LondonWord interview

I'm very very happy to say I got interviewed for TheLondonWord, an online magazine about...well you guessed it stuff about & around London ! I only just read it just now & it's definitely made my day :)

If you go look soon at http://www.thelondonword.com my face is on the front page eeek!

click here to see the rest of the interview

I'm feeling poorly but at least I won't have to cook or clean for a few days, today we made a massive 20ft paper chain going from 1 corner of the room to the other. I've never been so impressed with myself !

Right I have some Choco chrispy rice cup cakes to make

Happy Christmas everyone !

Oblong Gallery show

Aahhh almost forgot to mention ! If you are nearby & want to do some crimbo shopping without the stress of 'push/shove/sigh/repeat' then pop along to Oblong Gallery. They are showcasing some local talent till Christmas Eve (for those who are REALLY busy/lazy) & the private view, opening night is tonight ! 

Littleclouds will also be selling some goodies at the Angel Art Market' this Saturday & Sunday too with the private view for that being this Friday, I hear there will be mulled wine & maybe some mince pies! So come come come along! 

Will scan in flyer later, right now there is a lasagna out there to be made with 4 peoples names on ! 

xox

We Make Christmas London craft show photos!

Always best to start with something sweet, sexy cupcakes from Scrumplicious,

A photo of the carol singers, when I first heard them I thought it was through speakers & said to my friend 'wow that is amazing sound quality there' duhhh!

Thanks to anyone who came, was a really good venue & really well organised with good press coverage so thanks to Mary for organising it with hopes of many more to come!

*No Littleclouds were harmed in the making of this blog post*

This is how cold I feel*

Littleclouds is wearing *Drumroll*

2 jumpers & a body warmer (80s style baby) with gloves, hat & scarf & old man PJ bottoms. F**k yeh I'm cool !

(*before heating came on & hot water bottle was attached)

Craftwerk part 2 - PHOTOS

As promised, mine is on the right hand side! I shared with a friend but decided to use our own fabrics which happens to be opposites but I think it works well !

And a random photos of a really cute doggy that was there, it had a really cute face!

Cuuute!

Craft Fair part 1

Sunday was great! 

So much fun & I made more monies than I thought I would which is nice & met some lovely people & ate waaay too many sweets but I did have a headache by end of day which was partly due to a day of over excitedness (it takes it toll you know!) mixed with the fact we were next to the music speakers (we were late so I considered it well deserved punishment!) which every now & again played that Alvin & the Chipmunks song which is perhaps...no IS THE MOST annoying xmas song EVER! 

I had such a pain in the bum journey there too :( I could go on & on & on about how poop the DLR is too (it took me 2.5 hours to get home Monday night!) but I won't because this post is about

HAPPINESS! 

So much stuff is happening I feel overwhelmed, everything in the last few weeks has gone so smoothly its lush!  

Photos tomorrow! 

Paper N Stitch

Today the 2nd Paper N Stitch exhibition opened & I am one of the participants! This is what it says on their 'about page' 

"Paper N Stitch is an online exhibition space that was created to promote talented artists, designers, makers selling handmade goods, and independent boutiques. The exhibition space is curated monthly and showcases the best of the best on an international level."

I like the last sentence best, anything with 'international' sounds fancy to me. I am simple like that :)

In today news, I am going to an Arts & Crafts market to gain inspiration/kick up the butt to get moving & thinking about our displaying skills for the craftwerk & WeMakeLondon shows because so far I have a sign & a few mismatched baskets! 

Exciting news revealed!

Wooooo!!!

Littleclouds has a new stock list in the shape of SuperJUJU, a super cute boutique in Stuttgart, Germany, you can visit their website here.

Yaaaay!

We Make London craft show

Lucky me managed to get a spot at WeMakeLondon craft extravaganza because someone dropped out! I'm excited about this one in particular because I tried to participate at their summer one but the places fill up quick & I'm slowww

Sat 6th December 08 11am - 5pm

The American Church

79a Tottenham Court Road

W1T 5TD

Come come come!  

wooo me!

