Sidetracked by Life - but Back with Pumpkin Bread

Hi lovelies! I know it's been awhile. . . but man have I been busy! I'm developing a new line of sketchy goodness - drawings to be sneak peeked sooner rather than later. I'm working like a maniac in my other life in full time animator/story boarder/lover mode. I'm busier socially than ever, which means that I'm way busy socially and deserve a butterfly medal. I had a stellar beach weekend and I have the sun burn to show for it. I look like a cheetah all over my back where the spray sunscreen most likely needed to be rubbed in.

My computer went fried egg on me, but luckily I had a lovely boy around to fix it. Now I have a factory new-old computer and I promise to never, ever say a bad word about poor Ruby Computer ever again. It would be impossible for me to ever express my complete and utter thankfulness to God/Technology/Karma etc. . . that Ruby Computer didn't decide to pull down the curtain over Surtex. The nice thing is that without a computer at home I've lived a semi-normal life recently and have taken the vacation from the computer that I have long promised myself. Now I'm back - with a vengeance, and with Pumpkin Bread.

My friend Kristen is getting married in a couple of weeks and so the perfect group gift turned out to be recipe cards. Smiling Pumpkin Bread is the tops and so I thought I'd send her off to her huge fancy house in Long Island with a map for making it. I thought you'd probably like it too, even though I'm sure it tastes best in the Fall in a big old house on Long Island :)

My illustrated recipe card collection/calendar is going to be available on Etsy in the next few weeks. If you must have your hands on them check back next month and they could be yours!

You're the Perfect Package!

This latest, and some say greatest, set of Hanna Stamps! was one of the most fun for me to design. Haha, well that's kind of funny since I loved illustrating every one of them. I hope that people use this set the way I conceptualized it, using boxes and bows to create fantastic looking little stamp packages. I'm already loving the sneak peeks that I am seeing on the design team blogs. The cluster stamp in this set is to die for! When it's lined up perfectly and twisted ever so slightly in a basket weave like pattern it creates an absolutely beautiful patch of spools and ribbons. It's my favorite of the bunch. Below is one of the tests that I always do before I ink. I line up the cluster sketch I've designed and repeat it until I fill a square so that I know exactly what it will look like if it's used as a repeating pattern. Only after I check it like this will I ink it and finish it up to send it off to become a stamp.


This Hanna Stamps! little beauty sitting on the floor wrapping, or unwrapping her gifts was originally a concept I sketched out while I was designing our 'Tis the Season set. As an artist you never know what great ideas you will come up when you're sketching up a storm, that's why it's important to always have a pencil handy!

It was really important to me to always create a cohesive stamp set. For ''Tis the season' I really wanted a versatile set, a lovely girly that could be decorating an outside tree or perhaps an indoor one with a blanket of snow that could easily become a tree skirt and so many options and choices. I know that all of the Hanna Stamps! customers are too talented to be tied to one of my ideas, so I try to come up with open ones that let them create their own.

This little eager gift opening/wrapping girl just didn't fit with any of the other concepts in the 'Tis the Season set. Now I'm glad she didn't! She makes the most perfect round the season gift giver! The DT is already using her for fantastic round' the year card ideas, everything from Valentines Day to birthdays and mother's day!

If you crop out the little box with the exploding broccoli-like bow on the gift tag you can easily fit the sentiment onto the tag. I had everything done and ribbons and bows and boxes crammed into every nook and cranny before I realized that we needed tape and scissors! That's always the hardest part of wrapping anything for me, finding a good pair of scissors in the house and enough scotch tape to hold it all together. I just couldn't let this little girly have as hard a time as I do! I thought we should help her out a bit ;) Kristi loved the idea of adding the tape and the scissors. Apparently we both have a hard time finding the tape!

Stalking the blogs and seeing what everyone is up to with these little girls that I've been sketching and developing since middle school is the best part of designing Hanna Stamps! I am so glad that I have had this opportunity to invent and create and to watch such talented people use my images. The entire experience has been such an honor. I cannot wait to see what everyone does with her. Happy Stamping, lovelies!

"You're the Perfect Package" can be purchased at http://www.hannastamps.com/