For Illustration Friday today (yeah, I know it’s actually Sunday), I decided to work on a logo design for a friend’s organic food business. She’s a very focused person, and I thought this illo had a very focused look to it!  Here’s the design, and also, the steps I did to come up with it!  (They are similar to the process I used for the black & whites recently.)

Finished prototype:

So, wanna follow along with the process?  You should never watch how they make the sausage, ya know… This isn’t a real tutorial or how-to, but maybe my steps will give you some tips you can use!

To get to this, here’s what I did:

I started with a concept sketch…  I had this idea in my head that seemed to match what we’d discussed as far as her logo.  We have Gaia with flowing plant hair!

Next, I did a quick ink tracing, with heavy black lines.  Not thrilled with her face, but I can work with it.

Then, I colored it in an photoshop, just black and white.  It didn’t have to be perfect, just close.

I did some additional cleanup, and then I took it into Illustrator.  A trace smoothed everything out and gave it the look I was going for.

I did this a few times, playing around with the image in photoshop, then in Illustrator.  I’m not very good with Illustrator, so I tend to rely on Photoshop more than I should.  The final black and white version was a little different than the above.

Although I like the black and white version, I figured she might like a color version as well, so I colored it in Illustrator, and added a couple of different logo fonts for her to look at.

Hope this was interesting for you!

If you’re not following Dabbled – Why not!? Don’t miss a thing – Get the Feed Here!

Links: Black and White Illustration Series

Foodwhirl’s already active on Twitter and Facebook, collecting some yummy food related links for you

@Foodwhirl on Twitter:

• How to make Candy Gems on marthastewart.com http://ow.ly/11Sr9 (of course, you’ll need special molds, but still!)
• Too funny… Make your own iSandwich 4G (via @craft) http://ow.ly/11RZq
• This looks yummy! Beef bites with three dipping sauces at @chicaandjo http://ow.ly/11RUV
• S’more Cupcakes! Now that’s taking it up a notch :) http://www.bakerella.com/smore-or-less/
• I might have to try this — How to make Focaccia ..at Talk of Tomatoes http://ow.ly/11S39 Bread is one of those things I never make!
• Hot Cocoa Treats · Edible Crafts at CraftGossiphttp://ow.ly/11Snx The cutest little boats that float in your hot cocoa! (via @notmartha)
• mmm..These bourbon glazed wings look yummy at @brownies4dinnerhttp://tinyurl.com/yj3q35o (& Patricia is part of the @foodwhirl group!)

From Foodwhirl’s new Facebook Page (go be a Fan!)

• These Gingered Carrot Muffins sound pretty yummy… and I’m not usually a fan of carrot! Craftzine.com blog : Gingered Carrot Muffins
• I promised some good food related links here… so here’s one to start… Doesn’t this look just decadently yummy? Tartelette: Lemon Goat Cheese Cheesecakes With Blood Orange Sauce

I’ll keep you guys posted!

I have a few images up there, and if you have another you’ve seen that you’d like as a print, just email me and I’ll see about uploading it for you.

Here are a few cute ones for Valentines Day!

Promo rules: Type promo code VDAY10 in the promotion box at checkout. Promotion expires February 8, 2010 at 11:59pm PST and cannot be combined with any other promotion code. Limit one order per person. Promotion code must be used at time of checkout to apply. Your order must be placed during the promotional period to qualify for this special pricing offer. Free shipping promo applies to US ground shipping only. Not valid on greeting cards. Order must be over $30 to qualify for special promotion.

http://Dorsner.imagekind.com/

Oh, and Foodwhirl is coming along nicely… !

Here are a few more gift ideas for Valentine’s Day, from indie sellers around the web!  Hope these give you some ideas and inspirations.  Feel free to add links to other good sites or items, in the comments!

Links to seller sites are below the image:

• ASCII Heart Necklace
• Recycled Soda Can Jewelry
• Robots

• art for your heart
• Rebecka Valentine
• Valentine Two Hearts One Love Art Print

• Crazy Love Card II
• Cuttlefish Jewelry
• Handmade Watercolor Cards

• Journals & Book Necklaces
• 3D printed bracelet from the Future
• Recycled Bookmark

1. Chica & Jo’s Super Bowl cupcakes – Referee shirt and football,get the templates to make your own at http://cupcakecollars.com

2. Valentines printables from Living Locurto – Get ’em: http://www.livinglocurto.com/2010/01/candy-kiss-free-valentine-printables/

3. Underwater bangle 1,Lovely new work from Penny Dog Accessories (Remember her working with resin tutorial here on Dabbled?)

4. a small part of the Mixed Grill Place Mats designer Regina Rioux Gonzalez – What a cool placemat  by the cramped hand

Plus: Some other cool links!

