[Thrownaway]

I have experience with the resume gap thing -- simple solution:

Elance.com

Incorporate your own small business (sole proprietorship is the easiest, but LLCs are very popular), and have her do contract work on sites like E-lance. It's far easier than it sounds. Graphic design work is one of the most common work requests on there, and if she's really good with handling business, you can actually make a decent living off of it regardless of where you live.

For employment verification, she can either have the business registered in her name (running your own business can be attractive, or bad, depending on the position you're applying for), or registered in a trusted family member's name (that typically will not match her own, to avoid misinformed, knee-jerk reactions from HR folks who have never run a small business) who will function as the employer.

Easy peasy.

Just make sure to name the business something professional, like "Tacoma Design Solutions," as opposed to "CRAZY BITCHZ' GRAFIX", for obvious reasons.