My girlfriend’s son is turning 5 next month & she asked me to design his birthday invitations. They decided on a “Bigfoot” theme since his birthday is so close to Halloween. I think the design turned out really cute & I cannot wait to celebrate with them!
We just had some new neighbors move in down the street & I always like making a little something as a house warming gift. Usually, I make something that is locally themed, which is why I made them this painting of the Calvert County flag (which is the county in MD where we all live).
I also gave them a little frame with pressed flowers from my garden & an ornament made from a fossilized scallop shell we found on our beach.
I should have posted this design months ago, but we have been exceptionally busy with our new house. Anyways, here is the shirt design I made for my husband for father’s day this year. He wears it all the time!
For my daughter’s friends 7th birthday, I made her a little picture of her favorite Pokémon, Eevee. I tried to do a drawing but it wasn’t working out so I decided to make it with cut paper & pen.
I forgot to add the sign & donation box I made for the cookie booths. People can buy cookies to donate to local charities. This year our troop voted to donate cookies to local hospitals.
I used Velcro to add the word “HOSPITALS” since we change charities each year, like last year we donated them to our teachers. I’m hoping by doing that we can reuse the sign every year.
It’s that time of year again – time for GIRL SCOUT COOKIES! Which means it’s time for some new signs to trick out our booths.
(Plus, we can now sell the Adventurefuls at booths instead of only online which means it had to be added to the price list.)
(Next year instead of remaking a whole new price board, I’ll just add a small sign with the price sticking off the side for the Raspberry Rally cookie – which is only available online this year).
This year I didn’t knock myself out making each card by hand, but I did draw it by hand & then have my daughter color it in with crayons as a mommy/daughter effort.
It’s been a while since I’d done any linocut prints, so I decided to carve some new plates & print them for friends & family. I made multiple prints of the Rockfish & Blue Crab in blue & green, but I only printed one copy of the Honey Dipper steel guitar in black for my dad.
As you know, I am the kind of person who just can’t throw away interesting things that I could use to make something pretty later on & this is a great example. We had bought 2 sets of cheap headphones for school & they both broke. But instead of just tossing them, I saved the ear cups because they looked like snow globes – which is exactly why I used them to make these!
If you don’t already know, we are currently in the process of renovating & expanding our single story cottage into a 3 story cape code. Luckily, we have the most incredible neighbors who have allowed us to rent their second home while this is going on. As a thank you for their generosity, I wanted to give them something special as a thank you gift, so I decided to make them a few things.
The first is an illustration of their home, looking back across the lawn from the water:
The second is an illustration the bay view from the house:
The third is a sign for the front of the house that I made from cedar planks:
These simple gifts could never convey the amount of gratitude we feel due to their generosity. Being able to live 500 feet away from our home while it is under construction is just incredible – we are able to be involved on an everyday basis. Plus, my daughters life has barely changed – she can still play on her swings after school! Not only can we stay as long as we need, but they even gave us a deal on the rent. They have made this entire project doable.
Sue & Randy, We can’t thank you enough!
After writing my last post, I realized I never shared all the signs I made last year for our Troop’s Cookie Booths. All of the signs were made so that the girls could carry them around except the Cookie Price List, which was made to stand up on the table. I had to hide two wooden triangles to the back to prop it up.
They were all made with either foam board or matte board, colored paper, rubber cement & acrylic paint pens.
Our Troop actually won a $25 gift card to Michael’s for the most “Blinged Out Booth” in Calvert County! I can’t take all the credit though because the rainbow table cover & whole set-up was done by one of the other mom’s, Victoria. Had she not done that, I wouldn’t have used the rainbow color scheme for all my signs – which I think made them stand out so well. Plus, we usually sell cookies around St. Patty’s Day, which ties in well the the rainbow theme (& explains the Leprechaun sign!)
Now that I am a Girl Scout mom, I try to volunteer my skills as a designer & illustrator as much as I can. I love it because I get to make all sorts of fun things for our Troop, like this banner. I created the design in Illustrator, then printed the design to scale & cut stencils to transfer it onto canvas with acrylic paint. After it was dry, I ironed the back side (on high) to fix the paint onto the canvas – it essentially melts the paint onto the fabric. I also hemmed the edges & added small grommets to the corners for hanging.
LIZ (strong) WILSON DESIGN 