Not everyone has the world's greatest Dad, but I suspect there are a LOT of us that think we do… which really says it all. Dads Rule. I myself, can't say enough great things about my Dad. Last year, when I bought my first house, he came to stay with me for a
month to help me with various house projects and generally settle in. Then, a few months later, he drove
across the country with me in his truck - schlepping all my "stuff" that had been in storage back east out to my new home… then stayed for another month, culminating with a visit from from Mom and a family Christmas together. Wow!
I really hate that I somehow managed to settle myself so far away from my parents, but at the same time, I think it helps me appreciate them both more. Happy Father's Day, Dad! Wish I could be there today, but lucky me - I'll get to see you at the end of the week! :)
Above is a sticker I designed a few years ago. I don't think it was ever distributed nationally, but it must have been a special order for a specific Retailer - because I got a sample (wish I remember WHERE). I made this Appreciation/ThankYou card for my Dad and used the sample, so I don't have a picture of the whole sticker sheet and I can't find one online. It's a shame, I really liked this design - a counterpart to my
Best Mom design that is readily available in stores and online.
Below is another Dad themed sticker I designed last year. Same themes, but slightly different as icons are given more equal focus. I have the sketch and vector art I provided them, and the actual product seems like a pretty literal interpretation. But It's interesting to see how much vector drawing details are lost (like the necktie for example) and how they changed the gem placement (also on the tie). Funny little things. Still, I think it looks good!
Hello, hello again! More fun stickers to share… it's kind of a random theme, but I always love drawing animals. 
Happy Mother's Day!!
Yummy! Even though gum ball flavors lasts all of 20 seconds, I still remember LOVING them as a kid. This is a fun little design I did a while ago, focusing on different gum ball dispensers. I knew the actual sticker sheet was going to be really fun. Even though I didn't have anything to do with color or material selection, I think it turned out great!
This was a sketch I did a while back as well. I figured it went with the Spring season, so I decided to share it here. It was kind of an interesting theme and I thought I did a pretty good job with the sketch… but this was not one of the vectors they asked me to do, so someone on staff did the vector artwork and color selection. They obviously did not care for my butterfly, I guess they felt something a little more traditional was called for.
In keeping with the new spring season, here's another spring theme sticker sheet I recently completed. This one is pretty straight forward. I used several light and yellow-greens to convey the "new-ness" message of the theme. I had a lot of fun researching all the strange looking buds as well.
So, we're through with Valentine's, but we can still show a little love for our friends, right? This is a tween design I did for the Jolee's product line a while back. This is one of the cases where I wish I got to work with the production team - I think a few things got lost in the translation from sketch to product.
Moving away from the birthday theme a bit, but continuing with more in baby theme this week. This is a lovely simple sticker sheet that I had a lot of fun drawing. It's actually a little hard to choose toys that can be universally recognized and not specifically branded, or at least finding a way of representing them generically. Of course, I have the most fun with the rocking horse. And what a lovely production surprise, several icons in part or wholly in molded resin - very 3D indeed!
Continuing the birthday theme, here is the matching girl counterpart "first" birthday boy that I posted a couple weeks ago. The layout is very similar, kind of "flipped" if you will. The base icons are also the same, but patterns and visual themes have changed, as well as the individual toy element (here a horsey, on the boy sheet it was a truck). I didn't choose colors, but boy/girl themes are uniformly blue/pink respectively, so I pretty much knew what to expect. Again, it's a nice surprise to see real string elements and epoxy included in the production.
This is my birthday month, so I'm going to concentrate on some of my more recent birthday/baby sticker themes. My nephew's birthday is also this week, so I'm kicking things of with a birthday boy theme (even though he's much older than 1). Birthday themes come up a lot in stickers and I've done so many birthday sticker sheets I can't even count them anymore. Sometimes they get a little more specific, like Birthday Cakes only or Birthday Candles (both of which I've done in the past). It can either make things easier or more difficult… the later as with this one. A "first" birthday is very specific, and with a child so young it's more of a birthday/baby combination. Thankfully I was asked for both girl and boy themed sheets which also makes things a little easier.