saturday scribbles

this week it was my uni housemate's birthday, so as she's an elephant enthusiast i decided to doodle her up and elephant birthday card, and she seemed to be pretty happy with the results which in turn pleased me because i spent a whole day drawing and redrawing, designing and redesigning it because i just couldn't get it to look right! in the end i was pretty happy with the colour scheme and the typography, but think there's definitely room to work on my elephants *adds to list of things to draw relentlessly*

as you may or may not have seen, earlier this week i also gave my blog, twitter, tumblr and portfolio a bit of a facelift in an attempt to bring all the platforms together in harmony, and after having it up for almost a week, i've decided that i don't actually hate the design, but just needed a while to get used to such a major change; again, the colour scheme is what i'm most pleased with, which is bizarre because colour schemes are normally something i just can't get right!

if you follow my instagram, you'll also notice that i've pulled my paints back out and have been doodling up some doggies, and this coming week i hope to further develop those so i can finally pull together the dogs a - z that i set out to do at the beginning of the summer! and speaking of doggies, i've got some clay magnet commissions to work my way through – yippee! don't forget i'm available to take commissions, so if there's anything you'd like, do feel free to drop me an email :) i've also had a couple more ideas for clay jewellery i'd like to have a go at making, so i'm hoping to get around to having a go at those ideas, too. 

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"every girl needs a superhero"

it was one of my friends' birthdays at the very end of august, and instead of opting for the 'safe' birthday present option (which last year was a bottle of cherry sourz, typical student essential) this year, i decided to think more in depth about what it was that my friend actually liked, and from there went on to produce this necklace and birthday card.

if it's not already obvious, my friend really, really likes superheroes. i remembered a shirt she wore once that said "every girl needs a superhero" on it, so i used that as my inspiration for the necklace design, which is supposed to capture superman flying through the clouds to save his damsel in distress (or whatever it is you call them these days,) aw. i really liked how all the components sit when worn under a necklace, so hopefully my friend will like it, too!

the card is a pretty simple idea, just a line up of some of her favourite superheroes (minus iron man who wasn't 'man' enough for me to be able to draw him... sorry emily, if you're reading!) wishing her a super birthday... brilliant use of words, i know. big buff men (which is essentially all superheroes are!) aren't really my forte, so i went with what i knew and decided to cute up the superheroes as much as i could while still having them look somewhat... super? either way, i'm pretty pleased with how they all came out, a challenge i was very glad i pursued!

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mothers' day preparations

this year mothers' day has managed to creep up on me so i've been left desperately thinking at the last minute of what gift i could get her and have it posted home in time for the day. i considered flowers (but £30 a bunch is just waaay out of my price range,) chocolates (but we've still got a shed load left over from christmas) and bailey's (but she's still got two in the cupboard from christmas), until it hit me that i could send her a personal, unique gift for just the price of a picture frame and postage!

i decided to dig out a photo of me and my mum from when we went down to london for my 18th birthday to watch the lion king in theatre (which was fabulous, by the way) and put my own spin on it. i'm hoping she'll appreciate the gesture, i'd like to think that a few hours of my time and a personal gift beats a box of chocolate or a bunch of flowers that'll die within a couple of weeks, but who knows. i suppose i'll find out on the day when she's received the gift!

as well as the framed illustration, i also designed a personal card for her. the two little piggies are me and my brother and the biggest piggy is my mum, the whole piggies idea spirals from my mum's fondness of piggins, but also because she enjoys calling me her little pig and making the occasional hilarious joke about me eating bacon being cannibalism, etc. etc.

i meant to take photographs of the framed illustration and the printed card, but me being forgetful and in a rush to get things posted on time forgot to do so, d'oh, so i'm hoping the original design/scan will make do!