In my Sketchbook: 22/10/14

My sketchbooks are still being filled with Christmas card designs, patterns and quotes. Some of these will be (or already have been) shared as illustrations here on the blog, and others will be revealed very soon as my new range of Christmas cards!

There'll be plenty more of this over the next weeks as I continue working on all of my current projects!

The wedding commission is now finished and hopefully I'll be sharing that here very soon too.

Over & Over: Make Do & Mend

Today's pattern design features crafting objects with a sweet love-heart theme. Spools of thread, pink buttons,  heart-shaped scissors and thimbles and pins adorned with more love hearts!

"Make Do & Mend"

I haven't decided on a theme for next week's patterns yet, so any suggestions would be greatly apreciated!

Art: Piled High

Whilst doodling at work last week I ended up filling a page with these little squares of patterns. I think they look like lots of patterned scarves or fabric samples piled on top of each other (which makes sense seeing as I'm dealing with fabric samples during the day at work!). This was done quite quickly without any planning so some of the lines are a bit wobbly and there's quite a few changes I'd make now, but it was great fun to draw and so I decided to scan it in and give it a little bit of colour! 

Some close-ups of the patterns:

I might do some more pages like this during the week, its a great way of coming up with patterns and markings to use in the rest of my work.

Snap snap: 18/10/14

The last week in photos.

This week has involved lots of drawing & designing...

- Packing up Etsy orders.

- Designing Christmas cards (with a special visitor in the background).

- Designing wedding stationery.

- Catching up on Downton Abbey (This mini print is still available in my shop for £2.50)

I've done much more drawing than this over the week, but I'll save that for an "In my Sketchbook" post next week!

Wise Words: Adventures

This week rather than drawing a new quote, I found an old favourite and edited it a little.

This was originally a screen print (still available in my shop, reduced to £5) but here I've made it into a digital image and added a little colour...

"Take wild adventures"

I quite like the way this turned out and I think I might go back over some more of my old screen print designs and give them a colourful makeover. Look out for another illustrated quote next week (a brand new one this time!).

Over & Over: The street where you live

This week's Over & Over pattern design features some fun and quirky buildings...

"On the street where you live" 

For this one I wanted to do something a little more uniform, with all the objects in a straight row to make a change from the more random style of my other designs. A street of houses seemed like a good place to start with that!

Next week's theme is "Make do & mend", think buttons, needles and spools of cotton.

In my sketchbook: 13/10/14

 This week I've been working on some Christmas cards designs, wedding stationery (still not pictured here yet!) and carrying on with my "Over & Over" and "Wise Words" projects.

Here's a little look at some of the pages from my sketchbooks this week.

Next week I'll be carrying on with all of these projects, and also working on the new blog series I mentioned before, "Illustrated Eats" starting with a recipe for some delicious rainbow cookies!

Over & over: Sweet as Honey

This week's Over & over features jars of sweet honey, pretty blossoms and buzzing bumble bees...

"Sweet as Honey"

I'm been working on quite a lot of doodles for these pattern designs, they're a great way to keep me entertained whilst its quiet at work! Next weeks pattern will feature a variety of fun and quirky buildings..

Snap snap: 04/10/14

The last two weeks in photos.

- Friday visits from Beabea are a highlight of my week.

- Working on some new illustrations, I'll be sharing them here soon!

- Doodling for a new pattern.

- Making notes on some fairytales I'm hoping to illustrate.

-There's lots of items reduced in my Etsy shop, including all hand printed cards reduced to £1.50 each.

- Sketching for last week's "Wise Words" post.

- Baking rainbow cookies. My first attempt didn't go too well, but the second ones were a lot better. And who doesn't love the smell of freshly baked cookies drifting through their home??

- Leafy doodles whilst at work.

Wise Words: A Wish

As promised, this week's "Wise Words" piece is a quote from a Disney movie, or more specifically a quote from Cinderella herself.

For this design I've used a combination of my favourite typography styles: the "wish" is in the style of my Happily Ever After piece (and last week's "Wise Words"), and "your heart makes" is in the style of my Once Upon a Time piece (both of which can be seen here).

Any suggestions for next week's quote? 

In my Sketchbook: 01/10/14

Some snippets of my recent sketchbook work.

There's quite a variety of themes running through my sketchbooks at the moment, as I'm working on several projects including the two new blog features: Over & Over, and Wise Words.

