Seasons Greetings

As things start to settle down here I'd like to wish everyone who wanders past my blog a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years, have a great holiday and I'll see you in 2011!

Some Fine Zinery

If you are like me you love zines, cant get enough of them. So when I was asked to contribute to a fantastic new zine by Jake Blanchard, Illustrator and founder of Tor Press, you can bet I jumped at the chance.
They released the first edition last year inspired by the letter A and the next two B and C are now available for you to buy here! You can even buy all three at a discounted price which I would highly recommend!
There are plenty of hip-kat artists hidden under all those finely screen printed covers just waiting to flaunt their stuff at you. For more info go here.
So here's a sneaky look at my B (movie) submission!

Brochure pages

Here is a picture of the double page spread from the new Eastwing brochure, the first image you have already seen. The second is the cursed Captain Ahab with the white whale Moby Dick and the third image is based on when Orson Welles did his adaptation of War of the Worlds on the radio and it incited panic amongst people who thought it might have been real.



Thomas Edison's bright idea.

An illustration inspired by the first successful test of a carbon filament light bulb on 22 October 1879. Edison’s light bulb lasted 40 hours.
This image is featured in the new Eastwing Brochure.

Free 2011 Owl Lover Calender

Time for another lovely freebie! A lovely Owl Lover 2011 Calender!
This calendar is a collaborative project of 30 artists (including myself) and My Owl Barn. For each month, you can choose from 30 beautiful owl-themed artworks. You can pick and choose the images you love the most from the gallery and create your own calendar. All this is for free. If you are not big on customization, you can simply download the pre-made one here!
There is also a fantastic giveaway where you can win a gorgeous purse and a printed copy of the calender!
Definitely one to enter and share with other! :)

My piece in inspired by my favorite season, Autumn!

Etsy Feature

The Greaser print I currently have up for sale on my etsy shop has been featured on an esty blog called Searched and Found, their theme for this post was the book The Outsiders and my 1950's inspired piece fit in quite well which I am very happy about, click the picture to read more.

They also have pages and pages full of awesome stuff, I have been very taken with alot of things which may find themselves on my Christmas list very soon.

Free Mr Moggie and Teatime Tile Backgrounds

Here is a lovely Mr Moggie inspired tile background for you and a teatime tile background, right click and save then display for all to see, I hope you enjoy them! :)

Spaceman Sam

Here is a better look at the piece I did for Anorak's Activity Book. His name is Spaceman Sam and the inspiration for him came from pictures of my eldest brother when he was little and my 3 little nephews.

You can buy the book direct from Anorak here!

Awesome Update!

A few new things to fill you all in on, Firstly my work is in the Mail Me Art 2 exhibition that started on Friday 30th July and runs until Thursday 5th August 2010. If your in London between that time you should definitely go and check out the exhibition as its got some brilliant work there, follow this link for the address and more info on the project.

And secondly, today Anorak Magazine have launched their first activity book, its crammed full of awesome games and activities, all from a group of very talented artists and they kindly asked me to contribute. I used to love playing with paper dolls when I was little so I just had to design my own with a spaceman theme.
Follow the link to find out more about the book and links to all the other fantastic artists!

"Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price."

Amelia Earhart was born on July 24 1897. Earhart was the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, this image illustrates her famous disappearence off the shore of Howland Island in July 2, 1937.

Today's Weather Forecast

St Swithun was Bishop of Winchester. The 15th of July is St Swithun’s day. According to a British proverb if it rains on St Swithun’s day it will rain for 40 days. Hmm seems like we'll be having mr raincloud round for alittle while longer then.

Click the Image!

PerculiarBliss

Here is the full image of the preview I put up a few weeks back. It's an image I did for PerculiarBliss Magazine, the theme was happiness. I have been on a cooking and baking kick since christmas and now I find baking a cake always cheers me up when I'm feeling blue, aswell as drinking tea, cats and sailors of course :)
You can download it from their site for free and I think you definatly should as it has some swell work in it, a nice mixture of handrawn stuff, photography and digital work.

Etsy

I have finally figured out how to set up my Etsy shop, I've only added one item (the print below) so far to see how it works, it took me 2 hours to sort out pictures and lists etc. I havent gotten the best quality photographs but they will have to do for now.
Anyway, keep checking it because I have some nice crafty ideas planned for this month which may find there way on there soon.

Blue Tattoo

Sweet Ride

New Illustration, did you know the first corvette came out today in 1953? its one sweet ride and must be celebrated hipcats.

Preview

Here is a little preview of something I have been working on.

