Frankfurt Book Fair

This week is the Frankfurt Book Fair and I'm so excited that once again my work is there being shown to potential clients by my illustration agent!! I'm super excited to get an update when they get back. a few new pieces have gone over, some of which I can't share as they are potentially to be published (fingers crossed everybody please!!!) but here is one piece I can share with you as it's for a different project and only used to show what I can do. In fact if you are one of my crafty followers this may be a little preview of something coming very soon (watch this space!!).... ;o)

Today B took me to Westfield as he got in from work early, its crazy big! although funnily enough, not as big as I thought it would be, its apparently the largest shopping centre in Europe currently but the Metrocentre in Newcastle still seems much bigger to me! I wasn't really in a shopping mood so just a few treats from Lush and a gorgeous journal from Paperchase. There is a Mr Pretzel there though which I couldn't resist, I haven't had a fresh pretzel for SO long, they don't seem to be very popular in the UK, though I don't understand why, they're so good! I've still got half to munch on later while I burn the midnight oil with my craft designs I'm working on, YUM!

Sarah x

Sparkles & Shopping

Firstly, I want to share a card I made last night, my first attempt at an 8 x 8 card, not sure why but this size intimidates me a bit, I'm never quite sure how to fill the space (I'm fine with A5 and even A4 though, odd!) but with some new stamps to try out and my crafty mojo having returned (who knows for how long!) I thought I'd give it a try...

The stamps are from Lavinia Stamps, I added extra details and colour with distress inks and then worked over the top with my Kuretake Wink of Stella pens, I'm not really a glittery girl but I love the subtle shimmer of these pens! I had to take this pics in just the right light to try and capture the detail... (you can see better if you click on the pics to enlarge them)

   

The new stamps were part of my weekend haul! I took a trip to the Big Stamp & Scrapbooking show at Ally Pally on Saturday where I also met up with Emma and Kim, this was my first time to just visit as I usually demo at the show, so nice to just enjoy it (and shop of course!) and shop I did, oooops! (it's only twice a year though, lol)

Funnily enough I bought hardly any paper (my usual weakness!) but lots of stamps, although I do need to expand my collection and Clare from my design team has me hooked on lots of new brands, I was particularly excited to get this bag...

I'm loving LOTV stamps! Lots of colouring in ahead for me! :o) and of course a few more Lavinia Stamps for my collection which I used in the card above and some gorgeous little bits from Artistic Stamper to use in future projects - they do the most adorable little things for your printer trays and vintage style projects, I got dominos, keys, chipboard angel wings and lots of other little trinkets, just fab!

Now I'm back to work on deadlines for my new craft ranges (of course!) with my pre-Christmas releases all wrapped up I'm now working on the designs for my big launch at the trade show early next year (sounds ages away, in fact I have about 6-8 weeks to design a gazilion ranges and add-on products!!!) and I have a few illustration pieces to finish up for the Frankfurt Book Fair which is just around the corner as well as my usual mag projects and bits and pieces and some other exciting projects I can't share just yet - this is literally the most exciting time ever, but I'm so busy, the other night I actually didn't go to bed at all, I just didn't have time to sleep! LOL (I did get in trouble from B who woke up for his early shift and found me still awake from the previous day though - oooops!)

Sarah x

Frankfurt Book Fair

So, in the middle of designing my Halloween and Christmas ranges, designing my pre-Christmas release paper and accessories range and preparing for my big launch at the 2012 trade show in Jan / Feb, I also have the Frankfurt Book Fair right slap bang in the middle of next month! That means my agent will be taking some of my illustration work over to the fair and showing it, exciting times! I don't often get chance to mention my illustration work as my craft work has dominated so much recently but I now have to come up with a few new pieces for the fair, so I'm racking my brains for some ideas and sketching things out on the back of scraps of paper and occasionally even in my sketch book if I can get to one in time!

Here are a couple of illustration pieces I done fairly recently...

This was a first draft for someone who had seen a picture of a giraffe I had done and wanted a swan in a similar style, unfortunately it was regected as this is a swan and not a giraffe.... (I know, I was confused too!!! LOL)

And these are the first draft for a childrens ABC book...  

 

Tonight I have a dinner date with a lovely man to get a break from my desk / studio / pooter (although I'll probably be straight back to work when I get back, hahaha)

Sarah x