Penguin Rock and Roll band is the result of a sock design challenge I started a few years ago. (For those of you who don’t know, when I was in a design rut, I decided to take pictures of my socks for the month of February. The idea was I would do a daily design based on the socks I wore that day. Only things didn’t work out that way and here I am a few years later trying to finish it. Oops.)

I wore these socks on Valentine’s Day. As much as I like the penguin hugging a heart idea, I didn’t want to just copy the design. I was working on something and caught a glimpse of Kitty Cat Kawaii Band file and thought to myself, “I have a cat band, a sloth band, a unicorn band and a cthulhu band, so why not a penguin band?”

Thus, Penguin Rock and Roll Band was born. Of course in order to have a penguin band, I had to create Penguin Playing Guitar, Penguin Playing Bass and Penguin Drummer.

The other bands also have art pieces of their individual members for sale.

Musical Penguins
by ValeriesGallery

Penguin Rock and Roll Band, Kitty Cat Kawaii Band, Sloth Rock Band, Unicorn Kawaii Punk Band and Cthulhu Kawai Music Band are available on Zazzle, Red Bubble and Imagekind.

Which band is your favorite? Penguins? Cat? Unicorn? Sloth? Cthulhu? Let us know in the comments!

Surfer Penguin is a continuation of The Sock Project I decided to do in 2013. For those of you who don’t know, in 2013 I found myself in an artistic rut. I decided one way to combat the rut would be to take a picture of the socks I wore everyday during the month of February and then do a design based on the pair of socks I wore that day.

Originally, I had planned to do a design a day. Oops!

Anyway, here is the sock that the design is based on:

For some reason, a penguin and the word chillen made me think of a penguin relaxing on a beach with a surfboard while watching the sunset.

Surfer Penguin on the Beach

by ValeriesGallery

Even though I’m not much of a beach person, I’ve always found it relaxing walking on the beach during a sunrise.

This design was originally done in marker. It can be found in my Zazzle shop, Redbubble and Imagekind.

What do you think of Surfer Penguin on the Beach?

  In the beginning of 2013, for a variety of reasons, I was feeling very uninspired and in a rut.  Knowing I needed to do something about it, I decided it would be a good idea to take a picture of the socks I wore everyday for one month and do a design based on them.

    The original plan was that I would do the design on the same day I wore the socks.  Needles to say, that’s not how it worked out, considering its now 2021 and I still haven’t finished the project.  Oops.)

  On the bright side, even though I haven’t fully finished the project yet, my idea seemed to work!  I got pulled out of my rut and ended up with some cool designs that I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.  Some examples are: Grim Reaper with Flower, Bokeh Inspired Colorful Hearts and Bears Flying Planes.

  Due the pandemic and Florida summers being a little to hot for me, I figured it was as good a time as any to continue the sock picture project from 2013. 

  When I looked where I happen to leave off it was a pair of white socks.

  I had originally picked February because it was the shortest month, thinking that would make it the easiest. One thing that I forgot to factor in was due to my birthday, anniversary, and a bunch of other reasons, I had a bunch of weekend getaways planned.

  When I travel, despite all the fun socks I own, to make life easier, I pack black and/or white socks.  This way, my socks always match my outfit no matter what clothes I pack.

  Luckily, I can still come up with designs based on plain white socks without just doing a blank page.

 After thinking about it for a while, I realized I had a design with red circles on a white background, so why not white circles on a black background?

 

White Circles Black Background Classic Pattern Satin Ribbon

by ValeriesGallery

  Voila!  White circles on a black background was born!

  This design can be found in my shops on Zazzle, Redbubble, Society6 and Spoonflower.

  I’m hoping to wrap up the socks project sooner than later!  Seven years is a long time, but sometimes life gets in the way.

  What’s the longest it’s taken you to complete a project?

Craft stores are one of my favorite places!  They’re a great place for inspiration. One of my favorite things to do is mosey around them.  (And yes, I rarely leave a craft store without buying something.  Ha ha!)  I’m lucky enough to live in an area that has multiple craft stores to choose from.

