Whether I close down or stick around for one more year - either way - this painting’s coming down off the wall in 4 months - and I need to name it in order to finish it! In my newest YouTube video (which, by the way, my son Luke says is my best video editing to date - woo hoo!) I show you the painting, talk a bit about how it originated and ask you (and your kids) to help me name it.

That’s what this email is about - oh and kudo's to PS 144 and PS 303 who are going full blast with the Sketchbook Fundraiser - thanks so so much!!!

Click Here to Watch the Video.

I edited this video during an hour long 'body doubling' session with my ADHD Coach and a few 'cohorts' (I guess that’s what they are called). Other ADHD'ers doing work on a zoom-like call - where I just sat and got this video done without distractions. Because there were about 15 other people sitting on the screen doing their work - so I felt compelled to just do it. It’s actually called “Body Doubling”. Initially, I cringed at the idea - but it works.

I had these long sheets of paper and tried to convince the kids to create a patterned collage. I also had put out these rainbow lino-cut pieces I had carved a while back. Mia spent 1 full hour on this particular print and I just love it so much!

When I started this workshop, I had hoped prints like this would happen. I tried it a few times in the last few years - with some success, but seeing Mia work through this print - I am going to start pushing this technique a lot more at our Printmaking Workshops and our Art Studio for Kids on Monday & Wednesday afternoons.

OH, AND MY GRATITUDE DOODLE JOURNAL FOR TODAY...
Every morning I wake up and come up with three things to be grateful for and then I write and/or doodle them in my journal, which is a simple b&w composition book. It helps start my days in a positive way. Today, I was grateful for:

– SALMON
- LAUGHING OUT LOUD WITH MY WIFE AND KIDS!
- OUR NEW PUPPY!

Yes, what a day this has been, and even though I am trying to use this blog to document my daily routine and all things going on around the shop - this morning began up in Syracuse, actually about 30 miles north of Syracuse, picking up our new puppy, who we have named Bowie. She was born on David Bowie’s birthday, which also happens to be Luke’s birthday. Luke is our 13 year old, seen at the far right of the above pic.

It was ice cold and windy up north and when we stopped at a rest area to relieve ourselves and let Bowie relieve herself - the wind was blowing so hard, she’s so light & little - she almost blew away. It was as if she was skating on ice - her cute little puppy-ness was moving horizontally across the tightly woven grass field in the parking lot of i87. This was just one of the events that caused us all to laugh outloud - it’s a good thing we stopped at a lot of rest areas, because we laughed so hard, we all would have wet our pants. It really felt good to laugh like that - it’s been a while.

More to come on our adventures with Bowie - but I really want to keep this blog about printmaking and creating art with kids. Until Bowie comes in and starts inking up her paws - we will try and keep her separate.

We didn’t go on many road trips when I was a boy, but the ones to Syracuse were some of the best.

Today, my wife, two boys and I just went on our very first road trip in a long time - and I am writing this sitting in a hotel room in center of Syracuse. Tomorrow morning, we are driving about 30 miles north to pick up Bowie, our new Australian Labradoodle puppy. She is supposed to be hypo-allergenic, we’ll see what happens - but we’re keeping her no matter what.

The boys and my wife have been begging for a dog for years, always met with an adamant “No” from me. I’d even sing the Wild Rover song “No, Ney, Never” with the claps, whistles and all. Then, we all got hit with this pandemic. 

It was around May of 2020, I crawled into bed late one night, accidentally waking up my wife - and whispered to her “I think we should get a dog”. Almost a year later, and we’re about to sprinkle some joy, stress, teething, barking, chewing and lots and lots of walking into our lives. We have not even met her yet and we’re all already in love - here she is at 3 weeks:

She was born on the same day as David Bowie’s birthday, which is also, our son, Luke’s birthday. First choice was Bo, but it sounds too much like “No” which may confuse her - and since that’s a big word in our house, we decided to go with Bowie.

MY GRATITUDE JOURNAL FOR TODAY
Before the pandemic, if you told me I’d be going on a road trip, 30 miles north of Syracuse - I would have assumed my cousins’ moved closer to the city - but never would have guessed this. When I was a kid, all I wanted was more road trips and ice cream sundaes - and I hated green veggies. Funny side note, I packed a zip lock bag of raw snap peas and string beans to snack on.

With all this in mind, as I woke up this morning, this is what I went with for my daily gratitude journal:

- ROAD TRIPS
- COLORED SPRINKLES
- SNAP PEAS

Why colored sprinkles? -Because they make kids happy - they always have - and my kids are happy, at least for today.

