A custom proposal book for Samantha & Sian

I get a lot of very sweet commission requests. Every now and then, there's one that comes along that scares the hell out of me. A commission so big and so sweet that I'm terrified of screwing it up, and ultimately screwing up the big day or surprise for someone else. 

This book was one of those "holy hell sweet and daunting" books. 

Sian contacted me a while ago about putting together a "children's book" about how she and her then girlfriend Sam met. The book would go through how they met, their travels together, meeting family, and ultimately end with a surprise trip where Sian would propose on the last night, on the very last page. Ring illustration included. 

Like I said, holy hell sweet and daunting. 

Luckily, Sian already had the story framed out so all I needed to do was illustrate and bind it! It was so fun to watercolor these two and their incredible story of dating across two continents. 

Sian was so sweet and so much fun to collaborate with that it made the entire daunting process so much easier to tackle. I also got a sweet review from Sian so I can guess the proposal went over well!

There's some more photos up on my website if you're curious to see...

Aiden's Adventures - Custom Children's Book

A few days ago I made one of those "Best of Nine 2015" Instagram collages. After it compiled my most liked photos from last year, I was bummed. Not a single one of the photos were of any of my art. In fact, two of them were "Throwback Thursday" photos from Italy! Albeit, most of the photos in the collage were photos I posted during the peak of the Instagram craziness. But I was still bummed. 

Sure, I love looking at old photos of Italy and sharing my travels and photos around town. But you'd think since I have a business built on making things that odds are one would be top 9...but alas. 

So one of my goals this year (besides my new Weekly Postcard Project, Postcards from Penny and Lane) will be to share more photos of my work. The in-process messy shots, the silly behind the scenes collages of all my supplies, and the finished works of course. 

This is just one of many projects from last year I need to share, but it's already one of my favorites. 

Five years ago when I was still living/working in Italy, I was just starting to make custom children's books. Liam's Adventures was one of the earliest children's book commissions I received. In the 5 years since I made it for that little boy in Australia, Liam has grown up and now has a little brother, Aiden! His family requested I make a book for Aiden this time. 

I used a lot of the places mentioned in Liam's books as places for Aiden to actually visit. Aiden might be my new favorite traveling children's book. It might also be due to the fact that I was able to deliver it in person to Aiden when he and his family were visiting their relatives here in California for the Holidays! During his first reading of the book, he kept asking where Liam was in the book. By the second reading, he was loving seeing himself on all the pages! Such a fun moment for me. 

There's a few more photos over on my website too if you're curious to see more of Aiden. 

Adrian's Big Adventure...twice!

Hello friends! Holiday prep mode is in full swing here in the Sketchy Notions studios, which typically results in another "long time, no blog" post. I'm also still pretty far behind in sharing my recent projects. So far behind that they're no longer the most recent projects...

And so, here is a peek behind a pair of books that I made earlier this year. A pair of TWIN custom children's books! These two were quite the challenge to make but I'm very pleased with how they turned out. 

Holly approached me with a story that her father wrote about her two little boys. She wanted to have the story bound and illustrated for his birthday. And...a second copy for the boys to have. This commission resulted in my first ever clone book! 

Once each illustration was finished, I then scanned, edited and printed the illustration with the text. And voila! Two nearly identical custom children's books. *scissor drop* (because I'm a nerd and won't go anywhere near a microphone...)

These two were such a challenge but it was a great, satisfying feeling to send them both off to loving new homes! There are a few more photos over on my website as well if you're curious to see more. 

Farm Yard Family

I'm still slowly catching up on sharing all my most recent commissions. I feel like as soon as I finish one, three more come busting in! Which is great! I just end up falling behind on sharing them that much faster...

This sweet little book was another Christmas commission from last year. I made this one for Amanda, the founder of Old Yeller Ranch Rescue. The story follows her sweet little son and his adventures on his Grandmother's ranch with all her animals. You can see more photos of this sweet book on my website.

Little Texan, Big City

It's been almost a month since Christmas so it should be safe to share all my commissions that I had during the holiday season. This sweet little book that I made for little Amaya was one of the most challenging ones I've made. The story is also one of my favorites now too! The book follows Amaya and her pet javalina, Java, on their first adventure out of Texas to New York City. 

I don't say this lightly, I LOVE this book! I added a couple fold-outs to the book as well. One of them hides the carousel in Central Park and the other shows just how tall the Empire State Building looks when you're a tiny girl and javalina. Such a challenge but so worth it!

Before you scroll down to the photos, I have a really quick in shop news! 
Next week is my birthday! So to celebrate a little, if you use the code BDAYLOVE you can get 15% off in the Notional Notions Etsy shop AND the Sketchy Notions shop until February 1st! It won't work on custom commissions but you can use it on all the new Valentine's Day cards! 

Also, if you buy two prints of any size from the Sketchy shop, you'll get one free! Just leave a note when checking out to let me know which print you'd like free!

