Reindeer head creation

I never get a chance to do much creatively for myself.  But I was feeling inspired so I turned Saturdays Daily Mail into a paper mache reindeer - complete with pinned on glittery pompom nose.  Then I made Chops (my lovely collie) his Christmas bandana - ended up making 16 of them as all my mates with dogs wanted them!  Happy Christmas y'all!  Hope Santa is really good to you all XX

Scouse City Coasters are here!

 

Been waiting for our City Coasters to arrive (for Geordie and Scouse) - and they are now here - they are lovely melamine (not cheap rubbish) and are 10.5cm square so they are fairly substantial in size.  So pleased we got them before Christmas!  If you know a special Scouser (CLICK HERE)  or Geordie CLICK HERE get them one - only £1.99 and free postage (BARGAIN!)
End of blatant plug!

Manchester Range - North Divide TICK

Very pleased to say the North Divide Range for Manchester has now gone off to print, copyrights all lodged with our agent so we are GO GO GO - well in January we will be when it all goes on sale. The range is really quite big and will include cards, mugs and coasters. The few sneaky clients who've seen it already have all loved it and want it so reaction is good. Thanks to lots of Manc folk who I've rang up and said "would you say this" and "how would you spell that" when getting the dialect and sayings just right. Still go the brochure, all the webstuff and promo to do for it so no rest yet.

GeordieMugs are lush (OFFICIAL)!

Very nice to have a mention in a really fab blog by JoJo Kirtley - a fellow Geordie lass now living in Manchester who's deed clever and writes great stuff including PLAYS - oooooohhherrrr.  Ch-ch-ch-check it oooot....  click on this text  JoJo's blog

Christmas and things

Been in Newcastle which was fab - ate and drank too much but had a great time.  Came back and tried to do some kids fashion work for my agent.  OMG!!  I have sweated over EVERY decision,  I have reworked the same piece of work four times.  Anyway I've decided I'm sticking to drawing teddies, penquins and polar bears!! I'm DEFINATELY a stationery designer!

Scouse Crimbo

 

The Scouse Christmas cards are selling so well and we get lots of lovely tweets - its hard to believe we only started Scouse Stuff in January this year!  We were really happy yesterday when Progressive Greetings contacted us to talk about our Regional Cards and Gifts as they are doing a little feature this month on whats hot!!  How fab!

Geordie Wooden Signs have arrived! I can draw again!

Sorry I can't show you a new design every week this is because I manage all the marketing and web stuff and product development for my business(es).  Theres always a brochure, POS or something needing to be done. Big news is today we took delivery of our new Geordie signs - the power of twitter took over and the orders have been rolling in!!  This has meant I am now officially up to date with all the marketing, and can now go back to designing!! YAY!! The next two regions have been started so I will be showing you some new work very soon.

City Work

Our new "City" range arrived - for Newcastle and Liverpool- they look great and the orders have come in thick and fast this week from all our stores - they consist of (so far) tea towel, mugs, coasters, cards.  I've been working day and night (or so it seems) getting our new websites together and they are now finished. YIPPPEEE!! Wholesale www.wotmalike.com and retail www.wotmalike.co.uk
I now have my life back - well til Monday when I start on the new regions......

Tis the Season to be Geordie

Todays the day we can show our new Christmas range for 2012 - we have gazillions of these now ready to go out to stores.  They have a glitter embellishment on them (oooh how posh).  We think they'll do really well as we've had great pre-orders already!! YAY!  The downside is I've aged about 10 years with all the work and late nights (who'd be a designer eh?) - I will keep posting as our new products are released!

New Stuff for Crimbo

Heres a sneek peak or is it sneak peek at our part of our new City range - this one for Liverpool (Scouse Stuff) we have a mug, teatowel, coaster and card all in this series with iconic buildings of cities.  I am "webbed out" right now building our new websites which are huge - I have decided I'd rather be a cleaner than a website designer as I really hate it!!  Can't wait til they are all finished and I can go back to drawing and colouring in!! hehe!

Wotmalike

Introducing our new business.....  WOTMALIKE!  This will be our umbrella company with all the different regions and another range which goes on sale next year under it.  There's so much activity at the moment and so much investment but its SO EXCITING!!! Woo hoo!

Woo Hoo!! #doesalittledance

Great week this week.  First of all our new agent for Liverpool has been cooking on gas and has got us into 5 amazing stores AND the Tate Gallery Shop!! We are SOOOOO pleased as this is a huge deal for us!  Then the lovely Lisa Martin (fellow Geordie bird) put a little write up on her blog which is nice as I'm in good company along with some other lovely designers and illustrators.  click here
We had a meeting about products currently being designed which are all at various production stages - OMG we have 7 new products due to be launched before the end of the year.  No rest for the wicked!

Refreshed!

Just come back from an amazing two weeks on Grand Princess a fabulous American cruise ship where I've been sailing round the Med to Cadiz, Alghero, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Cannes, Barcelona and Gibraltar.  It was AMAZING!  Also gave me some thinking space and am renewed and refreshed and now ready to push on with the next phase of my (well mine and Jane's) business.  We are taking a big step up but its all very exciting! I've got to get my head right down as I've got loads of work to do.

City Artwork

Heres a sneak peak of one section of the new piece of artwork which I have just finished for my new collection which is all about the iconic imagery of the North East.  The whole piece has taken me literally about 2 whole weeks to do.  If I wasn't our inhouse designer I think we probably couldn't afford this piece - I have faffed on endlessly with colourways and minor details. This weekend I was in Newcastle and I stood in Fenwicks department store watching people just walk up and buy my products - eeeh it was lovely!! 

