That's me for 2011 - Merry Christmas Everyone!...

2011 has been an amazing year for Artwork by Angie, I have many people to thank for helping make my little business grow some very healthy shoots in this past year...

Firstly, a huge thank you to all of you loyal blog, facebook, twitter and pinterest followers as your comments and support keep me motivated and inspired.  I am sincerely grateful and humbled by the kindness of many of you and thoroughly enjoy reading your posts and status updates too - THANK YOU!

I'd also like to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who has bought prints, cards or ordered my design services in the past year.  You've certainly kept me busy during an uncertain economic year - I only hope my creations have met with your expectations and in the case of brand designs, are helping to make your businesses grow stronger.  I can't express how delighted I am when you've come back for second helpings or have recommended me openly to friends and fans of your pages -  I really feel like I've made quite a few new friends this year :-)

I also want to say a very big THANK YOU to the publishing company I've been working with for most of the past year.  The Heart of a Garden approached me earlier this year after spotting my work on good old Folksy  (yes, I really was Found on Folksy!!).  Since then I've developed a range of 18 greetings cards for their stand at the NEC's Autumn Fair back in Sept.  The range seems to be hitting the spot as they are now being stocked in a wide variety of retail outlets, mainly independent gift shops or book shops....but if you're vigilant, you may start spotting my designs in some branches of:

There - that was my big news that I've been itching to share for a few weeks now, but I was saving it for Christmas!!

If you remember, a couple of blog posts back I mentioned that I was feeling elated because I'd had news that a certain organisation had ordered my cards and that they were exactly who I had in my mind as one of my 'dream' stockists whilst designing the cards...well, that organisation is The National Trust.  They've ordered 5 of the designs from the range, but I'm not sure which of their shops they will be appearing in, in the New Year.  I would be over the moon to find out where, so this is me putting a call out to all of you -  if you spot them, please, please, please come and leave a comment and let me know where you saw them as it would make my day - thank you!

That's Artwork By Angie done for 2011, as I'm now officially on a Christmas break and am looking forward to getting stuck in to all the festivities and family fun!...

That said, I'll still be doing a fair bit of behind the scenes designing as I've got some items to prepare for the NEC's Spring Fair at the beginning of February...but I'll tell you all about that when I return in January.

  

My online shops will re-open on 4th Jan and I'll be back blogging, tweeting, facebooking, pinning etc as soon as I can in January. 

All that's left to say is...

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas 

& a Happy New Year!

Angie x

Oh Christmas Tree! - How handmade are your branches?

After a bit of pressure from my children, our Christmas tree is now up and looking splendid covered in all kinds of handmade lovely things.  We've got gorgeous hand painted gingerbread men from Muddy Puddle Crafts.  These sit proudly next to some salt dough, hearts, stars, doves and extra gingerbread men that I made with my girls (they did the rolling and cutting, I did the painting as I'm a bit fussy when it comes to the main tree)...

...We've also made up the felt Rudolfs and toadstools we got from The Felt Fairy and they look great.  You see that knitted Santa, he was given to my daughter last year by the lady who volunteers at her primary school to sit, listen and help the reception class read and practice their phonics.  She made one for each of the children in the class, what a special decoration that is!...

...We also have some handstitched delights from Little A Designs....

...There is this beautiful hand stitched robin hanging from the bookcase.  We've also made up the Rosette Kit that we received as a surprise the other week.  We have decided to make it up into a star rosette for the top of the tree...

...Finally, below is the little toadstool my 5 year old daughter made.  It is her first ever attempt at backstitch, she had a little help with the buttons, but the rest is her handy work and I am so proud of her for persevering as she found sewing 'really, really, really tricky!'.  I think she did a brilliant job, far better than I would have at that age.  And she is so delighted that she's learnt a new skill - so thank you The Felt Fairy, your kits are great fun!...

I hope all your plans for Christmas are coming along nicely and that you are finding time amongst the stress and pressure to step back and enjoy the little things too.

Have a great week!

Angie

Feeling Rather Stitchy!...