• Check out the Printable Roundup on One Pretty Thing!
• Fabulous Image Transfer Tutorial on Can’t Stop Making Things
• Way cool ‘vintage’ PC on Poetic Home
• Homemade Valentines Gift Ideas at TipJunkie

Besides the Flickr Pool, remember there are other ways to connect / follow Dabbled….

• Get the Feed (RSS) or Get Dabbled via Email
• Fan Dabbled on Facebook
• Tweet with DotatDabbled on Twitter!

Downloads:

Single Card – Tentacles are for Hugging

Set of 9 mini-cards – Tentacles are for Hugging

2 cards – Tentacles version, Happy Valentine’s Day version

Download either the larger single card, or a set of 9 mini cards for school giving.

Quick Homemade Envelopes

If you want envelopes for your cards, the process is simple. (See the photos below for visual instructions!)  I like to use pretty coordinating paper for the envelopes. Scrapbooking paper works well for this — a 12×12 sheet of scrapbooking paper will make 4 envelopes for the the mini-cards (cut into 4 6×6″ squares.)

1. Cut out your envelop square.
2. Place your card in the center of the square, diagonally, and mark around it lightly with a pencil to estimate your folds.
3. Fold all the corners in so they meet and overlap in the middle.  (Make the folds slightly larger than your card.)
4. Place the card in the  middle.  Fold two opposing corners in, then the other two.  Secure with a coordinating sticker.

Click on a photo below to view larger, or as a slideshow.

Download :

—Code Monkey Likes You version: Code Monkey Likes You Card

—Happy Valentines Day version: Computer Monkey Valentines Day Card

*Code Monkey song reference link

If you’re not following Dabbled – Why not!? Don’t miss a thing – Get the Feed Here!

Some of the links I’ve posted on Twitter this week:

• This is an awesome idea! A glow in the dark Sketch Wall at Fangletronics
• Love these instant recycled paper flowers from maya*made. Check out the cool scissors she used too!
• Check out these awesomely cool Zombie Peanuts spotlighted at Superpunch
• I so want this cool staircase slide.
• Just some really cool high speed photography shots. Neato!
• Cool plastic recycling idea at @whipup – packaging into an organizer: http://tinyurl.com/ye79ply
• Loving the coke can earrings at @someartmama!
• Made this the other day for our party: homemade eggnog.
• Now THIS is decadent… I love these S’moreffles from new find Waffleizer!
• Cute recycled sweater hat at A Hoot and A Holler (via @oneprettything) (I’m still looking for the perfect recycled sweater hat to make for myself!)
• Wow. It’s not Halloween, but this is an impressive Tauntaun costume!
• Lovely ideas for what to do with old kids blocks… (via @whipup)
• Deep fried cupcakes on a stick? The very decadent how-to at SeriousEats.
• OOOh! lemons! I’ve got to try @1lenore’s Marmalade .. Here’s the how-to at Evil Mad Scientist!
• Love this cargo pants into messenger bag tute! (via @oneprettything) Tutorial Here.
• Dollar Store Craft: Make a Wire Bird’s Nest Tutorial by Cathe Holden here.

(If you like stuff like this, follow me on Twitter……… or if you’re just not into twitter, but still don’t want to miss anything follow the dabbled.tumblr.com blog or tumblr RSS Feed–it’s mostly just the stuff I post on twitter.)

Oh, and if you’re not following Dabbled – Why not!?  Don’t miss a thing – Get the Feed Here!

PS: If you make/sell your crafts and you have an item that would be a great valentines day gift, and you’d like to have in included in a Valentines Day gift Roundup on Dabbled, send me an email (dot -at- dabbled.org) with a link to the item(s)!

Featured in this (or another) Roundup?

Grab an I was Featured Button!

Have a great weekend everyone!

My latest party recipe: Sweet Potato Mini-Tarts.

I got rave reviews on my sweet potato casserole with cranberry-macadamia topping at Christmas, so I decided to adapt the recipe for use as a mini party dessert / appetizer. Last week I gave you the run down on making the tartlet shells… they were very easy and inexpensive to make, but if you’re pressed for time, you can use any type of pre-made appetizer shells for this recipe.
The same ideas can of course be adapted for other types of mini-pies, but I’ll tell you these were certainly a hit at this weekend’s gathering!

So, check out the step-by-step in the photo-recipe below! The actual recipe follows.

Photo-Recipe – Sweet Potato Mini-Tarts

1. Wash and slice sweet potatoes, 2. Boil or roast until soft, 3. When cool enough to handle, peel., 4. Puree with other ingredients, 5. Pureed Filling, 6. ‘Homemade’ Tart Shells to make: Make Tart Shells How-to, 7. Fill plastic bag or piping bag, 8. Cut hole for piping, 9. Pipe into Shells, 10. Filled Shells, 11. Make the topping, 12. Add nuts and fruit, 13. Completed Topping, 14. Top with about a teaspoon of the topping, 15. Baked and ready to eat!

