Christmas decorations: the making of!

The previous post featured these guys:

First of all, print my drawings onto some fabric! (I did them digitally in my now new favorite drawing software: Manga Studio :P). The patterned fabric is fabric some offcuts one of my other studio neighbours very kindly gave to me, Rowanjoy. The key thing is that it had GOLD in it, and as we know GOLD=XMAS ;). As for the Magikarp... Not sure how that got there! :P

First off I attached head to the body that was just black fabric...

And ten sew around it, trim excess and TURN IT OUT.

The Poppy doll was like the hardest thing I think I have ever sewn, to be precise - trying to turn it out was HAAAAARD. The arms and legs were so thin! But I made it in the end. And the second hardest thing was probably these miniature shorts ;)

..and then proceeded to do the easier bits, the castings. The backs are made of the blingy fabric too to match the doll ;)

Then they got STUFFED. One of these things is slightly different that the others... Can you tell which one? ;)

And that is it! This was probably the most exciting little project I did in December! Along with the Magikarp tote... Incidentally I think these were the only two little projects.

I wasn't going to do any New Year resolutions apart from the "get mean at banjo", but I think I should have one. This one: TAKE BETTER PHOTOS :O

X-mas Aftermath - some fun stuff...

2014, from October till almost Christmas was the busiest period in my life. Like, ever! ;) I had several fairs, including one in London, two exhibitions, co-ran a pop-up shop and on top of that still had all the online orders to work on. But I survived! I hope that next year I will be more prepared, although it always ends up just being that little bit more busy.

Once all the crazy mental Christmas period work was over - about a week before 24th, I had a little bit of time to focus on some fun projects. Like this, super inside-joke Magikarp bad for my pal Aimee...

Or these crazy tree decorations for our Hill Street Design House Office Christmas Party Secret Santa...

They were for Poppy of Edinburgh Casting Studio.

One of them was Poppy herself and others were based on some of the castings that they have in their portfolio. Such as:

The rest are a bit NSFW. :)

Solo Exhibition at Hula!

So at the moment I have a solo exhibition at Hula Juice bar & gallery! It's running through till 6th of January. Here are some snaps from the set up and opening night!

The vinyl with my name on it... Feels so good ;)

Calm before the storm! After people started coming I had no time to take any pics...

And this is one of my Christmas Cats on the window :) 

And, last but not least - this is a special print that I did for the occasion! Hula cat and dog :)

Christmas Dogs :)

Available *here*! :)

Christmas Dogs arrived

So they are here! but unfortunately I can't list them for sale just yet because some proper BAH HUMBUG! time took place today!

When I finally got ready for taking pictures I went to look for the little camera which I always use. No luck. After half an hour wasted I gave up and got to the Big Camera - conveniently out of charge! I couldn't use my old camera, which I know exactly where it is, because my SD card was in the little camera. Out of desperation I got the iPad - also flat batteried. Now the Big Camera is charged it's absolutely pitch black out there so no hope for any half-good pictures.

So I completely FAILED! Instead of a delightful announcing post here about the new cards available have one that says they are ALMOST available. They will be up online tomorrow evening, PROMISE!

Cat Cards are doing well as usual though :)

Dogs!

At the moment I am working on a series of dog cards to compliment the cat cards. Here's (a little less than) what I have so far!

I was realy hoping to finish them up today, so I better get going! :[

Christmas presents in use!

One of the Christmas persents that I got this year was a set of 8 (!!!!!!) coloured inks. I used to use them a lot back in the day, but I normally stuck to black. But since I got this beautiful set I felt like trying it out.... Here's some action photos! I love the little bottles they come in. Normally I use rapidographs since they are easy and practically mess free, and easy on the go, whereas this nib business can be messy and definitely is not suitable for your travelling needs! A lot of times I had accidents and with non-water soluble inks that  use (always the best! ;)) it causes stains that are there to stay.

And the final one is a picture of something that later turned into... THIS!

Merry Catsmas!

From me and the Santa Catsmaspudding

from Sofia

Hello!
Couple of weeks ago I was pretty lucky to win Sofia Sobeide's giveaway! When it arrived at first I thought it was something from my friend Martyna, whose handwriting is very very similar. But then I saw that it was packet from Finland! Hooray! So it came in a miniature version of a pizza box, which upon opening revealed....

A paper bag from old comics. It was very very cute.

And inside the bag were...

A cute dog brooch and crocheted bunting! Bunting got immediately repurposed to...

...Become a Christmas Tree chain! :) It works perfectly on my sad synthetic tree :)
And then I found that one of the comic pages were actually an old Star Wars Comic. I didn't know Darth Vader could also speak Swedish! :D

December! Photo time! :)

I confess - I have been a bad egg. I did not update blog much over past 2 weeks... Reason? I was SUPERCHRISTMASBUSY! (Also got a cold on the way, your typical excuses all the way!). For that I shall make it up to everyone and publish some action shots. In that time I did 3 markets, here's some shots from Noir! the Christmas Fair:

This is the fabulous Fi of Fiona Heather with David Anderson (who took the following picture:)

 

...of me and the Fi!

Something amazing has also happened. The elusive Christmas Jumper Cat Christmas Jumper came to life!

(there is still one available and if you are in UK you can get i on time for Christmas!)

Grumpy Henry

If he takes everything into consideration Henry does like Christmas. It is quite a difficult one. He has to wear a silly jumper his mom made. He has to spend quality time with his family. And then his girlfriend makes him wear this ridiculous hat! But then... Deep down he loves the smell of a Christmas tree. And then there is the food of course. Above all else Henry loves food.
(click on him to view bigger image or if you want to... buy him!)