Sharing

There is so much going on in creative little brain at the moment, as well as on my work bench, so I thought  would just list the highlights and share one of my finished projects.

*Just a reminder that I am having a 15% off everything sale in my madeit shop, so get in early with those Christmas presents

*Stay tuned, I am setting up a store on Sugarbird's facebook page.  Plus having a giveaway once 400 likes is reached.

*I am doing a commission for the lovely Tracy, so can't share that until she does.

*And finally, making great headway with Christmas stock.  New cards, little books, 2013 diaries, jewellery etc.

This is one of the Little Christmas books.  I figure why just send someone you love a card, when you can send them a handmade little book.  You still write your message on the back and it also makes a great Christmas decoration.

Doodle.....

This cute and funny word got me thinking the other day.  I was showing a friend some cards I was working on and she asked my what I do if I make a mistake....and I didn't have an answer because I realised that basically the cards were a collection  of doodles and how can you make a mistake with a doodle?

And then I got to thinking about my long career as a doodler.  I would think I started as soon as I could hold a pencil, and it seems that any piece of paper has been far game ever since.  The list of what I have doodled on over the years is extensive.....receipts, phone bills, lecture notes, work diaries....you name it I have doodled on it with hearts, flowers, spirals, etc, etc, etc.  Many a design idea over the years has started life as a doodle and I suspect these cards are just a more permanent and useful doodle.  All I know if that they are fun to do, are totally freehand and so far....no mistakes.  

New Christmas cards....coming to a Sugarbird store near you in August !!

**SALE TIME**

Sale time at Sugarbirds Madeit shop.  Get in early on that Christmas shopping and give the gift of handmade!  Everything in my shop is handmade and 15% off for the next two weeks!!

Shopping

I've been shopping and if you know me at all you would pat me on the back and say "there, there, it must have been harrowing for you".  Because I HATE shopping.  I have even managed to train my hubby to do the grocery shopping and in a good week, the only purchase I make is petrol for my car!  

But fear not, in between the much needed school shoe shopping for miss 9 and clothes shopping for hubby I did manage to squeeze in a couple of shops for craft supplied.

The DIY thingies are oh so cut little cards and envelopes for K Mart.  They are packs of 10 and were only $2.00 a pack.  I was thinking that I should really go back and get some more, but there is only so much shopping of any kind that I can endure.

The paper, normal size cards (love the pastel colours) and cardstock sample packs came from my favourite Kaisercraft factory outlet (I could actually live there)  Hubby sat on the lounge and impatiently waiting while miss 9 and I flitted around.  

The pens and pencil came from the Stationer Store.......never have enough pens and pencils!!!

I haven't actually used any of these purchases yet.  Still trying to finished off the organised chaos of too many uncompleted projects, but I will get to them and show you along the way :)

Giveaway Winner Announcement

Thank you so much to you all for leaving such wonderful comments over the last week.  I wish I could send you all a gift :)  

But as they say, there can only be one winner and that winner is

Congratulations Yvette, and because you are also a member of my blog, there will be an extra present in the post for you along with the cards.  Please either email me via this blog or message me on facebook www.facebook.com/sugarbirdart  with you postal address and I will get your winnings out to you :)

I will definately be having more giveaways as Sugarbird continues to hit milestones both on the blog and facebook, so stay tuned!!

Flower Tags

DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY, IT END THIS AFTERNOON

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who visited yesterday and for the lovely comments.  So glad to hear I am not the only one who suffers with organised chaos.

I am slowly getting the pile finished and these tags were the first to be completed.  

I drew the flowers onto paper and then pencil coloured them in.  

As you can see by the unfinished flower on the right hand side, they don't always go to plan.

Then, once they were all coloured and pretty, I cut around each one.

And then I glued them onto cardboard and cut around them again.  The final steps were to punch holes, add string and for a touch of bling, add a little pearl to the centre of each.

