I went into WH Smith last week to have a look at the Jacqueline Wilson’s World Christmas gifting range that they now have in store. This was the last product range that I worked on in my old position as Senior Designer at Portico Designs in Bath.

I thought all the product for this range was looking really good - although there was a special offer available in store whilst I was there and all the advertising for this was in bright red and yellow, which jarred with the pretty pinks of the product somewhat. It’s a great range though. There are lots of “Make Your Own” type products, which I think should make great Christmas presents for those littel creative types…

Here’s a scan from the WHS christmas catalogue:

I have been looking forward to writing this post for WEEKS!

It was the Totterdown Art Trail thins weekend (that is the local arts trail for my area in Bristol) and this year we decided to open up our house for exhibiting. It turned out to be a great success! We had loads of visitors throughout the whole weekend and I got a great response to all my work, so I was really pleased

I had been working really hard for months to get it all ready on time and it was so rewarding to see everything come together in the end. It has made me feel very fortunate to live in such a great community with so many creative, friendly and fun-loving people - hurrah for Totterdown!!

Here’s some pictures:

I made these boxes of hand cut paper butterflies from vintage hand-marbled papers that I bought from an old book binders in bristol. The paper with the writing is from some old legal letters I bought from ebay dating back to the 1880’s.

My mum had a little shop bit at the end selling stuff that she had made - the peg bags proved to be particularly popular!!

click on to see some more pics…

My friend Louise had some of her work on display in the other room.

There are some more detailed pics of this work here on flickr.

The art auction at the Star and Dove:

The artists:

This was taken on the Sunday evening - I was just about ready to drop by this point! very tired, but very happy

It was my friends Emma and Matt’s wedding yesterday - good lord, it was amazing!!!

I made this necklace out of ribbons having seen this similar version in the V&A shop a few weeks ago. I was really pleased with the result and it worked out costing me about £60 less than the V&A version - phew!

My friend Louise did my hair - it was so fun having such a massive ‘do’ for the day - only prob was, I couldn’t fit in the car properly…

…things could be worse!

Last friday evening saw the opening of the new Shop Dutty on Cheltenham Road in Bristol.

I have been doing some work towards the branding for the shop for the last few weeks with Daddison - it was great to see everything finally coming together… Congratulations Louisa and Joh - the girls done good!!

Click on for some more pics and the Dutty wallpaper!

Wallpaper:

In action:

It was the London Brand Licensing Show this week and I thought I’d pop over to have a look.

Since leaving my position at my last job, I have lost all my rights to Bad Alice, but it was good to go and have a look at what’s been happening since I left. There was a big stand at the show this year and lots of new products that I hadn’t seen before.

Here’s a pic of the stand:

and here’s some pics of all the products:

click on to see some more photos of the products on display…

This months saw the happy arrival of my second little niece Emilia Zara - ahhhhhhhhh!!

Her mum had specifically asked me if I could make her a small mobile that she could attach to Emilia’s carry cot for when she is in the car. Here’s the result:

I was pleased with how it turned out in the end - the three magpies signify “three for a girl”. The black and white should be more stimulating for little Emilia’s eyes whilst she’s stuill only a squidler

The whole thing is made from normal craft felt with some velcro, ribbon and glass beads for the detail. Click below to see some more pics!:

So, I’ve seen a few of these paper mâché bangles about and I thought it was about time I had a go at it myself…

This one was for my friend Lola’s birthday - made with a simple geometric patterned origami paper.

I really enjoyed making it and I think I’m going to have another go for some christmas presents

Peter Fahey from Sneaker Pimps sent me this link yesterday to a clip from the History Channel about the recent show in Mexico City - there’s quite a few shots in there of my artwork… 

Pleased with myself?

I think so!!

I’ve been working on this poster today.

This coming Sunday marks my first *official* debut as a DJ. A few lucky souls witnessed me play about 3 records out in a bar under strict supervision a few weeks ago - but this weekend is theoretically the real dillio…

I have had quite a lot of thoughts about pulling out (mainly down to the zero practice and record picking I’ve been doing) - but I decided today that if I finally get the poster done with my name on it, I’ll have even less excuse to wimp out on the night!

So, anyhoo - if you’re about that way on Sunday, it’d be cool if you can come too!

This was one of those projects that you see and you know that life just isn’t going to feel quite right again until you have made one for yourself!

Thanks to the sheer genius of Michael over at Spool, I came across the pattern to make these lovely birds and this fantastic mobile…

I am sooooo pleased with it! My friend Michelle has got a bun in the oven and is due to drop at any second. I am even more excited about the whole thing now I have a good gift for the new happy family when the time comes - aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!

I mean, look at these guys…

More pics after the jump…

Thanks once again to Tim for your exceptional photographic skillzzz…