Showing posts with label Illustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Illustration. Show all posts

Monday 8 October 2012

Busy Busy

I have been bad at updating my blog lately but have been kept busy moving house and making all sorts for my Sister's wedding. With Christmas coming up there is plenty for me to do at the moment as I love to hand make as many cards and presents as I can. 

Here is a picture of a card I made for Gilly - a great friend who I met in hospital over the summer. We both share a love of cats and I know she misses hers a lot. The quality of this photo isn't very good (as is the case with most of the photo's I upload on here because I am a bit rubbish with photography/editing) but oh well!




Hopefully I will be uploading pics of the 'Save The Date' cards I have made for my Sister soon but I want to wait until I have sent them all out first so as not to ruin the surprise for any guests who may also follow my blog!

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Engagement!!!

 Big congratulations to my Sister and her partner who got engaged over the weekend! I am so excited for the wedding and we have all been coming up with ideas already! Here is the engagement card I made for them, which hopefully they should receive today in the post.






Wednesday 1 August 2012

Birthday cards, party ideas and creative frustration....

I think I mentioned in a previous post that my Grandma would soon be celebrating her 90th Birthday... Well time has passed very quickly and it is now less than a week before her birthday and I feel quite annoyed with myself for not having started making a card and present a bit earlier. Ideally I would love to visit her on Tuesday when she will be having an afternoon tea party to celebrate both her birthday and her 60th wedding anniversary; I have so many ideas of how I would decorate the room: diamond bunting, place cards, sweet pea garlands, party hats, helium balloons, ahh the list goes on. However time and distance means that all these big ideas will have to wait for another occasion - next time I vow to be more organised rather than wasting my time moping around the house and lazing in the sun!

This evening I did start work on the birthday card; I chose the theme of poppies as this is the birth flower of August. My mood this evening wasn't the greatest, and so the card I started got ripped up and thrown away as I wasn't happy with it. However the envelope escaped my anger outburst so here is a picture of that:


 






The card itself will be similar in design, I would like to find a short poem either about August or poppies but have had no luck so far (except from the famous Flander's Fields one which isn't exactly appropriate!) so if anyone knows of one please let me know! I will post a picture of the card when it is finished - that is if it doesn't get ripped up again!

Monday 30 July 2012

Movie Monday: Where The Wild Things Are

For this weeks film I have chosen Spike Jonze's adaptation of the popular children's book 'Where The Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak.  In case you haven't read the book, the story is about a little boy Max who is unhappy with his life in the real world so runs away, creating a world of his own with beautiful scenery and strange creatures. Max makes himself King of this world and with the help of the creatures attempts to create a paradise where none of the problems of the real world exist. However through the dialogue and interactions with his new friends we see that this is not so easy.

The music makes the film for me - perhaps because some of it is by Arcade Fire (my favourite band). However the set, costumes and cinematography also perfectly capture the simplicity and freedom of childhood. I like that as an audience we remain unsure whether the whole of Max's experience is real or imagined - as this helps to give the story a magical touch.

A great film for both children and adults - it will make you long for an adventure!





"Inside all of us... is a wild thing!"

Friday 27 July 2012

Note to self...








"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember what you have now was once among the things you only hoped for" - Epicurus





Illustration:  1990 Anais Nin - Ferenc Pinter

Monday 23 July 2012

Movie Monday: An Education

I thought I would try to do a post each Monday featuring one of my favourite films, and to start with I chose 'An Education' starring Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina and Peter Sarsgaard.  
The film is based on the real life account of author Lynn Barber, and tells the coming-of-age story of a young girl in the 1960's whose dull and predictable suburban life is transformed by the arrival of a playboy twice her age. It is a tale about the blindness of love, the bitterness of yours dreams not quite living up to your expectations and about the desperation for a different life that's a little bit different.


When I introduced this film to my friends, I was surprised that they were not able to enjoy it as they found Carey Mulligan's character Jenny to be arrogant and irritating. It is true that for a 16 year old she is confident, but I think Mulligan portrays perfectly how at that age self confidence is often just a front, and as the film develops we see that really she is vulnerable and afraid of what life holds for her.


I love the film, and think it truly deserved the Oscar nomination and BAFTAS that it won. As I mentioned, Carey Mulligan is excellent as Jenny and Alfred Molina is also hilarious as her Father. Watch and enjoy :) 



"Well I'm going to be French and I'm going to Paris and smoke and wear black!"

Monday 9 July 2012

Tea Party Invitations

This August my Grandparents it will be both my Grandma's 90th birthday and their 60th wedding anniversary  which is certainly worth a celebration! They have decided to invite friends and neighbours to an afternoon tea , and I offered to make the invitations for them. Here is the final design I came up with:



I chose sweetpeas as these were the flowers at their wedding and in my Grandma's bouquet. The little teacup is detachable so that invited guests can simply fill it out and return it to my Grandparents - and can then keep the invitation as a reminder of the date and time. Overall I feel pleased with the finished product, I would have liked the writing so be a little more elaborate and decorative, but as the majority of the invited guests will be elderly, I felt it needed to be clear and easy to read.

Happy Birthday Grandma and congratulations on your 60th Wedding anniversary!  

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Isobel's birthday card

A birthday card I created using  a mix of watercolours and collage for my Sister's partner's daughter. They have a lovely border collie mix called Poppy who I have drawn in a birthday hat! As I was taking the photographs, my cat Betty got jealous that she wasn't the centre of attention as usual so she decided to get in on the act...





Sunday 1 July 2012

Mint Humbugs



Today marks 2 years since my Grandad passed away. He had a talent for writing funny poems, a song for every occasion and he always had a mint humbug in his pocket! We miss you Grandad!