Cards I've Made: Jackie, Liz & Archie

 

There were a bunch of birthdays at the end of April which I decided to make cards for. The first was for my sister's 40th. Then the following two (for my friend Liz, and a little boy called Archie) were my first attempts at painting cats (I prefer mice and bears). I seem to know a lot of cat people, but up until now I haven't gone near any with paint. I think they are going to be something I need to work on a bit more, not as scary as drawing bikes, but I still need more practice. 

Book - Illustration Friday

The topic for Illustration Friday this week is 'book'. I went with the idea, that with the advent of e-books and all the other future technologies that will one day come to pass, children might not even know what physical paper books are - scary! 

Identical - Illustration Friday

The topic from Illustration Friday this week is 'identical'. I thought it would be fun to illustrate a cheeky twin situation, the typical, one does half of a race and one sneakily jumps in and does the other, half way round. It gives a bit of an interesting slant to the hare and the tortoise. :)

Illustration Friday - Bounce

This is the first time I've taken part in Illustration Friday after first stumbling across the site about two years ago - oopsy! As you can see I need a bit more practice, but hopefully if I try and get involved more often, it will turn into a handy exercise and I'll improve. 

New Society6 Illustrations

New illustrations available as prints, cards and phone cases on Society6

This Week... Figs & Painting

This Week... I made a pot from rolled up paper - just because. I started playing with some textile ideas but I'm not too sure where that is going yet. I had figs for the first time as just figs, not dried or as part of a meal, just figs. They aren't my favourite thing. I've been doing a fair few hours of painting too.

Cute Cats in the Rain, and Faces...

 Day 15 of the Doodle Olympics - Illustration for my friend's baby shower, she likes cats....

Day 16 of the Doodle Olympics - I used to draw a lot of people in college, but that was about 15 years ago, and I haven't done much since, so during this challenge, I hope to practice, and get my skills back up to scratch. This image was in National Geographic, it is far from accurate, but she looks quite human, so it is a good start :)

Russian Dolls... again... :)

I ended up taking my painted little Russian dolls, and creating a collage out of them. They now have balloons floating out of their middles. I have popped my ladies over in my Society6 store, feel free to pop in and show them some love! 

Hello 30s - Day 289 - 302

It's back! Hello 30s! I have finally given out all the cards and presents, that I have taken photos of, so I can now continue with my daily photo challenge, without spoiling any surprises, yeay!!! I do need to get a wriggle on though. The project ends this month, and I already have over 50 photos stored up, that need to be posted. Spit Spot!!

Day 289:

Candied walnuts! I made these for a salad, possibly the tastiest salad, that I have ever eaten. 

It was also possibly the unhealthiest salad I have ever eaten. 

Ho hum! 

These walnuts were so yummy, that half of them didn't even make it into the salad. I found the salad on Shutterbean, make it, it has sweet sugary walnut goodness AND caramalised onions! 

Day 290:

Drawing chickens. Did you see the last Hello 30s post? The one where we looked after chickens? Well that gave me an idea. I had taken some photos of the chickens, so decided that I would try and paint them, for future sister-in-law's (Sandra) birthday. I haven't had to draw or paint anything in a while, so practice was needed. 

Day 291:

I also had to practice painting chickens (on paper silly, I didn't paint any real chickens). All I have at the moment are watercolours, which I find quite difficult to use. I am an oil, or acrylic kind of girl, a bit slap dash, and heavy handed. 


 Day 292:

Meet Floss. Yes she is a bit of an odd little chicken. She was a runt, that should have been for the chop, but Sandra saved her. Floss sometimes get a bit confused, and thinks that she is a cockerel. 


Day 293:

After an hour long walk, and feeling quite disappointed, that I had remembered to take my camera along, but had found nothing of interest to take a photo of. I came across these two swans, and their healthy brood of cygnets, right by my house. 

Day 294:

My Precious!! These are my thumb rings, I love them. They have been lost for so long. I had desperately searched high and low, in a Gollum like fashion, and had just about given up. That was until we decided to do some painting and decorating in our bedroom, and moved everything out. 


 Day 295:

As I mentioned above, painting and decorating, which, as always, turned the house completely upside down. 


 Day 296:

I went along to the first UK Handmade Surrey Artisans meet up, and as well as meeting some lovely creative ladies, I also came away with a stash of cake and biscuits - can't complain ;)


Day 297:

Oh the excitement! You know how it is, when your days are being governed by DIY, it just isn't THAT exciting... but parcels are exciting, even if your parcels are full of door handles. It certainly breaks up the monotony of door painting.