I've re-discovered my sewing kit and am feeling a bit stitchy at the moment! This recent desire to sew has come about because for a while now, I've been wanting to make some fabric Christmas decorations which my children can lend a hand with.  Imagine my squeals of delight when this gorgeous little parcel above landed on my doorstep yesterday.  Its was a complete surprise from my friend Marna over at Little A Designs (please click the link as she's just started a blog of her own and its lovely!)...

...a couple of weeks ago I designed some instructions to go in Little A Designs, Rosette Kits (that's my doodles in the photo below).  Now I'm the proud owner of a Christmas themed Rosette Kit, complete with everything I need to make a very personalised rosette to hang in my house....

 It all looks nice and simple, I'm sure my eldest daughter will enjoy helping make it.  I'll let you all know how we get on and 'show and tell' the finished rosette on here.

Actually, that's not the only kit I have waiting to be worked on.  A little while ago, I did some design work for the lovely Annie The Felt Fairy  . Whilst doing the work I noticed she had these little kits (see below) - they look great fun and just the kind of project to enjoy with my girls, which they can hang on our Christmas tree when they're done....

 

....When we've made them up, I'll let you all have a look at them on here.  I'm a bit scared of showing and telling my sewing efforts really, as I know many of you blog followers are exceptional at needlecraft (eek!).  Please be gentle with me, don't forget drawing, painting and playing with vector graphics is my thing when all is said and done!...

...of course, last Friday was Children in Need day.  My daughter had to go to school 'showing her spots to raise lots'.  Problem was, she didn't have many spotty things to wear.  So I improvised, got my sewing box out and made this little number for her out of scraps of felt, buttons and embroidery thread - all hand stitched in a hurry (to say it was last minute is an understatement!)...

...still, the smile on her face meant it was worth it! ...

...Its not all about sewing though.  I'm very busy working on a variety of commissions at the moment, most of which can't be revealed yet.  Here's another sneaky peek at work done last week for you.  Can you see, I've been working on some portraits!...I've not done any for a little while and have totally enjoyed doing these.  I do love the challenge of trying to nail the likeness and capture people's expressions.  I'll show all in the New Year as these were commissioned as Christmas Presents.

Its almost the weekend, so have a good one everyone!

Angie

Craft fairs, carnival and a cheeky glimpse of work in progress...

I don't know about you, but I can't quite believe that its Christmas Shopping Fair season already.  I've done two fairs in the past few weeks and have two more to go next week and the week after.  I don't do that many, usually just ones that are linked to causes I care about most.  My theory is, by doing events for causes close to my heart I don't get upset if I don't sell much!....

..that said, usually what happens at these events is when I make a few sales it is swiftly followed by a few purchases from other stalls!  Its not a bad way to start Christmas shopping, but it does sort of defeat the object of having a stall in the first place.  Do you like my new sales assistant? that's my eldest and she's really giving it the hard sell, bless her!...

...Since my last blog post  our town had it's annual Guy Fawkes Carnival.  Bridgwater proudly boasts the biggest illuminated carnival in Europe. Approx 100,000 people lined the procession route to spend about 2 hours watching around 60 stunning carnival floats go by...

...They certainly entertained us with dazzling costumes and well rehearsed moves.  As you can see, some of the carts are like west end shows on wheels...

...Finally,  I've got a few things on the go at the moment commission wise.  I can't really reveal all for a couple of months, but as I'm such a tease I'm letting you have a cheeky peek at some work done last week...

....above is a quick glimpse of my desktop with work in action, these jolly little creatures are Minky Mooo's and they're bits of clip art I've been creating for Daisy Mooo's website (which is coming very soon, so you won't have to wait a couple of months to see those).

Hope you all have a great week,

Angie :-)

Never Give Up On Your Dreams!...

Hello, you've caught me in a 'count my blessings' frame of mind today.  

For all of you lovely loyal blog followers, I think it is time I shared a little bit of background about who I am and how I've ended up doing all that you see on this blog.  So, sit back, relax and enjoy my story...

