Doppelganger zine - call for entries

My my, Miss Franipeg has been a busy bear!

Ever since our first conversation about zines she's been working on a new idea for a cool artists' book, called Doppelganger. It started off with my comment "wouldn't it be cool to do an Exquisite Corpse type thing as a zine..." and from that she built an extraordinarily more awesome idea...

This here be her call for entries to the book - you can see the full deets here.

The gunslinger shown in the pic (but is he a ghost? You'll have to wait and seeeeeeee!) is Fran's own entry for the book, which I think is a superb start.

The entry I am proposing will be totally different, but that's part of the fun - to see how people react to/adapt the initial brief. Mine will probably include a unicorn... Or perhaps a ghost-icorn... who knows!

If you'd like to contribute some artwork, and have your illustration bound into a neat book and sold at conventions around the country (excellent publicity, methinks) then go have a look at the Doppelganger FB page and Doppelganger blog.

I'll update when I've decided on my final illustration for the book... ooh, exciting!

I ♥ treasury features

As busy as I often am making my own pretty things, it is nice to take a break every now and then and look through gorgeous lists of Etsy treasuries for inspiration.

Oooh, such tempting pretty things! I love seeing peoples' interpretations of a particular theme/colour/concept, and it's even nicer when you come across treasuries that feature some of your own items - it warms me inside to think that out of the hundreds of items of every colour/subject possibly, they chose something of mine to make it into their carefully chosen selection of 16 items!

Here are some of my recent favourites:

Spring Time Bliss // featuring origami crane necklace

Time To Celebrate Her... // featuring pink and red hearts hot air balloon brooch

There she B L O W S... // featuring blue and red spinning pinwheel brooch

growing in the garden // featuring pink wooden butterfly necklace

hello color // featuring red and aqua pinwheel necklace

M is for mail, for moon and for monster // featuring origami paper par avion bow brooch

Going to the fair // featuring floral pinwheel necklace

Dreams are forever // featuring purple wooden butterfly necklace

Thanks to all the lovely Etsy sellers who featured my items in their treasuries!

the gift of (somewhat hideous) owls

I'm not quite sure how it's possible, but I seem to have inadvertantly forced my lovely friend Laura to start collecting owls. It could be partly due to the fact that they are still just about everywhere at the moment despite my attempts to pass the title of internet's best bird to the more-deserving pink parrot, and partly because I find them popping up in the most ridiculous places/situations.

The first owl I ever gave to Laura was a housewarming gift - a fairly hideous, but somehow also wonderful, kitsch owl-shaped teapot. I gave it to her with the proclamation, "if you think it's too hideous, I'll gladly take it back home with me". Amazingly, she accepted it and it has lived on her bookshelf ever since.

Since then, every time I see a hideous/fabulous owl in any form I will almost definitely buy it for her...

Wonderful crocheted owl magnets? I bought her two.
Insane looking enamelled owl beads? She'll be getting them very soon (shhh!)
A weird owl head on a key pendant? How could I possibly resist?

You've got to admit - the owl head on a key is pretty special just on its own, but perhaps it'd be even better with a bit of snazzing up... let's add some Swarovski crystal eyes... and some more crystal beads... and perhaps a couple more charms... and a nice long chain so it's nice and obvious if she ever wears it... PERFECT!

I can't wait to let my imagination and bead box run wild with this - I'm sure she'll love it!

all the fun of the Zombie Rockin' fair

I thought perhaps I should share some pics from Zombie Rockin' - these photos are all from Joe Pop who makes wonderful kitsch cards - go check him out!

Clockwise from top: the fab Naughty Monsters stall featuring monster and zombie plushes by my awesome friend Emma, my gorgeous friends Kate of Kate's Fascinators and Alice of Stitch Your Soul, various zombie-inspired costumes, and finally it's me in my derby gear all calavera-ed up.

