His signature style is more of a doodle, with added witty remarks and comics-like speech bubbles. Some of his illustrated series include random facts and illustrated one-star reviews of well-known landmarks. According to Lowery, his very particular style has developed over time through daily practice.

“When I was little, I had a grandmother who was an artist and she encouraged my brother and me to keep sketchbooks,” he recalled in an interview with Travel Channel. “Later, I had a college professor who required we draw in one every single day. It really forced me to draw a lot. I used my sketchbooks as a place to experiment with how I draw, what I draw and what materials I use to draw.”

According to Lowery, he still keeps practicing daily in his sketchbooks. “Even when I’ve been drawing for clients all day, it’s that important to me,” he notes. “It was in these daily sketchbooks that I really found my voice.”

“My biggest bit of advice is to make a point to draw for at least 30 minutes a day,” he says. “For some, that seems really tough (it seemed impossible for me at first), but I think it’s incredibly important. You’ll find your voice and figure out how you like to work and draw. It’s also a great way of recording your progress as an artist.”

Take note!

The post This Illustrator Encourages You to Draw Every Day appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Based in Atlanta, GA, where she shares a home with her husband, child, and two cats, Wiehle has worked as a freelance illustrator for almost a decade now. She’s also a founding member of Paper Ghost Studio, a small illustration studio and gallery space in Candler Park, Atlanta, where she has been organizing art shows for the last two years.

“Even though Atlanta did seem alien to me in the beginning, I have grown to love it and am very thankful for all the creative people that I have met and become friends with,” she told Lake. “I still travel back to Germany as much as I can, so I can spend time with my family and friends and get my fill of the German breakfast and riding the train around Europe.”

Indeed, her work is very much inspired by her travels around the world. “I have a sketchbook in my bag that I take everywhere I go,” she notes. “I draw on flights, while sitting around at craft shows or at coffee shops. It relaxes my brain and reminds me why I like to draw. Drawing for jobs can get stressful, but drawing just for myself never does.”

With almost 10 books under her belt, as well as 125k followers on Instagram, Wiehle is clearly doing what she was destined to do. “I have always been drawing and ‘creating’ things and never really wanted to do anything else,” she admits. “I think I would be completely terrible at an office job.”

The post Katrin Wiehle’s Illustrations Appeal to Small Children appeared first on PlayJunkie.

A fashion designer for more than 20 years, she also needed a creative outlet after the massive change of being a stay at home Mum. “Luckily she did a 3-hour nap a day, which gave me the chance to draw and experiment,” she says. “My first illustrations were mainly colorful animals, personalized name prints and cartoons.”

Four years and one child later, her brand serves as a joyous celebration of childhood and the spirit of playfulness. Though simple, van der Meer’s designs and illustrations are precise in their composition and choice of color, with her work ranging from prints and cards to custom made birth announcements, party invites, and portraits.

A proud mother of two, she admits she finds inspiration in her children. “They inspire me every day with their curious outlook on life and all the funny things they say,” she gushed in an interview with the Printed blog. “Their colorful toys and books give me so much inspiration too,” she adds. “Dick Bruna is one of my favorites, as well as all the bold colors and patterns from the 70s.” 

Here are some of our favorite creations by her:

The post These Playful Designs Remind Us of the Joys of Being a Child appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I couldn’t afford to buy her anything, but I hoped to make up for it with my time,” she writes on her website. “I decided to learn how to embroider so I could make her a set of three owl dolls to play with.” She soon found out that it was difficult to find contemporary embroidery patterns that weren’t overly simplistic, let alone embroidered doll patterns. And so, she ended up designing her own. “As I was making Madeleine’s owls, I became fascinated with embroidery: the vibrant colors, the countless variety of stitches, the calming effect it had on me,” she writes.

After several years of improving her embroidery skills – and a ton of design work – Kiriki Press was born. “It was developed in the hopes of giving others the chance to make something precious with their own hands,” writes Galletta. As such the company produces D.I.Y. embroidery kits, screenprints, and other goods, meant to pass onwards her nifty designs.

