Daily Doodle - Illustrators Block!

A few months ago I received an awesome shiny new sketchbook from Ohh Deer in collaboration with Urban Outfitters! This amazing book is titled 'Daily Doodle'. The daily doodle book is basically an A-Z of drawing prompts. A fantastic idea for artists if you come across block! Here is what the book looks like.

I have been using the book as prompts for new possible ranges and I wanted to share with you some of the designs I have created inspired by this book.

I have also been turning the completed illustrations into stickers and sticking them into the book! :D Check out a couple of them below :) 

I really love this book and i'm super excited to fill it with loads of super cute colourful illustrations. The only downside is sometimes trying to squeeze all your art into one little triangle can be difficult! Hence I created colourful glossy stickers! :D 

You can find this book over on ohh deer here

What do you think of having a daily doodle sketchbook? Would you buy one?

My top 5 reasons for being self-employed!

So you may have seen recently that we have been joining in on Joanne Hawker's #MarchMeetTheMaker challenge and in the process of doing so have discovered some amazing designers, artists and brands that I never knew about (that awesome feeling when you discover someone amazing and your just like WOW! how did I ever live with out....) :D Anyway as a little extension of this challenge I wanted to share with you my top 5 reasons for being self employed! So let's get started!....

1. Being my own boss! - For me this a big big part of how I started.... I just really don't take orders too well! :D I always seem to find the 9-5 jobs too slow paced and just not challenging enough. By being my own boss I am able to work as many hours as I would like! Got a slow patch? No biggie! Make more work for yourself! There's ALWAYS an endless list of things to do!

2. Flexibility - With 3 young boys this is super important to me as there are a lot of school runs, last minute parties and other errands to do! Running House Of Wonderland means I can work, school run, come back and work. If I loose too much time during the day, no problemo I can make it up in the evening. Have a fixed 9-5 job wouldn't give me that and also means I would have less time with my ikkle monsters :D 

 3. Uniform - What uniform? I pretty much spend most of my working days in my PJ's and I'm okay with that! No horrible coloured polyester uniforms for me! 

 4. Creative Freedom- Being able to do something I am super passionate about is just a dream! Everyday is never like the previous, each day challenging and a new adventure. Being able to sit and sketch unicorns (whilst munching cake, dressed up in a onesie) and then create them into a range of fun products is just amazing!  All you need to do is believe in yourself! 

 5. No limits- There's no limit to what you can earn and no limit to what you can achieve. I have learned so far you get as much out of it as you put in. A regular job limits you to a set wage which working for yourself doesn't! Whilst a job may offer more stability and a guaranteed income it won't generally give you the opportunity to reach your personal dreams and goals! 

I hope you enjoyed ready this post! It's a bit different from my usual but we gotta have some verity right?  What are your thoughts on working for yourself? What's your favourite reasons?

Have a magical evening! Oh and don't forget to check out our HOW Jewellery Club boxes! We only have a few left so make sure you grab yours now :)

A new art project....

Since my last blog post my SPD has become worse meaning I have been able to leave my bed for a total of 3.5 hours in the last 8 days! Completely bored out my mind and so to cheer me up my two little boys drew me some pictures. (Boys really are the BEST!)  Inspired by their sweet little drawings I set about re-drawing some of their little doodles. You may have seen these popping up on facebook, twitter and instagram?

So I thought I would tell you a little bitty about them as well as share some of the original doodles so you can see them coming to life.  So far I have completed 7 pieces out of the potential 9-12 I am aiming to do.  They are illustrated on 120gsm A6 cartridge paper in standard HB pencil and cheapo colouring in pencils! They are drawn in my little style with an influence from Tim Burton, Studio Ghibli and Walt Disney.  So here are the original pictures alongside mine.....

My boys are super happy with how they turned out and now keep giving me more to draw! :D I am so glad I got to do this little project as it's been on my to do list for a while...

I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed drawing them! And if you fancy your very own piece get in touch at sales@how-store.com :)

Tess x

The birth of Ninja Kitty....

Over the past few days I have been working hard on coming up with some new ideas.... I wanted to share one of them with you and the progress of the design :) So here is Ninja Kitty.  Inspired by my crazy little furball of a kitten, Dinah.  I swear she gets up to so many adventures when my back is turned! See how the little kitty was born by scrolling down below :)

Original pen outline

Having a play with some potential colours...

Next Ninja Kitty was scanned into the computer and outlined...

After the outline was completed it was time to add some colour!

and after a bit of fiddling, tweaking and changing....

Ninja Kitty was completed!

I hope you like our little Ninja Kitty as much as we do! I can't wait to see him on a range of HOW goodies.  What would you like to see him on?

Tess x