Etsy - handmade heaven.

Etsy is the home of handmade, love this treasury - go and explore to find hundreds of unique items for sale!

'The Summertime Hues' by ADCBL

Soap Daisy Gift Box in ... SatinandBirch $17.00	1 Dozen Madame Butterfl... ButterBlossoms $10.00	Green Leather Journal w... boundbyhand $29.00
Tweet Tweet Love Birdie... InvitingMoment... $1.60	Teal Keep Calm and Carr... CherryCute $1.65	Bracelet cuff, brooch a... DotStitch $19.50
Earrings. Dangle, Green... ripecardsandje... $4.00	Summers Day Dreams 8x10... jmbarclay $25.00	Enchanting Goddess Cuff... JustColor $65.00
Simply Strung Lime Gree... GirlBurkeStudi... $40.00	Original Artwork Abando... cupofgracestud... $40.00	Colorful Forest Green B... rosesupplies $6.50
Sea Foam and Bronze wit... pjlacasse $65.00	SALENOW Felted art scar... VitalTemptatio... $78.00	Retro Squirrels Vintage... PlumePretty $14.00
Green Tea and Cucumber ... MilkAndHoneyNa... $5.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

My Lovely Messy Little Place of Work

I had a sudden urge to tidy up yesterday and my painting room is strangely organised this morning. My studio is a little room in my house, it once was a bedroom when my boys were babies but now it is too small for their long lanky legs so I claimed the small bedroom for me and my mess. 

I was born messy and disorganised, my mum would tell me off endlessly about it but none of her protests worked - my bedroom was always a terrible tip. My Nan used to assure me charitably that it was the dreamy mind of an artist that made me so, others told me I was just born lazy. 

I used to work as a paste up artist for an advertising agency, that job no longer exists as computers can now do the job of creating layouts for shampoo bottles and yogurt pots in a fraction of the time it used to take us by hand. 

The type used to be given to us in long reams of paper which we had to slice up with scalpels to stick onto the artwork to go to print. My desk was a wild sticky mess of cut up paper, glue, sticky tape, petrol, empty mugs and chocolate wrappers. My boss would mutter sometimes but he couldn't really say too much as my artwork was always pristine and neat despite the chaos it was created in.

So now I am left up to my own devices, I unsurprisingly still work in a complete and utter mess. Art can be a messy business but sometimes I wish I could be a tiny bit better organised. Every so often I have a blitz and tidy it all up, feeling very pleased with myself for about 2 or 3 days and then it all just creeps back. To be honest I usually only tidy up when I'm lost for inspiration and I am avoiding drawing something that I don't know how to approach. Now, if I'm in a drawing mood, tidying up simply doesn't ever come into the equation...

And now for something completely different...

Well just a little bit different anyway. You may be used to my rather whimsical images by now, they usually have a very sweet side to them but lately I have been doing some rather different paintings. I have been working with an author on a book about a young teenage witch called Prudence and we have been trying out some different styles of illustration to see what will work. You will introduced to our little witch in a while but in the meantime I have a series of watercolours going up for sale that have a different feel to what I normally do. 

They still, of course, have a rather cute side to them as try as I might I can't draw 'dark' things, however these images hint at something slightly maybe sinister behind the smiles...

This young lady has just gone up for sale on Ebay, the listing is here if you want to see more details. I have about four more in a similar style that I will be posting up for sale soon. 

Hope you are all enjoying the weekend, especially those in the UK enjoying the Bank Holiday!

Claire xx

Digital Stamps - 2 new releases!

Two lovely new digital stamps for you in the Etsy shop - a cute girl in a flowery dress and a fishing one for the boys. As usual you can enter our Twitter competition to win both of them by RT our competition tweet. You are looking for this tweet:


✸. RT this message to enter competition to win 2 digital stamps released today in @Etsy shop >>> http://tiny.cc/c0p4y #craft #handmade .✸


Good luck if you are entering! What do you think of the new stamps?

If you have never used digital stamps before and would like to know how to, take a look at this youtube video tutorial:

5 New Paintings

We posted up some new paintings a few days ago on Art Gallery and sold four already! Today we have released five new original signed paintings, sweet little watercolours each priced at £25. If you are interested in any of them just pop along here to view more details.

Now this is why I love making digital stamps...

using Jellypark digital stamp 'Butterfly Girl'   http://tiny.cc/b1ph9

We love these beautiful cards that have been made in Norway using our digital stamps! Wenche from the design team on http://www.scrapping.no/ contacted me through Etsy a little while ago to ask for a couple of samples to work with and she has just sent me this link to her article on the forum. Aren't they amazing?

using Jellypark digital stamp 'Butterfly Girl'   http://tiny.cc/b1ph9

using Jellypark stamp 'Pencil Rabbit' http://tiny.cc/9a6as

As I was quoted in the article, it is so lovely to think I can draw a picture here, pop it up on the internet and within a few minutes people all round the world can use the image to start creating. Amazing.

