Monday 14 November 2011

Shrinky Dinky Rinky

The making for Craftaganza is well on the way. Some of my current stock is three years old, so I'm making a whole load of new stuff not only for the fair, but for my Folksy shop, too. I've drawn up some forest animals for a range of woodland-themed brooches, which I've printed out on shrinky plastic and baked into awesome, sturdy plastic shapes. I'm uber impressed with how the initial few come out, so I've designed a whole load more. Here's a foxy one:

shrinky fox

He's about 6cm x 4cm, a nice brooch size. I'll give him a coat of matt spray varnish, glue a brooch back on and he'll be ready to go. There is also a deer, an owl and a hare to go alongside as individual brooches, plus a set of three comprising a toadstool, an oak leaf and an acorn. It's the first time I've really put my illustrations on anything to sell; it's quite exciting!

And the shrink plastic itself is SO much fun. They come out looking fab, a bit like using the badge machine: whatever goes in comes out looking 1000 times more awesome. I've only got five sheets of the plastic left, so I've ordered more. There'll be brooches galore!

In a Christmas card update, my cards were delivered today and for the first time I'm not impressed. They've been cut really roughly, they were loose in the box so got bashed about, and the envelopes weren't even included. I've written a firm but polite email of complaint and am just waiting for a response. Hopefully I'll get a new batch re-printed for free, this time with envelopes. I'll keep you posted.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

In Need of a Lie In

Mind if I just sit here and have a bit of a breather?! It's been a hectic few weeks over at Illustration Towers. I've been colouring like mad every day to meet my latest deadline, and, even though I planned my time out very carefully, everything just seemed to take much longer than it should have, so I ended up working all weekends and into the wee small hours of the morning most days. Agghh! However, it's all done and the publishers seem to like it, which is the main thing. I'll get feedback on it next week, make any tweaks, then send it all off again. Then there's only one more section of this project to go and and it's all over. That is going to be strange. I can't believe how fast the year has gone. I hopefully have another illo job starting in February, but nothing's confirmed yet.

So, next on my list was my Christmas card, which I've been raring to go on for weeks. It's all done and was sent off to the printers this afternoon. Here's a sneaky peek of a part of it:


xmas card for blog

Yup, reindeer again, very original of me, I know! I've done a step-by-step colouring of it, which I'll post up here once the cards have been sent out, so middle of December-ish. Hold me to it, otherwise I might forget.

In crafting news, the other members of the Brighton Craft Guerrilla and I have got a craft fair coming up on 10th December. I've got to get busily making for it now I've got a bit more time. Do come along if you're in the area, here's the flyer (nicked from Jan's blog):


I might even have time to work on my poor, neglected cupboard and finish off a few sewing things, along with making it back in to the gym after a couple of weeks off. Better get cracking!