Samantha Eynon

Paper Toy Challenge!

2012-01-27T13:45:00.000-08:00

My latest paper toy! I have decided to set myself a challenge this year; to design and release a new paper toy every month. This is Januarys, based on a previous illustration. If you want to have a go at making one for yourself head over to my website where you can download the template for free!

Frosty Morning

2012-01-26T14:40:00.000-08:00

The gorgeous frosty morning the other week inspired me to get the camera out, so here are a few photos. I even got told off whilst taken them, someone asked if I had a pass!

bit of new and a bit of old!

2012-01-18T05:30:00.000-08:00

We've been in our house for 3 years, and so far the only room we've really injected our personality into was our living room. Finally we have started to make our bedroom a nicer place to be in. Just thought I'd share a few photos.

On this previously bare wall we now have a selection of cards and postcards in various frames. We plan to add a few embroidery hoops too, with some lovely fabrics and perhaps the cross stitch I am working on. I also love how easy it is to change the look of your room by putting in new images or swopping the frames round.

We also bought this piece of furniture from a charity shop the other week. It's so lovely to have something you know won't be in lots of other homes, as most of our furniture is from Ikea. Even better the dresser only cost £20! I just love it's 50's feel. We'll be on the hunt for more stuff like this from now on!

Cross stitch

2012-01-16T14:58:00.000-08:00

Above is my initial design for a cross stitch of me, Joe and Winston that I want to make and put up in the house.

I was inspired by the amazing cross stitch patterns by Wee Little Stitches like the ones below:

Scooby Doo

Hellboy

The Goonies

Tiger Print What is Love designs

2012-01-12T00:10:00.000-08:00

Here are my 5 designs for the latest competition Tigerprint are running. The deadline for entries is tomorrow (13th Jan)

Most of them are previous designs that I've had to alter to fit into a square format. Hope you like them :)

Frosties icecream van!

2011-12-24T07:27:00.000-08:00

Just a wintery illustration with ice cream!

NEW christmas paper toys!

2011-12-22T08:01:00.000-08:00

I'm a little bit slow off the mark, but here are some new paper toys for christmas. A new addition in my piece if cake range; Christmas Cake!

Also Series 2 of my paper toys. Nativity paper toys (though I have not had time to do the animals as well)

All nets are available to download for FREE from my website, so if you fancy a bit of craftiness this christmas when resting from gorging yourself on chocolate and cheese why not have a go. All you need is some thin card, a printer, some scissors/ craft knife and glue.

My Christmas gift to all of you who have supported me this year! Thanks :)

Car Booting!

2011-11-24T02:03:00.001-08:00

We went to a few car boots sales at the weekend, the first I had been to in years. It was great fun and we picked up loads of little bits, which I thought I'd share with you here :)

Pretty plate! 50p!

Babysham glasses (I had wanted some of these forever!) we got 2 in really good condition and a cherry b glass thrown in as well for £10

Framed old guinness ad for my studio for £2

Vintage badminton racquets which we will use when displaying our camper van £3

Deer ornament 50p :)

Hat for £1

2 1950's kodak brownies 50p for the pair!

The Matchbox Art Show

2011-11-12T05:54:00.001-08:00

Enter the Clutter, is a Brighton based business dedicated to promoting new upcoming artists and reinvigorating the art scene within Brighton and Hove. And they have set up an exhibition that will be called The Matchbox Art Show. 50 artists were asked to create a piece of artwork in a matchbox, and here is mine.

Based on one of my illustrations. I thought it would be great to have a little juggling monster called Barry in a matchbox that you could carry around in your pocket; always there to make you smile!

There are some really amazing contributions so far, I have been amazed by the amount of detail in some of them!

The exhibition will take place at Polish and Pin open house for the weekends of the 26-27th Nov and the 3-4th Dec. For more info click here

Christmas paper toy template giveaway!

2011-11-10T11:58:00.001-08:00

Ok not the most catchy of titles, but there you go!
Basically I have been running a giveaway on my facebook page where the next 10 likers, and anyone who shared the giveaway on their page, were emailed a link to PDFs of the paper toys I designed a while back.
Now I'm opening it up to you bloggers out there. If you comment on this link I will get in touch with you and email you the link :)

Digital Artist issue 26 - Double Whammy!

2011-11-05T06:10:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to get the chance to do another tutorial for Digital Artist, for the current issue. This brief was to create an illustration on Illustrator that had a watercolour feel. This was something I hadn't tried before, but I was more than happy to get my teeth stuck into it! It was really good fun to do.

Also, Robots and Rainbows (the company me and my husband collaborate on) got it's first bit of press in the same issue! :)

Mixtape October

2011-11-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

We did quite a simple mixtape for this months swap (the first for some months) It was partly simpler than normal as the one we were sent had some awesome songs on, but just came in a plastic sleeve, with the title scribbled on the front. However, I think the simplicity works. All the songs mention other musicians in the lyrics.

