I enjoy making art with my son almost as much as making art on my own, and on this blog I like to share about both. This past Saturday, we were feeling crafty.  Ransom loves ocean creatures, particularly sharks, but we'd made plenty of sharks already so we decided on an octopus.  He's super inspired to make something when his project can become a "toy" when it's finished, rather than just a pretty picture.

So we pulled out our trusty paper plates (so many things you can make with paper plates!) and he painted one purple.  After it dried, I drew the shape of its head and he cut it out.  We used some streamers for tentacles (in a pattern -- he enjoys using patterns like his mama).  Then we made it come to life with some googly eyes.

We thought we were finished after that, but oh we were just getting started.

We noticed the leftover paper plate was kind of like a headband.  Why not decorate it with googly eyes?  Everything is better with googly eyes.

Then Ransom decided this wasn't just a googly-eyed headband, this was an alien.  Well, then the alien needed a body, so we pulled out another paper plate.

And taped on some pipe cleaners for hands and legs.

Viola!

  "Hey, it's also an alien costume!"

It so fun when our projects evolve into something totally different than what I first intended.

And check out his sweet drawings behind him on the fridge.  Watching him draw and create just gives me so much joy! 

Also featured on the fridge is a collaborative piece -- he turned my whale shark sticker into an ocean scene.

One of my bestselling designs for the past 6 years has been Oregon.

I thought it would be cool to do some other states in the same style, but just have never gotten around to it. 

One of the things I love about selling on Etsy - selling directly to customers rather than using a third party like I do with Redbubble - is the ability to hear from the people who are buying my art.  One customer asked me recently to create a Washington and Colorado sticker in the same style.  I thought that was a great idea, so I dove in.

First I started working on my neighbor state, Washington. Like I did with Oregon, I decided to include the state bird (Goldfinch) and an iconic mountain peak (Mount Rainer).  I also included the state flower (rhododendron) and other iconic things such as fir trees, ferns, and clouds -- all things that us Oregonians are also very familiar with.

Here are a couple of process pics followed by the finished design.

I'm really happy with how it turned out. The sticker isn't available yet, but will be soon.

Now I'm working on the Colorado design.  It's coming along a lot quicker, since I feel like I have somewhat of a formula down now with state bird + state flower +iconic mountains +doodles.

Here's my initial sketch.

And a peak of me working on it this morning at Jola Cafe while Ransom was in preschool.

And of course now I want to rework my original Oregon design, because I drew it 6 years ago and so now find parts of it cringe-worthy...

But Oregon is indeed such a beautiful state. Yesterday we saw a lovely waterfall, played at the beach and were home by bedtime.

Yeah it was windy.  And so lovely.