Business cards for my hubby

As a surprise i have designed and ordered my sweet husband his first businesscards. He really likes them, read his happy (and funny) blogpost about his new cards on his blog.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is the first year that i've been cooking a Thanksgiving meal. I didn't grow up with celebrating Thanksgiving, but i have been at 2 thanksgiving dinners before, plus what i've seen in movies and on Food Network, i whipped up a storm in the kitchen today!
Cranberry Sauce, Cornbread, Coleslaw (two batches!), Stuffing, Peach Cobbler (only thing that didn't came out right), Potato Salad, Sweet Potato Casserole (ala Boston Market with marshmallows!), Gravy, and Mac & Cheese. And since hubby doesn't eat Turkey, i made Fried Chicken.
Everything from scratch! Oh, i'm lying, the cornbread came from a package, had to add some ingredients though.
We will be eating for days!

All though we've been going through some hard times lately, today we are relaxing and giving thanks.
In between cooking i've been watching old Gene Kelly Fred Astaire movies. Oh i love today!

The Thank You card design with this post is the setup for a bunch of postcards i will have printed and send to all those who have helped us with convincing the immigration service that Love and I are really a loving couple. So many people came trough and wrote letters for us. I am very grateful.

I don't know what the future will bring, but i think i have had my share of bad luck for a while. Better times must be ahead!
Thank you. Everyone. Online and Offline. For all your love and support.

Pretty new illustration

I recently wrote about the slump i was in illustration wise. I knew i had to just make some time, sit down and start. Something would come out of it.
Now i can say this is actually working. Outcome of some late night focus yesterday is that i have a new pretty illustration plus i'm starting to feel inspired again. New ideas are forming and that makes me a very happy puppy!

Illustrator, i miss you

I have some illustration work waiting for me. I miss creating. But it feels like whenever i don't illustrate for awhile, it gets harder to get back into the swing of things. I miss it and the love is there, but where is the excitement? I sure hope i find some inspiration soon. I remember those nights that i didn't want to go to sleep, just wanted to finish something. Now i am glad if i actually start something! Maybe forcing myself to sit down and create is the way? Any tips?

I think this lady turned out pretty. I do think she should be included in another, more elaborate illustration or just on another background. But for now i'm already pleased something appeared on my screen after staring at the illustrator window for ever!

In my world it would look like this

Another day in may for everyday in may. I'm still sitting down daily to work on illustrations. I'm not good at starting something and continuing working on it until it's done before starting a new project. I'm always all over the place when it comes to the things i'm working on. So there are a number of almost finished illustrations which will definitely get finished soon!

Since i showed a work in progress of this illustration, i did try to focus and get this one done first. Remember, either a robot or a spaceship? I loved reading your guesses as to what it would be! Sarah from Girl Land actually mentioned it could become something like Times Square or something! Well, it turned out to be my version of Times Square. In my world Time Square would look something like this.

And on another day in may, there was sweet mamutopia who gave me an adorable blog award! Thank you lady! I think you and your blog are adorable too!
And not to forget about Kristen of Pretty Little World, she has featured my XL Vintage magnets on her oh so stylish blog!
Last but not least, happy birthday to my big brother!

Every Day in May Update

Did i say i would do a whole illustration every day or work on illustrations every day? I'm currently working on quite an elaborate illustration, so now it's the latter. I've also decided to do Every day in May updates every Sunday instead of showing my work daily.
But today i really wanted to share this preview, just because i think it's funny.
When i started outlining the illustration, i asked my hubby if he could already see what it was going to be.
His answer was "Either a robot or a spaceship". Which made me laugh since it will be something totally different! But i see where he is coming from.
I'm having lots of fun working on this since it is so totally different from what i usually make. Can't wait to have it finished and hear what you all think!

Ismoyo Wrappingpaper

Oh how i would love to have my own line of wrapping paper. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
For the time being i whipped up this pretty pink number to wrap my etsy orders in. Even though you might shopping for yourself, isn't it more of a treat when it arrives specially wrapped for you?