Ace birthday present!

2011-10-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

My Birthday was a few weeks ago and I got some tremendous presents, but just had to share this cross stitch clock from my friend Katie, as it's so different! It went straight up in my studio the next day! Thanks Katie!

Tigerprint Runner Up!

2011-10-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

This was the third time I had entered one of Tigerprint's competitions and this time I was one of the four runners up. The brief was to come up with a female special relationship card.

This was created through a combination of papercuts and Photoshop.

There some really lovely designs entered so I was so pleased to be selected.

Moooooo!

2011-10-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

I finally got round to getting some stuff printed at MOO, horay!

Robots and Rainbows business cards

Robots and Rainbows postcards

My own personal business cards

Loved the Moo mini cards as I'm so indecisive and with this option I could pick up to 100 different designs! I wasn't that bad, I went for 10

I'll Be Your Distraction!

2011-10-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

The latest image I have done for Robots and Rainbows. :) inspired again by song lyrics

Charley Harper

2011-10-07T01:03:00.000-07:00

Just a few sublime pictures of the work of Charley Harper who lived from 1922- 2007, and created gorgeous stylized illustrations. He is most well known for his images of wildlife and is especially well known for his birds. His use of colour and form are second to non. A true inspiration!

New flavours!

2011-10-07T00:22:00.000-07:00

I have added 2 new flavours to the papertoy cupcake range; blackberry and chocolate. If you want to have a go at making them yourself head to my website to download them for FREE what flavour would you like to see next?

Vanfest 2011 (with added pugs!)

2011-10-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

I'm more than a little slow off the mark here, as Vanfest was nearly a month ago now, but here are a few pics. For those that don't know Vanfest is a VW weekend festival. It was Winston's first camping trip and he loved it!

Winston's VW themed neck a chief!

Winston meets the puppy version of himself!

Cool ratty split

Nice late bay, complete with moody sky!

cute little caravan

Amazing splitscreen that the owner had used Posca Pens all over!

Joe's new toy!

2011-10-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

We love pretty much all things vintage here, and recently my husband Joe has had an urge to take some photos using good old film. He already has his dad's and granddads old cameras and we found this little beauty in Oxfam the other day. Hopefully he will get some nice shots from it, but if not it looks pretty anyway!

We all just pretend to be adults!

2011-09-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

These are my latest designs for Robots and Rainbows

The top one is just how I feel most of the time! I remember getting to year 6 at primary school and thinking I was so grown up, but now I'm actually supposed to be I feel far from it!

Squirrels!

2011-09-18T03:01:00.000-07:00

Just a collection of squirrel goodness!

Jumper from Top Shop. Bought this about a month back, in fact I'm wearing it right now!

Gorgeous print by Sandra Dieckmann available from society6

adorable teeny tiny blue squirrel! Available from esty

ace card by Sally Boyle available from Folksy

Beautiful Necklace from here

Socks from TopShop

Want Want Want this bag from River Island!

Finally just a little image by me! :)

Andrew Pavitt

2011-09-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

When we were in London, I picked up a card designed by Andrew Pavitt. The one we bought was the squirrel one at the top. I love squirrels so I couldn't resist. It is now in a frame on our wall. I love the sense of pattern that comes across and the retro feel to them. Beautiful colours.

Pugs Not Drugs!

2011-09-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

Gemma Correll Bag!

Winston sat by the bag (black dogs don't show up in photos so well!)

Better pic of his ickle face!

I had a wonderful surprise the other day. Some of you may have read a previous post where I showed you all the goodies sent to me from Hannah Zakari, in thanks for doing an illustrated tutorial, this follows from that.

The bag is designed by the talented Gemma Correll and I had been aware of it for ages and always wanted one, and then, with getting Winston I declared on twitter that I must get one to match him. This tweet was noted by Rachael, of Hannah Zakari who stock the product, and she very kindly surprised me by popping it in the post for me, as a further thank you! Amazing! :) It really did make my week!

It is now my dog walking bag, and everything else bag for that fact! :)

Cupcakes!

2011-09-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics of my latest paper toy range, Cupcakes! They double up as a gift box as well and are super quick and easy to make. I plan to make quite a range of them. 2 more flavours have been designed already, just waiting for new printer ink, so I can try them out!

These 2 (The Lemon cupcake and pink cupcake) are available to download for free from my website NOW

Spoonflower

2011-09-08T06:02:00.000-07:00

Spoonflower had an offer on a few weeks back where you could order a free sample. I'd thought about using their services for a while, but with an offer like that how could I refuse. Here is what I got back.

