A Fresh Look for a New Year...

Hello!

Hope you've had a good first week of a New Year.  

I've been getting back in the swing of work.  

The dark early mornings have been a bit of shocker at first, but it all feels like routine again now....

One of the things I had on my wish list for 2016 was to sort my website out and make it much more smartphone and tablet friendly. 

Let's face it, that's how a lot of people view websites these days.  This became a bit of a priority for me after I realised how much internet surfing I do on my phone these days, especially over recent weeks with Christmas & January sale shopping....

So, after a fair bit of faffing about for a few hours under the bonnet of my website (and maybe a few naughty words uttered under my breath as I tried to get my head around it all) I think it's finally how I envisaged it and am delighted to say...

Ta Da!  

Here is my new look website, which should now be much easier to read and navigate from your phone or tablet: 

www.artworkbyangie.com

What a relief and such a good feeling to finally cross that task off my list. 

I hope you have a very productive week too.

Best wishes

Happy New Year!...

Happy New Year! Hello 2016

I hope it's a very happy, healthy and peaceful year for all!

All in all, 2015 was a productive, happy and enlightening year for me.  

It was a year filled with interesting and inspiring opportunities to try new things, meet new people, step out of my comfort zone a bit more to learn and discover new skills...

It was a year where I went with the flow a little more and stressed a little less.
This approach worked well throughout the year and helped me get something off the ground that I have been dreaming of doing for ages...this was the year I launched my first collection of FABRICS over on Spoonflower (US based) and Print Me Pretty (UK based)

I've always enjoyed pattern making, but had felt like I had so much to learn before I could properly get a fabric range together.  This year I finally began to get to grips with it all...and yes, there is absolutely loads I need to learn, but I feel like this is just the beginning and I am really enjoying learning and discovering how to do it, what works and what doesn't.  This is definitely something I will be continuing to do this coming year, I'm loving it!...

Throughout 2015 I designed lots and lots of new greetings card designs for license to my friends at publishers Art Eco Designs and The Heart of a Garden.  They handle pretty much all of the wholesale of my greetings cards and gift wrap products as that's what they do best. They have a lovely big shiny warehouse in Redruth, Cornwall and a very friendly team of people to take care of wholesale orders...I, on the other hand, have a couple of cupboards in my house to store a small stock of cards, a trusty computer, a graphics tablet and a vivid imagination...so I work closely with them on designs as that's the bit I love doing most of all.  It's a beautiful thing, I hope to be doing lots more work with them again this year.

Last year I filled in lots of the gaps in my occasions card range.  I created designs for many milestone birthday cards for all ages.  The most challenging of these designs was a range of cards for men.  My natural style is very floral and feminine so it was a real step out of my comfort zone to come up with designs which would appeal to men.  However, I learnt that I am capable of creating designs for that market, which made me very proud and happy...

I also designed two new wholesale collections of greetings cards and have some new mug designs in the pipeline for The Heart of a Garden  for this year, which are ready to be launched later this month at the Giving and Living trade fair in Exeter from 17th to 20th January.

Giving and Living is a South West home and gift trade show aimed at the coast and tourism sector.  Lots of my designs will be found there on The Heart of a Garden's stand number B332...

One of the most exhilarating things I did last year, which also proved to be a revelation to me, is that I had the chance to be a guest speaker at a west country, Creative Women in Business meet up.  

I'd not done any public speaking for at least nine years when my lovely friend Helen, who runs the creative women groups, asked me to come along and share some tips about online selling with this fantastic group of women.

I was very nervous, but oh my goodness I enjoyed my day there so much!  

It made me realize how I need to get out more and meet up, face to face with other creative people.  Doing what I do is very solitary work.  I am lucky to have a wonderful group of creative friends I've met through social media and their support and company is utterly wonderful.  That said, chatting via a smart phone or computer is no substitute for being in the same room as other like minded humans.  It wasn't until I did the talk that I realized how much I needed to do this!  Getting out and meeting other creatives is definitely something I aim to do plenty more of in the coming year...