One of these craft stores also has a huge home décor section.  Apparently, farm house décor is very trendy at the moment.  This place had a lot of items that said farm to table.  This particular craft store also had a lot of items featuring cows, pigs and horses.  For some reason, “farm to table” made me think of farm animals showing up at a farmer’s kitchen table.  This struck me as funny and thus, Farm at Table was born!

Did you know:

• If I was going to make this picture again, I think I’d make the pig a little smaller. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pig as big as a cow!
• Farm at Table is available at Zazzle, Red Bubble and Imagekind
• This picture has hints of kawaii style. (ex. The thick black lines)
• I’m considering doing some more versions of this picture with different farm animals

Where do you go for inspiration?  Let us know in the comments!

The DJ black and white cat in Cat Rave Dance Party Paws Up is based on my cat Oreo. She is definitely the most nocturnal of my two cats.

Our cats are not allowed in the bedroom. The idea for this design came about because Oreo lately has gotten into the habit of meowing outside our bedroom door at about five o’clock in the morning. When she does this, either my husband or I will say, “Shushi, Oreo.” Or “Oreo too early. Go sleepy.” Being the good cat that she is, she usually obeys.

When we get up a little while later, the black and white cat will be all tuckered out and fast asleep in one of her favorite sleeping spots, while her sister, a tabby, is up and running around the house.

In reality, my cats are strictly indoor cats. I am too much of a worrier for them to be out door cats. Though, that didn’t stop me from joking with my husband that Oreo had a secret life as a club DJ or something and she was just letting us know when she was home. And thus, Cat Rave Dance Party Paws Up was born!

Did you know:

• The gray and white cat paws are based on Oreo’s sister, Olivia.

• Oreo is also the basis for Cookie the Cat in the Cookie and Olivia book series.

• Cookie and Olivia have their own store on Zazzle

• This is the second design I’ve made where an animal is DJing. The other one is DJ Piggy Pig.

• Oreo is also in a few of my other designs. These include Sleeping Black and White Cat, Here’s Looking at You Cat, and Cat Eyes (Black and White), to name just a few.

Cat Rave Dance Party Paws Up is available for sale on:

• Zazzle

• Red Bubble

• Imagekind

• Skreened

Do you have a pet? Do they have any interesting habits? Has your pet inspired you in any way? Let us know in the comments!

The reason for this is that when I made the hearts, it seemed like they needed something more.  Plus, since I bought a huge pack of colorful Sharpies, I’m always looking for an excuse to use them!

Hearts with Colorful Paint Splatters Home Decor
by ValeriesGallery

 
Some fun facts:

• The paint splatters were not suppose to be part of the original piece.

 

• The paint splatters were a result of me accidentally spattering paint on the corner of the piece.  Luckily it seems to have worked out for the best!

 

• This design is available on a variety of products on Zazzle, Red Bubble, Imagekind and Society6.

Has something you done been made better by a happy accident?  Let us know in the comments!

(Note: This post contains affiliate links)

For those of you that don’t know, you can use water color pencils just like colored pencils or dip them in water.  When they’re dipped in water, the material acts like water color paint. Since, I was eager to try them out and wanted to see how they performed in pencil form and watercolor form, I made the following picture:

Since I liked how the picture came out, I thought it would be fun to make a digital version! Here’s how it turned out:

Fun Facts

• The original has black flowers, the digital version does not.
• The flowers in the original version, have different color centers. In the digital version, they all have yellow centers.
• The original was done in a 5X7 sketch pad which my husband also bought me for my birthday.
• Colorful Flowers Red Blue Green Orange is available on a variety of products on Zazzle, RedBubble, Imagekind, Society6 and Skreened

Have you used water colors before?  Any tips?

Didn’t happen. Although I have managed to do a few designs based on this challenge. For some examples, see previous posts The Story of…Bears Flying Planes, The Story of…Polar Bear Eating Ice Cream, The Story of…Stripes in Gray, The Story of..Bokeh Inspired Hearts and The Story of…Grim Reaper with Flower. Every once in a while, I decide that I should finish that challenge and continue creating designs based on the socks I wore in February 2012. Honestly, I thought I had photographed every pair I wore that month. It turns out I was wrong. For one reason or another, there is a day that is missing a sock photograph! Though, I felt I couldn’t just skip over this day since I had done every other one until that point and thus… Missing You Socks was born!

