princess and witch

so here is a princess and a witch.
they aren't the ACTUAL princess and the ACTUAL witch that will be in the book i am making for nosy crow.
But the toad is the ACTUAL toad. I think his name is boris.

Rotherham Childrens Book awards 2011

So, caryl hart and i were up in sunny rotherham last week for their childrens book awards.
it was a busy jam packed day of children, felt cupcakes, children, snakes, pies, children, authors, illustrators, craft activities, children , balloon modelling, children and awards!

we got to hang out with the lovely C B Lindsay (author of "Who Ate All the Pies") and Ally Kennon (author of "Sparks") and winner of the key stage 1/2 catagory Pete Johnson (author of " Spook School: Horror From the Deep

we were up for best picture book with "Don't Dip Your Chips In Your Drink Kate" against stiff competition (Julia Donaldsons "What the Ladybird Heard" illustrated by the marvellous Lydia Monks and Judith Kerrs "One Night At the Zoo") so were not expecting anything. But you 'll NEVER guess what... we won!

here is the nice shiny trophy i did get.

thanks children of rotherham... and thanks to all at the book awards!

Don't put your pants on your head fred!

so.... "Don't put your Pants on your Head Fred" is out out out!

it is the second collaboration with the loverly Caryl Hart and is the follow up to
"Don't put your Chips in your Drink Kate!"
it is about getting dressed, soldiers and most importantly.... PANTS!

eebee house

i know this isn't strictly booky stuff... but it is creative.
a little house for a little girl.

material to be used for the house (i am a sucker for all things spotty and gingham)


peices cut out of plyboard and assembled in garden

matieral cut and hand sewn onto the wooden panels


the back panel is a black board.
so it was painted then road tested by a little girl

the finished article complete with curtains and roof!

5 years of diaries

so i write in my diary every day,

after a while there was a gaggle of them

so i put them up on a shelf.

they all looked so lovely lined up in a row.

all neat and tidy,

making me believe that all my thoughts were neat and tidy.

which i know,

they are not.

But that is how they seemed,

which was good enough.

we are moving soon- so i have packed them all into a big brown box.

When i got them all down I noticed they were dusty and faded.

The dust made me sneeze and gave me a headache.

South Bucks Childrens Book group get animated!

So here is the result of my wonderful 2 hour art and animation workshop in high wycombe last weekend.

Everybody created their own cut-out character and did a spot of under-the-camera animation.

Didn't they do well!

Apart from this, there was lots of sticky collage making ,zoetrope whizzing, crafty paper cats and reading books.

Huge thanks to everyone in the South Bucks Children's Book group for being so welcoming and lovely.

We got yummy cake and everything!

Workshop events

I am going to be in high wycombe tomorrow to do a couple of workshops for the South Bucks Childrens Book group.
Hope it will go nice and good and i don't go all waffly and red beetrootish.