FUNNY SIDE NOTE: Did you ever hear of Fairy Bread. It’s some sort of Australian dessert - it’s a piece of toast, slathered in butter and then covered in colored sprinkles, but the Australians don’t call them sprinkles, they say “hundreds and thousands”.

Printmaking requires lots of cool tools that kids love using. We have incorporated some of these tools into drawing & painting, and have even invented and built a few of our own. We’re going to try and focus on building more - who knows - maybe we’ll even put some into production and sell them.

Oh, and speaking of cool tools - here are the three things I am grateful for today:

• SILENT & QUIET BEGINNINGS
• POTATO PEELERS
• DRILL BITS

REX ZENA POTATO PEELER - pretty cool
I was peeling potatoes the other day and realized that the peeler is a pretty simple tool that I never thought about - so I looked it up. Did you know it was invented in Switzerland in 1947 by a guy named Alfred Neweczerzal? - His family had a factory and he was a toolmaker. There have been hundreds of re-engineered versions of this first peeler - but the original design is still the very best. Even Nespresso re-created one using recycled aluminum capsules.

This was the same year Howard Hughes flew his Hughes H-4 Hercules plane for the first and only time. It was also the year the transistor radio was invented, by three guys in New Jersey (William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain).

Keep in mind, this is two years after the end of World War II. Howard Hughes was trying to make the plane hold 700 troops for the war and the transistor was an attempt to make communications more mobile, for the war. Hughes and the Jersey guys were late, the war was over - but it got me thinking...

When the world came out of the stress and turbulence of war, there was quite a lot of inventions, creations and innovations.
I am hoping that we’ll come out of our apartments and houses ready to make some new tools.

MAKING MY OWN TOOLS FOR KIDS TO USE
For me, I try to assemble items from hardware stores, toy shops and my father’s garage to create some interesting tools kids can use to draw & paint with. Simple things like duct taping paint brushes to PEX pipe, so kids can work on super-large paintings / Attaching plastic coil binding pieces (think Slinky) to PVC pipe and calling them “Boing Boing Brushes”. It could also be something as simple as purchasing a window screen tool (think Pizza cutter, but it’s not sharp) and using them as a drawing device for canvas. You’d be surprised what you can do with some paper or PVC tubing, duct tape, qTips and glue.

• LIP BALM
• BRUSSELS SPROUTS
• REMEMBERING HOW MUCH FUN IT WAS TO CLIMB A FENCE

Yesterday, a very nice couple came into the shop and we got to talking about raising boys with lots of energy. They showed me a pic of a rock climbing wall they built, in their apartment, for their son to climb. I told Lochlan about it - he asked me to build one for him in the shop - I said - “just go to the park and climb a fence”. He looked at me like I was nuts.

I wondered: Do kids climb actual fences anymore?
I Googled "why don’t kids climb fences anymore” and was hit with a plethora of negative search results:

To a fault, I’ve never been an over-protective parent, so this struck me as very strange - but I realized, I’ve never put my boys in a situation where there’d be an opportunity to climb a fence? They build fences and walls on Minecraft - but never wrestled with the stress & tension of physically lifting their bodies through space and carefully navigating their crotches around a thick twisted bar of galvanized steel wire.

Do you remember that feeling when you got to the very top of the fence and had to shift your weight to the other side and start going down -or- that split decision on whether to just jump down or slowly & carefully continue your climb in the other direction.

Critical Thinking occurs when a child is faced with a bit of risk & fear. I used to challenge my kids when they were younger with obstacle courses and brain games - but as they got older, I have left them to create their own challenges- which I realize is a bad idea.

I am going to take them to a park, throw their favorite ball over a fence and let them go get it. AND - I am going to create metaphorical fences to challenge them- not with physical danger, but getting them to a point where they are navigating their gut in uncomfortable ways. If I come up with any good ones, I’ll share them here on this blog. 

Our approach, here at Little Pulp, is to create workshops that get kids (and adults) uncomfortable with a degree of tension, to challenge them to work through their ideas and create within that framework. Some kids and many parents don’t always get that about us, which is fine. Nothing anyone does, especially when you’re creating tension on purpose, is for everyone.

If you’d like to create some good-natured, spirited and creative tension for your kids, join us at the studio for a workshop.

Click Here for Printmaking Workshops

Click Here for Comic-book Making

Click Here for Slime & Art Workshops

Click Here for our weekday Art Studio (Mondays & Wednesdays).

A few years ago, I sketched her out on a large piece of watercolor paper, screwed it to a sheet of masonite - then mounted to my old drafting table. Named her Copper because of the pink circles in the background - which I stamped using copper pipe fittings and printmaking inks.