A few of the details haven't come out, where the contrast was low, but overall it's looking pretty nice! :)

Just wish they had a UK base now!

Amelia's Magazine (latest work)

2011-09-08T02:37:00.000-07:00

Just a couple more illustration I have done for Amelia's magazine over the last couple of weeks.

The articles they can be found in are here and here

Winston!

2011-09-06T03:07:00.000-07:00

For anyone that knows me at all, they will have been aware of my pug obsession!

I have wanted one for pretty much as long as I can remember, and drew one at my grandparents from a picture in a newspaper when I was about 10 ( they still have the picture!)

Me and my husband had been talking about getting a dog for a few years, day dreaming about taking one away in our campervan with us and having it sat with us on the sofa. We looked at all sorts of dogs, and when my mum was ill we helped out by looking after her Westie 'Molly' for a few weeks. We loved having her, which made us realise we really did want a dog, but I knew I wouldn't be really happy unless we got a pug.

After a few weeks of looking and having several disappointments, we found this adorable fella! He is 2 years old on the 13th September and has settled in with us so easily, you'd think he'd always been ours! Expect many more photos and blog posts in the future! You have been warned!

Pixelsynthesis

2011-08-30T04:15:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I took part in a live art event called Pixelsynthesis the brain child of Glen Millington (Pictographik) a derby based Graphic Designer.

This involved me and another artist, Laura Vann, creating a piece of digital artwork live accompanied by music by Andy McAllister at Derby Quad

We were given the word 'Organic' to work from and were able to plan for the piece at home beforehand and do preliminary sketches (all the digital stuff happened on the night) Then we had 3 hours to get the piece finished in front of an audience. Me and Laura didn't discuss it before hand, but both ended up creating pieces that were similar, though in our own different styles.

I was quite nervous before hand, but managed to just about zone out and concentrate on the work, I was told my facial expression was pretty intense! The top image is the completed piece. Both of the pieces were available to buy on the night on a limited basis. The event looks like becoming a regular event, and I had great fun doing it, I'm looking forward to being in the audience for another one.

Lunartik- Mini Tea Tour 2011

2011-08-28T07:02:00.000-07:00

While in London we were lucky enough to see the Lunartik-Mini Tea Tour exhibition, that was at the Forbidden Planet store until 28th August. It is a show of 70+ custom pieces of art all based on Matt JOnes' In a Teacup vinyl toy that start out in life looking like this

Some great artists took part including 'A Little Stranger', Felt Mistress, Gavin Strange, Jimmy Foo, Lunarbee, Squnik! and Paul Shih

Better photos of each custom can be found here

Drink, Shop and Do!

2011-08-27T05:32:00.000-07:00

We have just got back from a trip to London for our 3rd wedding anniversary. We went away in our campervan and stayed at a campsite in Abbey Wood, and then got the train in.

We had a fantastic time and expect several blog posts about things we saw and did when we were there!

First off I wanted to share about this place 'Drink, Shop & Do'

Our friend Clare, who lives in London, took us there, and it's quite near King Cross Station.

It is a design shop and cafe bar. The shop sells work of emerging designer/makers and everything in the cafe is for sale (tables, chairs, cabinets) and is all vintage, so the look is ever changing. The place was so gorgeous and sold wonderful cakes and drinks. I had a yummy oreo and banana milkshake :)

It had such a wonderful atmosphere and had stacks of games that you could play to keep you entertained.

It also holds workshops most of which are free. One was happening while we were there, as a table of women all appeared to be working on an interesting looking textile project.

I really wish there was a place like this near us! We will definitely be going back!

Air Monkeys Issue 2

2011-08-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

We have completed another issue of Air Monkeys Magazine. An online magazine for the VW aircooled scene. There are lots of great photos of gorgeous VWs and ace features, there's some bits that aren't altogether car related too, including a feature on Loyal Dean, a company that makes amazing longboards and a music section.

If your a fan of nice cars go have a peek at issuu, it's Free!

Pet Portrait Commission

2011-08-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

A few photos of the latest painting commission I completed.

Hannah Zakari goodies! :D

2011-08-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful parcel in the post today that really put a smile on my face!

About a month ago on twitter I saw a Rachael Lamb of 'Hannah Zakari' (an online boutique store that sells fantastic products from numerous independent designer/makers) ask if anyone could do an illustrated tutorial for her for a zine she was working on. I volunteered, and spent a several hours working away in the knowledge that it was in exchange for a bit of publicity and some Hannah Zakari goodies.

And I'm very glad I did, as below are photos of the awesome things I received!

I received a copy of the zine that my work was in. Above is my contribution

Ace Gemma Correll postcard

A mustache magnet!

Gorgeous acorn brooch

This will definitely come in handy!

