Val's Work In Progress

Whither Fiddle-Farting?

2012-01-10T17:49:00.003Z

Welcome back, I hope 2012's kicked off to a great start for you all.

Well Christmas was as crummy as I expected it to be in a house full of boredom, depression and short tempers. For once I'm not talking about myself! I've decided to put a bit of money away each week by hook or by crook and go somewhere - anywhere - else next Christmas. I don't care if it's just the hotel on the other side of town!

With the mood miraculously lightening as soon as the decorations came down, I really needed a break to get over the holiday stress. So I wrote off last week as a warm-up session to get back into gear. Some decluttering to make the most of the extra Christmas recycling collections (always a foolproof way of getting into a good frame of mind) and a bit of light creative work.

Fun with patterns...

From Patterns For Colouring

...cack-handed attempts at bead-sewing...

...and helping my friends over at Colin's Chicks redesign their forum.

If, like me, you're a massive fan of ITV1 show Dancing On Ice, this is a fun and friendly website dedicated to the 2011 runner-up professional skater Colin Ratushniak. As he's had to miss this year due to other commitments, the Chicks are working on keeping his fans informed of the projects he's working on these days, as well as letting the Powers That Be know that there's a big demand for him to come back in the next series.

Also over the new year, I learned a brilliant new verb.

Fiddle-farting

Used in a sentence:

RESOLVE to stop fiddle-farting around on the Internet or with the TV remote control and start dedicating myself 100% to my life’s work.

Taken from the list of 12 artists' resolutions posted on ArtBizBlog, the website of art business coach Alyson Stanfield. Feel free to study the list for yourself and download the poster. Plenty of food for thought on it, whether you're an artist or not.

Which of us is never guilty of fiddle-farting at least a couple of times a day? It's very likely you got alerted to this blog post during a fiddle-farting session. In fact you probably only clicked on the link because it had the word "farting" in it!

For someone like me, working from home, it's an occupational hazard. There's no start and end time, no one to tell me what to do. Home life and work life get blurred into one. I can work whenever I feel inspired and take downtime whenever I feel tired.

My business depends on a bit of constructive fiddle-farting. If I'm not on Twitter I might miss a link to a really useful website. If I don't check Facebook I could lose the chance to leave useful advice for a fellow freelancer who would then, in turn, give me feedback on my own work. Doodling my pencils over a colouring pattern is an exercise in creative problem solving and colour experimentation. It isn't just me desperately avoiding growing up, honest! In fact, let's be brutal, I write this blog not because I'm obsessed with sharing my innermost thoughts but because I hope someone takes pity on me and buys a T shirt.

So when you're your own boss, success or failure hangs on knowing when to be disciplined and when to indulge in a few minutes' fiddle-farting.

Time to take my own advice then and get prepared for a brand new year. What have I got planned? Well getting the ideas is always the easy part! I'm working on improvements to the online shops which will make it much easier for you to buy my art from me, so look out for some surprises on that front very soon. I'm also going to put together some previews of all the projects I want to work on over the year and hopefully this will help me with fundraising. There's also the big challenge of trying to branch out into getting clients from local printers and small businesses (that's really scary when you're pretty much housebound and out of practice in dealing with actual real human beings!)

The rest of the time can be spent sniffing around for new networking opportunities, showcases for my work and any other chance to flex my creative muscles. All of which, you might guess, will come from a productive session of fiddle-farting.

Goodbye 2011

2011-12-31T18:02:00.002Z

As the sun sets on another year, time to reflect on what's happened to me during 2011. It's been a challenging year, one where my financial problems have continued to drag me down and hold me back. A year when family relationships have continued to deteriorate and I'm being pushed into making some decisions that will make me very unpopular. But it's also a year where I've made lots of new friends, been charmed by some very positive people and finally been handed the chance to get off unemployment benefit and into self employment.

So here are just 5 important lessons I've learned over the past 12 months which I'll take with me into 2012 and beyond.

1) You might see something as your destination but it turns out to be a stepping stone. You'll meet someone or do something and you'll feel it's the most important thing that's ever happened to you. Then it turns out not to be as good as you thought it was going to be. But on the way you've made new friends, done something you never imagined you would do, or set yourself up to take on an even bigger challenge. So don't feel bad if the thing you originally thought you wanted didn't turn out to be so good. Look at the positive outcomes you got from it and be happy for those who got what they wanted too.

2) Take baby steps towards your goals. If there's something you really want to do but it seems too daunting and massive, just do one little thing towards it every day. Even if it's just a couple of minutes, if you're consistent in doing these things they'll soon add up. Before too long, living the dream could become a reality!

3) Respect yourself, don't wait for others to respect you. Sometimes it doesn't matter how much you do, you can't make people think better of you if they really don't want to. So don't worry what they think, just always ensure your own conscience is clear.

4) Positivity is contagious. Get to know people with a can-do attitude to life instead of those who just want you to know your place (even if relentless positivity can come across as naive!) A little gesture of encouragement is better than a thousand put-downs. Make the most of that energy boost like a surfer rides a wave.

5) It's better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all. Life is far too short, will you honestly be able to look back on your time and say you had a go at everything you wanted to? That you used your talents to the fullest? That you lived to work instead of worked to live? Not all of us want to do the same things and we should never give in to peer pressure because we want to live our lives in different ways. Be yourself, not a sheep!

Whether you look back on 2011 as one of your favourite years or one you'll be glad to get rid of, I wish you all a very happy, successful and fulfilling New Year. Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you'll join me on my big creative adventure in 2012!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T17:39:00.002Z

Following in my long tradition* of Christmas cartoons, here's a little offering to wish all my friends and followers a very happy Christmas.

However you mark the festive period, I hope it's a happy and fun time for you. Sadly that's not the case for many people so please take a moment to spare a thought for those who find it stressful, lonely or who are feeling the loss of a loved one.

My best wishes to everyone who takes time to look at my little ole' blog, thank you for your support and I'll see you back here very soon.

(*Est. 2010)

IOU 2 Illo's

2011-12-23T23:16:00.002Z

It's December (you might have noticed). Being the case, I'm holding my breath every time I turn on this computer because, for the past 2 Decembers, my darling laptop has broken down. (Excuse me as I reach for the nearest wooden object and give it a quick superstitious knock.)

The first time this happened, the blog was in its infancy and I'd just embarked on an ambitious festive project, illustrating my own daily advent calendar. For 2 of those days I could only run on the battery and just had enough power to make a plain version of the graphics, with the intention of completing them later.

It hardly seemed appropriate to post Christmas graphics at any other time of year but, last winter, I was without my computer for over 3 months so I totally missed that window. So now, a mere 24 months late, I'm very proud to present the final 2 illustrations of my 2009 advent calendar!

This time, if you click either picture, you'll be taken back to the December 2009 archive. I've checked all the links out and updated a couple that no longer work, so click away and explore all the fun Christmas surprises I found for you.

Last Orders Please!

2011-12-09T23:14:00.006Z

Well this is it. This weekend marks your LAST CHANCE to order from Café Press if you want to guarantee delivery in time for Christmas. You could always leave it up until about the 20th and pay extra for express delivery but I really would hate to see you forking out more money than is necessary. Not if it isn't coming into my pocket, at any rate! (Incidentally the standard post deadline from my Zazzle shop has passed so it's express delivery only now.)

So do please take a few minutes to browse my shops and treat a loved one (or yourself) to a unique item of giftware and clothing. You won't find them anywhere else but here and you'll end up with something that no one else in the world has got, for only a few pounds! Just like the lucky recipients of these sales which I made this week:

Octopus Women's Dark Tee Shirt in Caribbean Blue, £18.50 reduced from £22.00 - Click here to buy one

Octopus 10" Wall Clock, £11.00 - Click here to buy one

So all the shops are now fully stocked with the latest products and here's my pick of what's new in store.

iPad 2 cases join the growing list of gadget accessories

Kids' pyjamas are back in store after being temporarily unavailable.

The ultimate in cosiness for a long, cold winter.

Luxury suede pillows in a choice of colours

A wide range of purses, bags and gadget sleeves

New shirts in the womenswear and menswear departments

Quality reusable bottles for hot and cold drinks

30 piece jigsaw puzzles for a little light brain training

Note: Prices in UK£ are converted from US$ and subject to change based on daily exchange rates.

As usual, look to the left of this page where you'll see each of these designs has its own button. Just click on the one you like and you'll be taken to its shop where you'll find all the goodies in store.

Do have a good look at what's on offer and don't forget to share a link to this page with anyone else who would be interested in my range of unique clothes and giftware. Just don't forget to place your orders by THIS WEDNESDAY, 14th December, if you want to receive them before Christmas.

Next: watch out for a few little festive treats as we head towards the holidays. I hope to see you back here soon!

One Week On - The Adventures Of Frosty The Snowperve

2011-12-04T13:21:00.006Z

So there ends my first week officially trading. Not that my bank balance would know it. I've still got to master that tricky little job of getting people to part with their money.

It's strange not having to go to the Job Centre, the Chamber of Commerce or anywhere else they might want to shunt me. It feels like I've forgotten something and I'm going to be punished. But no, I really am getting the New Enterprise Allowance, it's gone into my bank at the first time of asking which is a rarity! It's creepy how institutionalised those couple of years of being unemployed has made me, without even realising it. It's a big leap in the mindset to get used to being totally responsible for my own fate from now on.

I'm progressing with updating the Café Press shops, I need a big push to get those finished in the next couple of days. That would still give me time to get a Christmas project started although I think I'll have to scale it back and do the full release next Christmas instead.

My priority for now is just to get people aware that I've got lots of great Christmas gifts for sale, so that means daily promotion on Twitter and Facebook plus trying to find places to promote this blog. I can't stress enough, I really need YOU to help me by sending my links to anyone who might want to buy from me. My Enterprise Allowance is just a little safety cushion and already it's been gobbled up by a sort-of unexpected £140 bill. (Sort-of in that they've had 6 months to chase me up for it but of course the obvious time to do it is 3 weeks before Christmas!)

So over on Café Press I've achieved my main aim of getting my 4 Christmas shops updated. This has been a massive job because nobody's going to look at them before November so they're not worth doing earlier in the year. Last Christmas, as you may recall if you've been following my story, I was totally without a computer so I couldn't have done it anyway. So that's 2 years' catching up I've had to do. It happens to have been the busiest year I've known on that site in terms of them adding new products, so I've had over 300 of them to install, then individually tweak the print sizes and retail prices.

I've also had a bit of a problem with one of my designs in particular. This guy...

Cheery and cuddly he may be but he was giving me a headache. You see, the Café Press graphics tool doesn't give you the option to scroll your image around the product. It's automatically centred. Which meant that on the women's shirts his twiggy hands ended up in a rather unfortunate position. Let's just say I ended up calling him Frosty The Snowperve. So I've had to tweak the old fella and now the women's tees have him with his hands firmly by his sides and out of trouble! (Click on the illustrations to see them in more detail.)