New Layout and the making of a new Banner

I'm sorry about my online absence, but i'm back! And with a whole new site re-style!
I tested everything and it looks like it all works, but if you happen to find something that isn't right, links not working, pls let me know! There are still some small things i want to tweak, like font color, maybe sizes, small things.
I also hope the colors look as good on your screen as they do on mine. I'm so frustrated with different screencolors, so i'm hoping you're seeing the site as i designed and intended it. Let me know what you think!

This is one of the first drafts of the new banner. I thought it might be interesting to show how it kinda evolves into what is up on the screen now. I liked placing the little angel girl prominently on my site, but then my Love said that the pink Ismoyo girl shouldn't disappear. And he was right. Plus the fact that all my promo items have the ismoyo girl on them and i really don't feel like having to change it all, or to not be consistent (angel girl on site, pink girl on all other outlets).

Here the ismoyo girl returned. It's starting to look 'right' but the circle behind the girl is missing something.

Tada! Made some changes, took things away, added new things (cute sewing notions, so ismoyo!). As you can see, the circle behind the girl has been replaced with a pink jewelry setting which i also used for some buttons on the right side here.

Oh, if you have some time and feel like browsing, don't forget to check out the updated Links page! It was about time i gave it a once over. Want to see where i hang out online? It's there! If you feel left out, was expecting to see a link to your site or blog, don't feel hurt, i might have accidentally forgot to add. Leave me a comment/email and i'll fix it!

Glad to be back here, hope you're still here with me!

Six cute and colorful notebooks

Finally, here are the pictures of the notebooks i made recently. I really like how they came out.
Link to Etsy listing.

For most of them i used photos of vintage interiors as the background and edited my own illustrations in them. This deer has found herself a very vintage livingroom to live in!
Link to Etsy listing.

Then again, this blue bear and its birdie friend wanted to play in a lovely park today.
Link to Etsy listing.

I'm thinking of adding a personal page on the inside cover for my second batch. What do you think? You know, one of those pages where you can write down your name and such.
Link to Etsy listing.

I might also switch the spiral to the side instead of the top. Not sure about that yet.
Link to Etsy listing.

Obviously, there will also be full frontal shots in the Etsy listings! I will add links to the listings here as soon as i have put them up in the shop. Done!
Link to Etsy listing.

New baby card designs

New customizable baby announcement cards uploaded to my shop.
Baby boy Version.

Baby Girl Version.

Sticker gifts

Made a bunch of stickers from my illustrations to send out with orders from my 2nd Etsy shop as a free gift. I always love it when i order something somewhere and there is a little surprise in the package. It's not necessary, but so much fun. And i always try to do that with orders i send out too.

La Vie en Rose

Why is it that when my to-do list only grows longer, i choose to bypass everything and work on a new illustration? One good thing about it is that looking at this makes me smile!
Enough playing around, back to (boring) business!

Snapfish illustration book

Remember somewhere at the end of last year, i wrote about the Snapfish offer for a free picture book? I never showed the final result!

I choose to get a white leather cover with a small peephole in the middle which shows my ismoyo girl. The book has 20 full color pages, i'm just showing you a couple to give a feel of how it turned out.

Since the offer was valid for only a couple of days, i had to rush to compile a good variety of my work so far. Went back into my archives to see what i could use. The showgirl on the left got an updated background and the one on the right stayed as she was. (now that i go back to find original blog posts to link to, i realize i never showed the girl on the left before. How strange. I need to include her in my gallery pages too!)

Vive La Fashion is a crop from an illustration i did for a Tigerprint competition last year. (didn't win, but did get a nice write up on their blog!) The lady on the right just had to be included since she was one of the first ever illustrations i did. (she is in my gallery, but never got her own blogpost)

The final book looks very well made, the quality of the cover, the paper used and the prints is very good. There were a few illustrations that came out with some color differences from the original designs, but that's not their fault. I thought i checked all my colors, there are colors used for screen and colors used for printing. I think i overlooked one or two (like the background color for the canal houses, bottom left).

Overall i'm very happy with how it turned out. Especially for something you get for free!

Horse Play

Illustration of the day. Time to play!

A Happy Place

Life in a happy place.
Do you recognize the birdie in the cuckoo's clock?

