Seasonal Snowman "Light"

Good afternoon everyone! Hope the Holiday season is treating you well! I haven’t participated in an “Illustration Friday,” challenge in a while. This week’s theme was “Light.” I wasn’t struck with an idea until I noticed one reoccurring Christmas decoration I spied around everyone’s block.

The shining “light” of those bizarre plastic Snowmen! In driveways, on porches, on roofs and outside businesses, these jolly, vintage, hard plastic Snowmen are a classic sign of the Holiday season where I’m from. It doesn’t stop at just Snowmen either, I’ve spotted giant plastic characters ranging from jolly lighted Santa Claus’ to entire Na displays!! It makes me wonder what other king of wacky and tacky decorations are staples of neighborhoods around the USA. I’d love if you’d share some in the comments section!! Have a super weekend everyone!!

Happy Kool-Aid Days!!

Hey everyone!! This weekend is time for celebration!! Yesterday, today AND tomorrow (Aug 9th - 11th) is "Kool-Aid Days!" If you're unfamilliar with "Kool-Aid," it's a powdered drink mix that comes in all sorts of crazy flavors and colors. It even has it's own mascot appropriately named, the Kool-Aid man. I decided to create an illustration dedicated to that crazy pitcher of sugar himself:

I grew up on Kool-Aid. My parents would make me some as a kid and boy was it a treat! To this day, I will admit though, I don't know how to make my own Kool-Aid. The first time I ever made it I forgot to add the sugar, d'oh!! I also loved the Kool-Aid adverts. Check out this one from the 90s posted on Youtube:

 

RADICAL! Hope everyone has a great weekend and a fun time celebrating!!

USA 4th of July 2013 - Wrap Up

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to create a post about one of the Holiday's I celebrated here in the states, Independence Day also known as the "4th of July!" It's all about celebrating America and it's freedoms. I saw a lot of really fun ads on my Facebook feed and wanted to share with you guys some of my favorites. Check them out below:

These two gems were pulled off the "Venture Bros Blog" fanpage on Facebook. The Venture Bros is one of the only things I watch on television and it's highly underated. I couldn't resist sharing these star spangled tributes to America.

The Kraft branding is fairly easy to recognize; unnatural yellowy-orangey color on a royal blue background. They incorporate their product, mac and cheese, cleverly in two patriotic ads. 

These ads featured on the "Kraft Macaroni and Cheese" fanpage, were silly and targeted towards those who already like Kraft Mac and cheese with bold captions such as "You know you love it. Evidently so does Uncle Sam." As an illustrator I also appreciate the fact that these two ads were completely illustrated and still very modern, eye-catching and tantalizing! 

Here's an ad I came across on the "Crayola" fan page!! Crayola crayons are another thing that are pretty easily recognized. What a smart idea to lay their actual product out to create an American flag!! It was accompanied by the caption,"Give a big thumbs up for our forefathers, who made it possible for us to have the freedom to create, imagine and inspire!" The white crayons look a little green to me but I still love  Crayola crayons and this sweet ad.

Here were see the same concept presented with a different product. Cheezit's released this ad on their fanpage to celebrate America!! While I find Crayola's take on the idea sweet I find Cheezit's ad visually more appealing. In fact, it makes me pretty hungry. But if we're going for accuracy points, the stars as well as stripes are misrepresented while Crayola made sure to duplicate the flag to a T!

And last but not least, Hello Kitty added this lady liberty to their fanpage. I love the simplistic art style that is Sanrio. I draw a lot of inspiration from their brand and am a self proclaimed, Hello-Kitty-a-holic! Having the brand's mascot drawn up as a little Statue of Liberty is too cute and very visually striking!! Bravo Sanrio!!

As for me?? I spent Independence relaxing with family and friends at a picnic. I made sure to bring a very patriotic cake along (pictured above) with that was a HUGE hit!! Hope everyone else had a great Holiday and a great weekend!!

Happy Memorial Day / Sunscreen Day!!

Today is "Memorial Day" in the states; a day to remember and honor all those individuals who were in the military and had passed away. People around where I live typically I have picnics with their families to celebrate. If you're having a picnic or doing a lot of outside activity do NOT forget to protect your skin because today is also "Sunscreen Day."

While Memorial Day falls on the final Monday of every May month, Sunscreen Day is always May 27th. It's all about raising awareness of the dangers of that happy little sun's rays. I wear sunscreen ALL THE TIME, it's my secret to staying super pale! Infact, when me and my friends went to the beach I was the only one that came back as pale as a ghost. Hope everyone has a great week!!

