Congratulations, It's a Blog!

Big news today as I'm giving birth to a brand new bouncing baby blog!

Not literally of course, that would be rather painful.

It's called Val's Electric Scrapbook and it's going to be a place where I keep all the best things I find scattered about the Internet.  So that could be art, design, photos, adverts, illusions, videos or absolutely anything.

There'll be stuff from people I admire, things that have influenced me... oh who am I trying to kid?  Most of it will end up being silly and puerile.

It looks like this.  Better still, click it and see for yourself.

It also means I can keep this Work In Progress blog for what it was really meant for - my work in progress!  Us creative types get easily distracted, you know...

The 2 blogs will always be linked together and if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you'll be the first to know (after me) when either of them gets updated.

So I hope you'll join me over there for some fun.  If you need any more enticement, Issue 1 comes with this free cut-out-and-keep Freaky Staring Dragon!

What are you waiting for?  Click me!  Click me now!

September Round-Up

The nights are closing in, the weather's getting colder and we're now into the last quarter of 2010 already. This may be news you love or dread but it's time to start thinking about Christmas shopping!

I've been busy in my Zazzle shop making sure it's ready with lots of exciting goodies for you to treat your loved ones to. I've added 2 new flags to my collection: Ireland comes in a choice of 4 background colours and Japan comes in a choice of 3.

As always, the flags are available to purchase on keychains and a selection of different sized badges and fridge magnets. They look stylish on their own or even better displayed as a full set.

For my second Zazzle range, we move from flags to whole islands - in fact the most fantastical islands you've no doubt ever seen. Prepare to be blown away by the incredible world of the Font Islands!

Using a combination of Photoshop and the 3D landscape generating software Bryce, the Font Islands were created by me in 2002 as an experiment to find a highly original style I could use on monogrammed gifts. The range features 26 of the best known fonts, each one individually selected to show off the elegance of the chosen letter. Textures were generated for the islands and water to conjure up a mixture of lifelike and surreal land masses.

Thanks to the flexibility of Zazzle, I can now offer you these stunningly detailed graphics on your choice of mugs, mouse mats and tote bags. The mugs and bags come in a choice of sizes, styles and detailing. All of the gifts offer the chance to personalise them further and this works especially well with the mugs.  The graphic comes presented in the middle but you can move it to one side or the other (for left or right handed use) and add the recipient's name in the blank space. There are so many fonts, colours and other options to choose from, every one of these products can be one of a kind. Your special someone can receive something that's truly unique to them. You'll never find anything so individual in any shop or catalogue!

I really can't recommend these gifts highly enough. Whether you know someone who loves 3D graphics, typography, fantasy art or just appreciates something unusual, you definitely can't go wrong by visiting my Zazzle store this Christmas shopping season. Just click the Zazzle panel on this left of this page to get started.

If you want to see the Font Islands in all their glory, you can see larger versions of them in the Giftware & Greetings folder of my Coroflot portfolio.