It's Nearly That Time Of Year Again!

Yes, the love hearts are out!

I'm currently in the middle of making a few new designs but for now here's a peek at some of the lovely gifts I have available that would make a great valentines card or gift!

1. Bentley the Bear Heart Brooch! £4.50

2. Lovebirds Art Print from £5.00 - £12.00

3. Wolfy Love Greeting Card £2.50 (Art prints also available)

4. You Make Me Boggle Greeting Card £2.50 A great inside joke for the rat lover in your life!

5. I Labr-Adore You Greeting Card £2.50 (available in Yellow, Chocolate and Black)

There's something for everyone over at Silly Badger Designs and it's not only about the love although that is important, there's nothing wrong with a good dose of love hearts and romance, every one needs a bit of that every now and then!

So go check out some fun products whilst I get back to working on some new ones that will be available from next week! There will be an update to announce their arrival!

In the meantime I'm also planning a month blog post focussing on my experiences as an Etsy shop owner/small business owner/freelance illustrator. It's a work in progress, what can I say! I think I'm just looking to do something light hearted and fun and to give a bit of an insight in to my life and my job which seems to cover three things at least!

I can promise you most of the experiences I have in mind to write about are rather amusing and very silly and they're those things that just happen.

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year as I don't believe I have said that yet!

Early Festive Discount!

From now until midnight on Sunday the 5th November (GMT) you can grab yourself 10% off all Christmas products in the shop!

This includes cards, gift tags and decorations for all you early birds out there!

No code is needed as the discount has already been applied! So go enjoy and get super organised unlike myself...

Have a great weekend!

Colouring Pages!

This has been a new adventure for me as I had never offered this kind of listing before, it's a nice listing as I have less work to do... Me not enjoy going to the post office? Whatever do you mean!? ;)

But this past week among other things I have been working hard on transforming some former pages of line art in to some fun downloadable colouring pages!
These products don't include any physical item, instead once you've made your order you will be emailed a link via etsy to download as many copies of the lineart you like so that you can print them out and colour them to your hearts content!

These colouring pages are suitable for all ages of colouring enthusiasts like myself, yes even an illustrator enjoys colouring in things other people have drawn!

There are currently three designs available.

Blue Tits

A fun illustration featuring a cute pair of blue tits in a catkin tree!

Great Tits

A busier illustration of a couple of great tits in a tree surrounded by foliage.

Woodland Badger

The busiest of the bunch, my woodland badger surrounded by spring flowers including daffodils and violas.

So whatever your level of skill or need is at there's something to suit anyone here, so if you're interested go to the Silly Badger Designs Shop now to get your paws on some!

Happy Colouring!

End of July Etsy Update!

Silly Badger Designs Shop!

Yes, it has finally happened! The Etsy shop has had a nice shiny update with some super fun new items! I've had lots of fun creating this lot and have had so many good comments already! What a great way to end July!

So what's new? I hear you ask! Well to start of I'm going to show off a product that should have been made a while ago. If you've been reading my blog for a while now you may remember my little high fiving raccoon affectionately named Meeko after the raccoon in the Disney Pocahontas film. Well I absolutely love that little guy but he's never been made in to anything, he was just available through my redbubble shop but in such an ocean of artwork I feel like he gets a bit lost in the crowd.
So earlier this year I turned him in to a cute celebration card!

And now you can get your paws on him through the shop!

Next up is one of my new art prints, I've actually listed 4 new art prints to the shop in this update including my two new wildlife prints of a fox and a rabbit, a lovebird print that's looking very adorable even if I do say so myself and this...

Meet Bailey bear. Bailey started life as a daily doodle to make myself happy. I am having a bear moment right now so anything beary goes! When I posted a picture of the doodle up on instagram I had a lot of people saying they loved him and thought I should make it in to a real drawing and of course I didn't need much encouragement to do so. So Bailey came to be and he's just brilliant. He's available as both an A5 and an A4 print and is proving to be a hit with people wanting artwork for their bathrooms!

And the final product I'm going to feature today is something a little different to my usual. I have been toying with the idea of making new products, something different and handmade so when I got my paws on some printable shrink plastic there was no stopping me.

You may recognise the ratty designs from a lot of my previous ratty work, they feature on the cover of my ratty zine, ratty faces design on redbubble and my rat mum/mom and dad designs. I made them in to charms and made some little bag charms out of them with lots of beads and fun. For those who don't know, I'm not only an illustrator, I'm just a crafty little badger who makes lots of different quirky things!
These ratties were so much fun to make and I'm hoping people will like them. I'm also planning on potentially putting together a little ratty gift bundle as it gets closer to the festive season and it will probably include one of these alongside the zine and a bookmark.

