I’ve seen several cute 404 pages recently, but mine was inspired by the one on Swiss Miss (great design site). Here’s her’s.

If anyone’s interested, I’ll write up a quick tutorial on how to make the graphic in photoshop, and also how to incorporate it into your 404 page.

PS: you can see another version of the same thing at my sometimes updated art site: http://nancydorsner.com/sdjflk

Brian Despain

I love Brian’s work… the subject matter is right up my alley–robots and all manner of coolness– , and it’s just plain gorgeous.  I could just stare at the robot worlds he creates all day long–Inspiring!

Love these robots..

The Escape

The Haunting

Web: Despainart.com

Jason Thomas

Jason’s work is full of fun and whimsy.  Along with robots, he also shares my love of tentacle thingies and monsters.  A fellow Atlantan, too–he’s also a very cool guy.   In additional to prints and such, he was also selling some great 3-D wooden pieces (one of which I will soon be the proud owner of–and I’ll share that when I get it, since he doesn’t seem to have any of those in his online store right now.).

If you’re in Atlanta, he’s at a lot of the festivals… He’ll be in my write up of East Atlanta Strut when I get to it.  So go find him because his stuff is sure to make you smile.

Web: Red Rocket Farm

Jason Limon

I picked up a print of Jason Limon‘s a few years ago, and I love his otherworldly style.   A really interesting mix of natural / organic elements and  mechanical elements.

His most recent work has an ‘owly’ feel, but I’m of course fond of his robots especially– and you can even get his cool bots as an iPhone Skin!

Web: Limon-Art

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Pete Abrams (Sluggy Freelance)

All around awesome guy, and creator of the long running webcomic, Sluggy Freelance, I would be remiss in not including Pete in the list of cool people in Artists Alley!  If you never read Sluggy, you really should.  But be warned, there are 13 years of archives to go through – so you might want to just buy the books!  Still in my book one of the best comics ever.

(Plus he looks ever so cute in a wig!)

Web:  Sluggy.com

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Andy Runton (Owly)

Pete pointed me toward’s Andy Runton’s Owly series, so we picked up a book for the 5 year old.  I love the idea of graphic novels for the kiddo set.  With very few words, it looks like an ideal way to expose a pre-reader to sequential story telling.  Plus Owly is awfully cute!  We haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, but looking forward to it!

This is the one we got.

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Web: Andy Runton

Other shout-outs… I didn’t get a chance to speak to either Gus Fink or Meg Lyman, but I wrote about them last year!

Oh! Foodwhirl giveaway ends today! Go enter quick!

Here is the ballooning robot in the early morning light.  I imagine he got up early, and just headed out on an adventure.  Not quite sure where the winds will take him, as his craft has very little ability to steer. (Maybe he’ll see the Ship of Gnomes!)

Cute huh?  Well, I think so at least :)

I just posted a recap of last week’s recipes on Foodwhirl: Poured Sugar Icing, Lentil Soup, Bunny Treats, Summer Salads, Rhubarb & more! And enter to win a $80 prize, yay! http://ht.ly/1P7NQ

And I’m trying to be more social ;)—  You can go Like Dabbled on Facebook and/or Foodwhirl on Facebook!  And Twitter, of course–if you friend me on Twitter be sure to send me an @ message so I know you’re from Dabbled, not a spammer!

Ciao!

I’ve been playing around with glass tile necklaces, with either prints from my artwork, or original drawings, as fun and wearable art.
Here are the 2 prototypes–based on the watercolor series (“Robot World“) which is currently in the Museum of Science in Boston. One is the robot from “A Clockwork Red” and the other is one of the balloons in the background of “Blue”. I’m really loving the balloon one, I’ve worn it several times!

And yes, I’m about 6 months behind on my shop (I really have to stop starting other projects!), so if you’d be interested in one, drop me an email! I’ll do a “really, the shop will be up soon” special for you guys for $18, including US shipping. [dot-at-dabbled-dot-org] . So if you’ve always wanted to wear some Dot Art around your neck, here’s your chance! It doesn’t have to be one of these 2, but it does need to be something i have a high quality print of lying around the house to slice up for you. And yeah, if you want an original it will be a little more.

These are done with prints (obviously!) but my idea is to also showcase original drawings/watercolors, for something more personalized, or more special.

