lovehearts forever

Lovehearts! I recently got a delivery of two new organic cotton fabrics printed with my designs. I love the lovehearts fabric, I think it came about around the time I downloaded some Lady Gaga (yeah!) and watched Whip It - to me those two things are bright, fun, and remind me of the 80s, which I wanted this fabric to do too! I'm going to make something special for myself in this fabric, I can't decide what, but I'll show you when I do.

View them here:
Lovehearts Forever Coinpurse
Lovehearts Forever Pencilcase

The second fabric is still awaiting the discovery of some fabric for lining (I get all my fabrics from op-shops and secondhand/vintage markets, so it can be tricky!)


Giveaway Winners!!
Thank you all so much for entering! The three winners are: Rachel (MissIsa), B @ Sweet Limes, and Bec (becglew).

I really appreciate everyone for posting a reply and giving me your thoughts - there were some really fun (and funny) ideas, and some that I will definitely be working on. Some I may have already started...

10% Off Sale
As a thank you to everyone else who entered (and even those who didn't), there's a little sale over in the Pocket Carnival store - 10% off storewide with the code loveheartsforever (finishes 23rd May at midnight).
(If you prefer to purchase on Etsy, just include the code and wait for a new invoice).

Hooray!

eating, drinking, photographing

Not so much happening around here this week - a few trips to Santuccis (my fave local cafe). Soy chai, soy hot chocolate, choc chip cookie (the cookie was Chris's but I snuck a bite!)

Photographing new cards & rephotgraphing old ones - some cards have come back out of retirement and some have had a facelift. Just about to add them to the shop.

I went for such a delicious visit to Buddha's Day in Melbs at the weekend... they had lots of amazing cultural events, music, workshops... and LEMON CHICKEN! Which was vegetarian! Amazing! Buddha's Light, I bow down to your mock-chicken making skills.

giveaway time!

Hello! I have a question to pose for you all. It goes like this:

What new Pocket Carnival products would you like?

I've got lots of fun new ideas for products that I'm working on - first in the lineup of goodies is some homewares type things! But I'd love to know what you would all like to see adorned with little Pocket Carnival illustrations. Do you want more designs for our current products, or do you have a brand new product in mind? Or do you think everything is perfect just like it is?

If you're just new to Pocket Carnival, please take a peek through our shop here!

The giveaway:
Leave a comment on this blog post letting me what new products you would like to see Pocket Carnival making (or if you can't think of one, what's your favourite current product?)

Edited to add: I have heaps of ideas, but I want to know what you all really want!


Giveaway closes Tuesday 18th May at 9pm Melb time.
I will randomly select 3 winners who will each be able to choose a Pocket Carnival coinpurse or (unframed) art print of their choice (I will post anywhere in the world!) So don't leave your comment anonymously, okay?

I can't wait to read your comments! Thank you all, in advance!

my creative space

Mostly just working on a little bit more of the same, mostly restocking my purses after Finders Keepers. I have been doing a teensy bit of a paint job on some of my wooden boxes - I like to have some of them facing me so I can hide change & bags and so on in them for markets, so I wanted to paint the other side to give my customers something pretty to look at!

I'm also working on some clutches, I'm trying to do them in bigger batches now, but sometimes I just have a little scrap of fabric in my stash... this one I love so much, it's made using Delft fabric from Ink & Spindle and my birds fabric, and I'm not sure this fabric is being printed anymore in this colour, so it's very limited edition! I'm going to do an update of clutches later today (if it's not too cloudy for photos).

For more creative spaces, visit the blogs listed on Kootoyoo!

Finders Keepers Sydney - May 2010 (Part 2)

Of course, I couldn't come home empty handed from Finders Keepers - these are my keepers!

I love love love this gorgeous little 'handmade' Blinky from Blinking Flights, it's here keeping my little brown bunny company! Gorgeous Rebecca from Blinking Flights explains the inspiration here on her blog - people kept asking her if her beautiful softies were handmade... so she created this fabric to emphasise the answer!

Blinking Flights shop
Blinking Flights blog

These beautiful cloud brooches are my favourite thing I didn't come home with. (Photo from Notions). They're made by Paper Boat Press - I love ceramics, I love clouds... I love the brooches!

I didn't get my mum anything for Mother's Day in advance because I knew there would be something at the market - she looooves dragonflies, so this Sharon Muir ceramic bird is perfect! Beautiful!

I finally got to meet Rosie from Notions! When I was rifling through her badges we had a little giggle at the double meaning of this brooch, when worn in a certain place... I got it for a friend who is breastfeeding, to remember which side she's up to!

Rosie has so many gorgeous brooches...
Notions Shop
Notions Blog

And finally... beautiful little cards & prints from my stall-buddy, Sarah. Love Flossy-P.

Phew! I am lucky!

