Freebie- Laundry Signs

Who doesn't love a freebie!? And organisation.. and getting kids to help out with the household chores!?

In an attempt to make chores fun for my kids I decided to label our laundry baskets. So I thought, why not come up with a cute illustrated sign that I could share with other Mums (or Dads for that matter), or even people with no offspring that just want to pretty up their laundry baskets? :)

Talking about Dads, the husband-guy who lives in this house could do with a bit of visual prompting to get his clothes into the right baskets... but I shall not elaborate on that here today...

Here are the signs, made with good old fashioned drawing and new fashioned photoshop (download links will be at the end of this post):

Go ahead and print your downloads out on whatever type of paper floats your boat. I used some heavyweight matte photo paper on a standard home printer. Cut those babies out, then decide how you are going to give them some longevity. I covered them- all crappily I might add- with some packing tape: Poor man's laminating! (Use what you have.) You may have a laminator. Or you may want to just blu-tack them to the walls or even pop them in cute frames. Again, whatever floats your boat.

I punched some holes in the edges and tied them to our laundry baskets with string. 

Now it's the kids turn to do the next step. And the, ahem... husband.

Enjoy.

Download the 'Darks' sign here.

Download the 'Lights' sign here.

(This is the first time I have offered a 'download' for a while. I'd be so appreciative if you could let me know if the links work!)

Jules :)

Gobbling Up Goodness..

..With my eyes! Books that look so good I could eat them!

I have been doing a fair bit of research lately on Children's Picture Books. And I love this area of illustration so much that I am just awe struck when I come across beautiful new books. It's a tricky area of illustration to crack into, which is why I feel truly blessed that I've been there before.

I have just ordered Oddfellow's Orphanage by the extremely talented Emily Winfield Martin. This is not a picture book but junior fiction, which has come out at the right time for my Miss 6 1/2 to read. She is becoming a regular book worm at night reading by the light of her bedside table lamp. This one's for her. She tells me "Mum, you like 'weird' don't you?" Yes, my love, I do. And she's following in her mother's footsteps. She's very creative and already sees things from an artists' perspective.

I love illustrations that are textured and have depth through they way they are rendered, such as with these two books. Oh, I'm sure "The Little Gardener" will be the next one that pops up on my credit card statement! Both published by Flying Eye Books. (Some really awesome books published there.)

And Elsa Mora has illustrated The Water And The Wild. (Also junior fiction.) I've been following this artist ever since way back when she first opened her Etsy shop. Lovely to see some of her work gracing this book cover.

Another of my favourite artists has illustrated her first book Sonya's Chickens. Her illustrations are so beautiful to look at. She has the right balance of elements that come together to make stunning pictures. This might just have to be ordered at the same time as "The Little Gardener"! 

So after feasting my eyes on lots of delicious new books as part of some inspiration for illustration work; I just had to share. 

Now I'll leave you with an image of a painting I was working on during last nights Art Jam session. Untitled as yet.

Catch you soon :)