fun – A Smith of All Trades

I love birthdays. I can thank my mother for that. She always made our birthdays wonderful. They are one day a year you get to feel special, or make someone you love feel special. Yesterday was Brian’s birthday, so I came up with a fun way to give him the gifts I’d gotten him.

BIRTHDAY JEOPARDY!

I made a full Jeopardy board (Brian loves that show & trivia games) and came up with 31 questions to go with it! I did one round, plus final jeopardy. Each category had a gift associated with it. My favorite category was: Tina, you “fat” lard. All of the answers had the word “fat” in them. And yes, the next category was Come get some dinner.

Here’s an example:

Tina, you “fat” lard

Watching, thinking of, hearing about or listening to Game of Thrones makes Jess this 8-letter word for tired.

What is ‘fat’igued?

Ding ding ding! For that question, B got the newest Game of Thrones book.

The best category and corresponding gift was in final Jeopardy.

Golden Retrievers

Jess’ three golden retrievers were all named after movie characters. Name the three films.

What are The Land Before Time, Indiana Jones and Ratatouille.

Buzzzz. B got this wrong (he didn’t know my first dog Sarah was named after Sarah the Triceratops in the Land Before Time. Rookie…. Also, Remmy isn’t really named after the rat in Ratatouille. But it worked so well for the clue!).

Since it was his birthday, he still got his gift.

A custom portrait of Remmy!

So this is basically the best, most amazing, adorable gift ever. As a blogger a super small small smallllll business owner (really, I can’t even claim that.. but whatevs), I always love to share other fantastic small businesses. I bought this print from Kathryn Selbert Illustrations, who has a shop on Etsy. I sent her three pictures of our pup with a few details, and she made this graphic drawing, basically combining all three into one adorable cartoonified Rem. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. I ordered this for B on Nov. 4, originally planning to give this to him for Christmas. But she sent me the file on Sunday (you can opt to print your own or she’ll send you a print) and I had it printed just in time for his birthday! Talk about amazing timing.

Here are the photos I sent her:

Here’s the illustration she made:

Is she talented or what?!? I love that she pulled in Rem’s bandana (which I think has since been destroyed) and that his big ol’ tongue is hanging out. I also love that it looks like a watercolor painting.

Let’s be honest, this was a gift for me just as much as it was a gift for Brian. We both love it. It’s definitely one of my favorite gifts I’ve ever given.

Kathryn has all sorts of other adorable illustrations available in her shop, so you should definitely check them out. She does two-week turnarounds, so there’s still plenty of time left to order your pet portraits before the holidays!

OK, I’m done raving now. Happy day-after-your-birthday to my main squeeze. Glad you liked your birthday game & gifts.

If you want to check out Brian’s other fun birthday “game,” check out my post on his beer scavenger hunt!

Graphic Design

Mobile Togs phone cases

July 10, 2014 Jessica Smith

I hinted a few weeks ago that I had an exciting new opportunity/project in the works and yesterday I got the email I’d been waiting for! Four of my graphic designs are being printed onto phone cases for a company called Mobile Togs.

It’s a pretty neat opportunity for me and I am pretty pumped that they reached out to feature my artwork.

We chose four designs. My first choice was my Do What You Love print. So many people have reached out to me to ask about printing this design, so it seemed like a great design to pick.

We also chose my Maryland state love print.

The third print we went with was one of my Adventures with Remmy the Dog. I had to tweak this a bit to make it fit on the phone just right, but it is so flippin’ adorable!

The last design we chose is one that I haven’t even shared with you guys yet! I’ve been working on a whole suite of animal prints for my Etsy shop and decided to choose one of the critters for the phone cases.

The cases are pretty cool. They have a slot to slick your IDs or credit cards, which is awesome for metro riders or students who need to carry their IDs/card everywhere with them. They also have mirrors at the back (that’s why you see the grayed out corner on the cases — that means the designs are printed on the mirrored surface!). You can pick any color with any design, too.

I’m so excited to finally share this on my blog. It’s been tough keeping it a secret 🙂

Craft Projects

Patriotic Cornhole Boards

May 21, 2014May 21, 2014 Jessica Smith

My step dad is super handy (the understatement of the year) and built my little sister a set of cornhole boards last year. He painted them white so she could spruce them up with a design of her own. Last weekend she came over to paint them — they turned out awesome! (Sorry — No tutorial on the actual boards in this post since I wasn’t a part of the construction.)

Emily used paint from Michaels for her boards. She taped off her stripes and drew on her stars before painting each board. She even painted around each star by hand, which I thought was super impressive. DISCLAIMER: Only one star was harmed (read: painted over) in the creation of these boards.

Two coats on each, and she was d-o-n-e done! The are so cute, don’t ya think?

The only thing cuter than her patriotic boards (and my garden behind them) is Em!

I guess craftiness runs in the family 🙂

We will be using these boards at our Memorial Day picnic/Em’s birthday celebration this weekend!

Tag: fun

Birthday Jeopardy (and the best gift ever)

Mobile Togs phone cases

Patriotic Cornhole Boards

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