As always, all of my products are completely hand made by myself so they are all made with love, if you're interested in what you've seen or would like to see more of the update as I didn't want to make a mega post full of products you can go over to the Silly Badger Designs Shop and take a peek or even buy something!

Thanks for being awesome!

Folksy Fun

Well yesterday was our last craft fair of this season, it's been lots of fun and we've met some wonderful people and the positive comments from people about my work has been fantastic. If I was ever doubting what I do before I now know for sure that I'm doing this right.
That's a huge confidence boost for someone who has never done a business course or an art degree!

But due to low funds and a slow summer I'm going to have to slow down a bit on the craft fairs, not to mention time to actually prepare for them is getting slim as other commitments are cropping up all the time! And if I'm to be honest, after the past couple of months I'm close to burning out. Not that I haven't enjoyed it because it has been such a fantastic experience and I've loved it but I've forgotten how to balance things so I think I need to take a couple of months out before getting back in to fairs.

So if you came and saw us, a huge thank you to you and to the super people who bought from me, you're amazing and you made me do a happy dance!

In other news...

                                                       

I now have a Folksy shop to go with my Etsy shop! I've ignored Folksy for some time but recently have been wanting to expand my audience a bit so I started looking around at what was available... I was shocked to find Folksy being rather awesome!
So, putting my hatred for prouct descriptions aside I joined there and then and I have no regrets. I don't have too many products available so far as I haven't had the time to properly sit down and get organised what with the craft fair happening and then Etsy orders cropping up but so far I've had a fantastic reaction and I'm really enjoying it.

You can find my Folksy shop by going here

I'm hoping to add more to the shop soon and potentially add some little one of a kinds up like the odd needle felted item or original paintings, there will be some different listings to what's on my etsy shop from time to time which I will advertise here or over on my Instagram

I've also been playing with my shop packaging lately and giving it a few little twists, I now have a thank you card to send out with orders, something I've been wanting to do for a while now and I also have a little fun project involving confetti! Don't worry, there's not much in there but it adds a little fun like receiving a gift through the post.

This week there are a lot of life things happening which is of course very bleh... I have to be very tidy which for a creative can be fairly difficult!
I also have an art trade going on which is lots of fun, I can't wait to get working on it more! I have lots to keep me busy!

So for now that is all, as before thank you if you came down to the craft fairs and said hi, it's been awesome and thank you to everyone who has been supporting me lately. It keeps me going on the dark days that make me want to give up!

And as a final note,go check out Lemon's Lovely Loot you can find lots of awesome, shiny, fun items! Go check it out!

Have a great week!

Bear Cushions

As many of you know, I'm an artist on Redbubble where I sell most of my designs, you can get them printed on many products from clothing to phone cases to notebooks and cushions and many many more!

A while back when I first finished my moon and sun bear designs my mum wanted them on cushions for her bedroom so bought one of each.

And here they are!

I meant to make a post about these when they first arrived but I had so many other things come up that I completely forgot.

Now I want to say I am not being payed or bribed to say anything good about redbubble themselves. I have been a member/artist on there for over two years now and it's been a fantastic experience for me.

But if there was anything crap I wouldn't be against letting the world know.

Firstly these cushion covers are printed on both sides, something redbubble don't make very clear but they really should as it's a big selling point for me. I was shocked at the double print and at the quality of the fabric. They're not rough fabric but it's sturdy enough to take a beating.

The designs themselves also came out beautifully, much better than I was expecting as at the time I was seriously doubting whether I'd done these well enough. They are however fantastic and I had nothing to fret over!

                                              

The bright greens and blues came out perfectly on Moon Bear, she is also perfectly clear and really does look like a painting on the fabric. I've given them both a faint lilac tint for their backgrounds and it really seems to make them pop.

                                              

And of course the bright yellows and oranges on sun bear really showed up well giving her a bright yet calm look, again looking like I'd done the painting straight on to the fabric.

I will admit... sun bear is actually my favourite of the two! Shush, don't tell moon bear!

It was so nice to see this design come to life and printed on something other than an art print, not that the art prints are bad but they aren't as much fun as something you can squish and cuddle up to whilst reading a book or watching a film.

All in all I can highly recommend redbubbles cushions as they're a good quality and a good price with reasonable shipping and delivery.

If you're interested in either of these designs you can go to my Redbubble shop here to find them on a variety of fun products. 

Or you can go directly to my Etsy shop here where you can get your paws on art prints and bookmarks with this design.

10% Off This Bank Holiday Weekend!

Get 10% off every order over £5.00 this weekend until Tuesday! 

