New Christmas Cards

Here are some new Christmas cards that I have designed and am awaiting my order of them from Moo. 

Cant wait to see them and start sending them and selling them. 

I'm starting to feel a bit christmassy now, which is odd for me as I normally hold the christmassy feelings back until after my birthday. Ah well!!

Boo

Thought I would get in the mood for Halloween!

Tigerprint

The other day I was so happy to hear that my work was getting mentioned on the Tigerprint blog. 
Tigerprint are a great company who supply exclusive cards and wrapping to Marks and Spencer. 
They hold regular competitions on their blog and I was lucky enough to come runner up in the first one I entered. 
I got a LOVELY goody bag and they wrote a blog post all about my work, which was so lovely. 


I am entering another one of their competitions so fingers crossed they like that design as much as the last....or more!

Anyway, go check the blog post out and have a look at their stuff. 

All Tropical, Ghosts of Gone Birds Competiton

A few days ago I entered a design for the Ghosts of gone birds t-shirt design competition for All Tropical.

The idea of the competition is to raise awareness for extinct birds, many of which have been gone for hundreds of years, so not too many people are even aware that they existed. It is so sad when you look at the list of extinct birds and see just how many beautiful species we are missing out on seeing.

Anyway, I chose to illustrate the Laughing Owl. Named as such because of its peculiar call. It seemed like a mischievous creature and that's the main reason why I chose it over many of the other birds which were on the list. Also, it had lovely patterns on its feathers, which of course I love.

To get into the final 10 which will then be judged by a panel, I need lots of votes for my design. Please rate my design by clicking on the palm trees. (5 palm trees is the best rating...hint hint)

Hope you like it!

Rate "Laughing Owl"

Thank youuuuuuuu

Hooray!

As I am just starting up in the Freelancing world, I want to keep my brain creating and thinking in between jobs so I have been working on some things to enter into competitions and some things for my personal portfolio. 
One competition I entered recently was a design competition for Tigerprint. It was to design a concept for a new calender or diary for Marks and Spencer's. They wanted something fresh and original and an idea that would still be useful even with all the technology and digital calenders around. 


Well the result was announced today and unfortunately I didn't win, but my design did get chosen for a runner up, which I am most happy about :) 
The winning idea was lovely and genius. It incorporated useful QR codes to scan using your phone. Also cupcakes are always a winner in my eyes :) 


You can see the winning idea, my idea and all the other runners up here!

Help/advice needed

So I have been a busy bee recently.
I have moved back home from Dorset to Hampshire and I am now working freelance.


A lot of changes but think I am starting to get used to being at home again. My dad has built me an amazing studio on the end of our garage. I am so lucky to have a lovely space to call my own and to be creative in. Every now and then Archie will wonder in and depending on his mood he will snuggle up by my feet or he will sneakily take something and run off down the garden with it.
Will try and get a photo of my studio soon (when its organised as I'm still moving in a bit).


In the move from Bournemouth, I made a crazy decision to leave my scanner/printer behind, as it was slowly dying and becoming very fustrating to work with. It managed to find a new home within minutes of leaving it downstairs in the lobby! I decided it would make me buy a new one which I have been threatening for a long time! But I can not make a decision!!


I need help!
I can't decide whether to get an All-in-one again or to get separate printer and scanner. I know that I want an A3 printer and ideally an A3 scanner (as I like making big collages to scan), but I have found that this is proving a challenge to find.


Has anyone got any suggestions? What printers/scanners do you use?

Barndance

I did another illustration for Amelia's magazine last week. It was to illustrate Amelia's old band Cut A Shine who were teachin barn dancing in the big top at Larmer Tree Festival. They seem like a colourful lot!


I decided I wanted to do something a bit rougher than my last illustration for the Flower show. I think a rougher, looser drawing would suit the atmosphere of a barn dance. The triangles are representing the big top tent and also directions of the dance etc.. 


Anyway, here it is!

lots of pretty flowers

At the weekend I worked on an illustration for Amelia's Magazine. It was for an article reviewing the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2011. I was waiting for Amelia to post her article on her blog before I could post my illustration and all the other lovely images on there.


