Tigerprint Competition

Hey Hey All :-)
Hope you had a wonderful weekend! My sister and I had an excellend time at the wine tasting/vineyard tour. We even went to Brighton the next day to extend the mini holiday/birthday treat a little further. I now have one very happy sister which is one of my main aims this year seeing as she struggles so much. I FEEL WARM INSIDE!! YIP YIP!
On the way back from Brighton my sis (annoyingly) fell asleep. Not wanting to waste a good thinking opportunity (and also trying not to fall asleep myself whilst driving) I let my brain cells do their thing and mull over what I could produce for Tigerprint's design competeition; the theme being topical humour. Seeing as my tom-tom got me to Brighton and back, I thought it only decent to base a little pic on him! I've also thought of other things to submit for the competition but you'll have to wait for those!

Nanny x

Recipe for the weekend

Hello! Hope you're well :-)
I've been asked to produce a page for a book which will be given to one of my gorgeous friends at her birthday. Unfortunately I can't make her birthday party as it's my sister's 25th birthday the same weekend (!) but I still wanted to contribute to the book!
Feel free to click, download and try the recipe out! It is now my signature dish and so far everyone who has tried it has come back for seconds! HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE!! xxx

And now for something a little more masculine...

Hi all :-)
I'm always worried that my work is naturally tailored to ladies only so I thought I'd give something more masculine a try. I saw a beautiful guitar themed wrapping paper in a shop round the corner from work earlier this week, which inspired this little illo. I'll definitely try to do some more soon!
x

Birthday Surprises

Hey all,
Sorry I've been quiet as of late, it's been a busy week so far!
So, it's my not-so-little sister's 25th birthday next week and I wanted to get her/do something she'd remember. I've managed to keep it a secret from her for over a month (which is pretty good going in my terms; I have such a big mouth!) but she was beginning to panic about it as we're doing said activity this weekend and she didn't know what to wear etc. She suffers with ocd so it seemed only fair to let her know a few days in advance so she could prepare. I sent her the pic below in an email this morning to give her that needed heads up:

She loves the idea and is as excited as I am :-) YEY! The doofus thought we'd be rock climbing?? As if I'd ever do that...
Bottoms up! glugg glugg glugg... hic!!
xxx

Birdy Pattern

Happy Friday everyone!
Here is my latest artwork, a pretty little birdy pattern... um, I think I have the pattern making bug!

Hope you like :-) I really tried to experiment with lots of things in this design and I think there is still scope for more... WOOP!

This is my fave "spot" from the pattern.
Hope you have a lovely weekend! :-) xxx

Deer Pattern mk(ii)

Happy Thursday all :-)
I had a VERY helpful comment from one of my followers, Little Jackrabbits (real name Rachael; a SUPER TALENTED designer/illustrator from Melbourne), with regards to my deer pattern. She suggested to stagger the tiles and also reverse one or two. I decided to change the colour of one of the little deers too and this is my revised design; I think you'll agree it looks far better than the original!

Thank you Rachael for your input!! Please visit her blog if you have the chance, it is literally bursting with things to make you smile :-)
xxx

YEY!! Unstruck.co.uk

Happy Wednesday all :-)

I'm super duper happy this morning as my very first guest illustration for Unstruck has gone online!! Ok, so it's not my best work but the idea is you have to create an illustartion in about 30mins! So happy!! :-)
The title of the article is "Can you ever trust a politician?"... here's what I came up with:

YIPEEEEEE!! xxx

Oh Deer-y me! (groan)

Hey Hey :-)
Another day, another drawing... well, another pattern! I enjoyed creating the cheese repeat pattern so much that I decided to do another incorporating this sketch I did of a little deer. I'm going to play around a bit more as I've done my typical thing of chucking too much onto one page and I'm not sure if it's working or not!! Here's the main tile:

And the repeat pattern. I'd love this as a print on a dress... :-)

I tried this with more drawings inbetween the tiles, but it started to look too crowded... hmmm. Your feedback and comments on this would be appreciated! Thank you! xxx

Happy Valentine's Day

Hurrow!

So Valentine's Day is here; a day for romance and for showing the world you are in love. But what if you're not in love and actually on your todd? Are you destined to spend these 24hrs frowning and grouching over said fact and then eat a lone microwave meal like the people on ITV's Dinner Date? NO! ... Today I started by sending a text to all my friends who mean so very much to me, called my Mum to tell her how super she is and made my sister a nice sweet cup of tea (she stayed the night at mine) and made sure she knew how grateful I was to have her in my life. YES it is slushy but that's just how I roll I guess!
After such a love filled morning, I thought I'd best focus my attentions on myself as you can't expect to love others without loving yourself a little bit too... not in a self obsessed way, just in a "well done for getting through all that poop" kinda way. So, as a Valentine's gift to myself, I bought a pretty dress!! HA!