New dress!

2011-08-17T00:40:00.000-07:00

Another great charity shop find that was shouting at me between the rails and was luckily in my size! Completed by a belt I bought in London a few years ago (excuse the hair, I'm due for a hair cut!)

Amelia's Magazine

2011-08-15T01:05:00.000-07:00

Just a couple of illustrations I did for Amelia's Magazine

It gave me the chance to do something a bit different, and the chance to make better use of my drawing tablet!

Derby Scribes

2011-08-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

A book sleeve I completed a month or so back for Derby Scribe's Anthology; a collection of short stories from some very talented writers. I had the pleasure of reading the stories in order to create the visuals on the cover, and there really are some gems in there.

A painting for Theo

2011-08-12T02:08:00.000-07:00

A photo of a painting I did for my 2nd cousins bedroom. Hope he likes it!

New patterns

2011-08-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

Just a few new patterns I came up with the other month for a competition ran by Tiger Print. The prints are all designed to appeal to a male audience

Collaberation (Inter)Nation(al) 3!

2011-08-08T02:57:00.000-07:00

The Third Collaberation (Inter)Nation(al) is now commencing and also now has a website!

If you didn't see my post on the second one the premise is this

"A chain letter for anyone who likes to Illustrate. Up and coming artists and well established professional doodlers working together to create beautiful pieces of art"

The project starts with a piece of A3 paper. The first artist fills roughly a quarter of the page then sends it on, they then get a piece a quarter full add to it and send it on... This happens 4 times until the page is full and then the images get digitally coloured.

It is very exciting to be at the beginning of a new project again!

Here is my first drawings and 2 I coloured for the last collab

Our first T-Shirt has landed!

2011-08-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

We ordered one of our own (Robots and Rainbows) T-shirts from our Society6 shop so that we could see the quality that our customers were getting (and so we could wear some of our own threads!) and we are pleased to report that they look great!

A very high quality digital print with no pixelation, great colour match and nice and comfy :D

You're my human holiday!

2011-08-04T13:33:00.000-07:00

A image I did for Robots and Rainbows, now available from our Society6 shop :)

It's inspired by the lyrics from a song by the great band Fun.

Think there will be many more lyric based illustrations to come!

Totem Love!

2011-07-29T04:53:00.000-07:00

So before I start properly get ready for LOTS of photos!

We went to Inkygoodness' latest exhibition yesterday, Character Totem Homecoming, that was originally shown in Berlin, but made its way to the Zellig Gallery at the Custard Factory in Digbeth, Birmingham. The gallery has not been open that long, and it was the first time we had been to it.

Beautiful lamps that greet you on walking down to the Zellig gallery

Sculpture hanging in the Zellig building

Other views out and about the Custard Factort, including the wonderful Yumm cafe where we had a mammoth Chocolate Brownie :)

The Totems!!!

A number of top illustrators/artists were asked to decorate a totem and here are some of the results!

Fantastic totem by FeltMistress! This one must have taken forever!

There were totems by Mr Millerchip, McBess, Matt Saunders, Loulou and Tummie, Kate Hindley, Hannah Baber, Sneaky Raccoon and many more!

A selection of some of the amazing work that was on display! It really was a feast for the eyes!

We also bought a few goodies. There were loads of amazing prints but we could only afford one and couldn't decide between us which one to get, so instead I got a goodie bag from Steph Says Hello
which had a cute badge 4 beautiful postcards and a few sweets, to go with the sweetie bag theme :)

Joe picked a pack from El Tobe who also had a great totem on display, a close up of part of El Tobe's totem is shown above.

The exhibition is only on till Sunday, so get yourselves down there quick!

Camper van photo shoot!

2011-07-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

Some photos taken by my husband Joe and me. A few weeks ago we took our camper 'Rhubarb' out for a little photoshoot, with a load of accessories. We drove around for a long time around Cannock Chase looking for somewhere pretty that we were allowed to park on without finding special permission off anyone and eventually found a small patch, and quickly set our bits out, which include a vintage picnic set, vintage coca-cola cool box and hand made crochet blanket... It's all about the accessories!

Our new shop!

2011-07-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

A little while back you may have read my post about the new sideline that me and my husband have set up called "Robots and Rainbows" The initial idea was that we wanted to create fun, bold t-shirts that we would like to wear and hoped that other people would too.
We would eventually like to print or press the T-shirts ourselves, but to do that we need to do a lot of learning and money saving, so in the mean time we have set up a society6 shop, which sells our designs as prints, t-shirts, hoodies, i-phone cases, laptop and i-pad skins and i-phone and i-pod skins. The company is US based, but there is FREE worldwide shipping until the end of Sunday (not long left!)

