Love Zine + Giveaway (entry closed)

So over the past few months I've been collating old poems, letters and cards that Ben and I have been writing to each other since 2010. The idea was to put together a love zine of all the best! This process took longer than I had imagined but I'm super thrilled with the outcome. A whole lot of love has gone into making this zine be the prettiest it can be!

I thought valentines would be a lovely day to share this on the blog and bonus points as it's only a few weeks on from our seven year anniversary too :)

The zine is A5 and you can go grab yourself a copy over on my etsy store (more info there as well!).

..........................................

COMPETITION TIME

I also want to give away a copy to one of you guys!
Simply comment below with your email address and next Tuesday (21/02/17)
on the blog I'll announce who the winner is! 

GOODLUCK!

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Sailor Cat Girl

I've been all about the art recently and even though this idea took a couple of sketches I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. I am hands down a kid of the nineties and would sit watching sailor moon religiously before school each day.

I wanted to do a piece as if cat girl was getting her sailor moon inspiration on. I think in the end it's a nice and subtle tribute :)

You can find her living in my etsy shop over here :)

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The Reptile Kids

I'm so excited to be drawing again. I've had an idea floating around in my brain and it's super awesome to be able to bring the vision to life, so without further ado I present you with....

REPTILE GIRL

AND her buddy in crime, REPTILE BOY...

As a special introductory promotion, I'm also offering 10% off the prints for today and tomorrow- woohoo!

To redeem you need to

1) add a print (reptile boy or reptile girl) to your cart

2) Once added click "apply shop coupon code" which appears underlined in blue font about the 'item total'.
3) Type in "reptile10" into the box which appears and hey presto you're done!

*remember the coupon is only available for two days (expiry 17oct 2014)

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Customer Batboy Print

A customer sent me in this photo of her batboy print up in her son's Nursey :)

It's lovely to see where my prints end up and I'm super fortunate to have such sweet (and design savy!) customers - thanks Idit :)

Bat Boy Poster Available here.

and you can find Idit on instagram @iditteperman

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Cat Girl or Bat Girl?

Okay it's no secret Cat Girl is my most popular print, hands down in my etsy shop, so it kind of makes sense I'd encounter this issue one day.  I got alerted, by a lovely fan today, of Dania Piotti's etsy shop and in particular her Bat Girl work.  There are a lot of thoughts running through my head so I'm going to try and flesh them out.

My Cat Girl on the Left and Dania's Batgirl on the right

1) I'm actually super flattered; for someone to copy my work to find their own voice I think that's actually a great thing! 

2) I'm wondering if the voice is a little too similar?

3) I'm only here for a short time (as we all are) let's view creativity and art as a great/fun/inspiring thing!

I'm definitely not a confrontational person and I hate bringing anyone else down.  I'm thinking, if I was Dania and I obviously liked the Cat Girl piece enough to borrow some ideas from it, I would be pretty shattered if this artist (aka Burntfeather) came back around and called me out or sent me an unhappy email.

I'm also confident enough in my own art practice, to not feel threatened and I don't value money too highly (although perhaps I should).  I kind of want to flip it around and tell Dania that I'm glad she was influenced by Cat Girl, that when I drew her I had no idea she would end up in so many people's houses or even that someone, one day would take ideas from the piece into their own.  I guess my only advice for Dania is to keep painting and drawing because one day she'll come up with her own Cat Girl and perhaps, someone out there will be influence by that :)

For all those creatives out there let's keep being creative, the World can never have enough art!

What are your thoughts, I know people have very strong views on this topic, I'd love to hear them :)

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Shorncliffe

A little while back we went to Shorncliffe with my beautiful pregnant cousin, the last time to see her preggers too as she has now had the sweetest little baby!!! We took Martha the dog for a walk and soaked up the sunshine. I also have to mention the raddest etsy shop, Ami Amigos who I bought the Totoro set from, definitely worth checking out if you know of a newborn on the way :)

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Friday Five

A nice collection this friday!

Let's start off with..

1) Kate Hindley a UK artist with a super delightful etsy shop! I really love her illustrative style which see's cute kids and animals done in a fantastic vintage-esque, children's book style!

2) Keeki Pud another UK artist who has a really fun style.  In her etsy shop you'll find pickles, budgies and some really sweet handmade cards!

3) Marisol Spoon a husbane and wife team from the US who write on their blog "We hail from the beautiful Appalachian mountains. Nature's enchantment, vintage aesthetics, off beat tales, and classical painting are some of our inspirations". Which is really evident through their etsy shop with many flawless girls in pretty settings!

4) Dadaya aka tiny toadstool is run by Shan Shan, an artist currently living in Japan. What can I say, she makes the most wonderful berets, gloves and scarfs! Nothing more magically than a toadstool-esque hat, I say!

5) And lucky last is Holli whose drawings are like entering into a cute girl's dream.. soft colours, sweet circus-es, cosey scarfs and teddybears!

lovely lovely lovely!!

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Friday Five

My last Friday Five before Japan!!!

1. Giselle Gonzalez is first up and has this amazing retro, story book-esque, style happening, which is totally fabulous! When I see her work I'm taken back to Disney when they pull out the retro card with their short films, done in recent times!

2. Ground work is next on the list, an etsy shop run by Danna Ray who produces lovely minamilistic paintings. I'm a big fan of a splash of colour, nature and adventure and Danna has all three nicely going on :)

3. Tripperdungan who after arriving in portland (as she writes) now paints, performs shadow-puppet shows and makes cartoons and has art parties. Woot my kind of life :) Her art is also super cool cause viewers can wear 3D glasses to get a 3D effect, very clever! *High five* for fun, trippy art!

4. Wool and Water run by Amy Earles makes the most delightful art, drawings and paintings! She is probably best known for her paper dolls though.  I really adore the way she draws, it's super sweet and I'm a huge fan! Plus she always takes such lovely photos of her work!

5. Lucky last is Yellena James whose client list is extensive and incldes the likes of Anthropologie, K2 Snowboards and Nike. You can defintely see why though, her art is filled with lovely patterns and colours with a distinct naure feel throughout.   Perhaps she's depicting a scene deep in the ocean or the view under a microscope lens! Doesn't really matter though because it's all just lovely :)

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100 Sales on etsy!

Today I reached 100 sales on Etsy and gosh I'm just so darn excited! I'm not sure how it is for others but when I first listed on Etsy, I had all these horrible doubts, the worst being, 'what if nobody buys anything???'. At that point, 100 sales, seemed like a milestone, too far away too even grasp, but I'm here today and I just have to say a big thank-you to everyone!

So thank-you to those that have made an etsy purchase at burntfeather or said a positive thing or even those of you, reading my blog right now! It means more than I'll ever be able to write in words!

I want to say quickly as well, to those of you out there who want to start selling their art or who have started but are feeling doubtful, if you love it, keep doing it! That's my no. 1 piece of advice, even if you encounter haters, you'll eventually encounter lovers and isn't that what makes the World go round? I was always way too scared to share my art with others it was too much of me, it was the one thing I truly identified myself with, so the thought of others bagging out what I thought I was awesome at, made me hide it away. I've learnt to not worry about those sort of thoughts, which may not even happen, in my experience putting my art out there has really just meant, reading a whole bunch of nice comments which motivate me more than ever and make my happy levels, sky rocket. 

It's only 100 sales, but to me it represents much more and is truly an amazing thing to have happened. I was looking for a nice way to say thank-you and I thought I would make a Christmas card for everyone to download and print off for free :)

Remember, follow your dreams!

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