolate frosted hair, gumdrop torso complete with a cherry on top!! She's dancing a ballet routine on an equally sweet pink frosted cupcake. Mmmm!! I'm really happy with how it turned out, with what little time I had from start to finish. Hope everyone has a super weekend :)

Illustration Friday - "Farewell" Mr. Cupcake!

Happy Monday everyone!! Why not start the week with an "Illustration Friday," post? Founder "Penelope Dullaghan" announced last week she would sadly be moving on from "Illustration Friday." She left the artists the weekly topic of "Farewell."

Saying "Farewell" is always a sad event. But I hate being sad so I decided to try to spice up the sweet sorrow that is parting. Making friends as a cupcake must be hard; you can't trust anyone. Hope everyone has a super week!

200th Post Giveaway WINNER!

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to write a quick post for the weekend regarding my "200th Post NerdyCupcakes Giveaway" I had last month. I pulled lucky number 3 from the drawing and got in contact with our winner so she could design her own custom NerdyCupcake!!

The NerdyCupcake she designed was so cute and very sophisticated!! He's Vanilla bean with Vanilla Frosting and a top hat and a black colored wrapper. Our winner has all this swag to look forward to in her mailbox now:

In addition to the 8.5" x 11" print I threw in another 5"x7" print and some cute cartoon stickers!! I had a lot of fun with this giveaway and I hope all who entered did too. Maybe I should do some more?? I am definitely thinking about it!! Have a fun and safe weekend everyone!!

200th Post!! NerdyCupcakes Print Giveaway!

Hey everyone!! I promised the 200th entry of my blog would be a giveaway. Since this is an illustration blog what better prize to give away than an illustration!! One lucky winner drawn at random will be the recipient of their own custom NerdyCupcakes illustration!

What do we mean by CUSTOM you ask? The winner will get the chance to be the designer!! You choose your favorite cake flavor, frosting flavor, one topping and your cupcake's wrapping color!! Peanut butter NerdyCupcake with strawberry frosting?? Why not! Chocolate NerdyCupcake with Vanilla Bean frosting and rainbow sprinkles?? Heck yes!

 
But just like any bakery we have a few limitations when it comes to "flavors." Frosting and cake choices are listed below. Toppings can be anything from candy, to sprinkles, to a slice of bacon; it's all up to our winner!

How do you enter?? Just leave a comment on this blogpost to be entered into the random drawing for your chance to win your very own 8x5" x 11" custom NerdyCupcakes print shipped to your home! Hang it in your home, office and even locker!! DEADLINE TO ENTER IS FEBRUARY 25TH 2013!!

RULES: Please only one comment per entry. Make sure to leave a VALID e-mail IN YOUR COMMENT so we can contact you by. The winner will be contact via e-mail by VioletInkDesign. Remember this is just a PRINT not something you can eat!! Any entries that do not follow the rules or past the deadline will not be accepted. Good luck everyone!!

Cakalicious in California is OPEN!!

Hey everyone!! I just wanted to take some time out to update you all on one of my client's exciting ventures that took my art to new territories!! As you may or may not know, I created the one-of-a-kind logo for "Cakalicious," a custom cake company back in 2011. Last year it went through some slight revisions and I got some exciting news!!

The owner informed me that business was booming so much she got the opportunity to open her FIRST bakery!! In fact, just last month they did a soft opening but on the 9th they are having their GRAND OPENING. In the meantime, Cakalicious is cranking out flavored baked goods of all kinds.

I am so excited for Heather and her business!! I cannot describe to you guys how great it makes me feel to transform a client's big idea to a reality. The coolest part?? My art work is now a permanent fixture of her business, it's on her sign!! Check it out:

My art has taken me to great places and given me the opportunity to meet bright and creative individuals whose passion for their craft is equal to mine!! I cannot imagine doing any other career!! So if you or someone you know has a business or a vision for an illustration or visual design, be sure to check out my website and hit up the contact section!!

Inspiration Post: Crazy for CAROUSELS!