Her quills are slivers of paper, recycled from a commercial print shop. Here is a pic of how she started, followed by a pic of her current state.

Do you ever start a project with high-expectations, then, find yourself wondering how, why and when you stopped working on it? Copper is one of these projects. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months...

When the lockdown started, in an attempt to stay positive, I started a daily gratitude practice. Every morning, I’d quickly come up with three random things to be grateful for - completely arbitrary, mundane, sometimes even silly. I continued with this for 8 months. Then on November 30, 2020, I woke up, looked out my window and came up with: Scissors, Winter Hats and Looking out my Window - and -BOOM- an idea, I’ll DOODLE my daily gratitudes.

I did this every day for several months - even posted them on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. It kept my mind focused on the small things - and even inspired a few to start their own (kids & adults).

Then, on February 4, I had root canal and man-o-man did that stink and I found myself unable to muster the energy to doodle or even come up with three things. I figured I had earned the right to take a week off. A week turned into two and next thing I know - I am not doing it anymore. 

I needed a Re-Start day - and it just so happens that the month of March starts on a Monday - so here we are, re-Beginning the daily gratitude (doodle) journal, with a few minor changes to the format. 

Changes to the format (FOR MARCH):

1. I am not going to push myself to doodle all three things. A few weeks after I started my doodling gratitudes, I noticed my choices were based on things I could actually draw -  which hindered the magic of the arbitrary quick morning decisions. There may be some days where I don’t doodle the specific things - but I’ll always try to connect it.
2. Will use the daily doodle page to also include my journey of creating new ideas, projects and products being worked on.
3. I will publish a blog post every day with the doodle page entry and some thoughts, links and interesting things.

It’s going to be tough to do this - not sure how long it will last, but taking it one day at a time - and will do my best to stick to it - which leads me back to Porcupines. They’re fun to draw - I have this very relaxing technique for drawing a porcupine. Check out this YouTube video where I show you how.

So, Today (MARCH 1, 2021) I am grateful for:

• BATH TOWELS.
• PORCUPINES.
• T-SHIRT w/ INFO PRINTED ON INSIDE BACK COLLAR, 
  SO THERE’S NO LITTLE TAG TO MAKE ME ITCHY. 

I love using a fresh bath towel, right after it’s been washed - it has an added layer of softness and just makes me very happy. Porcupines - I am grateful that they exist and grateful for finding out about them (they are actually docile creatures). The T-Shirt thing got me thinking about another project for March - something I am calling ‘Make & Market Products in March’. Giving myself a challenge to concept/design & make a new product every three days, in the month of March. A sketchbook, notecard, t-shirt, sticker, or something else that hasn’t been conjured up yet. Super ambitious, I might slip - but I’m giving it a shot. Here we go...

Bye bye Summer, hope you guys all had a terrific summer one and while I’m sad to pack up the bathing suits, sunscreen, flip-flops and daily hysteria, I am very much ready for the structure of the school year. We dropped them off yesterday and I literally skipped home to ‘Walking on Sunshine’.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids, but adults need time away from kids more than just once in a while. It needs to be structured and it needs to be a regular occurrence. The last few weeks of this summer vacation really helped me understand this concept.

So, for the fall, I am setting up a few workshops just for myself - yup, I’m carving out time in my schedule, heading to the shop and working on my own art (or just stare at a blank wall for a while).

I remember when I was a kid, my dad went bowling every Thursday night - Bowling! My mom never went bowling, never went for a night out with the ladies, she was always there for us - always! I love her for that and thanked her for it too, but in her last few years, she would say things like “I should have done more for me”.

Last night, we went to my dad’s and I cooked a meat sauce (first-day-of-school ritual). After dinner, we were rumaging through the closet looking for his old bowling ball to show Lochlan. All Lochlan’s talking about last few days is going bowling (happy birthday Jeremy!)

We didn’t find the ball, but stumbled on a box of old film reels and a projector that has to be from the late 1960's. I tried to get it to work, but no go. It did lead to a nice discussion about how capturing moments has changed over the years. In the middle of this lovely conversation about memories and technology, Lochlan abruptly stops me and says “Dad, look out the window, can I have your iphone to take a picture of the sunset - Look how pink the sky is - I want to go captch it the moment”. He didn’t get my iphone, but we did go out to see the sky - if you were lucky enough to be outside or near a window last night, the entirety of the sky was a beautiful pink/purple for a few moments - it was amazing!

