Tag: illustrations

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5 a Day Greeting Card Collection

I’m happy to announce that my new 5 a Day greeting card collection is now available. 2020 wasn’t the best year and 2021 isn’t off to a great start either, so I figured we all need a bit of cheering up and that’s what this collection is all about. It’s full of silly puns and the easiest way ever to get your five a day. After all, we’ve got enough to deal with without worrying about new year’s resolutions 😆

Happea Valentine card

Greeting cards to make you smile

We all need a boost right now, and my hope is that these fruit and vegetable themed cards will do just that. I’ve collected loads of daft puns, drawn all sorts of cute and silly fruits and veggies to illustrate them and created a range of greeting cards to make you smile. And when you give them to someone else, they’ll smile too. And we can all be happy bunnies for at least some of the time in these crazy times!

via GIPHY

The 5 a Day collection covers a range of occasions, including Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day as well as the usual birthday, anniversary and other occasion cards. And of course there are some that can be sent just because you want to say thanks, or tell someone you miss them.

Here’s a small sampling of some of the cards, but you can see the full range in my shop, and I’ve been gradually adding them to my Etsy store too.

One in a melon mom - mothers day card
Holy Shiitake birthday card
Bean missing you card

Get 5 of the 5 a Day greeting card collection and save

Perhaps you can’t decide which one you like best. Or you’re the organised type who likes to have a stock available so you can give a greeting card at a moment’s notice. If so, you can save with my bundle deals. Buy three or five A6 cards at once and you’ll pay less.

My VIP subscribers also get special deals every time I launch a new collection. This time they’re getting an extra card when they buy 5 in the bundle deal, as well as a 15% discount. You can still get this deal if you sign up and purchase by Sunday 10th January 2021.

become a vip now

(If you’re too late, it’s still worth signing up as you’ll still get the discount on all future purchases and special deals on all future collections. I treat my VIPs very well! You’ll also get a monthly newsletter with the latest news and a roundup of recent blog posts.)

I hope you love this collection as much as I’ve loved creating it! I’d love to hear what you think so feel free to get in touch on Instagram or by email.

VISIT MY SHOP

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Printable Christmas Gift Tags

printable christmas gift tags

Fancy some printable Christmas gift tags? This week I wanted to give you something to say thank you for visiting my blog and all the other support you’ve shown me.

The gift tags designs are based on some of the illustrations I’ve done for my Christmas card collection so you can also buy a card to match too if you like.

To get your gift tags, just sign up as a VIP subscriber below. Next week, when I send out my monthly newsletter, you’ll get your printable Christmas gift tags as well! If you’re already a VIP then you don’t need to do anything, they’ll arrive in your inbox next week anyway!

become a vip now

My subscribers are really important to me, so I do my best to treat them well (they are VIPs after all!)

Why you’ll love being a VIP!

When you subscribe you’ll get access to a couple of other freebies immediately. Every so often I also send out an additional treat in the monthly newsletter. You’ll also get a 15% discount off anything in my online greeting card shop (or 10% off in my Etsy store) – every time you shop!

When I release a new collection you will get other special offers too. Sometimes it will be a bigger discount, sometimes a free gift, sometimes another offer like BOGOF or similar. So it really is worth your while to sign up if you like my cards 😊

I only ever send out a newsletter once a month so you don’t have to worry about getting inundated like the cat on the right! The only exception is when you first sign up. You’ll get a few introductory emails within the first couple of weeks. This is just so we can get to know each other a bit better. After that it’s just once a month. Because I’m all about the drawing, not the writing…

My newsletter will also update you on any new blog posts that I’ve added, as well as new products in my shop. And obviously you’ll be the first to hear when I release a new collection!
Of course you can always unsubscribe if you decide you’re no longer interested. Even if you just want to get your hands on the gift tags next week, you could unsubscribe as soon as you get them. But you’d be missing out 😉

So sign up now and enjoy your freebies. And I’ll see you in your inbox next week with your printable Christmas gift tags – I can’t wait!

become a vip now

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Custom Illustration Prints as Gifts

Custom illustration prints - Eiffel Tower

As well as selling greeting cards and doing custom cartoon portrait cards, did you know I also do custom illustration prints that make great personalised gifts? You may already have seen some of the cartoon portrait prints I do, but enjoy doing other custom illustration too.

I was approached recently by someone who had seen this drawing of Tower Bridge that I did a while ago. She want a collection of specific landmarks and places in the same style to put in some new frames she and her husband had bought, including the Tower Bridge illustration.

Here’s what I came up with. She chose the subject of each custom illustration print and let me know what size they each needed to be to fit her frames.

Custom illustration prints - Lions at Trafalgar Square
Lions at Trafalgar Square
Little Mermaid Copenhagen
Little Mermaid Copenhagen
Lyme Park
Lyme Park
Stippy Stappy St Agnes
Stippy Stappy St Agnes
The Ritz
The Ritz
The Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge

Each of those places was special to her and her husband in one way or another so now every time they look at their prints they’re reminded of the memories associated with each illustration.

