kid lit art

Sleigh

| Gina Lento

What’s better than a sleigh with 8 reindeer? A sleigh with 8 cats! Santa’s annual run was over. He’s looking forward to a long rest. This year was stressful. The reindeer went AWOL so Santa had to use the barn cats. The elves all got sick. There was a blizzard over most of North America. He found out he’s gluten intolerant and can’t eat most cookies anymore. He did discover oat milk and the kids have been leaving out almond milk and coconut milk instead of cow’s milk so he felt much better this year.

It’s time to feed the cats a nice juicy meal for helping him out. He checked in the elves who seem to be feeling better. The local ranger found the reindeer scarfing up hay at a local dairy barn and is returning them in the morning. Time for a glass of wine and a book by the fire. But he may decide to watch the Mandalorian instead.

And today’s stamp.

Merry Christmas

| Gina Lento

Merry Christmas! The day is finally here. Just when you think you won’t get everything finished on time, it all falls in place.

Played with the brush markers this morning and decided to do a tree. It feels good to play with the materials for the fun of it. It’s not perfect, but trees are not perfect, are they? And they are beautiful for all their imperfections.

I also added today and yesterday’s carved stamps below.

I wish everyone a very Merry and loving Christmas. Hug people today just because you can. Love everyone. That’s what today is about.

Horse

| Gina Lento

Today’s prompt is ‘horse.” I trained Lucy to carry a wreath instead of her flowers. I also made an handmade ornament out of her that looks really cute on the tree.

And today’s carving….

Skates

| Gina Lento

Ellie dreams of being an Olympic figure skater. She practices every day and loves skating in the snow. The creek near her house freezes over in the winter and it is her favorite place to skate. She and her friends create a rink and a track on the frozen creek and they do pretend Olympic Winter Games all season long. Winter is fun where Ellie lives.

Today’s carved stamp is an abstract design and I carved it without a sketch. I drew in pencil right on the stamp.

Carpenter

| Gina Lento

Today’s prompt is carpenter.

There was a carpenter, a long time ago, who had a big impact on the world. He preached love and forgiveness.

Those were simpler times.

Today’s stamp carving is also included below. Such fun!

NarwHal and friend

| Gina Lento

These two friends have been companions for a long time. They help each other and watch out for each other. Although they are different species, they have learned to live together in harmony. They share that beautiful mysterious place called the Ocean.

Below is also today’s carved stamp. I carved this one randomly. I like it because it almost looks like it fell off a fir.

Cardinal

| Gina Lento

Cardinals are such perky birds. The nice thing is when I moved from the Northeast, the cardinals were here, too. I get to observe them in a different environment. They sing a lot down here and they tattle on predators and raptors. I am always amazed at their bravery.

I did a sketch of a Cardinal on a cold day perched on a snowman. Not an unusual sight when I lived on Long Island.

Today, I also tried my hand at lettering and carved Noel.

Ski Lift

| Gina Lento

I almost didn’t do this prompt but I am not one to avoid a challenge, especially when I really got into doing the background. I pulled up a few of my photos from a Colorado trip as a reference and I found that the Apple pencil was well suited for doing the trees. I had to fuss with the wires but I didn’t want them looking “artificial” so I had to redo them several times. I did use the Procreate perspective guide which was really helpful. I look at this and I like that I captured the cold, weak light of winter.

Today seemed a day of multiple challenges. I was playing with the cutter to do a Linocut wreath. It came out pretty decent, after I filled up four pages in my sketchbook of test runs. LOL. It was done free style so I didn’t draw out a sketch for transfer to the linocut material, I winged it. It was a little daring but I am happy with it.