Finders Keepers Sydney - May 2010 (Part 1)

Back in Melbs! Finders Keepers was crazy & amazing, I am still super tired but also excited! First I wanted to show this photo - often there are so many markets on in Melbourne that each individual market is not so busy - Finders Keepers was amazingly packed FULL of people the whole two days! I took this photo during a quiet period - you can see the amazing knitted jungle which is hanging behind the stage - imagine knitting that!

This is most of my stall (more photos on Flickr).

This is our massive spectacular art stall - my section, then Sarah's (Flossy-P), then Emma's (benconservato). You can see Sarah adjusting her display and Emma hiding behind Sarah!

We were next to Frankie Magazine (hooray! I love Frankie!) - on Saturday the amazing, awesome Catherine Campbell came and did some live painting which was so much fun for us to watch - it was also great to see a bit of Catherine's technique too. She is so lovely and we were all so excited to meet each other - hooray!

Emma's beautiful little suitcase full of originals (photo from her Flickr) - I love the floral lining of her suitcase, apparently this used to belong to Emma's grandpa, who had to take it to school! (Did I get that right Em?)

Art wall! I didn't take too much framed art with me due to airplane/suitcase packing issues, but Sarah and Emma both had a lot of beautiful artwork... love it!

You can see more photos here:
My Flickr
Emma's Flickr
Rosie from Notions blog (I was so excited to meet Rosie, hello blog friend!)

I've got more photos to show, but this will do for today!

creative space: almost ready

I'm so very close to being ready for Finders Keepers... finally!


I decided to take along some little original illustrations. These are India Ink & Watercolour, I've photographed my two favourites, I was pretty pleased with myself for giving the Lion some snowshoes. Just call him Napol-Lion Dynamite. Yeah, sure.

The past few weeks I have been very focussed on the sewing & design side of things, so it's nice to do some actual drawing & painting which I love so much. So even though these aren't available online yet, if people like them I will definitely add some to the shop soon.

I also found this little box for my gift tags and covered it with some paper - I was so happy with it until Chris was all... 'can't you make it less... wrinkly?' So if you happen to come to Finders Keepers, just don't mention the wrinkles, okay?


For more creativity, visit the list of blogs at Kootoyoo!


And finally, today Pocket Carnival was featured in this super-fun article on the Etsy blog - check it out for a handful of brilliant labels from Australian designers! Thanks to lovely Mandi from Babyology for curating it!

finders keepers buddy: flossy-p!

Just in case you weren't sure, Finders Keepers is this Friday and Saturday! In my last post I showed you some favourite art from Emma (benconservato). Today I'd love to show you some work from Sarah.

Sarah recently painted this gorgeous mural for a bakery... it's so perfect! View more images on her blog.

Stop motion mural painting from flossy-p on Vimeo.

Sarah will be selling lots of pretty things including cards & art prints at Finders Keepers.
Where to find Sarah:
flossy-p Flickr
flossy-p blog
flossy-p shop
Hooray!


So, if you're in Sydney on Friday or Saturday, come visit us!

Finders Keepers Sydney
Carriageworks
245 Wilson Street
Eveleigh
(it's super close to Sydney Uni)
Friday - 6pm - 10pm
Saturday - 10am - 6pm
That's it!

(Oh and bring cash, we don't have Eftpos).

finders keepers buddy: benconservato!

So, I'm sharing a stall at Finders Keepers Sydney Market (which is this Friday and Saturday) with Emma of Benconservato & Sarah of Flossy-P. I'm quite nervous about my first interstate market (and my ability to fit everything in my suitcase) so I'm happy to have 2 awesome stall buddies.

I'm super excited as I find both these wonderful artists incredibly inspiring, and am so happy to be sharing what will be an amazing stall with them!

I've loved Emma's art for awhile now, I think her work is strong, bold and unique, as are the amazing characters she creates.

Emma is making lots of gorgeous monoprints to be launched at Finders Keepers (including these ones) which is exciting!

She's also making lovely monster plushies - so funny! They're made of printed organic cotton - I was actually hoping to have some of my own plushies ready, but you know what they say about the best laid plans! So I'm happy benconservato monsters will be representing.

You can visit Emma here:
benconservato blog
benconservato shop
benconservato twitter


I'll have a post about Sarah's beautiful art soon!

colour inspiration: rainbow

I'm working on some new fabric designs (in between getting ready for Finders Keepers). One is particularly bright & fun, here are some things inspiring me.

Rainbow cake! There are literally hundreds of rainbow cake photos on Flickr, but I love this one from Daily Poetics. Check it out for more photos of the cake.

1000 Lanterns by irenesuchocki on Etsy.

More zip photos - this is my display pile, and how I remember which zip colours to order.

Delicious looking rainbow cakes, from House of Origin (originally found on Bloesem).

New thread in pretty colours.

Back to work!