In my sketchbook: 25/02/15

As I said yesterday, today I'm sharing some of my recent sketchbook pages which went in to creating some new patterns for fabric. I've been drawing pages of bumble bees, branches, blossoms, banners and animals!

I've also been drawing some more animals (some of which are new versions of some old illustrations) to get printed onto small squares of fabrics for another new product.

Once the fabrics are delivered I'll be getting to work on lots of new products, which I'll be sharing here very soon!

Over & over: New Fabric patterns

I've spent the last week working on some new pattern designs, in order to get some fabrics printed to make some new products.

I've created four designs in total: Bumble, Floral, Be Happy & Animals.

I won't share them all now until the fabrics have arrived and I've made something with them, but here's Floral & Bumble:

Tomorrow I'll be back with an In my sketchbook post, sharing some of the sketchbook pages that went into these patterns.

Snap snap: 20/02/15

I've gotten behind gain, and this is my first Snap snap post in February, and its been a busy month, so I have quite a bit to share:

- After completing my card designs in January, I placed a big order at the printers. A few days later I received a very exciting delivery filled with lots of new cards, and these new business cards, thank you notes and stickers!

- Of course the new cards were the main part of the order, and they're all now available to buy on my Etsy shop or direct from my website. Let me know what you think!

- Before getting on with new projects, I took a bit of time to do some drawing just for myself, which included animals in pretty clothes!

- A second delivery also arrived, some colourful stickers from Moo.com, to make all my packages prettier.

-The diary doodles are still going well.

- Weekly visits from Beabea.

- I'm selling off some old stock to make room for the new cards. For £10 you can get an A5 print, 3 cards, and 2 sets of gift tags (all screen-printed) and UK postage. If you'd like one just contact me with your paypal e-mail address.

- The drawing I did in January of Mr Bear was given a bit of colour.

- I've spent several hours packing up card orders for some new stockists (more on that soon)

- Thumb-nailing ideas for fabric patterns (I'm working on some fun new products)

- Positive phrases banners for one of the new patterns.

- And finally, a page full of bees!

Wise Words: Beginnings

Hi everyone!

I'm back with another Wise Words post today, this time with a lovely little quote about beginnings:

I'd love some suggestions for quotes or lyrics for these posts (I'm starting to struggle to find ones I like!) so let me know if you have any ideas!

The fabric designs are coming along quite well this week, and I'll be sharing one or two of them with you in next week's Over & over post.

Over & Over: Fly away

For this week's pattern I've gone with pretty pastels and feathers. I think this one has a bit of a spring-time feel to it, which probably means I'm hoping for an improvement to the weather soon! The pastel colours remind me of easter and chocolate mini-eggs (which so far I've resisted despite them being in shops since December!)

I've always enjoyed drawing feathers, so this one was fun to make:

"Just fly away"

I'm also working on a few more developed pattern designs at the moment, as I'm hoping to get some printed on to fabric and make some new things for the shop. I'll share the patterns with you once they're finished! 

Wise Words: All that you are

As I mentioned on Tuesday's Over & over post, this week's designs are all of a romantic theme in honour of Valentine's day this weekend!

I wanted to use song lyrics this week, so chose a lovely line form Tenerife Sea by Ed Sheeran. Jamie and I love his music, so it seemed appropriate for Valentines!

"All that you are is all that I'll ever need"

Ed Sheeran - Tenerife Sea

Over & over: Love

Its just a quick pattern today as I wasn't at home over the weekend and didn't have a lot of time to create this. Its Valentines day at the weekend so this week's posts will be of a romantic theme. Starting with this love-heart filled floral pattern:

I'll be back on Friday with a romantically themed Wise Words post!

On my Bookshelf: January '15

I've been putting a lot of time into designing the cards this month, so I've haven't read as much as I'd like, but I've definitely enjoyed everything I did read!

Here's my recap from January:

1. Grow Your Handmade Business - Kari Chapin

I started the month with something a little different in the form of a non-fiction creative business book. This book was full of some great information and got me very inspired to get to work on improving my little business. And my book-keeping is now all in order thanks to the advice in here! I definitely recommend this to anyone running a small business.

2. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

As with The Fault in Our Stars, I was a little late to the party with this one as I know everyone was loving it last year. Just before I started reading again, I went to see this at the cinema and loved it. And of course I enjoyed the book even more! This kept me gripped all the way through (despite knowing the ending!) and I read it in a few short sittings. Needless to say I definitely recommend it, whether you've seen the film or not.