Once upon a time, back in the days when grunge ruled the radio (no sign of ipods or MP3s) and when anyone under 21 smelled like teen spirit! (there, sort of given away my age!)...a young girl from Somerset had a hand full of drawing pens and a head full of dreams and was busy creating all kinds of illustrative magic for her degree show.  She was particularly fond of decorative illustrations for greetings cards, children's books and she did a fair bit of paper engineered pop up greetings cards for her final show.  All went well, she walked away with her degree and some sweet memories of good times ;-)

She then headed to the bright lights of London to try and find work in the design industry.  Problem was, back in those days, unless you specialised in typography at this particular Uni, you had very little or no access to the adobe design packages you would need to be an attractive prospect to any potential design employers.  So, this young lady ended up getting a sideways career in advertising and brand design, as a client service account manager not a designer.  Not that she'd ever really complain about that, it was a great career to have as a twenty something in swinging 'Brit Pop' London... besides, she learned loads about business, design and marketing...

Still, none of that compared to the thrill she got when, one lunchtime whilst browsing in the National Gallery's shop, she found a 'Drawing Figures' book that had some of her student life drawings in....

...she immediately rang home from a payphone in the Gallery's basement (it was the early to mid 90's, even ad execs didn't have their own mobile phones back then!) ...she squealed down the phone "Dad! dad! my art is in the National Gallery!.....shop!....in a book! ...still, its under the same roof as Gustav Klimt, I've MADE IT!"...

Ahh, but the years went by, and she fully believed she was happy working in advertising...but the drawing and painting drifted away until she barely had a tube of gouache or bottle of masking fluid to her name :-(

Then, as luck would have it, she finally met her prince charming (actually, she knew him all this time, but that's another story).  He had also studied illustration and was known to illustrate cartoon strips on occasion.  He charged into her life brandishing an E Mac complete with Adobe Creative Suite ready installed. She wasted no time and set to work getting herself up to speed on those elusive design programmes.  A few years later, they married and two beautiful daughters blessed their lives.  As her daughters' passion for drawing, painting and being creative grew, she became increasingly inspired - she even began a blog...this blog! :-)...

...So there you have it, my journey to this blog.

What made me write this?  Well, with all the jobs and projects I've been working on recently, I've finally began to feel like I'm doing the job I was born to do, which is why I'm counting my blessings.

Also, the main reason is because a few days ago I had another 'National Gallery' moment!  It was thanks to a phone call from the publishers who are printing and distributing all my Life is Sweet range of greetings cards.  They called to let me know who has placed orders for some of my range.  Amongst the list they gave me was the name of a particular organisation I had in my mind as one of my 'dream' stockists for the cards when I was designing them...I never actually believed I'd get an opportunity for my cards to be stocked in their shops.  I promise to reveal all to you as soon as I've seen the cards in one of their shops, as seeing is believing in my book.  I'm very excited though, as you can imagine! :-)

However, I can let you know that my cards are being stocked in a small chain of greetings card shops called Thoughts Cards, here's their website: http://www.thoughtscards.com/

You'll find my cards on their website scattered amongst the 'blank and friendship cards' category.  My spies have been and checked out the cards in their Bath store, the report I got back was 'looking good' - yay! :-)

So, its happy days for which I'm very grateful.  And, a very big lesson learned, NEVER give up on your dreams!

I hope you'll all ...

Have a great weekend!

Angie x 

All the Fun of the Fair!

The weeks seem to be flying by at the moment, one minute its summer and the next its autumn. 


A couple of weeks ago our annual fun fair came to town.  That's me and my youngest daughter below having a great time on the carousel - check out the sun glasses and t-shirts...normally we have to wear jumpers, raincoats and wellies to the fair.


I spent last week grafting away to make up for the amount of money I spent having some 'old fashioned fun'.  I'm sure its better value to go to a decent theme park when all is said and done - oh well, thank goodness its only once a year! ...

....Well I say I was grafting away, actually for the first part of last week I was struck down with the lurgie (maybe it was all the candyfloss I ate or lack of winter coat in October - who knows?!).  Still, I'm all better now and getting myself organised for the Christmas shopping evenings and Craft Fairs I have looming in the coming few weeks.  I've ordered plenty more greeting cards for my stall and am framing up prints, so I'll soon be all ready to go...