Just use MAYBANK10 code at the checkout in my Etsy Shop

To celebrate the bank holiday weekend and our first ever craft fair this Sunday we're offering a 10% discount off all orders over £5.00 when you use code MAYBANK10 at the checkout!

This includes everything in the shop including pet portraits!

So if you've been eyeing anything up or have a favourite you've been wanting to get now's your chance!

So head over to Silly Badger Designs and take a look at what you can get your paws on!

Here at Badger HQ we're getting the finishing touches done for tomorrow with some last minute packaging, checking off lists and generally being exhausted! Hopefully if the gloomy weather fades we can also enjoy a good BBQ this afternoon as a reward!!

Thanks for all of the support and have a fantastic weekend!

Manic May!

Oh May, you really have been a manic and crazy month!

May was filled with me not knowing whether I was coming or going, feeling like I had no control over anything (seriously, from my work, personal life, future and even my own emotions/sanity!) and it was... difficult. The thing I like to remind myself of at these times is that I have actually survived this month!

But it hasn't all been bad, I spent time with my partner just laughing and trying to forget the world, we did our 12 mile walk that my feet and legs are still recovering from! But I could never regret such a wonderful day out in the sun. I have never appreciated ice lollies so much!

We also did a lot of baking this month, I'm sure my waistline won't like it but oh it was so good! And besides it was my mums birthday so we of course had to have cake... ;)

I officially registered as Silly Badger Designs this month which blew me away a little. My baby is growing before my eyes! Even though I have been suffering from horrible art block throughout this whole month.

But I did get my little wren and her finch friends designs completed and finally made those brooches I've been talking about for so long. It's always a good feeling when you finally do that thing you've kept putting off and then you're left wondering why you left it so long in the first place... ah the human mind is brilliant at times!

I also made better packaging for my jewellery items that feature my logo and leaf design. It's amazing how much happier I am with these than I was before.

I'm not trying to look too commercial but at the same time I like them looking clean and I guess at the same time I don't have to worry about them getting lost or damaged any more!

Pet portraits were also listed on my Etsy shop, something I've been meaning to do for a long while now! I guess this month was filled with projects that have been waiting far too long.

That includes joining pinterest!! You can find me HERE although please remember I am very new to this... I'm worse than an old person when it comes to technology and social media... I have spent too much off my life off in day dreams or roaming outside to be too savvy with this.. oh that's so bad to say at my age! But I am trying ;)

As I mentioned earlier I did suffer from lots of art blocks this month. Now that might not seem too bad until you remember that art is how I make my living so having a block can end up being a spanner in the works. And of course because I can't draw I get flustered which just leads to me still not being able to draw... it's a vicious cycle unfortunately! I know it's partly down to me working too much. I will spend more hours than I should working each day (it's currently 5 minutes to midnight as I write this now!) and when I'm not working I'm usually thinking about it and what I can do next.

With the rest of my little world spinning round I seem to have grabbed my work as something I am completely in control of and I now can't let go.

I'm not sure if this is a common thing for people just starting up or whether it's just me but I know for the sake of my sanity and my work, I need to get a better work/life balance. You know, have fun and relax without someone having to physically force me to!

So throughout June I plan to actually have time to myself where I don't work! I also plan lots of work too! :P I'm hoping to get more in to pinterest over the next few weeks as well as actually updating my website! It's in need of an update as it's hiding back in last year, back before so much happened!

Etsy will also be getting a freshen up and hopefully some more items will be added! and most of all, I really want to sit down lots this month and just paint lots. I really miss painting and just sketching in general so it would be nice to just work on art and creating beautiful things! Let's hope for a Jolly June where everything goes well and I finally let go of this illusion of control!

I will admit though, I did fight through the block at one point and came up with a few designs this month. My partner has shown me so many pictures and gifs of raccoons (sorry, trash pandas!) lately that I've become a bit obsessed with them. I found myself drawing this little chap and I think I'm in love with him.

Those little paws just scream high five to me and hey, who wouldn't want a high five from a cute little trash panda! So here's a high five to everyone who got through May! We survived!

I hope you all had a wonderful month and if not, I hope June makes up for it!

Happy Bank Holiday!

This wonderful bank holiday weekend I am offering 10% off all orders through my etsy shop! Offer ends midnight on Monday 30th May!

Just use coupon code MAY16 at the checkout to receive your discount!!

To go to my shop and check it out click HERE

Have an awesome weekend!!

Dealing With Self Doubt.

Now as you all know, I started my art business properly on the 4th of February this year. It was a massive thing and I was running on such a buzz at pressing the open shop button for a good few weeks.

