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!

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!

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.

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!