Butterfly Dreams!

I can’t believe that it has been a couple weeks since I last blogged! Things have been pretty busy here since my week off, particularly at work. I have mainly spent my time preparing for a promotion interview, which has been in the pipe line for a while now. I have to say that I was pretty nervous about it to say the least as it has been a long time since I was last interviewed. However I am pleased to report that it all went fine, and that the hard work and stress paid off as I got the job!

Obviously I am very pleased about this not only because I felt that I would be good for the role, but also because it's more hours and better pay. This means that the hubby and I can now feasibly begin to save for a mortgage deposit, rather than rent again. It's going to take us a few years or so to do, but I feel like we have a goal to aim towards now and that we are moving in the right direction to eventually having a family.

The role of the job does mean that I will have to work every Saturday, but I will still get Sunday's off and two full days in the week to draw. So really it will give me the best of both worlds, as having full days off rather than my current half days will mean that I can properly settle and get my teeth into a project from start to finish.

On another note, in amongst all of the business I have managed to get a new illustration done, which is going to be used as thank you notes for my birthday. The image features Bella bunny looking up at a butterfly as you can see below:

The image is taken from a sketch that I did back in 2010 which I have been meaning to work it up into a finished image since. So I thought that using it as a thank you card would be the perfect opportunity.

 

Back when I did the original sketch I named it Butterfly Dreams, I think because I felt that it was quite a dreamy scene. The image is pretty much the same as in the original sketch I have just updated the face shape, so that it is more in line with the style that I have used in my more recent work. I am pretty pleased with the outcome so now just need to mock it up into a card and it will be done. As always any feedback you may have will be much appreciated.

 

I hope that you all had a fab weekend, whatever you got up to and that you all have a good week. Thanks for dropping by! x 

Mocked Up New Baby Boy Card for Joshua!

I thought that I should get round to posting the card mock up of my New Baby Boy design that I showed you a couple of posts back. So here it is:

 

We met up with the new parents of baby Joshua last weekend and had a catch up and lots of cuddles with the gorgeous little man, which I have to say made me more than a little broody! They loved the card design and prezzies that we bought them, which consisted of: A Jellycat ellie rattle ring, a Gisela Graham "cute as a button" photo holder, and a lovely Olly & Belle muslin cloth; which I chose because it had blue star's on it to match Bobby's baby grow. I also found an Emma Bridgewater "Starry Skies" gift box to put it all in, again to keep with the star theme.

I have to say that I am glad that they liked the card, as I am  pretty pleased with it too. It's the first time that I have mocked up a card and felt that it is exactly the way that I would like the range to look. It took a lot of fiddling around with fonts, colours and sizes to get the look and feel that I wanted on the finished card, but I got there in the end.

I don't know if you have noticed the little sewn button detail, but this was a little addition that I made to the design after I had given the card to Joshua's parents. The version that I gave them had little sparkly star stickers on it, as I felt that I needed something to finish the design. But even though I liked the design that I gave them, I still didn't feel that it looked quite right. So I started thinking what else I could use to enhance the design, but not over power the image. I tried a bow, but thought that it was a bit girly, and other baby related items such as bottle stickers etc, were to over powering and distracting against the image. Then inspired by the "the cute as a button" gift that we gave Joshua I thought buttons! I was originally going to use blue ones, but the pearl looked more subtle. Then I was going to glue them but thought that sewing them with a coordinating thread might look better & so it did! Ta dah the design was done.

Like my movie themed wedding card design featured in my Happy Easter post. This card is printed onto 250gm canvas effect card and measures 13x13.5cm.

I hope that you have all had a good week and for those of you that are in the UK, I hope that you are enjoying the long Bank Holiday weekend. The weather has been lovely here all week, which worked out nicely as I was off work. I was intending to clear out my spare room/studio and get lots of drawing done, but it was just too nice to stay indoors. So I spent most of the week catching up with friends and spending time in the park with them and their children.

Hopefully the weather is being kind to you too and enjoy the rest of the weekend! I'm back to work tomorrow, but after having the week off I can't really complain about working on a Bank Holiday. x