Happy National Plumber's Day!!

Time to celebrate another obscure holiday you probably weren't aware of, "National Plumber's Day!!" Got a leaky faucet? Maybe a busted toilet? Today would be the day to get that repaired!! I created this fun square graphic to remind everyone to celebrate spotlighting MY favorite plumber: 

 

That's right, Mario from Super Mario Brothers! Keeping it within my artistic style I sketched everything out including text layout on paper first, then scanned it in and rendered it in illustrator. I was originally going to hand-letter the text but I played with some fonts instead and I think it turned out super! How will you celebrate today?

National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day!

Happy April everyone!! We all know yesterday was April Fool's day but know it or not, today is ANOTHER April Holiday!! Today is the day to celebrate the most iconic pair to hit the USA; it's National Peanut Butter and Jelly day!! I took time out of my week to create this fun typographic graphic to celebrate:

I created the peanut butter bread illustration from a sketch and even took the time to hand letter the jelly looking text in Illustrator. Not something I typically challenge myself with but it was well worth the effort! I also spent an hour making these yummy Buttermilk Peanut Butter and Jelly pancakes:

And yes they tasted as delciious as they look. So pick up a jar or two and celebrate the classic taste combination of Peanut Butter and Jelly today!!

Happy National Ravioli Day!!

Did you know that TODAY is National Ravioli Day?? Mmm carbs! I drew this illustration to celebrate and help spread the word:

Me, personally, I've never made my own pasta. I heard it's a lot of work. A lot of kneading. And involves some sort of "pasta machine" I can't afford. I'll stick to the canned kind. If you haven't had any ravioli today, what are you waiting for?? Treat yourself to the yummy pasta dish to honor this day!!

Happy Peanut Butter Lover's Day!!

February is over and March is here. Did you know March 1st is "National Peanut Butter Lover's Day??" And who doesn't love Peanut Butter? For breakfast I had pancakes and instead of drowning them in syrup I slathered them with Peanut Butter, mmmm!!

It's not often I flex my typographic muscle so instead of creating something cute with googly eyes, I created this peanut butter toast illustration instead to remind everyone! Not too shabby, eh? So grab a peanut butter cookie, peanut butter cup, or just a jar of peanut butter and a spoon to celebrate this National Holiday!!

Artistic Fitness: Easter Guinea Pig

Hey everyone!! First of all our NerdyCupcakes Giveaway officially closed this past Tuesday. The #3 was drawn and I already contacted our winner and started designing their CUSTOM print! In the meantime I managed to squeeze in another "Artistic Fitness" exercise. Exercise #10 was the Guinea Pig. With feedback from friends and family I decided our little guy would ready for another big Holiday, EASTER!

I am one of those people who can appreciate the commercial aspects of any holiday; especially if it involves lots of candy! Our little Guinea Pig plays Easter Bunny with a festive set of bunny ears and is surrounded by sugary jelly beans and some decorated eggs. This year Easter is March 31st so mark it on your calendar and try not to forget to celebrate!!

A Pinterest Perfect Valentine's Day!

Hey everyone just wanted to update the blog with how my Valentine's went. I always tend to embrace Valentine's day regardless of my lack of a significant other. A day whose main theme is not only commercial but revolves around hearts, candy and cakes?? Heck yes I'm going to celebrate it!!

Me and my friends threw a little Valentine's day party before going out to watch the ever-so romantic "Die Hard" sequel in the theater. Let me admit this first, I am total Pinterest addict and I wanted to share with you some of the wonderful tips and tricks I found through Pinterest that I used in my party!

First off I made these cute little Valentine's gift baskets for my friends. It was filled with chocolates, sugar wafers, and cookies I baked in the shape of hearts. I even dipped some of the sugar wafers in some red melting chocolate and covered them in Valentine's themed sprinkles an idea I pinned from Craft-O-Maniac from http://www.craft-o-maniac.com/2013/01/valentine-cookies.html

After showering each other with gifts we did our planned craft which was creating memory jars. This is an idea that I have seen on Pinterest a lot. Find a jar. Decorate it. And fill it with little slips of paper with memories written on them. Fill it up and open it up at the end of the year! Basically an overly simplified, personalized and pretty journal jar!

The jars we bought at dollar tree. Paper and stickers from Joanns and HobbyLobby. The finished products all came out really cute and different from each other. 

This was the one my best friend and fellow blogger KaraKreative made!! So elegant!

