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!

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!

Little Roan Rat

Little Roan Rat

It's always interesting to see which of my designs prove popular at various moments throughout the year. I've only been selling through Redbubble since April this year! (Gosh it feels like it's been much longer!) but in that time I've seen some of my designs catch the hearts of some people. 

It has mostly revolved around Mama Bear and Foxy Naps but this little guy has managed to wriggle his way in.

I love my rats, whether it's the pets I've owned or the doodles I create, the little fuzzers will always have a special place in my heart even though I am unfortunately highly allergic now. So when somebody likes any of my rat designs it fills me with a different kind of joy than my other designs.

Lately Little Roan Rat, pictured above or as he was better known as 'Rufus' has become popular and seeing that little sales email saying another one of these guys has been loved and is off to a new home fills me with so much happiness!

What people may not know is that all of my rat designs are based on my own or my partners rats. Between us we've owned a good many who we adored. 

I've spent the last ten years sharing my life with these gorgeous creatures, there were ups and downs and many veterinary lessons but I don't regret a moment.

So I thought I would take the time to feature the little guy who inspired the ratty doodles and the rat featured above. I'd like to introduce Rufus.

Rufus was a rather chubby, extremely lazy, food loving Husky/Roan rat who loved his cuddles with mummy... that would be me. 

He was originally my partners rat and lived with him throughout his baby rathood until my partner had to move to a place that unfortunately didn't allow pets. So Rufus and his brother Ghost came to live with me. Amusingly whilst he lived with my partner he hated me. If I held him he'd desperately scrabble to get away from me and was always desperate to get back to his cage or at least my partner.

So when he suddenly became a big softy and became besotted with me I can honestly say I was shocked... but loved every moment. I'm not going to lie, sure I felt a bit bad at kind of stealing my partners pet but... having rat cuddles made the bad feelings disappear.

He was our special boy who bumbled around his cage, perching and wobbling on precarious platforms, eating his way through any fruit, veg or chocolate he could get his paws on, leaving little puddles and snuggling up on our laps. He was also an impressive boggler...

To anyone who doesn't know rats, Boggling is basically... rats bouncing their eyeballs when they get super happy... It sounds horrible but it's actually quite adorable.

Unfortunately we lost Rufus a couple of weeks ago and it's still fairly painful. People think rats are just a pet in a cage in the room, something that eats, pees and needs cleaning. In reality rats are much more like a cat or dog. They are extremely interactive and love attention and in the case of males they just want cuddles and food.

I still find myself going to where his cage was to get him out for cuddles, I didn't realise just how much I loved that rat and how much of an impact he had on my life. My mental state hasn't adjusted just yet.

But I don't want to be morbid and grim. He was a wonderful rat and brought lots of joy and happiness along with much laughter to most people who met him.

So now when I see people liking the Rufus doodle I smile knowing that even now he's still making people smile.

It's also lovely to see how many rat fans are out there. I can't stress more over what amazing creatures they truly are.

I've also found myself wanting to draw more rat designs and maybe focus on them early next year... alongside every other project I have going on! So maybe the rats will take over in January. There's also a ratty project that's ongoing with my partner that is going to be happening soon! Once I get my head in gear and out of birds!

Gosh it's been a crazy December.

Ratty People!

Rats are adorable. Fancy rats or pet rats are one of the most awesome rodents you can own as a pet, they are like a mixture of cats and dogs. There's the independence of a cat but also the love and playfulness of a dog. They are fantastic little critters who I've spent my life with for the last ten years.

I am a big rat fan and even managed to turn my partner into a rat fan too. They're addictive and just so awesome.

Unfortunately I have now developed an extreme allergy to them so have taken to drawing them instead! It's lots o fun to draw their cheeky playfulness.

Quick fact! A group of rats is called a mischief.

And boy do they live up to that name! A group of rats are the most cheeky group you can find and will run circles around anyone for fun.

I now have a few of my designs up on redbubble! If you're interested in a sticker or something of the little mischiefs go HERE

Or if you'd like to commission a personal image of your own ratty people get in touch HERE