merry christmas angels!

happy christmas everyone.

i do hope you all have magical festivities and a great creative 2013.... i hope all your dreams come true (just the nice fluffy ones of course).

if you fancy getting crafty and making some paper angels like these for yourself, then print out my template and decorate. it is easy peesy.... even i can do it.

if you do make some, do let me know, i would love to see them!

they look really sweet on christmas trees.

every year i do a new one for the children in our family, which means our angel troupe will get bigger and bigger and in the future make the tree bulge and bow.

fa la la la la from me x

goldilocks and just the one bear in independants best of 2012 childrens books

how very nice!

Leigh Hodgkinson's Goldilocks and Just the One Bear (Nosy Crow, £10.99) is a satirical re-writing of a favourite story. This time it is the bear who invades the home: a posh apartment owned by Goldilocks, now a fashionable wife and mum. Leigh Hodgkinson's bright and stylish illustrations go happily over the top.

"happily over the top," is that a good thing.. gulpo

if you don' believe me (shame on you!) have a looky here

shhhh... secret penguins!

can't say tooo much about this as it is supposed to be a seeeeecret so keep your beak SHUT!

booksniffers pick of 2012

thanks to the lovely sniffing pug for including my "goldilocks and just the one bear" in your sooperdooper list of fab childrens books of 2012.

this news has made me oh so pleased that i might just reward myself with a biscuit (not a doggy one mind).

see the whole list here.

i am pleased to say i own about 90% of them (and the rest are on my christmas list!)

wonkybutton postcards yey!

....at last, and this time the reverse is printed the right way up (i know this is wonkybutton, but i didn't want anything THAT wonky).

also have my business cards.... but for someone who sits in a shed all day and hangs out with 2 year olds, i am not sure when i will ever get the chance to use them ha ha!

not sure when i will be able to get my etsy shop live though, as go onto maternity leave in a couple of weeks (eek)

stars on canvas doo dah private view last night

 was smashing to see them all up together.
this was the childrens illustration section

me with illustrator extraordinnaire and all round good egg mister steve lenton

his canvas is the scottie bagpipe blower on a pale green background (the scotties hat even has a little pompom ontop!)

here is me grinning and generally being embarrassed at meeting one of my heros reece shearsmith.
his canvas is brilliantly creepy and not at all suitable for a small childs room (i am tempted though!)

what a great night, and a great cause... made me feel very proud to be a small part of it.

lovely letter about my goldilocks book

thank you callum, you made my day when i recieved your lovely letter yesterday.

it made me grin, especially your brilliant picture of a sort of bear/troll with pointy teeth.

in answer to your questions...

i wrote the book as the idea pinged into my head and i couldn't sleep untill i had written it.

i was interested in the idea of goldilocks and the little bear meeting each other again when they were all groan up.

and it took me a day or two to actually write, about 3 months to illustrate, and from the initial idea to the book being published was a ridiculously whopping 3ish years!

i am so glad you liked my book callum

"bear with me" sketch book ctd

here is the magic travelling book getting packed up and ready to go to chris haughton

in an envelope that will be most likely getting tattier and busier as time goes on.

stars on canvas auction goes live on ebay!

you only have  9 days and 6 hours to bid on your favourite "stars on canvas" canvas (all for a good charity)
all artwork is up on ebay, including yours truelys! we have the private view next week which should be fun.

"bear with me" ctd....

here are some more photos of my "bear with me" artwork

here is my red bear enjoying a cup of tea in my garden shed

the waves and the bear have been stuck on (eat your heart out blue peter!)

this is the only way to do your boring domestic chores....

snippy hand lettering to balancing precariously.

to look at photos of the red bear in the travelling sketchbooks journey so far, do look here

"bear with me" charity sketch book

i am involved in such a magical project set up by fellow illustrator jason ruddy called "Bear with me".

30 amazing illustrators are involved and have a week each to draw a double page spread in the sketch book before they have to send it on to the next illustrator.

the book has a red bear character in, and it is fascinating to watch how his story unfolds.
at the end of the book/project, the book will be auctioned for the very good cause of Great Ormond street hospital.

i am the fourth illustrator to have the book. it was rather scary and daunting to see the real artwork of those superstars before me (catherine rayner, emma chichester clark,and sarah warburton)- so i have given it my best shot and will shortly be posting the book on to the fab chris haughton for him to do his thing.

 i can't give toooo much away at the moment, but here are a few little snippity snap shots of my work in progress. will add more later! But do keep checking in with the project (via facebook and twitter) to see how it grows and develops.