The category that's had the biggest overhaul this season has been the bags. You'll find a lovely range of 13 new bags, wallets and purses, including gadget sleeves for Kindles, iPads and Nooks. These bags are perfect for getting you in the mood for Christmas shopping, so much so that 4 of them...

...come with a little extra surprise...

This bonus image, printed on the reverse side, is ONLY available on these 4 products in the 4 Christmas shops and is bound to put a smile on everyone's face on a busy, cold December High Street.

The hundreds of little snowflakes in this design inspired the other 2 shops, which are variations on a theme depending on whether you'd prefer a British or American date format. Here they are on some more winter must-haves.

The best-dressed way to open presents, in special Christmas nightclothes.

When it's cold on the outside, keep warm on the inside with a range of Thermos products.

Also exclusive to the 4 Christmas shops are these special gift stockings. The one on the left is also available in green.

To shop for any of these products, which aren't available anywhere else, look to the left of this page and click on the design you like.

I'm currently in the process of getting the latest products into the other Café Press shops. Watch this space for more news and my pick of the goodies on offer. Better still, follow me on Twitter or send a Facebook friend request (mention that you found me via this blog) and you'll be the first to know.

Have a great week and happy shopping!

Happy Mega Monday!

2011-11-28T23:00:00.003Z

It's the last Monday in November, the day that some bright spark with a marketing degree has dubbed "Mega Monday" (also known as "Cyber Monday"). The trend over the last few years is for this day to be the busiest of the year for internet retailers, marking the start of a 2 week online shopping spree. Being the first Monday after the November payday, everyone knows exactly how much they've got to spend on the festivities. In America, it's the first Monday after Thanksgiving, which is when the nation's psyche switches towards thinking about Christmas. Ordering now also gives plenty of time for goods to be delivered in time to be wrapped without a last minute panic.

Visa are predicting 4.8 million British people will buy online today, spending around £303 million on their credit and debit cards. It's also expected to be the first year when Christmas shopping on smartphones becomes mainstream, with an estimated 12.2% of purchases made on mobile devices.

So if you're one of those browsing the web for gifts, this is a good time to remind you to shop around and don't just go to the obvious sites. The world is full of small independent traders who depend on your purchases much more than the major companies do. You'll end up with very unique arts, crafts, clothing, food, furniture, etc which your loved ones will treasure a lot more than all the mass-produced stuff you'll find in the big retailers.

So, in the hope you'll want to spread a bit of Christmas cheer my way, here's my handy guide to everything you can currently buy from me. Just click the pictures to take you to the appropriate stores:

Café Press:
13 individual stores, each one containing around 200 clothes, gifts, homeware and more. All the products shown here are available in each of the stores.

There are 4 special shops for Christmas. Here you can stock up on unique Christmas cards and decorations...

...winter warmers...

...essentials to get you through the festivities...

...and mementoes of baby's first Christmas.

•Note: Prices shown in GB£ are converted from US$ are may therefore vary due to international exchange rates.

Zazzle:
My Zazzle store currently stocks 3 product ranges.

Font Islands: Stunningly detailed and realistic 3D graphics available on mugs (which can be customised with the recipient's name), mouse mats and shopping bags.

Flags: Grungy flags on a variety of background colours can be bought on badges, magnets, keyrings and an assortment of T-shirts. Currently available for the UK; USA; France; Germany; Ireland; Italy; South Africa; Japan; Canada; Australia and New Zealand.

Animal T-shirts: Illustrations based on a salmon, peacock and stag.

DeviantArt:

A lot of the work in my DeviantArt portfolio is also available for purchase. This can be bought on wall art; greetings cards; coasters; magnets; mouse mats; mugs; postcards and puzzles. Look for the little bag symbol to see what's for sale, here are a few samples to whet your appetite.

Happy shopping!

• "Mega Monday To Kick Off Christmas Sale Season" - The Guardian

Sink Or Swim!

2011-11-26T18:03:00.003Z

After 2 long weeks of being told "wait until your next appointment and they'll sort it then," on Thursday I actually managed to sit down with an advisor at the Job Centre and made them sign me up for the New Enterprise Allowance scheme (NEA).

You can imagine the look of bewilderment on the man's face as he clutched entirely the wrong forms and had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. Even though my clearance had been sitting on their computer for a fortnight. I had to feel sorry for him though. He'd just come back from being off long-term sick, so hey, who better to administrate a programme he's had absolutely no experience of?

Cue the typical arse/elbow recognition lesson. It took 3 members of staff before anyone knew which buttons needed pressing, but even he couldn't tell me those tiny little details like... well... when the heck I can expect to get any money. I guess it's going to be lucky dip at the cashpoint for the next couple of weeks!

Eventually, the forms were signed, I'd taught the advisor a bit about how to do his own job, the little signing-on booklet that's been my constant companion for the last 2½ years got left on the desk and I walked out of that Job Centre officially self-employed.

Oh boy.

Even though the NEA provides me with a benefits cushion for 6 months, I know that time will soon fly by and I've got to make sure I'm in a strong enough position to strike out and survive on my own.

That's the scary bit I mentioned in my last post. The trouble that could trip me over and see me end up finally bankrupt. I've got to master something I have absolutely no idea how to do and which frustrates me when people don't respond in the way I need them to.

I've got to get people to part with their money.

I'm not one of those charismatic sorts that has people hanging on my every word. I haven't got a cute sob story to trade off. I've never had people rushing to my aid when I've been in trouble or who'll go singing my praises to someone who could be a great help. I don't have thousands of Twitter followers or get long streams of comments on my Facebook. I've only got 12 people following this blog and another 3 on the Electric Scrapbook.

All that's going to have to change if I'm to get enough trade to make a living. I honestly don't know how I'm supposed to make people care. Am I coming across as a whinger by saying that?

Please don't confuse that with me having no confidence in my work. Far from it, I love what I do! I have my big ideas, hone them to perfection on this computer, upload them to my shops, post the links to all my readers, then... nothing. That little masterpiece I thought everyone would go crazy for just sits there gathering virtual dust.

A few little reminders of some of my favourite designs, none of which I've ever sold. These are all available from my Zazzle store.

Of course I have a few notable exceptions who have been excellent supporters. They know who they are and how much I appreciate them. I just wish I had many more of them!

So now I have the challenge of working out how to make people want to spend their hard earned cash with me. I really want the art to do the talking. I want everyone to see they're getting something very special and unique. It's not often you get the chance to own something that literally nobody else in the world has got, but if you shop with me you will do. Owning a one-off original would normally cost thousands but here you can get it for a couple of pounds. What's not to love?

I'm currently loading lots more new products onto Café Press. The Snowman and Christmas Tree shops are now complete, I'll finish the other Christmas shops over the weekend, with the remaining designs to follow during the week. I'm also planning to squeeze in a couple of new Christmas card designs if I can do them in time, which will mark the start of a major new (and VERY unique) art and greetings project over on Zazzle. Then I've got another big surprise to launch over at Café Press which will give you a whole new shopping experience.

I'm already lining up my new projects for 2012, some of which will be totally unlike anything you've seen from me so far. Getting the ideas is the easy bit. Getting the money to bring those ideas to life is a heck of a lot tougher.

Christmas is fast approaching and this is the perfect time to get involved. If you bought even one little gift from my Zazzle or Café Press stores instead of the big retailers you'll get something extra special and thoughtful for your loved one and you'll be doing me a massive service. Even if you can't afford to buy something yourself, please pass this link along to someone who you believe would be interested. I can only make my business work if YOU help me out. Yes, you. Not that other person. You. Yes. Thank you.

• To visit my Zazzle store for flags, Font Islands and animal T-shirts, click here.

• To visit my Café Press stores for hundreds of clothes, gifts, homeware and more, click on the design you like from the buttons on the left hand side of this page.

The Tide Turning?

2011-11-21T17:05:00.003Z

It's been 2 months since I last wrote to you but rest assured I've not been idle. The rare quiet time I get has been spent on a very important task. One that could launch me to a whole new level of success. Or see me down the nearest bankruptcy court. One or t'other.

If you remember (or can be bothered scrolling back to previous posts) there are health issues within my family that make it unwise for me to leave the house for long periods of time every day. That's assuming I could find a damn job anyway, which is a lot easier said than done.

I've spent most of my adult life working for myself and it was always my aim to get back to being self employed. It's true what they say, once you've worked for yourself it's really hard to enjoy working for someone else. Since I left college over 3 years ago I've always put my efforts into starting projects that could lead me back to self employment. The only stumbling block has always been money. To be precise, the total lack of it in my bank account.

Considering that for about 4 years we've been in a recession/credit crunch/whatever other fancy name economists want to put on it, you'd think the government would have wanted to do whatever it could to encourage people to start their own businesses so they can use their skills and initiative to graft their way back to solvency. It's always been my attitude that if someone didn't want to take me on then I'd make some sort of opportunities for myself. Yet up until recently the help offered to get the jobless to try self employment has been pretty poor. You had to be signing on for between 6 and 12 months only, attend a start-up course at the local Business Link centre and then you'd be entitled to about £50 a week for a certain amount of time. So that's fine if you could guarantee to make up the £15 a week you'd be losing (or more depending on your benefits). For an art and design business, where my cash flow would consist of larger but irregular payments, that was too much of a gamble and I didn't have a cash reserve to fall back on.

That and the fact the 2 guys running the course were idiots.

Now though things have changed and this year saw the reintroduction of the Enterprise Allowance, which actually helped me start my first business back in the late '80s. This time you have to attend regular mentoring sessions at your local partner agency (in my case the Black Country Chamber of Commerce - the disappointing Business Link service thankfully no longer exists although their website's still up and actually very useful). Over the space of 8 weeks you're guided through filling in a template for a business plan and, once that's approved, you can decide whether or not you really want to start your business. If so, you're passed back to the Job Centre who'll switch you from receiving Job Seeker's Allowance to New Enterprise Allowance. This is the same amount (£65 a week) as JSA for the first 13 weeks, then drops down to £33 for another 13 weeks. There's an optional cut-price loan of up to £1,000 if you need it and you can continue to get help from your business mentor. So at least I won't be any worse off for 13 weeks plus obviously I can keep whatever I earn. Whilst unemployed, if I'd cashed in any of my royalties from my online shops, for example, that would have been deducted from my benefits so in effect I'd have been working for nothing.

Creative people tend to have a phobia of business plans. Too many facts and targets for our expressive brains to handle. Thankfully this mentoring process made it pretty painless. I could easily complete the sections where I explain the vision for my business - oh boy do I have LOADS of ideas I want to try out! My mentor Sarah then broke down the market research questions into bite sized chunks and told me exactly what type of competing businesses to look at and what sort of information I should be finding out about them. Having a check list to tick off made it a lot more focused and manageable. Then for the REALLY scary bit, the financial planning, it was just a case of filling in a form listing my incomings and outgoings and she ran that through an Excel spreadsheet to form a 12 month financial projection. Phew, I'm glad she tackled that one for me!

