Mushrooms, turtles, and snails combine with leaves, berries and flowers to highlight some of the flora and fauna of the forest floor. This weeks Spoonflower Design Challenge is “Forest Biome” and I had fun bringing a touch of whimsy to my design.
It all started with the mushrooms. Once I had 4-5 drawn out and colored, I decided that a couple of them needed faces. I’m pleased to introduce you to Lady Mushroom (see my first animation of her over on Instagram).
The leaves were next. I wanted a variety. Those little heart branches were last and they are my favorite!
Then I needed berries… but I wanted a variety of berries for interest.
I added the turtles in honor of my 8 year old son. He loves turtles. I’m not big on realistic turtle drawing, though. My turtles often have those super unrealistically high shells. He has vaulted ceilings. 🙂
I thought I was done, and I was really happy with the design, when my husband decided I needed to add snails. He does that sort of thing all the time.
“But I don’t want to add snails! Snails sound hard!”
Nonetheless, I added snails. And I love them. He was right. It definitely needed snails. And one of them definitely needed a face, however unscientific it may be. 🙂
Spoonflower is showcasing these in their contest as wallpaper, but how would you use it? Fabric? Wallpaper? Would you turn it into a little girls dress? Or dress the walls of the kids playroom? Let me know in the comments!
My chicken calendars are here and I just love them! Like my Truck Calendars and my Doodle Calendars, they are seasonal and petite! A small (Hobby Lobby) easel will hold them in a little corner of your home. These little cuties are just 3.5 inches tall!
You’ll find a little illustration marking special holidays on most months. A snowflake for New Years, for instance, and a sunflower for 4th of July. I decided to match the illustration at the top this year instead of the actual holiday. I love the little pile of raked up leaves on Thanksgiving Day!
Come over to my Etsy Shop to see the rest of the illustrations for each month! And to celebrate *finally* getting these done, I’ve put all my calendars on sale for 50% off till the end of October! Come be the first to get them!
What’s your favorite month? Tell me in the comments!
My first post for the new domain! Yey! I’m still working out a handful of kinks in the road (getting my subscription up for one), but I wanted to give you a little sneak peak of what I’m working on for the shop. Plus, I miss you all!
I have a couple plans for this little guy. I’m making some tweaks to him (her?) and I’m working on several different poses. What do you think of my new project?
I’m super excited about my latest addition to my Etsy shop. I’ve been toying with the idea of designing some clipart for a while now, but something else keeps taking it’s place in line. Finally, I pulled together some of my favorite designs from the chicken egg counting sheets and other designs I had on hand. To those I added this brand new chicken coop design and wala! Chicken clipart for you to use in your diy projects.
Do you want to create a sign? Perfect!
Do you want to make your own forms or recording sheets? These are for you!
School worksheets or your class or homeschool? Yes!
Bullet Journals, coloring books and more? Of course! Available in color and black and white!
These have a personal license, but you can use them for anything you want (distribution of papers created for your classroom or church is fine, but please don’t take credit for yourself and don’t share files with others.)
Best of all, if you already have my Egg Counting Sheets and you want to add other forms to use in your homestead binder, this clipart pack matches!
Discount alert! I’m giving you all a coupon code to use for the next week (just for my readers!) For 30% off through February 9th (2023), click here or go to my shop and enter coupon code CLUCK at checkout.
I know I have a wide range of people who are readers here. Raise your hand if you are a chicken person (okay… leave a comment?). If you aren’t sure, you probably aren’t. A chicken person doesn’t necessarily have chickens themselves, but they want to. And not all people who have chickens are chicken people. (Am I right?)
And of course, among chicken people there is a wide variety as well. Some just love the birds and others make fancy coops and decorate them seasonally. (Someday I want that to be me.)
We have chickens in a quarter of our garden with a somewhat ugly but functional coop. I made it myself with the help of 3-12 year olds (6 of them). I guess you could say that I’m a kid person at this phase of my life. 🙂 Anyway, I digress.
While I dream of what I would do if homeschooling and gardening, laundry and occasional house cleaning didn’t take up all my time, I made some really cute (sorry, I’m biased) chicken coop signs for you to decorate your chicken spaces with!
They are in my Etsy shop now. Head over to grab the bundle for yourself for 30% off this week. Coupon code COOPSIGNS30 or click here.
Frame them and and hang them under shelter if you have it. I think they would be cute mounted to wood and sealed from the elements and hung on the outside. Your call. What would you do with them? Let me know in the comments! 🙂
Did you see my Mini Chicken Calendar and love it, but not care so much about the chickens? I hear you. Chickens aren’t for everybody. And while trucks aren’t for everybody, I know that a bunch of you do love old trucks! I hope you love this little calendar with all their whimsical illustrations just as much!