Day 298:

More cake!!! I had taken a cake along to the meet up, boyfriend was a bit put out, so I had to make him another. This is how I know, that this vanilla pound cake is quite good, as boyfriend isn't usually a big fan of of sweet things. Oh, and anyone that thinks vanilla pound cake is a plain cake, shame on you!!! 


Day 299:

Going through the family photos. This is my Mum and I... not that she is going to appreciate me putting this on here. I had spent the day getting her birthday present finished and ordered. I was lucky to have this photo, it was one of a group, that I had sneaked out of the house on one of my last visits. Even trickier was sneaking them back. My folks are planning on moving, and everything is packed away in boxes. I had to hide an envelope on top of a wardrobe, and tell my dad where to find it, so he could put them away. Very James Bond!


Day 300:

The Arty Street Party in Reading organised by Jelly. I went along with the lovely Anna from UK Handmade (and Sakura Jewellery) to help spread the word about UK Handmade. Had a great day, meeting lots of wonderful creative people. :)


Day 301:

It's those door handles again! Honestly, black door handles, hard to find and expensive. (Wickes and Homebase both do some, but do any of them do a matching bathroom privacy lock - noooo!). Oh and you see that door, that was brown... and now... it's not :)


Day 302:

Birthday card for Sandra. As well as painting chickens, I also made a chicken card. You can probably see a theme developing... it is a good job she likes chickens really :) 


Right, only so much blog you can put in one post, there will be another update soon! :)

Hello 30s - Day 264 - 273

Day 264:Rainbows are exciting. Double rainbows are even more exciting. This is a double rainbow - honest, but you have to look really closely... maybe try squinting your eyes? See!

Day 265:Boyfriend and I, went to meet family O'Keefe at Bicester village. Boy, was it busy! What were they thinking, by providing lots of small carparks, for you to get confused and lost in. There is no logical way to navigate them, and people are attempting to navigate in different directions. 40 minutes we spent navigating, then we gave up, and parked in the tesco car park. Great to see Rach and family (including new, cute, squidgy baby), I gave her birthday presents, and then I received surprise presents too. These are brownies made by Rach's mum, and they are the best brownies, light, yet still moist, yum. The photo doesn't do the size of each brownie any justice, nor does it illustrate that there is a whole second layer of brownie, beneath this half eaten one. We are talking, loaf of brownie!!! Yum!

Day 266:

Art by Rach. These were also part of my present. I am a very lucky girl, and Rach is super talented. I had mentioned specifically that I wanted orange things, as I am collecting orange and turquoise things for the office/spare room, and she didn't fail me. My plan is the fill the house with original artwork, and part of the plan, well most of that plan, revolves around Rachel. I love the idea of having things on the walls, and dotted around, that my friends have created, it feels really special.

Day 267:I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew that I had to paint. I didn't know what to paint. So I just filled pieces of paper with paint. I'm sure they will come in handy at some point, and it was really enjoyable.

Day 268:
My desk. Some painted bits became leaves and petals.

Day 269:My desk... again. The flowers and petal/leaves, looked like they were lacking something, so I took a black pen to them.

Day 270:
Big fat rain! I love proper rain, not the fine annoying stuff, that is rubbish. It has to be big and fat. I wanted to just go out and dance in the big rain, but knew that wouldn't be particularly productive. I made a compromise, and sat in the patio doorway with my sketchbook. This way, my legs got wet, and I was sort of outside, but my paper stayed dry, yeay!

Day 271:The windmill from my previous post, almost completed.

Day 272:Return of the cat! Our friend's cat, Snipes. On being let out for the first time, after a house move, Snipes decided to go missing, for four days. Thankfully he returned, a few pounds lighter, and housing some ticks, but he is all back to normal now :)

Day 273:Now, as a general rule of thumb I don't like being in photos. I am also someone that likes her personal space. I feel somewhat weird, and stalker - like, asking well known people, that don't know me from Adam, for a photo. However, I am in the middle of a daily photo challenge, and needed a photo, so sucked it up, and just got on with it. We had just seen Mark Watson perform, at a very small venue in Aldershot (the West End Centre), and he was hilarious, and the atmosphere was brilliant. He was there after, to sell and sign copies of his book. He had been so funny, it felt rude not to buy his book, especially as I read a lot, luckily boyfriend agreed, and bought it for me. Yeay for nice boyfriend, and nice comedian man! If you have the opportunity to see Mark Watson, I highly recommend it :)