Personalized Hanukkah Clothes for Babies and Toddlers

Little Characters, my online shop, has a lot of adorable Hanukkah designs that can be personalized and printed on an infant/toddler T-shirt, onesie, or bib for under $20.

I am VERY HAPPY to personalize any T-shirt, onesie, or bib with the name of your choice at no extra charge within one day. Just describe the picture, message, and coloring you'd like and email it to drawnbyk@gmail.com. I will upload a custom-made design right away, and you can complete the sale before you know it.

For all you first-time bubbies out there, this is a really sweet gift for your little grandson or granddaughter.

Here's a peek at some of the Hanukkah designs that can be personalized for Baby's 1st Hanukkah. Click on any picture, and you'll be taken right to my store where you can buy it right away. I've chosen from the names that are already created, but remember that I will create one with the name of your choice within one day.






I'm especially excited about the last design, and it's hard to really see the detail in the thumbnail. I can create any one's name in bubble letters filled with little blue Stars of David. I'm currently working on a section with family titles (Mommy, Ima, Mamele, Grandma, Safta, Bubbie . . .)

I hope to add a couple more Hanukkah drawings to the section soon. I'm almost finished drawing a rattle with a Star of David. Just keep checking the Judaism section in my store, and you'll see all the designs as they're added!

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.

Obama Victory Baby Clothes

Little Characters is selling adorable T-shirts, onesies, and bibs for baby patriots and little Americans. They cost less than $20.

Just click on the pictures to go directly to the website, and you can have my drawing printed on your baby clothes right away. I've drawn a baby waving a flag, playing with a toy donkey and elephant. Below the baby, I've printed Obama's words: "There is no liberal America. There is no conservative America. There is only the United States of America."





I created this design a little while before the election ended. I listened to Obama's Ohio speech as I was driving to church, and when he said those words, I started crying. Yes, I am extremely sappy, but I really think he is an inspiring person. I definitely count last night's win as a victory, and I want to celebrate. It feels so good to have a democrat with so much integrity in the white house - well, almost in the white house. He's moving the kids and their new puppy in soon.

I know that not everyone counts this as a victory, but I'm hoping that the unifying spirit of Obama's words will inspire us to reach across party lines and work together - especially since a cute little kid will be the one delivering the message!

Check back in my Political section soon. I'm drawing another version of this design with a little boy and girl, so older kids can wear it, too. I'm also working on a drawing of a baby crawling on the red and white path in Obama's logo (with the message, "My Future is Looking Brighter") I'll get it up on the site as fast as I can!

Anti-Palin T-Shirt, Because We Need Something to Laugh About

Little Characters has been featured in a Political T-Shirt Blog!

Yay! I'm famous! I feel particularly flattered to have been highlighted in this blog by Sleezak, because he takes the time to stay so well-informed on current events (something I have a moral responsibility to do, but do not do)and in this particular post, he gave us all a chance to laugh at Sarah Palin.

With all the bad stuff hanging over us right now, it's refreshing to be able to stop trying to be nicey-nice for a moment, and just laugh at someone who frankly deserves it. If my husband reads those words, he'll be in shock. He won't believe his goody-goody former-teacher wife is advocating being snide and nasty. I'll just have to wait and see if he finds out that I wavered. :P

Here's the design that was featured in the blog. Click on the picture to see it in a range of skin tones. It's available on T-shirts, onesies, and bibs.

Little Tree Hugger T-shirts, onesies, and bibs

Little Characters, my online store, has two adorable Little Tree Hugger designs for infants and toddlers!

Click either picture, and you'll go straight to my store where you can buy the design on T-shirts, onesies, or bibs with a variety of skin tones and hair and eye colors.

The latest one has a baby hugging a sapling (literally hugging a little tree) . . .



The original design is one of the first drawings I made. I'm especially proud of all the detail and coloring in the leaves . . .



I decided to rework the first design after I got a lot of feedback and encouragement from other shopkeepers at Cafepress. They really are such a supportive community - they actually make starting a business a pleasant experience.

I have a long list of designs to work on right now, but I do have a goal for myself to create Little Tree Hugger designs for older kids. Some day!

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!

Great Diwali Gifts for Babies and Kids

Little Characters, my online shop, has two sweet designs for Diwali. They can be printed on T-shirts, onesies, and bibs, and they would make very sweet gifts for children - especially for those celebrating their first Diwali.

Click on either picture to go directly to my store and see the products.




I recently sold a Diwali T-shirt! It makes me so glad that I worked to create the Diwali designs. The person who bought it just searched through the Cafepress Marketplace, so she probably never saw my shop. I see the customer's name and general location in my sales reports, but I wish I could email her to thank her. She probably doesn't know how happy she made someone buying a little T-shirt. At least one person has a nice way of celebrating Diwali with her child - that she would not have had if I hadn't created it.

I would love it if some more Diwali stuff was sold, but I know there isn't much time until October 28th. (Although I think that if people ordered things now, they could arrive in time!) So, I have set some goals for myself for 2009.

I want to draw at least one more Hindu holiday design. I think I will be doing one for Holi. It's on March 11th in 2009, so I should have plenty of time. It's such a fun holiday and since it's so colorful, I should have some nice opportunities to use vibrant color in the design. I also want to try to improve the Diwali lamps design for next year. I think the positioning on the shoulders and head is a little off, so I'll fix that. I have ideas for two other Diwali designs, too, so maybe I'll end up offering a total of four in 2009!