I found myself briefly on the front page of Dawanda the other day! This is exciting because they've recently changed how their front page works & basically it's now curated so that's nice :)

ahhh MOO cards!

I got my MOO cards ! They've arrived yay! The first batch got lost boo!

I'm really happy with them, the quality is pretty good, I feel like chucking them in the air & then rolling around in them like you do when your little with monopoly money but I won't because I am too old for stuff like that :(

If anyone is interested they gave me a 15% off voucher code for people with their first order! 

Is it normal?

IS it normal to get offered half price rugs by a 12 year old boy (on his own) at your door step on a Thursday afternoon??!

What is the world coming to ! 

It's that time of the year again for xmas cards !

All across the 'craft scene' people are preparing for xmas when summer hardly felt here but like normal I always bow down to peer pressure (hence the blog, hence the facebook, myspace & many other unused sites I've committed my email address to) so to contribute I made some xmas card designs in preparation for the craft event I'm attending. 

(Incase anyone was wondering, this was done by Linocut/blockprinting & it is a prussian blue on ivory card)

Just saw this beautiful, lovely, amazing piece of work by an artist called Sandy Smith. If my boyfriend made something like this for me, I think I would cry, why can't boys be this cute? 

Horse's head stuck in a tree...oh dear

Holy Jamoly

I can't believe it's already been a week since I last blogged, wow time goes soo quickly.

Every time I come to write something that is actually something to note down I forget what I wanted to say or even what I'm doing, this is why I never get anything done ! 

I do have one thing to share, it was perhaps the highlight of my week

Now before I possibly might offend any animal lovers, I want to clarify I found this funny not because of the pain the horse received (his jaw dislocated!) but just purely because...well look at it! it's visually a masterpiece! You can read more about it here

Princess cut out card

Okay listed a bit later than first agreed but I got distracted by 'The Office' (US version) by about 5 episodes. in a row! (Pam & Jim are quite adorable) 

Princess is the 2nd of a series of 'cut out cards' I already have the 3rd design in mind & let me geek you, it will be cute! 

Other news is I've got myself some Moo mini cards! I am mega excited about them but they won't arrive for nearly 2 weeks :( but when they arrive, I just know the quality will be good.

Craftwerk show

I have some possibly maybe semi exciting news hopefully soon but meanwhile....

I got invited to attend a Xmas stall holding event in November which is nice so if anyone is nearby come hither! 

And I've finally finished my 2nd installment of my 'Cut out card' series! 'Rockstar Boyfriend' was the first of it's kind

My latest is a little bit more pink! It is for the girlie in all of us (even the boys!) as I think every little girl at some point or another wanted to be a princess (or a vet which has now been upgraded to a kitty/puppy/panda keeper) All will be revealed Friday but here is la taster of things to come

Wooooo!

Littleclouds is fully up & running again now, I sorted myself out technologically by buying a Macbook & it is just simply beautiful. I have feelings towards this macbook that I could only imagine similar to motherhood or Christmas in Lapland. 

Other than that I've been at my parents chilling with my homies & when I say homies I mean 6 year old girls intent on playing hide & seek EVERY 5 mins, we made badges, we made snowmen, sausage dogs, dog poo out of clay & did face painting. 

Yes I know, my multi talentedness astounds me too :)

Sept Blog Winner!

I had decided to use the never fail, old-skool technique of pulling the winner out of a hat way of choosing my Sept winner.

Here are all the participant names pre-rolling up into little balls





Here is me choosing the winner, I REALLY wanted to add a drum roll here but I don't have a pet monkey nor the patience or skill to acquire the sounds elsewhere.

....and the winner is

Charlotte Tolstén !

Charlotte, please email me at Meow@Littleclouds.co.uk with your full address so I can get Gemma on her way to you....she is veeery excited !

You know your a geek when no internet leaves you anxious

arghhhh I am the most stupid person in the WORLD!

I basically welcomed a virus onto my PC with open arms so now it's still midst fixage but luckily we live in a world where your friends have PCs so am not completely out of the loop.