Aside from making a small splash on social media (Kiriki Press’s Instagram page alone has thousands of followers), the company has been featured in publications like Canadian Living, Chatelaine, Bust Magazine, Homespun, as well as many other print publications and craft blogs.

Here are some of our favorite designs:

The post Michelle Galletta Will Teach You How to Embroider the Cutest Designs appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Born in 1964, she lives and works in Paris, where she produces children’s books, knitted and stuffed toys, glass pictures, patterned dishes, but also postcards, ceramic sculptures, silkscreen printed t-shirts, rugs, and jewels in limited editions (both for herself and for commissions).

Inspired by her travels around the world, Lete admits she’s also fond of vintage toys and old engravings, as well as the natural world. “I feel glad and happy to be able to inspire kids,” she once remarked in an interview with the Little Citizens Boutique blog. “I was myself very inspired by a couple of women I knew when I was a kid, and I wanted to be like them… so it is very important to be inspired by someone and to have a goal.”

Indeed, her work has a naive quality to it that appeals to both children and adults, and amongst her clients, you can even find some celebrities. “I don’t really know who my buyers are, because I sell only some few products by myself,” she says, “but I know that Tim Burton bought one of my rugs, also the boss of Laduree has one in his office and Charlotte Gainsbourg has also one rug.”

But though her work is playful, Lete admits she doesn’t actually design for kids. “I design and some products suit kids, but it is not my first goal,” she explains. According to her, her way of working is exactly the same if the product is meant for a kid or an adult.

Follow her Instagram page for more:

The post The Playful Art of Nathalie Lete appeared first on PlayJunkie.

The crew at Southampton Children’s Hospital realized how big of a problem this is, and came up with a creative solution to make their young patients feel more comfortable and protected in the hospital. They hired a team of specialists to boost morale and to accompany the kids and give emotional support when needed. It just so happens that this team is made entirely of golden retrievers.

Milo, Hattie, Quinn, Jessie, Leo, and Archie are SCH’s four-legged emotional support team. These specially-trained dogs know exactly how to make a child feel loved and safe, and are more than happy to do so. They greet the new kids at the hospital door, come with them to procedures and bring them solace when they’re scared.

The most important part of their job is pretty unique – if a child is scared of a test, one of them will hop on to the examination table and let the doctors and nurses check them first, showing the kids that the examinations are safe and pain-free.

This team of good boys is now an inseparable part of the NCH’s crew, and we hope they keep bringing smiles to the faces of many more children in the future.

The post Six Medical Specialists Have 24 Legs and 6 Tales Between Them appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“Looking for a way to keep your kids still? Buy them glow in the dark PJs. Tell them they have to lie really still under the light to “charge” them. I’m not even sorry,” D’Entremont wrote in her Facebook post. “To expand on the trickery, I’ve started putting the PJs back into their drawer when they get dressed in the morning… unexposed to light all day, they dim and do not glow in the dark when they tried to test me last night until they laid down again. Reinforcing the need to lie quietly under the light before bed.”

People loved her idea, and now her post has more than 220 thousand reactions, 72 thousand comments, and 135 thousand shares.

Scroll down and check out her hilarious idea below.

The post Mom Buys Her Daughters Glowing PJ’s and Says They Need to Lie Still So They Can Charge appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Trained originally as a printed textile designer, her distinctive work led to collaborations worldwide with Burberry, Harrods, Liberty, Tate, Selfridges, and Boots, amongst many others.

“When I was little, I was always making and doing, be it cooking, coloring, sewing, painting, drawing… I’d always be creating something or another,” she recalled in an interview with Dulwich Festival. “I think things really took hold at school when I had a wonderful art teacher, who encouraged me to apply for a Textile Design degree. Training and working as a printed textile designer, illustration naturally went hand in hand with designing prints. I’ve been very lucky that I’ve been able to transfer this into illustrating for books.”