Wenche tells me scrapbooking is quite a new hobby in Norway but it is expanding fast, their forum has over 14,000 members to date. For the full article see here http://www.scrapping.no/?p=7849

Friday - so it must be Twitter competition time!

We are rather liking our Friday competitions, this week you if you are on Twitter you can win two digital stamps of your choice from our Etsy shop.

Just find the Twitter competition post that went up this morning and retweet it to be in with a chance of winning. Here is what you are looking for: 

★ RT this message to enter today's competition to win your choice of 2 digital stamps from our store...> http://tiny.cc/9z2yo ★

Competition runs from now until 10pm Uk time and a winner will be picked at random from everyone who entered. We will announce the winner and send them a Direct Message to let them know the good news and ask for their email address so we can send them their prize! 

Why not go and see the shop to see which stamps you fancy choosing if you win? > Jellypark Etsy Shop

Meanwhile, we are busy working on our very first interactive storybook app for the ipad and iphone. It's so challenging trying to understand all the technical side but very exciting to see the pages come to life. Children will be able to tap the screen and make some of the images move, a car drives down a leafy country lane on the first page - I was so thrilled when it actually worked for the first time! 

Wishing you all a good weekend, hope the sun keeps shining like it is here this morning! x 

ACEO cards

Three sweet little original watercolour paintings are up for sale on ebay. These are ACEO paintings so measure 2.5 x 3.5 inches, the same size as children's trading cards. They are fun to paint, it's nice to play around with new ideas and try out different painting styles. 

I have a fond spot for ACEOs as it was one of these that was the very first painting I ever sold - I felt like a 'proper' artist then! I haven't done any for ages so I really enjoyed painting these this morning. Want to find out more about ACEOs? Hunt eBay to find lots of artists selling them - start your own mini art collection! Or see here to find out the history of these cards http://www.art-cards.org/

If you fancy bidding on one of these card, just click on it and it will take you to the ebay auction.

Free Digital Stamp!

Just for one day, we are giving you a free digital stamp to download on the Facebook page - go and grab it!

New Digital Stamps - win all five on Twitter!

Hi, been trying to get onto the blog to tell you about our new digital stamps released today but, as you may know, Blogger has had a few problems today. Anything to do with it being Friday the 13th?!

We have five spangly new digital stamps that have just gone into the Etsy shop today, we have had some lovely feedback about them already. If you want the chance to win all five of them, you have until 9pm UK time to get over to Twitter. All you have to do is retweet our competition tweet and you will be entered into the draw - good luck! This is the message you need to look for:

:::::: Twitter competition >> RT this message now to win our 5 new digital stamps<<:::::: http://www.etsy.com/shop/clairekeay :::::::

New to digital stamps? Have a look at this link to get some ideas and information on how to use them.

We are always looking for new ideas and suggestions for different stamps, get in touch if you think of any themes or ideas that we can do for you. If you come up with a good suggestion and we make the stamp then we will send you one free as a little thank you!

Here are the new digital stamps that are in the Etsy shop, if you can't see them in the shop then someone has just bought it and we are in the process of relisting it - keep checking back!

Children's Colouring Posters - Sneek Peek

We are in the last stages of designing our new range of colouring posters. We found it rather hard as parents to find really good colouring pages for our own children as they were growing up, most pictures seemed too babyish for our kids who wanted to carry on colouring well past the nursery age. 

Our posters have lots of fine detail included that means it suits a much older child too - as you can see in the fairy wings in the snapshot above. We live in a hi tech age where children have access to so much entertainment on computers, TV, ipads and games consoles which of course brings many benefits. Yet how lovely to just grab a few colouring pencils and go back to doing a simple creative activity - perfect for relaxing, quiet or rainy days!

Our posters will be a generous A3 (420 x 297 mm) in size, there will be 3 in each pack and there will be a choice of themes aimed to either boys or girls. The are supplied in a handy cardboard tube, perfect for storage between colouring sessions, and a pack of pencils is included too.

We are having loads of ideas for the poster sets that we are preparing now and also for the future, lots of different pictures and maybe even bigger posters eventually!

Ipad Children's Books

Well our street party for the Royal Wedding was a HUGE success with over a hundred people turning out and partying well into the night! Now all that merriment is over and there are no more lovely long Bank Holiday weekends to enjoy, it's back to work for everyone at Jellypark...

We have been working with an American company who are launch some amazing software that will allow us to build our very own ipad and ipod apps for children - how excited are we?

Very, very, VERY excited.

We are designing some story books aimed at young children that have interactive features that will bring Claire's illustrations to life! We are busy learning how to use the software, having loads of fun seeing what amazing things we can do and hope to have our first book out by the summer.