While I have no intention of starting a bowling team, if anyone is interested in getting out of the house on a weekday evening to create some art at the shop amongst adults, let me know - I’m thinking once a month through the fall - perhaps on a Thursday night.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back to my weekly email/posts now that I am (re)gaining my sanity.

-Frank

And every shipwrecked soul knows what it is
To live without intimacy

“Daddy, what is intimacy?”

This question led to a 40 minute conversation in traffic and we’re still talking about it today. I have already started some of the birds & bees conversations with Luke (11) but never thought about explaining intimacy to a 6 year old, but I am glad he asked.

It’s our new favorite word as a family and has springboarded a conversation about using iPads less, being together more and, giving each other kisses and hugs (even mommy and daddy kissing on the lips - yuck!).

In the past year, I think I have kissed Lavinia on the lips 3 or 4 times in front of the kids, and Luke was able to tell me exactly when each of those times were. He remembers it because it matters to kids for us to show them this stuff.

Yesterday, we had a workshop and a wonderful family from Wisconsin came in - 3 generations. Lochlan was with me in the shop - and as the family was leaving, they thanked us for giving their entire family a great experience together. I said to Lochlan: “That family just had intimacy together as a family”. One of the boys, Martin started the workshop with a Lord of the Rings book attached to his hand. His parents told me he never puts it down. About 1 hour in - the book was sitting off to the side and he was going for it. Intimacy!

Last night, we drove into the city to pickup Mommy from work (she’s on deadline - yuck!). On the ride in, we’re all singing to The Lumineers - and I screamed out to Luke "Pause it” - car got silent. I waited a few seconds... this is intimacy. Now put it back on. The ride home was intimate, but in a different way. No kissing, Lochlan was sleeping, Mommy was exhausted and Luke and I were talking about the upcoming season in the Bundasliga.

And over at the Workshop, we have set up a bunch of new workshops for kids to explore and create art. Check out our new events, including a “Print the Beatles Workshop”, “Summer Potion-Making” and “Stella’s Bird Creations”.

For the summer months, you can use the Discount code: AugustFun for 10% off any workshop through August. Feel free to share the code with others.

Oh, and one more thing. If you have not seen our Tree with Birds painting in a while, this is what it used to look like. I am updating the blog post I created earlier this week with more pics of this painting. If you are reading this and have any paintings of the Tree with Birds during it’s process, please email them to me - I am collecting pics to post on the blog.

Thanks so much - I’m off to get a bag of ice so Lochlan and I can make snow-cones. Thanks for reading.

Happy Thursday - true story, the other day a dragonfly landed on the corner of my iphone and stayed there for about 20 seconds. I watched it turn his little head and look right at me like a space alien or something - it was amazing! I want to create a story about a dragonflly that wants his own iPhone.

Speaking of stories, we’ve finally figured out the overall look of Lochlan’s magic bear. If you missed my previous email on this, Lochlan and I are creating a story about a magic bear that has a bicycle Lochlan wants to ride. You can find out more details about the origins of the story here.

We’ve been sketching out the bear for weeks and this is what we’re going with - let me know what you think.

Also, we’re having another Toddler Studio tomorrow morning for ages 2-4 years. The one we had a few weeks back - was a lot of fun.Oh, and I know it’s short notice - but we’re having Slime & Printmaking Workshop tonight from 6:00-8:00pm. Click Here to Sign up for Tonight’s Slime.

AND - if you are an adult and want to try printmaking without the kids around, tomorrow night - I am having my second Adult Printmaking Workshop.

Ok, that is all - I’m keeping this one short - because it looks like rain and I have to go get the boys from camp. Thanks for reading.

-Frank

Happy Fourth of July!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my new parenting technique (my kids write paragraphs and read chapters to earn back digital devices). Not only is it working, but it’s helping me get stuff done - check this out.

Storytelling through Art
 This all ties together, stay with me for a moment. Last night I created this mini story about Fred (he's our papier-mâché Octopus). Luke and Lochlan were both reading, due to the bickering in car on way home) - so, I grabbed a sketchbook, layed on the floor and created this...

I am so proud of myself, worked on this for about 1 hour, BUT - the best part about it... when Luke and Lochlan were finished with their reading, instead of grabbing devices, they went for their sketchbooks and did this...

They kept asking me “Daddy, why are you making this thing about Fred?”. Glad they asked, back to the reason I’m writing all this.

