Well, it's been a long time since I last posted.  I've been busy working away on some lovely, new things which I'll share in a moment.  First though, in my last post I talked about Paperchase and how things could only get bigger and better.  Well they did!  Paperchase bought my monochrome cats and dogs designs from Paper and Cloth which looked like this.....very grey.....

.....added a splash of colour.....

.....and turned them into these.....

.....a journal, giftwrap, and notecards (which I haven't got a photo of).  

copyright Paperchase 2106

My little girl was very excited spotting these in Paperchase. It's always lovely seeing your designs out and about in the world, and really interesting and fun seeing what companies do with them. 

I've also been working on designing and printing my own greetings cards.  It may not sound that exciting to most people, but to me.....it seriously is.  I have absolutely loved the whole process so far.  From designing the cards and getting them printed, to researching how and where I'm going to sell them, plus all the not so exciting stuff like packaging for orders, couriers, line sheets, and learning all about wholesale.  I've loved the lot! There's a lot more to it than I first thought to be honest, but after all the hours of research and preparation, the shops and galleries I've approached have really liked my cards and placed orders......so.....fingers crossed it will be successful!  

I've also updated my website to show my new greetings cards.  Here's a few which have been beautifully photographed by the lovely Susan Guest Photography. 

Lots of work still to do.  I have 1000 greetings cards in the dining room which need to be individually bagged in cellophane wraps.  That'll keep me busy for a few hours (or days!).

Last week I spotted a design I did for Paper and Cloth in Paperchase.  It's always been a dream of mine to see my work in there.  They may only be incy wincy teeny weeny tiny little stickers, but my work is in Paperchase, so I'm happy.  (It's a start, and everyone has gotta start somewhere right?!  Things can only get bigger and better!) 

Here's the original artwork

copyright of Paperchase 2015

a presentation sheet I'd done

copyright of Paperchase 2015

and the finished product in store

I've been busy working away for the past few months getting my portfolio ready for Surtex 2015!

My little elephant plus a whole host of animals and brand new exciting designs will be heading over to New York within the next few weeks.  Wish I was going with them!

Today while I was having my usual Pinterest fix, I spotted a design I did in the summer for Paper and Cloth. It's always lovely when you spot your work out there and printed up. It sold to Papyrus and is part of the Forever Happy Collection by Marcel Schurman.  Available over here at Papyrus online.

©Schurman Retail Group

New Year New Things

It's a new year!  It's also way too late to say happy new year, so I won't, but I do hope that 2015 is a good one for all of you.  New year...new logo...new website...new blog header...new course...I love new, don't you!

First up, new logo.  I never really designed my old logo (see below).  I just used this black box with 'paintlove studio' typed in it, or just typed 'paintlove studio' on my work in a very boring standard typeface...not very interesting.

So here's the new logo...ta dah!  It's still very simple (I like simple) but it is hand lettered instead of typed, and as my business name consists of the words paint and love, it has a splodgy strip to suggest the paint, and hearts over the letter I's for love.  I love scallop edging as well so had to have a bit of that in there.

and below a simpler version without the painted background colour. 

Much better than my old logo I think.  Next up, my new website!!  I hadn't really planned on making a new website at this time.  My portfolio was happily displayed over on the lovely Moyo directory along with 516 other surface pattern designers. Bit of a surprise when a few months ago, we had notice that the Moyo directory was closing, but the definite push I needed to get my own website up and running.  So here it is www.paintlovestudio.co.uk. Click on the link if you would like to have a little look around.

Finally, a new course. Module 3 of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design starts tomorrow and I can't wait!  The first two modules were brilliant and I know this one will also be packed full of information.  I know quite a bit about freelancing and licensing having worked in the business for a few years now, but I know less about manufacturing and selling my own products.

Years ago, I used to make and hand paint clocks and individual greetings cards and sell them to the little 'new age' shop I used to work in (all wind chimes, incense sticks, tie dye, whale music...you know the type). They sold pretty well, but the clocks took hours to make, even the cards were individual collages, each one completely unique. With hindsight, I should have framed the collaged cards and sold them as artworks for a lot more, but I was very inexperienced and thrilled just to have my work in a shop with people buying them.   I did it for a couple of years, it was fun, but definitely more of a hobby than a business at that time. I do remember though, how exciting it was to make and sell my own work as a finished product.  I'm really looking forward to doing that again which is why I've signed up for this fabulous course.  I'll be posting about my progress as I go and can't wait till tomorrow to get started!

Happy Christmas!!

It's Christmas Eve, one of my favourite days of the year. The house is all sparkly and Christmassy (here's our teeny tiny tree in the front room...we do have a big tree in the kitchen diner but I haven't got a decent photo of it).  The presents are all bought and wrapped, cards are all sent, food shopping is done, house is cleaned (a bit), just time to relax, watch a Christmas movie and get ready for my favourite bedtime of the year.

 My three are a little bit worried this year because I've been reading them The Empty Stocking by Richard Curtis and Rebecca Cobb.  It's my absolute favourite Christmas book of recent years and the kids love it too.  Here's a couple of the lovely illustrations by Rebecca Cobb.  

It's a wonderful story that always has my little ones mouth drop wide open in shock when Santa actually does leave an empty stocking.  Hopefully that won't happen here tonight. I've got three very excited (and slightly worried) little people who cannot wait to find out.

So, Happy Christmas everybody. Hope you all have a good one.  Here's a few mince pies I made just for you (I'm rubbish at baking so I've drawn them instead) xx

Well, it's been a LONG time since my last post. Was it really May?!! Can't even blame the school summer holidays for that one. I meant to post in September after the madness of the summer holidays had gone, but that month just disappeared into nowhere.  Now autumn is in full swing (freezing today), the kids are back at school, and routine has (sort of) returned to our lives.

It's been a busy summer here.  Work has had to take a bit of a back seat over the holidays but I did manage to get some new designs done for the lovely Paper and Cloth to take to Printsource. Other things that have made me happy this summer are I got my first little mention over on the Paper and Cloth blog (I'm seriously easily pleased) and I sold some work at Printsource which made me really happy.

I was a bit disappointed I couldn't finish Lilla's Assignment Bootcamp as I was loving it, but there just aren't enough designing hours in the day for me.  I did use the June theme of ships in bottles for some new nautical work for Paper and Cloth but missed out completely on the final July assignment.

The rest of my summer was filled with taking the kids out and about, a little holiday at the seaside, a huge clear out of the entire house, and a big clear out of my diet. I've finally gone vegan after over 20 years of being vegetarian.  Loving it as well, haven't even missed chocolate which was a nice surprise, thought I'd be desperate.

I've just signed up for another design course (think I'm addicted). I was gonna give online courses a bit of a miss from now on because I've struggled to fit them around proper design work.  However, there's one last course I just couldn't miss out on and that's The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design Module 3.  Probably the most important of all the courses I've done so far as this one is all about monetising your designs.  I really want to go into manufacturing my own cards, giftwrap, and products (while keeping up the freelancing and licensing) but it's an area I know nothing about, so I decided it's time to do it.  It starts January 2015 and I'll be posting my progress along the way. (I promise...been a bad blogger lately, but as its in January and I'll be trying to stick to my New Years Resolutions (one of which will be do more blog posts) I should be okay)  In the meantime here's a bit of what I got up to on the previous ABSPD course.

Papercutting, markmaking, painting, and photoshopping, plus much more.  I loved Modules 1 and 2 and can't wait for Module 3 to start!

For now though, it may only be early October, but I'm in Christmas mode as I'm working on designs for Christmas 2015  for the lovely people over at Abacus cards.  The white paint's out and it's snowflake painting time for me!