Black Dragon Toy

I think this is the last dragon I'll make for a while. Time to try some new things out now. I like the way there are sparkly glitter bits on the surface of the felt though.

Gingerbread Village

Festive gingerbread village illustrations for embroidery. I'm the type that buries my head in the snow when Christmas is mentioned so early in the year. All the ads are appearing on the telly and the high street is decorated, shop windows have all the Christmas motifs up... I'll start worrying about all this shopping nonsense in December.

Another Dragon toy

This one is of the same pattern as the first dragon toy I made, but he's made from a sock. The material has stretched out much more, making him chubbier. His head is bigger and so this makes him look a bit like a moomin.

Handmade Dragon Toy

The eyes arrived for my dragon toy today! He's my favourite little toy creation so far, I think he's so cute! I need to think of a name for him soon. He's made of felt and an old cotton shirt that I used to wear a lot at university and he's all hand sewn. I'm really keen to make some more, but I have ideas for other toys and I can't seem to make them fast enough.

Indiepublic ACEO Swap

Indiepublic is a website community for independent crafters, artists and designers. It operates like myspace where you have your own page which you can customise with photos and graphics and a networking system so you can befriend and link to other users on the site and join groups and discussions. These ACEOs are my contribution to a swap that the ACEO group have organised. In a few weeks time I should receive 2 mystery ACEOs! I wonder what they'll be like.

I also want to show off these FANTASTIC robotfish stickers that Ladysnail very kindly sent me this week. The stickers are hand painted, not prints like I was expecting. They are so strange and beautiful, I have some above my computer so they are looking down on me as i work.

Farmyard

The wedding invitations I did for Tom and Karen in the summer caught Bunnycup's eye. Ashlea and I have taken parts of the illustration from the original invitation and reworked it into some applique designs. We've added more animals too including a pig, donkey, sheep and a farmyard cat amongst others.

New Aeris Presley Logo

I've just finished the new logo for Liverpool punk rock band, Aeris Presley. It doesn't look like a typical punk band logo, but that's the twist (hopefully). Garreth Hirons, the lead singer and songwriter, was dead chuffed with the new design and says they'll be badges soon. Cool. Their myspace is here so if you like The Stooges then they might your kind of thing!

Mr Goose and Friend

I've drawn a goose with top hat and monocle before over a year ago ( click here to have a peek if you want to!).
The dragon stuffie template is drawn and I really want to start making it, but I need to be brave about making the initial scissor cuts into my worn out flowery shirt. I've even ordered some eyes for toy-making and I should get them once the post strike has settled down. I'm excited!

Post #100!

I can't believe it! My one hundredth post! I have met so many creative people through blogger, it's great! When I look back at my past posts, I've made and doodled all-sorts. My output has been forming and morphing a little sporadically. Who knows what I'll be doing once I get to post 200!

Well I know I said I'd sew a dragon plushie, and I intend too! But I got sidetracked and got my paints out instead and created a couple of ACEOs.

Unicorn toy

Following with the mythological creature theme... I've made a unicorn stuffie. I've used the same pattern as the pegasus, but omitted the wings and added a unicorn. I'm itching to make a dragon next, but I am running out of felt! Time to replenish my supplies of alternatively try crafting with a different type of material. I have an old flowery cotton shirt that is pretty tatty and beyond repair but the pattern on the material is fab, so that might do the trick.

Paisley

A little assortment of paisley designs. Frilly and teardrop shaped. Apparently some Americans call it a "Persian Pickle".

Pegasus Toy

This guy was so much fun to sew! I really need to invest in some small black child safety eyes for toys though... It's not great gluing felt eyes on these critters. Not only is it fiddly, it's not safe for kids. His furry mane and tail is pretty but fly-away too. When I cut the trim there were feathers flying all over the flat.

Dinosaur Toy

Another plush creature, this one a dinosaur of the diplodocus variety. I've sewn some blue beads on his back. He has a slender neck and tail. He is 6 inches tall and 5.5 inches long.

ORIGIN modern Latin, from diplo- [double] + Greek dokos ‘wooden beam.’

Polar Bear Cub Toy

This is a little polar bear cub that I've just finished today. I got some pattern ideas for 3D soft toys from a craft book I found in a charity shop. "The Splendid Soft Toy Book" was printed in 1978 and gives loads of tips on how to take profile illustrations of animals and convert them into toys that can stand on their own 4 feet. So I decided on a polar bear cub as I am drawing lots of these in my day job at the moment. I can't wait to try making all sorts of animals using this method!

