Illustration Friday: Cars

When my oldest son Cody was little, I'd always throw these elaborate themed birthday parties for him. Dinosaurs (complete with fossil dig, dino bone hunt), Carnival (with ticket booth, game booths, 50 balloons lining the walkway), Survivor themed (tribes, challenges, matching t-shirts and buffs), you get the idea. When I saw CARS was this week's challenge, I thought of all those parties I'd thrown for Cody...and somehow I never threw a car themed party! Poor little brother Jacob doesn't get those elaborate parties! He's lucky to get Chuck E. Cheese's! Well, come to think of it, he has had an "artist" party, a "doggone great" party, so he's not TOTALLY left out. They just haven't been as fancy. Below is a cake I made one year for Cody's SpongeBob party along with "octopus stew" made from hot dogs!

7 Things About Me

Kelly (kdhamel) tagged me so here's some wonderful things about me...seven to be exact!

1. My favorite animal in the whole wide world is an elephant! And yet, I have LOTS of difficulty drawing one!

2. I've been with my husband since we were 16 years old. (And no, we weren't married then, not until 21 years old. Some people think Kentucky folks get hitched quite young, but not THAT young!)

3. I wanted to name my kids really weird names when I was little; I was so little, in fact, that I don't remember ever saying I had plans to do that. The info. came from my older sister. My two names were going to be Jewelry and Jergens! WEIRD, but I was like, two years old! Sure hope they were going to be girls' names! Luckily I had 2 boys,

Cody and Jacob.

4. I won the poster contest in my school in 6th grade, but I was beaten in the county-wide contest by a 5th grader! I was SO mad that a little kid beat me! :)

5. I wanted to major in art in college, but instead chose education. I do love teaching, but I'd love to write and illustrate, too.

6. I'm a National Board Certified Teacher in the area of literacy. That was a LOT of work! Technically, I've been in school all my life except the first 4 years.

7. I'm getting a puppy...soon...I thought this weekend. She's a Japanese Chin and she's being flown in from Minnesota.

That's it. Seven wonderful and exciting things about me. Now if I only knew 7 other people that wouldn't hate me, I would tag them!

Illustration Friday: Signs

When I saw IF's theme, I thought of this t-shirt I created for our school's first ever Spring Fling festival last year! We're a new school, this is our second year, and most of our student population is considered at-risk. I decided to use the tiger (our mascot) holding a sign saying "Support TES Tigers" with kids' hands literally supporting him! It was a success with students at our school. I wouldn't have chosen a white t-shirt with orange, though...I guess it's OK. The kiddoes liked it! :)

IF Citrus

At our elementary school Friday, our students had a reward for completing a "good faith checklist" of different skills associated with taking our state mandated testing. Kindergarten classes took something called the GRADE assessment. All my students got to participate in the reward which included duct taping our principal to the wall, huge jumping inflatable slide, icee popsicles, free play, movie in the old media center, and popcorn. While we ate our picnic lunch outside, one of my former (and favorite) students put her orange wedge in her mouth and smiled at me! I thought that was so cute for this week's theme. Of course, she looks much cuter than the girl I've drawn! :)

IF--Neighbors

Here's a new illustration using my Wacom tablet. I thought a little bunny peeking around the fence at his farmer neighbor's garden would be really cute! I liked how he was sneaking up, possibly to steal some carrots. I'm just not pleased with my "skill" on this thing! I do much better with sketching with a simple pencil rather than using this! (I've included the quick sketch underneath.) I guess the more I use it ,the better I will get, but I'm not holding out any hope! If you have any (kind) insights or suggestions to offer as I attempt to gain control of this, I would appreciate it! Thanks :)