. daily daydreams . a blog by love ardently design studio

I’m so in love with these hand-drawn illustrated typography by Katie Daisy Lombardo. She works mostly with watercolor and acrylic. I love her style and the colors are just delightful. Things like these really inspires me to learn more things to become a better designer. That’s why I’m taking Watercolor and Printmaking next semester :) So excited!

Back to Katie’s work, aren’t you just so blown away? I’d love to have any of her print on my studio wall one day :)

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The first day of the last month in 2009! Oh wow, time flies so quickly! I know I’ve been MIA on the blog for days. One of the reason is of course the Thanksgiving holiday. Then, the final week is also coming and I’ve just been busy with school stuffs along with preparing for more stuffs for my Etsy store. Right now, we do have the 2010 Calendar in wall format and desktop format (with acrylic jewel case), so check it out! :)

In the midst of all this, today I managed to (finally) pick up my library book orders. I was tempted to spend more time in the library, and i did (even though I was supposed to go straight home). My favorite section is the children’s books where I usually just sit on the aisle and start to just picking books and read. I was really intrigued by this particular book by Maurice Sendak. I knew about Where The Wild Things Are, of course, but didn’t know that he also wrote and illustrate this book. I just love his unique story line, wittiness, and illustration style!

I really, really like this particular “kitchen town” illustration, where the buildings are in form of kitchen utensils and stuffs like mixer, funnel, milk carton, etc… I want to live there! :)

These tiny paintings by Cool Ranch Studio on Etsy would make such a great Christmas gift. It would look great on someone’s desk. Don’t you think?

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Whoahh… it’s been a busy week for me. I’m not particularly glad that it’s the weekend already because I’m so much in a working mode *huh*. Anyways, here are five of my favorite finds this Friday. Have a great weekend, y’all!

. Mini Creamers. Seriously, how adorable are these little guys! I’m not just thinking creamers. I’m thinking it’s also perfect for little flowers. Via Divine Caroline.

. Das Jahr Poster by Marlene Reidel. I’ve been painting so much this week and that’s why I can TRULY appreciate the artist behind this AH-mazing poster! Beautiful details! Makes me happy just looking at it through my screen :)

. Sticky Advice Tape. Types on a tape! :) Via Divine Caroline.

. Bread Shoes. Not sure what I feel about this *lol* It’s pretty amusing!

. Gocco feature on SSC. This reminds me that I really need to get my little machine out from under my couch. I have a gem under my couch and I haven’t been using it!

So wonderfully creative. This was done on gouache by Andrea Kalfas. I’ve been wanting to try gouache for a while!

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These engraved book covers by Engraved Your Book are just so endearing. This first one is designed by one of my illustration hero, Amy Ruppel and kinda matched my previous post :) Don’t you just love it?

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Here is one of my favorite :)

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The husband and I are very thrifty. Or cheap. And I’m not ashamed of it :) We love watching movies but we always wait until the movies appear on the dollar cinema. No worries, you can laugh ;) We pay $2 for movies on the weekend, or even 75¢ every Tuesday :) It’s not hard to wait most of the times, but when it comes to Pixar movies, it’s hard for me. I’m a HUGE fan of Pixar movies and I was so itching to watch Up that was launched May 29th. Man, that’s such a long time ago, so clearly, I am so incredibly late to be writing this post. Just as the proverb says, better late than never ;)

So, I finally watched Up last week. Even though it’s Pixar, I tried not to have any expectation about the story. All I knew was that this grumpy old Carl guy tied millions of balloons to his house to make it fly. So, when I watched it, I was so blown away, touched, and inspired in many ways.

First of all, i just LOVE looking at the millions of colorful balloons up in the sky. And then there’s that cute vintage looking house of Carl & Ellie. The whole house is just so darling! The wall colors, the decoration, the “Paradise Falls” painting, the mailbox… Everything just made me smile. Delightful.

Love the story, love the graphics, love Carl, Ellie, Russell, and Dug. And the balloons :) It’s totally worth the wait.

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I have a major illustrator crush on Amy Ruppel. Yesterday, I posted about the Dunny Series 2009 and she’s one of the designer. Her dunny is probably my favorite out of the bunch. She was also the illustrator behind Target’s awesome Holiday Campaign in 2007. Now you’ll go “Aha! I remember that!”

She has these cool painting/illustration of state animals and state birds up for purchase at her website. I think these are so, so cool. I really like the fact that this is mix media. She mentioned on her website that her main medium is computer illustrated drawings printed onto paper that is then layered into beeswax. On these state animal & bird paintings, I think she also did oils on wood along with the paper & wax. So amazing!!!

Can you guess what state animals are these?

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TOP: Alaska, Virginia
MIDDLE: Maryland, Delaware
BOTTOM: Utah, Louisiana.

What about these lovely state birds?

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TOP: Colorado, Hawaii
BOTTOM: Washington, Maryland

Those paintings would look so great hanging on someone’s wall. Love it.

Letterpressed paper goodies. How do I love thee? I’ve been admiring Studio On Fire for a while and look at what they have on their Designer Series Deskline. This is called the Polkaville Party (what an appropriate name!) and designed in conjunction with two designers, Kelly & Kindra. So, so inspiring.

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How charmingly sweet is that envelope! I’m loving the randomness of the design and the happy colors. And they are all letterpressed, yo! Those stationery are all available to purchase at their website.

So, I’ve been wanting to learn letterpress for quite a while and thanks to my college friend, Jeanelle, I found out that there is actually a letterpress class in Dallas, over at Inky Lips Press. I’m so excited!

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How lovely are those invitation by Erin Jang! I’m all for whimsical illustrations and this one is just so charming. The couple is getting married at Smog Shoppe, a green exotic urban space with a lot of succulents and hanging gardens, from which Erin was inspired.