3. The Language of Flowers - Vanessa Diffenbaugh

This one was leant to me by my cousins at Christmas. I read this straight after Gone Girl so i was a little worried I might find it boring in comparison, and the beginning did feel a little slow. But once I got in to it I really enjoyed it, and finished it in a day. When my cousins leant it to me they said it would make me want to be a florist, and I couldn't agree more! Its full of some beautiful descriptions of flowers, their meanings (there's even a dictionary of them at the back) and the work of a florist (the images of the flowers markets in my head are just lovely!). The story itself is very emotional and the characters are very strong. The words on the front of the book sum up the story beautifully: "Anyone can grow into something beautiful".

4. Dark Places - Gillian Flynn

After reading Gone Girl I had to give another of Gillian Flynn's books a go. I finished this one last night and have to say I'm impressed. The way it's written is very clever, and small things at the beginning of the book that seem irrelevant at the time all come together at the end to tell the story. Some chapters are written in first person in the current day, and others are written in third person about other characters at the time of 'the incident,  which really adds to the drama and pace of the story. I definitely recommend this. I also just found out this one is being made in to a film as well! I have a few more books waiting on my bookshelf, but once I've got through those I'll be buying Gillian Flynn's other book, Sharp Objects.

Wise Words: Infinities

I mentioned in my "On my Bookshelf" post last month (there's a January post coming very soon!) that I had read and loved The Fault In Our Stars. I wanted to use a quote from a book for this week's Wise Words, and so this one seemed perfect.

And for those who haven't read the book and don't know the quote, here's the full version:

"There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful." - John Green, The Fault In Our Stars

Over & over: Panda panda

I decided to do another animal themed pattern this week, as I enjoyed doing last week's bunny one!

This time I took a bit of inspiration from a #tbt picture I posted on Instagram last week featuring an old sketchbook drawing of a Panda from 2012, and I went with Pandas as my theme for this pattern (with the addition of bamboo and a baby Panda!).

Snap snap: 30/01/15

This week I finally finished all of m new designs, and sent them off to the printers! I'm expecting them to arrive on Monday morning, at which point I'll be getting on with photographing them and getting them listed in the shop!

Here's a little look at what I've done this week:

- Weekly visits from Beabea

- One of my favourites of the new designs. I'll be getting this up in the shop asap just in time for Valentines!

- Organising lots of PDF files to send to the printers.

- I also added two new designs (from my Wise Words project) to Art Rookie & Society6.

As always, you can keep up to date with what I'm doing over on Instagram (@EmmaMargaretIllustration)

Wise Words: Flamingo

I wanted a colourful quote for this week's Wise Words illustration, so when I came across this Flamingo one it seemed perfect!

"Be a flamingo in a flock of pigeons!"

Be different, stand out, be you!

I also wanted to use the banners as a container for the text, as I've been using that a lot in my card designs lately, but haven't used it in anything that I've been able to share here yet. 

I ordered all of my new cards yesterday, so I'll be photographing them once they arrive and hope to have them up in the shop by next week!

In my sketchbook: 28/01/15

This week I finished off all the new card designs, and this morning I sent them off to the printers (along with some new business cards, thank you notes and stickers!)

Today's In my sketchbook post provides quite a few sneak peeks at the new designs coming to the shop next week!

Over & over: Bunnies

I had a look through my pattern designs and realised that even though animals are my favourite things to draw, I haven't actually featured them in any of the Over & over designs yet! So I decided to change that this week, by making a pattern full of bunnies!

This one was pretty fun to make, and I'll more than likely be doing another animal themed one next week! Maybe with different kinds of bears?

Snap snap: 23/01/15

I've been working hard again this week and haven't had the time to take as many pictures as I'd have liked to. As well as continuing with the new card range, I've also been working on a little project for a lovely client, illustrating some French monuments.

I've also been getting distracted by reading again! This week I finished Gone Girl, and have made a start (and very nearly finished) The Language of Flowers. I'll be posting another recap of what i've read at the end of the month.

Here's a few of the snaps I did manage to take this week:

- Working on a fun cat-themed design.

- Still going with the Diary doodles!

- Doodling floral accents for my designs.

