Itty Bitty

Yesterday I found a really great book of old nature illustrations, courtesy of Cherry Fields, Artforms of Nature by Ernst Haeckel (available here) which is now in the public domain and can be used in your own artwork. Which is brilliant timing because I am about to receive a few little ACEO's in the post and have been making a little album to house them but I couldn't decide on what to put on the cover.

I just love this hummingbird illustration and printed it, doublesided, onto really thick silver metallic card. The photos don't do it justice, but the birds really shimmer.

The back is printed as well, with the bottom half of the illustration.

And the inside pages are really thick black card with enough space to house 96 ACEO's. Now I can't wait to fill it up with them. Let me know if you want swap an ACEO with me as I have been making a few originals and limited editions during the long weekend.

SHOP UPDATE!!

I have just updated the shop with my newest collection of drawings, Mythicals. Prints are for sale now and I will be adding magnets really soon! There are five new drawings, Unicorn, Phoenix, Loch Ness, Dragon and Yeti. Which is your favourite?

Another Day, Another Photo

Another beautiful Autumn sunrise this morning, made more spectacular but the appalling weather we've had lately.

Book of Ideas

I wanted to make a book that I could write down all my ideas, for things to do/make, in but I wanted a way to be able to keep filling it and remove the ideas when I had completed them. Hence this little book of ideas. It is made from little C7 envelopes and each envelope has a card with an idea written on it. The cards are completely removable (and replaceable) so it will work perfectly, much better then lots of little notes in various places round the house! Now to get going on some of the ideas. (oh and did you notice the little covered button closure? I'm sneaking those buttons in whenever I can!)

Mooooo!

My Moo postcards came in the post yesterday. They are beautiful and glossy and I can't wait to get more. They may be too nice to give away!

Buttons, buttons, buttons!

I've been button crazy ever since I got my new coverable buttons from Tobysmom. I had to restrain myself from making too many superfluous buttons. Above you can see my first attempt at making cover pushpins. I may be addicted now.

How to sum up the weekend in one word?

The best word to describe the weekend would have to be... eat! we did a lot of eating of a lot of good food! There are other words of course...

plane, sleep, surprise, hail, drive, excitement, bacon, full, shopping, spending, salsa, nap, drunk, cake, sleep, fire, goodbye, supplies, fritz, crepe, illicit, nap, fire, sun, drive, goodbye, fly, hello.

Sneeky Peek...

Just a little sneek peek of my new collection of drawings, soon to go into the shop.

Brighton to brighten my mood

We both were feeling a little... cooped up this afternoon so we went for a drive out to Brighton and had a great walk on the beach and a little rock pool exploring. Much improved the mood, as did the icecream on the way home!

Beauty on the Inside...

This little box is about the expectations of beauty and the forced ideals which are put upon us and we put upon ourselves. Inside the box is a little mirror so we can see what true beauty is... accepting yourself for what you are and never wishing to be anything more. Some days I feel like I'm getting there, but not today.

Someone to watch over me...

Little Melly was keeping watch over us this morning, looking out at the world is one of her favourite inside pastimes.

Facade Matchbox

This box is a little bit autobiographical, in the sense that sometimes I feel obligated to put on this cheery facade, this image that everything is okay when really, inside, I feel quite the opposite. It has been a rough day and I am feeling a little better now.

Medium Matchbox Template

Below is the template I use for making my matchboxes. It's finished size is 5x7cm's but you can scale it up or down depending on what size you want. Copy onto whatever material you need/want, cut out and pre-fold all the folds. I start by folding up the long edges, I glue the flaps to the inside of the short flaps, then fold over the edges and glue the flaps on all four sides to the floor. For the lid, just cut out, fold and attach. You may need to adjust the size of the lid depending on the thickness of material used. Better to re-measure the inside part first. Hope all this makes sense!

Munny, how shall I decorate thee!

For the last few nights I have been drawing ideas for how to decorate my new "Munny". It has turned into quite a good exersize, Shane keeps giving me character ideas and then I draw them. I think I may keep going for a few days yet. Some of then have turned out really well but I am still undesided on how to actually decorate him. I may just leave him how he is.

High Tea at the Savoy

Yesterday, work paid for 6 of us to attend one of the quarterly 'High Tea' afternoons at the Savoy, thrown by the Southern Historical Society. It was wonderful. The Savoy is the most beautiful building, with exquisite details everywhere. It was quite dark (hence the crappy photos) but you get the picture. We had a wonderful time, chatting and watching the ladies who had dressed up for the occasion. We all made a pact to come to the next one in June!

Munny, how I adore thee!

Trina came back from Wellington yesterday and she bought me this little guy. I love his little shape. These "Munny's" are totally cool, they are made for you to paint/draw/decorate however you wish. I'm going to have a hard time deciding how to "do" mine so at the moment he is just pink. I'm going to ohave to make a few sketches before I commit. I can always get another on at popup as can you!

The Cat's out of the Bag or The Bird's out of the Cage!

Matchbox Art

Kaija has started a really gorgeous challenge, a matchbox a day, and I have decided to join in. Although I don't know if I'll be able to do one a day, I certainly have spent the better part of this afternoon with ideas bursting out of my head. I couldn't ignore them so I worked out a template for the matchboxes and got to it. Here are some of the results....





For all the photos go to my Flickr! matchbox art page.

Monica

I managed to get all my work done this morning so I decided to do some drawing and to photograph the process. Here it is...

...very first rough sketch...

...starting to shade in the eyes...

...the rest of the facial shading...

...and the drawing with the hair shaded in.

Now I could have stopped here but after scanning into the computer I digitally shaded the drawing in Photoshop.

A Beautiful Morning

I am working from home today and instead of sleeping in and mooching around I was super motivated and got up early and managed to catch a glimpse of the most amazing sunrise. As much as I hate this time of year (goodbye summer, hello winter, we have no in between here) it does produce some amazing mornings! The photos (slightly enhanced in Photoshop, but it was still pretty good) don't catch the real glow it has, the light is so warm and orange and surreal.

Moleskin Pages 1

The first few pages in the Moleskin. It was a little nerve-racking starting it, they look so pristine and perfect without stuff in it, now I'm starting to loosen up and just do it. Besides I have to other unused, perfect, pristine ones in the drawer! I kinda like the way you can see the drawing underneath through the top, adds a nice layered feel.