If you want to have a little looksy at the shop click here! :)
We are also currently on Facebook and on twitter @robotsnrainbows , come and say Hi :)

Ammo magazine Issue 7!

2011-07-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

I received my copy of Ammo magazine number 7 today! Which had my work in it! :) horah!

I love the magazine which is always brimming full of great work, and had been trying for months and months to get in it, so I was super excited when I finally did.

Below is the new piece I created especially for the magazine.

Fantastic front cover done my Matt Saunders aka Rabbit portal

Great work by Muxxi

Brilliant piece by Natalie Hughes

More Charity shop goodies!

2011-07-21T06:15:00.000-07:00

I think me and Joe have found a new past time- charity shop hunting! After our success the other day we came up trumps again!

Lovely glass bowls 99p!

Super cool Melamine set (13 pieces) in pristine condition for £8!

Beautifully illustrated Alice in Wonderland book, originally given as a present in 1951, then again in 1970, that lived on the same street I lived on till I was about 7!

Collaberation (Inter)Nation(al)

2011-07-17T03:07:00.000-07:00

Joshua Owen vs Little Gamgee and Martin Butler and Iain Sellar

Martin Butler vs Joshua Owen and Miss C and Little Gamgee

Little Gamgee vs Miss C and Kemo Kame and Stina Jones

I took part in a project called 'Collaberation (Inter)Nation(al)' a little while back. It was a collaboration project, the first one that I had done, and I loved it!

The premise of the project was that you started with an A3 piece of paper and filled about a 1/4 of it with a black and white drawing. Each piece of paper was sent to 4 people in total, who each added to the piece in their own unique way. It was good to work in just black and white, as a lot of my work tends to use bright colours.

There were some fantastic artists/ illustrators/ designers involved, including Stina Jones, Keith Hopewell and Richy Hurle. It was really exciting seeing how the pieces progressed, and I can't wait to get involved again!

Charity Shop shinys!

2011-07-15T06:15:00.000-07:00

Me and Joe went hunting around charity shops yesterday to see what we could find, and while our original plan of buying lots of cool odd plates to replace our cheap white ones, we did find some bargains!

I spotted the pattern on this dress from a mile off, and luckily it was in my size! £4.99

Spotless Thermos flask, in a gorgeous colour! £2.50

As some of you may know I love paper craft and have been getting into origami, this fantastic '80's book was just £1.50. I especially love the origami moustache!

We did manage to get our hands on a couple of plates though for 50p, and enjoyed eating cake off them last night!

Handmade sketch books

2011-07-10T03:05:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I decided to have a go at making some handmade notebooks, and I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. They consist of a lino printed card front cover. with 40 pages of printer paper and a nice ribbon book marker. I sewed the pages in with a sewing machine, Originally I thought I'd have a go doing it by hand, but my needle just wouldn't go through all the pages!

The books are A5 in size, perfect for popping in your bag, taking on the train or just leaving round the house for making notes and doodles in :). They are for sale in my shop

I will definitely be making more books in the future, hopefully some more ambitious ones too!

My first Munny!

2011-07-05T02:56:00.000-07:00

I bought a blank munny months and months ago whilst in Birmingham, and ever since it has sat in it's box on my shelf, gathering dust! But I have got some time off from work, so I finally took the plunge and customised it! It was done nearly all in freehand (which is a bit of a challenge for me as I always draw things out first) and was inspired by tattoos and day of the dead sugar skulls.

I did this in Muji Paint markers, they worked fairly well, though some of the light colours didn't go on very well. I will definitely be having another go, but maybe with Posca pens or acrylic paint.

Badges and stickers!!!

2011-06-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

We had some badges and stickers made up the other day some for Robots and Rainbows and some for Air Monkeys. It made me very excited to see them all together. We have already sold about 15 badges and we put one of our stickers in our campervan :)

They were made up by Awesome Merchandise who were really great and happy to help. I highly recommend them!

PennyFest2!

2011-06-29T05:59:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I was privileged to be a part of an event called Pennyfest2. This was a music and art/craft event that took place at The Vines Bar in Derby. The day was set up in order to raise money for Penny's Fund, find more about the fund here.

A lot of hardwork went into setting this event up, a great deal of it being done by the lovely Pete Salter and Holly Booth, who also run Hatch'd Magazine (a creative network based in Derby). There was a whole host of amazing bands and artists including Haiku Salut, Josh Happens, My Psychoanalyst and there was also a reunion set by Plans and Apologies. There also some great stalls there including The Cake Ladies, Born Restless, So Boho Vintage and me! And to top it off there was food (including homemade curry!) and drink, truly, what more could you wish for!?

The day was absolutely scorching, and everyone was having a great sweaty time together!