Fun Facts:

• For some reason whenever I look at this design, the song Missing You by John Waite pops into my head.

• The text on the front of the Missing You Socks card on Zazzle(along with the inside text) is customizable. Only the inside text on the inside Missing You Socks card on Greeting Card Universe is customizable.

• The day of the missing sock photograph is February 8.

• February 8^th is the day after my birthday.

Just realized I admitted to being wrong and failing in the same post. Ouch! Ha ha. Has there been a time that you’ve been able to make a mistake work for you? Let us know in the comments!

Since I went to college in New England, I ended up driving past this church quite a bit during those four years. I always thought it was a beautiful building. My husband and I occasionally visit my parents in the fall and take some trips to Vermont. After one of our last autumn trip a few years ago and seeing how gorgeous this church looked among the autumn landscape, I was bound and determine to get a photograph! Even if it wasn’t in the fall!

Old First Church in Snow Bennington Vermont Poster

by ValeriesGallery

Some fun facts:

• Although I use to drive by this church on my way to and from college, I had no idea how much history was associate with it! It’s the oldest church in Vermont. You can read about it on their website.

• Robert Frost is buried at this church.

• The Bennington Museum is located right behind the church. I’d recommend a visit, it’s awesome. They have a large selection of work by Grandma Moses among other things.

• Speaking of Grandma Moses, one of my great aunts use to be friends with one of her sisters.

• I had actually planned on getting a photograph of this church in the fall after a trip to Woodstock, Vermont a few years ago. My husband and I drove past it, (since we had visited my parents first) and saw how beautiful it was with the fall scenery! However, we really wanted to get to where we were going and decide to stop on the way back. Sadly, it poured the day we were going back to my parents’ house. Opportunity lost.

• For sale on Zazzle, RedBubble, Imagekind and Skreened.

Was there something you wanted to take a picture of for a while? Were you finally able to capture it?

The painting came about because of a few rounds of indoor mini golf. This particular indoor mini golf place is located in a near by mall. They have murals on their walls painted in glow in the dark paint. It’s really neat to see these murals glow while you golf.

After seeing how cool these glow in the dark murals looked, I was determine to get some glow in the dark paint for myself. Luckily, my local craft store had some!

Since I had bought multiple colors, I wanted to test them all out! So, I thought up a design where I could use them all. The black was added because I thought it would look great with the neon colored paint.

Have you ever tried glow in the dark paint? What is your favorite kind of paint?

Some fun facts:

• The painting currently hangs in my office

• All the colored squares in the painting do glow in the dark
  • Unfortunately, this is not possible with the digital version. So, if you buy any products with this design, they won’t glow.

   

• I’ve only see the colors in the painting glow once or twice

• The digital design is for sale on Zazzle, RedBubble, and Imagekind

Since art is subjective and Neon Squares may not be to your taste, as part of the Holiday Exchange on Zazzle, I’m going to introduce you to some other talented artist!  Don’t worry!  The following designs are ones that I really like and will have something to do with the topic of this blog post!
Please note:  All links in this post are affiliate links. Thanks in advance for your support of independent artist!

How pretty is this fish serving tray by Thunes!  I love the color!  It’s so pretty!  Plus living in Florida, I see a lot of beach theme decor in houses.  This would fit in perfectly!

I love shoes!  These sneakers by Unwrapped Visuals are great!  Not only are they stylish, but with their neutral color scheme, they would go with a lot of different outfits!

I am a big fan of music!  From elementary school through college, I learned to play several different instruments and played in a variety of bands.  How perfect would this binder be for bringing sheet music to rehearsal?  Not only is it cute, but could keep your music organized and prevent it from getting damaged!  Plus since you can personalize it, you would know at a glance that it was yours!