The Vintage Cupcake Kitchen...

This lovely cafe in Uppermill, Saddleworth now sells a full range of my handmade greetings cards and two of my watercolour paintings are currently on display and for sale in the cafe. As modelled here by baby Rosa.

They make gorgeous cakes and the shop is so beautifully decorated it feels such a treat to go in for a cuppa. Please note - don't go in if you are on a diet, not only do the cakes look amazing but the shop is filled with the smell of baking cakes you will not be able to resist!

Two new card designs!

available in my shop and all cool shops in manchester now.....

hooraaaaay!

MY diary is finished!

phew! (for now at least) you can read about a year in my life in full colour here

Highlights include having a baby, letting my eyes go out of focus on a cushion, eating an ice cream in plattfields park, going to blackpool and morcambe and cutting my hair.

hope you enjoy! and if you would like to publish it into a book please let me know. by the way it is all drawn inside one sketchbook and it fills it perfectly cover to cover, 11th feb 2011 - 10th feb 2012.

I would recommend doing something like this to anyone, drawing every day like this has made me develop a great disipline. It has helped me to get quick at drawing and to not spend ages worrying about what I am drawing or writing, just get on with it, which has produced results that I am really pleased with.

Other rule ideas to try:
1. write a poem every day for a month, however good or bad it is just write it, at the end of the month you will have a book of good and bad poems.
2. set an alarm clock and draw something on a new a4 piece of paper for the first minute in every hour for 24 hours.
3. draw 100 people before you go to bed tonight (and every night?!)
4. go for a walk to the same place each day and take a picture of all the red things you see on monday, orange things on tuesday, etc until you have a rainbow at the end of the week (I like this one)
5. draw everything that you eat

Also it has helped me to get comfortable with drawing people. I have been an artist for quite some time now, and I don't know why but it feels very important that I have finally learned this skill, I highly recommend it!

New Valentines Cards for 2012

It's that time of year again... to let your loved one know exactly how you feel... with one of these lovely new Valentines cards... available in my Etsy shop just as soon as this baby gives me a second to list them!

I am going to send baby Rosa the one that says BE MY BABY. But as Darren pointed out she already is!

Art house mead cards

my favourite inspiration for today is this card that I gave to amy and maria because they are moving to london. it is made by art house mead, a brilliant project making things to sell that feature the artworks of adults with learning difficulties. Amy thought I had made this card myself. I love how simple and to the point it is, I think it is so easy to spoil a drawing by over-doing it.  

Ideas and inspiration for today

Sketches of the light up plastic rabbit that Rosa got for Christmas bought from  the brilliant Oklahoma gift shop in Manchester.

Todays inspiration!

A picture in the newspaper of baby pink, baby blue and white pencils that tell you how nice you are. I like the colours, the stripes they make, the font stamped on the pencils, and the sayings. Oh and I like the polka dots in this photo too I don't know why I've always liked polka dots! minnie mouse? Rock n roll skirts?

My inspiration for today

Two sheets of dusty pink tissue paper (from a christmas present), a piece of brown leaves wallpaper, a torn bit of brown envelope and a blue stamp that didn't get stamped! They sort of accidentally ended up together on my table. I love the colours, the subtle shades, the patterns, the feel of the paper, and how nicely they go together.

My inspiration for today

My friend Amy's brilliant website! I just found out that she has put a lot of her art work onto a website and it is great... click here to have a look for yourself.

I like the wonky, sensitive and subtle quality that runs through all of the work. I like the care and time that you can see has gone into each piece. I like the washed out colours. I like that there are a lot of different types of work that all have a similar quality, you can still tell it was all made by the same artist.

I hope if you keep looking back at my inspirations list you will see how these things feed into my own new work.

My inspirations

Starting with what has inspired me today, this interview with the brilliant lisa stubbs on artonomy website... http://www.artonomy.co/2010/10/21/lisa-stubbs-illustrator-artmarketing/ I like the simple colour palattes, the use of pattern in the background and the rosy red cheeks. hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Xx

I can't believe it!

phew finally got round to making a new card out of the doodles I've been doing over the last couple of months! Available in my Etsy shop and stockists soon! I would LOVE to know what you think....

Welcome!

Here is the lovely little reason for not having had a second to update my blog in 10 weeks! Baby Rosa was born at 9:45 on saturday 23rd July weighing 10lbs 5oz, she is so amazing and so exhausting!

Happy Birthday to Kate!

I am just going to meet my friend Kate and I haven't seen her since her birthday in May so I am taking her this birthday card - the first copy of a new design that I have JUST finished minutes ago!

Not all of my sketchbook is inside a sketchbook...

a lot of it is on scraps of paper and things I've found like this picture of foxes on the inside of a cardboard envelope that arrived this morning. Then I keep all of the little scraps in a folder and that is a sketchbook folder.

Learning to draw foxes

Can you tell I haven't got round to looking at a picture of a real fox yet?!

Today

I am practicing drawing different animals and working out very complicated things like what makes a mouse different from a cat and what makes a dog different from a bear and if a mouse has a pointy nose then what makes it different from a fox?!

my painting for today.. a bear playing guitar on a mug with musical notes! I'm hoping to get some similar ones in my etsy shop very soon!!

My drawing for today (an idea for my next cup design)...

Today my drawing is on a cup and saucer - the first one I have ever painted. Hopefully I'll do some more and put them in my Etsy shop soon.