Here are a couple pictures from Amaya's sweet book and there are more on my website. 

the Tale of Kat & Dan

Back in January I was contacted by the sweetest gal who wanted the sweetest children's book to surprise her husband with on their wedding day. I've had insanely sweet requests before (remember the surprise Wedding/Honeymoon album?) but nothing of this magnitude. The story of how Katarina and Daniel met (then met again) is epic, and I'm not using that word lightly...

Katarina shared the full story on her blog but here's a quick synopsis: Katarina and Daniel both grew up in Croatia. Their families were good friends so the two pretty much knew each other since birth. They even have a photo of Dan blowing out the candles on Kat's first birthday cake! When they were young, the war in former Yugoslavia broke out. It forced both families to flee from their homes in Croatia and take refuge in Austria. After some time there, Dan's family got Visas to move to Australia. Kat's family tried to follow but their Visas were denied so they went to Canada instead. 

Fast forward many years...both their mothers had stayed in touch with each other but Kat and Dan were essentially strangers. So when Dan calls to ask if he can stay with her family in Canada, Kat was less than pleased. But once they met again, they hit it off right away and their whirlwind romance began! 

Such a perfect story to turn into a children's book. I had so much fun collaborating with Katarina on this book. Definitely top 5 favorite projects of all time! Here's a peek inside but there are more photos on my website as well. 

A Surprise for Henry

I really love my clients! It's always fun to get a new email or message on Etsy with a truly unique request...every one seems more challenging and cuter than the last. I swear my clients always have the best ideas for books or albums, and this newest book is no exception. 

A good friend of ours wanted a custom children's book for her niece's little boy who is about to become a big brother. Through the entire pregnancy, he's been saying that there's not a baby in his mom's belly...he heard some stomach growls and was convinced there was a baby lion inside! Over time he has also thought there has been baby monkey or elephant too. Cute, right? Amazing prompt for a story? Most definitely! 

The lion page is my favorite from the whole book! There's a couple more photos of this sweet book on chelseawardart if you're curious.

Paige & Lola

Okay, I thought I had enough willpower to wait until 2014 to share all these new projects but I really just can't... So I would like to introduce you to Paige and Lola, my newest custom children's book commission! 

I was contacted by Paige's aunt via Etsy a while back and she asked for a custom book about the future adventures of her adorable baby niece Paige and Lola, the family's English Bulldog. It was such a sweet project, writing stories about potential adventures is always fun! I'm a sucker for cute kiddos too. Here's a peek at Paige and Lola's adventures, and there are a few more photos on my website. We will see if I can manage to wait until 2014 to share the other two latest commissions. 

Adventures with Grandma & Grandpa!

At last, here are some photos of my second custom photo album commission. I reaaaally love how this one turned out. We were going for a sort of 'cottage-y' look this time, very different from Curren's nautical album. I did light washes on the cover with my widest brush to achieve the wood grain look. I bound the album with a coptic stitch and then covered the spine with lace. All throughout the book there are freehand illustrations of flowers, then the two little grand-kiddos on the title page!

Edit: Getting married soon and need a guest book? Or would you like your own custom photo album? I just re-listed a commission for one in my Etsy shop! 

Curren's book

Day two of being on the Blog Every Day challenge and I already screwed it up. Well, I'm technically still blogging but I wanted to dedicated a whole days post to my latest little project. I love how this commission turned out so be ready for a bunch of photos! 

This book was commissioned by my friend Tina. She wanted a big blank book with a nautical/ocean theme to use as a photo album for her little son Curren. I love how this book turned out! It was my first big book commission that wasn't filled with large illustrations or stories on every page, so it was a little different compared to other projects. I did sneak in little ocean related illustrations every other page in the book, and the wave wreath on the front is my absolute favorite part of the whole book! 

meet Warren!

Remember this sweet little face? And remember a couple months ago when I introduced you to Elijah and Brody? Well I finally just finished the third custom children's book of that trio of commissions! Meet little Warren! He's a good friend of our family (and my little sister's best friend). It took me ages to finish this little guy, plus in the middle of the process he got a new little sister so I wanted to incorporate that into his story! 

But now he's done, and not a minute too soon because...I'm going back to Florida... tomorrow! Disney World round two! Pretty stoked about this trip, it has been in the works for a couple months now and wouldn't be at all possible without the very generous help of my very sweet (and handsome) boyfriend. 

I may be on the the other side of the country but the blog won't be completely quiet. I have a Friday Feature coming later this week, there's the giveaway on Kitty and Buck also and I have a special surprise for Monday so make sure you keep an eye on the blog this week. 

There is also an interview that Shirley did of me over on Trees.Hides., one of the blogs I sponsored this month! Pop on over to check it out and show Shirley some love for such a nice interview/post!

Without further ado, meet little Warren! There are more photos of this little guy over on my website too. 

Want your own custom children's book for a special little someone? Check out my Etsy listing here.