BUDSIES PLUSH CREATIONS

Wow! What kid wouldn't love having his or her doodles and drawings turned into a toy that can be hugged and played with?! Thanks to a service called Budsies children's artwork can be transformed into custom stuffed animals and other plush creations. Budsies brings to life children's creativity and imagination through a personalized experience that provides boys and girls with cherished play companions that are sure to become memorable childhood keepsakes.

The nice folks at Budsies reached out to ageekdaddy.com challenging my son and daughter to dream up their very own plush creations to share with our audience. Challenge accepted! They had a fun evening drawing up all sorts of ideas. Magical creatures from fantasy lands, new Pokémon video game characters, and comic book style super heroes were all ideas that were sketched up by the kids.

My son finally settled on a dinosaur that he imagined up named REXY. Combining characteristics from a variety of his favorite, REXY is a dinosaur that is both fierce and friendly. He decided to create REXY because we had recently enjoyed a day full of dinosaur themed activities and my son thought his Budsies plush creation would be a nice way to keep reminding him of the fun times our family spends together.

My daughter loves flowers so she decided to create one that could be snuggled. Inspired by the "bud" in Budsies, she created a budding sunflower. Her plush creation shows a sunny disposition and highlights its cool personality by wearing shades and showing a warm smile. Loving a good hug, her sunflower also has welcoming leaves that resemble outstretched arms. She is so excited that unlike the plants in her garden this is a flower that can be cuddled with.

With their drawings complete, I scanned the artwork then submitted it to budsies.com. From there the company has designers that craft unique plush toys inspired by the drawings we submitted. They then create a custom 16" tall stuffed animal or doll that is promised to be incredibly detailed based upon the imagery that they received. Orders can also be upgraded to enhance the size of your plush creation by super-sizing it to 30" tall. 

We stuck with the 16" variety but I did enhance our order with Budsies "Sneak Peek" upgrade option. This had Budsies send me a picture when our plush were completed. With this upgrade, I was able to take a look at our Budsies before they were shipped out to us and suggest revisions to the products.

So I just received our Sneak Peek and have to say the kids' Budsies look perfect! I didn't need to request any changes and authorized them to send us our custom plush creations right away. Check out our Budsies Sneak Peek for yourself:

The kids haven't seen these photos yet. I'm going to let my son and daughter be surprised by how great these plush toys turned out when the packages arrived and we unbox them. Of course, I'll be sharing this experience with all of you when our Budsies actually arrive and provide a close up look of the actual REXY and SUNFLOWER when my kids get their hands on them right here at ageekdaddy.com.

Disney Artist Creates Adorable Calvin and Hobbes / Star Wars Mashup Illustrations

 ** Warning images contain spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens**

As a child, my family had the same routine every Sunday.  We'd go to morning mass, swing by the local pharmacy on the way home to pick up the Sunday newspaper, then my dad would make us  scrambled eggs, bacon and waffles for breakfast when we got back to our house.  Once we'd finished breakfast my dad would pull out the newspaper and throw the comic strips my way while he began to peruse the sports section.  I always would enthusiastically go straight to my favorite comic, Calvin and Hobbes, to check out that week's adventure of a six-year-old boy and his stuffed tiger.

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson was syndicated in newspapers across the world from 1985 through 1995.  During its run the comic strip both entertained and promoted critical thinking through the use of satire inspiring many people including a gentleman named Brian Kesinger.  Brian recently paid tribute to his fondness for Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes by creating some nostalgic illustrations that merge the classic comic strip with today's hottest pop culture topic, the new Star Wars movie The Force Awakens.  Highlighted on his website and social media accounts, Kesinger recreates some memorable Calvin and Hobbes segments as scenes from The Force Awakens.  Having loved both Star Wars and Calvin & Hobbes as a boy and still being a fan of both to this day, I was so delighted to discover these great illustrations by this remarkable up and coming artist who also has quite a few artistic accomplishments under his belt.

While Bill Watterson is no slouch, Brian Kesinger also has a pretty darn respectable resume to his credit. In 1996 at 18 years old, Kesinger was hired by Walt Disney Studios becoming the youngest animator in the history of the company.  He started off working on Tarzan and other movies he has been involved with include Bolt, Chicken Little, Tangled and Winnie the Pooh.  In 2011, he received the Annie Award for his story work on an animated television show that for our family has become a Christmas viewing tradition, called Prep and Landing.  Brian also worked on one of our family's all-time favorite Disney animated movies, the Academy Award-nominated Wreck-It Ralph and is currently working on a movie my kids really want to see coming out later this Spring called Zootopia.  Like myself, Brian Kesinger is a fan of the Sci-Fi and Steampunk genres who likes to create drawings inspired by those themes when he is not working on projects for Disney.  I knew that I'd like this guy the second I saw his Calvin and Hobbes / Star Wars mashups!

If you like these illustrations show some appreciation to Brian by following him on Instagram or Twitter and giving his displayed artwork some likes or stopping by his website to leave a positive comment. If you enjoy his artwork, you may also want to check out his book "Traveling With Your Octopus"

Cartoonist Attempting to Draw a Star Wars Illustration Every Day Between New Year's Day & Opening of New Movie

To highlight himself as a super fan and promote his twitter feed, cartoonist George Folz kicked off his "Darth Days" campaign on New Years Day with the goal of drawing and tweeting out a new Star Wars illustration from the beginning of the year until Episode VII is released in theaters on December 18, 2015.  You can follow along and look for his drawings at @GeorgeJurard on twitter.  Here's a look at his most recent post that he tweeted out today:

#StarWars #darthdays 11/365 is in the bag. This is my new favorite-- The Emperor is a blast to draw! pic.twitter.com/7NQAqg1JsW
— George Folz (@GeorgeJurard) January 11, 2015

Star Wars fans who want a fun way to count down the days until the next movie debuts should give George Folz a follow and keep an eye out for his original artwork (like the Tatooine Dusk above and Jabba's Slave Girl below) as he tweets his illustrations that pay homage to the artistic vision of another George with the last name of Lucas.