Happy New Year!

©Lesley Breen Withrow

(The front and back of my well-received fall postcard mailer that 

my agent send out to children's book publishers)

Well, 2013 has been an incredible year for me. In February I started working at The Gift Wrap Company, designing amazing patterns and products like: wrapping paper, gift bags, journals, stickers, kids activities books and more. A real dream job. In 2013 I also became a part of Chris Tugeau's wonderful children's book art agency. This fall I was thrilled to get such a wonderful response to my postcard mailing to publishers and I am happy to announce that I am working on my first trade children's book! (more about it in the future). So many of my dreams have become a reality this year. I'm looking forward to what's next. Happy 2014 everyone!!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! We got our first big(ish) snow here last night. My daughter was so excited watching the big flakes come down. Really puts you in the holiday mood. I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season.

Since I started working at The Gift Wrap Company earlier this year, I've gotten the opportunity to work on so many amazing projects. I am happy to see one of my first bag designs is now available at Cost Plus World Market. Looking forward to seeing more of my art and designs hit the shelves in 2014!

'Little Ocean Books' - Baby Board book set I illustrated for innovativeKids

I'm so happy to see that the baby board book set I illustrated for Innovative Kids last year is now available! 'Little Ocean Books' consists of 10 chunky books inside a tower case. Each book is a short story about a different ocean creature.

It was such an enjoyable project to work on and I love the way it's packaged and printed on 98% recycled materials. 

Fun at the Lunch Table

©Lesley Breen Withrow

It's that time of year again...back to school! My daughter just started second grade so we are getting used to the new routines, new teacher and new classmates. She's loving it so far, which makes me so happy. I always remember the lunch table as being so much fun when I was a kid. Maybe it was because I got to see some of my friends who weren't in my class but I figure it was most likely because I new that recess was coming up soon. Gotta love recess! Here's to another great school year!

I have a children's book agent!

©Lesley Breen Withrow

I now an represented by the wonderful children's book agent, Christina A. Tugeau. Here's a snippit of art from my most recent mailer that she will be sending out soon. Looking forward to working more with her!

The Gift Wrap Company & The Stationary Show

I have had a wonderfully eventful past few months. I am now a senior designer for The Gift Wrap Company, designing gift wrap, gift bags as well as other wonderful gifting items. They are a fabulous company and the product is simply stunning. I feel so lucky to be apart of their design team! I got to go the NYC Stationary Show with the group in May and help set-up our booth. I have been to the Stationary and Surtex shows before, but I have never helped with set-up...it was such a great experience and I loved seeing the 'behind the scenes' of the show. I was so impressed with our booth too. We had six themed windows to decorate with our product as well the interior of the booth. Here I am in front of one of the windows I helped to decorate.

After walking the Stationary and Surtex Show, we had some time to explore the city bit too. A real highlight was taking a walk along the Highline...a walkway that spans across quite a distance in the Chelsea area. It had wonderfully natural spaces as well as sculptures and buildings decorated with murals and art. We also ate at Friedman's in Chelsea Market, where I had the best omelet ever!  

Singing Kids Children's Illustration

©Lesley Breen Withrow

I had a great time last Spring watching my kindergartener performing a song with her class for her schools annual talent show. So, after watching this fun and funny event, I decided to make an illustration of kids singing. I found it so much fun to think about the different personalities that are in a class and how they might act when they are singing infront of an audience. My very outgoing girl was surprising shy when she had to perform. So, in my art, I have the shy girl, the annoyed boy, the quirky girl, the loud boy, the nervous girl, that ADHD boy... you name it. Here's a snippit of my illustration showing a few of the kids. I'm coloring the final art right now and will post it up here when it's completed. So, come back soon to see it!

It's time for mittens!

©Lesley Breen Withrow

We were surprised to wake-up to snow this morning! My daughter had a hard time getting ready for school since she would have much rather been getting ready to go sledding instead. Maybe after school we can have some winter-time fun!

Baby Greeting Card Collection

Here's a few card samples I received from Gartner Greetings for the baby card collection I illustrated for them, called 'Smitten'. It's always fun to see your art printed!

...and I am so, glad to see how well my colorful hand lettering came out too!