I'm not sure what this is called....

A very kind individual showed me a net for this paper gadget and i had a fun few hours illustrating my own. I'm not quite sure what the shape is called, but I like it all the same.

Winter Photos

Apart from the slippy nature adding to my normal accident prone-ness I've been enjoying the chilliness so went for a wander and took some pics in and around the lovely town of Ironbridge.

My final Christmas Cards

I have printed and finished my Christmas cards. Now all I have to do is write and address them, not bad for an afternoon's work. I've used the same core design, but created some variety with the structure of the card (horizontal or vertical folds), the internal message and design and the colour of the front design.

Some winter wonderland photography

Just as a little sidetrack from the Christmas cards whilst the weather is so crisp.....

My Favourite Friends

I've just found my favourite friends-my alphabet printing blocks. I plan to use these to print my festive message inside my Christmas cards. I've also had another attempt at the Christmas cards with using another batch of star stencils with the red ink. Although it was much less successful than I had hoped, as the ink ran a lot, I really enjoyed handpainting the decorations on around the "stars" and feel like this could be a nice compromise between my previous ideas if I did a tidier version. However, it was very time-consuming.......possibly a limited edition set?

Christmas Cards Part Two

Strangely I think I actually prefer these cards as pictures of cards than I do in paper version at the moment....

Christmas Cards Part Two

Building upon the idea that Christmas cards should possibly have some tenuous link to Christmas (and I'm not saying that this is set in stone-I'm just throwing out there as a possibility!) I decided to have a go at some "Christmassy" designs. I used stencils of stars and stockings as a motif through a few examples.

I'm still quite undecided about these designs. In one respect, I like the simplicity, and as a result of my gold ink being well past its heyday the surface texture has a nice tactile quality. On the other hand, I catch them out of the corner of my eye and find them a bit bare. I think I am going to have to mull them over for a few days until I have made my mind up about them.

Christmas Cards

My first post on my new blog and I've started to work on my Christmas cards designs (I know at this rate I'll have them posted by mid-June!) I've tried a few different designs.

This was my first attempt, using crimson ink painted in patterns onto white card. I'm planning to use brown paper envelopes to give them a simple, traditional feel. I like the patterns on this version although they still feel a little bit unfinished and I'm not sure that they really reflect Christmas, so much as being a self-indulgent doodle.