Here is the illustration I designed for the article. It was based on a photo of the Beatles Yellow submarine made of flowers, and next to it was the letters L O V E made entirely of flowers too. I liked this element, even though it wasn't the main attraction. I think you need to love plants and love your work if you are going to make such fantastic and delicate structures from flowers, so I wanted my image to have taken time and detail. It isn't my normal style, but I felt I wanted to do something that included small details and tiny flowers and be a bit obsessive with it. 


I admit that it looks much better in my sketchbook than it does on screen. 

check the article out HERE!

There's loads of great illustrations on there. I particularly liked the work of Lou Taylor.

Her paper cuts are so lovely and I love her colour combinations. 

Go check her website out as its jam packed of paper butterflies, people and even paper eyelashes. 

Amelia's Magazine Illustration

Well! I have been very busy with work and life, but I am still doing some drawing and illustrations... will be putting some up soon.

Including an illustration that I have just submitted to Amelia's Magazine Blog. Loved working to a theme and with such lovely photos as reference. 

Will put my illustration up as soon as I can.

Feeling inspired and motivated to do more drawing.... but it is nearly bedtime, so Goodnight!

I love Mail Art

I am loving Mail Art ALOT.

Have been the lucky recipient of 2 lots of lovely mail art from  @jessicagowling (Jessica Gowling) and   @saylor_made (Jeannine Saylor) 

After swapping art with her, Jessica actually recommended that me and Jeannine did a Mail art swap because of her love of bees and my little bee zine.  

Here is the lovely little zine (including mountainous stickers) that I recieved from Jessica in return for my bee zine. (apologise for the rubbish photo quality!)

and here is the ace nautical theme package of treasures (plus some pretty flowers and a cute Mr Snail) that I recieved from Jeannine. (Well as she says, she IS a Saylor)

 

busy times and bad backs

I have been so so busy at work recently. which is cool because I'm getting to design some fun things for exciting projects so that is good. I'm designing things that I would never have thought I would be designing, so I am pushing myself and and finding out I can do alot more than I thought.I'm hoping I will be allowed to share them here(I'll find out). But basically, think cake kits, resin figures and cupcake stands!

I have also been designing a logo for a lovely new business (will share soon, when it is all finished)

All this new work and busy times, has meant that I havent had time to work on any of my own stuff, so I have decided to start work on my own work and my own branding and things, so I am prepared when new projects come up and hopefully it will all help to gaining new projects too.

This week has been completley rubbish as I did something to my back on sunday (dont know what...I bent down and then next thing I knew I was on the floor and couldnt move...brilliant) and it has been agony ever since. 

Anyway... I have been trying to do as much work for work as i can at home, but also it has given me a chance to catch up on my blogging, blog reading and my own work. 

I do hope it gets better soon as I feel like 93 not 23!

Here is a possible new logo that I have designed. I love these colours at the moment. A mix of pastel and candy colours, but slightly muted. 

 What do you think?

Also, I have to share this little guy with the world. 

He belongs to my mum and dad, and we went to go get him last weekend. He sat on my lap all the way home and he was an angel. I think he has settled in quite nicely to his new home. 

This is Archie.

He has the sad face mastered. :) He is a sleepy but very happy little guy.

Pancake Treasury

I made a pancake inspired treasury on etsy as pancake season is coming up fast. YUUUMMMM.

who knew there was so many pretty items inspired by pancakes!

Business card design

I have been designing some business cards for my mum. She is a childminder and although she has no problem finding work as she is brilliant, I thought I would design her a business card anyway :)  (excuse the watermark)

I have used my little bear as I wanted to include a cute character to reflect the fact that the business is about children. So even though its the parents that will see the card, it is still child friendly. It is also fun which is always good!

valentines

I have been busy busy and so I have not been doing much blogging! Which is rubbish as I miss my blog. 

Well I have done a few simple valentines card designs.... they are purely computer designed so no collage and cutting and sticking like normal with these ones... I have handmade variations in mind though. Cant keep away from making a mess. 

These don't have to be just valentines cards though of course. They are for any day that you feel the need to tell someone how you feel. :)