Sorry Scouse Stylee

Busy as usual (well apart from yesterday when I was rubbish at drawing so I watched GeordieShore instead)!! We have been working hard on marketing our Scouse Stuff and have now got a super duper sparkly new agent who represents three other MASSIVE brands so we are in great company. We are soooo excited and have got new fabulous stores taking the Scouse stuff.  Christmas is still hanging around so am doing loads of new work for that which I can't show you til later in the year (sorry).  Anyway talking of sorry heres the latest Scouse card - Sozz!!

All the Best like!

Working hard at the moment finishing our Christmas production for Geordie and Scouse plus refreshing designs with newer versions (as above). We had a monumental moment for us this week when we hired a professional photographer to photograph all our products for us.  Usually I take the photos with my camera with sellotape on it!!  The photos look amazing - eeeeh how grown up are we??  I'll show you some when we've got the unwatermarked versions! 

Bonny Bairn - I LIKEEE!

Usually I do a bit of work - think its ok, then live with it, then hate it, then hide it!! Blaydon races being one - I'm sick of the sight of that piece of work now!  Anyway I did this a few weeks ago and its now been printed ready to hit the shops next week.  I've had it on my pin board in my office and guess what??  I still like it!! (the subject matter doesn't mean I want another child - its purely from a design point of view!!)

Rock Challenge Tshirt

I got asked to design a t-shirt design for my sons school for a rock challenge - which is a dance challenge - the theme was world dance!! So here it is.  The irony of this piece of work is my son wasn't even involved!! Sometimes you have to keep what you do to yourself otherwise you get loads of additional work!!  I have never let it be known I'm good at sewing and make sure any costumes for fancy dress are a bit naff!!

Old Christmas Book from my childhood

As its been Christmas here for a while (been doing Christmas designs for last 6 weeks now), I felt all festive and went on the hunt for a book I used to own when I was a child.  I found it in American on Amazon and ordered it and it arrived today. Its smaller than I remember but the illustrations are amazing in it and it takes me right back.  Love the way the text flows on the front cover.  Ahhh just need a glass of mulled wine now.....

House and Home!

I've got this thing about drawing houses at the moment.  Got to find a piece of work where I can wedge some houses in somewhere!  This is a card I did in our Canny good range, it didn't quite satisfy the need..... houses houses more houses needed.

More new stuff

Father's day is just around the corner (June 17th) and we've already sold out and had to reprint our new Father's Day card above.  Yesterday we got our metal enamel keyrings - they are totally lovely and we are very happy with them. - business is going great. I sold lots of work in New York at Surtex and we've finally got our Scouse Stuff range going into Waterstones in Liverpool YIPPEEE! The sun is out and its nearly a long bank holiday weekend.  Life is pretty good right now !

Geordie Gift Wrap

Geordie Giftwrap now on sale - I think the Whey Aye Man giftwrap is totally lush!   I'm pleased this has turned out as well as it has as we had to print 7000 sheets to get the price down for wholesale!  Its already been flying out to our shops and I've had some nice comments on FB and twitter about it. I've finished my main Christmas card range too - they look AMAZING!  Will reveal them later in the year. Phew!  Sun is out today but got lots of marketing stuff to do (booo hooo!)

Christmas again and again

Its still Christmas here!  This is a design I've decided not to use as I changed the look completely.  I was busy at the weekend also having my son's 10th birthday party sleepover and doing last minute designs to email to New York for Surtext!  Phew! Its all go.  Back to drawing today after spending the last couple of days sorting out business things. Have a good week y'all!

Blaydon Races Cushion

This is a sample teatowel which I have turned into a cushion cover as I've changed the design slightly on the final production teatowel. Its for the Blaydon Races celebration up in Newcastle on the 9th Joon - I love it. I'm supposed to be designing our Christmas ranges and also last minute stuff for Surtex - but I'm doing that whole delaying tactic where I seem to do anything but get my head down and get designing for Christmas!!

Designing for men can be sooo difficult

Our business has been sucessful as we've always listened to our customers. We were asked by one of our main stores in Liverpool (Voglio) very stylish design led store to design a gift for men.  So heres the artwork.  We've done a mug too! It goes on sale next week - I've tried to keep the colours contemporary and incorporate all interests.  I'll let you know how it goes!

New Giftwrap and tears

I had a moment earlier today when I opened the proofs for our new giftwrap.  I never normally love my work always think it can be better but  I totally love these designs. It was quite a step as it shows how far me and Jane my oldest friend and business partner have come, I was quite emotional.  Its been a lots of hard work but its days like this when its all worth it!

Busy busy busy.....

Its been really really busy here this week.  First of all our new brand went on sale which is called Canny Good www.cannygood.co.uk - its a range of Northumbrian based cards and sits really well alongside our GeordieMugs range.  Also have lots of new designs out for Geordie and Scouse - heres a new belated birthday Geordie card.  We've again been talking about CHRISTMAS (OMG!!) and I've managed to squeeze some Christmas designs in for my agent for Surtex in New York next month (phew).  Looking forward to school going back next week and some level of normality and having a break!

Passing on the Leibster Award

Pleased to pass on the Leibster Award to these lovely design blogs which I've found lately and admire their work - I am a twitter addict @bykerlass1 and have found most of these through twitter!
Don't forget guys to pass onto 5 design blogs with less than 200 followers!
Click on the image to go to each blog.