The process of writing the business plan turned out to be a useful way to mull over my ideas and put my priorities in order. Projects which I thought would form an important part of my business got put on the back burner when I realised others would be easier to expand and reformat to use in various different ways. So I now have a business plan template I feel comfortable using and I can rewrite it whenever I want to examine the feasibility of a new project idea.

All I need now is for the Job Centre to get their backsides into gear and sort the paperwork for me. It'll have been 2 weeks between the end of mentoring and my next Job Centre appraisal. It should have been today but I got a phone call postponing it, literally 10 minutes before I was due to leave the house. At this time of year, when I was hoping to start the business off with a big Christmas giftware push, that's a lot of valuable time being wasted!

Of course, a business plan can't prepare you for everything. In my next post I'll explain the bit I'm REALLY not confident about, which is why I started this post by saying my gamble could land me in the bankruptcy court!

•If you live in England, Wales or Scotland and have been unemployed for over 6 months, you may be eligible to apply for the New Enterprise Allowance.

Letraset Colouring Challenge

2011-09-17T13:33:00.001+01:00

After my post yesterday, this follow up is to post my entry to the latest Letraset colouring challenge. The template is yet another masterpiece from Carlton Hibbert at Patterns For Colouring.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Although the tulips would normally have me reaching for my brightest pinks and yellows, as it's September I thought I'd see what I could do with just an autumn palette.

The closing date is this Wednesday, September 21st, with sets of Letraset ProMarkers up as prizes. I've seen some of the other entries, they're all amazing so it's a good job the winner's chosen at random!

Keep Calm and Colour In

2011-09-16T17:30:00.001+01:00

This post is my contribution to Speak Out With Your Geek Out week.

It's coming up to the first anniversary of my laptop power supply burning out. From October to January I was warped back in time to the 1990s when we didn't have home computers and had to make our own entertainment.

All winter I dabbled with paintbrushes and sewing needles, I tore my hair out over 16x16 Sudoku puzzles, I read magazine articles I'd shoved into a bulging "read me" folder. Yet the thing I ended up hankering for the most was a book that had been gathering dust in a cupboard for 15 years or so.

Don't be fooled by Little Miss Cutesie. She's on a break from curing cancer.

I would have been at art school when I bought this, being initiated into the joys of graphic design. Unlike fine art, a designer needs a logical, problem-solving side to their brain. The sort that gets a kick out of a 16x16 Sudoku, indeed.

Altair patterns are based on 10th century Islamic mathematics. They work on the principle that a simple repetition of very small basic shapes (triangles, squares, hexagons, etc) can add up to create incredibly complex patterns. The Altair templates (developed into their present form by biologist/geometrician Ensor Holiday) can be coloured in a countless number of ways, creating a vastly different pattern every time. This book contained 2 copies of 8 different patterns.

My 2 interpretations of Altair pattern No. 10.

Altair colouring pads can be bought from all good online book stores or your can download 3 free ones from the Tinkering Times blog. There's also an Altair Pattern Designer application on Facebook and you can check out other pattern fans' efforts on Flikr.

Having finished off my Altair book, I found 2 excellent value pattern pads in Wilkinson's. They're not available in all branches but I've also seen almost exactly the same book in Ryman's.

The designs are very different to Altair but they still offer a huge number of challenges regarding colour combinations and repeating shapes.

Some colour schemes choose themselves, such as this peacock-inspired pattern.

Or pick a couple of pencils out of the box at random and test out a combination you would never have thought of, like the pink, olive and grey used here.

A tip for best results: Place a sheet of scrap paper between each page of your book to stop your masterpieces smudging into each other!

My other favourite resource is Patterns For Colouring, a blog by designer Carlton Hibbert in which he shares his own geometric patterns for all to enjoy, along with contributions by guest illustrators. There are currently 201 images on there to suit all ages. Simply download the files, print them out and get those pens and pencils working! I'm printing them out at A3 and at some point would love to get them framed and on my walls.

A stylised garden design prompted this study in green.

A rainbow spectrum can be a good starting point for a colour scheme.

I interpreted this as an abstract sunburst.

A guest design by Steph Baxter, which I later framed for my niece's birthday.

As much as I enjoy creating my own artwork, I still find it just as creative to take someone else's outlines and put my personal spin on them. I can experiment with different colour combinations, layouts and repetitions. It's mentally and visually stimulating, keeps your mind sharp and improves your hand-eye co-ordination. By adding even a cheap frame you can transform your finished designs into unique works of art to brighten up any room. Or why not take them off the page and use them for greetings cards or needlework patterns? In fact the only rules are respect the work of the original artist and don't use it to make money for yourself.

So if you're looking for a low cost, rewarding hobby, dig out that neglected pencil box (or, for quality and value, I recommend a pack of 24 Crayolas), get a nice shiny new sharpener and unleash your inner brilliance. Whether it's for a calming 5 minutes alone or an afternoon with the family, colouring doesn't have to be just kids' stuff!

A Scanner's Tale

2011-07-28T13:14:00.003+01:00

Once upon a time there was a scanner in a happy working relationship with a Millennium-chic tangerine iMac. They hooked up from time to time and the scanner would happily chug away, shining a light on random pieces of paper that needed turning into pixels.

Artwork, college research, old photos, applications forms, pretty things in magazines - all this and more fell upon the scanner's gaze and passed into the bosom of the iMac's hard drive.

Together they worked, USB in USB, until the iMac grew too slow and weak to keep up with the world online and was usurped by a cocky, flashy, whizzy laptop.

But the scanner found it too hard to get on with the laptop and stayed loyal to its old friend, giving it a reason to live until the day the poor, ancient 9 year old iMac went "fzzzzzt" and smelt of burning.

To this day... oh you know how my story goes by now. Two years later and I still can't afford to get my iMac mended.

That still left the problem with the scanner. The company who made it have decided, in their wisdom, not to write a Mac OS 10 driver for it because, obviously, us Mac owners are rolling in cash and can't resist buying all the latest gadgets the second they hit the shops. Or something like that.

I've used the scanner at the library but you can only guarantee getting it if you book in advance, which means knowing virtually down to the minute what time you're going to arrive. Not always convenient. Neither is the one hour a day time limit, lack of elbow room and inconvenience of lugging all the paperwork around (assuming, of course, you haven't forgotten something).

So scanning has been a neglected job over the past couple of years but, in order to get my portfolio up to date for potential clients, I've had to catch up.

Thankfully I had a brainwave and realised the answer had been staring me in the face all along.

Mac OS 10 (at least on the older versions, not sure about nowadays) also has Mac OS 9 lurking in the background. One click and the flashy new desktop reverts into the clunky old one that was once so futuristic and Millennium-chic. Perfect to avoid chucking out all the old software that you can't or don't want to upgrade. Not entirely glitch-free but hopefully good enough to make the scanner talk to the laptop.

So I hunted out the CD, set up the scanner and clicked Install. Not easy to do with crossed fingers. The computer went a bit weird and tried to load certain things twice but - joy of joys - it worked and I can now do scanning on my laptop!

It's not a perfect set up. I can't access the scanner through Photoshop, which means I'm lumbered with everything saving as a memory-hungry TIFF (remember them? I can't recall the last time I used a TIFF. PNGs have long since stolen that part of my heart devoted to file formats.)

I've enjoyed a good trip down memory lane over the past couple of weeks, looking through my archives. It's occasionally a bit cringeworthy as a lot of the stuff I made a decent living from just hasn't passed the test of time. I've almost finished tidying up the scans and am currently uploading them to my Coroflot portfolio. Some of the best ones will also be added to my Facebook albums too. When time allows I'll be back on here telling you the stories behind the work. You'll get to see techniques I've used which aren't reflected in the digital art I've shown you already so come back soon and expect a few surprises!

Commonwealth Games

2011-07-12T05:30:00.004+01:00

Back over to Zazzle this week, where I've had the cyber-hoover out to clean the place up ready for some new arrivals.

Neat!

Time to unveil (or should that be unfurl) some new flags. I was keen to get a bit more ambitious with them, as I can now do the basic tricolour in my sleep. The next country I really wanted to get my teeth into was Australia...

Australia just needs a few tweaks to turn into New Zealand...

...and if I'm doing Australia and New Zealand, why not chuck in Canada and make this a Commonwealth set?

Australia and New Zealand had to be distorted a bit to fit a rectangle into a circle. The key was that the Union Jack on the real flags fits exactly into the top left hand quarter, so once I'd done that the stars just had to fit round it proportionately. The stars themselves were a new challenge, especially the New Zealand ones as I would have to knock out the red and white sections separately depending on the background. I created the stars using an outline filled with a set of lines stretching point-to-point, giving a splattered, ink stamp effect.

Although the Canadian layout is quite simple, the maple leaf has several fiddly details which took several attempts to get right using my continuous line technique. The key turned out to be never overlapping the red and white lines, bending them round each other where necessary whereas I normally like to keep them straight. The brush effect means a couple of the corners fade out but, as it's symmetrical, your brain fills in the gaps (why should I do all the work for you?)

So there they are, my 3 new countries. As usual they don't just come on black backgrounds, there comes the fun part of deconstructing them onto different coloured backgrounds. Behold the full set:

As with the other flags, these are available to purchase on keychains and various sizes of badge and fridge magnet. They're as small and affordable as it gets so if you're struggling to choose then why not collect the whole set? They've also been scaled up onto tee shirts if you'd rather wear it loud 'n' proud.

As always, you don't have to settle for the shirt style I've laid out here. You can check out how the design looks on all types of long and short sleeved tops for men, women and children. Get creative and make something totally unique to yourself.

Now that I've tidied up the shop, you'll find my new additions on its home page and also in the New Products category. All the other countries are now listed in "Flags" under "Browse This Store". You can choose from:

France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Japan
South Africa
UK
USA

So here's that link: http://www.zazzle.co.uk/valwoodhouse or click the Zazzle panel on the left of this page.

While you're busy browsing, I'm off to dust down my old scanner and see if I can make it work on my laptop. A few surprises from the archives are waiting for you...

New Café Press Goodies - Part 2

2011-07-04T12:50:00.003+01:00

As promised, the second part of my big Café Press overhaul is now complete, with another total of around 150 products added. So here's a look at the designs that have just been updated, with a few more picks of the best new clothes, gifts and homeware.

My cartoon animals look adorable on the latest baby clothes and accessories.

These wall stickers are a quick way to brighten up your kids' rooms. The large format (sizes in inches) shows off all the details of this cuddly giraffe.

This range of Thermos branded picnic ware is just the thing for a day out at your favourite beauty spot.

Some more of the new products. The laptop skins are fresh in store and have been added to all non-Christmas shops including those featured in my last update.

Don't forget this cute elephant!

All the designs are available on almost all the products and several of them come in different colour options. This gives you hundreds of choices across all the stores. Just pick the design you like, click its button on the left of this page and discover all the treats for yourself or a loved one.

The four Christmas designs will be getting their update in the autumn, in plenty of time for Santa.