But starting a business is tough. Well to be fair doing anything is tough and doubts start to kick in.
The worst part I've found about my job is that I can spend weeks putting my heart and soul in to work, working through the night, full on through the day to the point where I forget to eat or my newest thing, forgetting to pee! I do the shuffle well cos, I'll stop just after the next line... or the next... It truly is madness!
But anyway, you do that for a few weeks and get it all going and then you get nothing in return, in fact I'm now getting less views and feedback than I did before my major crazy work burst.

And you know, it really sucks and is a total blow to your self esteem. I'm sitting here now after spending a few hours going over everything and updating things and it really is like a kick to the stomach. There's this lingering thought of, this isn't working out in the back of my mind which I know is wrong, after all I've only been going a couple of months and can't expect miracles.
But the louder voices are more what did I do wrong, is my work not good enough, are my prices too high, am I missing something, am I dreaming here.

I have my wonderful partner reminding me that I'm being silly with these thoughts and that these things take time and I know he's right. I know he's completely right and I'm just being impatient but at the same time I also feel like I should be doing more.
My biggest worry is when I hit these self doubt moments I tend to lose my muse and can't even draw a line let alone create good products!

I'm also not trying to whine here, just documenting the ups and downs of starting a small art business and trying to claw your way up desperately!

It's not all bad either, I'm still loving what I do, still have so many ideas and don't regret my decision. It's just very hard to stay positive when you seem to have lost a bit of control.
But then again I also know that I am in complete control and there is lots more that I can do right now.
Sure money always helps and right now, I don't really have any. Right now all my money is going in to savings for mine and my partners future... which could be getting exciting by the end of next month, oh fingers crossed for some good luck! So my money is for better things and I'm trying to do this on a budget.
So I guess when you look at it that way I've actually done pretty well ;)

So yes, the self doubt has kicked in but I'm not giving up. If anything it's making me work harder and fight to get somewhere! Which is always a good thing ;)

I guess I've rambled today, it really is because so much is happening right now in my little world and I'm just having to keep hold of what I can and control what I can and the rest, well, that'll all turn out fine in the end.

Warm happy thoughts to everyone out there and have an amazing week!

I do have a special post happening later this week so please check back!!

We've got this!

New Products are now LIVE!

Wowee! this week has been insane! We've had some ups and downs but we've ended on a very nice up so I can't really complain there!

This week involved a lot of work making new products including some super cute new bird brooches! Here they are in all their shiny glory!

These guys were just so much fun to work on and I can't wait to make more... hopefully I'll need to make more! XD
I will have to admit my little wren has to be my absolute favourite even if I am a big fan of finches... she just has that round cute look that all finches have. Just having seen one bobbing around just adds to it.

And as you may also have noticed... I finally sorted my packaging out! I've been trying to design packaging/backing cards for my jewellery items for months now and never had the right look. So this week I sat down and wouldn't let myself move until I had a design that I was happy with and this happened. I'm very pleased with the outcome no matter how simple it looks! And they look fab once the jewellery is attached to them! I've managed to get better images of the fox and corvus necklaces too which has made me much happier as I've never truly been happy with the product pictures I'd taken of them before.
But then again when it comes to taking product pictures I'm a bit naughty and put it off or try to hide from it as even though I absolutely love y camera and love photography... I HATE taking product pictures! I can never get them to look how I imagine. This is why photography is only a small hobby for me rather than my career!

You can get these items in my Etsy shop, just click HERE

I also now offer pet portrait commissions through my Etsy shop that is going to make it a lot easier for people to order from me. You can however still order through emailing me as well.

I'm excited at the chance to work on more pet portraits!

And of course as a test piece to use before making final brooches I made myself this!

My Silly Badger from my logo who I've become very attached to but then again this is me and I do love my badgers! As you can see it's very tiny but oh so shiny and glossy to the point where I can't stop stroking it! And of course it's nice to be able to wear my logo with pride because I really truly am proud of what I've managed to accomplish with Silly Badger Designs.

So that's my week in Badger Studios! It doesn't seem much but it has been full on with lots to do and write out. Next week there are going to be a couple more products uploaded if all goes to plan! (fingers crossed!) and maybe something a little special at the end of the week ;)

But for now, my work week has come to an end and it's now time to relax and have some time to myself! And try to straighten my back out after a week filled with bending over laptops and worktops!

I'm not a normal person, I can't work at a desk so my back suffers immensely, one day I might behave more like an adult, until then I shall enjoy the feel of my muscles tightening... yeah.

 Have a fantastic weekend filled with smiles and fun!

Open Etsy!