In the summer I rose to another challenge I was lucky to have the opportunity to take up.  I had been invited by my former secondary school to come in and run an 'Art Award' workshop with a group of students aged between 12-13.  This was a whole day of doing art together, with me leading the project for the day.  Although I was initially terrified at the idea of teaching (not something I naturally saw myself as), once I got there all those fears melted away and I had a really great day with some wonderful young adults.  I was blown away by their attitude to the work and their enthusiasm for art.  It reminded me of when I was at school discovering my passion for art and design. I have always felt at home in the art department!...

There were plenty of chances to get out and about and find inspiration last year and I seized every one I could.  In the spring I visited the Outlaw Fair in Bristol and met up with a few of the lovely creative women I had met at the talk I gave. In the summer I had a wonderful, sunny weekend in great company at the Contemporary Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey.

The highlight of all those days out had to be visiting Banky's Dismaland  in Weston Super Mare, with my husband and few of my very good friends.  It was utterly mind blowing to see so much great art close to where we live.  Nothing like that ever usually happens in our neck of the woods!  I did a blog post about it after our visit, you can catch up on that here if you fancy a virtual trip to Dismaland: http://artworkbyangie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/dismaland-mind-blowing-day-of.html

So it's back to business as usual with a whole new shiny year ahead.

Before I get properly stuck into 2016, I want to say some big heartfelt thank you's to those who supported me in 2015....

First and most importantly, thank you to my husband John, he's always there to lend a hand when needed and supports me in all I do.

Thank you to my friends at The Heart of a Garden, who've I been working with for a few years now and have always been great champions of my work. I look forward to lots more fun working with them all this year. 

I'd also like to thank all my lovely design clients, it has been a pleasure to work with you all this past year and I look forward to continuing with projects and starting new ones this year.

Thank you to everyone who has ordered prints and products from me this past year, either from my online shops or from my stockist's shops.  I really appreciate every single purchase as it enables me to continue to do what I love most for my job.

Finally, thank you to everyone who has supported my social networking efforts, your feedback, likes and encouragement keep me going and spur me on - it is truly wonderful to feel part of a very supportive and inspiring online community.

THANK YOU!

 Here's to a very happy new year for all!

Best wishes

Dismaland - A Mind Blowing Day of Bemusement and Art...

Hello,

This week's blog post is a big change in style from my usual colourful and cheerful images because yesterday I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit Banksy's Dismaland in Weston-Super-mare.

After the initial hard work of trying to get hold of tickets, I was very excited about going for two reasons.  Firstly, I love Banksy's work, I love the way he uses art to provoke thought and shine a light on the absurd and shocking in our world.  Secondly, I make no secret of it, I was just as curious about what the inside of the old Weston-Super-Mare Tropicana looks like these days and reignite some old but happy childhood memories.... 

In the queue.  Top Left: My Husband John and I. Top Right: My very good friends of many years, Vikki, Me, Venetia and Jane.  Bottom Left:  Showing our support to the campaign to save the glorious Victorian Birnbeck Pier in Weston .  Bottom Right:  We're In - Going through the 'Security' gates.

In it's hey day, the Tropicana was a colourful and exciting outdoor pool/ lido (well, exciting by the standards of a kid growing up in the West Country the early '80s) .  I can see why, if Banksy visited the Tropicana as a kid too, he chose this venue.  In it's day, to kids our age (I understand that Banksy is said to be a 40 something too) the Tropicana was the closest thing the kids of Somerset, Bristol and Bath had to Disneyland...all be it on a tighter budget! 

See for yourselves, here's a link to The Weston Mercury's article showing some lovely pics of the Tropicana (or 'Club Tropicana' as I used to call it when I was 10, as I always hoped I may bump into George and Andrew from Wham on a lilo there!!):

http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/dismaland_the_tropicana_through_the_years_1_4212808

But less about the venue, what you really want to see is inside the Bemusement Park isn't it?