- The scanned and coloured version of the cat design. You are purrfect!

I'm aiming to order the new cards some time next week, so it really won't be long now until they're up in the shop! Expect to see a few more sneak peeks over the next week or so!

(@EmmaMargaretIllustration)

Wise Words: Pixie Dust

I've been watching Once Upon a Time whilst I work over the past few weeks, so I was inspired to use a quote from one of the characters in that. Although the quote I've used here is form the Disney version of Peter Pan, not the Once Upon a Time version (who is a much darker character!).

"All you need is faith, trust and a little Pixie dust."

The design of this piece is along the same lines as some of the new designs I'm working on. I'll be sharing some of them here shortly, but for now there's a few sneak peaks over on my Instagram account (@EmmaMargaretIllustration).

Over & over: Dainty

The idea for today's pattern came from one of my Diary Doodles from over the weekend. I liked the combination of the geometric triangles, dots and floral motifs so decided to turn into this week's Over & over piece.

I've also used a colour scheme similar to what I've been working with in my new range of designs:

Snap snap: 16/01/15

Its been another week filled with lots of drawing!

- I've been continuing with my diary doodles every day

- Sketching out ideas for a unicorn themed "magical' birthday card

- A little preview of that finished design!

- There's still 10% off everything in my Etsy shop all through January! Just use the code JANUARY23

- Practising some lettering techniques in the and Lettering Ledger

- Starting a brand new sketchbook this weekend! (I was given a few lovely ones for my birthday and Christmas, so I've got plenty to keep me going this year!)

Wise words: Someday

This week I've been reading the Hand Lettering Ledger by Mary Kate McDevitt, and practising a few different techniques. So this Wise Words post comes from scanning in one of the phrases I've sketched out in the practise pages of the book. This is basically just a little experiment with a few different fonts and some filigree. I'm hoping to carry on working may through the book and learn some new techniques over the next couple of weeks!

"There are 365 days in a year, & 'someday' isn't one of them."
How many things can you achieve in the 365 days that make up 2015?

In my sketchbook: 14/01/15

This is the first 'In my sketchbook' post of 2015. I'm hoping to keep up with these a little more regularly this year!

As I've mentioned previously, I've spent the last couple of weeks working on my new card collection (which I am aiming to have ready to launch in February!), so I've been doing a lot of drawing lately and filling up my sketchbooks! 

Here's a few of my favourite pages:

Over & over: Succulent

I doodle these little succulents a few weeks ago for an idea I had for a card design (and one of them may still be making it onto that design soon). I liked the way they were all arranged on the page so I thought I'd make a little pattern with them:

Succulent

Snap snap: 09/01/15

This week I've been working hard on my new card range, as well as doing a bit of reading and making a start on new projects. Here's a few snaps from my week:

- Hello 2015!

- Reading and note taking rom Kari Chapin's great book Grow Your Handmade Business. I really enjoyed this and its motivated to me to carry on with my business and get all the "boring" bits well organised!

- Sketching for this week's Wise Words post.

- Attempting a new mini-project where I try to doodle something in my diary every day. By the end of the year this should be pretty fun to look back through!

- A little preview of one of the new designs. A lovely lady on Instagram used this as inspiration for some nail art!

- A few weeks ago I won a $100 gift card to spend at the lovely Micush Etsy store (I won it as part of Decor8's #12DaysofGiveaways) and this week my chosen goodies arrived! I definitely reccommend checking out the shop, its all a great quality and the illustrations are beautiful.

On my Bookshelf: December '14

For my birthday last year I was given the book of Our Zoo by June Mottershead (after I had enjoyed the BBC Drama version). I hadn't read a book for (embarrassingly) a couple of years before that, but once I got started I read the whole book in two afternoons.  After that I was hooked on reading again, and went online to order myself three more books.

Here's a little summary of what I read in December '14:

1. Our Zoo - June Mottershead

As I already mentioned, this was the first book I read for a long time, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Its a sweet story and its filled with one of my favourite things: animals! This is definitely not a very dramatic story, but its beautiful written and has lots of wonderful descriptions of the animals and the zoo.

