I am very excited to announce the launch of The Unblocked! Writer, a new blog that I designed for New York-based writer, Sidney Stark. I used Wordpress for the content management system. The Unblocked! Writer is an excellent resource for creative writing inspiration. Check it out here - it's even got Facebook, Twitter and Enews for those who want to stay really connected.

I've had the special role of working with the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia on their marketing materials for Bike Philly 2010. Included in this post are some of the designs I've done for them, including the logo and postcard. A company called GoCycling took my artwork and converted it into the official Bike Philly 2010 jersey. It can be purchased at citycyclingjerseys.com

I am excited to announce a new addition to my shop - "safari animals" bookplates! Now that I have seen the real deal, I am even more in love with my animal illustrations. Each set is only $5 and includes four different bookplates - elephant, giraffe, lion cub, and flamingos. Click here to purchase. While you're at my store, check out my matching safari animals fill-in-the-blank thank you notes. Happy shopping!

Taking a little break from the World Cup fever here to post my favorite book cover of the week. Perhaps one of my favorite summertime reads, The Great Gatsby fits in perfectly this week as temperatures soar into the upper 90s in Philadelphia. This is Francis Cugat’s jacket design for The Great Gatsby, published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1925.

This week, as you can tell, is all about the World Cup. Today is a big day! The US plays Algeria at 10am EST. To get you in the spirit, here are some cool images of a few of the starters. I grabbed these from nike.com. C'mon boys!

I woke up at 4:30 this morning but I am slowly catching up to my current time zone. I am sitting here listening to the terrible 90's music on Jacaranda, drinking a cup of roiboos tea, and reminiscing about my time in South Africa.

We packed so much into our week-long trip but I feel changed by my experience and the different world in which we traveled. Should you find yourself planning a trip to South Africa, I highly recommend flying into Johannesburg and renting a car to drive up to Kruger National Park by way of Dullstroom. It's a gorgeous 5 hour drive and you can stop for lunch at Mrs. Simpson's Restaurant in the idyllic trout fishing town of Dullstroom.

Stepping into the restaurant, you are immediately transported back in time and into a shrine to Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor. The would-be King George of England, gave up his crown to marry her, this "big catch." There is a trout fishing fly named after Mrs.Simpson, and it's a lucky charm they say, …

Happy summer! This is a short post since we just arrived home from South Africa yesterday and I am more than a little jet lagged after an 18 hour flight. The trip was absolutely amazing and I intend to share much more about it once I get my thoughts and photos together. In the meantime, I just have to share this cute link from The Daily Mammal. The artist, Jennifer Rae Kinyak, is attempting to draw one picture a day of the 5,000+ animal species known to science. In honor of the World Cup, she is drawing animals from each country in the tournament.

Tomorrow we leave for South Africa, the biggest adventure of my life. I still can't believe this is happening and I am having trouble finding the words to describe my excitement. In the midst of packing, I took a moment to surf the internet for design bloggers in South Africa. I found an excellent resource for design inspiration and news in South Africa: Between 10 and 5, the creative showcase. The idea behind "between 10 and 5" is to showcase the best, actually between 5 and 10 of the best, pieces of recent work by South African designers. Check out some of my favorites below.


http://www.10and5.com/2010/06/exhibit-your-work-over-the-world-cup-at-royale-eatery/


http://www.10and5.com/2010/06/cotton-press-poster/


http://www.10and5.com/2009/10/toyota-prius-by-draftfcb/#more-5166


http://www.10and5.com/2010/06/print-campaign-for-eveready-sas-alkaline-batteries/

My friend Kristen asked me to help her put together a cute "will you be my bridesmaid?" postcard using some hilarious images that she found. She is far from a "bridezilla" and I know her maids got a good laugh from this silly postcard. She got them printed at zazzle.com at a really low cost. Sometimes I wish I could go through the whole wedding planning process again - the creative options for correspondence are endless! What are some of your funny wedding stationery ideas? Share a comment below.

pictured above from left to right: Allison's mom, Allison Chapman, Karly Depew of Oscar + Emma, Sharon McMullen
Continuing my adventure stories from the National Stationery Show in May, I absolutely must include my happy encounter with Allison Chapman and Sharon McMullen of Igloo Letterpress. Allison started Igloo Letterpress in 1996 and credits her passion in part to her grandfather and her time spent in his hobby shop. As their clever marketing postcard states, "Igloo Letterpress started with my grandad's press and has snowballed." Sharon McMullen is a graphic designer and the art director at Igloo Letterpress. Their designs and craftsmanship are absolutely gorgeous. What caught my "DIY-eye" immediately were their journal and bookbinding kits. Igloo Letterpress is not only a letterpress shop but an art studio where one can partake in classes and experience the letterpress and stationery-making process. If you live near Worthington, Ohio, you've got so…

It was a real cooker here in Philly on Saturday! However, this was nothing that a little ice cream cake from Dairyland, Rita's water ice, Leland Palmers, and crafts couldn't solve. My book club turned dinner & drinks club has now, at least for a day, turned into a craft club. I set up a couple different stations in my dining room: rubber stamps and cards, hand-stitched little felt plush creatures, and make-your-own stencils. For the stencils, we used sheets of Frisket Film, watercolors, and watercolor paper. I bought the stencil paper at Utrecht but I still need to experiment with using regular freezer paper. I am sure it works out to be a little cheaper than the Frisket stuff. Check out our fabulous results (and food)!

My husband and I share a passion for the creation of literature, from the writing to the design. Too often our busy lives prevent us from enjoying some of the latest literary articles and stories. When we were at my parents' house over the long Memorial Day weekend, we had a chance to catch up on our reading and stumbled across this article about Somerset Maugham in the May 31 issue of The New Yorker.

When my dad read it, he remembered writing a letter to Mr. Maugham in 1965. In the letter, my dad and his high school friend asked the author to explain the symbol that he always used on his title page designs. My dad left the room for a moment and came back with a yellowed envelope, postmarked from the coastal island of Saint Jean Cap Ferrat in southern France. Somerset Maugham had written him back.




It was so exciting to hear about a time when access to celebrity was through hand-written communication instead of Twitter.

My "craft" project for the weekend is to ask you t…

The 2010 World Cup begins next week in South Africa. We're busy preparing for our departure on June 10 - yes, we are going! By "busy" I mean getting our prescriptions for malaria pills (for the safari portion of the trip), picking up our Rand currency at TravelEx, and planning our costumes for game day. Look for us in the stands at the US v England game on June 12 - we will be wearing these! It's always fun to see how others get ready to celebrate for the World Cup. In New York, ESPN and New York ad agency Wieden + Kennedy teamed up (excuse the pun) to create 32 illustrated posters representing the 32 countries participating in the World Cup. Some of my favorites are below but click this link to see more.

USA

South Africa
Slovakia and Argentina
Spain
Australia