I’ll do a post on how I made the necklaces next week, but if you’re in a hurry to try it yourself, I’ll point you to this good tutorial that I found at Trey & Lucy, where she does some really cute ones using scrapbook paper. Oh, and I totally screwed up at first — can you figure out what’s wrong with the balloon one shown in the picture?

EDIT: Here are a couple of them, Colored!

Someone asked for this a long time ago (back when I posted the Alice in the Rose Garden & Wizard of Oz Poppies pics)… and I finally got around to doing it.

And no, I haven’t finished the robot sketch from last week…. Will post when I do!

This is a cute party idea, that kids like, and is fun to do. You can seriously go retro with this, and decorate with Tin Robot toys. Or play up the spaceman side of it with stars and outer space decor. Think space, rockets, robots, stars… there are tons of possiblities!

First off, the invitations:
These cute little robots, hanging the stars, made a great invitation. I made this one available CC licensed for personal use, so if you’d like to snag it for your own party, just click through and download. (Or if you’d like the graphic personalized with your child’s name and party details, email me for pricing) There is also the matching thank you note graphic here. You can print these on card stock for your party use, or have them printed at your local copy shop for you!

For a simple idea for party favor ‘goodie bags’, I put some little treats in small paper bags, with another ‘robot spaceman graphic on the front. Inexpensive and easy. Some ideas for party favors are below — with the popularity of transformers and wall-e and such out there, finding some inexpensive robot themed items isn’t too hard, if you don’t have time to be creative and make goodies! Also, rather than juice boxes, I purchased inexpensive star themed cups (from Oriental Trading Co, I think) for drinks, which the kids could use at the party, and also take home.

Favor Bags (Robot Spaceman Cowboy!) (Click on the picture to download the graphic for your own use.)

Oh, I have a yard or so of the Robot Spaceman Fabric, if anyone would like to purchase it for their robot party… Email me.

The Cake:
The cake was my own creation and was a ton of fun to do. Also, we had a really large party, and this was big enough to feed a crowd. All the instructions are here, to make this yourself. You could also easily ‘cheat’ and add the rounded top to a store-bought round cake, then with either colored buttercream or fondant. Last year, Adrienne of Baby Toolkit took this idea, and did a great job of decorating a storebought cake.
And hey, maybe you should serve your cake with Astronaut Ice Cream !

Some other Robot Cake Ideas to inspire you:

Hopefully, this is a good start on some ideas for doing your own robot themed party. If you do one, be sure to drop back by and share what you did!

Oh, and here are some ideas for party favors…

Party Favor Ideas:

>>3 Different versions of MomBot as a Mother’s Day Card are available for free download here!

For reference.. the first T-Bots:

Hey – on twitter? Come to the dark side… and follow DotatDabbled!

EDIT:
Forgot to add my links to other cool IF’s this week! So here they are:

• Joseph’s Art: IF: Hierarchy – Look at all his wonderful graphic moleskine drawings!
• Ooh La La Design Studio: If’s Hierarchy – Love the retro graphical feel of this one.
• hierarchy « sketched out – Cartoony fun! Love their expressions…

Hey all! For a limited time, fill out this survey for a chance to win a random set of Nancy’s art postcards. This survey is NOT about dabbled.org, but about my updated art portfolio site, nancydorsner.com. Your feedback really helps!

I’ll be drawing a winner from the entries!

(PS, the Super Secret RSS Feed preview survey has ended – congrats Kris!)

“At Least Highly Improbable” –

c nancy dorsner 2009 , Watercolor on paper

I sketched this next on, after doing the original sketch for the Improbability above, and then did a very quick watercolor job on it. I like the looseness… it’s a good exercise I think. So, what do you like best?

“Boxed In”

c nancy dorsner 2009 , Watercolor on paper

PS – don’t forget to vote for my instructable, the Hot Wheels Car Launcher!
Vote here: it’s the 7th one in the list.

PPS –
I’ve decided to pick several cool IF’s for this week and link them here:

• Love these unusual(!) cupcakes by CakeSpy
• Alina fighting her computer made me giggle.
• Peter’s work is always lovely.. I especially like Tea Time, here.
• Honor Bowden’s beautiful watercolor women never disappoint.
• Chris Leavens lives in a world even weirder than my own!