Next up, I'm putting the finishing touches to three new flag designs. If you like the ones I've done so far, these are going to blow you away because they're the toughest ones I've done yet! They'll be added to my Zazzle store in a few days so watch out for that.

I'm also hoping to get my old scanner working so I can add lots of archive work to my portfolio. Let's hope it plays ball otherwise I'll have to lug all my sketchbooks and folders down the library!

A Friend In Need

2011-06-19T21:52:00.004+01:00

UPDATE 23rd June 2011

I've taken the decision to remove this post. Unfortunately I have not received a very good response to it and I'm not prepared to bare my soul and tell you lots of deeply humiliating personal secrets if it's just going to be met with a wave of apathy.

My circumstances are still pretty dire. I'm currently appealing the decision that led me into trouble and I've managed to arrange a payment holiday on my loan, so hopefully that will help me along a bit.

I'll keep the payment button on my blogs and I would still ask you that if you enjoy anything you see on here or the Scrapbook then please try and find it in your heart to leave me a little donation. Anything you could afford would be gratefully received and will be a massive boost towards getting my life back on track.

I would like to sincerely thank the few people who did come to my aid and offer help in various forms. Your generosity will not go unrewarded and forgotten. It's times like this you really get to learn who your friends are.

Thank you.

New Café Press Goodies - Part 1

2011-06-14T12:11:00.002+01:00

Those busy bees over at Café Press have been sourcing dozens of new products for us to offer our customers, so right now I'm in the process of updating all my shops (apart from the Christmas ones which will get an overhaul in the autumn).

With nearly 50 new items to add, design and price-check, this is no quick job! Four of the shops are ready to re-launch, so here's my pick of what's screaming "buy me" right now.

Sleep with Kevin the Octopus! Pyjamas available in a range of styles and colours for men, women and children.

As if all those teensy little hearts weren't cute enough, now you can wear them on a fun range of costume jewellery.

3 new water bottles add to the Sigg bottles already in store. A great choice of must-haves for your favourite sport.

If ever an accessory screamed to have a rosy red apple on it! Perfect for jazzing up your beloved gadgets.

Don't forget all these designs are available on all the products, feel free to mix and match to your heart's content. The five remaining animal designs will be getting upgraded next, so watch out for news on that and my second pick of the best new products.

To browse the stores, look for the buttons on the left of this page and just click on your favourite design.

Happy shopping!

Patriot Tees

2011-05-22T23:02:00.001+01:00

Having made my first set of Zazzle tee shirts, as shown in the last post, I really got in the mood to do more. Spring's made an early start here in the UK and we're all on the look out for nice cool clothes and hopefully plenty of chances to show them off.

What should my next range be? Well I have all those flags I'm really proud of. Although they were designed to go on little round things like badges, there was no reason why they couldn't be scaled up for a bigger product. All it needed was to resize the files and knock out the background colours.

So now all my existing range of countries - UK, USA, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan and South Africa - can be worn proudly on your chest on a wide selection of colours and styles for men, women and children.

A snapshot of just 6 of my new tees.

Almost all of them are available in the same colour combinations as the badges - one neutral background and one for each of the flag colours. Due to the range of shirts offered by Zazzle, unfortunately at the moment I'm not able to offer Ireland on an orange shirt. This still leaves a choice of 30 unique designs, something for almost every day of the month!

There's also the flexibility to customise the designs with text if you want. Plus, apart from the black and white tees, there's also the option to choose another shirt colour. So don't feel bound by what I've laid out, get creative and make yourself something that's totally one of a kind.

Grunge outline added to the stars to make the American flag work on a white tee.

The badge of my Japanese flag on a black background unwittingly became a best seller following the tragic earthquakes and tsunami in March. Now it's also available as a tee shirt.

To see the full range visit http://www.zazzle.com/valwoodhouse and search for tee shirts. Don't forget all these flags are also available on badges, magnets and key chains. More countries are in the pipeline, I'm looking forward to showing them to you!

I'm now working on giving my Café Press shops an overhaul. The company has added lots of new products recently so this is going to take some time! Watch out for my pick of the coolest must-haves over the next couple of weeks.

Also I'll be taking you on a trip through the archives as I'm sorting out some of my old work to scan in for my portfolio. It'll be interesting to see how much of it has passed the test of time!

2011 - The Story So Far

2011-04-30T00:50:00.002+01:00

Yo blog, long time no see. How's things? Crikey, where's the time going?

4 months into 2011 and this is my first post of the year. Stuff has happened in that time which has forced my hand professionally but hopefully in a good way.

For family health-related reasons, it's now no longer a good idea for me to be out of the house doing a 9-5 job. I could see the day coming and maybe that's why I've been a bit reticent about throwing myself into applying for jobs. So I'm no longer prepared to compromise, it's becoming a home-based freelancer or nothing.

Money has always been the stumbling block stopping me from going for it. Hopefully that's about to change as the government is about to introduce an updated version of the old Enterprise Allowance Scheme (which helped me start my first business in the late '80s). This should offer more of a financial cushion to support me with materials, marketing, etc, if only for a few months. The trouble is nobody knows when this scheme's starting or exactly what it's going to offer! So right now I'm badgering the Job Centre every time I visit and I've been booked in with a new business support group who will hopefully be more use than all the other idiots I've been shunted off to see over the years! Ah well, we'll see.

In the meantime, I'm giving my online shops a spring clean and over the next few weeks I'll be adding new designs and products for your purchasing pleasure.

First up, I've taken some designs I originally submitted to T-shirt design competition site Allmightys and added them to my Zazzle store. They're inspired by 3 of my favourite animals and are bound to turn heads as part of your summer wardrobe.

(The following images are mock-ups. The finished products are available in a variety of styles and colours although I have presented them on the colour I feel suits them best.)

A mean-looking red deer stag confronts his opponents with his vicious antlers, ready for the rut. Shirt available in light and dark formats.

Hundreds of individually-drawn feather details on this glorious peacock, strutting his stuff for the hens.

A salmon makes a death-defying leap up a raging waterfall to reach its ancient spawning ground.

The shirts cost from $22.95, giving you a practical, hard-wearing garment and also a unique piece of artwork you will never find anywhere else. So if you enjoy reading this blog or my Scrapbook, or if you like to follow me on Twitter or Facebook, please do what you can to support my shops and spread the word to new followers.

Next in my shop spring clean I'll be adding new products to my Café Press stores, putting some of my Zazzle designs onto new items and also unveiling some new additions to one of my ranges. Watch this space!

Last Post In Time For Christmas

2010-12-23T11:56:00.001Z

Well it's been a tough few weeks with my darling iBook being poorly. Apparently it needs a new DC-in board which I haven't dared price up yet. I've just managed to borrow a PC so I can get some internet access, more than the couple of hours a week I'm allowed at the library!

Of course with my Mac out of action I can't do any artwork, which scuppers my plans for world graphic design domination somewhat. So please accept this Olde Skool scribble as my little Christmas card and thank you for following me this year. Click on it to see it in all its glory.

If you want to check over at my Electric Scrapbook in the next few days I'll post you up some nice goodies to see you into the New Year.

However you're spending the holidays, have a great time, don't abuse your liver too much and try not to get into too many family squabbles.

Congratulations, It's a Blog!

2010-10-07T13:19:00.008+01:00

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

2010-10-04T00:36:00.005+01:00

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.

Zazzle Flags, Part 2

2010-08-14T00:22:00.003+01:00

Today I'm pleased to launch two more flag sets onto my Zazzle shop - the Rainbow Nation flag of South Africa and the much-loved home of culture and history, Italy.

As before, these designs are available on keychains and a range of badges and magnets in a choice of sizes.

Click here to visit my shop or use the Zazzle panel on the left of this page to look at today's recommendations.

More flags will be coming soon, subscribe to this blog or join me on Twitter or Facebook to keep bang up to date.

The Grand Opening

2010-05-26T11:40:00.006+01:00

As I mentioned last time, I've been beavering away on some new product designs and now is the proud moment I can launch them for you to buy.

This time around, I'm going to be selling them through Zazzle, who offer a fantastic, flexible approach to handling lots of different images on the same product.

So what images are they? Well this is an idea I've had in mind for ages, please welcome my first set of Scribble Flags!

Each design is given a lively, grungy texture by making it look like a quick doodle with an old pen or piece of chalk. They all come in a choice of backgrounds, either a neutral colour or one of the flag colours which gives the unique effect of knocking out part of the design. They all work brilliantly on their own or as a set of 4.

I've designed these flags to work on small round objects so I'm offering them for sale on a range of lapel badges, keyrings and fridge magnets. The badges come in a choice of 5 sizes, the magnets in a choice of 3.

I'm sure you'll love these flags just as they are but you've also got the freedom to customise them in lots of different ways, including adding text.

They're available for the UK, USA, France and Germany. Not your favourite places? Don't worry, these are just the first releases in the range. There'll be plenty more of the world's greatest countries added in the future. In fact why not let me know in the comment box which ones you'd like to see?

Through the Zazzle shop I'll be able to hand pick exactly which products best suit each design and display them all on one shopfront. So you'll always be spoilt for choice with a wide range of designs professionally printed onto just those goodies that show them off at their best.

With prices starting at just £1.45, this is a fun and affordable way to collect unique graphics that are not available in the shops or on any other website.

On the left of this page from now on you'll also see a random selection from the store, just click on it to see where it takes you.

Don't forget that the Café Press shops are also still open for business. Click the button of your favourite design on the left of this page and you'll see all the high quality clothes, gifts and homeware you can have it printed on.

So, in the absence of a minor celebrity, I'm taking the gold spray painted scissors, cutting the virtual ribbon and declaring my new Zazzle shop open!

Click on this picture to get you started.

God (or any other higher power you may or may not believe in) bless her and all who spend their lovely money in her.

The Big Rethink

2010-05-17T17:22:00.008+01:00

Wow, has it really been 2 months? Long time no see. How you doing? Did you miss me? Probably not. Oh well.

So what have I been up to all this time that's meant I've been neglecting the blog? Well a couple of things sprung up to confront me around the end of March. One good, one bad, both connected and both requiring me to have a big rethink about my life and career. A few weeks down the line, now's a good time to reflect, regroup and take things in a new direction.

First the bad thing. I passed that milestone of being unemployed for 12 months. I am now officially dole scum. In the UK, at 12 months the Jobcentre washes their hands of you and passes you on to a private initiative called A4E. Going freelance seems the best option for me to get any work but, annoyingly, I am now no longer eligible for the government's business start up benefit. You can only get this if you've been unemployed between 6 and 12 months, providing it's a full moon on a leap day and your mother's mother has a living conjoined twin named Grizandella.

Okay, I made some of that up but it really is very restrictive. You'd think that the government would do all they can to encourage people to set up their own businesses, no matter whether they've been unemployed 2 days or 2 years. Yes, new Prime Minister David Cameron, I'm looking at you to sort this out.

Instead I'm shunted off once or twice a week to a rundown office block 2 doors away from a commercial gallery whose window taunts me with £400 prints from my favourite artist. Yeah, world, why don't you just kick me in the face while I'm down?