By the way: I went for it, have set up a facebook account. Do you facebook? Add me *ismoyo green*. See you there!

Bird Print

I hadn't shown this illustration pattern here before. Sorry! I took the bird and the tree from the mini art appliques i made a while ago and added some flowers. Tada! You like?

Making Faces

Making (cute) faces today.

I miss Amsterdam

I love living in New York, but there are times i miss my old city. Maybe it has something to do with the holiday season that makes the missing even more. I miss Amsterdam with it's lovely canals and those gorgeous canal houses. I wish i could buzz myself over and have an afternoon with friends, drinking coffee, chatting away and walking through the city. Thinking about that gave me the inspiration to make some illustrations of those wonderful canal houses.

Baby Announcement Cards

I think i have talked about it before, i am working on setting up a little venue (probably through Etsy and my site) to offer custom and customized baby announcement cards. I design, you print. That type of thing. So i'm very busy getting some samples done. Like these here. I will obviously also make boy versions and set up a basic inside design for each card. I would love to hear what you think and which one is your favorite! So please share!

Winter on my mind

I should be working on designing patterns for a fun little project. I'm not sure what happened but all of a sudden i found myself creating this little winter wonderland. Little Red Ridinghood in the snow.

Kokeshi Patterns

Having fun with Kokeshi doll illustrations.
I love them all, what is your favorite?

New Plans and Patterns

It looks like i'm finding my groove again illustration wise. Spending time on a couple small custom design projects, freestyle pattern designing and long overdue promised illustrations brought some exciting new ideas to mind.

First of all, i'm going to set up an etsy shop for custom illustrations. I have already claimed ismoyoart.etsy.com, you can look, but there is nothing there yet. The whole idea needs to take shape first. I'm thinking of offering wedding (invitations and save the date cards) and baby announcement cards, standard designs that can be personalized with the appropriate names/dates and also custom designs of course. There will also be the option to order vector portraits, cute for newborn babies or wedding couples.

loving you

This is what i do when my to-do list overwhelms me. I ignore it and spend my time creating illustrations.

Gorgeous Book of Illustrations

My dear friend Hadar Kimchy has published this wonderful book. "Good Manners" It's a book of her gorgeous illustrations. Unfortunately i can't read anything in it, since it is completely in Hebrew. She told me it is about retro fifties manners. Oh, the images are so pretty! I don't care i can't read it, i cherish it nonetheless!

New layout. Long overdue.

How many times haven't i thought i should really need to put up a new site layout, but just didn't seems to get it on top of the priority list? Too many times.

Now it's just long overdue and finally ready. (i even updated my gallery pages too) Hope you'll like it and enjoy your stay here even more.

Sweet and shy

Working on a new girl illustration. I really want to update my website and blog layout in the near future. It has been the same for such a long time already. Allthough i have no idea when an update will actually happen, I'm thinking this girl will be the new star of the show.

Honored

I'm very honored. Got a very kind write up over at the Tigerprint blog. Tigerprint is the UK design studio who does all the designs for Marks & Spencer. They often have illustration competitions which i always keep an eye on. Currently there is a fashion illustration competition to design a fashion postcard. I'm definitely not thinking that i am a fashion illustrator, i wish. But i do make illustrations and some are fashionable. So i sent in something. Not with the illusion of winning, just to get the creative juices flowing. I used an illustration which i drafted awhile ago, thinking to use it for a new blog layout (that never happened..). I think it turned out pretty nice. And the people over at Tigerprint liked it enough to check out my site and write about it. Thank you! I really appreciate it!

Cherry on top

I'm working on a new personal project and finally taking some time again to work on some illustrating work too. Oh how i missed it.

More babies

A while ago i did this baby illustration for a friend of mine. I got a lot of great responses to it and now i'm thinking i should offer vector baby illustrations as a design service. So i'm making a couple more to add to my portfolio and to use to promote the service. I'll probably have to print some promo-cards, maybe place them at babystores or something. This whole idea hasn't crystallized yet, but i think it could work. The most important thing is that i love doing these illustrations. Hope it shows!