We all get together for Christmas and exchange gifts so we'll have to open up our jars and share our favorite memories with each other then! Last came dinner. I picked two great recipes I found on Pinterest a baked rigatoni and heart shaped dinner rolls. The dinner rolls were a huge hit.

 

The recipe for the Valentine's Dinner rolls can be found here: http://www.rhodesbread.com/recipes/print_recipe/2051 and the recipe for the Rigatoni I got off SkinnyMom here: http://skinnymom.com/2012/02/05/skinny-rigatoni/?_szp=120432&_szi=3 The pasta was made with ground turkey yum yum!!

 

We had such a fabulous Valentine's day! I honestly have the best friends on the entire planet because no matter what we do we always have a blast doing it! For more of my favorite pins you can always follow me on Pinterest @nerdycupcakes. Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day and have a safe weekend!

Cute Little Monster Valentine's!!

Hey everyone!! February seems to be flying by as Valentine's Day, this Thursday, quickly approaches!! Since I'm a Graphic Designer and Illustrator I feel it is practically my duty to create my very own custom Valentine's Cards FREE for you to print and put a smile on someone's face!!

Seeing that a lot of people find my blog by searching for illustrations of cute little monsters, this year, I decided to revisit the concept and bring you "Monster Valentine's Cards!!"

 
They're fluffy, slimy and even scaly and ready to express their love and admiration!!  Don't be scared!! These little guys won't bite. All you need is a printer and some scissors to and you're on your way to handing out some creepy fun to your friends, family, classmates and maybe even your secret crush on that special day, February the 14th!!

There are 8 total per sheet, download the PDF and start printing by clicking on this link: http://violet-ink.com/Printables/MonsterValentineCards.pdf

Don't forget to change your printer settings to "LANDSCAPE" so it prints correctly!! This is our third annual set of Valentine's cards. Itty bitty monsters not your thing?? Two years I also created Lady Gaga themed Valentine's card. Hungry for something else?? Last year's cards were all about Breakfast Time!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

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!!

Gingerbread Cocoa Christmas Card!

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to update the blog with another Holiday design / illustration project I completed this month!! Just like any other family my family sends out Christmas cards! But why would they just run down to Wal-Mart and buy some when they were blessed with such a wonderful, talented and artistic
daughter??

I pitched them some thumbnails just like I would any other client and they decided on a cup of hot cocoa with a candy cane stirrer jammed in the top of a mound of whipped cream. They decided on a green mug over clear glass or other colors and I added a little gingerbread guy to the front. Here is the final design:

Cute right??? I created the background lattice with some fancy Illustrator brushes over a gradient background. The design was then all pulled together in Photoshop and sent to a printer. We also added a graphic to the inside as well: 

They were printed as 5"x7" cards with a glossy finish on the front. They just arrived today and everyone is overjoyed with how they came out!! Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Holiday Helper 2012 Cover Design

Hey everyone just wanted to update the blog with another Holiday themed post! Back in November, Thanksgiving Day in the states to be exact, the newspaper distributed a full cover Holiday magazine inserted in their Thanksgiving issue. I got the opportunity to design the cover for it.

 

I created about 8 different sketches and the publisher decided on a Christmas theme with two children gazing into a snow globe. The amount of time I got to spend creating it wasn't a lot but being the master artist and multitask-er that I am I cranked it out before the deadline. Full color illustration, title design AND ALL! Whew!

 

Sadly this was the last thing I had worked on for the newspaper. Due to circumstances out of my control, changes were made to the ad design process that no longer included room for in-house designers. I appreciate the opportunity I had though and hope to find another full time Graphic Design position soon :) Here are some detailed closeups of Holiday Helper:

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!! I will be baking and crafting for the Holidays!

Happy Ice Cream Day!!

Hey everyone!! Man I am still REALLY busy with all the Holiday projects I am working on but I couldn't forget about an important moment in history. Back in 1903 on this day the Ice Cream cone was patented making it officially ICE CREAM DAY!

I know it may be a little chilly outside but who can say no to an ice cream cone?? (besides lactose intolerant people). Our little chocolate ice cream cone is wrapped up in a cozy little pom pom hat and scarf to stay toasty!! So while you're busy wrapping, shopping, caroling or gazing at Christmas lights, don't forget to stop for some ice cream!!

Inspiration Post: Retro Holiday Cards!

Hey everyone!! Well, it is time for my FIRST Holiday related post of 2012. If you celebrate Christmas or love gift giving, decorating, baking, etc I want to get you into the Holiday spirit!! And what better a time for artists to get some exposure then sending around their own custom cards for the Holidays!! So that's why this month's inspiration post is all about "Retro Holiday Cards!!"

