Babies for Barack and Obama Mamas

Little Characters, my online store, has a great collection of political T-shirts for babies, kids, and parents. Click on any of the pictures below and you'll go straight to the website where you can buy T-shirts, onesies, or bibs for less than $20. They're all printed to order, so every design will be in stock in the size you want.

The design I'm most proud of is based on Obama's logo. It features a baby/toddler crawling on the red and white striped path toward the rising sun.
As always, I've made all the designs available in different skin tones. This picture is available with several messages (or just on its own). My favorite message is "My Future Is Looking Brighter".

This design was one of the things I can really say was a collaboration with my husband, Patrick. My final sketch had a rough drawing of the logo itself, but Patrick did a lot of cool technical work. He created different layers - one for my little kid, one for the wavy stripey path and one for the circles. Then he made sure the circles were really circles (I suck at drawing straight lines or perfect circles). The last thing he did was a really cool effect where the light blue background fades gradually into transparent. It makes it look like the white sun is really sending out rays of light.

I think another set of political designs that are really cute are my little blue donkeys.
A good friend of mine periodically checks out my shop and she spontaneously reacted to the United Baby by saying that the little blue donkey on his lap was really cute. The other shopkeepers on the forum have been saying for a while that I should try to offer designs that don't have people in them, so I decided to do some designs with just that donkey. I had to monkey with the coloring, because the bright blue didn't seem to print well - especially on dark colored shirts. The pastel is sweet though. My favorite product with the little donkey is the Future Democrat design on the maternity shirt.

I wish that I had been able to create more of these before Obama won, but I've been plugging away. As I'm typing this and thinking it through, I can't really ask for a better reason for designing. It's been hard work, but I do want to celebrate Obama's victory. Honestly, I'm just frustrated that I can't figure out how to get my designs to come up higher on the search results in Cafe Press's marketplace. Right now, if someone goes into their Kids section for clothes and does the featured search for Barack Babies, my designs don't start until the 7th page! I guess it's egotistical but I really believe my designs are better than a lot of the ones that come up first, and I'm worried that no one will see them.

If anyone is reading this who likes my designs, please go into the marketplace, search under "Barack Babies" and just click on my designs. Supposedly, Cafe Press's search results are based on how many people click the designs - not only people who buy them. So you could help my stuff get seen without spending a dime.

Day of the Dead T-shirts & Onesies for Babies and Toddlers

I'm proud to announce that Little Characters, my online store, has a cool design for the Day of the Dead!

Just click the picture and you'll be taken right to the shop to see the products.


This was definitely a little different from my usual style! It gave me a chance to branch out and be a little more artistic. In keeping with my commitment to truly having diverse holidays represented in the store, I started thinking about how I could do a design for Day of the Dead.

The biggest challenge with this was not to be morbid or insensitive in the way I incorporated an infant. My first sketches just had one skeleton / calavera, and it was meant to be a baby. My husband, Patrick, kept looking at them and calling them the "Dead Baby Drawings" which made me wince and feel like tearing them up. Clearly, some people do lose children, and according to Wickipedia, November 1st is dedicated to lost infants and kids, but that wasn't what I wanted to focus on in the drawing. I wanted the design to make people think of babies or children being part of the celebration of the holiday.

My solution was to incorporate another traditional part of the holiday: families going to cemeteries together and sharing favorite foods or drinks with the deceased. I decided to try to draw a family of skeletons (including one baby) having a picnic at a grave. To me, this has a happier focus.

One of the aspects of the design that I like the best is hard to see in the thumbnail images on the website: the little pictures in the eyes. The daddy skeleton has bright blue stars, the mommy skeleton has purple flowers, and the baby has rainbows. It's certainly not as complex as some of the painted skulls, but I wanted to do something inspired by that.

We did get a tiny bit of comic relief in working on this design, too. When I am doing the computer work on designs, one stage is the "noskin" file. This is when I have added all the color, except for the skin, hair, and eyes. This way, I have lots of options for creating diverse variations. I got a chuckle going into Patrick's room, and announcing, "I just finished the No Skin for Day of the Dead!" Okay, I know that's a lame joke, but I'm a dork.

I've seen a lot of beautiful clothing for Day of the Dead already out there, and I can't afford to pay for advertising, so I may not make any sales. It would be really cool if someone in one of the parades had one of my designs on their little guy though!

Funny Anti-Palin Designs for Kids' Clothes

Little Characters has some adorable designs for children's clothes that poke fun at Sarah Palin . . .

Your baby or toddler might be limited to reading board books about farm animals and holding them upside down, but that is still an accomplishment! Click the picture and you will be able to purchase an infant/toddler T-shirt, onesie, or bib.


Chances are, if your child is reading, s/he is already more well-read than Sarah. Click the T-shirt and you will be able to purchase this colorful text design on a variety of bright shirts for kids.


And if you want a funny way to persuade swing voters at the playground, there's always the cute Obama Change Baby design. Now available on "Mom bags"!


Hurry while there's still time to inspire people to vote for Obama! :D