Tuesday 24 May 2016

My blog has moved...


Hello!

It's been a little while since I posted here on blogger.

There is a reason for that.  I have made the decision to move my regular blog posts over to my website.  It's all in a bid to streamline the way I work and carve out more time for designing and drawing.

The first blog post on my website can be found here:



I am going to give it a try and see how it goes.  I may be back to blogger one day (never say never).  There is a link to the blogger achieve over on the side bar of the new blog and no doubt I will link to previous posts that are relevant as and when I want to share things of interest.

Blogger has been good so far.  It suited my needs from the beginning - but now I have LOTS of sites on the web to keep updated, what with my online shops and social media. To have a few less sites to maintain seems to make total sense to me as it frees me up to do what I really want to do - create illustrations and designs.

So there it is - as I enter my sixth year of blogging, it will be over on my website.

Thanks for all the support, I hope you continue to enjoy my new posts over in their new home.

Best wishes

Angie 

Friday 29 April 2016

National Stationery Week & Amazing Adventures..


Hello,

This week has been National Stationery Week.  
To celebrate, subscribers to my newsletter will be receiving an email today with a 20% off discount code for my Etsy and Folksy shops.  The code will also work at my website shop as I am currently trialling Etsy's 'Pattern' e.commerce site.  Which I have to say I am impressed with and feel that it's a keeper.  It makes managing my online listings so much smoother and, like Etsy, it's very good at easily enabling customers to chat to me to discuss orders and ask questions, so that's a huge positive...


Talking of stationery, I have introduced a new weekly planner to my shops, ideal for planning holidays and days out.  You'll find my 'Plan Amazing Adventures' notepad listed here:


If you'd like to take advantage of my exclusive discount code for subscribers, you can join my mailing list by filling out the form on the link below:


Feels odd to be sharing sunshiny designs with you when some parts of the UK has snow!
It's good to dream and make plans...and with a bit of luck perhaps this snow means that the summer will be a scorcher after all.

I hope you have amazing adventures this weekend




Wednesday 20 April 2016

Very Pheasant To Meet You...


Hello!

My goodness, it's April already.  
I feel like I've fallen off the blogging train a little.  April is always a chaotic month for me - we have many birthdays & celebrations in our house this month, including my own - so it's hard to remain focused as family life takes over.

That said, it's the social media stuff that has suffered more as I have lots of ideas for illustrations brewing at the moment and have been enjoying spending some precious creative time at my desk.  

I think it's about time I started gathering some of the new work and sharing it here on my blog. 
These pieces have been shared over on my Instagram and Facebook pages, but I think it's nice to put everything together and showcase them here (if only for me to document my work as it progresses)...




Today's piece is a woodland creature inspired illustration featuring a badger and pheasant which I've named 'Very Pheasant To Meet You'.  This pair began as a little sharpie sketchbook doodle following a weekend walk on The Quantock Hills, just a few short miles from our house....




The colours are certainly inspired by the hues of the wild flowers in the nearby woods.

I've already added this new design to my Society 6 and Etsy shops, but have plans for this to become part of a new mini collection...



I hope to be back here soon to share more work in progress and inspirations.

Have a lovely week
Best wishes



Friday 25 March 2016

Something Pinteresting - Hello Spring...



Happy Good Friday!

It's been a little while, but I thought it would be nice, with the clocks changing on Sunday, to bring back my 'Something Pinteresting for The Weekend' series.  It's a series I've run in the past on a Friday, where I share some favourite pinterest discoveries based on a theme.  This week's theme is 'Hello Spring' and the images and more similar can be found on my pinterest board called 'It's a Spring Thing' here:

So, from the top, we have the sweetest little bunnies by Mayumi Maeda....



The mixed media painting above is called 'Spring Garden' and is by Josephine Grundy - I love the use of colour and the little pops of white blossom against the grey blue sky, it's very evocative of spring...


as is this utterly gorgeous painting of spring flowers by Emily Sutton...


The delicate watercolour flowers above are by Yao Cheng and is called 'Rose Bouquet'...


Above is a jolly spring themed fabric by Lewis & Irene...


I hope these pinterest finds are filling you hearts with inspiration and a joy for spring, as much as they do for me.  All that's left to say is 'Hello Spring' - and the delightful illustration above by Kate Mason does that so well.

Have a very lovely weekend & Happy Easter!


Tuesday 22 March 2016

Spring Sale Offer - 40% Off Etsy & Folksy orders until the end of March...


Hello!

With Easter this weekend, I thought it was high time I had a bit of a spring sale.
I am offering 40% off all orders over £3 at my Etsy and Folksy shops until the end of March....



Both shops are well stocked with spring themed goodies...

Easter cards (there's still time - last day for posting Easter orders is tomorrow, 23rd March)...


I've also added a few multipacks of celebration/ birthday cards and friendship/ general greetings cards, like the ones pictured here - so now is a really good time to stock up...


If like me, you are in spring clean mode (which is why I'm having a bit of a sale)  I have lots of bright and pretty prints to choose from in both my Etsy and Folksy shops...


This offer ends on 31st March and to get 40% off simply type in the code:

SPRING16

when placing your order.

Have a lovely day
Best wishes


Tuesday 8 March 2016

Celebrating International Women's Day...

Top image, top left: Zandra Rhodes, top right: Celia Birtwell, bottom left: Barbara Hulanicki (founder of Biba), bottom right: Frida Kahlo - some of the designers and artists that have inspired me to study and work in the arts

Happy International Women's Day!