Hold on to your hats then, here comes my whistle stop brief tour...

Walk through the main entrance and here you are, in the heart of Dismaland with 'Cindrella's Castle' straight ahead of you.  The brochure says "Step inside the fairytale and see how it feels to be a real princess".  More on that exhibit in a bit....

In the pic above we are sat by the 'Jeffrey Archer Memorial Fire Pit' - again, as the brochure describes it " Warm yourself around an authentic real open fire ceremonially lit each day by burning one of the famed local perjurer's novels"...

...then we move on to something for the kids (although I personally would give Dismaland a 15 rating and then add a warning of not for those who are easily offended by ...well everything really! nothing is off limits here!).

This is a puppet revue show "constructed entirely from the contents of Hackney skips - it's 'Fly Tip Theatre' by Paul Insect and Bast."...

There were plenty of colourful 'characters' if you wanted to have a novelty photograph...

...and of course no Bemusement Park would be complete without a Punch and Judy show, this one has been brought up to date by Julie Birchill with references to Jimmy Saville and Fifty Shades of Grey.  The sign in the background  reads " FREE Hotdog for anyone who can guess what animal is in this HOTDOG".  Always look at the signs in the background at Dismaland, the attention to detail was amazing!....

Moving swiftly along we have 'Kids Enclosure'.  Again, let me stress that this is not a place for kids.  This area features a 'Pocket Money Loans' shop to help you get out of debt with a loan with 5000% APR and compound interest (the small print on the posters made very amusing reading!).  This area is by artist Darren Cullen who has a wonderfully twisted and thought provoking Etsy shop which is worth a good look at here (unless you don't like rude words, in which case don't look):  https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/spellingmistakes?ref=l2-shop-info-name

There was also a chance to play Mini Gulf "An oil calphate themed crazy golf course made from the hockey pitch at Cheltenham Ladies College"...

After a swift game of Golf you can visit 'Guerilla Island' which features a bus-mounted museum, library, gallery of guerilla art and a Comrades Advice Bureau!  Above are just a tiny selection of some of the guerilla art....

I guess by now you are sensing there was too much to see in the time available.  I definitely have a sense of wanting to see more.  Five of us went together and each of us have a different out take on the day with our minds thoroughly blown and imaginations stretched!

Towards the back of the park there was a Cinema area showing some brilliant short films, many of which I noted at the end gave a reference to a You Tube link so I will be looking a few things up on You Tube this week to have second chance to view/ view more.

There were side shows such as 'Hook a Duck from the Muck' where you can win a lovely laminated card fish finger in a plastic bag!

You could marvel at the graceful 'Big Rig Jig' which is described as "a masterpiece of post-industrial assemblage art - it's two juggernauts performing ballet by Mike Ross"

As I mentioned earlier, in the heart of the park is Cinderella's castle, which as many of you may have seen on the news is a chance to join the paparazzi frenzy taking pictures of the unfortunate princess after her carriage has crashed .  

And of course there were The Galleries to view "the finest collection of contemporary art ever assembled in a North Somerset seaside town" and I agree wholeheartedly with that statement being fairly local to said town!...

The last exhibit we got to see was a model village - just after a riot!...

And finally there was the highly glossy and seductive 'gift shop' before heading off for our fish and chips on the sea front....

I hope you enjoyed my brief tour of Dismaland as much as I did.   I firmly believe that you can't really appreciate all that is bright and beautiful in the world without experiencing and getting to grips with some of the darker sides of life!

My usual bright and colourful blog posts will return on my next post.

Have a very happy week!

Best wishes

Summer...

Hello!

The image above sums up the summer for me because it is a peep at work in progress of a new collection of greetings cards coming soon called 'Home Is...' 

This summer has mostly been a delicate juggling act of entertaining our two girls whilst working on this new range.  With this particular design, the first has directly inspired the latter!...

Here's another little peep at how this collection is shaping up.  I'll be able to reveal all in September.  This collection will be available as wholesale greetings cards through my friends at the publishing company, more details are available on the Trade section of my website.  

