FEED ME!

I've been having fun making these things for a lovely community event which is happening this weekend. The mouse and the shark will be attached to a wooden stand, and there will be a bucket of fish and plate of cheese (sewn by me, stuffed by me and the little one) to throw into their hungry mouths!

I hope the kids (big and small) enjoy feeding the hungry beasts!

animal mix ups

Our 6 year old recently came up with some funny animal combos when we had a couple of days off school due to snow. I don't remember how it all started but for a few days it became an obsession - finding animals whose names merged into each other, which he then drew. It was a lot of fun and it reminded me of the Japanese word game "Shiritori" (literal translation = taking the bottom) where you say a word beginning with the last letter of the previous word.

I have reworked some of my favourites.

You can see the original creations below. They really make me smile!

SNAPPY CHRISTMAS!

It's been another busy year, mostly looking after the little ones and squeezing what creativity I can into into the little gaps of time I can find. The loss of nap time with our littlest meant that gap of time got even tinier but there is big change ahead, for the little one starts preschool next year!!!

As much as I will miss our time together, those 3 hours every day is going to be heavenly and I can't wait to fill it with creativity :)

Snappy Christmas everyone and see you in 2018!

Christmas Stocking No 4

We have a special visitor this Christmas - the boys' American cousin! I've had a lovely time making this Christmas stocking for her. I hope she likes it :)

Late night printing club

Thanks to my mum, we have acquired a small table-top printing press!! Like most exciting arty things we own, it has been stored away for ages gathering dust whilst the children take up most of the space in the house with their STUFF.

Each year I try to create a new illustration which I send off to get printed as Christmas cards but this month has been crazy busy so I've not managed to find any time. Instead, I thought I'd dig out the printing press and try a simple lino-cut as an experiment to get to know our new piece of equipment. 

The only space we can set it up is in the little spare room next to the boys' bedroom, which meant that I had to do some super stealthy late night printing. It was tricky but I managed to do it without waking the boys or leaving a big inky mess on the spare bed, phew!

I'm looking forward to more experimenting in the New Year :)

Abracadabra!

I made a poster and tickets for the upcoming Magic Show at my boy's school :)

Paper, scissors, glue!

I've been enjoying making very simple images with paper, scissors and glue - they started off as ideas for brooches, but now I'm thinking maybe an ABC poster or greeting cards. I'll keep playing around and see where it takes me :)

Below are our 6 year old's creations with paper, scissors and glue, which I love! I also got inspiration for my butterflies from his lovely drawing.

pop-up peeps

It's been a loooong time since my last post. This is due to loss of nap time by our littlest one, and I think it is affecting both me and him immensely. I am much more disorganised, frustrated, impatient and exhausted than usual, and I think he is too (apart from the "disorganised" bit - I don't know what a toddler needs to organise other than maybe his gem collection or toy cars). 

It's become a bit of a mission to do anything other than the basics of looking after family and home.

I have been playing around with some pop-up card ideas though, and have managed to put together a rather silly video voiced by our very own non-sleeping but lovely huggy boys! This is partly in preparation for an art and craft workshop I will be giving as part of a "Wellbeing Day" for staff at a local school next week. I'm looking forward to it :)

BookFest 2017 poster!!

A little over a month to go until the fantastic children's book festival BookFest in Bedford! Last year I took my boys to see Julia Jarman, which they loved, and I ran a drop-in arty crafty workshop "Make your own poster book", which produced brilliant results, yay!

For this year's BookFest, I was asked alongside the Circus of Illustration by David Litchfield to illustrate a favourite children's book character for the poster. Ooooh decisions decisions! So many to choose from but I soon realised that some characters were really hard to re-imagine as their original image was so strong. 

In the end I decided to go with Cat in the Hat and Moonface from The Magic Faraway Tree. Although inimitable, I thought there was quite a bit of room for interpretation when reading Cat in the Hat and so I created a completely different version of him. Moonface, on the other hand was a fairly recent discovery for me so I had a blank slate, which made it a little bit easier.

The characters (from left to right) are:

Mr Toad by Andrew Foster

Moonface by me

Peter Pan by Kristina Bullen

Aslan by Katie Allen

Cat in the Hat by me

Gangsta Granny by Marisa Straccia

Max by David Litchfield

Alice by Emily Ross

The poster was put together by the wonderful David Litchfield, the type by super talented Katie Allen!

Dragons dragons!

Our 5 year old is all about dragons at the moment, so my partner asked him to draw some dragon parts to turn into stickers. He's been having lots of fun putting together a whole variety of spiky winged creatures. Dragon No 4 is by his friend Tom :)

We might put together a new Make Your Own Poster Book pack soon, on the theme of - you guessed it - DRAGONS!

Yikes Spikes!

Today was the warmest day of the year so far. Blue skies and glorious sunshine, beautiful! Shame I could only enjoy it from the confines of our very warm home with all the windows closed as my hayfever fully kicked in :'( I get it really badly every year and it's a messy itchy horrible NIGHTMARE!

Rather than be miserable and mope about, I decided I would take advantage of my partner being home to get the sewing machine out and sew whilst the little one napped and older one was entertained. 

The older one is obsessed with dragons at the moment. He draws them all the time and comes up with great names for them. I asked him to draw me one to make a while ago (I had to keep on reminding him to keep it SIMPLE!!!). It's probably taken me about 2 weeks but I have finally managed to finish it, hooray! There are lots of mistakes and it's a bit lumpy and bumpy and funny looking but he seems to like it and immediately held it in his arms and chewed on its tail so I think that's a thumbs up :)

SHOP!

**New stuff in my shop!

Why not pick up something original or unusual for Christmas this year? Many items at a discounted price! Have a peep :)

Moany and Whiny

I managed to squeeze in a couple of illustrations, in between preparing for the BedPop Christmas Shop (which will be happening this weekend at The Higgins Museum). They are completely fictional and not based on any little people I know ;)

Tortoise

I made a new header for my blog. The duck was bugging me so I decided to go with a tortoise instead. I think it suits my pace these days. Not getting very much done. You'll find out why in my next post... 

Sitting Elephant, Dangling Monkey

Here's a typical scene when I am out and about with the buggy :D 

In addition to the sitting elephant and the dangling fidgety monkey, the buggy is usually weighed down by the heaviest fruit and veg I can find at the market, e.g. half a watermelon, 10 oranges, 10 apples, a cabbage, etc. 

To enhance the whole pleasurable experience, the elephant and monkey take it in turns to make sure I am never bored or idle by constantly letting me know how they are doing.

**Postcard giveaway**

I have left 25 of these postcards at the wonderful Rogan's Books so get 'em while you can - they're freeeeee! And while you're there, why not treat a child (or yourself!) to a beautiful picture book - there's so much to choose from. Just ask Rachael for a recommendation :)

Summer Tees

These two Summer Tees are now in my updated Etsy shop!

Now all we need is some sun ;)

Clanger!

The July issue of The Bedford Clanger is out now! I picked up my copy at Fancy, after watching our eldest and his classmates take part in Sports day. What a lovely start to the day :)