Embroidery Mermaids

The mermaid designs at Bunnycup are now ready! There are 11 in the range and they're looking pretty and sweet! I love the aqua colours Ashlea chose when she stitched out the illustrations. I think my niece would love one stitched on a bathrobe once she gets a little bit older.

Red In the Rain ACEOs

I'm still finding fun painting ACEOs, small paintings measuring 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. These, like Red In the Woods, were painted at the same time using gouache, watercolour and pens.

Candy Coloured Boggers

These two odd little boggers are bizzare egg shaped pixie people with funny large noses and a chirpy manner. They are pink and sweet-looking as if they are made of rock candy. They're pretty weird creatures.

ACEOTOGO

Ricki Mountain, the artist behind ACEOTOGO has rather kindly made me her artist of the day over at her blog. She creates beautiful art cards... elegant collages of vintage and classical images. Her cards can be seen here at ACEOTOGO's shop

Front Page on Etsy

Look in the top right hand square of the grid and you can see my felt cupcakes on the home page of Etsy. They were part of a felt creations treasury that made the FRONT PAGE over the weekend. Not bad huh? Etsy gets about 60,000 unique visitors a day and there are around 25,000 users, so it's excellent exposure for my craftiness. The front page changes from day to day. Many thanks to Kezzaroo and Charlotte Narunsky who told me the good news!

Art Cards, Editions and Originals

Over on the Etsy site I discovered "ACEOs" (Art Cards, Editions and Originals). They are meant to be fun and affordable tiny pieces of art that are all 2.5" by 3.5"in size as standard. People collect them and keep them in albums sometimes, like old cigarette trading cards. They are designed for framing individually or hanging in groups, or they can be traded with other collectors. Anyway, I had a go at painting my own.

A Trio of Cheeky Boggers

Three mischievous little sprites called "Little Boggers" are now on Etsy. These little monsters are made of up-cycled old socks! I finally got some photos spruced up so they are presented at their best.

Photographs

I have been messing about in photoshop, trying to work out how to effectively present some items in Etsy. I am pleased with how these look, and it'll be fun to see how some of my other craft items will look once I've given it the "studio" treatment!

It's Another Little Bear

Now there are two little bears on the same sized bit of cardboard! This one is holding a cute bird.

Navy Bear

This little fella is painted in acrylics on a square piece of corrugated brown cardboard. It's small, about 11cm x 11cm. I like these bears!

Pink Bear

This one was painted in acrylics on the same cardboard as the other bear. The colours didn't scan well so I had to do some tweaking in Photoshop. This is as accurate as I can get it! The greens looked very grey on the original scan.
Acrylics are great to paint with too, but I wanted the colours to be more aqua. I think I was expecting them to dry brighter like gouache paint. Once dry, the ink from the pens sat on top without any scratching so that was good.
Woodland animals are ultra cliched in design and illustration at the moment, as are cute girls I suppose! For now I'll just paint what I enjoy and not worry about stuff like that. I try not to follow trends if I can help it, but I suppose if you see it all the time on other sites then it accidently creeps into your subconsciousness...

Yellow Bear

I draw bears all day at work, but not like this! I thought I'd try using pens on gouache, but the nibs scratch into the paint and get clogged up. I suppose a real artist would have told me that and I wouldn't have wasted my time! Anyway, the colours look great, gouache is so flat and bright. I've left paint off in some parts so you can see the cardboard underneath,,, On his mussel and tummy. I enjoy embellishing these latest paintings with swirls and patterns with my pens, so the next bear will be in acrylics I think.

Also, there's new embroidery designs over at Bunnycup. 10 Cute ponies!!!

Another Painting

Today I really must go and but some more paint because at the moment I quite obviously have a very limited palette! I've enjoyed painting all the swirls, curls and dots and dashes on this one. Very therapeutic. And making splodges with a paintbrush is very satisfying too, much more so than trying to do the same thing with a wacom tablet.
Also, Sarah from Real Illustrators showed me a link to an article featuring a panda plushie I made recently. Which you can read here:
http://softiescentral.typepad.com/blog/2007/06/whats_so_cool_a.html

Princess Painting

Still struggling with paint here! I used acrylics, but I think I wasn't liberal enough with the paint and I think it looks a bit thin in places. It was fun to do though which is why I do it. I like trying new things. I really enjoyed adding pattern to her dress and painting the green background.

Russian dolls

Aw! The weather is so cloudy. These photos do no justice to these little dolls. The biggest doll is 2.5 inches tall, so quite tiny! I decided on two girls and two birds as the smallest doll had to be really simple. I could have done with smaller brushes too!