Paper Bicycle Printables: 'Nuts About You' Valentine

It's not quite February yet, but Valentine's Day is lurking right around the corner. It's two weeks away, and although I'll admit - I totally forgot January had 31 days - it's never too early to start getting your Valentines affairs in order.

I thought it would be super fun to offer printable Valentine's Day images over the course of the next two weeks. It's easy and fun to share greetings with your friends and loved ones when a super cute card is only a click away!



You can download the printable version here. Feel free to share it with the world!

Daily Pattern: Cutey Friends

Topic: BFF (best friends forever)

Part of the reason going to a Japanese supermarket or buying Japanese stationery is so great is because it's coated in the sweetest little animals. A trip to United Noodle (a favorite Twin Cities Asian import grocery) usually compels me to draw some kind of anthropomorphic food item or cute animal. For "BFF", I decided to treat myself with some cute gouache painting. I posted the individual character paintings here.

Daily Pattern: Nice Weather

Topic: Nice

I had a completely different thing, all drawn out and ready to go (maybe I'll be able to use those icons in another pattern) when I remembered I had to run out to the store for something. As I was leaving, the cashier asked if I got to enjoy the nice weather and I almost did a facepalm. Of course! Weather is the nicest.
I made a pattern about the nicest weather around.

Daily Pattern: Winter Bunnies

I'm starting to not really care for winter too much. The snow, you know? It gets in the way of doing things sometimes. Sometimes it's kind of pretty, though, and that can make it worth it. Everything's grey and eery. Here's a wintery bunny pattern, sans snow.

Daily Pattern : When I say Jump...

Woke up today with a million dirty litterboxes and a list of obligations a mile long. After sitting upright in bed for 20 minutes, trying to pry my eyes open, I went for a run over to the nearby community gardens and sat on the ground next to all of the overgrown and browning plants. I haven't had a second these days to sit out in the middle of nature and just be there.

So, when I thought of today's pattern, I thought of one of my other favorite outdoor pastimes, wading in the water and looking for creatures. All of these guys look like they're having a blast.

Mice and Pipes

“Today I am inspired by the cartoon Ratatouille to create this pattern about rodents. I know that mice live in tunnels and basements. They're very dark and unpleasant places, but I tried to imagine what mice do there and how they have fun.”

-Ira

Daily Pattern : Time for a snack

For some reason I'm super excited about this pattern! I was thinking about how much fun it would be to peek at some deer in a really dense field of bushes. I'm sure this is the biggest, tastiest, most colorful buffet these deer have ever seen!
Here it is! My Deer pattern!



Also, on a personal note, I had my very first class of the semester on Friday AND IT WAS FANTASTIC! My students are amazing, they're super nice - and I am so glad to be back! I'm teaching digital illustration at MCAD this semester for the BFA program. (It'll be my 8th year teaching!) It was a total blast and set me up for this great weekend of inspiration and excitement. I've been a creative whirlwind these last couple days. I can't wait to share my new projects with you.

Daily Pattern: Rainy Day

I am happy to introduce this week's Featured Friend, Debora Saucedo! I love her cute retro-inspired characters and illustration. She has a lot of really adorable craft and plush creations as well, which you can view on her Flickr and MySpace.

“My name is Debora Grahl Saucedo and I'm 25 years old. I live in Porto Alegre, a city in southern Brazil, with my husband and our mischievous cat. I've always loved to draw, ever since I was a little kid!
Currently, I work as an animator and illustrator, and in my spare time I love painting, drawing, graffiti, sewing and create fabric patterns.
My influences are classic animated cartoons, Japanese cartoons, graffiti and tattoo art.
I love to give a touch of humor to my characters! Hope you like my pattern! :) ”



Sample Repeat:

Daily Pattern: Party Pup

“Today I decided to draw a pattern about two things without which a birthday is not a holiday. These are, of course, a cake with candles and gifts. I'm always glad for these on my birthday :).”

-Ira

Daily Pattern: Owl Cushion

“The first items I thought of for today's topic of pillow are the several owl cushions I have on my bed in different colours! My friends know I love owls so I've received several as gifts; this pattern is a sort of amalgamation of the several I own :).”

-Fran Court

Daily Pattern : Kitten Excitement

I don't have a very big immediate family, but I DO have a pretty big family of pets. I absolutely LOVE animals. Each and every one of my pets has a funny personality. I often like to draw them when I have free-time, and today I instantly thought to tile them in today's "family" topic. I love these cats!

Daily Pattern: Kitty Booties

Another cat pattern! Would you believe this is only my second one? I'll try to keep the number of cats down in the future. For now, here's a few more.

Thais's Toys

I would like to dedicate this pattern to my daughter Thais. Tomorrow is her birthday, she turns 4 years old. I drew her favorite toys, especially she loves cars and animal figurines.
-Ira

Daily Pattern - Gold Finch in a Thistlebush

I had a great time talking on Livestream with Francesca tonight as we made our daily patterns! I was all over the place between talking and making. I made my pattern tonight in painter and then tossed it in photoshop. It was a lot of fun! The whole process! Here are some goldfinches in a bunch of thistles!



If you're interested in hearing about our thoughts on Daily Pattern, working and art, you can watch Francesca make her Song Bird pattern while we chat it up here.

Birdie Singer

Ira beat all of us to the first pattern for today with her crooning fella! For more about Ira, check out her first contribution entry.

Daily Pattern : Mouse Nest & Late Night Livestream

I had a couple mice in college! Can you believe it? I had four of them and they were all different colors. They were the nicest. I think about getting some occasionally when I'm at the pet store, but I think I'm at my pet limit. Tonight I decided to go old-school and paint this the way I would in painter. It was a blast and I am so glad I did it!

I also repeated it a little so you can see my mouse-nest Damask!

The whole time I was drawing this in Painter, I was listening to my new favorite jams, and I actually decided to live stream this piece!

If you're at all interested in seeing how I did it, here it is!

It's about an hour and a half long, so skip around if you can, you can get all the highlights! The painting starts at 2:40!

Watch live streaming video from paperbicycle at livestream.com

Daily Pattern: Classic Mouse

A few days ago I found out that Minnie Mouse's real name is Minerva Mouse, so I decided to do a tribute to one of my favorite couples.



-Minerva

Daily Pattern: Dancing With Mice

Today we have a new guest artist! Ira Sidakova created her cute mouse pattern while listening to the Wall-E soundtrack's version of "Put On Your Sunday Clothes"–an excellent choice for background listening, if I may say so.

Ira is a 24-year-old architect from a small coastal town in Ukraine. She loves drawing and likes to let the images she creates speak for her. She also is responsible for the creation of some adorable patterns, so you should absolutely check the link to view her gallery!

Daily Pattern - Swatches of Color

I have a habit of collecting fabric! I have piles and piles of fabric!
I'd love to learn how to quilt! I'd love to make a crazy huge, cuddly quilt!
Someday I'll learn how to do it and I'll make my own! Until then, I'll keep collecting the pieces!

Daily Pattern: Vân Tran's Sweet Tooth

When our friend Vân Tran heard our daily pattern topic was Minneapolis, she just had to join in with a super cute pattern dedicated to all her favorite local desserts!



Vân loves Minneapolis but will soon be moving to Copenhagen! So I guess this is her goodbye love letter to all the delicious deserts she'll be leaving behind! But I'll bet Copenhagen probably has some pretty dope desserts, as well.

Be sure to check out her adorable blog, rhymeswithfun!