Note: I have promised to write up the recipe for the sweet potato casserole that inspired this, but I haven’t done that yet–I will!! For the tartlets, I figured since the shells were pre-cooked, the filling only needed to be heated through and the toppings toasted, so I left out the eggs and changed the proportions, so the filling for these is closer to a sweet mashed potato, rather than a souffle.

Yield: Makes about 50 mini-tarts

Ingredients:

2-3 Sweet Potatoes (enough to make 2+ cups cooked-Just cook extra if you’re not sure.)
———-
(for each 2-3 cups sweet potato*)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons Butter (softened)
Dash vanilla
———-
1/3 c brown sugar
2 Tbls butter (firm)
1/4 c flour
~1/2 c dried cranberries
~1/2 c macadamia nuts**
———-
Mini Tart shells (~48)
Make your own ahead of time (easy & cheap!)
or storebought (any type of pastry shell / phyllo shell that holds about 1 ounce – if yours hold more, take that into account in the amount of filling required.)

*Because sizes of sweet potatoes vary, you may end up with more filling than you need, or more than will fit in your food processor! Just go ahead and puree all of it, adjusting the amount of sugar, butter, and milk for larger quantities. This isn’t an exact science, and just like making mashed potatoes, you have some leeway. Simply taste your potatoes to ensure they taste good, and add milk gradually to ensure your filling is firm enough to pipe into the shells, and you’ll be fine.
…and if you end up with leftover potato puree, it makes an excellent sidedish for dinner!

**Pecans would be an excellent alternate choice!

Filling:

First, the filling, which is basically mashed sweet potatoes. This can be done in a food processor or a stand mixer (use a stand mixer if you’re doing a larger quantity).

Slice your potatoes into even sized rounds, and boil for about 10 minutes or until you can stab them with a fork with little resistance.
Run them under cold water in a colander, let cool to touch. Remove the skins, they should peel off easily with your fingers.

In a food processor (or mixer) combine the sweet potatoes with the butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla. (1 batch in my food processor was about the right amount for the 50 tarts, but I made extra just in case, and we had the remaining for dinner!). Puree until smooth and thick (See photos).

The neatest method for transferring the filling to the shells is piping it. If you don’t have a piping bag you want to use, just fill a ziptop sandwich bag with your filling, then trim off a corner (trim small at first, you can always make it bigger!).

Line up your shells on a cookie sheet, and squeeze the filling into the waiting pastry shells.

Topping:

Clean out your food processor if necessary, then add your brown sugar, firm butter, and flour. Pulse together until the flour is absorbed and the mixture is looking crumbly.
Add your macadamias and your cranberries, and pulse several more times to break up the macadamias a bit and incorporate them into the mixture.
I put about a half cup of each in at first, then decided I wanted more so I added maybe an additional 1/4 cup or so of each.

Sprinkle the topping on your waiting tartlets. Each tart gets about a teaspoon of topping — but don’t measure.

Tarts can be prepared and refrigerated ahead of time (even frozen), so the night of the party, just pop the tray in the oven at about 375 degrees until the toppings brown and caramelize… about 10 minutes should do it. Keep an eye on it, you don’t want the nuts to burn or the shells to get over done. Mine got left in a little long due to a timer setting error, but they still came out ok.

Can be served warm or room temp.

That’s about it!
———————————-

Added Bonus!

As I mentioned, I had leftover potatoes, since I wasn’t sure exactly how much filling I would need and had wanted to be sure I had enough!
Needless to say, that did not go to waste.

I spooned the left over sweet potato mixture into a baking dish.
The topping recipe outlined above was about the right amount for 50 tarts, but I wanted topping on this, so I mixed up a little more (that was pretty heavy on the nuts and fruit).
Sprinkled the topping on, and baked (375 I think?) it for about 15 minutes, or until the topping was crunchy and tan. Just check to see that it is hot all the way through, and you have a perfect sidedish!

First off, if you’ve never done a White Elephant Party, they are a lot of fun… I try to do one every year, and this year –since my December was so busy– it’s happening after the holidays. In fact, a White Elephant is a great *after* the holidays party since people probably received one or two things that they could stand to regift! A White Elephant (also called a Yankee Swap or a Dirty Santa) is a gift exchange where everyone steals gifts from each other. The rules are pretty simple, but I’m just going to point you to last year’s post, with all the rules, if you’re not familiar. Go ahead, I’ll wait…

OK!

So today I’m doing a bit of party prep… cooking of course… I figured you might like to see what I’m making! I’ve be taking pictures, so you’ll be getting full recipes and how-to’s for some of these next week.

You’ve been wondering what I was going to do with the Tartlet Shells I made the other day, right?

I think things are coming together nicely, don’t you?

Want to through your own White Elephant Party?

You’re in luck!

Download invites and everything you need to play here.

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