A Little Bit Of Mail Art Goodness

Hey Guys! oww Guess what Mr Postman delivered through my letterbox today :D A little mail art goodness from the lovely Heidi M from Little Nore.

At the end of last year, Heidi sent out the invitation to join in her mail art swap - a great opportunity to give and receive some funky artwork. I LOVE Heidi's work, so I just had to enter.

For my Art, I wanted to illustrate a little unique piece for her, so I decided to do a image of her and her 2 super cute studio assistants - Nora & Evie :D

One little condition for the swap was to include a positive message to encourage us through 2013, so I can up with this...

It's nice and simple... and honestly I think I'll try & use it myself too :D

Well enough about mine, lets open the envelope & see what I got... oww exciting :D

Wowzers!! I have to say I absolutely LOVE them!!! She's given me so much, I wish now I did more for her really :D

Now who wouldn't feel summery looking at this painting. Wish I was there, that ice cream has my name written all over it mmmm.... :D It definitely brings "happy seaside sunshine'" into the room :D

Look at this charming mini Frida Kahlo card. I really like the 3d element Heidi's exploring at the moment within her artwork, she seems to leap off the card and definitely makes her presence known amongst the collection :D

I also received a set of mixed media fairy postcards. Aren't they just brilliant, I love the look of her mixed media pieces especially these four, I feel there's so much character in them... & anyway who wouldn't love paintings of fairies :D (Line from the Peter Pan film goes into head - "I do believe in fairies, I do, I do" lol :D )

Well I just wanted to say thanks again Heidi!! :D 

mmm... note to self - must go frame shopping :D

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**LINKS**

Come & check out more of her artwork on these sites:

Heidi M McDonald:  Blog   Shop   Facebook   Twitter

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Also why don't you have a quick peek at what she wrote about mine & see some of the other pieces she received in the Art Swap :

Collection: 1 & 2

(Mine is in the 2nd one in case your wondering :D )

Flying In Usborne's Rainbow Balloon

Hey guys & girls, sorry for being super quiet recently! I've been a bit busy working at Usborne Publishers on a work placement. !!YAY!! I was there for 3 weeks & I have to say it was BRILLIANT!!! I loved every minute of it!! Wish I could have stayed on there!

It was a really friendly looking studio, definitely my type of place. Everywhere you looked, there were loooads of children's books - every desk seemed to have it's own miniature library around them. There were decorative mobiles hanging down, and little nick-nacks scattered about the place :D The people there were also really friendly, they made me feel very welcome.

oow look my desk! :D This is where I worked! & speaking of work - I did so many different things while I was there: I worked on a book cover design for a little boys book about BIG machines & I also had a challenging task in designing a spread layout for a flap book on mountains and rivers. Talk about challenging!! there's so many little factors you needed to think about :D but I did it!! and they were really happy with it in the end, which was great. Can't wait to see it when it's all finished :D 

I also designed patterns for fabric swatches for a Pirates Dress up app, & worked on colour & pattern combos for these sweet little paper birds. On the other hand, I did do some simple tasks as well, like: putting together book dummies & preparing some gorgeous artwork from different illustrators. 

Overall it was GREAT!!! & I wish I could have stayed longer!!

Hopefully one day I will get the dream job but for now it's on to bigger & brighter things, as I work towards opening my online shop, so look out for some new work coming soon!!

Thanks for stopping by, hope your all doing good!!

Love to hear about your little adventures you've all been getting up too! :D

!!Bye from me!!

xxx

A Time To Reflect & Plan For The Future

**Happy New Year lovelies**

I just wanted to thank you all for following, commenting & just basically giving me support throughout 2012 :D It's been a bit of a funny year, where I've been trying to find my feet in the world (as it were) since leaving Uni, & throughout the year there's been a load of highs and lows, but to sum up a few of the highlights:

*I found & developed my illustration style*

*I created a new website, & started up a Blog & Facebook Page*

*I had work experience with the lovely Caterpillar Books*

*I attended Penguin's Annual Open Day 'Getting Into Publishing'*

*I started to teach myself how to sew & I successfully created my first cuddly toy*

*& Developing plans to..... shhh!!*

ok the last one is a bit cryptic, but its more of a plan for 2013... all right I'll tell you :D I'm planning to open my own online shop, where I'll sell artwork, cards, notebooks, jewelry, & hopefully my own soft toys. What do you think?? Like the sound of that?? Well I do, & I am currently developing products & coming up with ideas... oww exciting!! So keep an eye out in the coming months for snippets & updates!! :D

Bring on 2013, thats what I say!!

