Advance copies, etc etc etc

first copy of one of my new books

Hi there folks :)  I received advance copies of the two little books I worked on earlier this year, they are out in the new year sometime. I must apologise for the quality of my photographs, it suddenly dawned on me the other day. why I've not been posting so much here. The camera is playing up terribly, and has been all year really, I've struggled to get these and I think it's given up altogether now, so I'm hoping Santa may bring me a new one please? Or in the sales I may look for one :)

Anyway, these little books have grown on me, looking at them now, in situ as it were, they do fit the bill, of explaining little prayers and psalms to young girls age 2-4 years.

sorry about the photo, I will explain.

When I look at the images, I can remember how I wracked my brain to come up with some of the scenarios, and some of them are a bit too literal, but hey ho, if I were a little girl, it would look OK to me :)

I hope you like them too? And more importantly I hope that little girls like them.

The covers are a little too 'pink' and glittery??

But inside we did OK?

 So this was quite exciting getting the above copies, I think there are more being shipped over now, and hope to get some more copies soon.
 I also set myself the task of creating a Christmas card. I ordered some sweet little buttons and then thought up an idea to suit them. I drew a sort of 'Rob Ryan' type tree, intending to pop the button on top. I thought right, get that screen out that I bought last year, cut out a paper stencil as you do, then quick as you like, screen print me lots of cards.......... well I had good intentions of doing that??

Cutting out the paper stencil.

Too many teeny fiddly bits?

Here it is carefully positioned on the screen!

Paint painstakingly mixed to match my little button!

Eh, Viola.....DISASTER!!!!

 I was quite excited to do this screen printing malarky, I do love the process, but it just didn't work, I think it was wrong paper, too intricate a design, ink not quite right mix, etc, etc. So I reverted back to the trusty stamping technique, I'm sorry I don't have photos of the whole process, but the camera was giving up at this point.

So here are my finished stamped designs. They have been delivered too, and pleased to report they were well received, Phew!

Before I leave you.....

Just one little sad note.... I found this little chap in the garden. I know birds must die, they don't live that long I don't think?? But it was quite sad to see this beautifully coloured bird lying by the water pot? such lovely bright colours. Maybe someone could explain? 

Marimekko Fabric Printing

My first surface pattern attempts above

 Hello again my blog friends. I should have been back sooner, but I've been quite busy and really not taken the camera out on many jaunts a lately.

 I have been attempting to walk another path in the design world, that of 'surface pattern' in the hope that it would help in my quest to get a bit better on the iMac and in digital art. I haven't got too far, as I keep getting requests to do things in pastel or watercolour (which is fine by me) as 'live' work, and so I don't dare attempt this on the mac, as it could go wrong and I would waste time......so I'm still trying to work things out?  The above is one of my attempts at pattern, inspired by a top I bought recently, which I loved the pattern on (see below).
I will hopefully get back to the pattern work soon, as I have always had a love of pattern, I studied Graphic Design..... and it's absolutely everywhere around us, when you take the time to look.

Otley river walk

The weir in Otley, those seagulls drifted close to the drop and then took off ....:)

I've also managed a few walks, one on the riverbank into Otley (Yorkshire) with the leaves changing colour nicely, brightening everything up, glowing gold :)

We also did a walk that found us passing field upon field of Christmas trees, I suppose these may go in the not too distant future now.

Autumn leaves gathered on a morning dog walk nearby. Just couldn't resist them!

I shall leave you with this little clip of some screen printing which always fascinates me. I can't get over how simple the process is (with plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong) and yet material etc is still produced this way. It's just a joy to watch. I bought myself a screen and a squeegee last year, and still have not got round to using them. My screen is about A3  size, not quite as large as these shown here.

Hello there!

Hello folks,

I have been absent for a while now, things have been busy, with family and work. Happily so!

 I always get concerned on the blog about images being stolen,(safe to say my lovely friends on the blogs, have experienced some awful copyright problems) so it's sometimes very difficult to write about what I am working on. I don't have a shop, so I'm not selling work, and I found myself  thinking why am I writing this blog??
 I have loved meeting people through writing a blog, but I became rather despondent not getting many comments, feeling a bit 'Billy no mates' :(  Quite pathetic I know.