If it wasn't obvious, my Etsy shop is now open again and I am back from my week off!
And I have so much planned for this week! Work and life related!
Why is it that when I was away and couldn't actually work I can up with all of these plans and had so much motivation it was hard to contain it all and now that I'm home I'm suddenly feeling very overwhelmed by everything and struggling to get started... It's a weird experience I have every time I have a break. I guess relaxing leads to motivation and of course that's for your future self to deal with so you can sit back and imagine your future self becoming some kind of fantastic machine who powers through each task like it's a piece of cake!
I'm now my future self and I am lacking those super skills!

But I am starting, this is my start. This is breaking the ice so the rest of this should go swimmingly... although I did mention ice so maybe not too swimmingly!

Today I have written everything down. From silly little things to the great big projects so now I can stop thinking that I'm going to forget something.
I also now have a decent price list that I'm very happy with and it's now time to put that in to action which means the rest of this evening (I'ts currently just gone 8:00 PM) to get this work done!

I have a lot of colouring to get done on some new badges and then they can get cooking tomorrow, this also leads to designing and making packaging for each of these items so that I can get them listed up on the shop! I think I'm going to stick to that for tonight!

But as before, my shop is back open! Expect new items to be available by the end of the week!

New Things!

This week has included a few things that have been on my to do list for a long while... One of those things being a logo for my Etsy shop.
I opened my shop back on the 4th of February this year and have been using a basic drawing of a badger as my logo. I knew this wasn't good enough, a logo should say something about you, include your name maybe, give an idea to what you are... and I was just saying... Badger.
Not that there's anything wrong with my badger, that little drawing I did has been part of my life for many years now! But it was time to push forward and have something more appropriate.
So I got to work this week designing a new badger...

The picture above shows it in it's early stages whilst I was using my Derwent Inktense pencils. These pencils are blooming amazing, they're like watercolour pencils where you draw on to paper like a pencil but when you add water they transform in to paint but as you can guess from the name... are ink and boy are they inktense! (pun intented!) They create extremely vivid colours and are very smooth flowing. I've found with some other brands the pencil lines continue to show through after you've added water but these never do that and as I said, the colours are amazing.

But enough about the gush over materials... I do get excited sometimes...

I wanted to have something fun and quirky as my logo, something that summed me up... of course a goofy badger would end up being that design! I wasn't sure if it might be too silly at first and not professional enough but once it was done, I knew it was perfect for me and my shop.

And here's the final design!

I wanted to have the traditional look which is why I went with pencils and pen instead of colouring digitally and my leaf doodle had to be included. I draw these leaves all the time, when I'm on the phone, watching films, waiting for things to scan and print... they've become as much of a signature thing for me as silly badger so they had to be included.

If my slight buzz doesn't make it obvious, I'm very happy with my new logo. It's now up on both my Etsy shop and my Redbubble profile and making things look much more connected.

Another thing that has been on my to do list for too long (I make a very bad habit of this!) is to make badges with the shrink plastic I bought last summer... yes, it's been that long. I played around with it when I first got it making some little bee designs pictured below.

They were fun but I didn't know what I was doing and they were very tiny... I took on a big challenge when I was learning and it backfired... each bee is buckled, the ink has smudged on some and the varnish I used at the time wouldn't take. So yeah, it didn't go so well. 

But this week I tried to create my original idea, little bird illustrations to be turned in to badges to hopefully sell on Etsy! Needless to say, I'm very happy with the results!

As you can see in the picture they shrunk well and the colours didn't smudge! I worked on a bullfinch (top) and a little wren (bottom) and in the picture you can see the before (left) and after (right) shots. The wren has become my favourite and the finch has opened up a lot of options for future designs. There are many finches out there and I am a big fan of them, some are ridiculously colourful and of course you also have the domesticated range that include the zebra finches.

The only problem I truly have right now is that I am a doofus. Because these were just a spur of the moment thing just to see how sizes and colours worked I didn't make copies of the illustrations for future badges... So I'm going to have to recreate both of these. 

The finch should be fairly simple, I've drawn loads of them over the last few months but the wren could prove interesting... although saying that I have drawn this wren three times now since the original doodle from december! The picuture below shows the second sketch I made.

So of course these add a new branch for my product list which is very exciting but at the same time I do realise I am adding a lot of extra work for myself! Each of these need to be hand drawn and coloured individually and baked in the oven, flattened, finished off and packaged up. I'm seeing the potential of many baking sheets covered in curling birdies! Now thinking of that I'm kinda excited!

It's a different approach than what I had originally planned but I'm loving being so involved in my creations! It's wonderful!