Greetings friends and welcome to the FIRST inspiration post of 2013!! Those of you who followed us last year know the inspiration post is my monthly chance to share with you themed things that help spark my imagination (and hopefully yours)! I've never outgrown my fascination with carousels. This month's theme, "Crazy for Carousels," showcases my love for the elegant and spinning amusement rides found all over the world!

Like most little girls I was OBSESSED and even own my own mini musical carousel that I received as a gift years ago from the San Fransciso Music Box Catalog! I still find myself fascinated when I come across one at a fair or amusement park and given the chance I would totally take a spin on one to this day. I could get lose all day showcasing the different types of crazy animal seats but I went with your classic pretty horse galloping on it's post for this set.

Carousel Cupcakes by We Want Cake on Flickr

I figured I would start things off with one of my not-so-guilty pleasures; CUPCAKES! Not just any cupcakes, Carousel Cupcakes . . . mmmmm! These elegant and joyful cupcakes were baked up by Flickr user We Want Cake. In her description she mentions they were for a little girl's birthday party but I wouldn't mind them at my own!! I love the muted color pallet and the details on each sugary horse is incredible!!

Carousel Illustration from Tumblr

I couldn't bring myself to NOT include it in my post because there is so much in it that inspires me! It's sparkly, full of bows, roses, jewels and stars without feeling too overwhelming. My favorite part is the use of varied types of patterns in a clever manner with a cheerful splash of purple and pink!! This illustration caught my eye when I saw it on Tumblr and unfortunately I have no clue who the original artist is. Being an artist myself, I try to be a stickler about that kinda stuff so if you know anything about this illustration please let me know in the comment section and I will include it in the post!!

Manish Aurora Carousel Dress on Katy Perry 

I had to add this outfit to my carousel post because it is so incredibly unique. This carnival inspired couture was created by Indian fashion designer, Manish Aurora for a collection he premiered for the Spring / Summer of 2009. Each piece has an imaginative circus flair and is a great demonstration of how inspiration can birth a unique and memorable work of art! I highly recommend you check out the full collection on his website at http://www.manisharora.ws/spring-summer-09.html

Carousel Dreams by MoogleGurl on DeviantArt

Another great example of an illustrated carousel horse titled, "Carousel Dreams," by DeviantArt user "MoogleGirl." The drawing features the traditional idea of a carousel horse with pretty pastels and subtle girly accessories. I love it's swirly, curly mane. This is exactly what I picture in my head when someone says "Carousel," so you better believe I find it inspirational!! If you like this style of illustration be sure to head over to her official website http://www.tastypeachstudios.com/ complete with it's own shop filled with goodies!!

Carousel Necklace by AnnMichTreasureBox on Etsy

And last but not least, a handcrafted necklace with a unique looking Carousel pendant. I like how this jewelry strays away from the norm. Although a more simple representation of a carousel horse, I find this black stallion with it's cotton candy colored hair really pops on the orange colored cameo background!! It's currently listed on Etsy in a shop called AnnMichTreasureBox!

Hope you enjoyed this month's "Crazy for CAROUSELS" post!! To check out some BONUS items I that didn't feature but still love I have a Pinterest board dedicated to JUST things of all shapes and sizes that inspire my artwork. Just head over to http://pinterest.com/nerdycupcakes/inspirations/ and you'll even find a few pieces from my previous posts in 2012. Hope everyone has a great week!!

2012 Facebook Cover-Illustrations!!

Hello everyone!! It is almost the weekend, yay! I wanted to update the blog with another one of my 2012 projects. Ever since Facebook made me make the official switch to timeline I challenged myself to create a different illustrated cover photo with my name and title. I am an artist afterall and wish to show off my skills and remind all my friends what I do, graphic design and illustration!!

The first month I created for was August. I started out with my favorite thing, cupcakes!! The cupcakes are an original illustration against a stock background.

Next was September. This was an official premier of my NerdyCupcakes characters. We have strawberry on the left and cherry chocolate chip on the right both original illustrations of my creation on a stock swirly vector background.