There were some awesome prizes on the tombola, we had our eyes on the tattoo session and the Ukulele, but alas we didn't win. The day was a huge success though and overall made £2000! What a result!

Digital Artist issue 21

2011-06-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Another tutorial in Digital Artist. Thanks to April Madden for asking me to do it! Really enjoyed this one!

Our lovely holiday!

2011-06-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

Last week we got back from a lovely break in North Devon in our camper 'Rhubarb'. We spent a most days at the beach and in the sea. Here are a few of the photos we took.

About a girl

2011-06-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

The latest 'mixtape' we received from Nick Taylor, another great one, find more of his work here

Unfortunately there will be no more mixtapes for a while, as the guy who organises the project is taking a break from it so he can concentrate on finishing his MA. I think we might get withdrawal and just have to keep making them anyway!

Lots of lovely goodies!

2011-06-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to have an envelope full of goodies waiting for me when we got back from our holiday. They all came courtesy of the very talented and hardworking Armadillo boy (Jason Smith) go find more about him and his awesome work here

He is also running a very special project called the Oh GOSH project in which he has rounded up a fine selection of artists and illustrators to created pages for a colouring in book and accompanying posters. All funds raised from the project will go to the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

The big vinyl sticker he sent has already found it's way on to our campervan!

Mr Schmidt!

2011-06-09T14:31:00.000-07:00

This has been out for a little while, but I forgot to shout about it on here! Meet Mr Schmidt, the sausage dog, my latest paper toy.

If you want to have a go at making one yourself head to my website for a free download! :) it's coz I love you!

Robots and Rainbows!

2011-06-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

Another new venture for me and my husband. We both love t-shirts, we both love robots and, well I love rainbows! So born out of that and our desire to do something creative together is Robots and Rainbows.

We are currently coming up with a load of designs and are saving up for a heat press in order to start making them ourselves!

While we wait we have ordered some badges and stickers, which I can't wait to see!

If you want to follow what we get up to you can find us on Facebook and twitter at the moment. When we get to 100 followers on our FB page, we will be giving away a set of four badges and a sticker to one of our fans picked at random.

Air Monkeys Magazine

2011-06-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know me and my husband own a VW campervan called 'Rhubarb' and by all accounts we are a little VW obsessed, so we began a small club with a few friends who also own classic VWs, called Air Monkeys. I have had fun designing the logo and seeing it on hoodies and any day now some badges!

We decided that, as well as just having a bit of fun and going to shows together, we would have a go at producing our own digital magazine, and last Sunday we unleashed it on the world! So if you have an interest in VWs and also other things to do with the scene (music, extreme sports, other cool stuff!) then you can find it here

Clap Your Hands!

2011-05-28T05:46:00.000-07:00

Just some images of the latest artwork I created for the mixtape project that we are involved in.

I'm really pleased with how this one turned out. I love the colours and the retro feel that I created. It would be so ace to design some artwork for a band some day soon.

Pattern by Orla Kiely

2011-05-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

This is one gorgeous book that I highly recommend to anyone with any interest in pattern, fashion design or colour. It is beautifully laid out with pages and pages of sumptuous coloured images and patterns. Orla Kiely's use of colour is sublime and this book is certainly a feast for the eyes. There is just the right balance between images and words as well, and it's really interesting reading about Orla's creative process.

Lino Printing!

2011-05-16T03:11:00.000-07:00

I have finally gotten round to having a go at lino printing, and I love it! Here's a few pics of what I've been up to:

Carved lino ready to print from

Cards drying

Testing out the design

personalised sketch books, more to come

Mushroom Card

Mushroom print

Set of Robot cards

Set of flower cards

Prints and cards are available from my shop on my facebook page www.facebook.com/Samantha.eynon.art

Goodies from Birmingham! :)

2011-05-16T02:09:00.000-07:00

We had a bit of a splurge at the weekend, here's some of our goodies! :)

New Shoes! ooooooo

New Tee! :D

Sweeties from Cyber Candy! The Appleheads are very tasty!

Paint markers from Muji, will see how they compare to posca pens

Joe's new awesome jumper!

things wot my work has been in of recent!

2011-05-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

Computer Arts magazine

Out Now!

From Dusk to Dawn magazine

Popular Patchwork magazine

My work has been in a few magazines recently, which makes me happy, and I will be have a tutorial in the next issue of Digital Artist :) Horah!

Craft fair

2011-05-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

On sunday 24th April I had a stand at Claymills Victorian Pumping Station . It was only the second time I've had a stall so it's still all new to me. I didn't make much, but had a great time and had some lovely cake! On top of that I met some lovely and talented people, carry on looking to see photos of all the stalls.

These three images are of my stall with all new linocuts! Available from my shop on Facebook

Working meccano version of some of the machinery in the pumping station

Jayne Sanders

Hayley Powell 'Forever Forged'

Who organised the craft fair and is a blacksmith!

