My latest Pet Portrait

'Zeus'
I'm very happy with this one, it was such a wonderful thing to be asked to complete it. I hear his owners are very happy :)

Maeve is here & New Work created for 'Health for All'

It's been just over 2 months since my last blog post. I am now getting back into the swing of things after having our baby girl on July 23rd at 2.30am.

Maeve Ayla Platts is here and we couldn't be happier :)

My first job after Maeve arrived was a commission for an organisation called 'Health for All' based in Leicester.

Bina from 'Health for All' and 'Earthbuds' was very nice to work with. You can find out more about the work that they do here.

It was nice to get back into the swing of things after having our baby girl :)


Speak soon!

Custom Business Stamp - New Stamp from Poumi Stamp Studio

I recently ordered a custom stamp from Poumi Stamp Studio who are based in Scotland, UK.

Find them on Folksy here

I have been using the stamp to make new business cards and to add information to my packaging. I absolutly love it! Amy from Poumi Stamp studio was also really helpful when I had far too many questions about the design ;) I totally recommend ordering from them if you are thinking of getting a custom stamp made.

PS: Remember you can follow me on Instagram too! The link is at the top right of my blog :)

Festival Poster Commission

 Recently I had the pleasure of creating a Festival Poster for a local festival. The event was a small invite only affair for friends of friends. This means I can't show you the full design with all of it's details, however I want to show you what I can as I am really pleased with it! The theme was 'Under the Sea'!

As we have a baby due in 3 weeks festivals are off for us this summer (we had to sell our Secret Garden Party tickets, boo)!

I hope everyone else is enjoying the festival season :)

Shop Announcement

Just a little shop announcement!

I won't be taking on any more commissions now (for wedding stationary/logos/pet portraits etc..) as our due date is rapidly approaching! I hope to be able to be back accepting commissions from September but I will let you all know.

My online shops will stay open for as long as possible and will only shut for a week or two when the baby arrives. Thank you to everyone who has commissioned work from me over the past couple of years, I've loved each and every job if anyone wants to contact me about future commissions please do but bear in mind I may not reply for a while if/when things get busy!

THANK YOU xx

Lately...

Playing around with packaging for my handmade jewellery, I have recently ordered a custom business stamp from Poumi Stamp studio on Etsy and I can't wait for it to arrive!

Me at a friends wedding last saturday. I am now 35 + 5 weeks pregnant. I can't believe how fast time is going by! I can't wait to meet our little girl :)

New 'Happy New Home' Greetings Card design...Soon to be up for sale in my Etsy shop!

 

 New triangle shaped necklaces soon to be for sale! I am just in the process of organising the packaging. I love them! Wooden triangles, my illustrations on top and sealed with varnish with a waxed cotton cord string.

 

A beautiful feather found whilst out walking with Faran, a Jay feather perhaps?

 

the second of my new 'New Home' card designs.I might change the background colour on this one though.

 

 My sweetest, loveliest pony pops.He hasn't been ridden in quite some time now due to me being pregnant..I can't wait to get back out with him. At the mo he is enjoying his daily fuss & feed and his long holiday!  

One of my favourite of my new triangle necklaces..The red is beautiful and i'm going to have to make one for myself!

Speak soon!

Instagram

Hi folks! just a little reminder (or some news if you didn't already know!)

I'm on Instagram and post there daily.If you want to follow my feed pop over and say hello :)

Click the link on the right to follow me -------------->

Have a good day!

Custom Pet Portrait and Custom Pet Portrait Necklace...

A recent pet portrait client also asked if I could create a custom necklace to go with the print. So I did, and it looks fab! I love it!

Please PM me via my Etsy shop (Link on the right) if you would also like to commission a pet portrait and Necklace.

Speak Soon x

Two finished Pet Portraits

Two recent finished pet portraits. Ready to be packaged and sent out :)  You can visit my Etsy shop (link on the right) for more info about my Pet Portraits.

I hope you are all enjoying this sunshine and if your on half term I hope your getting up to something nice  :) Speak soon x

Pet Portraits!

I have been fortunate enough to have had a lot of Pet Portraits commissioned over the past year. I LOVE drawing your pets! Pet portraits make a great gift for a loved one or just something nice for you to give to yourself :)

Here are some snippets of pet portraits in progress..I rarely show the finished piece as they are usually gifts and I don't want to give too much away! You can take a look at the tab above titled 'Pet Portraits' to see a few finished pieces and for a link to my Etsy shop where you can order a portrait should you wish to do so :)

Rest Up

Rest Up... I've been told that I need too.

I'm 30 weeks pregnant now and I've been over doing it. It's my first pregnancy and apparently it's normal to try to do too much :-/

Anyway so here I am trying not to do all the things I think I should be doing (clean the house, clean the fridge, sort the space under the stairs out, go food shopping, re pot the plants, make some new cushion covers, take things to the charity shop etc etc). I'm sure you know what I mean..

So i'm spending some time in my bedroom with some old unfinished knitting and crochet projects and trying to stay still (ish) and relax.

We have lived in this house for 5 years now and things could do with a re fresh. I barely spend any time in our bedroom except to sleep nowadays however it's still a room I really like. Some of my favorite things are the artwork on the walls, I have a collection of paintings and prints by Dana Komjaty of the shop and blog LeLiLaLoo on Etsy. Sadly Dana's shop has been on holiday for a while now which is a shame as I love her work. I also have a print by Kerry Layton for SeventyTree.