What amazingly useful stuff do they have me doing there? Er... nothing I can't do better at home, frankly. Sure, there's a need for somewhere like this to help people who lack skills in applying for jobs, writing CVs and letters, learning how to conduct themselves in an interview and so on. But for the vast majority of people, it's just "there's the computers, sit there and look at the job sites for an hour". It's not help, it's having an eye kept on you.

If you're still unemployed after 13 weeks with them (which for me would fall at the end of June or early July, not exactly sure offhand) there's the compulsory 4 weeks' work experience to do, which even my personal advisor has told me would be a total waste of my time. So basically there's big pressure on me to get some work and get it soon.

The good thing that happened recently could actually be a way out of this mess and a big step up the ladder to achieving my potential. Thanks to good old Twitter I heard about something that was due to start in early April called the Zero 2 Illo Twelve Week Challenge, set up by Jonathan Woodward, himself an aspiring illustrator, and his wife Lea who is offering her business expertise. This is a way for those of us with the same dream to gang together and support each other as we work through a set of weekly tasks to prepare us to go into business as published illustrators.

This scheme sounded perfect for me because what I'm lacking here at home is structure, support and understanding. The family want to see cash on the table, not pie in the sky dreams about selling artwork.

So far I've completed the 3 weeks it took to analyse our business idea. I've narrowed down the sector I want to target as being the greetings card industry, with a passive income on the side from selling my own designs, such as the Café Press shops I already have.

Unfortunately, though, I've managed to fall behind everyone else. Just as they're finishing off their portfolio pieces (the next section of the challenge), I'm just starting mine. So there lies the next part of the Big Rethink. For me, this isn't going to be the 12 Week Challenge, it's going to be the However Many Weeks It Takes Challenge. I won't feel comfortable being rushed into making something I'm not totally happy with. I've got 3 ideas to keep me going but, right now, the Inspiration Fairy's not whacking me over the head very hard with her magic wand.

As someone whose mental health isn't 100% either, it's not a good idea for me to take on unnecessary stress. That DOESN'T mean I can't hit important deadlines though! Below you can see my contribution to Amelia's Magazine, a topical blog which often puts out a call for illustrations (it's worth following her on Twitter if you're interested in taking on her challenges). For this election night illustration I wasn't even able to start it until 10.00 pm when the exit polls revealed a likely hung parliament. Then I worked late into the night, grabbed a couple of hours' sleep and finished it the next morning, in good time to be published in her blog.

How to Solve a Hung Parliament

So, as far as the 12 Week Challenge is concerned, I'm still dedicated to it and working my way through it as best I can. I can benefit from it if I complete it, but I won't get penalised if I don't, unlike my jobsearch legal obligations. When A4E call me in for my fortnightly reviews, they can understand "proper" business concepts like writing a business plan. They wouldn't be so understanding about something less tangible, like designing new artwork. So here I have to divert off the Challenge and move onto one of its future tasks, setting up a new portfolio.

I've already posted links to my profiles on DeviantArt and Artylizer (okay, re-adding the links there so there's no excuse for you to miss them!) These are good to get an overview of what I do but I really need something more businesslike. Unfortunately setting up my own website is out of the question right now (unless someone knows an awesome service that's totally free and doesn't just look like a blog). I've found a couple of sites that offer a professional looking portfolio so I'll make my final choice from those in the next few days to host about 10-20 of my very best pieces.

The plan then (which is where I can keep the A4E jobsearch people happy) is to Email local printers and small design agencies with the link. I'll be marketing myself as offering a specialist service that can take on more complicated illustration-based jobs than they could handle themselves. I've known designers in the past who've made that sort of relationship work and I think this is the most realistic way for me to get my feet back into the design world. If I can sweet-talk the printers with promises of slipping them some work, I think I could build up a decent sized address list quite easily.

In between all that, I've been designing more products and working on a new online store. It's almost ready to launch so watch this space! I'm also planning a spin-off for this blog so I can keep this one mostly for my work and have somewhere else I can use to have some fun.

Thanks to the new subscribers I've picked up recently, mostly from the 12 Week Challenge by the looks of it. I've kept you all waiting long enough for new stuff, now it's onwards and upwards to world domination.

Or at least not being dole scum any more.

A Post That's About Time

2010-03-17T11:56:00.005Z

When I've been creating my Café Press shops, the software works by automatically adding a default image to all the products. That saves a lot of work, rather than having to do everything manually, but it leaves a little something missing when it comes to the clocks. Namely numbers!

A lot of people actually like minimalist clocks and it certainly hasn't stopped me selling any. Nevertheless I've decided to make them more usable and create some special clock designs for each store (except the Christmas images which will be added in the autumn).

Café Press have a free clock template to download, which allowed me to get the size and number positions spot on. I looked at how best to showcase each image on a clock and took every one as a different challenge rather than apply a "one design fits all" approach. How should the image be positioned? What font would complement it? Would it need a new background?

The apple, being the most solid design, benefits from being large and in the centre. A strong font in matching red makes this a bright, fresh clock that would look great in a kitchen.

I contemplated having the beachball large and centred too, but I also liked how the stripes framed the chosen font, so that's the look I went for here.

All the animals worked best just on one half of the clock, rather than being skewered by the hands! I chose a font with a lot of character to show off my cheeky cat.

For the dog I decided to have a bit of fun and created Roman numerals out of bones!

The elephant is accompanied by a font that matches its shape and colour.

A similar approach for the giraffe, with a font evocative of tall African trees.

My two aquatic animals called for an underwater theme. The goldfish has a lively, wavy, bubbly background.

The octopus gets a graduated dark blue to reflect its deep sea home, with a curly font to match its tentacles.

Hundreds of hearts come together for this big romantic explosion.

Each clock comes in three diameters, a 10" Wall Clock at £10.50*, a 14" Modern Wall Clock (£31.50) and a 17" Large Wall Clock (£28.50). The Modern Wall Clock has an aluminium body and glass cover, the others are edged in black plastic.

To see the clocks on the Café Press site, click on the design you like using the buttons on the left hand side of this page, then go down to the Home & Office section.

(*Prices are set in US$ and converted to other currencies, which may fluctuate due to the daily exchange rate.)

The Sunday Head****

2010-03-07T13:24:00.005Z

Some innocent-looking photos of buildings for you today - a house, a café and a shop. Of course, there's more to them than meets the eye and if you click each photo you'll find out what the twist is.

The story behind the delicatessen strikes a chord with me because I make no secret of the fact I'm out of work and struggling. I live just outside Wolverhampton, which was recently named as one of the worst cities in Britain for boarded-up shops.

In some places round the country, however, councils, arts organisations, entrepreneurs and the unemployed have been joining forces to bring empty shops back to life, if only on a temporary basis.

Empty retail units have been turned into community galleries, youth art centres, shops and workspaces. This has allowed people to put their creative skills to good use, start up businesses and generally make their High Street a more attractive place.

This has the knock-on effect of deterring crime and vandalism, giving hope to local people who are jobless and promoting the town centre as somewhere vibrant, willing to tackle its problems and worth investing in.

I've never been interested in retail before but I would love to get involved in a project that could give me the chance to get myself back on my feet and also work like a support network where a group of us could create something together, make a living and get that all-important confidence boost.

If you would like to find out more about the Empty Shops Network, this is a good place to start.

And The Oscar Goes To...

2010-03-06T22:01:00.007Z

It's been a landmark year for animation, with 3D becoming the norm and the largely-animated Avatar one of the favourites for the Best Movie Academy Award.

In the category of Best Animated Feature Film, most of them have been massive hits and need no introduction from me. Walt Disney have two nominations, the massively-successful Up and the recently-released The Princess And The Frog, with its return to classic 2D animation and Disney's first black princess.

Coraline and Fantastic Mr Fox have also been big box office draws aimed at the kids over the year. The fifth nominee, however, is one you've probably not heard of.

The Secret Of Kells is an Irish/French/Belgian co-production which has had virtually no release outside of these countries. It's a story inspired by the Book of Kells, the famous illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels which is considered as Ireland's national treasure.

The film is set in the 9th century and is the story of 12 year old Brendan who lives with his stern uncle, Abbot Cellach, then becomes the apprentice of the inspirational illuminator Brother Aidan. Monks, Vikings, fairies, religion, art and folklore combine into a warm, rich fantasy. Its visual style borrows heavily from the Celtic art that inspired it, making The Secret Of Kells a refreshing alternative to its big budget, high profile Oscar rivals.

Sit back and enjoy a selection of clips.

Best Animated Short Film

There are very few opportunities to see short animations on TV or the big screen but, thanks to the wonders of YouTube, here are 4 of this year's 5 nominees in full, plus a special treat for fans of Wallace and Gromit.

French Roast

Fabrice O. Joubert

A Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films Production

Some beautiful characters star in this hilarious French comedy of errors.

Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty

Nicky Phelan and Darragh O'Connell

A Brown Bag Films Production

2D and 3D animation mix as the bitter and twisted Granny O'Grimm tells the classic bedtime story.

The Lady And The Reaper

Javier Recio Gracia

A Kandor Graphics and Green Moon Production

It's Death versus Doctor Dishy in this bizarre, inventive fight for an old lady's life.

Logorama

Nicolas Schmerkin

An Autour de Minuit Production

Thousands of corporate logos are used to create this amazingly original comment on American society. Contains bad language and violence against junk food!

Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.

A Matter of Loaf And Death

Nick Park

An Aardman Animations Production

Britain's favourite Claymation inventor and his long-suffering hound do battle with the murderous Piella Bakewell.

Here's an exclusive 20 minute making-of feature.

The Oscars will be presented at the Academy Awards ceremony this Sunday, 7th March 2010.

The Sunday Head****

2010-02-28T12:37:00.005Z

Thanks to our friends at the ever-reliable Mighty Optical Illusions for this week's head-scratcher.

This is Horizons, a work by Neil Dawson, photographed in a large private art park in New Zealand. Here it is from another angle.

Hang on... the bits that were at the left are now at the right but how come the bits that were at the back aren't now at the front?

Surely this is just drawn on the photos? No, it's definitely a sculpture. Here it is from a third angle.

Now the shaded bits are much bigger but the unshaded bit looks just like it did in photo 1!

Ah... it's that word "sculpture" that's throwing you, isn't it? Sculpture automatically makes you think in 3 dimensions, especially something like this with the creases and shading implying the shape folds back on itself.

Actually, it's as flat as a pancake. It's just steel tubing and mesh, stuck on top of a hill. The clue is in the trees.

Thanks to Matt Brubeck finding an aerial shot of the park and posting it on The Grip blog. I've added some clues as to roughly where the photos must have been taken. Once you can orientate yourself around that, you can start to make sense of what you're seeing.

These are very clever photos of a fascinating sculpture. In fact I think the photos would work better than seeing the real thing!

PS: Sorry I'm rubbish at identifying trees!

The Octopus On Artylizer

2010-02-24T22:47:00.004Z

This week I've set up an account with Artylizer, the micro-blogging network for anyone who works with art, design or fashion.