I'm also working on a series of illustrations featuring my animal characters, and some commissioned wedding stationery (not pictured here yet).

Over & over: Birds of a Feather

I'm enjoying this project so far, and I'm actually a little bit ahead of the planned one-pattern-a-week and have quite a few ready to share with you in the coming weeks!

So here's this week's patterned design, which is of a feathered variety.

"Birds of a Feather"

Wise Words: You can do it

For this week's "Wise Words" piece I was planning on using a quote from a fairytale or Disney movie, but during my search I found this quote from Walt Disney and thought it was perfect:

I'm working on some wedding stationery using typography in this style at the moment and really enjoying it. As I carry on with this project I'll probably use this style again, but experimenting with using different container shapes other than a heart.

Next week I'll stick with my original plan and use a quote from a fairytale! 

Over & over: Cherry on top

Another new feature that I'm hoping to start here on the blog, is "Over & Over": a new pattern design based on a different pattern each week.

This week's theme is something for those with a sweet tooth, involving lots of muffins, cakes and fondant fancies. With strawberry jam, glacier cherries, vanilla buttercream and royal icing...

(drawing these may have given me a few cravings and influenced me to do a little baking!) 

"A cherry on top."

Today I Like...

A few of things inspiring me this week:

1. Illustrator Kristin Nohe shares pictures of her "lunchtime doodles" over on Instagram and its been inspiring me to start drawing more when there's nothing to do at work.

2. I've really loved Ez Pudewa's illustrations for a long time, and she's now starting up a new brand called Petit Pippin which looks pretty exciting!

3. I've been using these colours a lot in my work lately.

4. Finally, I loved these animal pillows by the lovely Bonnie from Going Home to Roost.

Wise Words: The Dream

So here's the first instalment of my new "Wise Words" blog feature.

Each week I'll be illustrating a short quote or saying and sharing it here on the blog.

Here is this weeks little bit of inspiration:

In my sketchbook: 18/09/14

A few snippets from my sketchbook this week.

I've ben drawing lots of cakes (and trying to resist the urge to go into the kitchen and bake some instead!), birds and quotes. I have lots of ideas in mind at the moment so there'll be more to share very soon.

Snap snap: 17/09/14

The last week in photos.

- Preparing everything for the shop update. There are now lot of new items available to buy from my Etsy Shop or Website.

- Pretty flowers from Mum and Dad.

- With Downton Abbey starting up again this Sunday, it seemed liked a good to time to list this Downton themed mini print in my shop!

- Drawing cakes for some new pattern designs.

Now that the shop is up and running again, and I'm settling into my new routine in our new home and new jobs, I'm finally getting the time to get back to drawing again. I'll be sharing some snippets from my sketchbook later this week, and I also have plans for some new illustrated features here on the blog:

- Illustrated Eats: Fun food recipes using my illustrations as diagrams

- Wise Words: Similar to my old "Say it right" feature, but this time I'll be illustrating the quotes rather than using computer fonts.

- Over & Over: A series of pattern designs, I'm hoping to create a new one each week using drawings I create whilst I'm at my day job!

Shop: We are Open!

Hi everyone!

So, I have FINALLY gotten around to sorting out the products and re-opening my shop!

The virtual shelves are now filled with lots of fun and colourful products including paper doll kits and downloadable colouring sheets!

You can purchase all the new item from my Etsy store as always, but thats not all.

I've also just launched my new shop on my website, so you can buy directly from there using Paypal without having to sign up to Etsy!

Go ahead and have a little browse through either of the shops. Orders over £8 receive a little free gift!

I hope you like all of the new products!

Snap snap: 09/09/14

The last few weeks in photos.

- This was taken a few days before we left mum and dad's. Beabea has habit of laying on anything that you put on the floor or sofa. Washing and ironing piles belong to her.

- Planning the layout of the new place.

- New giraffe illustration, available on a variety of products on Society6 and Art Rookie.

- Plant shopping.

- Packing up for the move.

- Making patterns.

- All the new designs available in my Society6 shop.

- Lovely flowers and moving in cards at our new home.

- My new studio space. See more pictures and a little info about it here.

- We're all in agreement that a new oven must be christened by cooking a huge chocolate cake, right?

- Beabea came to visit me for the day and spent quite a while lying on my desk looking for cats out the window.

- Experimenting with new product ideas for the shop.