Bea & Bloom is open for business!

Until logging in to write this post, I hadn't realised how long it's been since I last blogged here! Sorry for being so quiet lately, hopefully things will be getting back to normal from now on!

As you may know, for the last couple of months I have been working on my new venture, a wedding stationery business! After lots of longs days and late nights, Bea & Bloom officially launched yesterday morning and is now open for business!

I've shared a little introduction to the site over on the Bea & Bloom blog: beaandbloom.com/blog
If you have any questions or would like to discuss your wedding stationery ideas with me then please get in touch!

Caboodle's Diner

Earlier this year I created some fun illustrations for the AW16 issue of Caboodle Magazine, and this week I finally got to see it in the flesh as my copy landed on the doorstep!

The theme for the DIY/craft section of the issue was all things 'Fave food' and the brief mentioned burgers, milkshakes, fries, fizzy pop (along with lots of other yummy foods!) So I came up with an illustration of the Caboodle Diner, which Amy & Kayti used as the title page! I also created a few spot illustrations which have been used within the tutorials. The project was so fun to work on, despite making me hungry when I was looking at all the reference images for donuts, cakes & ice cream sundaes! I had a slight disaster after getting most of the diner drawing done I noticed I'd spelt Caboodle wrong, oops! But I managed to fix it without too much stress, I love how its turned out! And of course its great to get to see my work in a magazine for the first time!

I haven't had a chance to properly read the whole issue yet, but after a quick flick through it certainly looks amazing and I can't wait to delve into it fully!

You can order your copy here.

Custom House Portraits

I've added another new custom listing to the shop: House Portraits!

House portraits are perfect if you're looking for a lovely illustration of your home. Or I can illustrate your wedding venue, favourite hotel, or anything else you can think of!

Special details such as pets, flowers etc. can be included within the image to make it even more personal, and you'll always receive a sketch of your illustration before I work on the final image, so you can make sure you're completely happy with it!

Find out more in my Etsy shop.

Custom maps and portraits are also available.

Jelly Button Jewellery

I've been wanting to share these for a while now as I designed the first one earlier on this year, but I thought I'd wait until the whole selection was ready (although more are on their way now too!)

I designed these enamel pins for the lovely Michelle of Jelly Button Jewellery.

I had so much fun working on these, Michelle's ideas are always so fun to create!

They're all available to buy on her website for £6.50 each (plus P&P), and she has lots of other lovely things available too!

(The little gnome is also available as a pair of earrings for £4.50 here)

Look out for new milkshake and Mr Frosty designs coming soon!

Tallinn Walls

Today I'm sharing an illustration of one of my favourite places from our holiday to the Baltics: Tallinn, Estonia. The whole place felt like we were in the middle of a medieval fairytale, so I of course absolutely loved the entire day!

As you can probably imagine I took hundreds of pictures of these while we were there and they've given me lots of inspiration for new illustration! Starting with these old walls with fairytale turrets that surrounded the old town. 

I'll be working on some more illustrations inspire by Tallinn in the next few weeks :)

Custom Travel Maps

A new product has landed in my Etsy shop:

Custom Travel / Adventure Maps

Pick a selection of your favourite places you've travelled to (or would like to visit in the future) and the landmarks/objects that you associate with them and I'll create you your very own custom travel map! Head to the shop listing for more information on pricing, lead times etc. and get in touch if you have any questions!

Snap snap: 11/08/16

Its been a while since I wrote a 'Snap snap" post, so I thought I'd stop in and share a few updates of what I've been up to lately...

Of course an update of life lately wouldn't be complete without a picture of Beabea. Lots of cuddles have been happening as always.

Picnics in Greenwich Park. We made the most of that really warm week and I met Jamie in the park after work for a picnic dinner.

A lovely, long overdue catch up with one of my wonderful bridesmaids.

My wedding scrapbook is filling up with lots of ideas, sketches and quotes!

We've made lots of progress on actually planning the wedding too, including picking our cars! There's much more about our wedding plans over on the Bea & Bloom blog too.

I've been working on some designs for  my upcoming wedding stationery business, Bea & Bloom.

Last weekend we took Beabea out for the day to Danson Park. She had lots of fun running around, making friends, chasing birds and sharing our lunch!

Hopefully I'll get back to sharing these more often! In the mean time you can follow me on Instagram and Snapchat (emillustration) for snippets of daily life.