 

Who doesn't love getting a card in the mail?? I have always love commercial art since I was a young child. Christmas cards like these are the kind that I grew up being mesmerized and inspired by. In fact when I was little I loved picking out what cards to give to people in our family but hated seeing them go in the post; I wanted to keep them all!! Keep scrolling for some of my favorite Holiday imagery on cards of yesterday!

"A Pair of Warm Wishes" Greeting Card sold by poshtottydesignz on Etsy

Cats love getting into decorations and these two kittens are just too cute!! Their giant heads and teeny tiny eyes and noses are just darling. If I tried to stick my own cat into a stocking and photograph him I'm sure the result wouldn't come out nearly as pleasant. But that's the beauty of this illustration, it is the perfect picture of curious kittens ready for the holidays!! Although I am unsure of the original artist's name it is dated 1950 according to it's Esty listing.

I stumbled across this card on Pinterest looking for inspiration for the Holiday Helper magazine cover. It immediately became one of my favorites with it's sweeping style of illustration. The bright pink sparkling figure skating dress is so glamorous!! And you got to love the scared little bunny sliding across the ice. The added glitter as an embellishment really makes it shimmer and shine!! I especially like the fact that it's more of a winter wonderland with no glaring reference to CHRISTMAS. If I received this card from my mother I would treasure it for ages!! No idea who the original artist is though :(

Strawberry Shortcake Holiday Card sold by PinkCarnivale on Etsy

This card is from 1983 and if you are an 80s kid then you should recognize that pint sized little ginger girl on the front; it's Strawberry Shortcake!! Not only am a fan of this card because I grew up with Strawberry Shortcake but because it involves baked goods!! Looks like Strawberry and Custard, her pet cat have stopped on their stroll to eye up some cakes, cookies and cupcakes through the shop's window!! The attention to detail on this illustration is impeccable!! Even the border is filled with Holiday sweets like candy canes and gingerbread!! 

 

Vintage Christmas Card photographed by Neato Coolville on Flickr

This cute little snowman is in touch with his feminine side sporting a striped pink scarf as he lets his little birdy friend perch on his top hat! What I like most about this card is it's simplicity; the simple stylized pupils, the little tree with simple ornament balls and the small sprinkling of snow surrounding the outside of his portrait.It shows you do not have to go all crazy with details to execute a card design.

Rainbow Brite Holiday Card by PinkCarnivale on Etsy

And the best for last!! Since I featured Strawberry Shortcake, I can't forget my absolute FAVORITE 80s girl, Rainbow Brite on her Holiday card!! These cards were printed as one single sheet and can be split apart by tearing along the perforated edge. I always wanted to be Rainbow Brite when I was little, riding around on Rainbow Horse spreading cheer and color to everyone with magical star sprinkles!! Here Rainbow Brite and her friends are getting ready for the Holidays, wrapping gifts, trimming the tree and just throwing and candy around for no reason.

That's all for this month everyone!! I hope these images inspired you to get a jump-start on the holidays. If you have never tried making your own cards before, why not give it a shot?? They don't have to be perfect remember this Holiday season, it is the THOUGHT that counts!! Hope everyone has a super weekend and stay tuned for next month's inspiration post!

Happy National Candy Day!

Hey everyone!! Another day and it's another awesome Holiday in the month of November. Today, November 4th is National Candy Day!! Another excuse for me to draw candy. I really channeled my inner "Lisa Frank" with the colors on this crazy candy heart graphic:

Treat yourself to something sugary sweet to celebrate! And with Halloween and Trick-or-Treat just ending I'm sure you can find candy around your home. Or just raid your friend's home (with their permission of course)! But rembmer never EVER EVER EVER take ANY candy from strangers!!

Hope everyone has fun celebrating, stays safe and has a great weekend :)

Happy National Sandwich Day!

Hey everyone!! Since Halloween is over time to celebrate some of those in-between obscure Holidays. So put away all those fake spider webs and rotting jack-o-laterns and get ready to celebrate NATIONAL SANDWICH DAY!

Yes! November 3rd is National Sandwich Day. The origin of this day actually coincides with the birthday of the inventor of the sandwich, John Montagu. I'm not a big sandwich eater but I am always down for a yummy Peanut Butter and Jelly! So get out your bread, cheese, lettuce and whatever else you like on your sandwiches and celebrate!!