So have any of you got any plans for the new year or any big achievements from 2012 you'll like to share?? I would love to hear them! :D

Wishing you all a fantastic year ahead! :D Lets hope 2013 will be full of exciting new arty adventures creating & illustrating!! :D

Merry Christmas!! :D

Hi Everyone!!! Glad to see we all survived the end of the world! :D 

Anyway, Christmas is less than 4 days away, so I just wanted to take the time to say:

**MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL** 

Hope you all have a gooden & that Santa brings you all the prezzies you wanted!! :D 

See you in the new year!! :D

A Day At Penguin

!! Hello !!

I thought I would share with you all, my day trip to Penguin's Annual Open Day 'Getting Into Publishing' that I attended a few weeks ago.

The open day was basically an insight into what publishing is all about. It was a great opportunity to find out what all the different departments do and to get some sneaky hints & tips on how to get into it.

I was really lucky to have been excepted, as there was only a limited amount of spaces available. But I did it, I got a place!! yay me!! I was going to apply for it last year, but lets just say, I found out when it was held after the event. So my tip for anyone who would like to attend next year, keep typing it into Google around the beginning of October and wait till you find something out about it, because Penguin for some reason doesn't shout out about it until after the event.

Taken from - Getting Into Publishing Penguin Books - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVMVl-7nS60&feature=channel_page

I had been to Penguin before, as I have had an interview with them, but it was just as exciting the second time round walking in there. As soon as I got in, I was given my secruity pass and I headed off to one of the top floors, where I was offered tea & a range of yummy snacks :D This was nice, as it gave me the opportunity to talk with other job seekery people like myself before it started. Then throughout the day (excluding a break) I sat and listened to various members of staff within different departments (such as: Design, Marketing, Editorial, Publicity, Sales, Production & much more), talking about what their department does & how they personally got into publishing. & of course, giving those all important tips. :D

Taken from - Getting Into Publishing Penguin Books - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVMVl-7nS60&feature=channel_page

It was really facsinating and I have learned a lot more about the world of publishing, learning the journey a book takes from just an idea to... well a finished book! :D

After everyone had spoken, we where invited to a 'networking' lunch, where we got to talk to the members of staff personally and ask well basically anything... o & we got a nice little goody bag to take away with us as well :D owww

So overall it was well worth going & I highly recommend it to anyone who fancies learning about or want to get into publishing.

Anyway thanks for stopping by! Hope you are all doing ok! 

Hopefully your all getting very christmassy - I know I am! 

Well Bye From Me!! :D

xxx

Happy Halloween!! :D

**Happy Halloween**

This years illustration shows a different side to the spookiness of halloween :D She'll wait forever for her love even in death... aww I do like a bit of romance :D

Hope you all have a spookylicious day!! :D

Back To Normal & New Things

Hi lovelies! It's been quite busy over here recently, as I've been developing my new style of illustration further by creating new pieces as well as transforming the old. I really liked some of my past pieces so I decided to change them to in keep with the new style. I love combining all the different textures & of course the new look to the faces - it makes them feel more realistic & more interesting, well I think so anyway! :D
& where can I find them to have a look at you ask, well in my new website of course! :D I felt my blog & site combined wasn't working - it looked too much like a blog, so I have created a new site just to hold my portfolio of work - much better me thinks :D I have designed it to look very simple & easy to look through, but I would still love to hear what you all think!! :D

Also now that I have a site for my work, my blog can look like a blog again yay! so little things like the Blogroll is back, so some of you may recognise a name or two, hehe :D & of course you can also follow my blog like before if you want to, so go check it all out :D >>>

As for an update on my 'craftiness' well, I've been buying lot's of things towards it like fabric, ribbons, stuffing etc & speaking of fabric is it just me or is it hard to find rolls of good fabric in shops, I ended up going into normal shops and buying the biggest size tops I could get :D o well I'm sure they will be fine, but if anyone has any good places or sites that you buy yours off of, I would love to hear them! I've also brought some interesting toy making books, so a lot of ideas for my own are coming to light so watch this space :D

Well thanks for stopping by & don't forget to check out my new site, would love to know what you think of it!! :D

www.rachelbromley.com