The exciting and wonderful first issue of Lionheart Magazine has been published and is currently in a bookshop near you! I was asked to create a cherry blossom-themed illustration which I later learned was to accompany an article written by the rather lovely Cherry Healey. Above is my original illustration – the final version was cropped to fit into the editorial.

The magazine is amazing – well done to all the contributors, and of course Helen herself, for making such a wonderful thing. I’m very happy to be a part of it. I haven’t finished reading it all yet, so that’s what my Sunday will be spent doing with a rather large brownie and a rather large cup of tea. Perfect.

Abby Wright has written a great little roundup of some of the standout features and illustrators in the Magazine; including yours truly – check it out.

Click here to read Tantrum Magazine.

Day Dresses by Miss Selfridge
Platforms by Topshop

A/W11 is certainly abundant with the colour right now; there’s a huge trend at the moment for anything jewel coloured; the deep, rich, sister tones that were everywhere during Spring/Summer. In this respect, I’m very glad – colour blocking wasn’t just a one-season trend, but AW11 has updated it with much more grown up colours, accented with deep greys and blacks. I’m also glad because I get so bored with dark, dull colours in Autumn/Winter – it’s my belief that we should dress as brightly as possible during the dark months, otherwise it’s just a neverending procession of dreary grey until march.

Teal is a strange colour to define – it can range from dark turquoise to a more definite green, sometimes even a peacock blue. I’m irrevocably drawn to it, though unsure why; it’s definitely my favourite colour. Everytime I see it in store I’m drawn to it. Right now in my daily wear I’m rocking a teal Zara bowling bag – usually mixing it with pink or mustard. Both good colours to clash with.

Anyone else loving teal right now? Anyone hate it? Got any other colour obsessions?

One of my first projects was to work on the window designs for Poste Mistress, in Monmouth St, Covent Garden. Poste Mistress is under the Umbrella of Office, specialising in high end, luxury women’s shoe brands.I thought I’d take you through briefly how a window display is designed and the finished version, from a graphics point of view.

The concept for the window was already decided before I’d started, I just had to pull it all together. One of my favourite parts is actually coming up with concepts, but I didn’t mind this as it was a fun brief to work on. Since then I’ve had to come up with various ideas for other projects so there’ll be more to show in the future. The VM team wanted an ‘enchanted woodland’ type effect, so they sourced all the props etc, I just had to draw the animals and leaves. They’d decided on a watercolour/illustrative effect, which, luckily, is my forté! We had seen the Mulberry AW11 Campaign and were inspired by the colours, but wanted to go less surreal, more typical British woodland. Here are some of the animals…

There were 6 in total, I also did a rabbit and a flying sparrow.

We wanted some leaves, printed onto vinyl around the window space, so I hand-drew a few various ones:

And created the full size graphics in illustrator, artworked into the various panel sizes:

Then I costed all the elements with the printers, and once it was approved and delivered, it was time to install….

Et Voila! I’m so happy with the way it turned out. Next is the Christmas update, which involves muchos glitter…

All images copyright to OFFICE Holdings Ltd, do not use without permission.

The recipe that is featured is this one:

I can’t wait until I can get my hands on a copy!

You can also buy prints of my recipes from here, and you can get them printed on canvas too here, and here!

Beforehand, we both got involved in the Homemade London bookbinding workshop – so much fun! and so easy to do.

Our finished books!

So on to our workshop -it was a great day, and hopefully everyone enjoyed it! This is Rachel P doing one of her own.

Everyone made really different and unique postcards – love this watercolour one!

Scraps of collage and drawing were the order of the day!

Some beautiful stationery was provided by Paper Nation too.

Some people made amazing themed sets!

This was one of my postcards, which I sent on!

Here I am, busy cutting and sticking.

We had a great day and hopefully everyone else did too!

Also, a few weeks ago, I went on a fortnights holiday to Turkey with le parents – near the tiny town of Akbuk, on the West coast. It was amazing. Some of you might hate the thought of holidaying with parents but mine are ace, and they have a timeshare in amazing resorts around the world. So, er, totes there! I’m so depressed to come back to this horrible weather! At least the fashion is good this AW though. (I might do an AW11 roundup in a week or so – SO many good things I want/need right now!)

The sea was beautiful. Warm, clear, full of fish. That’s our resort’s private beach. I know! Private beach!

We went  to temple ruins. I love stuff like this. It was unbearably hot though.

The parents looking a bit matchy matchy.

We had many cat friends. This one is Mustafa. As in, Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. Mum was actually going for Mufasa from the Lion King but she got it wrong. Silly woman.

Dad. Asleep. Obvs.

The sunsets were amazing, every single evening. So beautiful.

We went to Efesus, which is an ancient Greek ruined town. So interesting. So well preserved!

More kittys. Aw.

We had wine. A lot of wine.

This is our boat. KIDDING, kidding. I wish. Had to tear dad away after a while.

Bodrum, which we visited for a day.

Unfortunately, no-one can see my tan because it now seems to be winter and I have to cover up. I really suit summer more.