October was next and I am such a huge fan of Halloween!! The little NerdyCupcakes were such a cute concept I couldn't resist dressing some up for the season! Pumpkin spice is on the left with a spooky little black cat cupcake on a stock background.

Even though it's plenty cold out in November I couldn't keep the idea of a sweet little couple of Ice Cream cone kids in love!! The illustration is based off of a sketch I created on some notebook paper on some downtown at my job at the time. The background is a stock photo of a chocolate swirl mmmm!

And last but not least my cover photo for December!! This little kitten character was inspired by a pair of pajamas I saw while Christmas shopping. This entire illustration is original with no stock elements this time.

I had such a fun time creating my different cover photos and already have a new one up for the month of January on my personal Facebook page!! If Facebook keeps timeline for the year 2013 I will make sure to make a review post of all the ones I create this year!!  Hope everyone has a great day and a safe weekend!!

Artistic Fitness: My cat Samus!

Hey everyone!! I have been so busy with my Holiday projects I haven't been keeping up with my "Artistic Fitness." Which means I am getting rusty at drawing which is NEVER good! Today's Exercise, #5 to be precise was all about drawing a simple housecat.

I have a housecat and his name is Samus Aran, (yes after the Metroid character). My family found him outside one day and rescued him and brought him into our home. He is definitely a big part of my life and I have been raising him since I was a teenager, he's like my son!! So I just drew a little cartoon "Sammy" instead closely guarding a red velvet cupcake, mmmm!

Hope everyone is having a great week!! Stay tuned for more Artistic Fitness this month!!

Laura Cooks: Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes (w/ illustration)

Hey everyone just updated the blog with another recipe I tried. I have to admit though, I am NO amateur to this recipe. In fact, it is from one of my recipe books at home. I pulled it from the Betty Crocker Fix-with-a-Mix Desserts cookbook. And if I said it once, I said it a million times, everything I've ever made from Betty Crocker comes out good!

The recipe I chose to make since it IS fall is the Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes. Since I made them before I knew they were going to come out amazing. Long story short they came out . . . . amazing. 

They turned out SO amazing that I don't even have a photo of the finished product!! Everyone who came in contact with them sampled them and gave rave reviews. Which gave me an excuse to draw another cute little cupcake to illustrate the finished product instead:

Okay, I admit, they didn't have little glasses on them. But I am in love with making little nerdy cupcake drawings!! The only thing I modified on the recipe was I didn't add the nuts. And I sprinkled cinnamon on top of the cream cheese frosting. If you want to try the recipe for yourself and don't own the cookbook (which I highly recommend that you SHOULD) you can check it out online on the Betty Crocker website by click here: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/spiced-pumpkin-cupcakes/f8438950-6a47-4516-93f7-17c42a9fcf21

Hope everyone in the states is enjoying the start of Autumn so far!! It's my favorite season :) have a great day!!

Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival!

One fun event my town has from time to time is a Sidewalk Chalk competition. Artists of all ages can pay a small fee to reserve one (or more) blocks of sidewalk and create a masterpiece! Pieces are then judged and prizes given to winner's in each age group.

I decided to participate this year. My drawing was a combination of two things that I love; baking and robots!

My little baker robot was busy at work making lots of yummy frosted cupcakes in all sorts of colors and tasty sprinkled donuts. MMMMM!

I didn't win any prizes but I still had a blast!! It was great checking out other people's pieces!! Almost enchanting strolling around the environment being surrounded by vivid works of art on every step you make.

And honestly, I don't think I did TOO bad for a girl who spends majority of her time at a computer all day! I'm really excited to participate next year. I even told a few of my friends about it. Who knows, maybe I will win!

Whitney's Birthday and Puppy Themed Cake!

Hey everyone! We all know I love designing, drawing and just art in general but did you know, I also love to bake? I've posted a few entries on here before about baking like my Little Mermaid Cake and Blueberry Cupcakes. It's a fun activity to do. Plus it is a great way to de-stress and put a smile on your face! Who doesn't love receiving cookies and cakes?