2. Before We Met- Lucie Whitehouse

In contrast to the previous book, Before We Met is much more dramatic. I bought this one as I'd just been to see Gone Girl at the cinema (I haven't read it yet but its next on my list!) and loved it, and the description for this one said it was prefect for Gone Girl fans. Personally I didn't find that much similarity between the two story-lines, however it is certainly very gripping, and kept me intrigued all the way through. The story has a few interesting twists and turns, and the ending was pleasantly unexpected. 

3. The Fault in our Stars - John Green

This has been by far my favourite read so far, I barely put it down and had finished it in one long afternoon! This is one of those stories that makes you laugh and cry at the same time, and the characters pull you in al the way through. 

On a side note, I mentioned to Jamie several times about how much I enjoyed this story (he arrived home just as I finished it and I rambled on for quite a while!) and so he bought me the DVD of the film for Christmas. As well all know film adaptions of books aren't always the best, but this one was very pleasing. The characters and scenery are exactly as I pictured them, and it too managed to make me cry and laugh at the same time! I definitely recommend both the film and the book.

4. The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer

This one was very different from anything I've read before (admittedly I haven't read much for a long time). Its written from the perspective of a character slipping into mental illness, so the style of writing is very unique. The fonts change throughout out the book, as Matthew moves between his own home, where he uses a typewriter, and the hospital, where he uses a computer. There are letters and drawings dotted amongst the pages and the story is written in an unconventional order. A book about mental illness may not sound too appealing but this is a lovely, creatively written story about a very intriguing character, I definitely recommend it.

I also read An abundance of Katherines by John Green, and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. As you can probably guess, I purchased these two after reading The Fault in Our Stars. These two are both enjoyable and have some great strong characters, but not quite as interesting or emotional as The Fault in Our Stars.

I have several books on my shelves waiting for me to read them this month, including Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and Wonder by R J Palacio. At the moment I'm reading Grow Your Handmade Business by Kari Chapin (and very much enjoying it), but as soon as thats finished I'll be making a start on Gone Girl.

What books have you enjoyed recently?

Any suggestions for me?

Wise Words: Shine

We're over a week into 2015 now (where did that go?) but I'm keeping with the New Year positivity for this Wise Words illustration.

"This is your time to shine"

A little bit of motivation to make 2015 an amazing year.

I've made some good progress this week with the new card range, and a little collection is starting to come together. Next week I'll be sharing some images from my sketchbook with you, and hopefully very soon I'll have a finished collection to show you!

In the mean time I'll be trying to keep up with these Wise Words and Over & Over illustrations, as well as sharing little snippets of my work over on Instagram (@EmmaMargaretIllustration)

Over & over: January Brights

For the first pattern of 2015, I've gone with a brightly coloured floral pattern (because January is grey enough already!).

This was quite quickly put together as I'm still in the process of getting back on track with working again. I haven't made any decisions yet on what the next few patterns will be, so any suggestions will be very much appreciated!

You can view all of my past 'Over & over' patterns here.

Life: Hello 2015!

Happy New Year!

Hope 2015 is treating you all well so far!

So Christmas has flown by yet again! Did you all have a good one? I had a quiet Christmas with Mum, Dad, Jamie and Beabea, and also spent a few days with Jamie's family down in Portsmouth. I was treated to lots of lovely presents this year, including:

-A few additions to my Disney Classics DVD collection

-Some lovely clothes and a pair of boots

-Some Tombow brush pens

-A great selection of books including 'Grow your handmade business' by Keri Chapin, and 'Gone Girl'.

What was your favourite gift this year?

I didn't manage to take many pictures over the last two weeks, but here are a few snippets:

-I made lots of these this Christmas! This batch in particular were for Jamie's office.

-I also did a lot of wrapping as you can see here!

-Beabea got a little snowman rope toy for Christmas which she barely stopped playing with.

-New year was a quiet one with a take-away, chocolate fondue and party poppers.

Today is my first official work day of the year. I'm spending the morning doing a bit of planning and organising, getting my self ready to get on with the rest of the new designs. I'm aiming to have everything finished and ready to put in the shop by next month, so these next few weeks are going to be pretty busy! To help keep me organised, I'm making myself both a weekly planner, and a year planner to map out what I aim to achieve each month in 2015.

The shop is now re-opened, and there's 10% off everything all through January with the code JANUARY23, as well as lots of Sale items up to 50% off.

As always I'll be sharing plenty of updates on Instagram (@EmmaMargaretIllustration), and I'm going to try very hard to keep up with blogging too!