She has been hard at work ever since, founding her label “Lisa Stickley” and selling some of her very first products to Paul Smith, Designers Guild, and the Cross. “I use a lot of different processes to draw and it’s great for bringing different characters to life by way of oil pastels, mono-printed line combined with collaged pattern (often from my own stash of designs), pen and ink, paper cutting and paint,” she explains. “I quite like a blank sheet of paper and often doodle on older, more worn out bits of paper I’ve collected over the years. It adds another element to the illustration, I think.”

“The first drawings of the day are always awful, and I’ll often make a number of drawings of any one thing until the right one comes along,” she admits. “At the moment I love drawing animals and have a particular penchant for drawing soft toys (old and new), building up layer upon layer of texture to give the right look and feel to the character. I love making them look a little bit wonky and odd, giving them their own unique personality.”

Prepare to fall in love.

The post Lisa Stickley’s Wonky Illustrations Give Us Life appeared first on PlayJunkie.

In just a couple of days his adorable niece became an internet sensation. In the video, which Lord Flocko shared on his Twitter account, the little girl shows off her trained bird.

“My niece has her bird trained to attack anyone she screams at”, the Twitter user shared.

The video already has been watched millions of times and retweeted by thousands of users.

Scroll down and check it out yourself.

The post Girl Trained Her Bird To Attack People appeared first on PlayJunkie.

The little baby was placed in a chair when he spotted his father from a distance. He even took a second look to be sure. When his father came close, he realized that something had changed. The long-dreaded hair was gone, and the tears were quick to follow.

You can see the wave of disappointment on his face before he bursts into tears. He even covers his face like a disappointed adult. Surely if he could speak, he would complain bitterly. He must have really loved his father’s hair. Well, you can’t blame him. Kids get attached quickly, and this is probably why he was hurt when the long hair wasn’t present.

You can watch the video below:

The post Heartwarming: Baby Gets Upset That His Father Cut Off his Dreads appeared first on PlayJunkie.

His signature style is more of a doodle, with added witty remarks and comics-like speech bubbles. Some of his illustrated series include random facts and illustrated one-star reviews of well-known landmarks. According to Lowery, his very particular style has developed over time through daily practice.

“When I was little, I had a grandmother who was an artist and she encouraged my brother and me to keep sketchbooks,” he recalled in an interview with Travel Channel. “Later, I had a college professor who required we draw in one every single day. It really forced me to draw a lot. I used my sketchbooks as a place to experiment with how I draw, what I draw and what materials I use to draw.”

According to Lowery, he still keeps practicing daily in his sketchbooks. “Even when I’ve been drawing for clients all day, it’s that important to me,” he notes. “It was in these daily sketchbooks that I really found my voice.”

“My biggest bit of advice is to make a point to draw for at least 30 minutes a day,” he says. “For some, that seems really tough (it seemed impossible for me at first), but I think it’s incredibly important. You’ll find your voice and figure out how you like to work and draw. It’s also a great way of recording your progress as an artist.”

Take note!

The post This Illustrator Encourages You to Draw Every Day appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Based in Atlanta, GA, where she shares a home with her husband, child, and two cats, Wiehle has worked as a freelance illustrator for almost a decade now. She’s also a founding member of Paper Ghost Studio, a small illustration studio and gallery space in Candler Park, Atlanta, where she has been organizing art shows for the last two years.

“Even though Atlanta did seem alien to me in the beginning, I have grown to love it and am very thankful for all the creative people that I have met and become friends with,” she told Lake. “I still travel back to Germany as much as I can, so I can spend time with my family and friends and get my fill of the German breakfast and riding the train around Europe.”

Indeed, her work is very much inspired by her travels around the world. “I have a sketchbook in my bag that I take everywhere I go,” she notes. “I draw on flights, while sitting around at craft shows or at coffee shops. It relaxes my brain and reminds me why I like to draw. Drawing for jobs can get stressful, but drawing just for myself never does.”