pencil drawing of the bear

inky bear and tea flask

collage waves for a nice choppy sea

orangey and pinky papers and textures to make into butterflies and kite bows

slap a bit of tissue paper on with glue to get rid of scary white clean piece of paper, then paint a huge moon on it

sew a line for the kite tail

i wish i could keep the book or afford to buy it. it really is going to be something very special indeed by the end of it!

my little eebee girl was intrigued by the book and quite disappointed that i wouldn't let her do a page, so here is her own! i think i will post it on as an extra... what do you think?!

stars on canvas charity artwork auction

have a look at the willow foundations stars on canvas website
you can bid and buy a real live artist/celebratories artwork!
mine is up there, but it looks a bit too shiny for my liking- think they must have used the flash
it looks nicer in the flesh... i promise!
i think the bidding on ebay for each artwork starts towards the end of november- might be good for a christmas pressent hee hee?
there are lots of fab childrens illustrators there so do have a look

wonkybutton shares the love!

this was meant to come back from the printers as a nice promo postcard to give to nice folk.
but the stupid printers printed the wrong thing (they printed my business card all big and postcardish)
so this postcard will have to wait a jiffy and be patient
the image makes me smile though so i wanted to share it

at least i will have huge big business cards now to give out to people for their handy huge postcard size wallets that they all carry around with them.

snippysew instruction postcards etc

here are the instruction posty cards for dolleebee and mister dolleebee (part time ragdolls/royalty/superheros)

and some other promo stuff including business cards

ha ha, me having a business card and pretending to be an almost grown up business person- how funny

i find the whole business card thing alot more exciting than i probably should

snippysews- ready to go

here are some of my fabric snippysew Mcbabbys all packaged up and ready to go!

each snippysew set comes with an instruction postcard with a lovely shiny image of what it will look like on the front! I like the McBabbys as they come with a squeaker and a bell to put inside

wonkybutton bunnyrella art prints

here are some photos of my bunnyrella series (one is missing as i gave it away and forgot to take a photo of it oops!)
i will be selling them in my etsy wonkybutton shop soooon(ish!).
in the meantime i will be testing the water with them up at the zero2illo live illustration conference that i am going to (and speaking at gulp) on saturday in nottingham.

a nice picture of some buttons

one of my many boxes of buttons that i was a rummaging through earlier.
i love a good button rummage.

Troll Swap proofy proofs!

so through the post today i received my troll swap proofs!

sooo exciting!

this is my first book using woodfree paper, which is nice and thick and rough.

Pleased with the matt lamination on the front cover

this book is like wife swap- but with a troll and a little girl instead.

 this is timothy limpet (a rubbish troll)

and this is tabitha lumpit (a not very good at being good little girl)

the book needs a couple of teeny tweaks and will be out next year.

long live troll!

new baby quilt design

my clever mum is going to make me another baby quilt...

here is my scribbly drawing that i based it on

and here is the quilt design... i think it is nice to have a happy scene with rain.
i love rain
so do ducks
so do children with wellies

i will blog when my clever mum has made the quilt... watch this space!.

birdy design for a nice winter jumper

my clever mummy is going to knit my little person a jumper

i have designed this to feature on it

i wouldn't mind one myself

my drawing and notes

with grid so to be able to convert into knitted stiches (like magic)

a colour reference.

will blog with photos at a later date when the knitting has been knat

canvas artwork for charity

i was asked (thanks to steve lenton) by stars on canvas to do a little painted canvas for this years stars on canvas. for the Willow Foundation charity.
lots of good people (steve lenton included) have created their own canvas artwork which will be going up for auction to anybody who wants to buy later this autumn... so start counting your pennies!

so that is what i have done today!
it has a bit of everything in... bar anything digital (wowee did you think that was at all possible?)
paint, buttons, stitching, collage and sequins.

here is a little time lapse of how i did it. (colours are a bit on the dodgey side- but oopsy nevermind)

 close up details include stitching around the face and a woolly cape bow

nothing like a bit of rickrack to finish of a skirt

 nice beady pointy eyes glaring at sky stars

my messy desk...

... and the end result!

all i have to do know is paint the hero star with glow in the dark paint and send it off to them.
i hope they like it!

troll swap proofs

here is the troll swap dummy book with a dazzling selection of other nosy crow picture books that are at the frankfurt book fair.

even though i havent seen these dummy books in the flesh (boo hoo) i think they all look real corkers, lets hope all the folk at the fair do.

the latest batch of baby cards and whatnot

is it possible to have a clinical addiction to googly eyes?
i hope it is legal.
so, welcome to the world little rita and little scott.
and a thank you card for a kindly rachel who has given me oodles of tiny baby boy clothes (for our new addition in january)
for scott i made a framed star catching lion picture also. so glad it didn't get squish squashed in the post.