Nook & Cranny

Last week I was very excited to be asked by the awesome card & gift shop, Nook & Cranny, whether they would be able to stock some of my Lord of the Rings Christmas cards in their shop in Liverpool this year! And of course I said 'yes'!
Its awesome to be featured amongst so many amazingly talented designers/illustrators, I feel very much honoured!

So if you're still out looking for a unique Christmas card to send someone this Crimbo, then have a mosey on into Nook & Cranny (located on Bold Street)! My cards feature 3 wintery scenes from the world of Middle-earth - Hobbiton, Moria and Rivendell. Each card has a Christmas greeting, written in the Common Speech, Dwarvish or Elvish, depending on which scene you possess!

I also sell larger prints of each of the Lord of the Rings designs, which you can find in my Nafftastic Etsy Shop.

Market Galore

Well, well, I am back and partially recovered from my little jaunt at market last weekend! It was the first time that I had ever taken part in anything like that and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

I was part of the local Formby Vintage & Craft Fair on Saturday which was a nice, small market to start off as my first stall experience. There were so many lovely things on sale that I ended up buying quite a few things!

The awesome cross-stitch is by a very nice lady called This Stitch Bites and I fully recommend you checking out her stuff now! I'm very chuffed with my William Shakespeare cross-stitch - sold with frame and everything!

Here is my first quaint attempt at a stall... I had a LOT of help from my boyfriend's family over the course of the weekend; my boyfriend and his sister helping me immensely with the display of my products!

I enjoyed the day, although I didn't sell as much as I hoped and so was a bit nervous about how I would do on Sunday!

Sunday came round and I quickly became settled (with the marvellous help of my boyfriend's family again!) into my stall position at the Winter Arts Market at St Georges Hall!

(I wish I had taken more photos)! But yes! This event was much larger (as you can see) and we had a fantastic day! I got to chat to so many nice people - stallholders and customers alike. I was nervous about my 'shopkeeper' skills at first, but everyone was very friendly and I got to hear a lot of feedback about my work/products, which was really useful! I really hope to attend again next year (and maybe also the Summer Arts Market as well?!)
So now I have lots of ideas brewing and bubbling in my little Brain Pot and I hope to start making some new products soon! I'm excited!

All the items I sold at market are still available on my Etsy shop, if any of you would like to have a peruse!

Crimbo Market Time

Wa-hey! Its Christmas Market time!!

I will be attending the Formby Vintage & Craft Fair this year, which is a nice little local fair with lots of awesome goodies on sale! The fair is THIS SATURDAY 6TH DECEMBER for anyone who would like to come on by! Its open from 10am - 4pm and its being hosted at the Holy Trinity Church Hall, Rosemary Lane, Formby L37 3HA - it will all be very local and quaint!

Then on SUNDAY 7TH DECEMBER I am whizzing on over to the Winter Arts Market at St Georges Hall in Liverpool city centre! Doors open at 10am and close for the day at 5pm!

I will be bringing all of my wares with me - which you can take a look at on my online Etsy shop of nafftastic-ness. Star Trek xmas cards, cuddly toy hearts, Red Dwarf birthday cards and prints, original watercolours and much more! Hence why you should pop along to either or both of these events and have a gander! I'm a pretty laid back and down-to-earth gal, so do not worry about me sweeping in and giving you the hard sale! Just come and have a chat with me if you would like!

(My online shop will be closed over the weekend, but will open up again at 12pm on Monday 8th December.)

So yes, thats what I'm up to this weekend...

St Andrews Day 2014

I'm aware this is a bit late, but heres a screenshot of the annual stupid animation I make for my boyfriend for St Andrews Day.



And no, I don't have a good reason for Angela Lansbury being on there. I just like the faces she pulls. I've been doing these animations for 5 years now, and its becoming increasingly difficult to find famous Andrews to put in there!

Dogs

Oooh, the Christmassy markets I will be attending are looming ever nearer! So I've made a last push and made a few more original watercolours to sell at the market - this time, its dogs!

I wish I had time to make more, but its now market preparation time! I've never held a stall at a market before, so this will certainly be a learning curve!
I will be attending the Formby Vintage and Craft Fair on Saturday 6th December and then off to St Georges Hall in Liverpool City Centre for the Winter Arts Market on Sunday 7th December. If you're in the area on either of those days then you should come check it out! Theres so many unique gifts to buy for friends or just for yourself! (Also, the cakes at the Formby Vintage and Craft Market are DELECTABLE, seriously, they're AMAZING, I can see me spending all my money there already)!
Oooh, I'm excited and nervous!

Spudzee - Lesson 2 of Stop Gap Go

A few months back, I worked on an animation in Splinter Design for the company Mindflow Solutions. This animation was a sequel to one I had made earlier in the year. I worked with the client to script, storyboard and animate the piece which was to be shown to young people as a teaching aid; helping young people to understand their feelings and specifically how to cope with them in difficult situations.

Here are a few screenshots of the final animation:

I rather enjoyed creating all the different types of potato - I would love it if they could be used in their own animations in the future!

New Batch of Cards: Star Trek & Ducks

A couple of weeks ago I managed to get my final batch of cards for the year printed! Printed by the marvellous team at Ripe Digital, I have now added these new items to my Nafftastic Shop so you can go take a gander at them if you like!

So, heres presenting my new set of Star Trek: The Next Generation Christmas cards! Woo!

I had never watched The Next Generation series before, so it was fun to watch the series and the movies for research! I got a lot of help from my boyrfriend in making these cards and I also got advice from the fountain of Star Trek Knowledge Ste Illustrates! Which I'm very grateful for!

I also got prints made of the duck illustrations I mentioned a few blog posts ago. And I decided to create a few Christmassy ducks to go along with them:

And last but not least, I got a re-print of the Original Star Trek cards that I sold in my shop last year:

You can find all of these products as well as lots of other goodies over at my Nafftastic shop, so go take a nosey - you may just find a gift for a sci-lovin' or duck-lovin' friend or family member!

Anniversary Card 2014

To celebrate our "anniversary" (which we call Star Heart Day - how magical-sounding) last week, I made my boyfriend a tattoo-ed bum card.
My apologies if any of these pictures offend anyone...

Initial sketch of bum card:

Blue Peter's Tortoise in the Tower

Splinter Design has recently finished work on a game for Blue Peter! I had the privilege of developing a visual style for the game and illustrating all the various assets needed for it. It was a lot of fun to work on and definitely a new experience for me!

The game focusses on one of Blue Peter's favourite mascots - Shelley the Tortoise! Shelley the Tortoise is trapped in the tower and we've got to rescue her! The player matches tiles (similar to Candy Crush and games of that like) to progress through a level. An adventure bar at the top of the screen shows your progress and also what obstacles you need to defeat to complete a level.

This is the adventure bar at the top of the screen.

And here are some close-ups of the adventure bar so you can see in more detail some of the obstacles a player has to face!

There were a couple of animation frames I made for each obstacle...

It was interesting to think up of a new character style create their various walk cycles and such.

You can actually go and play the Blue Peter game over here: Blue Peter's Tortoise in the Tower

And rather excitingly, the game had a little feature on the ACTUAL Blue Peter TV Show showing all the presenters having a go on the telly! Which is pretty awesome...

So thar we go! Fun project in which I have now acquired a love for tortoises! Wa-hey!