With almost 10 books under her belt, as well as 125k followers on Instagram, Wiehle is clearly doing what she was destined to do. “I have always been drawing and ‘creating’ things and never really wanted to do anything else,” she admits. “I think I would be completely terrible at an office job.”

The post Katrin Wiehle’s Illustrations Appeal to Small Children appeared first on PlayJunkie.

A fashion designer for more than 20 years, she also needed a creative outlet after the massive change of being a stay at home Mum. “Luckily she did a 3-hour nap a day, which gave me the chance to draw and experiment,” she says. “My first illustrations were mainly colorful animals, personalized name prints and cartoons.”

Four years and one child later, her brand serves as a joyous celebration of childhood and the spirit of playfulness. Though simple, van der Meer’s designs and illustrations are precise in their composition and choice of color, with her work ranging from prints and cards to custom made birth announcements, party invites, and portraits.

A proud mother of two, she admits she finds inspiration in her children. “They inspire me every day with their curious outlook on life and all the funny things they say,” she gushed in an interview with the Printed blog. “Their colorful toys and books give me so much inspiration too,” she adds. “Dick Bruna is one of my favorites, as well as all the bold colors and patterns from the 70s.” 

Here are some of our favorite creations by her:

The post These Playful Designs Remind Us of the Joys of Being a Child appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I couldn’t afford to buy her anything, but I hoped to make up for it with my time,” she writes on her website. “I decided to learn how to embroider so I could make her a set of three owl dolls to play with.” She soon found out that it was difficult to find contemporary embroidery patterns that weren’t overly simplistic, let alone embroidered doll patterns. And so, she ended up designing her own. “As I was making Madeleine’s owls, I became fascinated with embroidery: the vibrant colors, the countless variety of stitches, the calming effect it had on me,” she writes.

After several years of improving her embroidery skills – and a ton of design work – Kiriki Press was born. “It was developed in the hopes of giving others the chance to make something precious with their own hands,” writes Galletta. As such the company produces D.I.Y. embroidery kits, screenprints, and other goods, meant to pass onwards her nifty designs.

Aside from making a small splash on social media (Kiriki Press’s Instagram page alone has thousands of followers), the company has been featured in publications like Canadian Living, Chatelaine, Bust Magazine, Homespun, as well as many other print publications and craft blogs.

Here are some of our favorite designs:

The post Michelle Galletta Will Teach You How to Embroider the Cutest Designs appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Born in 1964, she lives and works in Paris, where she produces children’s books, knitted and stuffed toys, glass pictures, patterned dishes, but also postcards, ceramic sculptures, silkscreen printed t-shirts, rugs, and jewels in limited editions (both for herself and for commissions).

Inspired by her travels around the world, Lete admits she’s also fond of vintage toys and old engravings, as well as the natural world. “I feel glad and happy to be able to inspire kids,” she once remarked in an interview with the Little Citizens Boutique blog. “I was myself very inspired by a couple of women I knew when I was a kid, and I wanted to be like them… so it is very important to be inspired by someone and to have a goal.”

Indeed, her work has a naive quality to it that appeals to both children and adults, and amongst her clients, you can even find some celebrities. “I don’t really know who my buyers are, because I sell only some few products by myself,” she says, “but I know that Tim Burton bought one of my rugs, also the boss of Laduree has one in his office and Charlotte Gainsbourg has also one rug.”

But though her work is playful, Lete admits she doesn’t actually design for kids. “I design and some products suit kids, but it is not my first goal,” she explains. According to her, her way of working is exactly the same if the product is meant for a kid or an adult.

Follow her Instagram page for more:

The post The Playful Art of Nathalie Lete appeared first on PlayJunkie.

The crew at Southampton Children’s Hospital realized how big of a problem this is, and came up with a creative solution to make their young patients feel more comfortable and protected in the hospital. They hired a team of specialists to boost morale and to accompany the kids and give emotional support when needed. It just so happens that this team is made entirely of golden retrievers.