Terrible picture, but the food was amazing. All of it. Especially this. Le sigh.

I should have posted about this weeks ago but I’ve just got a new job – hurrah – so things have been… busy.

The event is all about the art and craft of letter writing; and it’s importance in this increasingly digital age! When was the last time you actually wrote a letter to someone? That personal touch is beginning to get lost in a sea of emails, so the event is designed to get you back in touch with your handwriting and the art of sending lovely letters!

We will be holding a workshop in the afternoon slot (3-6pm) where we’ll help you design some pretty postcards and lovely letters to send away! Composition, collage, doodling, cutting, sticking.. that’s the name of the game!

It’s the first proper workshop we’ve ever done so this week is all about prepping and getting ready. I’m really excited as I’ve secretly always wanted to do illustration/craft workshops as I pretty much enjoy pretending to be a well-learned person. Heh. In all seriousness, I can’t wait, and hopefully this will be the start of Tea & Crayons branching out more into what we’ve always had in the backs of our minds; passing our (limited) knowledge on and helping up-and-coming crafters into doing what they love!

Tickets are available here and are selling fast! The day is rounded off with a discussion about social media and how our letter writing has changed since we started emailing. “Does it matter that we don’t write by hand anymore? Do the words count more than old fashioned pen and paper?”

It will be a fantastic day and we’re so proud and excited to be involved! See you there!

Crowd sourcing. Sometimes, especially within design, can be quite an ugly word; many people enter a competition, putting a lot of effort in, and only one can win. There’s always a danger that crowd-sourcing designs and ideas can mean you get a watered down version, or in this case, when the competition is voted for by peers, something which is based on popularity, rather than talent.

So when I was told about Velvet Brigade, I was intrigued, but wary at first. It’s a new site that crowd sources clothing designs into production. The site gives aspiring, independent and up-and-coming fashion designers the chance to have their designs created and sold, all based on votes from their peers. Having worked as a graphic designer in fashion for a while now, I’ve seen how difficult it is to break into the garment designing side of it (endless months of interning and working for free at fashion houses can discourage even the most talented of fashion designers), and unless you have a pot of money behind you, also extremely difficult to get any kind of credible collection together, or dare to say it, start your own label, after your final year show at University.

Velvet Brigade’s mission is to empower aspiring fashion designers and online communities of fashion lovers to create an apparel brand together. It’s something to be applauded, at least – and if they can build a strong community of designers who will help promote and share knowledge with each other, then that can only be a good thing. The Velvet Brigade co-founders, Jena Wang and Lindsay McConnon, met while working at one of the largest apparel retailers. They manufactured, bought and sold contemporary women’s fashion, always striving to better predict what their customers wanted for their wardrobes. Frustrated, watching small start-up brands struggle to make ends meet, while the big companies, and style mavens, drove influence, they made a pact: Their next venture would be about fashion for the people, by the people.

So, while I wouldn’t say Velvet Brigade is a quick fix to stardom, or will revolutionise the fashion industry, I would say it’s got guts, and if you were lucky enough to get your pieces made through it, that would certainly give you an edge within the industry. They do pay the designers (not an enormous sum, I might add) if the design is put into production; but it’s that age-old issue with crowdsourcing – a 1000 designers may enter, each put hundreds of hours into their designs, but there is only one winner; the rest get perhaps a bit of kudos, but that’s all. It’s a nice concept, but competitions are still something not to be relied on solely, as a designer.

Their first round of production is currently on sale through their site, with a second round of winners available for pre-sale and even more on the way.

Aspiring fashion designers, illustrators and hobbyists submit design ideas, while the community comments on designs and votes for their favorites. Winning designs are put into production and the designer’s name will be featured on the tag, as well as share the revenue with Velvet Brigade.

So how do you feel about crowdsourcing design, and competition-based concepts such as this? Do you think, as aspiring fashion designers, illustrators, etc, that this can be a credible way of ‘getting your foot in the door’, and earning a bit of money if you’re lucky enough to win – or do you think any kind of design competition is something to be avoided like the plague, and not waste your precious time and money on something where winning is a slim chance? I’d be interested to hear what you think. If you’re a fashion designer, would you enter Velvet Brigade?

Leave a comment or tweet me, it’s definitely an interesting one.

We all love a good Vintage sale – there’s nothing quite like rummaging through some bygone clothing to stumble across a gem. I love spending weekends wandering down places like Brick Lane (as I did today, in fact), in search of nothing in particular, just something unique, authentic and timeless.

On Saturday 24th September, 12pm, Lost In Vintage returns for its second outing at the Old Queen’s Head on Essex Road, N1.

Staged in the exquisite events room above the pub til 5.30pm, Lost In Vintage will host 15 fabulous stalls selling the best in vintage fashion – from 50s frocks to 90s DMs. As well as vintage accessories and retro homeware there’ll be mouthwatering cupcakes and classic cocktails to shop along with, plus retro DJ sets.

They have a facebook page too: www.facebook.com/lostinvintage

See you there!