This week has also been the beginning of ideas, to do lists (again... yeah I know) and draft sketches for future projects including the raptor zines and some larger artwork. It's always fun to get ideas out on paper and see where you go with them! It's lots of fun.

There's also the possibility of some colouring sheets at some point! But that's all I can say for now.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Okay So It's Been A While...

April has been a bit on the hectic side and I'll admit... I have slacked off a bit... oops! But that was mainly down to spending time with family and having fun!

It was my birthday though which I celebrated in typical nerdy badger style, lots of fun and laughs with close family and an animal day out with my fabulous OH. I was spoiled and full of love and I'm still buzzing from it all now!
I love everything and everyone I have in my life so very dearly, I wouldn't change it for the world!

I did however have a very art inspiring birthday. I haven't actually gone out for my birthday for a while now and this year I wanted to actually celebrate! I have this thing right now of celebrating everything and feeling every little emotion available. It's a weird moment I know but anyway! We went to Bristol Aquarium and saw the amazing underwater creatures they have on show.
Needless to say the animal nerd was very happy and very hyper! And it seems that I still am slightly! Top highlights had to include:-

The Stingray!

He was very cheeky and kept coming up to the glass as shown in the picture above. This was mainly because he was waiting for food but it was lots of fun to crouch in front and watch as he flashed his white underbelly at us repeatedly.

The Seahorses!

My poor OH, that's all I can say! I tend to get excited about seahorses... I'm not sure why, they're not the most fascinating sea creature out there and they are a bit on the dim side but when I see them I'm lost in fascination. At the aquarium they had a large tank with a large herd* of adults in it which was exciting as there seemed to be a lot of heavy males in there, yay for pregnant seahorses! They also had two smaller nursery tanks filled with... yep, you guessed it! dozens of tiny baby seahorses! I was practically buzzing back and forth between the tanks just watching them swim around happily or in the baby tanks case, cling on to each others tails or heads... they have a lot to learn!

*I haven't gone mad, a group of seahorses really is called a herd!

The Leopard Shark!

Okay, so I love sharks. I have a lot of respect for them and probably wouldn't swim with them but I absolutely love them. 

Quick fact! The spots on a leopard shark are so varied between individuals that they are used to identify particular sharks, just like human finger prints! Cool huh!

At the aquarium the leopard shark was in a large tank that had a walk through tunnel beneath it. I'm not sure what it is but watching these amazing fish swim over you so casually is fantastic. We hung around this tank for a while and I found myself twisting and turning in to unnatural positions just so I might get to see the shark from below over and over again. At one point it did swim passed close to the tank glass so that you could see the texture of its skin, I was completely fascinated! :P

The Unicorn Fish!

I myself had never come across one of these before and got slightly out nerded by my OH! Although it was fairly amusing as I had been chatting to a friend who shares the same birthday as me and being the goof I am, I started sending her lots of unicorns calling them birthday unicorns... little did I know that later that day I would see a birthday unicorn ;) They were quite elegant as they swam around their tank eyeing us up as they went.

I find that fish in aquariums do a lot of people watching!

Other highlights I couldn't get pictures of included a ray spitting water at us like a fountain, an interesting big nosed blue fish, some very bulldog looking piranha and a badger fish! Yes there is a badger fish and I didn't know about it! It's most commonly known as the foxface rabbitfish but yeah ;) I can find badgers everywhere, even in an aqurium.

So as you can see it was a very amazing birthday and I now want to get my watercolours out and paint many fish!

I also had the joy of something else happening last week.

Vinny, my venus fly trap had its first flower open and is producing heads again! I have become so attached to this plant and have been researching them like there's no tomorrow (you'd be amazed at the clashing info you can find out there!) but I'm just so amazed that I've kept it alive this long!

My goal is to propagate this plant and create a little group of hydras... I'm not sure how that will go or if it will all end in tears but it will be an adventure either way... It's also quite exciting to grow seeds or from leaves.

But more on to work stuff, I do have lots going on right now even though tonight I hit a huge confidence low in what I'm doing. I hate it when my mind does that because I know it's just me having a low moment but I'm still left thinking what am I doing!? and Oh hell this is hopeless!

I am however designing a proper logo for my etsy shop as right now I have a badger doodle that says nothing about me... apart from badger. So the silly badger is being created. 

I also have my shrink plastic out and am trying to work out sizes for some finch badges. The worst part of using shrink plastic for me other than the annoying curling is the sizing. I always tend to make them too small even when I feel like I spent forever working out the math. There's a reason I changed my mind on becoming a vet! Math is definitely not my strongest point.

My etsy shop will also be getting a bit of attention, I will be making and updating the packaging for jewellery items, adding some new items and there may also be a chance of a discount offer! So keep an eye out if you're interested.