Milo, Hattie, Quinn, Jessie, Leo, and Archie are SCH’s four-legged emotional support team. These specially-trained dogs know exactly how to make a child feel loved and safe, and are more than happy to do so. They greet the new kids at the hospital door, come with them to procedures and bring them solace when they’re scared.

The most important part of their job is pretty unique – if a child is scared of a test, one of them will hop on to the examination table and let the doctors and nurses check them first, showing the kids that the examinations are safe and pain-free.

This team of good boys is now an inseparable part of the NCH’s crew, and we hope they keep bringing smiles to the faces of many more children in the future.

The post Six Medical Specialists Have 24 Legs and 6 Tales Between Them appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“Looking for a way to keep your kids still? Buy them glow in the dark PJs. Tell them they have to lie really still under the light to “charge” them. I’m not even sorry,” D’Entremont wrote in her Facebook post. “To expand on the trickery, I’ve started putting the PJs back into their drawer when they get dressed in the morning… unexposed to light all day, they dim and do not glow in the dark when they tried to test me last night until they laid down again. Reinforcing the need to lie quietly under the light before bed.”

People loved her idea, and now her post has more than 220 thousand reactions, 72 thousand comments, and 135 thousand shares.

Scroll down and check out her hilarious idea below.

The post Mom Buys Her Daughters Glowing PJ’s and Says They Need to Lie Still So They Can Charge appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Trained originally as a printed textile designer, her distinctive work led to collaborations worldwide with Burberry, Harrods, Liberty, Tate, Selfridges, and Boots, amongst many others.

“When I was little, I was always making and doing, be it cooking, coloring, sewing, painting, drawing… I’d always be creating something or another,” she recalled in an interview with Dulwich Festival. “I think things really took hold at school when I had a wonderful art teacher, who encouraged me to apply for a Textile Design degree. Training and working as a printed textile designer, illustration naturally went hand in hand with designing prints. I’ve been very lucky that I’ve been able to transfer this into illustrating for books.”

She has been hard at work ever since, founding her label “Lisa Stickley” and selling some of her very first products to Paul Smith, Designers Guild, and the Cross. “I use a lot of different processes to draw and it’s great for bringing different characters to life by way of oil pastels, mono-printed line combined with collaged pattern (often from my own stash of designs), pen and ink, paper cutting and paint,” she explains. “I quite like a blank sheet of paper and often doodle on older, more worn out bits of paper I’ve collected over the years. It adds another element to the illustration, I think.”

“The first drawings of the day are always awful, and I’ll often make a number of drawings of any one thing until the right one comes along,” she admits. “At the moment I love drawing animals and have a particular penchant for drawing soft toys (old and new), building up layer upon layer of texture to give the right look and feel to the character. I love making them look a little bit wonky and odd, giving them their own unique personality.”

Prepare to fall in love.

The post Lisa Stickley’s Wonky Illustrations Give Us Life appeared first on PlayJunkie.

In just a couple of days his adorable niece became an internet sensation. In the video, which Lord Flocko shared on his Twitter account, the little girl shows off her trained bird.

“My niece has her bird trained to attack anyone she screams at”, the Twitter user shared.

The video already has been watched millions of times and retweeted by thousands of users.

Scroll down and check it out yourself.

The post Girl Trained Her Bird To Attack People appeared first on PlayJunkie.

The little baby was placed in a chair when he spotted his father from a distance. He even took a second look to be sure. When his father came close, he realized that something had changed. The long-dreaded hair was gone, and the tears were quick to follow.

You can see the wave of disappointment on his face before he bursts into tears. He even covers his face like a disappointed adult. Surely if he could speak, he would complain bitterly. He must have really loved his father’s hair. Well, you can’t blame him. Kids get attached quickly, and this is probably why he was hurt when the long hair wasn’t present.

You can watch the video below:

The post Heartwarming: Baby Gets Upset That His Father Cut Off his Dreads appeared first on PlayJunkie.