A fantastic stand of wood turned products and also wood turning demonstrations. A very talented man!

Antonia Booker Jewellery some of the jewellery shown here was made by Antonia Booker's talented hands and some was made by another great jewellery maker who I didn't manage to get contact details for

This is Bazaar

Always has lots of tempting, gorgeous, but affordable things to buy, by an array of great artists/illustrators/designers

Christine Gray-The Purple Shed Studio

An artist who makes beautiful sculptures and these intricate mosaics with reclaimed materials

My view from behind the table!

Things to Do and Make

2011-04-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

Now here is the book I bought

Lovely 50's stylised illustrations, and lovely to see that despite it's excellent condition, it has been used, as the paper snake you can see in the last image was taken from a pattern in the book. very pleased with this little find that cost me £1.50

Books, glorious books!

2011-04-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

We went to Malvern in Rhubarb this week. It was beautiful there and we also found this amazing second hand bookshop, this is just a photo of one of the many rooms staked high with little treasures. I was a good girl and only bought one book (as some were quite expensive!) but took photos of lots of them!

New toys :)

2011-04-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

Toki Doki Unicorn

Android

Lunartik in a Cup of Tea (mini series)

New goodies that me and Joe bought the other day from 'Nostalgia and Comics' In Birmingham. I can never get over how excited I get over these colourful, little pieces of vinyl!

The Rising Sun

2011-04-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

It's been put there for a while but I designed this paper toy in response to the terrible events in japan. It is available to download as a template from my website for £1 all proceeds go to the Red Cross.

Start Today Goodies

2011-04-05T12:47:00.000-07:00

The wonderful Chloe Cook did a giveaway the other week and lucky 'ol me won :D.

Just wanted to share my goodies!

Chloe has been doing a lot of screen printing recently and I think they're looking awesome!

I have a telling off for the post man though who shoved the envelope through our door, despite this

Naughty naughty mr postman!

Ace book! Printed Pattern

2011-04-01T02:21:00.000-07:00

Just wanted quickly share this book with people. I got it out of the library the other day and it's given me really itchy fingers to start doing some prints!

I've wanted to do some for ages, and this book presents some different methods in such a simple, friendly way, with lots of great photos. It even suggests making printing stamps from the simple eraser! So any budding printers should check it out!

Bring Me Flowers!

2011-03-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest paper toy! A lovely springtime flower. Want to have a go? Head to my website for a free download. Maybe you can make it for an awesome mum for sunday! This ones nice and easy to make as well :)

Cat Higgins mixtape

2011-03-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

A little late on the draw this time, as we should soon be receiving the next one, but here is the great mixtape we got sent last month, courtesy of Cat Higgins. We were very impressed by the professional quality that this one had!

VW's Rule!

2011-03-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

Many of you will already know that I am a big VW fan and that me and my husband own a VW baywindow camper van called 'Rhubarb', so it was only a matter of time before I started to produce more VW inspired artwork.

Above are some of the recent ones I have been working on.

All of which are now available to buy in my new Facebook shop!

Also on a related VW matter, my husband and I have set up Airmonkeys with a few friends. It is a VW club for air-cooled vehicles, through it we run a blog and we are currently working on an online magazine, which has been a lot of fun so far. If you have an interest in old VW's check it out. The magazine will obviously include lots of beautiful VW's, but also include, music, art, places to camp, fashion and many more things from the scene.

trailer loving!

2011-03-07T03:03:00.000-08:00

I came across these image today and I just have to share them, they are gorgeous in every way!

For more images head to http://bit.ly/hOL5Ch
The images were shot by Shannon Boettcher of fotonovella

The Creative Garden

2011-03-04T14:31:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I took part in Creative Garden Derby. A networking event for creatives. It was the first time I have had a stand anywhere and the first time I have seen my work on display for a while, so I just thought I'd share a photo of my stand there :)

It was held at Derby Enterprise Centre, and was packed full of amazing creative people, such as photographer Ewan Mathers and Katherine Cory who specialises in website design and branding.

More photos of the event can be found here

A Prickly Pair!

2011-03-04T14:11:00.000-08:00

I seem to have a thing for Cacti! More new cactus themed images on the way!

Mixtape 5

2011-03-04T14:05:00.000-08:00

For our 5th mixtape for the mixtape project, we picked the theme 'Cars'. Joe took on the task of making the artwork, and I must say it's awesome! All I had to do was the track list and CD. We sent it today, and were very sad to see it go, we hope the recipient enjoys it!

To make it Joe took an old californian number plate and constructed a case out of it.