The site uses a Twitter-style system for short messages (up to 333 characters), with the bonus that you can add graphics to them. This makes it perfect for creating a mini-portolio where clients can see a lot of your work at a glance.

Also you get the usual social networking facilities of making friends, subscribing to other people's feeds and discovering lots of great new artists.

There's no mistaking who that yellow & pink belongs to!

I'm currently in the process of archiving all my best old work on there so I hope you'll check there often to find out even more about what I do.

If you're a creative person too, why not set up a free profile of your own, show your talents to the world and let's hook up!

My Artylizer page.

Artylizer on Facebook.

The Sunday Head****

2010-02-21T22:08:00.007Z

A freaky little thing for you to play with today. A simple animation of some dots that make up a sphere.

The question is, which way is the sphere rotating? Clockwise or anti-clockwise?

Think you've worked it out? Look at it again. Are you SURE it isn't spinning the other way? Keep trying and you'll see it change direction right in front of your eyes.

It's not the animation doing that. It's just a simple loop of some dots, which always travels in the same direction. Whatever you can see in those dots is all in your head.

Enjoy!

As seen on Mighty Optical Illusions.

Spring Fair 2010 - Part 2: Beef Up Your Walls

2010-02-19T12:56:00.006Z

The thing I like to do most when I visit Spring and Autumn Fairs is to just wander up and down the aisles and take in an overview of what the season's design trends are. Last autumn was brightened up by huge colourful flowers. The flavour for this season is...

...beef.

It seemed like every other art stall was overflowing with paintings of cows.

Spotty cows...

Brown Cow? by Jennifer Brereton at Collier and Dobson, prints from £105

...hairy cows...

I Spy by Thuline at Alpha 1 Marketing, £99

...cheeky cows...

Friesian Orange by James Bartholomew at The Mill House Gallery, prints from £95

...moody cows.

The Black Angus by Angela Davidson, prints from £50

If cows aren't your pick of the farmyard, there were plenty of other tasty animals to choose from.

Cocktail by Mary Ann Rogers at Alpha 1 Marketing, £66

Grazing Sheep by Timmy Mallett - yes, THAT Timmy Mallett - at Buckingham Fine Art Publishers

Foxes were also popular...

The Fox by Gary Benfield at Buckingham Fine Art Publishers, giclée print £153

...hares even more so.

Brown Hare by Nigel Artingstall, £395

On The Run by Kate Osborne at Artreo, giclée print £82.25

But mostly it was cows.

Cliffs and Cows by Michael Embden at Artreo, giclée print from £70

All images are for illustrative purposes only and link to the site of origin. All copyrights respected.

Happy "Oh Well It's Only Exploitation By The Card Companies" Day

2010-02-14T21:42:00.002Z

If you're not feeling too loved-up today, you have my sympathy. I'm not, either. Please accept this Anti-Valentine's token from the hottest blog of the year, Sleep Talkin' Man.

If you're not familiar with the blog, Adam Lennard the Sleep Talkin' Man is a mild mannered advertising accounts manager by day, a potty-mouthed, vegetarian-hating, badger-loving surrealist in his sleep. Now every night his wife Karen records his ramblings and posts them up the next morning.

I should warn you his site is VERY rude. Please don't visit if you're offended by very strong (albeit hilarious) language.

I'm doing some typography for a mystery project the couple are planning, so here's one of his typically romantic outbursts illustrated for your Valentine's Day pleasure. Click on this image to see the rest of the quote (I've cleaned it up a bit!)

The World Comes To Vancouver

2010-02-13T11:53:00.002Z

The 2010 Winter Olympics has kicked off today in Vancouver, Canada. Here's a playlist of some of the best trailers and commercials from various countries. (Total running time approx. 10.5 minutes.)

The Canadians themselves are going heavily for the patriotic approach. As a bilingual country I've also included the compare-and-contrast English and French versions of the official launch video. The Americans like to champion the human achievement angle whereas China (being the last Olympic country) revels in the beauty and spectacle of it all. The British and Germans are going for a more artistic approach. (Apparently the British trailer is also being used on Russian TV.) For Australia, of course, it's the middle of summer. There's a beautiful animation from the Olympic movement itself as well as the official opening titles from Olympic Broadcasting Services Vancover.

Oh and little kids + ice = adorably funny.

Also, the Olympics wouldn't be the Olympics without a cute mascot or 4, with these guys inspired by native Canadian legends.

These are the last Olympics before London 2012 so I wonder what we'll be coming up with? I'm off to scribble down my ideas for Percy the Trafalgar Square Pigeon!

Spring Fair 2010 - Part 1: New Goodies From You Know Who

2010-02-11T17:19:00.008Z

It seems like only yesterday I was reporting from Autumn Fair 2009, but yesterday I was back at Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre to see its big sister, Spring Fair International 2010.

For the first week every February, Spring Fair takes up all 20 halls of the NEC to become the UK's most important showcase for the greetings, gift and homeware industries. Exhibitors and buyers from all round the world congregate to do millions of pounds' worth of trade and show off the very best in contemporary design.

Due to its size, it's impossible to go round and see everything in one day, so I just stick to my main areas of interest, which are greetings, art and contemporary gifts. Okay, maybe a few toys...

Over the next few days I'm going to share my pick of the best new products with you. Without a doubt, I've ticked off far more names on my exhibitors' list to follow up than I've ever done before.

For today, though, the blog's about something that I know will get many hearts a-fluttering. The excitement started as soon as I stepped into the piazza, got handed my show guide and saw this bee-you-tiful sight on the back cover...

Wow! Stuff are a Wolverhampton-based company that specialise in scientific toys, gadgets and puzzles themed around great British institutions such as The Science Museum, Mensa, Top Gear and Wallace and Gromit. To tie in with Matt Smith taking over the lead role, they now have a licence for Doctor Who merchandise, which is so new it isn't even mentioned on their website yet!

The new range was debuted at The Toy Fair at Olympia, London, in January, and is expected to hit the shops in October.

The Doctorwhotoys website printed their own excellent description of the range. Of these, I saw:

Desktop Patrol Dalek: With inbuilt sensors to stop it bumping into things or falling off the edge of the table. A bit of a throwback to the classic Rolykins Dalek from the 1960s that my brother used to torment me with when I was a kid, to the point where our Mum made him get rid of it. Years later they were selling for hundreds of pounds. Serves him right. Sorry, I digress.

Adipose Stress Toy: Self-explanatory, a squishy Adipose doll.

Sonic Screwdriver: An accurate replica of the new one that Matt will be using but I'm afraid I wasn't able to get a close enough look to confirm whether it's the gadget version or the rumoured pen.

Following Cyberman: A Cyberman's head whose eyes have the effect of following you round the room.

TARDIS Emergency Fund: A small TARDIS on a keyring, that you can keep some folded up money in.

Also, not on the Doctorwhotoys list, I saw a Spinning TARDIS, which seems to be some sort of magnetic repulsion toy that makes the model TARDIS spin above its base.

I should point out that I only saw them in their boxes, they weren't out on full display or being demonstrated. So I can't totally vouch for the details and there may have been other products there that didn't catch my eye as readily.

No photographs have been issued of these items, but I can tell you they look extremely classy indeed. They nearly all have an unpainted chrome finish and seem very durable.

This will also be the first time we'll get to see the new series' logo being used in packaging and, on this range, it comes across as very sophisticated. The box is in a simple blue, black and white colour scheme with the logo running across the top and a section cut away so you can see the product. There's no picture of Matt on the front.

I imagine these will be aimed squarely at the dads and elder children (that's not to say there aren't plenty of women who'd have fun with them, of course!) If you're lucky you may find an official Wow! Stuff product demonstrator and/or promotional video in your local stockist this autumn.

I'll update you with any information that appears on the Wow! Stuff website. You may also like to read the Drwhofigures verdict on this and the other new Series 5 merchandise promoted at the Olympia Toy Fair.

Dusting Off The Archives

2010-02-09T23:38:00.007Z

I've got artwork floating around on various sites around cyberspace, so this is a good place to pull them all together, either linking to them or reposting them for your benefit.

You'll notice I've added a DeviantShare widget, which you can see scrolling away on the left of the page. This has samples from the college work I've posted on my DeviantArt portfolio. Click on the widget's link and you'll be able to see the rest. It's a great showcase of the different styles I can create and I've added quite detailed descriptions of my working methods. You can also buy many of the images printed onto canvas, mugs, mousemats and other products.

I also have some personal projects archived on my cobwebby old MySpace page, so I'm bringing the best of them across here. A group of them are T-shirt designs, which I'll keep for their own post. Here are the "bits and bobs", personal projects and one-offs.

WATERGLADE

Photo restoration - personal project

Adobe PhotoShop & Nova Art Explosion clip art, 2003

I was lent this postcard by my auntie in 2003, who had been quoted a small fortune to get it restored professionally.

It shows an allotment by a local pub called The Waterglade and is dated 1911. The woman and the man on the right are my mum's parents, and the baby is another one of my many aunties.

Tatty, torn, faded and stained by old Sellotape, the only way to rescue it was to hack it to pieces using PhotoShop (I think I was running version 5 at the time) and recreate it in the spirit of the original. The sky, path and bush on the left hand side were taken from clip art and blended in.

The postcard was a black and white photo hand-coloured in a limited palette. Therefore I had to reduce the image to greyscale, brighten it up and colour it all in again. The colours had to be a flat wash of one shade, matching the original palette as closely as possible.

Minor creases were easily ironed out using the Clone tool and the text was recreated over the original.

The final piece was printed on good quality photo paper, framed and hung with love on my auntie's wall. :)

415

Illustration - online art project

PhotoShop & Bryce, 2008

In April 2008, a guy named Adam Box launched The Count High Project, with the aim of making a film. It was to consist of illustrations of numbers, running sequentially from 1 up to however many submissions he could collect in exactly 12 months.

Anyone was welcome to have a go. All you had to do was Email Adam and he would send you your number (issued in strict first-come-first-served order). You could then illustrate it any way you wanted - drawing, painting, modelling, photography or just scribbling it on a piece of paper. Talent wasn't the important thing, he just wanted to see the variety of ideas and people (from professional designers to schoolkids) his wacky project would attract.

The target was 100,000 but I don't believe he received anywhere near that. Indeed the website disappeared before the 12 month deadline expired. I still like my contribution though, so here it is.

I was assigned 415 which, when I researched it, turned out to be a very boring number! The most interesting thing I could find out was it's the telephone area code for San Francisco. So somehow that led to this earthquake-inspired illustration.

I created the ground and sky in the Bryce 3D landscape generating software. I'm not an experienced user though and I couldn't find my manual. I'd forgotten how to import a greyscale image and turn it into a landscape, so instead I did the 415-shaped holes in PhotoShop. Adding graduated browns and a grain effect gave a convincing 3D appearance.