I loved doing completely different illustrations to my usual for this order – I do enjoy doing the cartoon portraits, but it’s nice to have a change as well 🙂

A custom illustration of a place or topic that is special to the person you’re giving it to would make a really great personalised gift that you know they’ll love. And I’m happy to adapt to a variety of different styles to suit your tastes, from the detailed monochrome drawings above to my usual cartoonish style, or perhaps something in-between.
Here’s an example of a custom cartoon family portrait I did earlier this year for a wonderfully loyal customer – this would be ideal as a Christmas or birthday gift for parents or grandparents. If you’re interested in the process behind this particular portrait then I wrote about it here: My custom cartoon portrait process.

Custom illustration prints
So if there’s anything particular you have in mind then please feel free to get in touch. My cartoon portraits are all available to order in my shop, but if you’d like something more customised or even completely different, like the landmark illustrations, then I’m always happy to quote based on the time it will take to complete.

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New Christmas Card and Seasonal Collection

snow joke Christmas Card

I’m very excited to let you know that my new Christmas card and seasonal greeting card collection for the holidays is now available in my shop. This collection is for those people who you want to give an extra special card to this Christmas or holiday. People like significant others, parents, best friends. The ones you love the most!
If you buy a lot of cards for a lot of people then I hope you’ll support a charity by buying your cards from one of their shops. My cards are for when you need something a bit different for your very favourite humans! They’re all A5 sized, which is quite a bit bigger than a standard card but can still be posted with an ordinary letter stamp.
You can see the full collection in my greeting card shop, or take a look at a selection below.

Cards for your significant other

For your other half you can choose from a selection of romantic, cheeky or cute cards…

Melt my heart snow couple card
silver jingle bells card
you light up my life holiday card
Or why not get a custom cartoon couple portrait drawn of you and your favourite squeeze in Christmas outfits?

Holiday cards from the whole family

For parents/grandparents, give a card from the whole family.

snow family holiday card
Or these family cartoon portrait Christmas cards are as unique as you can get…

Holiday cards for besties

And don’t forget your best friend!

Christmas cards for businesses

Of course if you have a small business, your top clients are also very special, so why not send a holiday card that stands out from the usual corporate seasonal greetings? They’re A5 size so there’s plenty of space for everyone to sign.

You can also order these in a smaller size in bulk, or have an inside message printed – get in touch with me for a quote.

Unique to 2020

And finally, we’re all going to remember the 2020 holiday season as the year of the pandemic. That’s no reason not to make this Christmas as special as possible anyway though!
xmas jumper lockdown card
I hope you like the new Christmas card and seasonal collection. I’m always happy to quote for completely custom cards too if you have something very specific in mind.

I also offer bundle deals to buy 3 or 5 ready to ship cards at a time, which give you a bit of a discount, as most of us have more than one special person in our lives 🥰

See the full collection in my greeting card shop.

VISIT MY SHOP
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Creative Inspiration: A book review

The Joy of Watercolor - Emma Block

Everyone needs a bit of creative inspiration now and then, and I’m no different. I think it’s important to keep learning and stay creative, and books are my favourite way of doing this. Fiction teaches me more about other people by putting me in someone else’s shoes for a while. And non-fiction teaches me more about myself and hopefully helps me to be better at art, in my greeting card business and with life in general.

The Joy of Watercolor by Emma Block

This week I’m reviewing Emma Block’s book, The Joy of Watercolor: 40 Happy Lessons for Painting the World Around You. I’ve been a fan of her work for a while, and have dabbled a bit with watercolours, so decided to treat myself at the beginning of lockdown. I bought it on Amazon and if you click the picture to the right you’ll be taken there to buy the book if you fancy a copy of your own. (The links are affiliate links, so if you do buy I will get a small commission, but it won’t cost you anything extra.)

What I love about Emma’s painting is that she manages to make everything look so fresh and modern. A lot of watercolour paintings are a bit wishy washy and, while still beautiful, all seem to end up looking the same.

What creative inspiration is in the book?

Emma Block starts the book with an introduction and short history of watercolours and how she got started with them. She then goes into a bit of depth regarding the materials you need or can use, including paints, brushes, paper and more. There is also a section on colour theory and some exercises to practise mixing colours and using different techniques.

In terms of creative inspiration, the bulk of the book is made up of the 40 projects she walks you through. Projects are divided up into sections: Flowers, Fruit, Plants, Objects, etc. There is also a section on Painting on Location. The projects are also labelled as Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced, so there’s a range of difficulty levels to suit anyone. Within each project she lets you know what tools or materials you’ll need and the colours she used. She then talks you through the steps of recreating the paintings, with her own drawings and paintings to demonstrate.

The first project I worked on was the Blue Hydrangeas (I love love LOVE hydrangeas). It’s a Beginner project. I think I made the mistake of overdoing it, so mine doesn’t have the same simple appeal as her one. I’m not massively proud of it, as it’s a bit blurry and doesn’t have much contrast, but it was a good lesson to learn! And hopefully I’ll get better with practice. It was also fun to do something different from the cartoon portraits I usually spend my time drawing 😁.

Creative Inspiration: Blue Hydrangea

Would I recommend it?

Yes, I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in watercolour painting. It’s just as lovely to page through and look at Emma’s paintings as it is to work on the projects yourself. Not sure why the American spelling of ‘watercolor’ is used as Emma Block is British and works and teaches classes in London, but this obviously doesn’t affect the book itself or the gorgeous pictures in it.

The book would also make a terrific gift for someone else who is a bit arty. Whether they’re just looking for creative inspiration or want to have a go at watercolour painting themselves, I’m sure they’d love it.