Sweetly Wrapped

2011-02-17T02:39:00.000-08:00

Passport holder

Purse

Wallet

These fun creations are the work of Sweetly Wrapped a creative duo that takes colourful wrappers that would otherwise become land fill and lovingly turns them into these lovely products. Go check them out here

FD2D and interviews :)

2011-02-15T03:02:00.000-08:00

I have recently had the chance to do some work for FD2D magazine, an arts, culture and lifestyle magazine, with launches in Derby and Leicester. This was the first time I had created illustrations to support and article as opposed to doing tutorials or just having my pieces as stand alone images. It was great fun to do and I hope to do more.

I have also done a few interviews recently which have been fun

you can find them here:

http://burstmagazine.co.uk/home.html an excellent online magazine for up and coming creatives ran by Ali Salih

http://sweetlywrapped.blogspot.com/2011/02/awesome-artist-1.html a duo who make awesome things from sweet and crisp wrappers

http://theyoungcreatives.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/samantha-eynon/ a platform for young people (aged 25 and under) to showcase their work.

On another note my latest paper toys have been downloaded over 600 times each! :D thanks guys, hope you have enjoyed making them!

Valentines Day Paper toys

2011-02-07T15:22:00.000-08:00

I've designed some new paper toys in time for Valentines Day, perfect for if you want the chance to give your loved one something a bit different, and also gives the personal touch, as you have to put the effort in to make it!

The templates are available from my website www.samantheynon.com

If your a beginner the cake is a perfect one to start with, as it's really easy to make, the heart is a little trickier.

All you need is a craft knife, cutting board and some glue, so why not get going!?

Mixtape numero #4!

2011-01-28T02:39:00.000-08:00

We are have now been members of the mixtape project for about 5 months, wow that has gone fast. People come up with all sorts of awesome themes (see some examples here) and this month we decided to go for the theme of the circus.

It was great fun to do, I wanted a retro feel and stuck to limited colours, which helped to achieve this look.
It took much longer than any of the others as I decided to create an insert with an image to illustrate each song. I am really pleased with how it turned out. Really enjoyed creating the trapeze artist, and may have to use her in something else yet!

A piece of Cake

2011-01-28T02:21:00.000-08:00

I have recently started using Tumblr so while I have been getting to grips with that (while it is very easy!) I have neglected this account, I am unsure whether to keep both going. For now I will use this page for things I want to go into more detail about, and Tumblr mainly for images.

As a result of my neglect there are a number of new pieces of work that I want to show you!
I will spread them out so as not to bombard you!

First up is this little fella! A new paper toy that I designed as an alternative to a birthday card. Last year you may remember the little monkeys that I did for the same reason.

It's super easy to make, so is ideal for any beginners wanting to get into paper toys. If you want to have a go it is available as a free download from my website www.samanthaeynon.com. Have glue, scissors, a craft knife and ruler at the ready!

Bit of origami

2011-01-07T03:14:00.000-08:00

This lovely creation is called a Kusudama ball. It took me forever, but mainly because I kept stopping and starting, it is actually really easy to do, it's just waiting for the glue to dry that takes a while.

The tutorial I followed was on Folding Trees and is in two parts, if you want to have a go just click on the links

Part one

Part two

I was also thinking ahead to Easter for workshops and made this bunny. Again I am a bit of a beginner at origami so if you are too, this is another easy one! Click on the link to find the instructions Tutorial

I need to get some much prettier origami paper!

Some Christmas Artwork (sorry it's late!)

2011-01-04T14:11:00.000-08:00

Some work that I haven't had chance to post up yet.

First up is the artwork that I made for a mixtape we made for some of our friends over christmas

I know everyone is done with christmas now, but here is the artwork I came up with for a special christmas mixtape that Creative Derby (soon to change it's name)

And finally here's the card I made for my husband, all done with cut paper, I was really pleased with how it turned out.

New Year Resolutions

2011-01-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know that everyone does these, so your probably fed up of reading them, but what the hell, I think it's useful to write some down to have something to aim for.

Firstly here are the ones I posted up last year

1) pass my driving test : Did this in Jan last year!
2) learn atleast one new skill: I had a go at crochet, and enjoyed it, but then put it down and probably need to start again now!
3) create more artwork and research more artwork: I definitely created more artwork, but probably need to get stronger at doing better research
4) Draw more: I started to do more, as I spent more time on the train
5) waste less time on networking sites: hmmmm not sure if I managed this one, I may have got slightly worse! But hopefully I have geared it up towards networking as an artist/ illustrator

Hmmm not to bad, so for this year

1) Do some home printing, possibly linocut
2) Do more paintings
3) Get in Ammo Magazine (maybe a bit optimistic, but you've got to have something to aim for!)

4) Create a children's book (even if it's just just for my own enjoyment!
5) Create more paper toys!