In my sketchbook: 25/02/15

As I said yesterday, today I'm sharing some of my recent sketchbook pages which went in to creating some new patterns for fabric. I've been drawing pages of bumble bees, branches, blossoms, banners and animals!

I've also been drawing some more animals (some of which are new versions of some old illustrations) to get printed onto small squares of fabrics for another new product.

Once the fabrics are delivered I'll be getting to work on lots of new products, which I'll be sharing here very soon!

Over & over: New Fabric patterns

I've spent the last week working on some new pattern designs, in order to get some fabrics printed to make some new products.

I've created four designs in total: Bumble, Floral, Be Happy & Animals.

I won't share them all now until the fabrics have arrived and I've made something with them, but here's Floral & Bumble:

Tomorrow I'll be back with an In my sketchbook post, sharing some of the sketchbook pages that went into these patterns.

Snap snap: 20/02/15

I've gotten behind gain, and this is my first Snap snap post in February, and its been a busy month, so I have quite a bit to share:

- After completing my card designs in January, I placed a big order at the printers. A few days later I received a very exciting delivery filled with lots of new cards, and these new business cards, thank you notes and stickers!

- Of course the new cards were the main part of the order, and they're all now available to buy on my Etsy shop or direct from my website. Let me know what you think!

- Before getting on with new projects, I took a bit of time to do some drawing just for myself, which included animals in pretty clothes!

- A second delivery also arrived, some colourful stickers from Moo.com, to make all my packages prettier.

-The diary doodles are still going well.

- Weekly visits from Beabea.

- I'm selling off some old stock to make room for the new cards. For £10 you can get an A5 print, 3 cards, and 2 sets of gift tags (all screen-printed) and UK postage. If you'd like one just contact me with your paypal e-mail address.

- The drawing I did in January of Mr Bear was given a bit of colour.

- I've spent several hours packing up card orders for some new stockists (more on that soon)

- Thumb-nailing ideas for fabric patterns (I'm working on some fun new products)

- Positive phrases banners for one of the new patterns.

- And finally, a page full of bees!

Wise Words: Beginnings

Hi everyone!

I'm back with another Wise Words post today, this time with a lovely little quote about beginnings:

I'd love some suggestions for quotes or lyrics for these posts (I'm starting to struggle to find ones I like!) so let me know if you have any ideas!

The fabric designs are coming along quite well this week, and I'll be sharing one or two of them with you in next week's Over & over post.

Over & Over: Fly away

For this week's pattern I've gone with pretty pastels and feathers. I think this one has a bit of a spring-time feel to it, which probably means I'm hoping for an improvement to the weather soon! The pastel colours remind me of easter and chocolate mini-eggs (which so far I've resisted despite them being in shops since December!)

I've always enjoyed drawing feathers, so this one was fun to make:

"Just fly away"

I'm also working on a few more developed pattern designs at the moment, as I'm hoping to get some printed on to fabric and make some new things for the shop. I'll share the patterns with you once they're finished! 

Wise Words: All that you are

As I mentioned on Tuesday's Over & over post, this week's designs are all of a romantic theme in honour of Valentine's day this weekend!

I wanted to use song lyrics this week, so chose a lovely line form Tenerife Sea by Ed Sheeran. Jamie and I love his music, so it seemed appropriate for Valentines!

"All that you are is all that I'll ever need"

Ed Sheeran - Tenerife Sea

Over & over: Love

Its just a quick pattern today as I wasn't at home over the weekend and didn't have a lot of time to create this. Its Valentines day at the weekend so this week's posts will be of a romantic theme. Starting with this love-heart filled floral pattern:

I'll be back on Friday with a romantically themed Wise Words post!

On my Bookshelf: January '15

I've been putting a lot of time into designing the cards this month, so I've haven't read as much as I'd like, but I've definitely enjoyed everything I did read!

Here's my recap from January:

1. Grow Your Handmade Business - Kari Chapin

I started the month with something a little different in the form of a non-fiction creative business book. This book was full of some great information and got me very inspired to get to work on improving my little business. And my book-keeping is now all in order thanks to the advice in here! I definitely recommend this to anyone running a small business.

2. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

As with The Fault in Our Stars, I was a little late to the party with this one as I know everyone was loving it last year. Just before I started reading again, I went to see this at the cinema and loved it. And of course I enjoyed the book even more! This kept me gripped all the way through (despite knowing the ending!) and I read it in a few short sittings. Needless to say I definitely recommend it, whether you've seen the film or not.

3. The Language of Flowers - Vanessa Diffenbaugh

This one was leant to me by my cousins at Christmas. I read this straight after Gone Girl so i was a little worried I might find it boring in comparison, and the beginning did feel a little slow. But once I got in to it I really enjoyed it, and finished it in a day. When my cousins leant it to me they said it would make me want to be a florist, and I couldn't agree more! Its full of some beautiful descriptions of flowers, their meanings (there's even a dictionary of them at the back) and the work of a florist (the images of the flowers markets in my head are just lovely!). The story itself is very emotional and the characters are very strong. The words on the front of the book sum up the story beautifully: "Anyone can grow into something beautiful".

4. Dark Places - Gillian Flynn

After reading Gone Girl I had to give another of Gillian Flynn's books a go. I finished this one last night and have to say I'm impressed. The way it's written is very clever, and small things at the beginning of the book that seem irrelevant at the time all come together at the end to tell the story. Some chapters are written in first person in the current day, and others are written in third person about other characters at the time of 'the incident,  which really adds to the drama and pace of the story. I definitely recommend this. I also just found out this one is being made in to a film as well! I have a few more books waiting on my bookshelf, but once I've got through those I'll be buying Gillian Flynn's other book, Sharp Objects.

Wise Words: Infinities

I mentioned in my "On my Bookshelf" post last month (there's a January post coming very soon!) that I had read and loved The Fault In Our Stars. I wanted to use a quote from a book for this week's Wise Words, and so this one seemed perfect.

And for those who haven't read the book and don't know the quote, here's the full version:

"There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful." - John Green, The Fault In Our Stars

Over & over: Panda panda

I decided to do another animal themed pattern this week, as I enjoyed doing last week's bunny one!

This time I took a bit of inspiration from a #tbt picture I posted on Instagram last week featuring an old sketchbook drawing of a Panda from 2012, and I went with Pandas as my theme for this pattern (with the addition of bamboo and a baby Panda!).