So a bit of a recap, you know I mentioned Fay in my last post? Well she's only on the Print and Pattern Blog today!! How weird?! She was such a nice girl and really had so much time for me. I wish her every success! Here's a little sampler of her beautiful work :-)

She's got some cards in the Paperchase at Tottenham Court Road, if I'm nearby I will definitely be buying a few of her designs!
xxx

Spring Fair :-)

Hey hey all! It's Friday, everyone's favorite day of the week!
Yesterday my sister and I attended the last day of the wonderful Spring Fair. Despite being smaller than previous years, the quality of the design work on show was certainly not compromised! I had some incredibly inspiring and motivational chats with a variety of people including a very nice girl called Faye who was so generous with her time and insight :-) I'll post a link to her work asap, it was beautiful!
Unfortunately you can't take photos at these kinds of things so you'll have to make do with some of my design work instead!

I created these using paint, collage and my trusty Mac. Subject matter started as Valentine's but then became mixed as I was having a bit of a play around really. Hope you like them!

:-D xxx

Alternative Valentine's Day Pic

Hurrow!

So St. Valentine's Day is a mere 6 days away and seeing as my love life is now in tatters (*sigh*... self indulgent moment over, I promise!) I thought I'd produce this alternate image for lovers who may prefer not to send the normal slushy stuff. I know it's early!

Hope you're loved up where you are! If you find yourself in a similar singular position to myself, get that bottle of wine open and I'll get the glasses... er... I'm not coming on to you, don't worry ;-) ha ha!

Nanny xxx

Monday 7/2/11 = Sausage Dog time

Hello all! Hope your weekend was as pleasant as mine :-) The dinner party at my Mum's was simply brilliant and the little favour baskets I made not only looked right at home on the dining table, but went down a storm with all of mum's guests! Yip!! The only blooper of the evening was the cheescake being dropped upside-down directly onto the table... oh dear :-S

So... It is no secret that I adore sausage dogs. In fact, it is fair to say I'm obsessed! I came across this piccy that I had completely forgotten about drawing in an old folder on my Mac!

Anyway, it inspired me to do this newer scribble for the bloglette! I WANT TO FILL MY LIFE WITH DACHSHUNDS!!!

Hmm... Now all that I need to do is save the £800 to buy a real one... xxx

Repeating CHEESE themed pattern

Hello hello! IT'S FRIDAY!! Yippeeeee!
So, I've been busy this past week juggling my day job, going to zumba (which is hilarious) and trying to get a few things sorted for my visit to Spring Fair next Thursday. I'm going along with my little sis (who is actually taller than I am!) and I'm hoping the trip will result in getting some new contacts and therefore some new prospects for freelance work. As mentioned right at the beginning of my blog, I feel like I've got nothing to lose this year so I'm going to get my bum in gear and DO MY BEST to boost my portfolio and also my confidence!

Here's a little taster of work (pun intended!); some people like sweet things but I LOVE savory. This one's for you if you like savory toooooo :-)
If my sis lets me, I'll post some of her work at some point... She's a very talented designer and illustrator. I'm hoping Spring Fair will inspire her and give her a nudge in the right direction too.

Have a lovely weekend xxx

MIY (make it yourself): Favour Baskets

Howdy Doody Peeps! Hope your Wednesday is filled with SPARKLE!

Thought I'd share these with you; my little favour baskets which I've made for my Mum's dinner party this Friday.

I used a doily and folded it to make a 'box' without a lid and secured with tape on the inside. I then added a piece of gold wrapping ribbon as a handle which I secured by weaving into the doily pattern and then taped the ends underneath the basket to finish.

I presented the finished articles to Mum last night; she loved them! Luckily for me I will be attending said dinner party and will therefore be receiving a filled basket to take home...
...Fingers crossed I find strawberry/orange creams and caramels inside! :-)

xxx

Peacock mk(ii)

Hey Hey Blog Fans!
Sorry for my late posting, I had hoped to show this to you yesterday... Hope you like :-)

I may produce some prints and frame this as I've had some lovely feedback about it already... Just need to summon the courage to do so!!
xxx