Mike, who oversees open studio, is illustrating Lochlan’s Magic Bear book and is, pretty much, the adult in the room here at the shop - has been suggesting we set up a 'make your own comic' workshop series. We finally did it, introducing: 
 STORYTELLING THROUGH ART: Create your own Comic: 
You and your child will develop characters, craft your story and write, draw, even print a mini booklet, comic strip or series of prints. Our first session is Wednesday, July 10 (10:30-12:00pm) and we’ll be running them every Wednesday through the summer, suitable for ages 7 and up.

If you know me, you know I’m a teller of stories - so I am looking forward to filling my sketchbook over the summer.

Oh, and there was a moral to the story about my kids drawing - just grab a sheet of paper or a sketchpad/sketchbook - lay on the floor and start drawing - don’t even tell the kids what or why you are doing it. Who knows, they may come and join you. If not, don’t worry - just keep drawing - it soothes the soul.

In addition to our ‘Storytelling’ Wednesday workshop series, we are also having lots of fun workshops and open studio through July & August - 

Click Here to See our Full Calendar of Workshops & Classes

Phew, got this one out early in the day - now off to the beach.
Enjoy the fireworks!

-Frank

Happy summer vacation! 
Below are two of Luke & Lochlan’s favorite quirky summer adventures. I’m trying to find fun new things - please let me know of cool things to do in the city. -and scroll down for two fun upcoming workshops.

Pier 6 Brooklyn Bridge Park
 We take the train & walk through Brooklyn Heights, but they do have a Quik Park (GPS this address: 4 Joralemon St, Brooklyn, NY 11201).

Go super early, park gets crowded, especially the “Water Lab”. When crowds start, jump on the ferry to Governors Island (it's right there on Pier 6). You can eat at Fornio or take a nice walk to Montague Street - really nice places to eat (we usually opted for Le Pain de Quotidien. If you want more detailed info, just reply back and I’ll be happy to answer any questions.

I’ll have a few more ideas next week - some require a bit more of a journey.The Lemon Ice King of Corona 
For 30+ years, I’ve been going here on a warm summer evening (usually after a Met game), getting italian ices and sitting in Spaghetti Park across the street, watching the old timers play bocce ball. You’ll find me and the boys here a lot. Years ago, when he was about 3, one of the guys let Luke throw the pallino.

and over at Little Pulp...

Click Here to see our full calendar of Events

Make your own Sketchbook
Through the summer, we’ll be having workshops where the kids create their own custom sketchbook. Everyone will create, print and bind their books. Check out the one Lochlan made. I especially like his clever handling of the back of the sketchbook. 
 Sign up for our next Sketchbook-making Workshop 

SCHOOL’S OUT PRINT PARTY
We had a great time at our print party on the first Sunday of the summer (1:00-3:30pm). Luke, Lochlan and the rest of us were creating prints, working on some new paintings and enjoying pizza and snacks. I will definitely plan another party to celebrate the start of school in late August/early September. Looking forward to it.

Update on Lochlan’s bear book will be next week - we didn't get to work on it much this past week. I am trying to convince him to name the bear Matisse - but he is resisting. Hope to see you guys at the shop.

-Frank.

This blog post is part of our weekly email series that we send to our friends. If you’d like to receive our weekly email, please let us know. 

Ok, now for the part about Lochlan’s magic bear. I am working on a new parenting technique - which may stupendously backfire on us.

When Luke or Lochlan misbehave, fight with each other, speak disrespectfully to us, or ignore us - Instead of taking away the iPad for “the rest of the day” -or- “two days”, I have decided on this: They lose all devices until they read a chapter in their book and/or write a paragraph. The paragraph can be about anything (the more creative the better - I even give them fun ideas). Once completed, they get the devices back. I was worried it would backfire and create animosity toward reading & writing, but it’s actually been amazing! Lochlan has been writing a recurring storyline about a magical bear that rides a big bicycle. It’s so good, that Mike (who runs our open studio & is just the best) is creating illustrations for the story. Mike is a children’s book author - check out his latest book here. If Lochlan keeps at it, we’re going to make this story into a book. Here’s a sketch of Lochlan working away on his story.

Art for Sale
It’ll take a while to get this going, but we have some Art for Sale up on the site. Just two prints and one collaborative piece - but you gotta start somewhere. Check it out and let me know what you think. More to come very soon...

One more thing, I’m talking to Atlas about turning one of the empty stores into a gallery for an art show/sale. Will likely be in mid-July and if it’s successful, again in late August. Stay tuned for more on that. Enjoy your weekend - thanks very much for reading!

-Frank

So, with the help of Mike and Kevin (more on those guys in the coming weeks) - I will be sending out an email every Thursday evening - documenting what has gone on in the shop, throwing out new ideas, promoting and selling more of our art -and- hopefully having some fun with this format. I promise to try and not be too long-winded. Here goes (bear with me...)

