5.22.2015

Fun Day Friday

By the time you read this I will be sitting around a big roaring campfire roasting marshmellows and enjoying a cold Palm Breeze (the drink, I'm not going anywhere tropical) But it's Friday. And Fridays are always Fun Days here at thunderpeep headquarters.

So I've got another freebie download for you. In honour of the upcoming Midsummer celebrations and my weekend Forest adventures we're all going to figure out what woodland creature we are.

Who out there remembers playing with Cootie Catchers when they were a kid, or still plays with them as an adult (nothing to be embarrassed about!) For those of you who didn't, a cootie catcher is a little paper fortune teller game. Usually we played it to find out which boy had a crush on your, or what you were going to be when you grew up. I can't predict either of those things for you (I have enough problems figuring them out in my own life) I made a cootie catcher up for last years Midsummer launch, as a little giveaway for the kiddies, that helps you find your woodland spirit creature. Maybe, if you're like my friend Tom, you will continually get the Forest Troll, and that's ok! We can't all be the Lucky cottontail rabbit!

Download your cootie catcher here. You'll need a printer that can print double sided for this one. All the instructions are in the pdf file. And if you need a visual for figuring out the fold, head over to YouTube and watch one of these tutorials.

Don't forget to let me know what your spirit creature is ;)



5.18.2015

Workin' for the Weekend

Here in the Great North today is a Holiday. Happy Birthday Queen Victoria, thanks for the extra day of sleeping in and drinking tea in my jammies. And working from the comfort of my sofa.

I don't usually travel during long weekends, because pretty much everyone else is and I hate traffic. So I'll be heading out of town next weekend, for a couple of days in the deep woods of Algonquin Park, for what my good friend Amy likes to call Chill the Fuck out time. Sounds good to me. And apparently there are a ton of Moose out and about in the park, and Amy and I love Moose! But the point is, I had to work extra hard to catch up on a ton of work this weekend to be able to take next weekend off for adventures. And man, there is a ton of work on the go! But it's good. All good. I got to spend a lot of time designing and bringing this story of mine to life, and that felt awesome. I still struggle with that that nagging voice that reminds me of all the other little things that need my attention, but sometimes you just need to muzzle her and stay the course. A lot of my stationery friends are in NY right now, doing what most stationery designers need to do to get noticed, the National Stationery Show. But I took a pass again this year, still just doesn't feel like my path. Some people don't get it, but that's ok, we've all got our own paths to follow. I'm 100% confident that I'm exactly where I need to be (at least career wise, we all know that my heart truly lies in the wild, not in the city ;)

I mean, this weekend wasn't ALL work and no play - I did get a chance to go out and play with Steff (the other half of Pickled Herring), trying to hunt down a colouring book for her can prove to be quite the experience! I mean so many people still haven't gotten on the adult colouring book craze. And that doesn't make us Hipsters (well apparently I'm getting close, but whatever), trust me you should try it after a shitty day. Colouring Therapy is a thing. We've also got some big things coming up for our collaboration Pickled Herring Designs. So much good stuff coming for you guys and gals.

There's just a bit more than a month to go until the Midsummer Collection launches, although the books will have a bit of a later release - I'm working on a event to mark their debut in the beginning of July (hopefully I'll be able to tell you more about that soon!) So considering the rest of the collection one big ass sneak peak into the book set. I'm so excited for everyone to see it. I'm excited to see the finished product myself.

 If you follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram you got another sneak peek today as I posted some more pics pulled from the artwork. I think I'll continue to do that as we head into the final stretch of spring.


5.11.2015

Fun Day Friday

Wait. What?

Yes, I know today isn't Friday, but this post was sadly forgotten about last Friday (bad me) + this coming Friday is the start of a Long Holiday Weekend here and I know you'll all be out having fun and will miss the goodness that is in this post.

So, let's all pretend it's Friday and time for a treat. Yay! I'm actually going to start doing this pretty regularly, this Friday treat thing. And by doing this, I mean doing it for you. Freebies!

Today we have some pretty artwork to keep you company while you work {otherwise known as a screensaver!} If you happened to have purchased one of my 2015 calendars you'll recognize the artwork from a couple of months ago. The Luck Dragon, or for those of us of a certain age: Falcor {if you haven't seen The Neverending Story go watch it this weekend, it will not disappoint}

So download and enjoy. Just click on the image below and it will pop up in a new window. Right click the image and download it onto your computer, select it as your new wallpaper and BAM! you now have a super Fun image on your screen. (please note that these images are for personal use only they are not for resale but feel free to share this post with your friends!)



Happy {not yet} Friday!

5.06.2015

fun with blackletter type

I've been playing around with types of fonts to use for the Midsummer books. I definitely wanted to stay within my existing style, but also wanted a little throw back to traditional Fairy Tales. I primarily use heavy sans serifs in my work. I love that they are bold, simple and clean. And I have a strong dislike for most serif fonts.


I could play this game all day long! It has actually been banned from my phone….

But Serifs are one thing, blackletter is a completely other matter. I took up Calligraphy last year and while I don't get to play around a whole lot, it did give me a much better appreciation for Gothic Script so I wanted to incorporate that into my books. I mean they were used in most early editions of published Fairy Tales and they are so dramatic, perfect for pulling out important parts of a story! I also found them really easy to play around with as they already have a highly illustrative quality.

So, I played around with some. This one is the front runner so far!

What do ya think?


5.04.2015

Jaeja - or at least I hope to be!

If you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed that I made a pretty fancy purchase. Even the checkout girl at Chapters looked at me wildly and wished me the best of luck with it.


I figured this would motivate me to stay on track with my year so I can get the hell out of here at the end of the year. Now, I know that people speak English in Iceland and I'd have no problems if I didn't learn any of the native tongue. But why would I do that? Half the fun of going to a foreign country is the different languages (although I adore listening to Icelanders speak in english with their super cute accents). I did learn a bit of Finnish before my last trip - and that almost broke me. That was a tough one but, I have some basic Norwegian, and since Icelandic is part of the same Nordic language group I'm hoping that gives me some sort of advantage!

So today is lesson #1. I may already be cowering under the covers from the strangeness of it when this post goes up, but I doubt it. I Got This! 

And if I don't, I'll just nail down these three words...


Anyone out there speak Icelandic and want to be my speaking buddy?

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