A year in paper toys!

Well this year i set myself the challenge to design and release a new paper toy a month. This proved to be a really fun thing to do, as it meant that despite full time work, I always found time once a month to sit there with my sketchbook and draw out some ideas to help me create a new piece of paper art. 

There were some months where I had more time then others, but I am pretty pleased with the characters I have produced, and would like to thank everyone who has downloaded them and shared photos of their creations with me; I love seeing them!

Above is December's paper toy, a Christmassy camper van (based on our own camper 'Rhubarb') It is, as ever, available to download for free from my website 

So now to think of next years challenge....

Movember Mole

For my November paper toy, I decided to go for a Movember theme. I asked people who follow my Facebook page what animal they felt would best suit some facial fuzz. I had loads of wonderful suggestions, but decided to plump for a mole.

The template is available to download for free from my website as usual, but if you could head to http://uk.movember.com and donate, or sponsor my husbands efforts here, that would be amazing!

Eye candy festival and Mr Bird's Emporium

Mr Bird's Emporium and sights from around the Custard Factory

A signed print by Luke Pearson

Some of the things we saw at Eyecandy Fest

Our haul of goodies from BZF!

On my birthday weekend, I was really chuffed to find out that two brilliant events were being held in Birmingham. 

First we headed to the Custard Factory in Digbeth where Mr Bird's Emporium was opening it's doors. I had been following the progress of the shop on Instagram and liked what I saw, so I was very eager to get down there.

Mr Bird's calls itself a 'independent fashion, vintage and creative arts store' so I was sold! It was brilliant. There was a lovely buzz around the place, and we got given free goodie bags and custard creams, to fit in with the theme. For those that don't know the Custard Factory is called that because it was originally the Factory for Bird's Custard. There was also a huge sponge custard cream to be sat on outside. 

The actual shop unit houses 13 permanent traders, and there was a lovely host of vintage goodies, (including a Catherineholm pot, which was snapped up very quickly, unfortunately not by me!)  and work by independent designers and artists. There was also a bunch of stalls around the shop. The plan is to have these stalls trading every Saturday, and I hope it continues.  It provided a much nicer shopping experience to The Bullring, which we walked through later on in the day and couldn't wait to get out of!

If you are interested in having a stall head here for more info.

After a stop at the Yumm Cafe we headed onto the Eyecandy festival, a visual pop culture festival. The highlight of which for me was The Birmingham Zine Fest. This took place in The SideWalk bar, and was quite cosy, there was barely room to move at points, but everyone was lovely and friendly so it didn't seem to matter. Every stand was awesome here, I could have spent a fortune! Amongst the wonderful exhibitors, there was Luke Pearson (a personal favourite of mine), Sandra Dieckmann and Lizz Lunney. Ruddy brilliant I say!

We also got to see some live art taking place and got to have fun joining in with some Exquisite Corpse drawings. I just wish we could have stayed longer. I also loved the installation by Filthy Luker, which took the form of some bright green tentacles escaping from some windows in a building on Birmingham's Southside.

I hope it returns next year!

Count Cosmin

October's paper toy is here. Meet Count Cosmin, ready to make your Halloween a bit cuter! If you want to make your own head to my website for a FREE download of the template.

Banjo Bird

Here is September's paper toy, Banjo Bird. He makes a great desktop pal, and is sat next to our Mac right now, serenading me.

If you want to have a go at making your own then go to my website for a FREE printable download.

Radio ga ga

Just a few images I did several weeks back. I love vintage and retro radios and felt they were crying out to be made into a pattern!

Summer Workshops

I did this workshop towards the start of the summer holiday, but have just realised how long it has been since I did a post, too busy having fun I guess!
I had to share these photos, I think maps are fascinating, and it turns out they make great paper flowers. It was a gentleman that made these, and he really quite enjoyed it. I like the combination of something that is deemed feminine with something that is considered more masculine.

Frame decorating workshop

I am running the second part of a workshop tomorrow, this one will focus on using book, maps, magazines, newspapers and papers to decorate a frame.

I have been prepping for it over the last day or two, and here is the frame I came up with, where I tried out a few different techniques. Mainly ones I had saved on Pinterest and hadn't gotten round to having a go at. I was surprised how easy most of them were. I normally spend most of my time creating artwork digitally, so it is so nice and relaxing to make something by hand.

Holiday photos

I went to Devon about a month ago now, but have been so busy ever since that, apart from the taster photo I put up, this is the first chance I've had to go through and edit some of the photos. 

These should give you a bit of an insight into why I love the place so much!

It was Winston's first ever visit to the seaside, and as you can see, he loved it! 

Frame workshop

I hadn't lead on a workshop for a little while, and it felt really good to back into it. Doing a session on making and decorating frames for Age UK in Derbyshire. We started with some simple origami, though some of them looked lovely. I especially liked the one shown in the 2 photos above. It looks like a really complex design when finished.

Then I went through a few different techniques to decorate frames with recycled paper. Everyone came up with their own take on it, which was lovely. It was a nice relaxing 2 hours. Looking forward to next weeks workshop now!

My first ever attempt at re-upholstery

We inherited this Ottoman from Joe's family recently. It was handmade by one of his relatives, so it was quite an honour to have it.

However, we weren't overly keen on the original fabric on it! So I popped on Ebay and searched for something that would suit our style a little better, and found this amazing Day of the Dead patterned fabric. We both love sugar skulls (Joe recently got a tattoo of one) and I loved the colours and style of illustration of this one. It didn't take long to agree on this one and I had soon clicked 'Buy it now'

When the fabric arrived it looked just as gorgeous as I had imagined, I was very excited to get to onto the Ottoman! Screwdriver and staple gun in hand I set to work, and within half an hour ta- dah! It was so simple, and now this lovely unique piece of furniture has a new lease of life.

It's been a while!

Hey guys, it has been a wee while since my last post, partly because I've been on my holidays and also because I am working on a book project at the moment, but am unable to share any images with you for the time being.

So until I have a bit more time here is one of my holiday snaps, taken in North Devon overlooking Combes Gate beach near Woolacombe.

Self-Portrait!

Just a quick one from me. I have recently been asked to do some illustrations for a book, that are in a sketchy style, and influenced by that I created this silly image of me. Starting to want to branch out from vector work a bit. I may even go and get the paintbrushes out!

Jubilee Cupcake paper toy

I'm releasing June's paper toy early, and it's a double whammy, coz I'm feeling generous! 

Want some cute decorations for your Jubilee celebrations (if that's your thing?), or just some cute paper toys for whenever.

FREE download of the templates at http://samanthaeynon.com

Robot Tower

I started a new job several weeks ago, and it's full time, so it is more difficult getting to do the chance do any illustrations. Especially with trying to finish off the digital magazine, Air Monkeys, that me and my husband run with a few friends.

So the long and short of it, is that it has taken me a very long time to get this one done!

It is my first attempt at using perspective on Illustrator, I'm still running CS3 at the moment, so it is a bit limited on perspective options. It was more of a challenge than I expected it to be, and I still didn't get it bang on, but I'm fairly happy with it.

Harold The Super Hamster!

Here is my paper toy for May. He is called Harold and he is a hamster with a cape, pants and an eye mask, he is awesome! He is super fast on his wheel, and can climb those cage bars like a pro. He also holds the hamster record for the amount of food he can store in his pouches!

If you want to have a go at making him yourself (and this one is really easy) then download the net for FREE from www.samanthaeynon.com