I love to tie these little cuties (mini size) onto a package or plate of cookies for a Christmas gift. It’s what I’m doing for our pastors’ wives again this year. The first year I included a mini easel from Hobby Lobby. They make a great stocking stuffer too and fit perfectly. If you prefer the larger sizes, place them in a frame and switch them out, clip them to the fridge, or slide them in the front of your school binder! So many options!
Whether they are for you or for gift giving (both?), you can find them in my Etsy shop right now!
What do you think? Do you like them? Which month is your favorite. Tell me in the comments!
Back by popular demand, I have illustrated new mini doodle calendars for 2023! I did a couple of them years ago (here too) to sell at our Christmas market. They take a lot of time to create, though, so it’s been a while since I’ve done one. This summer I took up the challenge with my mini illustrated chicken calendar.
While I am hoping to sell them at our Christmas market next month, I also have them in my shop as digital downloads. They are downloadable as a PDF with three different sizes: mini, 4×6, and 5×7.
The larger sizes can be framed for display or clipped up, but I love the mini size on easels and tucked on a shelf or in a windowsill above the sink or stove.
I have dreams of posting a second design before the end of the year, but I haven’t decided what the design should be. Any ideas? Flip through some of my past content to see ideas of what sort of artwork I’ve done in the past and post your suggestions in the comments.
In our home we do parties in a big way… and simple at the same time. What do I mean by that? Basically, we have some big impact things that go a long way toward making the day special, but we don’t go overboard, or expensive, or worry about perfection.
I always start with my chalkboard. Sometimes it’s elaborate, other times it’s not. It depends on my inspiration and abilities. I wasn’t feeling super inspired this time, but don’t tell my 7 year old… he thought it was great. You can build or buy one like this (husband made mine) or get a similar effect with Dollar Tree foam board (not an affiliate link) and some chalkboard paint.
Lately the kids have been asking for donuts for birthday breakfasts. We have a donut shop right down the road, so it works out. Husband takes the birthday kid with him to pick out donuts the morning of. I never know what will come home. 🙂 When they got home I had the kids pick their donuts out and I added Oreo eyes and candy corn beaks (this birthday was the day after Thanksgiving, so there is also a turkey donut in there.) Incorporating the theme in this way made something simple into something extra special!
Even simpler and more budget friendly: You could grab donuts from Walmart or the grocery store instead of getting them from a donut shop.?
Decorations were super simple. Crepe paper and ribbon with balloons around the room and some paper cut with my Cricut. An owl and “Whoooo’s turning 7?” on the wall.
Simple tip: Hand cut these if you don’t have a cutting machine.
I found this idea on Pinterest. Kids are always asking for fruit salad, and this looked like a way to make that “fruit salad” extra special! You’ll notice that the Pinterest version looks way better than mine, but perfection isn’t my goal. The birthday boy loved it and that’s enough for me! (Sometimes I have to tell the kids what something is… but I still get credit!)
The cake was the hardest part of the day, but it wasn’t that bad either. You can pick something else from my pinterest board that might be simplier… or more difficult.
For the cake, I started with a 2 layer cake with brown frosting all over. For the feathers I made dots of brown frosting from a pastry bag (the cut off corner of a ziplock bag would work too) in a line. After the bottom line of dots is there, I used the flat of a butter knife to squish and drag the dot up into a “feather”. Then make another row and do the same. I looked for a video to show this, but I can’t find the one I learned from forever ago. (Update: this pin shows what I’m talking about… and then you can try it on a Christmas tree cookie like they do! 🙂
A dinner he loves, gifts (including some that match the theme like an owl clock and a couple owl coloring books) and time together top off the day. Simple, but special! You can pull that off in so many ways… even with store bought cake and a purchased birthday banner. What matters most is that you take some extra steps to make the day special for your kid… it will be something remembered forever!
This project has been a long time coming, and a lot of original artwork was created to make these extra special! I’ve been wanting to create these Egg Counting Sheets for a few years (ever since I made one for for the month of April a few years back), and the drawing tablet I got for my birthday last fall was just the push I needed! I’ve been working on them for several months and I’m super excited to have them done and ready for your farm or homestead needs!
UPDATE 2023: You can also find these egg counting sheets in my Whole Coop Chicken Mega Bundle with my other chicken products. Click here to find that.
Each page has chicken themed artwork that matches the season. You may recognize the chickens from a fabric design I shared lately (available for sale here.) The chickens from that fabric were originally from these egg counting sheets.
You can keep track of how many eggs you collect each day, any expenses from the month and your gross and net sales (if you sell your eggs.) There is also a section for writing any notes about your chickens or things you need to do or buy.
A couple years ago I painted this in my art journal.
A few weeks ago I brought that painting into Illustrator and created a wall hanging for the International Women’s Day Spoonflower Design Challenge.
This weekend I added it to my Etsy shop as a digital download.
I love this verse in the Bible. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2 This art print is a cute way to be reminded throughout the day that we are not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by renewing our minds with God’s Word.
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