I am really happy with the way they turned out.  They are very sweet and girlie :)

Organised Chaos

Do you ever get to the point were you realise you just have too many things on the go.  Oh, I'm not talking about being a mum, wife, employee and human being in general.  I am just talking about the creative side of life. 

I have always had this rule in my head that you do one project at a time and don't start another one until the last one is finished....and I stick to this pretty well.  But looking at my desk over the weekend I was horrified to see that I actually had about 5 things on the go!  There are so many ideas in my head and just not enough time to get them out. Especially as I am starting to plan my Christmas stock. 

So I reined the creative obsession in and have almost finished the 'way too many projects' and I will share them with you once they are completed, but for today's post you get a bit of everything 

GIVEAWAY REMINDER

**JUST A REMINDER**

If you would like to win this set of 2 hand drawn cards all you have to do is leave a comment on any one of my posts between now and Wednesday afternoon ( 25th July 212 AEST) and they could be going to you.  I will post anywhere in the world and just like last time, if the winner is also a member of my blog, they will get an extra surprise in with their winnings!

So get commenting for your chance to win!!! 

I don't have much to show you at the moment.  I have about 4 projects on the go and it is driving me insane.  I really like to start and finish one before going onto the next, but there are so many ideas in my head at the moment all wanted to come to life.  Will share once I get them finished :)

                    So I will share this little doodle with you for today.  Happy Monday everybody :)

All Dressed Up

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who was entered the giveaway so far.  Your comments have been so very lovely.  And to Donna Maree WILSON who asked me what pencils I use...mainly Faber Castel Classic Colours and Dewent.  

 Remember the naked blue birds I previously showed you?

Well, they are all dressed up now!

There was a bit of a delay with them because I ran out of white pigment ink and had trouble getting some more.  But a whole lot of shopping (I HATE shopping)  paid off and I finally found some.

And thanks to the lovely Sharyn and her amazing online shopping skills, I shall never run out again :)  Who knew you could buy the stuff in 500ml bottles!!

These little cuties will be winging their way out to the customer today or tomorrow :)

GIVEAWAY TIME!

Wow, thanks to you lovely people I have reached (and now exceeded) 2,000 hits on my blog!  So to say thank you to you, it's GIVEWAY TIME.  

If you would like to win this set of 2 hand drawn cards all you have to do is leave a comment on any one of my posts between now and next Wednesday afternoon ( 25th July 212 AEST) and they could be going to you.  I will post anywhere in the world and just like last time, if the winner is also a member of my blog, they will get an extra surprise in with their winnings! 

These are drawn freehand using white pigment ink and a nib.  They are a lot of fun to do, but very time consuming :)   

Thank you

I posted this image on Sugarbird's Facebook page and thought I should also post it on my blog....

I want to say a very big and heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who has come to visit, left a comment and joined my blog.  I was really scared about starting it, so many doubts, what if all I was doing was actually blogging to myself?  But I felt the fear, walked through it and along the way I have met some lovely and really talented people.  So once again THANK YOU xxxx

New Banner

Well it took nearly a week and a lot of fiddling (techno savvy I am not) but I finally updated my blog banner!!  Thank you so much to everyone who left such lovely comments about it last Tuesday and thought it would make a good banner :)  You were right.

I have been working with polymer clay on and off since my last post and have a few things to show for it.  These are new and as per usual, were a whole lot of fun to make 

I know they do't look overly exciting at this stage, but you do always have to start with a blank canvas.

Once I added the white pigment ink designs they look a bit more interesting and you could be forgiven for thinking they were going to be pendants....because they were, but I had a better idea for them.  

Say hello to my newest magnet designs.  Something a little bit different, but I am really happy with the end result.  They will be moving over to my madeit and hand-made shops in the next couple of days. If you would like to make a start on your Christmas shopping, they would make great little gifts :)

Mail time!!

Just take a look at what the nice postman delivered to me this week.  Isn't it the most gorgeous owl you have ever seen!!!

