This week’s challenge topic has been “immovable”. I originally planned on doodling a cool vintage style penguin with his feet stuck in a block of cement. I wanted to go with the same kind of look at the Legendary Flighted Penguin or the Vitruvian man Penguin. Maybe make it a bronzed statue penguin. Then the week progressed. Now, here we are on Thursday. So, I just started doodling a quick sketch in Illustrator… my fancy design vision began and ended as cartoon penguin instead. I’m ok with it, my cartoon mind is taking over today to make up for my emotionally unstable moodiness this week. Call it silly, I call it sympathy for the rubberband challanged.

Penguin vs the Rubberband Ball by Jen Goode

Or maybe, this might be what happens if you get in a fight with your Silly bandz. Either way, I think he’s fairly immoveable for the moment.

Have a great weekend!

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Illustration Friday: immovable

Many of you know me as the “penguin girl” for the overload of penguin happiness that I seem to take with me everywhere I go. I have an entire collection of penguin cartoons as well as a traveling penguin blog and even an online  catalog of penguin gift ideas. However, life isn’t just about penguins.

Yes! I said it, there is occassionally more to life than penguins (as long as the penguins are number one on the list of course).

Pigs are another favorite for many animal lovers, so I thought I’d share a little love for pigs with you today. Here’s a favorite… if I were a pig, this is what heaven would look like:

Hog Heaven by Jen Goode

You can find more cute pig gifts and t-shirts through my online store.

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Hog heaven, pigs are just as fun as penguins

Here is a aThis birdhouse was created a few years ago to donate for an auction at a local gift shop. The procedes from the auction were then donated to the local Habitat for Humanity.

The entire piece is layers of various patterned papers and plain paper string that was adhere to a plain wood birdhouse by simply painting glue. Similar to decopague. I then drew in little details here and there with a fine point black pen.

I love the texture effect that results from layer paper like this. It ends up shiney and thick and becomes one with the form you’re covering. I miss this lil’ bird house, but so glad it could help a great cause!

I’m sharing this today as part of the Cool2Craft theme of the week… GLUE!

My favorite glue: hot glue. I’d hot glue everything if I could.

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Glue for the birds

Unlike me, my daughter loves all things girlie. I know, I doodle cute girl stuff all the time, but I don’t necessarily have it all over my walls and pillowcases either. My daugher adores sparkles, jewels, pink and purple anything – if it’s for girls to be more girl-like, she loves it even more. So when she started complaining that her sparkly pink shoes hurt, I had to come up with something to replace the fancy shoes. I didn’t want to go out an get a new pair, especially with fall and Colorado snow on it’s way. So instead I grabbed a cheap pair of sneakers from Walmart,  a few sets of shimmery Tulip brand fabric paint and planned a girls art day.

We whipped out the brushes and between the two of us we created a unique pair of shoes that not only fit fabulous, but sparkle better than the last pair. We had a great day together being creative and I even felt a little girly fun in the process.

Unfortunately these aren’t worn as much as I expected. One of the big brothers stole a shoelace to replace the tie on his swim trunks… boys, they just don’t understand!

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Putting a little sparkle in her step

Save $10 on all order of $50 on all JGoode Designs products at Cafepress today through August 5th 2010. Find your favorite Penguinality penguin or other JGoode doodle and save some cash.

To save your $10, during checkout use coupon code:  PICNICRED

Read the fine print

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Save $10 on orders through August 5th

From July 27th through July 30th 2010 spend $45 or more on JGoode Designs products at Cafepress, you will receive FREE economy or standard shipping.

That’s some fun free flying for the Penguinality penguins and all their friends, dontcha think?

During check out use Coupon Code: 45SHIPS

Read the fine print

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Limited time: Free shipping on JGoode Designs products

This week’s Illustration Friday topic is “double”. I was originally going to make a penguin double (of course I was), but while I was digging through my penguin archive to find the perfect participant, the cheeseburger jumped out and threw some lettuce at me. I couldn’t ignore him, I guess he was feeling a bit thin and wanted to share the beefy love a little more.

Happy double cheese burger by Jen Goode

I know, I should have added bacon because a cheeseburger without bacon is like a salad without croutons… pizza without pepperoni… a kiss without the pucker (is that possible?). However, I have a few non-meat eating pals and like to try to flaunt my carnivorous attitude away from their direction. Thus I decided I’d hold off on the extra extra meat today.

If this is a little too much burger for you, you can always stick with the original happy cheeseburger.

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Double cheeseburgers are delightful

This week’s Illustration Friday is “breakfast”. Apparently I’m thinking happy thoughts of breakfast at 6pm because the first thing I thought of was a smiley egg. I love breakfast – There’s something about pancakes and bacon and even hash browns that starts the day off just perfectly.

Happy breakfast by Jen Goode

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Breakfast should always be happy

I was listening to a weekly web-cast called Cool 2 Craft and realized I didn’t have a crafting penguin. How is that possible? With all the other gazillion penguins I’ve created over the years, and as much as I love crafting myself, I was in shock to find out I never created an official crafting penguin!

So while I listened to all the great ideas on the show, I drew up this new penguin and I’m positive it loves to craft too. I haven’t created a brand new penguin in a while and I can honestly blame it on the glue. I went to a craft trade show back in January and absolutely fell in love with crafting all over again. So lately I’ve been spending most of my time jumping back into the craft scene.

I’ve made a ton of new friends and am learning new things every day. Most importantly, I’m finding my creative mojo all over again. It’s been a long time I’ve played in this area of my brain – I forgot how much I loved it. Hands-on creativity can’t be matched. I’m seeing more ideas in my head. You should try it! grab a piece of clay and just squish it around a while… see what happens.

I don’t have a particular area of crafting I like more than others although I really enjoy textures… fabrics, paper, anything tactile is very intriguing to me. I also really enjoy mixing things to see what happens. Combine glue and paint or fabric and clay… mix and match to see how the textures and materials combine. One of my most recent activities has been creating stamps out of craft foam and stencils out of freezer paper. I’ll show examples and some how to tutorials another day. These ideas both open the doors even wider for using my own drawings on a variety of materials.

What’s your favorite crafting area?

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I love crafting and so does the penguin

The CHA summer show is fast approaching, and as much as I loved attending the CHA winter show in January, I am unable to attend this next upcoming event. However, my art will be there! I was asked to participate in an fund raising event for the Wyland Foundation. There will be a silent auction with the proceeds going to help educate children about the environment and conservation.

The theme for the even is “Under the Sea”. Living in the middle of a land locked state, I rare have the opportunity to experience anything relating to the ocean first hand, so this project was particularly fun for me to imagine.

The first item I made is a pair of hanging votive holders. I imagined walking along the beach at night near old wood posts, each glowing from a single hanging candle.  I tried to create this same kind of deocr item that can be used both inside and out. Each glass jar is hand painted using enamel paints from Plaid. The lids were painted with several different shades of craft paint and then sanded for a weathered look. Then I added the hanging handle and large swirl embellishment by bending a wire clothing hanger. Finally I added small bent wire accents along with hanging sea shells and a bit of thin twine. Finally, each candle holder was partially filled with sand and a small votive candle was added.

The second donated item I created was a summer outfit for a toddler girl. The inspiration for this piece was the vision of an afternoon picnic on the beach with a cool breeze. The skirt was sewn using re-purposed linen which I then stamped with fabric paint using 3 seashell design I hand cut in craft foam. Both the skirt and top also incorporate white eyelet fabric.

I’m so thankful this was a summer themed project, had it been winter I would have been inspired to knit… not one of my strengths.

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Under the sea for charity