HUNGARIAN PULI - A BEGINNER'S GUIDE

Personal bit of daftness

PhotoShop, 2007

Finally for now, something I did in one of my silly moods! I'm a bit obsessed with Hungarian Pulis and I found this amazing photo on Wikipedia. I thought people might like a bit of help working out what it was!

The Sunday Head****

2010-02-07T21:39:00.003Z

Today, the stunning landscape photography of Matthew Albanese.

Hang on... this IS the Sunday Head**** isn't it?

Go over to Matthew's Behance page to discover exactly what it is you're looking at here. Very clever stuff.

The Sorry Product Of Being In A Silly Mood When It Rains

2010-02-02T16:52:00.002Z

Grey and grey and grey and grey

Grey and grey and grey

I can sing a rainbow

But I'm colourblind

What a waste of time.

I guess that's what happens when I design pants for too long. Talking of which, they're all up in the non-Christmas shops now, each in at least 2 colours, along with the less funny but extremely pretty* stackable mugs.

*I'm not really colourblind. Just in a silly mood.

Great Sitcom Characters - Ben & Sam

2010-01-31T22:13:00.003Z

Here's a clip from one of my favourite sitcoms, Lead Balloon, featuring the brilliant scene-stealing characters Ben and Sam (Rasmus Hardiker and Antonia Campbell-Hughes). A self-indulgent post for the simple reason today is Rasmus' 25th birthday.

If you're not familiar with the show (then you're missing out), Sam is the daughter of Jack Dee's character Rick. Ben is her boyfriend (although I can't imagine them Doing It because that would require them finding some energy).

They're never in the show for more than a couple of minutes but every week they bumble in, scrounge all Rick's money and come up with half-hearted ideas for things to do. Sometimes I relate to these guys a bit TOO much!

All of this is made even funnier when delivered with Rasmus' laid-back Birmingham accent.

A 4th series has been promised and the series 3 DVD is well overdue, so I hope they hurry up. Funny BBC sitcoms are getting a bit thin on the ground, sadly.

Briefs Encounter

2010-01-30T23:54:00.006Z

Those lovely people at Café Press have given us 3 gorgeous new products to play with and I've now launched them in my Heart shop (the other shops will follow during the next week).

Just in time for Valentine's Day, you have 2 new items of American Apparel underwear to treat your favourite person to (even if your favourite person's yourself!)

For the ladies, there are these comfy yet sexy Boy Briefs inspired by the classic men's style. They're made of a blend of 95% cotton and 5% elastane (Spandex).

With 3 hot colour combos to choose from (and my artwork printed on the front), these briefs are very flattering, eye-catching and still extremely comfortable.

The guys can be treated to our new range of Boxer Briefs, another new twist on an old classic. These are made of 100% Baby Rib cotton with no front opening and offer you a great look without sacrificing support. (Note, please order a size too large as they may shrink on first drying.)

These also come in 3 mean and moody colours, with my artwork printed on the front of the right leg, and are bound to get you noticed!

In other - somewhat less wearable - product news, you can now order a set of 4 stackable ceramic mugs. Each holding 14 ounces (compared to 15 ounces for the large mug already in store) their pinched bases allow them to be stacked neatly together.

The outsides are white, each printed with the same artwork (again, just on sale in the Heart shop at the time of writing). The insides are painted in a different cheerful spring-like colour, you get one of each in Avocado, Sunflower, Sky Blue and Papaya.

Safe for use in the microwave and the top rack of the dishwasher, these mugs are pretty, practical, generous in size and brilliant value for money.

To order any of these products, please click here or use the heart button on the left hand side of this page. They will be added to all other shops in the next few days, keep watching this blog or my Twitter and Facebook updates for breaking news.

The Sunday Head****

2010-01-24T21:01:00.003Z

This amazing painting has been in the newspapers this week, together with photos of how it was made.

If you missed out on seeing it, head on over to this page at the Mighty Optical Illusions site and you'll see exactly how it was done.

The painting is the work of Craig Tracy and here are some of his other masterpieces. Without knowing how the images were created, these will really make you question exactly what you're looking at.

Coil

Glory

Immaculate

Kaleido

Schizo

If you have a look at Craig's website, you'll find fascinating insights into his motivations and technique. There are also plenty of behind-the-scenes photos and videos which will help you make sense of it all. Even then, you still might not believe what you're seeing is true.

They're Furry And They're Free

2010-01-22T17:05:00.003Z

As much as I want to promote my own art on this blog wherever possible, sometimes I have to step back and wallow in someone else's genius.

That's why I've now given over my Twitter and Facebook links to the amazing icons designed by Andrea Austoni. They're so cute they'll make you want to give your screen a cuddle (don't, it won't be very comfy.)

They're available for all the major social networking sites, each in four sizes. Here are the largest versions so you can see all the gorgeous details.

The best thing of all is that they're available for anyone to download for free (yum, my favourite price!) Just visit this link to Noupe.com.

This Old Heart Of Mine

2010-01-21T17:23:00.007Z

You've hopefully noticed that I'm in well into my Valentine's Day promotion. For this week and next, my Product Of The Day will be one of the gorgeous items featuring my heart design. How can you resist treating your special someone (or even yourself) to one of these beautiful unique gifts that just scream "I love you"?

The little thumbnails can't really do justice to the intricacy of this pattern, so here it is at a larger size. If you click on it you'll see it even larger and there you can admire it in all its glory.

You can probably work out it's based on the hearts in the "I ♥ 25.12/12.25" designs. When I first created them, I selected the six snowflakes from the Zapf Dingbats font then used a random number generator from Mrs Glosser's Math Goodies to decide which order they should go in (yes, even my randomness has to have some structure to it!) Once roughly placed, each snowflake was then rescaled to fit inside the "I ♥" shapes so that they fitted together like a jigsaw but not sized too uniformly.

When it came to converting the pattern from Christmas to Valentine's Day, I replaced each snowflake with a heart from one of six different fonts (so snowflake A became heart A, snowflake B became heart B, etc). Again I had to manually resize them to perfectly interlock with each other.

Creating these hearts was a fiddly, time consuming process. It was all done with love though, so you can pass it on and show how much you love your special someone.

These designs are available nowhere else but through my shops, so you really will be getting something unique. Plus you'll have the lovely warm glow that can only come from helping an up and coming artist get off the dole queue. (Honestly, there really is no other feeling in the world as good as that.)

For delivery in time for Valentine's Day, I recommend ordering before Friday 29th January 2010.

To visit my Electric Hearts shop, click here or choose the button on the left hand side of this page. Of course all the other shops are still open, each with over 100 products that would make great Valentine's gifts.

So, go on, instead of those flowers or chocolates you normally buy, why not choose something extra special, not available in the High Street, which really says you've given your loved one some thought this year?

Happy Birthday To The Young Ones

2010-01-20T22:03:00.006Z

Today is the 31st birthday of singer, actor, national treasure and reality talent shows' Original Gangsta Will Young.

From a country that treats its reality contestants as a bit of fluff for a Saturday night but rarely supports them long after Simon Cowell's moved off to the next incarnation of his cash cow, Will's longevity has been like a diamond in the rough. There's no doubt that if he hadn't won the very first series of Pop Idol and then taken firm control over his own career, those major stars who have come from the Idols or X Factor franchises, such as Leona Lewis, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood or more recently JLS and Alexandra Burke, would not have had the chance to enjoy the massive careers they have now.

Love the reality format or hate it, there's no doubt it's one of the major cultural markers of the early 21st century. With the news that Simon Cowell is leaving American Idol to launch X Factor USA (over which he'll have more control) and that his Syco company has signed a new deal with Sony to unify its TV, music and merchandising projects, there's every chance it will continue to dominate our screens and radios well into the 2010s.

Will's 2002 debut Evergreen/Anything Is Possible achieved sales of 1.8 million, making it the biggest selling single of the decade. With the shift towards downloads, which you can get whenever you want rather than just when the CD is in the shops, this is an achievement which is very unlikely to be beaten.

Will's best loved song, though, came out in November 2003 launching his second, most successful, album Friday's Child. Leave Right Now, written by Eg White and produced by Steve Lipson, became one of those seminal love songs that struck a chord with fans, thanks to its theme of really wanting to get back with an ex but forcing yourself not to because you know it would be bad for you.

It was promoted by one of the classic pop videos of recent years, directed by 10CC's Kevin Godley. All done in one shot (and needing 19 takes), it shows Will pestering someone at an art gallery and causing chaos in his wake.

Click the still to see the video (and note the waitress' obsession with the 2005 Rear of the Year!)

Not only is it's Will's birthday, but also his twin brother Rupert. As Will learned to cope with his new found fame, he was hiding the fact the person closest to him was struggling with depression and alcohol problems. Thankfully Rupert has come out of the other end much the better and is now running his own charity. The Mood Foundation helps people with mental health problems, especially those who can't afford private treatment or who fall outside the threshold to qualify for mainstream services.

Will helping Rupert in his fundraising mission to ride a pedalo up the Thames in 2008. Also pictured is songwriter Karen Poole.

Click here to find out more about The Mood Foundation.

The Sunday Head****

2010-01-17T13:11:00.005Z

Today, a celebration of the king of the pavement head****, Julian Beever.

Since the 1990s, Julian has shifted the image of pavement drawing from being just chalk graffiti done by starving students into an amazing new artform. His photo realistic skills and ability to render distorted perspective (oblique anamorphosis, to give it its technical name) have propelled him into being one of the best-loved artists of the 21st century. His popularity has been helped no end by the power of the internet, as people emailed photos of his work to their friends, unable to believe what they were looking at or how the effect was achieved.

As it's just chalk, his work has a fleeting nature to it. He often has to erect a canopy whilst working to protect it from the rain, and once revealed it's at the mercy of the elements and pedestrians' feet (who'd want to walk over it, though?) The work can only be preserved and appreciated at its best through photography, as the perspective is designed to be viewed from just one angle and Julian can often be seen checking his progress through his viewfinder (having erected his camera on a tripod before starting work) to make sure he's getting exactly the effect he needs. Watching the artist at work, though, is like a performance in itself, and there are plenty of "How Do They Do That" videos on YouTube, including this one:

As you will have noticed if you watched that video, Julian's work lends itself brilliantly to viral marketing, and a lot of his work these days is promoting well known brands. You tend not to notice the advert in there and just want all your friends to see how amazing the art is.

So here's to Julian Beever, ****ing with your head in more ways than one.

Winter Wonderland

2010-01-07T12:32:00.005Z

Being stuck at home isn't all bad, if you can gloss over how feeble you feel when you can't make your Job Seekers' Allowance cover all your bills, along with all the paranoia about how you must have written a subliminal "DIE YOU SCUM" message into all your CVs and THAT'S why no potential employers are ever getting back to you.

Ho hum.

Anyway, today is a day I can positively relish not having to go out in all that slippy-slidy snowy stuff. I'm here with my tea and biccies, wearing an unfashionable big jumper and still able to plug my shops and do my networking.

There was the unexpected surprise of the BBC changing their schedule last night, replacing football with a repeat of New Tricks. Not just ANY episode, but Father's Pride, the one with The Beautiful Rasmus Hardiker (high on my list of favourite Midlanders).