  

...talking of organised, I've listed all my new range of cards on my website, so now you can order them directly whether you are a retailer looking for new stock, or you just fancy sending some cheer in the post to your friends and family.  All the cards can be found here: http://www.artworkbyangie.com/greetings-cards.html

I also have the difficult task of having to do some more research into cakes, chocolates and tea drinking, as I've had a new brief in to prepare some new designs for the NEC Spring Fair.  If you happen to follow me on pintrest this may explain some of my recent frenzied pinning sessions....

...I must admit, my pintrest addiction is shaping up nicely.  Its so darned useful from my point of view, not just to get inspiration for greetings card designs, but also as a tool for people to brief me to do their online branding.  When I've been given a link to a pintrest board as a brief I 'get it' straight away as its clear for me to see exactly what they're looking for.  Please feel free to pop over and say hello to me on pintrest soon:


http://pinterest.com/artworkbyangie/

Have a great week,


Angie

First Christmas design of the year!...

Oh my, it's started!...the lead up to Christmas has arrived in our house this week with the completion of this new design.  Introducing my Christmas version of the family tree print, complete with a charming little quote at the bottom which reads 'The best gifts around any Christmas Tree is the presence of a happy family wrapped up in each other'...I do like that quote, as it'll be a  nice little reminder to my kids about the true spirit of Christmas when they're bickering over the TV remote/ toys/ extra bit of pudding!...

I've had this design in mind for some time now, so it feels really good to see it all done and printed up.  I'm also plodding away on some other Christmas items around other work I have in at the moment - I'm feeling quite inspired on the Christmas theme at the moment so I'm rolling with it!

I've also had a little re-jig of some of the things on my website to make it more fitting with the Autumn Winter season - please, go and see for yourselves: www.artworkbyangie.com

Have a great weekend.

Angie

My new card range will soon be on its way to the NEC Autumn Fair

Hello! I'm so excited and delighted that I can finally reveal the range of 18 greeting cards I've been working on for the past few months. These designs really had become part of my daily life for a quite while, I feel a little bit lost not to be working on them...ho hum, I'm sure preparing for the lead up to Christmas will fill that void!

Below are a taster from the range entitled 'Life is Sweet' which has been commissioned by a fantastic publishing company called The Heart of a Garden. I'm so pleased to be working with The Heart of a Garden as I love their photographic ranges and believe in their ethics when it comes to greeting card production.

For the full range, check out the new 'coming soon' button on the side of this blog - it will take you through to the complete range in my new look, online portfolio (yes, I've been a very busy lady lately!)....

Hope you enjoy having browse. Some of the designs you may recognise as prints that have been available in my Folksy shop.

Have a great weekend!

Angie

Bloomin' Lovely!...

Hello, its been a little while since my last blog post, sorry about that. I'm blaming the school holidays!...I've been trying to find lots of ways to keep my daughters occupied and happy without spending a fortune everyday.

Luckily the weather has been fairly kind, added to which our garden is looking bloomin' lovely at the moment...all full of colour - just as I like it!. I've been getting the girls doing lots of painting and craft stuff in the garden. I even managed to get them so engrossed in their paintings that they didn't notice that I was busily creating a few watercolours of my own. It was sheer bliss... nothing beats a bit of sketching in garden in the sunshine whilst the kids are busy and quiet!

Here are the fruits of that labour....

I've also been very busy finishing off a range of 18 greetings card designs for a publishing company. They are planning to launch the range on their stand at the NEC's Autumn Fair at the beginning of Sept. I've spent the past couple of months slotting in a couple of designs a week around my usual workload and I'm feeling slightly giddy this week as I finished the last design of the range at the weekend - woo hoo!

I've adapted one of the designs from this range into a new framed print, which is now available on my Folksy shop :

I hope you're all enjoying the summer too. I'm really enjoying seeing lots of pictures on blogs of allotments and gardens looking abundant and glorious!

TTFN

Angie :-)