So SO SO SO SO utterly annoyed with myself, as I literally was going to back up all my files just before the virus attacked so now I don't know how much or if any data is lost, the work I've slaved over is one thing (all those vector files) but it is mainly the photos I want to cry over.

Please boys & girls, do not EVER EVER open random emails/attachments even if you are incredibly bored & curious, it just ain't worth it.

Who wants a freebie?

Blog Giveaway!

To celebrate my good moodness I want to give away a new character doll called Gemma to spread the goodness around :)

You can read more about Gemma here

To win her all you have to do is comment on this post (what you say is up to you! random is acceptable :D ) & I will pick a winner via the good ol method of drawing out of a hat come 18th of Sept.

If this goes well I might do one every month!

I do love to screenprint

Screenprinting is FUN! Everytime I lift up the screen & the print has come out well, you get this little feeling of 'YAY' inside & I find the more I print the better I become at it, which makes me worried about moving to Hong Kong next year as the only studio I can find isn't that great & is really expensive. I wish I could just take my home set up here over there :((((

NPG - Portrait awards 2008

Soo dissapointed that this didn't win, some amazing work there, imagine being able to paint like this.



http://www.npg.org.uk/live/bp2008_34.asp



My Mother-in-law, Anne, and her sister, Auntie Audrey

by Tony Noble

New items - Cassette tape card holders

okay not the most original of designs but they are soo fun!

www.allthingsoriginal.com

Littleclouds has a new stocklist!

Oh yes you can now find Littleclouds goods also at http://www.allthingsoriginal.com/, a online boutique that showcases Independent British Designers & I'm one of them, very much feel like a small cloud mingling with the much bigger, fluffier clouds!

Sammy the Fairy - new character doll!

Meet Sammy, she is a fairy & like's to sing when she's not prancing around spreading fairy dust, in her mind she has the voice of an angel, in everybody elses mind she sounds like Barry White on Acid. Not good!

Teehee!

Yawn

This pretty much sums up my thoughts when I'm working at my pt job

Have some more 'still life' doodles like the above, done mostly at work, just been feeling lazy this week, can't seem to settle to do anything :(

wahay!

I've been asked to consign in a lovely boutique called OAK in Boston, USA, check them out here

Yay! I want to have LC goodies all over the world :)

What shall I send over hmm?

puppy brooch, screens, restlessness

I'm not allowed to have a real puppy so I made one
I've been taking him for walkies :D

Feeling pretty restless & bored today :( wanted to go swimming but it's 'ladies' evening or something today so can't go (because of my boyfriend not because I've changed into a man :P

Just burned these screens too, came out okay which is niiice

New monoprints

This one is my favourite out of the 'randoms' monoprint series I did last week, it's probably not really like what I normally do but I love shapes!

And here are some worried eyes

Also I sold my "I Love POO" card to a lady in America & my Butterflies of Love card to a lady in London today

Yay for POO & Butterflies ! haha!

Silly hot

Today is soo hot that even my PC sounds like it's gasping for air BUT despite this, I've been working loads, I don't know how I manage it or unmanage it but I seem to endlessly work but don't feel like I produce much, I swear lapses of time just flicker through without me noticing.

Anyway scanned in some drawings I did the other day & this one is definately my favourite

Tee hee! That is meant to be a fan by the way, my boyfriend thought it was a Ping Pong bat.

Both are amusing to me!

Today I held my first proper market stall....

........and it wasn't great :(

I pretty much only just covered my table costs so felt a bit disheartened about it, I don't think it was my kind of crowd, mostly older adults who were looking for pretty jewellery or antiques, not a cushion with a rude bum sewn on it!

It was good practice though, from it I know that

♥ I didn't have enough stock
♥ I need a different way to display my cards as they were overlooked

♥ Need to create more depth with different heights & make use of the walls

♥ TURN UP EARLY to get a better pitch as I was late

♥ people like squishy things, draws them in

♥ Must be friendlier next time

The last point is a bit of pickle. You see I am a friendly person, I just feel conscious that I'm being nice to get someone to buy something, ie false nice & I hate that. Also I personally don't like to be buttered up when I look at stuff, its what puts me off from even looking! But thats not to say I should do the opposite which is pretty much say nothing! However my last thought of this is - I figure that if someone likes something then they will buy it, they shouldn't need persuasion but apparently I'm naive in thinking this. Business is business I'm told.