I think perhaps I ran out of interesting things to say? That is impossible in this wonderful creative world? Or maybe it's just the way I write?? It's sometimes hard to write in an interesting way, but some people do it sooooo well. I follow lots of lovely blogs, and I know they don't always get huggings of comments!
Anyways, I needed a bit of a rest, and then found it difficult to come back here, hence my absence. I've been following all you lovely people out there in blogland though, enjoying all as usual. 

I will be back before too long, and leave you with some images of cards I did that will appear in Waitrose this Christmas. I know it's a bit early to mention Christmas, eeek, so apologies for this.They are teeny tiny cards, but I'm thrilled that they selected my work to be in this store, as it's a bit posh! Oooh get me, going all posh!!

See you again, before too long :)

Dancing days

 I worked on the little book above, for an Aunt of my husbands, her name is Jeanette, and she runs dance classes. It is a passion of hers, as was creating this little book! It was something she had always wanted to do, so I did my best to help.

 Jeanette asked me to create a family who liked to dance, with a boy and girl character to take the role of showing the dance steps. Initially, the children were facing the viewer, but this was not really the best way to show the steps, so they were turned around.  It was quite tricky to do some of the steps, we ended up dancing them in the room, as although it's easy to dance, it's not so easy to illustrate.

 We couldn't find any other books that showed a dance in this way?? So I hope we have managed to get the message across, as that was the hope and certainly Jeanette's desire. Maybe you could try the steps??? and let me know??? If you can see them OK?

 Jeanette has the book for sale on her website godancia.co.uk    That's the hard part, selling, the bit I'm no good at?

To the left is also a little character I've just created, for Valentine/Anniversary send. Hope you like him?

Things have been quite busy for me lately at home. We had some fantastic news, my Son has graduated from Uni, and he obtained the grade he needed to start the job that he also got !!!! Whooppeeeeee
It's been quite a momentous month! It's certainly had me dancing round the room :)

Natures child....

At heart, I would say I love Nature and just about everything it produces, so amazing! I marvel at flowers and the beautiful shapes,colours that are to be found, every little tiny thing is so wonderful to look at. I've been having the best time watching Springwatch this last 3 weeks, I wish it could be on all the time. I've learned so much, about birds, butterflies, bees, insects and so much more, just incredible!
On walks that we manage to do, I have to stop at every stream or river to look for fish etc. It's something from childhood, fishing for sticklebacks, or with my Dad on his fishing ventures. It's fascinating. On a recent walk to Ashford in the Water, we stopped on the bridge and I went to the right to look for fish, nothing....as is usual.....so a little look to the left?  YES, big whopping fish, so close to the surface and the edge, delightful. I think they are rainbow trout, and are so close in to the edge because people feed the ducks there.

There is a fish in this photo in very shallow water.

Ashford in the Water

 I managed to take a few photos, we could have 'tickled' these trout out of the water!
Below are some more photies of the lovely things I saw on our day out, firstly in Ashford in the Water, then on to Taddington. We walked up above the village on a beautiful day with skylarks singing their hearts out.

Up above Taddington.

Taddington

My unusual Allium?

Flowers have closed and are pointing up now?

Last Peony to flower.

pretty on the inside too.

In the garden there have been some blooming lovely flowers and I had a bit of a surprise, something came up which I cannot remember planting?? It is an Allium of sorts, and the bees have loved this flower, even though they have a job climbing up in to them, it's a shame the pretty flower hangs down though. It's been quite fascinating to watch this flower develop, a straight spike, then exploding long bell shaped flower heads, and now the heads are pointing upwards again? What will happen next? I've been helping the Beewatch team by taking photos of the different bees I see (this can be anywhere) it's fascinating how many different ones there are.
I'm busy sketching for a new book, which may or may not go ahead? Also doing some cute little characters, so I'll be back soon.

Two books finished, bish bash bosh......

Book 1

Book 2

I have managed to finish all the artwork of the 2 books I have been working on and I gathered them all together to put them in order. It looks quite a lot of work, it is, but not rushed, just steady and thoughtful. Made the job quite enjoyable overall :)

 Then a day out to Harlow Carr Gardens, and Betty's Tea Room there (yummy)and a little look around the beautiful gift shop there.

Stunning giant pots of tulips

Beautiful and inspiring goodies in the shop.

Gives me a serious case of the wantsies....... :)