Bear Print by SeventyTree



 Paintings and Prints by Dana Komjaty of Leililaloo

On my Pinterest board 'For the Home' I have been collecting ideas for things I would like to update our home. I really like the idea of making a DIY headboard for our bed and this is one of my faves:


Found on House Tweaking.com


Right now though I  need to do as the doctor said and snuggle down and get some rest. After all..


(Almost..)

x

MAY GIVEAWAY over on my FaceBook Page

Visit my FaceBook page for more details

Click the link on the right for more details ----->

Good Luck! x

DIY Weddings Part 5 - Button Holes

Morning all!

My DIY Wedding series (about my own wedding) is now almost complete. One thing I couldn't end without talking about was Button Holes! By far one of the favourite things I was making for the wedding was the button holes. I didn't go the traditional flowers route but instead chose a combination of materials that would last forever and looked a bit more unique.

Now before I get started showing off the colourful creations I put together I have to admit that I took a huge amount of inspiration from my good friend Gemma Ritchie of Autumn Jitters. She had a 'Tweed and Feathers' inspired wedding a few years , how amazing is that theme??!

I still have the button hole from her wedding and I love that it reminds me of her big day, I have it in a little vase in my living room :)

Before I show you some pictures of the button holes I made I wanted to put together a list of button hole inspiration for you!


Wild Feather Button Holes by Curious fair on Etsy

I recommend Etsy, Folksy and Pinterest if you are searching for inspiration or if you want to buy some lovely hand crafted button holes from independent designer makers.

The button holes below are by LindenFlowers on Etsy

For something a bit different you can have a paper flower button hole! Like this design by MissPoppinsandMe

There are so many designs and styles out there, why have traditional flowers that will wilt by the afternoon when you can have buttons, feathers, mini deer antlers even??

I chose fabric and feathers for my button holes, in the same colours as the bunting that we made, pink, purple, turquoise, gold and silver...

I LOVED the spotty feathers that I added,they added such a fun feel to the button holes :-D They were pretty easy to make and as I said make a great keepsake for people afterwards.

Okay so thats it for today, I hope you have enjoyed the post! If anyone has a DIY Wedding they would be interested in letting me share on the blog the get in touch! I would love to hear from you.

Have a good day all x

Product photos a go go!

I have been busy taking product photos of all my new items. So far 15 necklaces and 12 cards. I am slowly listing them in my Etsy shop. These necklaces are all trials and I will be picking a select few to carry on making with slight variations. So these are one of a kind and the same colours, cord, bead, image combination may not occur again!

Necklaces are all £10
Cards £2

From my Etsy store :)

Speak soon!

The past few days

Lots of trial and error going on over here! I will update on the jewellery progress shortly x

Busy Bee's at HQ!

The past few days I have been playing around with ideas for making jewelery using my illustrations.Some of you may remember the pendents I made back in 2011/12 ?

So far I am unsure on what materials I will be using, I am playing around with a few different things at the moment. It's really exciting! I really adore drawing and designing but theres something special about using your designs to make other functional products.

I have also come up with a display card for the jewelery which I am really happy with. Yippee!

More jewelery news to come shortly..  :)

DIY Wedding series - Part 4 - Decorations

By far my favorite part of planning a wedding was being able to plan the decoration side of things. Actually creating a million *slight exaggeration* of whatever was slightly less fun, thank god for friends and family is all I can say on that!!

However yes the decorating part was my fave part, it would be great to one day do it all again (not getting married obviously!) but on a smaller scale but in a just as fab location with a great band and great decor!

The photos above are from our wedding, the light bulb flower holder idea was taken from some images I saw on Pintrest. My dad took all the filaments out and attached wire to the tops for hanging (super dad)! We dotted these around the barns and stable yard and they looked great :)

On the tables we had round circles of wood provided by a tree surgeon friend, said friend and his wife (one of my best friends Gemma Ritchie of Autumn Jitters) also made all the signage for us which was created to on rough pieces of wood with arrows showing people were things were. My mum painted lots of plastic animals gold and silver and other bright colours and we had them with the flower vases and dotted around.These were so much fun and a great hit with the kids! Later on in the eve I kept seeing little collections of animals in corners where children had created farm yards or zoos!

The 'vases' were tin water cans bought from a very cheap well known high street shop (pound land)! The flowers were grown and arranged by a dear friend Kate Sharp. They really were amazing and I couldn't believe it when I saw them for the first time. Kate really is a wonder woman!

I wanted a loose colour scheme of purple, turquoise, peach, gold and silver with a festival vibe. We made A LOT of bunting and I also made a huge garland in these colours. I bought all the fabric from a local fabric store and got busy making bunting in the weeks leading up to the wedding.

At my hen do we also had a craft afternoon where everyone helped to cut triangles and start the sewing for the bunting, this was a great help and I thoroughly recommend this plan if you are planning to do all the decor yourself.

There is no denying that whatever venue you choose can also help with the feel of your wedding. In the barn area at the farm was this huge mural depicting badgers.It fit right in with the festival theme and I love how it looked in the photos with family and friends :)

There is so much more I could say about Wedding decor, and it is by far the most exciting part (alongside marrying your sweetheart of course)!  I recommend choosing a venue that fits in with your style, begging and borrowing friend, family and friends of friends to help and scouring Pintrest for inspiration!

It's beautiful seeing it all come together.

I will be back shortly with more DIY Wedding posts, there is still more to share with you! I would also love to hear from you if you have a DIY Wedding story that you would be interested in me featuring on my blog.

Speak soon x