In praise of Design Teams and Challenge Blogs

When I first dipped my toe into the world of digital stamps, I spent a long time on the internet checking out other companies to see what sort of images people were buying. I kept coming across these 'Design Teams' and to be honest I didn't have a clue how they worked. As I saw more and more and then came across challenge blogs it dawned on me what a brilliant idea they all were!

I am sure every one of us has sat with an image, fiddled about a patterned background paper we like or just sat in front of a blank piece of paper - with not a single clue or scrap of inspiration as to where to start. The DT's and challenge blogs are the perfect solution to get that flash of an idea, maybe a colour combination you hadn't thought of or just a totally different way to arrange the elements in front of you.

I knew one of my aims early on was to have our own Design Team one day, to help inspire ideas and show off our stamps too! The craft and card making community is friendly and vibrant, particularly in the blogging world were people have their own space to put up their designs and the means to connect with other like minded creatives to swap techniques and ideas, to share the enjoyment of their craft.

I have asked for advice, for ideas and opinions and every single person I have come across has been so friendly and gone out of their way to help me out. So I am indebted to everyone along the way as the Jellypark Friends Design Team and Challenge Blog begins this Friday. I am particularly grateful to Jennifer Scull who has given so much of her time and advice, without Jennifer this new team and blog would not exist - thank you Jennifer!

If you have been over to our Design Team and Challenge Blog you will have met out lovely ladies on the team already. Plus if you have checked out their blogs you will know that we are lucky indeed to have these talented people with us and I know you are going to get loads of inspiration from them with their great card making ideas.

As we gear up for Friday I have had some sneek peeks of the cards the team have prepared for the launch of the two new Jellypark digital stamps. Now, I knew this bunch of ladies were going to be great but their first bunch of designs are AMAZING... just can't wait until Friday now!

We will be releasing two new Jellypark stamps in the store this Friday and on the same day you will find the Design Team's ideas for how you can create brilliant designs with them on the Challenge Blog.

Then we want everyone to join in with the Jellypark Challenge we will set on each stamp release day - there are details over on the blog of how to enter, rules of entry etc. There will be prizes to win plus winner's badges to pop on you blogs and sometimes a nice little free digital stamp for you to play with too!

So roll on Friday and let the fun begin!

New Pirate Stamp Released by MFT

I have a range of stamps available at My Favorite Things and they have just released this new one featuring my little pirate image...click on the picture to go and have a look at their site.

They have a brilliant Design Team over at MFT and here are some of the cards they came up with using the new stamp - love them!!

By Joanne - click image to visit her blog

By Linda - click image to visit her blog

Why I Hate Sports Day and 5 Things I Do Like

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, this is the time of year that, if you have kids in school, your diary is packed with end of term dates.

Last night was parents evening for my eldest, his first one at senior school. So many teachers to see, my goodness it took forever to work our way around the tables. Why do I instantly feel intimidated by teachers? It must be conditioned into me from those (very long ago now) school days of mine when some of the teachers in my old school used to strike the fear of god into me! Now I am a grown up, am actually older than most of the frankly alarmingly young looking teaching staff and yet still found myself squirming when talking to them and feeling about 13 again!

It was meant to be Sport day for the youngest this afternoon and I watched with much delight as the rain clouds gathered and did a little jig when the text came through from the school to cancel due to the weather. Hate sports day, we just don't do sport in this household! We were not naturally graced with ball skills or the ability to run so the dislike for that annual day in which we are expected to demonstrate this to the entire school has passed down the generations. They don't assemble the parents to publicly witness how badly little Tommy is at spelling or to watch as little Jenny fails to grasp long multiplication, now do they?!

So, now on to things I do like. I have been whizzing around on the internet more than usual over the last few days and keep coming across the most lovely things so I thought I would share 5 with you:

From Sweet Poppy Cat Etsy store, a jumper recycled into a cute monster which reminds me of the lovely illustrations in 'Where The Wild Things Are'

The dunk mug from Mocha because I love a chocolate digestive to dunk in a hot cuppa

I want one of these from Marnie Moyle just need to grow a tree first to hang it from...

Bought one of these from Paperpod for a little friend and she so loved it - decorated it and flew it to the moon.

...and for some reason bunting just makes me happy! (from Art To Go)

New original watercolour paintings - grass fairy and jumping in leaves

Want to see what I painted yesterday? Three new paintings have gone up in the Jellypark Store which I did on Saturday while the boys were out and I had a nice quiet house to myself. I do draw an awful lot of fairies but I can't resist them, not sure why as I was never a girlie sort of girl at all. 

This picture reminds me of jumping in crunchy leaves as a kid, is anything more tempting than a huge pile of crisp autumn leaves? Joy of being a parent means you can still do it but mine are getting a older now so not sure how much longer I can get away with that.

There is a new painting in the shop too of a little boy playing football in the park. he is wearing an Arsenal kit - well no surprises there!

A new book to illustrate?

I've been contacted by a book publisher this week who wants to put a book proposal forward to a bigger company and would like me to be the illustrator. To do this I need to produce one double page spread to show how the book will appear once finished, this gets shown to the big bods at the company and fingers crossed they will commission the book. Watch this space!

I have illustrated a few books now but only have ever seen one in the flesh! Many of the others were for reading schemes and a couple were published is Spain and so I never saw any copies. This is my first book, how proud was I to see my name on the front cover?! That was a lifetimes ambition met, all I had wanted since being a kid was to illustrate a book.

Well the shop is now open and it all went well yesterday! I got this yummy cake made for me by my good friend Louise, how cool is this?!! Loving the 'crayon' candles and the little girl image she copied from one of our digital stamps!

And finally, have you entered both of our Jellypark competitions? We have one on Twitter and one on our Facebook page, make sure you all enter :)

Competition - Win this Original Watercolour Painting on Twitter!

As today is our Jellypark Store opening day, we are having a competition on Twitter to win this original watercolour painting - painted by me! The image measure about 5" x 7" and is painted on thick watercolour board with fade proof ink detailing. This image was in fact made for one of our Jellypark digital stamps which you can find in the shop here:

So if you are on Twitter, make sure you are following us and retweet the competition tweet to be entered into the draw! The competition closes at 10am GMT on Monday 4th July and the winner will be selected 

at random from all the names popped in a really fancy hat. 

Good Luck!

Jellypark Is Open!

Today I am very proud to say that the Jellypark store is open for business! We opened our doors at 10am and hope you will come and have a look around then come back to tell us what you think.

I'm delighted with our new colouring posters that look so fab all packaged in their tubes. We have had lots of brilliant feedback from our our little tester team so I can't wait to hear what you think about them!

The range of box canvas prints are just starting, we will be adding many more designs as the weeks go on so if you have any suggestions of what you would like to see please get in touch. We are planning to added some that can be personalised with children's names too.

Still to be stocked in the store are t shirts, party invites and personalised celebration original paintings - we have lots more to come!

...and of course we have our Jellypark Design Team and Challenge Blog launching today to promote the new digital stamps we will be issuing every month. Lots of ideas and inspiration for your handmade craft  projects and some freebies chucked in as well!

xx thank you everyone for all your support xx