Some good things did come out of it, the organiser personally asked me to come back on a weekend & to help offered cheaper pitch costs so that was nice but will see how that goes as although it is a great market, it might still be too familyesque for me, even on a weekend.

I did do some pretty cool drawings too, I think my drawing is coming on a bit.

Till next time

cassette image ready for screenprint

Yes I know it's been done before many times over BUT there's a reason & that's because they're sooo cool, the cassette has to be one of the designs that will never die out. I've already burned the below image onto a silkscreen so just waiting for me to print, also have a new character design burned onto a screen too which if all goes well will be be made into dolls.

Shrinkles & whatnot

A batch of shrinkles! Quite please that they pretty much all came out fine bar 1 or 2 where they curled funny. I LOVE shrink plastic, it's SO clever!

Today aswell as gluing the broochbacks on these babies I WILL screenprint up some new designs & I WILL finish the fabric for my stall table!

Also check out my cash box, my boyfriend got me it, it's sooo cute!

Going to make a 'Comments' book too in the same stylee as my cashbook hehe I love little cute things like that, just makes me smile!

Deadline

This week I WILL be holding the first Littleclouds stall

*cue the trumpets*

I have done similar things before in my youth but this time is more "proper" so there is a lot to be done still so I gotta get a-cracking.

I finally finished making my sign ---->

But I still like the 'old' one which is probably more professional as it's all shiny & plastic but it's so much smaller & maybe too flashy for me

A few have suggested using both but I thought this might be too much 'ME ME ME' in your face.... what to do!?

The beginning

Howdy!

Littleclouds is a one person project where I basically draw things, giggle a bit then make some other things, draw some more, maybe have a egg sandwich with cup of tea & eventually sell them. Not the sandwich although I am open to offers on this.

This blog WILL be upkept! I must admit this is my 5th attempt & I've only ever got as far as 3 entries but this time it is different. Why? because it is !

Please feel free to leave comments as this will really help me keep going at this & also it will make me feel less like I'm talking to myself :D

LINKS

I love to find new links, email me if you want to swap!

Littleclouds related

Blogs

Littleclouds & so on...
Little Daily doodles

Flickr
Twitter
Etsy
Dawanda

Illustrators, designers, creatives, friends, randoms

A Lonely Decoy
Lucy Gough
Custom Made
KitschenSink
Claire Nicolson
Craftster
IndieQuarter
NEET Magazine
Desirable
Cuteable
handmadebybutton
Craftsville

STOCKISTS

EUROPE

The Maisonette
De Courcys Arcade
Upper Floor
21 Cresswell Lane
Glasgow, G12 8AA
United Kingdom

CHERRY CHERRY
20 Lower Goat Lane
Norwich, NR2 1EL
United Kingdom
01603 663939

Hello Beluga
5 côte d'Eich
L - 1450
Luxembourg

Superjuju
Rein Preissinger Armbruster GbR
Julia Rein
Olgastr. 56
70182 Stuttgart
Germany

TSCHAU TSCHÜSSI
WINDMÜHLENSTRASSE 29
04107 LEIPZIG
Germany

Hannah Zakari
43 Candlemaker Row
Edinburgh
EH1 2QB
United Kingdom
0131 516 3264

www.NudeMagazine.co.uk

www.MakeRoom.nl

USA

Renegade Handmade
1924 W.Division St.
Chicago, IL 60622

AUSTRALIA

Almondtreeframes
63 Ferguson Street
Williamstown, 3016
Victoria

HONG KONG

La Belle Epoque
G/F 62C,
Tung Lo Wan Road,
Tai Hang
63018893

LoSo shop
Lo So Shing Village, Lamma Island

Most of Littleclouds goods are available for Wholesale, if you are interested please contact me with more information about your store !