Merry christmas & a Happy New Year!

I had a wonderful commission this year to make the wedding invitations for my Eldest & his beautiful fiancee's wedding

 carved lino block starfish, variety of grounds using direct printing 

& gelatine plate mono printing

There's a 'living by the sea' theme, his from Skye, hers from the coast around Seaford & they've chosen to get married in Hastings, just down the road from there.

 'sandy beach' ground samples & sketchbook

 Of course they could have gotten married in Fiji as that's where they met on a diving course & altho I'd love to have gone to a wedding in Fiji it's a little easier to get to the south coast of England! So there's a tropical theme along side the beach theme, hence the blue starfish ;)

 samples of cards with a variety of mounting papers & a bit of hand drawn seaweed curled round the fish

The chosen design in it's completed form, crooked sorry! & winter lighting but you can see the metallic blue dots picked up on the left. That was a lot of dots! 40 invites in all including a couple of spares. I hope I get one!

(oh so bluury, sorry!)

I fitted in a few Christmas cards too for the second fair I did which was a lot better than the first

adapting my cat by putting a Christmas scarf on her, inspired by Hilary Beattie. I  so enjoy her wonderful book 'Make it Personal' which I bought really as a companion to the printmaking course I took in January. This is Book 1 & Hilary covers stamps, mainly hand carved/made, stencils, rubbings, monoprints, screenprints & 'putting it all together'. There's a chapter on using thickened dye (dye frightens me) but it's like having a conversation with her & she just tells you in simple steps, what to do with it all.

Some more mono printing using a gelatine plate & direct printing & the cards for the fair below

 so I took my dads advice & produced another coffee pot warmer along with a 'range' of goodies using the red & blue fabric. He was delighted to be told that it sold. Maybe if I call it a 'creative coffee pot warmer'?!

See you in the New Year for more creativity! Lots of Love!