I am also steadily releasing some of the designs as illustration prints, two if which, 'I'm In Charge' and 'Energy Saving Mode' are already listed on all my online shops (website, Folksy and Etsy)....

Of course it's not all been about work.  There have been plenty of days out, new experiences, birthdays to celebrate and fun to be had these past few weeks....

Whilst out and about there have been a few sightings of my cards in shops, like this one in Waterstones...

On the whole, it's been a laid back summer with plenty of sunny days to enjoy.  

Which has kept me nicely inspired and alongside working on the new greetings card range I've been tinkering with patterns, mostly on a summery theme.  

I have plans to develop some new patterns for gift wrap and fabrics so am steadily building up a stock of new designs to eventually add to my Spoonflower shop...

Starting with this one called 'Wild Strawberries'.  This design is already listed on my Society 6 shop so is available on all sorts of things from totes to t-shirts...

I also began playing with this 'Kingfisher' design, inspired by a watercolour painting I did earlier in the year...

It began as a simple line arrangement which I always intended to colour up.  Once I saw the line drawing, I knew I had to save that version too as I think this will make a nice version for fabrics when I come to order Spoonflower & Print Me Pretty samples soon...

Meanwhile, the colour version is already available on all kinds of everything over at my Society 6.

I hope you are all enjoying summer too!

Best wishes

Angie

Getting Creative with the Kids to Celebrate a Birthday & Make a Summer Den...

Hello,

I read yesterday that there's a survey that claims that the beginning of August is when most parents reach breaking point with the school summer hols, mainly due to running out of ideas of new things to do, or beginning to run out of cash.  I fully identify with this, like many, I am trying to find that delicate balance of spending precious time with family making happy memories, working from home & encouraging the kids to make the most of their hols without bankrupting us!

For a bit of inspiration, here's something we've done as a family that has proved to be loads of fun, cheap and cheerful and a great way to entertain the kids in the summer hols.

At the beginning of the hols we had a birthday in this house.  I came up with a pragmatic idea which I hoped could help me out on those days when I need a bit of peace to knuckle down and catch up on work, but would also serve to give our daughter a very happy birthday afternoon with her friends to enjoy, remember and maybe learn a few simple, crafty things that will help save them all from too many dreaded 'I'm bored' moments this holiday....

So it all began with me sharing my bright idea with my husband who then set to work on sourcing and building a Wendy House out of cardboard destined for the recycling.

I must confess, John did the work on this house whilst I sorted out all the other party stuff and planned and sourced all the bits for the girl's making and crafting afternoon.   

Didn't he do well!

We wanted to keep the house plain ready for the girls to make flowers and butterflies to decorate it and bring it to life...

The day of the birthday came and my daughter's friends all came round.  The weather was dreadful that afternoon, so we had everything set up in the playroom.  They loved it and it was a lovely, colourful thing to do on such a dreary day. 

I laid out plenty of coloured papers, scissors, glue and pens.  I showed them how to make basic paper daisies and butterflies by simply folding and cutting squares of paper, then decorating them however they wanted. We also made paper flowers with drinking straw stems, which the girls took home in their party bags...

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, there was lots of laughter and little hands getting busy and creating - such a wonderful sight!

It all looks so much better for the decorations they all made and stuck on the house.

Best of all they got to play in the house and have the birthday tea inside...

There was a fair amount of 'craftermath' but it was certainly worth it for the broad smiles on their faces...

 Best of all, the Wendy House is still up and all the crafting bits and bobs seem to have been moved into the house and the inside of the house has had a makeover.  

My girl's have declared it their 'craft workshop' where they can be 'art ninjas!'

When I've been busy working, they've often popped inside their house to emerge a bit later with something new they have made...

Here's a peep inside the house today.  That handmade pen box has to be my favourite thing they've made in the house so far.  I love that 'Keep Calm and Just Draw' - those are very wise words from ones so young!

And all this from something destined for the recycling!

Have a lovely week

Best wishes