Open Studio this Saturday, June 8 from 11:00am-4:00pm.
I will be working on some new ideas with the kids during open studio - it'll be super messy and fun. Click Here to Sign up

Experimental Printmaking Tuesday, June 11 from 11:00am-1:30pm.
No School today, so come in and create a series of mixed-media pieces using printmaking techniques. Reserve your Spot today

SELLING OUR ART
Two questions I continually get asked: “Do you sell your own art and/or the paintings on the walls?” -and- “How can we help to support and keep you here at Atlas?” I had never thought about it and, honestly, am not all that comfortable with doing it - though in the interest of surviving and growing this business, am pushing myself to start & finish more collaborative paintings and prints, get them framed and put them up for sale on our site, with portion of proceeds going to St. Jude’s Pediatric Research Hospital. Here is the first one - it’s called Compostion #2 - full disclosure, the second pic is an imagined view of what it might look like if it was in a gallery setting. Price for this piece will be $1100 with $400 going to St. Jude’s. I am finishing it up in next few days and getting it framed (oh my!).

So, that's it for now. I got it in just under my deadline. I really wanted to get this out on June 6. Next week’s will be earlier (kids were home from school today and I cooked dinner for Grandpa. Have a great weekend!

Several of them were very tall. I grabbed a bunch of paint brushes - walked them over to the piece and said ‘I have no idea what to do with this piece'. One of them said “Can we paint more buildings?”. We grabbed some stools and they created a new skyline - that still exists one year later. It was truly one of those memorable moments - sort of like an out of body experience. Here are some shots from that day.

This was when it started to take on a life of it’s own and it has been changing week by week. Some days it takes a real beating with kids doing scribble scrabble - but I try to get them to focus and think about the lines they are making before they approach it (more on that later). Here are some more pics over the course of the past year.

 Then there was this moment, this day - it was an ‘Under 2 Sensory Workshop’ and this is one of the Gordon twins - who blew me away with their focus and determination to work on all the different pieces we have in our 5,500 sq/ft workshop. To see more of the twins in action -check out this post.

Then, of course, there is Lochlan - my sweet spit-fire of a son that has immense creativity and enormous amounts of bottled up energy just ready to explode at a moments notice. This picture makes me cry every time I look at it, because remember the moment just before I took it - he was actually talking to himself as he made brush strokes. I also remember the moment just after I took this pic because he started chuffing like a tiger and ran after me.

I will continue to update this post as our CITY piece continues. At some point, we are going to call it, take it down off the wall and (hopefully) stretch it and sell it with portion of proceeds going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (my mother told me that if I ever started selling art, I should donate portion to "St Jude's”.

If you’d like to work on this piece with your child, please check out our schedule and come to one of our workshops.

Click Here to see our Upcoming Events & Workshops

A group of friends can come in, grab some Starbuck's or some snacks here at Atlas Park, select a print package and create something for a few hours.

Here are a few shots of our shop in action - I have selected shots that I hope will give you a sense of what the Open Studio will be like. If you have any questions, please send us an email or stop by the shop and we’ll discuss the details of how Open Studio works. Click Here to see our full series of Summer Workshops and available Open Studio packages.

This summer (July-August 2018), we are having Open Studio hours in the shop - where kids and even adults can come in and create their own posters. The cost for creating a poster is $60. Why is it so expensive? Let us try to explain.

Firstly, we don't put a limit on the time you will spend in the shop - so it is conceivable, that you can come in and spend 4-5 hours working on your poster. Our listed hours for open studio is 2:00–6:30pm, though we will stay in the studio until 8:00pm. If you work on the poster and need a break to eat or grab a coffee - you can leave your work in the shop for a bit and come back to finish up.

Click Here to Sign up 

They have been a lot of fun. The grown-ups have as much fun as the kids when they are creating the art projects in our studio. Here are a few pics from a recent Print Night with some friends of mine.

If you’d like to arrange a print night for a group of your friends, Click Here to Email us.

To sign up for one of our Kids Workshop sessions, Click Here for Full Calendar of Events.

These two panorama shots show the main workshop with collaborative art studio area, and our ‘drying room’, otherwise known as ‘the gallery”. Below are a series of other pics that show the workshop in action. We offer high-energy art studio sessions for kids, teaching them an art form that requires tools and techniques that are not always accessible to children of all ages. The prep and clean up is extensive, which is why parents seem to love our shop so much, because they don’t have to clean it up. 