Whoops

Shame on me I was doing so well, dear sweet blog I have neglected you again.

I haven't had much in the way of work that I would really post though so I guess it wasn't totally due to my laziness.

Had some personal stuff to deal with towards the end of last month and this month so I've been trying to get back on track with work, life etc. But enough of that lets get to the doodling.

I have been making some more crafty bits and looking into different work processes, I had my work accepted at PAD Gallery in Preston too, so the boy and I took the train to Preston town to drop the work off today.

One of the new things is a teatime greetings card. I don't have pictures of the finished ones because I made 6 for the shop but forgot to take pictures of them first.

But now its, TIME FOR TEA!

Say Hello to Lilly..

My sister-in-law Lilly Von Pink is a fantastic jewellery designer, pin-up and all round lover of all things rockabilly! She also runs Burlesque nights with her sassy snappy friend Betty Bee called the Cherry Lounge, please check them out as they have some awesome stuff and frankly I don't know why I haven't blogged about them sooner! You to me pinky lea!

Craft Stall Alert!

Craft Stall on the 18th April at the Chorlton Library, Manchester.
Its a Craft fair and Fund Raising event organised by Threads and Jewels. It will be on between 12.30pm - 3.30pm. Debbie is away but there in spirit as I will be running our stall with both our work with the help from the boy who has lovingly agreed to help me.

If your free and the weather is as lovely as it has been over the past few weeks please pop by, there will be some fantastic work and lots of tasty treats on sale to help raise money for charity.
Look forward to seeing you there!


Oh and here's a preview of the NEW Mr Moggie cat badges that I will be selling.

Hard Days Craft

ello derr'

Well crafting at the triangle is over, Mrs Debbie and I had a really nice time, the Fuse crafters and the Manchester based artists there are all very talented and had some gorgeous wares, if you went at some point over the weekend I hope you came away with something awesome. I unfortunately was not allowed to indulge myself as I had to keep every penny I made to help towards bills, except I did treat myself to a hazelnut latte at Costa, yum!
We didn't do too bad, it was mainly our badges really they sold like hot cakes! I made some new badges, cat face ones which I will have pictures off soon.
Right now I am relaxing back a little, not too much though as I have book covers to design and cross stitch badges to create and stitch. I am going away to the boy's parents house for a few days to have a little Easter break so I have my sketchbook and cross stitch stuff packed up ready to take with me. Currently making a lemon drizzle cake to take as well, I hope its better than the last one I made, it didn't taste like lemon at all I was so disappointed, fingers crossed for this one.
Aw I feel better after a big blog ramble, more ramblings soon!

P.S Debbie and I have another stall on Sunday 18th April at the Chorlton Library which I will be doing solo as she will be high up in the Scottish mountains somewhere, more info soon!

Easter Holiday Stalls!

Hellooooo! wonderful news! Mrs Debbie Greenaway and I will be in the Triangle Shopping Centre in Manchester City Centre (next to the big wheel) this Thursday, Friday and Sunday selling our lovely wares and stitching/cross-stitching the afternoons away! If you are in town please pop by and say hello as it would be lovely to see some friendly smiley faces!

Please click the image below to find out more info about the event! :)

Cheap Affair 4th April, Easter Sunday

Hello! Debbie and I are going to be at the next Cheap Affair Event on Easter Sunday, Islington Mill, Salford. There is going to be lots of live music, food and I'm pretty sure some tasty Easter treats. Please pop by and say hello, we will have are usual crafty delights and possibly some treats aswell.

Stall 27th March

Hello! it was my turn to design the poster, its Debbie and me at our last stall talking about her lion story book.
We have another stall this saturday (27th) at the Contact Theatre, Oxford Road Manchester between 12-5pm part of the monthy Art Rumble.
Please come by and see us as we will have our usual tasty wares and there will be coffee and cake somewhere I hear, which is always a winner. Look forward to it :)

Bluebird

I have a twitter account now, I hear its good and Debbie was adamant I join so I'm checking it out, if you'd like to follow me there please do! I hardly know what I'm doing but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon.

Tweet!

I've been blogged

I am very happy to say that I have been blogged about on *pur-ple greeting cards and design blog! The lovely StephSaysHello has been posting about her favourite artists and has choosen to mention me, please check out the blog and steph's work. I have been a fan of her work on flickr for a while and she designs some brilliant cards and characters!

Rainbow

Today was cleaning day , after I'd finished the bedroom I went to make a cup of tea and saw this beauiful rainbow! it was huge and arched all the way over the buildings and carpark below. I've not seen a huge raindow like this for years and years, It quickly disappeared but just had time to grab the camera and take some pictures.