And then there's the other thing. I recently made the ratty zines and loved every moment of it. I really enjoyed the whole process but at the same time felt that I should give zines a break as it took a fair amount of time to create.

Well. I now have more zine ideas and they've all gone to paper tonight. One, the favourite one is a spoof on pet care leaflets. In this case instead of a how to care for your hamster I am working on how to care for your velociraptor. What can I say, it's all about the theropods for me right now! It's also based lightly on something I was creating around this time last year so I'm hoping to get that project back up and running!

Like I said, there's lots going on and April has been crazy and wonderful. 

Keep an eye out for updates this week!

Have a great week!

No News Is Good News

That's a hard thing to swallow when you're just starting out and you could do with a little reassurance... Ah well. C'est la vie!

Anyway! On to the more exciting stuff!

The ratty zine is now complete and listed up on my etsy shop here! It has been so much fun to make and I've loved completing it and finally seeing it in it's book form!

And it is by far the best little zine I've ever made. 

These zines are A6 sized with 16 pages filled with amusing descriptions of ratty behaviour and fun illustrations based on real ratties I've had the privilege to know over the years.

I've also added some more greeting cards and some necklaces to my shop, go here to check them out!

It's been a very long day and a long week in general. I have a bad back to prove it although that may have been caused more by my labrador monster who decided to get very hyper when we went for a walk in the woods to the point of nearly dragging me face first down a muddy hill!

I am really really looking forward to this weekend with my partner! I need a break!! Desperately!!

Have a great weekend with lots of smiles and laughter! 

The Ratty Zine Is On Its Way!

Sitting here printing my first draft is feeling like a long winded experience. I'm just sitting here with my fingers crossed, not daring to look towards "Beast" the machine that has brought me so much pain and misery along with the joy. I can never fully trust this printer. She is erratic and dislikes certain images and papers, she also seems to have an open dislike to some of my artwork that I wish to print out. Beast is a bitch. But she's a lovable bitch as she has created some amazing prints of my work and I hope that we have a long future together.

But still I can't bear to look over at what she's just spat out with what I'm dreading to be disgust... or maybe she's more like a small child proud of what she's done and is trying to thrust it in my lap in the only way a printing machine can...

She didn't like the first card I used, card that is actually designed for printing on but that print came out horrid and she literally spat the page to the floor... 

But hallelujah!! Beast has decided to work with me now and we have a print out! A decent print out!

I'm now holding the first draft copy of The Little Book Of Ratty Behaviour!

I don't think I could be more excited right now. This has been a very long project for me with lots of twists and turns. This has turned from a tiny A7 sized bok with 8 pages and a large poster on the reverse... It's now become an A6 sized bound book with 16 pages and some amusing writings from my amazing ratty loving partner.

Of course it still needs a few tweaks and a small tidy up but it is 99% complete!

I used to make zines a lot in my teens but that was a fair few years ago so this has been so much fun to work on and of course I love rats and it's been great to draw their mischiefs!

Each rat in the book is also based on a rat I've owned or known, usually showing their most common behaviour... Including Evie who features on the cover!

Worst part about this is I am now missing all of my rats and wishing I could get more. I must behave!!

In other news I have gained a plant collection including a tiny Venus Fly Trap named Vinny... I've tried to keep carnivorous plants before over the years but due to random accidents... they didn't make it. One didn't survive being re-potted and the other... well the other got decapitated by an umbrella... that's all I really need to say on the matter. So this is my third time lucky and I'm hoping this time I will get somewhere... we had a rough start on the journey home when uh... Vinny lost its pot and soil... for a brief moment I was holding a tiny beaten up plant that looked like it wanted to go back to the shop... oops!

But woke up this morning to find that Vinny has recovered and has sprouted a flower! I don't feel like I'm a curse on these plants any more :P

I've also been attracted to bees. Honey bees that are under threat from the deathly Varroa mite. I got a leaflet yesterday that has rekindled my love of these amazing creatures and I'm hoping to incorporate them in to my artwork soon. 

If you are interested in honey bees in the UK and want to find out more please go to Friends of the Honey Bee they have lots of information and a way for you to support them and the important work they do.

Spread the word! Bee a hero!

After all, without pollination fruit, veg and even chocolate wouldn't be available.

Now back to working on the Zine! I'm hoping to have these listed and available this weekend so keep an eye out for more information!

Thanks for reading, you're awesome!!

Have a great day!

Etsy Fun And Games

As you know if you've read my recent posts, I opened my Esty shop! After too many someday moments but that's for another post entirely.
I've been learning as I go and in some ways I've been completely winging it! Not in a bad way though, I am enjoying every moment of this experience, even the awkward mistake moments where I'm having to learn the hard way!
I see myself as a good seller, packaging orders well and nicely and sending them out on time and I hope being a good seller with communications.