I want to celebrate this in some way because I am a mother to two young girls who, like most young girls do, are looking for idols to aspire to be like.
  
Having grown up in the 70s and 80s, the younger me really believed that by the time any daughter I may be blessed with had grown up, the world would be completely filled with possibilities and positive female role models, more so than ever before.  I have to say, I feel a little disappointed for them right now.  So a day like this helps to address that a little and should be celebrated.

Another reason I wanted to celebrate it is that without seeing the work of and reading about some amazing female artists and designers - I would never have considered it possible or worthwhile to pursue an education or career in the arts.   

For those reasons, I set up a new pinterest board this morning to help fill the feed with some of the women that I've learned about and find very inspiring.  I hope you find them inspiring too.  I could have pinned for hours, but need to get some things done, so set myself a 30 min time limit and pinned from typing in the names of those that inspire me from the top of my head in that time. It was interesting to see who made the cut in that time - a very eclectic mix.  Here is a link to that pinterest board so you can see who's on there:


It would be wonderful to see the pinterest feed taken over by images of inspiring women today.   This is an open invite to anyone who fancies joining in, please set aside a few minutes to pin a few of your inspiring women today too...


Top image, top left: Jane Goodall top right: Emmeline Pankhurst bottom left: Rosa Parks, bottom right: Mother Theresa - just a few of the ones the I think define the word inspiration.

In amongst my pins this morning were a few ladies from the world of music.  I grew up watching these women on TV, breaking the mould and taking on the music industry on their own terms... artists in every sense of the word.  I feel so lucky to have had such creative and uncompromising female role models promoted to me through through the media as a child and teen, they were exciting and made me believe that anything was possible for us girls.  I wish there were more women like these around for my girls to look up to. Thankfully there are a few, the likes of Adele for instance.  Surely, I am not the only mum that believes our daughters deserve more.

Left image: Back row left to right: Chrissy Hynde, Debbie Harry, Viv Albertine (The Slits), Siouxie Sioux, Front row left to right, Poly Styrene (X Ray Specs), Pauline Black (The Selector). Right image: Kate Bush

To all the beautiful, inspiring, amazing, ordinary and extraordinary women of the world, may every day be international women's day!

Best wishes



Tuesday 1 March 2016

March Craft Calendar for Folksy


Hello March!

Spring has arrived and not a moment too soon for my liking!
I adore spring, it's all ahead of us - the beautiful blooms, the sound of birds returning to gardens, the promise of summer, the smell of freshly cut grass, blossom falling like confetti - it's all good!

Imagine my delight when I was asked by the lovely folk at Folksy to create the image to go on their March craft calendar, which is available as a free download from their blog!  All I can say is I 'sprung' into action that day and was in my element playing with pretty spring flowers and birds...


These craft calendars are mighty handy.  I downloaded last month's one, designed by Christ Hagan and found it an extremely useful and beautiful prompt to see me through the month...and all for free, what's not to love about that ?! thank you Folksy!

To download yours, here's a link to the Folksy blog:


My Design for March is made up of a combination of designs -  mainly the two pictured here.  'Hello Mum' which is available as a card and illustration print, and also features as the image for March on my 2016 calendar (above).  'Little Jenny Wrens' (below) is available as an illustration print and also features in my 2016 desktop calendar.
The cards and prints can be found over at my Folksy shop here:




With it being Mother's Day this weekend, I just want to mention that my cut off for mother's day orders is this Thursday 3rd March, any orders placed after Thursday I can not guarantee they will arrive in time for Mother's Day.


I hope you all have a lovely week and if you are a mum, that you are treated like a queen this weekend.

Best wishes


Thursday 11 February 2016

Sleepy Cat in a Spring Garden - Playing with Patterns


Hello,
Hope this blog post finds you well.

The past couple of weeks have felt like a little bit of a struggle as it's the season of colds and flu and I've been carrying my dose around with me, which has left me feeling a little lack lustre.  
So I felt it was important to carve out some creative play time.  For me that meant exploring a little more pattern making. I'd drawn some spring flowers in my sketch book that had been inspired by the little snowdrops and crocuses that are popping their heads up in my garden and making me smile...


 I scanned the drawings and started adding colour.
The bright zingy orange of the crocus seemed to determine the colours and made me think of a certain marmalade coloured tom cat that frequently visits our garden - so he's made it into the designs too...





All in all, it's been a fairly good way to nurse a cold and I feel like I've achieved something - even if it wasn't what I was supposed to be achieving!
As John Lennon once said "Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted!"


My new Sleepy Cat design is now available to be printed on demand onto all kinds of everything over at my Society 6 shop.

Have a lovely day!
Best wishes


Thursday 28 January 2016

End of January Offer....


Hello,

Hope you are having a good week.

The great news is...we've pretty much made it through January!
I don't know about you, but I find January the toughest month - it's all the dark gloomy weather, the short days, the hangover from all the Christmas over indulgence.

I want to celebrate getting through those weeks with a little offer over at my Folksy and Etsy shops, to coincide with the launch of my valentines and mother's day cards and prints for this year.

Mother's day in the UK is early this year - Sunday 6th March, so this offer is an opportunity to stock up on cards for both occasions for less. 
For 20% Off at my Folksy and Etsy shops, simply type the following code in when checking out any orders made before end of Sunday 31st January:

JANUARY20OFF






Have a lovely weekend

Best wishes