Stall Round 2

The lovely Debbie and I are having another stall on Sunday at Chorlton Library between 12:30 and 3:30pm at the Craft Fair and Bake Sale. Its organised by 'Threads and Jewels" raising money for the Haiti Appeal. Please come by and give us a wave, we'd love to chat and maybe share our hobnobs if debbie hasnt nibbled them all already.

The image below was drawn by debbie and its us at our last stall trying to count, we manged it in the end but had alittle help from the calculator.

Carry On Crafty

New crafty update, stamp sticker packs! Packs of 6 stamp inspired stickers.
Look at those lovely ladies and gents, who says the queen is the only one who can have her face on a stamp aye!

Catch Up

Hello, Ive been up to some bits and bobs of late, mostly crafty things. As I said in my previous post Mrs Snail and I shared a stall at the Cheap Affair event last Sunday. We had a great time and I had lots of fun making stuff to sell, we have some more stalls lined up over the next few months (more info soon) so this is the beginning of my crafty wares. I had some A5 prints, teatime badges and lino prints greetings cards. I took some pictures of the very messy process, I used soft cut lino which is brilliant stuff; to cut down on the distractions I just chose to do images of things that I like and to use my two favourite colours.

I was really happy with how they turned out and I will be doing some more larger, detailed lino cards throughout this month. Ive also included some close ups of the prints, badges and mini cards all packaged up. They arent the best quality photos as my camera doesnt like close up but they should do for now.

If anyone has any feed back on my work please feel free to post, this is my first real attempt at having my own mercandise and I'd really like to do more but sometimes I'm unsure about what works and what doesnt. I'd appreciate any advice :)

Look at them there wares

Hello! had a lovely time at the Cheap Affair at Islington Mill on Sunday. There was some brilliant stalls there, tasty food and lovely live music, huge thank you to Cheap for having us! Debbie and I shared a stall and it went well, we had a lovely time doodling, nibbling hobnobs and talking to people so I think we will definatly be doing it again next month. I managed to get some stuff together in time, hooray! I had some A4 and A5 prints for sale aswell as tea time badges, packs of lino print cards and some adorable cupcake pin cushions which my mum made, bless her talented socks. I will have some close up pictures on here soon but for now please take a look at the pictures I lifted from Mrs Greenaways blog (check out the nervous grimice on me, lush)

Go Red

I went Red as part of the creative collaboration Go Red! organised by The Partners for Richard House, London's first Children's Hospice. The idea was for different artists to design one section be it the head, body of legs so that they can all be mixed up together to make some awesome characters. All designs are to be sold in an auction at the end of this month and there will also be a gallery show to showcase the designs too. Please check out the links as there is some fantastic artists involved and Go Red!

As you can see I got excited and did all of the sections but I do like this chap a lot

Roll Up Roll Up

The first Sunday of March the lovely Mrs Greenaway and I are going to have a stall set up at Islington Mill in Manchester. Really looking forward to it as I haven't done any crafty stuff since my pop up and I'm dying to see how it goes, fingers crossed it goes well.
Debs will have her fanastic screen prints, robots badges and clouds andI should have some prints, cards, badges and other bits and pieces for sale.
If your around please feel free to pop by as there will be plenty of stuff going on, music, food, art, crafts and lots more lovely stuff!

Oh, you should'nt have!

Good Day! Its been a bit of a random week but true to my word I have some lovely treats for you and your sweethearts. Here as promised are some of the Valentine cards I've been working on. All you need to do is right click the image below and save. Then you just need to print on A4 paper, cut along the dotted line, fold in half and tar darr you have two lovely cards to keep for yourself or send to that special someone. Hope that you all have a lovely Sunday.

Aw, thats lovely.

I'm not a huge fan of Valentines day, but who can ignore all those cute cards, heart shaped balloons, tasty chocolate treats and smoochie faced love birds. So over the next few days there should be some downloadable valentine cards up for you to- you guested it- download, for free! send a little luuuurve and it wont cost you a penny! (if you don't include the printing cost that is --ahem)

C'or blimey! look at all that snow!

Watercolour picture inspired by all this snow we have been having lately.

Happy New Year

A new year is the best time for new beginnings. I'm starting afresh. I'm not promising to update everyday but I am promising to update alot more than I have in the past few months. It feels like I havent been working hard enough and that just doesnt sit right anymore. So.. Happy new year to everyone who passes by this blog and heres to new beginnings.