Russian Dolls

In all the drawings I'd been doing of our trip around the Baltics, I realised last week that I hadn't yet illustrated one of my favourite things from the whole trip: Matryoshka Dolls (or Russian/nesting dolls)

Of course that had to change immediately, so I've designed a set of 5 dolls inspired by this pattern based on mosaics on the ceilings of the Church of the Savior on Blood.

Here they all are in more detail:

Introducing Bea & Bloom

You may have seen on my various social media profiles that I'm in the process of starting up a brand new business. Bea & Bloom will be launching soon selling a range of illustrated wedding stationery, all designed by me.

A temporary homepage is now set up at beaandbloom.com, and I've shared a few wedding related posts on the new blog (this is where I'll be sharing my own wedding planning updates from now on so if you're interested in reading about that head over there and give the new blog follow).

To be the first to know when the website launches fully, sign up to the mailing list here.

You can also follow along on Bea & Bloom's own social media pages:

Facebook   |   Twitter   |   Instagram

There I'll be sharing lots of updates on the site, designs in progress and details on our launch date.

Over & Over: From Russia part III

Today I've got the third and final instalment of patterns inspired by the Church of the Savior on Blood. These two are inspired by the impressive mosaics that cover the interior walls of the church. 

Over & Over: From Russia part II

Today I have the second set of patterns inspired mosaics and tiles in the Church of the Savior on Blood in St Petersburg. This pair are based on the floor tiles in the church, as well as some of the patterned borders around the wall mosaics.

Wise Words: Slowly

Our wedding plans are well under way and its all getting very exciting!

I've made a list of all the things I want to design for the wedding, and its looking quite long! Think invites, table numbers, order of the day, posters etc.

This week I've made a start on some illustrated quotes which will form part of the table centre pieces (along with flowers and candles of course)

I don't want to share everything here until after the wedding but I thought I'd share one of them as a little preview! This one features a lovely quote from one of my favourite books 'The Fault in Our Stars"...

Over & Over: From Russia

Continuing with the series of illustrations inspired by our trip to the Baltics, today I have the first set of patterns based on mosaics and tiles in the Church of the Savior on Blood. 

These ones are inspired by a beautiful pattern on the ceiling above the shrine.

Norwegian Folk

Today I have another set of illustrations inspired by my recent trip to the Baltics.

These ones are all inspired by our day at the Norwegian Folk Museum. I've illustrated a series of 5 of the buildings from the museum, and added decoration in the form of patterns we saw in embroidery, on clothing etc.

Postcards from Bruges

Today I have the first of hopefully many posts featuring illustrations inspired by my recent trip to the Baltics (you can read more about it and see the photos here, here and here.)

These three illustrations are based on photos I took on our day in the picturesque town of Bruges. Its quickly becoming one of our favourite places to visit (and not just because of the chocolate) and we can't wait to go again in October (we have a little trip planned for a family celebration)

Have you been to Bruges? What did you think of it?

Next up will be a series inspired by our day at the Norwegian Folk Museum.

A trip to the Baltics (Part III)

Copenhagen, Denmark

Our day in Copenhagen was pretty hectic as the two things we wanted to see were quite far away from each-other so we had lots of walking to do! We started the day with a visit to Tivoli gardens (where I of course had to ride on a Giraffe on the carousel!)

Next we walked through the town and past the colourful harbour all the way to the statue of the Little Mermaid. This was a pretty essential part of the trip for me considering my love of fairytales, there was no way I could visit Copenhagen without getting a picture of myself with the Little Mermaid!

Oslo, Norway

The day in Oslo also happened to be Jamie's birthday, so that made it that bit special!

We spent the day at the Norwegian Folk Museum (hello even more inspiration for new illustrations!) which is made up of lots of old buildings from areas around Oslo, some of which had people inside dressed in traditional costumes and doing crafts or playing music. We sailed out in the evening through the 60 mile fjord and found a quiet little spot at the front of the ship with some lovely views.

Bruges, Belgium

The final stop of the holiday was in Zeebrugge, Belgium. Me and Jamie got the train in to Bruges and spent the day exploring the picturesque town, taking a boat ride along the canals and indulging in too much chocolate, ice cream and waffles!

This was just a tiny selection of the pictures I took while we were away, there are so many more I'd love to share but I don't want to bore you all! I'll be working on several illustration projects inspired by the places we visited and things we saw, so I may share a few more images along with those when they're finished.

This was an incredible holiday from start to finish and I really hope to revisit these places again one day. If you're considering visiting this part of the world I can definitely recommend it! I had no idea what to expect of all the countries we visited but I was thrilled with what we discovered!