But I, like everyone else am also human and I do make silly mistakes when I'm learning something new.
And like the weirdo I am, I want to let the world know of my mistakes! Mainly because I want other people to see that these things happen to everyone and because in some cases it's just damn funny!

So Etsy oops episode one is all about the postage and packaging costs!

To start with I want to highlight that even though I've had artwork sold all over the world in the past year, this has been through Redbubble who deal with the printing and sending themselves and I just take a backseat.
This is the first time that I've been completely involved in the entire process.

So when you put a listing up on Etsy you are asked to give postage and packing costs for the countries you're wanting to deliver to. So far so good right? I spent a good few hours trying to research this and kept seeing a website recommended on lots of forums so, I thought I'd use it to.
The prices were a lot less than I'd been expecting too, too good to be true...
So I listed all the prices and posted my items up for sale. All was good.

My first order came and I spent ages making it look pretty, wrapping it up in tissue paper and tying it with string and adding a nice tag... this was put in an envelope and off I went to the post office to post it when I looked to see if it counted as a small letter I found that due to my pretty packaging it was too big... So that ended in me having to rush home and take half of the packaging out to make it thin enough.
That wasn't so bad and I learned not to get too fancy with my packaging in future!

I then got my first overseas order which was amazing. I was so bouncy when the order came through, to think that my products were going further than my own country was just so incredible. I loved the idea of them flying all that way to make someone smile somewhere.
So again, I carefully packaged it avoiding the extra chunky additions and head off to the post office. Now back to this site with the too good to be true postage prices. I was expecting to pay around £1.40 so I went up to the till, got the packet weighed and was met with a postage cost of £2.25.
I should know not to trust the internet with important things!
So I payed the extra and left laughing to myself at my mistake until I realised that all of my overseas costs would be wrong and then I also realised I wasn't charging for packaging... I haven't laughed so much at myself in ages.

Once I got home I did some proper research and found the correct prices and amended them to include packaging costs (mere pennies but essential if I want to keep going!) and that was when the wackiest mistake popped up. I was scrolling through the prices which were mainly made up of £1.00 until I came to the Netherlands... £100.00 in total for postage. I'm sure I had a double take there until I realised I must've typed awkardly and pressed 0 too many times... Oh how I'm sorry to anyone in the Netherlands that saw that!
Luckily that too has been amended!

So yes. I have made a few hiccups over the past 23 days of owning a shop but I think that's to be expected, you can't expect to be perfect at something from the go after all!
I would also like to point out that my customers didn't suffer, if anything they had a sneaky discount s well done to my first few customers!
Hopefully that will be the last of the P&P hiccups and we can move on to something else... or you know, stop making silly mistakes with Etsy and go back to making them with my artwork... like spilling some extra ink on the page, something much more normal!

Although I'm now off to get address labels designed... lets hope I don't make a typo there!

Treat Those Wonderful Mama Bears Out There

Mothers Day (UK) is the 6th March 2016

It's that time of year when we celebrate our mums, the women who have gone through all the hassle of our childish tantrums, helped us through those tough times like starting school, our first break ups, putting up with those horrific teenage years we'd all rather forget and who still love us at the end of the day!

My own mama bear has gone through some pretty tough adventures with me and she's gotten me through it all. My mum is awesome.

So I now have Mama Bear designs greeting cards on my Etsy shop HERE and many products with this design on my Redbubble shop HERE along with many other designs of course. Go check them out if you're interested!

The Big One!

Big News Today!!

I'm now selling on Etsy!!




It's been a long time coming with a lot of hard work and hurdles to jump but I am so happy to say that I have finally got there!
I'm on a slight buzz from this now as it's not something I expected to manage so early on this year. I'm feeling very very overwhelmed and exhausted from the sheer amount of work and heart I've put in to all of this.

I've also been working super hard creating a rat behaviour zine. It's in no way serious but a little fun book on the wacky behaviour of our awesome little ratty friends! These include the pancake and the ratty bounce! To be fair, anything rats do is utterly adorable!

Below are the finished sketches for the zine!

I've been planning this zine for a long time now but it's always been put on hold due to random other projects that get in the way. It has been wonderful using my pencils and paper again rather than just making paperwork and boring forms to fill in. I've gone back to the reason I started this in the first place.

So I'm now very busy and... a little bit overwhelmed but also so excited at the same time as I'm another step closer! 

Thanks to everyone who has supported me on this journey! The best is yet to come!