19 Feb 2014

More aww-invoking than a YouTube video

Although cat clips are surely the most popular animal films on Youtube, I'm not a regular cat clip viewer. In fact, I much prefer guinea pig videos. However (and in spite of the cruel way my great aunt's cat bit me when I was an innocent five year old), I do love cats. If I was to take any pet, a cat would be my first choice.

That said, I have a few cool catful things to share. First one is a print, which I designed for a brand called
SUPERSWEET x moumi - clothing made by cats, for people. I've already had the honour to make a banner for their online store last year, but creating a print for a tote bag was something else! The SUPERSWEET team is such a nice one to work with, I'm so incredibly happy that there are such quirky indiepreneurs left in this corporate world! Go you! (What an overwhelming amount of exclamation marks in one paragraph!)


The second cat-thing of the week is a brilliant colouring book, which I spotted on the website of Doodlers Anonymous a few weeks ago. With the help of their global community of contributing doodlers, these anonymous pencil maniacs have published already three colouring books. However, I hadn't noticed that they had also made one dedicated to cats and cats only! "The Quintessential, Quirky Compendium of Cats" has been put together to support an animal rescue organization called APSCA. A good cause, cats, illustrations...what else could you ask for (except a few guinea pigs)?




The "Around the World" tote bags will sold at SUPERSWEET's pop-up store in Thailand and "The Quintessential, Quirky Compendium of Cats" is available for ordering here.

14 Feb 2014

Every bat needs a robin

Following the same sidekick-superhero theme I had on Valentine's Day last year, I illustrated a non-mushy card for the day of love and friendship this year as well.


I shall stick to this annual tradition of superhero inspired Valentine's day illustrations until the day I run out of funny references...if that ever happens, I might start buying the mushy heart-shaped boxes of chocolate. Meanwhile: have a happy Valentine's Day all you friends, strangers, heroes and sidekicks!

13 Feb 2014

Look mom, I illustrated a bible!

"The next time someone asks me what I do for living, I'm going to say I illustrate bibles and stuff," I told my boyfriend. And that's practically correct: I have illustrated a bible. Not a religious one, though, but a more lighthearted edition called De Blog Bijbel. Sharing tips and tricks about setting up your blog, building a strong reader base and dealing with ups and downs of blogging, De Blog Bijbel is every (Dutch speaking) girls' guide to starting a blog.


The book is written by Carlijn Bekker, a freelance journalist and blogger, whom I met at Meet The Blogger event in Amsterdam last October. I happened to sit at the same table during a coffee break, and after a little chit-chat we found out that she had written a feature about my book Dear Fashion Diary. Speaking of a small world! We exchanged business cards (oh how professional), and a month later met up again at a coffee table to talk about Carlijn's own book. She wanted to embellish it with quirky and fun illustrations with a tint of sassy humour, and I couldn't but say yes, yes and yes! Lucky me, I also got to do the the design of the inside pages. I love projects that let me work on the overall design instead of just parts of it, and I had so much fun setting up the style for the contents and adding my illustrations in it. Hashtag heart - that's what a blogger would say, right?


The book is published by B For Books and is available for ordering online.