And the winner is …

Congratulations British Chick Across the Pond; your name was selected by the random name selector to win a limited edition print. Sophie, aka British
Chick is not only a WordPress blogger, but entered my competition giveaway on Facebook.
Thanks to everyone who entered. 🙂 it was exciting as I had no idea who’d win!
Meanwhile, here is another of my handcut printing blocks: an everyday, easily accessible eraser carved ready for my Christmas gift tags and a silk tie I printed using it last night 🙂

Tree silhouettes

I did this tree silhouette this evening as the wind is howling outside. Hope it cheers everyone up.

Christmas Free Giveaway!!!!

Hi there everyone! Today, we set up the works’ 7ft 6″ Christmas tree in the foyer and it really put me in the festive mood. I thought this would be a good opportunity to offer one lucky person the opportunity to win a limited edition lino/gelli print of a hare that I printed this evening (the paint is still drying!!!).
To enter, all you need to do is either visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/squarebird.co.uk and comment after the relevant post beneath the hare print OR if you don’t use Facebook, comment at the bottom of this blog post why you think you should win it and whether it would be for yourself or a gift for someone else by midnight Friday 12th December (all time zones). Please check back Saturday to see who has won and it will be posted hopefully for you to receive it before Christmas. Yay!

Happy days!! 🙂

Oh, and here is a picture of the lino cut in progress and its first inking 🙂

The inked up plate just before I took the first ever print of the hare 🙂

Call for Jane Christensen! You won a print from my free Gelli giveaway!

Hopefully you will see this post Jane. You may have missed the announcement that your name was selected (I decided to choose two lucky winners as I had entries both on this blog and through Facebook). I’d love to hear from you – or of any bloggers know Jane and could get the message out to her, I’d be really grateful. Thank you 🙂

Gelli Elephants blowing bubbles :-)

As well as making some stamps today out of clay, I found I was inspired to make a print of an elephant on my day off. First we went out for a scrumptious meal as we knew that our daughter wouldn’t be able to eat for a couple of hours after having some teeth out to prepare the way for braces. Obviously she wasn’t that interested in food today, but did manage some prawn crackers.

On our return from the dentist we considered watching the movie Water for Elephants – I love the fact that the elephant responds when the circus crew realise she doesn’t understand English. After a discussion, we opted instead of a James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig. It gave me time to do a bit of sewing and printing.

Don’t you just love those toe nails!

And the winner of the blog hop free giveaway is …

Because of the amount of entries and me feeling generous, there are two lucky people winning prizes today! My daughter pulled one name out this morning and I pulled a second one out this afternoon. So well done to

And well done to

Well done to both of you and thank you to everyone who entered! There will be another free giveaway in December ready for Christmas – something extra special and printed of course! So, watch this space as you may win the next prize giveaway 🙂

Emily Slater (who entered through the Squarebird Facebook page – please send my your address so I can post you your prize and Jane Christensen – who entered via the blog – please send me your address details so I can post you a lion gelli print. Yay!!!

Still time to enter free giveaway!

Just a quick reminder that there’s still time to enter my free giveaway as part of the October Gelli Blog hop. Please comment whether you would like to win the turtle or lion original gelli print that I’ve showcased this week. There is also a mystery prize for the winner, picked at random after Friday’s closing date. Thank you everyone who has entered so far.

Also don’t forget to check out the other participants of the blog hop as there are some more freebies! Why not enter them all?

Meanwhile, here is an ATC (Artist Trading Card) I made and sent off recently to Australia as part of Be Creative Swap. I made it using a plaster rose and an attempt at quilling a rose bud. The brief set by Myfanwy Hart was to incorporate a tag in some way as part of the ATC.

Here is what I received in exchange 🙂

Leaves for autumn

Despite the downpours this morning, I managed to collect several different shaped leaves to creat different effects on the print.

I particularly like this one, which has texture to it now the paint’s dried

I’m going to experiment with metal textures tomorrow, so please come back soon and check out the results 🙂

Lino cut bike on a gelliprint background

This lino cut was made to raise funds for Air Ambulance. There is a large group of bikers who meet once a month and it’s their final meet of the season tomorrow. One of my limited edition prints from the lino will be sold off for the charity. Last time I auctioned one of my dot drawings of a motorcycle and it was bought by a motorcycle store.

Once the sketched outline was drawn onto the lino, I chose one of the smallest cutting tools and used this until the design was how I wanted it, then I removed some of the excess lino around the bike using a larger cutter.

After using a plain black block printing ink, I played around with different backgrounds, including leaves from the garden onto the gelliplate.

Practising calligraphy with a dipping pen

This has made my hand ache considerably. My uncle was a sign writer but I’ve found this painstakingly slow to do. I’m learning as I go and quite pleased with how this is turning out. Only taken five hours so far!

Please note, I did not write the poem, a great poem, merely used it to practise my calligraphy skills and have posted it here as it will be including some printing technique (watch for the illustrations) 🙂