Illustrator: Sketching with the Pencil Tool & Blending

I used a large rectangle with white fill and black stroke to create the background. I  used my graphic tablet with the pen tool to draw the dog. To get the soft look i used the smooth tool. I then copied and rotated. I used the ellipse  with text tool. I added another border using the rectangle tool with no fill.

I drew the Ivy leaves using the the pencil tool. I duplicated the leaf about 3 times; changing the size and filling it with a different color. I selected all of the leafs align them on top of each other. I then went to blend options-- smooth color. I duplicated the leaf many time and grouped it together.The pencil tool was used for the vein.  I the brown rectangle was sent behind the leafs and added a drop-shadow. Text tool was used for words.