  It comes from the creative brilliance of Hoopla Creations.  Chalkboard Art turned into the most loveliest of cards and prints.  Please go and have a look at their beautiful facebook page and try not to drool too much on your keyboard :)  You can also purchase these cards and prints right from their page....I think I will be doing some more of that!!!

The colours are so vibrant, the designs are so full of fun and the pencil work.....mmmmmm!! 

Polymer Play

The polymer clay came out to play last night, and we had so much fun together.  It has been a while.

The tools and a little mouse who wanted to watch what I was doing.

And this is the flock of birds for the lovely Sharyn.  Of course they are a work in progress and look a little lost without their eyes.  But I plan on dressing them up tonight with words, flowers and swirls....stay tuned.

Giveaway Time

***Giveaway Closed***
GIVEAWAY TIME!!! Share this around.

www.facebook.com/sugarbirdart

Sugarbird is shuffling towards 200 likes on facebok. To help it along I am having a GIVEAWAY! All you have to do is visit my facebook page.  Leave a comment on the giveaway post or like my page between now and when the 200 is reached and you could win these three original Sugarbird Minis. The winner will be chosen at random and I will post to anywhere in the world!

Pencil Fun

I am designing a logo for a very lovely and talented lady and it always takes at least a couple of design ideas to get the right one.  This one wasn't  the right one so I had fun colouring it in anyway and I am now thinking that it might my the new header for my blog - waste not want not right!!

Man cards

Hubby asked me not long ago if I would make a couple of thank you cards for him..."no problem" I said.  But them he told me what they were for.  He had just about finished his training to be a Brisbane City Council bus driver and he wanted to give his trainer (5 of them) some chocolates and a thank you card each. 

 "Let me work on it" I said.  You see I struggle with man cards.  To the best of my knowledge, most men don't want flowers, swirls and cute little birds.  But then Hubby informed me he needed them for the following day - aaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!  So below is what I came up with.  Considering the time frame and my inability to make man cards, I was pretty happy with the end result :)  Thank goodness for stamps!!

Here Birdie Birdie.....

The cats have gone for now and the birds are back to play.  When I rediscovered my love of drawing last year I started off with birds.  I don't really know why, but there you go :)  So it is really nice to get back to them again.  Firstly I draw the design with pencil and then do the out lines with my trusty brown marker.  Then it is colour colour colour.  With these ones I then added the details, again, with brown marker.  

I know it is cold but......

does it actually have to be so cold that my fingers don't work properly on the keyboard!!!

A very big THANK YOU to all of the lovely visitors I had for yesterdays post and for the absolutely amazing comments you left for me!!!!  It is so nice to hear that people enjoy my artwork because I certainly enjoy doing it!!

Here are the final 2 Cat Cards that I have been working on this week.  I started a new series of Bird cards last night while hubby snoozed in his recliner chair.  I am especially having fun with all shades of pink.  So if you are a bird lover stay tuned for updates on them :)

These cuties and their friends are available from my hand-made store. **SOLD**

Cats in the Garden

There are cats in the garden and it probably sounds like I am blowing my own horn, but I think they are really cute!  I am having so much fun with my colour pencils at the moment and there are so many new ideas in my head that it is almost a shame that I can't just sit and colour all day 

These cuties and their friends are available from my hand-made store

Too early??

So, tell me, is it too early to be starting on Christmas stock?  I know that I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I was starting to play with polymer clay again, but I didn't actually get very far with it.  I had a brain storm while getting the clay out of the craft collection.  

I came across last years left over handmade Christmas cards.  And don't get me wrong, they are nice but I think I have progressed a bit artwise since then.  So I started thinking about this years cards......one thing led to another and pretty soon the clay was forgotten and I was knee deep into making little Christmas books.  I figure if people like getting handmade Christmas cards (they do don't they?)  then they would surely love to receive something a little bit different.  I was thinking that they could write their message on the back panel of the book and it could also be used as a Christmas decoration!!!  Plus the little book could be both card and gift!!  So here is what I have come up with so far........