So when Whitney's birthday came up what better gift to give then a custom cake, that looks just like her!! I am no way a professional baker, nor have I had ANY sort of formal training so I searched all over the web for tips on decorating cakes for dogs and found a cute design on SweetArtFactory.com:

Image via Sweet Art Factory Cakes

I took a stab at it with a dog-friendly Carrot Cake recipe and here was the result:

I know it's not perfect, but Whitney was quite excited to receive her cake and we dug right in to eat it!!

It was quite the occasion!! She even got dressed up with some fancy bows so we could match!!

For more great decorating tips and to learn how to make your own little puppy cakes be sure to check out the step-by-step instructions on the Sweet Art Facotyr Website: http://www.sweetartfactory.com/a_5/Cakes-your-Kids-Can-Make.htm

Snooki Cupcake Illustration!

One of my friends asked for lots of Snooki stuff for Christmas this year. She was also the same client looking for some Jersey Shore Christmas Gift Tags. So I thought as a surprise I would draw a cute little cartoon Snooki.

If you don't know anything about Snooki (which I cannot imagine anyone who DOESN'T) she's the pint sized, poof rockin', cleavage poppin', pickle loving female cast member of the Jersey Shore.

Photo from BeautyBlitz

Snooki has a lot of different product lines including sunglasses, headphones, perfume, books and much more! A lot of those things are unfortunately VERY expensive. So I did what I do best, create an adorable cartoon!!

Here is the Snooki cupcake I created:

The blue dress was inspired by a dress Snooki wore I found on the Cosmo website:

Photo from Cosmo

Ashley's favorite color is blue so it fit perfectly. Although I doubt we will see Snooki in a dress as poofy as her hair I decided to transform it a bit to fit in with the cupcake theme!

Here are so close ups of the piece:

Butt-crack cleavage!

Complete with cartoon pickle!

I hope everyone has a good day today!

CMYK+Jakprints "Stick-It" Sticker Contest

Hey everyone! I recently entered a contest from CMYK Magazine!! They partnered with JAKPRINTS for a completely free sticker contest open to all designers!

Winners will get published in CMYK Magazine and on Jakprints.com! Here is the illustration I entered:

You can also enter as many times as you would like. The deadline when I entered was last Monday but they seemed to have re-activated the contest and extended the deadline until September 5th.

Wish me luck everyone! Since they extended the deadline I think I'll create another design for the second run :)

Blueberry Cupcakes

We had two containers of fresh blueberries at home and after religiously pouring them into every cereal I would eat I was afraid, being that it was fresh fruit they would go bad in a couple of days :( So I decided I wanted to bake something with them. Blueberry muffins were out for being soooo cliche (also the last time I DID bake something it WAS blueberry muffins).

My next idea was to make blueberry PancakePuffs. Remember PancakePuffs?? It was a cast iron pan you put on your stove that made round little pancakes. Since I have my cupcake maker, I figured if I put pancake batter in it, it ALSO would make pancake puffs.

I finally decided just to go with my instinct and make my favorite thing in the world, cupcakes! I googled "Blueberry Cupcakes" and picked the first I recipe I found which was on Squidoo.

They turned out pretty good. The batch only make about 12 even though it said it made 18 LARGE cupcakes but oh well it's not like I can eat 18 anyway.

I also added leftover Teal Wilton Food Coloring I had to the frosting and attempted to pipe it on the top.

Want to try the recipe for yourself?? The original is at Squidoo but I typed out a copy for you all here:

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup blueberries

Instructions

Sift dry ingredients together to mix well.
Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Whisk egg vigorously to incorporate air and make the eggs light.
Stir in egg, milk and vanilla and combine thoroughly.
Add to dry mixture and stir together (some lumps should remain) and add the blueberries.
Fill well greased muffin tins with batter until two thirds full.
Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until done.

As I've said before, I am no pastry chef, or baker, nor do I ever claim to be exceptionally good at it. It is just something I do to destress myself and make the people around me happy :)