It was a day of immense fun, hence the lack of photos - we were all too busy chatting/selling/making friends with random members of London Rockin' Rollers who turned up *swoon*

I didn't get any pics from the day of Miss Fran of Monsieur Monsteur, Nicola of More Brains, Vicar or Fabrice of Kaiser Calavera, but they were all there too...

Woooohoooo, a fun day indeed!

my favourite things this week #68

♥ this cute Catbus wall pocket would look ace in my studio

♥ I have to have this never nude pin from LeighLaLovesYou

♥ Thor Pracercising. Enough said.

♥ the most amazing Bowser sweater for a turtle by lovely Jennifer of Squirrel Picnic

♥ how awesome would a candle that smells like Sherlock's study be? clever Frostbeard Studio!

♥ talking of Sherlock - this gorgeous gal cosplayed as 221B Baker Street!

♥ aww, a sweet Beemo teapot by Jadeflower

♥ woah - these cat donuts from my paper crane are just adorable!

♥ incredible steampunk AT-AT liquor cabinet by Colin Johnson

a rather bizarre illustration request

I try and make an effort to draw birthday cards for friends and family, and it's usually incredibly amusing to be told what the boy wants me to draw for his friends or family's cards. The planned drawing for his younger brother's birthday next week was no exception.

"Wolves and tanks are manly, right? Could you draw a picture of a wolf driving

or riding in a paintball tank? It doesn't have to be realistic..."

Having had no experience of wolves driving or riding in vehicles of any sort, I found this a slightly difficult request, though of course the fact that it "didn't have to be realistic" (!) was something of a bonus. It's not easy to know how a wolf would look inside a paintball tank, or the angles at which his paws and tail would poke outside the tank opening, but hey ho, it didn't have to be realistic, and realistic it certainly was not.

In the end my "wolf" looked rather more like a dog than I had hoped, but I think the general gist is there, even if it was a fairly ridiculous concept to begin with...

derby update and our next bout

My not-even-begun-yet derby career has hit another bump in the road. After weeks and weeks of back pain, doc wants me to go for an MRI scan to see what on earth is going on with it and why it's not stopped hurting for the last couple of months.

I'm only very slightly worried about it... I mean, it's not like I get panic attacks in stressful situations or freak out at the idea of being trapped... oh, right, yeah, I guess that is kind of true. But I'm sure it'll be fine. And my back will be fine and everything will all be OK *deep breaths*

Nevertheless, that sure as hell doesn't mean that I'm not going to be involved in derby while I'm in limbo - hells no! I won't be NSOing at the next bout *sad face* but I am going to be working the merchandise stand - woo! Come and buy pretty things!

Our next game of the season is on Saturday 15th June, and it's against the awesome Mean Valley Roller Girls - it looks set to be a great game, so why not come along and perhaps I'll lend you my pom poms and homemade Hell's Belles flags... as long as you promise to wave them around like a maniac!

zine "research" ...aka zine wishlist

Ever since meeting the lovely Franipeg (yep, that name is staying with you) of Monsieur Monsteur at Zombie Fest the other week, we've been chatting about how much we both want to make a series of mini books or zines.

Obviosuly, I immediately headed to Etsy to get my research on. And I've only bought a few of the ones shown, honest. They all look so pretty and super inspiring, it's hard to resist...

1// 2// 3// 4// 5// 6// 7// 8// 9// 10// 11// 12//

I guess the most obvious theme out of this selection is animals. I'm pretty sure that they will feature heavily in my mini books, though I imagine Fran's will have more monsters and cool stuff. She's a proper illustration graduate and I'm a printmaker who no longer finds time to print but still draws and makes stuff with glitter, so it will be pretty neat to see what we come up with.

The annoying thing is that while I have tonnes of ideas for characters I don't have much in the way of storylines for any of them, so mine could end up just being a picture book, which is kinda cute, but I'd rather there was a teeny bit of a narrative.

I'll keep working on it... but storyline suggestions will always be welcome!

summer holiday planning

I wonder if you can guess where the boy and I are planning to go for our summer holiday?