Click here to see our full calendar of events 

Below are a few shots showing a recent birthday party, with 35 kids plus parents. There were a lot of people in our shop this particular morning. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. For a few minutes, at the point this first picture was taken, I was not sure if I would have control over the room and the kids, but then we settled down and everyone started working on their own individual projects - which was amazing.

 This is me in our “Drying Room” explaining to the kids how to work on their next project.

Meet our “Hello, Goodbye” Custom Notecard - which was created for a group of friends last holiday season. Each child in a large family received a small set of their very own notecards to send to friends and family. 

Inspire your child to hand-write notes to friends and family with our Personalized “Hello, Goodbye” custom notecard set. A unique item that will get your child writing and connecting in a new (old) way. Who doesn’t love getting a hand-written note in the mail?

Custom Stationery products for kids is a unique way to engage your child to make connections with  for your child available in a variety of colors to inspire them to draw, write, doodle and use their hands to create something completely new. Here are some images of our MINI custom sketchbooks which measure 7.25" x 5".

The “Hello, Goodbye” custom notecard set is printed on our beautiful 18pt (120#) Mohawk Superfine Eggshell in White which has a soft subtle wove texture. You can add edge-color to the cards for an added level of detail. Email us for details on ordering. 

We have kept the design very simple, with a ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’ graphic placed on the edge of the cards, with your child’s name printed on the top “From the Desk of”. Why shouldn’t kids have social stationery, especially in this world of digital communication. We need to make sure they understand and enjoy the art of communicating with a hand-written note.

The idea for creating kids stationery began when we were giving away our custom sketchbooks and we’d receive hand-written thank you notes from the kids in the mail. Seeing my sons’ eyes light up when an envelope arrived in the mail with our address scribed with a child’s hand, it was then I realized the power hand-written stationery.

For years, we’ve created sketchbooks for our kids, cousins and close friends as gifts. The kids would wake in the morning and look for the sketchbook instead of an iPad.

Everyone kept telling me that I should set up a website and try to sell the books online.

I took my graphic design experience - andSo, we finally listened and started Little Pulp, focusing on creating creating Personalized Sketchbooks for young and old. 

Your child’s eyes will light up when they see their first name beautifully printed on their very own custom sketchbook. A truly unique tool to inspire creativity for your little one.

Custom sketchbooks for your child available in a variety of colors to inspire them to draw, write, doodle and use their hands to create something completely new. Here are some images of our MINI custom sketchbooks which measure 7.25" x 5".

You spend all this time and effort into getting your product ready to ship, and it’s getting late, you just took a few photos for your social media, and now you have to wrap it up, maybe even build a box, print the shipping label, tape up the box nicely and get it ready to drop off to post office, UPS or FedEx.

You drop the package off and realize that you forgot to write that small note you wanted to include in the package. The reason you forgot the note, was because you thought it had to be a perfectly written note on stationery with your logo, etc. Hogwash! that is not true at all!

All you need to do is have a few sheets of paper trimmed down to the size of an envelope, grab a colored sharpie marker and hand-write a little thank you note to your customer. Make sure to include a few business cards, give them quite a few and in the note, mention how great it would be for them to help spread the word about your company. Believe me, they are going to be happy to receive their awesome product, and at that very moment, if they have those items in the package, they will be more inclined to tell their friends about you.

Sound impossible? Of course not.

Here is what ours looks like, it is not pretty, sometimes we even draw a really really (i mean really) quick sketch directly on the packaging.

In all honesty, the initial idea for the book was to have all “first-time-parent” reference information in one place, though the book evolved into so much more than that. Both my wife and I would write in stories from our past, life-lessons, sappy heart-pouring ramblings that we hope will be cherished when they get older 

Give them a keepsake with special notes, stories and your own personal life-lessons.

We call them Luke’ and Lochlan’s “Book of Love” and our hope is they will keep them forever and read them from time to time as they get older.

Visiting Rome in 2007, we stumbled on this small book shop and found these journals. My wife was expecting Luke at the time, and we did not know if he was a girl or a boy (were keeping it a surprise, which we highly recommend). We purchased these two journals, one green, one blue. In all honesty, they were not intended to be used as a journal for the kids, selfishly, I wanted to use them for my own personal notebooks. I started writing in the book and realized I was actually writing to our son or daugther to be and the idea came to us that we should write stories in this book documenting the final stages of the pregnancy, the birth and the first few years.

These books came with us to the hospital when Lavinia gave birth to them and I tried to document some of the lighter details of our experience at the hospital.

