Millie Marotta's Animal Kingdom

So, I'm a slow colour-er. To be specific, I started this page over a year ago, and only finished it recently. Colouring isn't therapeutic to me, it's painful and tiring. So why do I do it? Well, I find everything painful and tiring, and at least this is enjoyable!

Anyway, Millie Marotta's Animal Kingdom is a beautiful book, though like many adult colouring books, potentially a bit overwhelming at a first glance! The book is filled with gorgeous animals filled with tiny detailed patterns. Although some pages offer a blank background which I think helps offset this.

I coloured this page using WHSmith's colouring pencils. I bought these a couple of years back, as my previous set of WHSmith pencils were getting, well, over 20 years old! To be honest, I've been quite disappointed with my new set of pencils. They are nowhere near as soft as my previous set, and the colours just aren't as rich or go down as nicely. However, they are usable when you're on a budget!

I began this page by colouring in the poppies in shades of red, with some purple and brown to add depth. I then focused on the butterflies, splitting them into pairs based on their designs, and distinguishing each pair into a male and a female by altering their colours slightly. I added in most of the greenery, then after a bit of thought decided on the round "flowers" being fircones. I think this decision really added depth to the image - I'd love to know what Millie Marotta originally intended different shapes to be! The other flowers reminded me of thrift, so I added in some peachy-yellow tones, which also reflects the yellow of the butterflies. I was quite indecisive about the final tiny flowers on long stems, but really wanted to balance the bright blue on the butterflies by mixing in some blue and purple. I think it worked out well!

Animal Kingdom is printed on both sides of the page, but after photographing it I decided to cut this colouring out to hang on the wall. I think I'll get more enjoyment from looking at it then leaving it in a book to potentially colour the other side one day!

Hufflepuff Badger Birthday Cake!

Every year I love taking on the challenge of baking my own Birthday cake! Every year I learn something new about decorating cakes, normally related to their structural integrity!! I really had narrowed my cake this year down to a few simple options, but I couldn't choose between them. This led to my husband brain storminig with me and erm... a brand new slightly more complex idea took shape.

I'm a big Harry Potter fan, and a proud Hufflepuff. Obviously the animal associated with Hufflepuff is the adorable badger, and when I saw this image I just knew I had to make it out of cake!

The cake itself is Whisk Kid's chocolate cake, as it stays moist, but it's also quite firm for carving into shape. I stacked it with chocolate buttercream, added the back foot, tail and ears shaped from fondant, and crumb-coated the cake. The fur is created with royal icing which I'd coloured in various shades of grey, and applied using flat teaspoon handles - it created the fur texture quite nicely! I made the eyes and nose out of fondant, and piped the mouth on. I gave him a scarf in Hufflepuff colours, and a wee Hufflepuff badge - complete with mini badger! He tasted good...

Plane Card

I don't blame you if you've lost track of all my nieces and nephews, I think I do sometimes too! I think I can count nine of them these days, and one of them celebrated his third Birthday last month! I spent a while trawling through the Cricut Design Space to see if anything caught my eye... Well actually, a dragon caught my eye first. But it was just one of those Cricut disasters - I think I was trying to cut too intricate an image from too thin a paper on too small a scale! But then I found this little plane, and I fell in love. OK, slight exageration, but it is adorable! This design is number #M3F228 from the Wild Card 2 cartridge. I cut the base out of plane white card, and the clouds out of a hammered white card because I love the additional texture! The plane is cut out of various cards I had in my stash - it's not a standard colour combination but I think it's funky. I added some final detail with gold Liquid Pearls - it reminded me of little rivets holding the plane together! :) I love how this design stands up with the clouds pushed back, giving it greater depth, and it has such clean lines.

Moving Pinwheel Card

I have such a fun, bright card to share with you today! With a hint of pink, lots of bright yellow, mandala patterns, polka dots and some pearl paper... and a pink brad that ensures it even spins!

Of course, it then needed an envelope which it would fit in. Thankfully there is a wonderful resource on the internet called Template Maker, ensuring I could make an envelope to fit. I think next time I'd add tabs to the envelope design, but it fulfils it's purpose :)

Sweetbriar Sisters' Giraffe

I have been drooling over Sweetbriar Sisters' patterns for such a long time. Buying them when they've been on offer or I've had voucher codes, and hoarding them for later use. I normally end up crocheting toys, but eventually took the plunge and decided that for her 4th Birthday, my niece would be getting a fabric toy!

This particular pattern is Gerald the Giraffe. I made him using interfacing, yellow stripey fabric left over from my wedding bunting, and a bright red cotton left over from my wedding placemats! His tail uses more strands than recommended, with some left over wool and ribbon.

He came together fairly quickly and easily, although I confess to not pattern matching the stripey fabric, and there's some puckering going on... Sewing the curve between the legs was so difficult for me! I think he's super cute though, and I would recommend the pattern. I might just have found the confidence to make more!

Grandmother's Buttons

If you follow me on Facebook, you may recognise the colour inspiration for this canvas, which I shared last month!

When going through my Nan's button collection recently, I came across these beautiful magenta, lavender and turquoise buttons tied together by a piece of yellow cotton. I love the combination - the button colours coordinate well, and I like the jarring sensation of the tiny amount of yellow!

You can see here I included a tiny amount of yellow, and I think it worked :)

There is also a sparkly shimmer made with pearl dust going across areas of the canvas - one just has to catch it in the right light!

As always, the print is available here, and do contact me if you are interested in owning the original painting, or for more information.