flapper paper doll for the goods

I made this flapper paper doll for McSweeney's The Goods

That means it will be in the two papers that carry The Goods: The San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune. If you wanna get this cool stuff in your own local paper, then you should call em up and tell em so!! Otherwise how will they know? Also, The Goods could use your support.

Paper dolls!!

dress shoppe stationary

Hello to you out there in the blog-o-sphere! I know I've been neglecting my blog, and that's not fair. My little bloggy blog has
done a lot for me, and yet I ignore it. No more!! I'm going to start posting more regularly now, I promise. I've even got a few ideas for regular/weekly/feature type blog updates so that even if I have nothing of my own to show you I can at least post something. Keeping it fresh is important, dontcha know.

In the mean time, just to prove that I have not just been sitting around my apartment eating bon bons and painting my nails (although I do so in moderation when the mood strikes), I'd like to present one of the projects that has kept me away from bloggin' as I should: my Dress Shoppe stationary set! I know I mentioned it before, but I got the thumbs up to do a more in-depth post on it, so here goes...


I wanted all the gals to look different but like they are from the same universe, too. This first lady in the suit might be my favorite. She's like the ultimate chic housewife of the decade. I imagine that she wears this outfit to the supermarket to buy 50lbs of meat to store in her giant freezer in her turquoise and pink kitchen. "Off to buy some haaaaam!"




This gal might look familiar because she is a re-incarnation of my Librarian Paper Doll. She was the inspiration for this set. (I still really want to do a straight up paper doll book or magnetic paper doll, by the by.)


I love this color combo: red orange, pink, minty green.



And one last sunny yellow dress! Actually, this might be my favorite. She's more 60's looking than the rest, but I love her flats and pink gloves. I pretty much gave her an outfit that I'd like to wear.

I made the set for Chronicle Books and I have to say, they really do a bang-up job on the graphic design end. The style of the set is super girly and very 50's, and I had the pleasure of working with folks who totally understood what I was going for and had a lot to add to it. Look at the little photo shoot they did for the back of the the box:

So perfect!!

It comes with stickers so you can stick accessories on the gals, like little glasses and purses and flower brooches and hats. And pink envelopes! Did I mention that they stand up? They do. (PS, please excuse the general crappishness of these photos.)


Anyhoo-a, you can pre-order them on Amazon
OR on the Chronicle Books website, but you wont be able to play with 'em til March. :)

BIG news!

Okay, first I'll give you the small stuff and then we can work our way up to the big one. Here's a drawing I did for some freelance recently to accompany the nooz:



NEWS!

-I received a shining endorsement on the Publishers Weekly blog! Thank you, Alison!

-The paintings from my last post are for SALE on the Bear and Bird Gallery site! Buy 'em up, make my day!

-LOTS of the paintings (and some prints) from my previous show are up at Una Mae's, a really cute boutique in my neighborhood. Support a local institution and a local artista, and go peruse their stylish duds and take home a painting.

-I'm going to be at Unique L.A. this weekend! Come by and visit! Me and my tiny pink X-mas tree will be happy to see you. I've got paper dolls to peddle!

-And finally: I'm going to be both writing and illustrating two books for Chronicle. They are awesome folks. I can't give any details yet, but I'm super excited. For anyone who ever doubted that their biggest craziest wildest dream could come true, let me tell you: if you keep hammering away at it, someday it WILL. And on that day your heart will explode into stardust and sprinkle itself all over the universe, covering all those who know you in a glittering blanket of AWESOME. No seriously, that's how it works.

SO, I've been busy, to say the least. Hope all you's Thanksgivingses were grand!

paper gal!

The actual "making" part is done! Now I have to print em out and test how everything fits. I have a feeling that they're going to be a pain in the butt to cut out...





Yay!

work in progress!

This is still a work in progress, but I thought it was about time for an update here in blog-land.



She has lots of outfits, and when she's done she'll be in my etsy store. She's also going with me to Unique LA this year, so if you're in the area you can swing by in December and grab one! I'm also hoping to have another paper doll, maybe a tattooed lady, or a flapper, or a 17th century lady. I was planning on having her done in time for APE but I underestimated how time consuming/technical/hard it is to make a good paper doll, so that was a no go. APE, by the way, was not particularly successful for me this year (but I get the impression that it wasn't too great for anybody exhibiting). I'm putting my hopes in Unique LA, hoping that people get into the X-mas shopping spirit by then!

In other news, it's almost HALLOWEEN, the best holiday ever! I don't know about you all, but I can't ever seem to really get IN to a holiday unless I watch an appropriately themed cartoon first.



Yay!