Sometimes we would sketch silly things in the book, sometimes I would just simply doodle and add in some silly stories. There was really no rhyme or reason to what we put in. There are still some blank pages in each of the books and we plan on writing more as the years go by. We may even take a trip to Rome again and get a few more books to keep the stories going.

For our second son, Lochlan, we were not sure what his name would be and could not decide. In fact, the day Lavinia was supposed to leave the hospital, we were being told by the nurses that we had to leave and kept stalling because we were still deciding what his full name would be. We settled on Lochlan Albert J Oisin Kiernan, which has a lot of storyline behind it (for another blog post).

How to Create your Own “Book of Love” Journal

It’s so easy. Just grab a nice notebook, journal or sketchbook and start writing, doodling and talking to your child as if they are an adult. Journaling, itself, is not an easy thing to keep up with, unless you love it. Keep in mind, this book will be with your child later in life, when you are no longer with them. Key is, don’t let them know about it just yet, otherwise it will affect how you write in the book. We’ve noticed, over time, that our entries (which we still work on) are not as open and honest, since our 11 year old knows it exists and has already thumbed through it from time to time. 

Full disclosure, I (honestly) do not recommend using one of our personalized sketchbooks to use for this purpose. For this keepsake, I feel you are better served with a sewn book with a leather, faux leather or cloth cover. Our books are perfect for your kids to keep a journal or sketchbook, but for the “Book of Love” you want this to last 50-60 years, so you really want to go with a sewn book.

Feel free to comment below any ideas and thoughts. Thanks for reading and best of luck with your own personal “Book of Love”.

Our first custom birthday book set is for Anna who is celebrating her 4th birthday. We created a custom graphic ‘Anna’ motif to use as the background pattern on the front and back covers. Anna requested Pink and Purple. We added a Blue for the boys and everyone attending the party is going home with a nice personalized sketchbook. The back of the book includes the following note: “Thank you for celebrating Anna’s birthday” along with a 'Happy Birthday Anna’ graphic.

The book is 9.75" x 7.5" which is a little bit larger than the first edition iPad. Each book includes 60 pages of recycled Text weight paper (except Anna’s book, which we made in both Pink and Purple and we made those books thicker - over 100 pages). The graphic pattern just came to us quickly and worked well with the name, which has similar characters. This custom motif may not be as easy with a name like Maximillian or Gertrude, but we’re willing to give it a try. If you want to have a custom birthday book for your child, email us at info@littlepulp.com and we will get back to you with details and pricing.

Here are a few images from the shop before we packed up the books. We hope the books are a hit at the party. If you were at the party, please comment below and let us know how you liked them.

Oh, and of course, we inserted these cards into all the books. We hope if you are drawing in a Little Pulp sketchbook that you would share some of your drawings, writings or ideas with us.

Everyone is so busy these days and, once a year, their birthday rolls around leaving you in a mini-panic on how to decorate your house/apartment so when he or she wakes up, they give you that extra-special smile we all work so hard to get from them. Here is a very easy way to create a personalized sign just for your child, hand-crafted by you (extra-special). 

What you will need: 

• Individual postcards for each letter of your child's name.
• Fine Point black Sharpie® Marker (works best).
• Crayons
• Some creativity on your part.
• About 25-30 minutes (work fast, the energy will make it more interesting).

As you see in the images, take a postcard per letter and simply hand-draw block lettering. We cropped some of the letters off the sides, which makes it look more interesting as a whole. Some letters just may need to have edges, use your judgement. We used just one color on these and were planning on letting Lochlan color in the letters, but we liked the way this turned out so we are going to keep them and each letter in small frames or make a nice collage on one frame (not sure yet).

After you block out the letters, decorate the inside of the letters with different shapes. The important part for this is to make sure some of the shapes crop off the edges of the letters. This will give the overall name a nice continuous look. Once you have created the inside decoration, then take your crayon and color in the outside. Go all the way to the edges and don’t color outside the lines. After a few letters, you will feel like a kid again (really you will).

For this we used one of those extra-fat crayons and almost used up the full crayon. Once finished, simply place it on a shelf so it is the first thing your child see’s in the morning. We, actually, placed each card on the breakfast table and then moved them up to this shelf, once it was clear that Lochlan did not want to color in the letters.

For this particular project, we used extra-thick postcard stock that we had from a previous project. We have lots of really really thick paper stock, so if you would like some thick postcard stock to try this out yourself, please Click Here to Email Us and we will coordinate getting you some.

This is the book that we launched the site with. We spent so much time developing products and realized that we should just start, even if we only have one product. That is what we did, and it was a good idea, because a lot of people seem to like it.