Then my artistic eye turns to the scene outside. It's not the superficial Christmas card prettiness of it, but something about the way the snow reflects the light back up and changes the whole atmosphere of the place.

In particular, I'm haunted by a sight I saw on Tuesday night. We'd had quite a heavy blanketing and there were still snowclouds covering the whole sky. I'd dozed off earlier, meaning I was bolt upright after everyone else had gone to bed. Sometime after 2.00 am I went into the kitchen and looked out into the garden. There's no artificial light covering that area so normally it's pitch black. That night though, the combination of the heavy clouds and the snow on the ground, reflecting what little light there was back and forth between each other, meant that the whole scene was almost as clear as daylight. Every little detail of the garden could be seen, but the whole thing was bathed in a strange pale orange glow.

Absolutely stunning.

I only wish I had some sort of highly expensive camera that could capture the scene and do justice to the colours, but I'll just have to draw something from memory.

So anyway, I've taken some daytime pictures for reference and here are a couple of them for you to enjoy. It also gives me a good excuse to tell you how my little feathery friends are coping.

A wide shot of the garden, taken at about 10.00 am today. The camera struggled to cope with the sheer whiteness of the scene, which makes the sky look darker and more dramatic than it really was. In the centre of the picture (between the bird table and ornamental well planter) you can see a little dark dent in the snow. This is a plastic bucket lid I've had to lay down to put extra food on. Some birds, notably the blackbirds and dunnocks, refuse to come onto the bird table so I have to have some method of putting food on the ground. They get some mixed seed, peanuts, sunflower seed hearts and - only in freezing weather because they're expensive - dried mealworms.

On the right hand side, in front of the shed, you can see the little stone birdbath with a green plant pot tray next to it. Providing water for the birds in this weather is just as important as the food but it's extremely difficult. I'm out with a kettle 3 times per day. I can normally get the big bath on the bird table clear at least once a day, but I've had to give up on the little one. It was just spilling over and freezing on the path. So I've added the plant pot tray as an alternative because some birds like the lower height and being undercover of the shed.

The bird table and the 4-part planter to its left stand on drain covers. We have the sewers running under our garden and the heat from them is keeping the covers clear!

Not much sign of the squirrels during this snowy spell. We have 3 regulars (2 of which I think are mother and child but she hasn't bothered kicking Junior too far out of the drey) but last week, on a clear but frosty morning, I actually saw 4! The regulars didn't put up with the intruder so I don't know if it'll come back. I really wish I could put little coloured tags on them to tell them apart.

Frozen birdbath, snowy bench and trees.

The pampas grass has taken a bit of a battering under the weight of the snow. About half of the stalks are broken. Still, if I tear off some of the fluffy plumes and leave them in the corner of the garden after the thaw, the birds will take them to line their nests. Something nice and cosy for their bums.

Winter. We moan about it when it's here but we kind of miss it when it's gone.

Socks Review 2009

2010-01-04T22:30:00.004Z

If today was your first day back at work after the holidays... well frankly I envy you having a job to go to. Other than that, though, you probably need a bit of cheering up.

So, making no apologies for giving these "guys" another plug, here's some of the top stories of 2009 as seen through the ping-pong ball eyes of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre.

http://www.myspace.com/scottishfalsetto

Let's Have A Noughties Party!

2009-12-31T15:21:00.012Z

If you're stuck at home this New Year's Eve (and, goodness knows, I am) there's no need to be miserable. Grab some nibbles, click the link and enjoy a whopping great video playlist I've made from 50 of this decade's greatest UK hit singles. That's over 3 hours of party bangers, classic anthems and fantastic memories.

Click here for the full playlist.

(2011 Edit: Broken links removed making this playlist shorter than the original.)

So all that's left to do is wish you a fantastic New Year, thanks for keeping me company and here's looking forward to an amazing 2010!

A Story I Couldn't Have Written Ten Years Ago

2009-12-29T18:54:00.004Z

Katie sat on the London Midland train, on her way home from another busy day behind the counter at Cartridge World. She flipped through her copy of Metro and filled in a few squares of the sudoku.

She hummed along to the Coldplay, Will Young and Rihanna songs on her iPod until she was interrupted by Amy Winehouse playing from her phone. She answered it to find her friends Sophie and Charlotte had sent her a video of themselves posing in their new Twilight tee-shirts.

Katie sent Sophie a text in return and reminded her of their long-awaited trip to London to see the Take That concert.

'CU@ O2 2MOR'

She turned to the newspaper's TV listings and planned her night in. The One Show, How Clean Is Your House? and Celebrity Big Brother would pass the time away, she decided. There was a clash at 9 o'clock so she decided to watch Spooks and record Heroes on Sky+. The hard drive was getting a bit full though, but she reckoned she could make some time to watch an old episode of 24 or Torchwood she had lurking on there. Then she fancied snuggling up in bed watching the Freeview box - Family Guy on BBC3 or Skins on E4, maybe.

Turning the page, Katie saw the review for the previous night's Ashes To Ashes. She groaned as she realised she'd forgotten about it but made a mental note to catch up with it on the iPlayer over the weekend.

She logged into her bank account on her iPhone, checked the balance and smiled at the extra cash she had in there. Her Irish Facebook friend Tara had sent her 10 Euros via PayPal for her birthday and, in an impetuous moment, she paid it into her Paddy Power account and gambled it on an accumulator, guessing the winners of The X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and I'm A Celebrity: Get Me Out Of Here. Joe McElderry, Chris Hollins and Gino D'Acampo - result!

The train pulled into the station and the man in the aisle seat briefly took his eyes from his Da Vinci Code paperback to let Katie past. As she began the short walk home, she could almost smell the aroma of sushi drifting on the wind from her kitchen, waiting for her to arrive. Then before she could calculate how many minutes she'd have to spend on her Wii Fit to burn it off, Jonas, the neighbours' Labradoodle, barked his welcome home.

Advent Calendar - December 25th

2009-12-25T10:23:00.006Z

A little daft entry to end with today, but as it only does what it does this one day of the year, why not give it a look? So if you're trying this any other day, tough, you should have been here!

Click the... oh if you don't know what to do by now you never will.

A big big thank you to everyone who's visited my advent calendar this month. I hope you've enjoyed the treats I laid in wait for you. I'd better start searching for stuff to put in the next one, I've only got 11 months! (Oh and I haven't forgotten I've got 2 graphics to fix, I'll sort those out after Christmas and I'll let you know so you can see them. As well as on here, they're archived on my Facebook page.)

Join me after Christmas as I present my look back on the year and the decade. Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and you'll be the first to know when I update.

However you spend it, have a fantastic Christmas!

Advent Calendar - December 24th

2009-12-24T15:50:00.008Z

If the kids (or big kids) aren't excited enough already, here's something to get them bouncing off the walls. Site suggested by Carol from www.williamyoung.org.

Click the pic - you'll have to do it today to get the best effect.

Don't forget, there'll be a final entry tomorrow. I won't keep you long, I promise, but it's another one you can only see on the day. So please spare me a couple of minutes while you're digesting the turkey!

Advent Calendar - December 23rd

2009-12-23T22:48:00.006Z

Something for those of you wearing out your remote control with boredom this Christmas. Set aside an hour and let this autoplay (clue!) This is one of my all-time favourites so I hope you enjoy it.

The fire's out so it's safe to click the grate.

NOTE: The links I'll be posting for the last 2 entries will be live on that day only, so make sure you're here to see them in all their glory! I'll try and get them ready for you in plenty of time (allowing for gift wrapping and snack arranging).

Advent Calendar - December 22nd

2009-12-22T22:01:00.005Z

Today, a nostalgia fest (or not, depending on where you live or how old you are.)

Click the ginormous HD-ready plasma telly that's obscuring the number 22.

Advent Calendar - December 21st

2009-12-21T22:21:00.005Z

Well now we're in The Big Week, I thought you might like something useful to help take away the stress.

Gobble gobble means click me.

Advent Calendar - December 20th

2009-12-20T21:31:00.004Z

Something a bit thought provoking today (in a fun way of course.)

Eek! We're into the twenties! There's a little sheep-girl for you to click. How exciting!

Advent Calendar - December 19th

2009-12-20T01:30:00.005Z

Some little works of art for you today. I've actually had to put some effort into this one, so apologies for the lateness.

Click the... oh you know how it works by now.

Advent Calendar - December 18th

2009-12-19T00:25:00.003Z

I hope you've all posted early for Christmas. Here's a cautionary tale about why you should.

Click the postbox. Or the robin. Or anywhere in the picture, actually.

Advent Calendar - December 17th

2009-12-17T22:10:00.008Z

The schools start breaking up tomorrow so here's something for idle hands.

Click the danglies.

(2011 Edit: Link updated to an alternative site.)

Advent Calendar - December 16th

2009-12-16T23:00:00.007Z

Today, a little help with a delicate subject.

Click below but please don't wake Poochy.

(2011 EDIT: Post updated with a different link.)

Advent Calendar - December 15th

2009-12-15T21:48:00.008Z

Today's treat comes thanks to my friend Mo at williamyoung.org. (2011 EDIT: Sadly the original link is no longer available but I've updated it so you can explore the whole site instead.)

Click the 15. (Eek! 25-15 = 10 days to go!)

Advent Calendar - December 14th

2009-12-14T23:29:00.005Z

It's the Monday of the last full week before Christmas, so no doubt you're in need of something to cheer you up.

Click the yummies and they will oblige.

Advent Calendar - December 13th

2009-12-13T22:36:00.004Z

Today: head****s - the gift that keeps on giving. Although I'm going to distance myself from what they've put as number 6 on there (you'll know what I mean when you see it!)

Chrtistmas fairy transports you away when you click her with magic mousey.

Advent Calendar - December 12th

2009-12-12T22:40:00.007Z

Something really jawdropping for you today, don't miss this one!

See that 12? You click it and nice stuff happens.

Advent Calendar - December 11th

2009-12-11T23:09:00.004Z

Just a quick one today, but it follows on brilliantly from yesterday's. (Make sure you see that first, here, if you haven't already.)

Clicky the biccy to see the piccy.

Advent Calendar - December 10th

2009-12-10T21:53:00.004Z

A classic bit of showing off today (I should warn you about flashing lights if you're sensitive to such things).

The trees say "click me".

Advent Calendar - December 9th

2009-12-09T23:25:00.006Z

A follow-up to something I posted last week, based on a suggestion from Elaine at williamyoung.org.

Piccy-clicky as usual.

Advent Calendar - December 8th

2009-12-08T22:09:00.003Z

Today, the greatest Christmas tradition in the world EVER, no exceptions.

Click on the 8.

Advent Calendar - December 7th

2009-12-07T23:06:00.003Z

Something to fight off the Monday blues today.

Click on the 7.

Advent Calendar - December 6th

2009-12-06T20:32:00.005Z

The advent calendar sticks with its international flavour today.

Click on the 6. (Yay! It's got a picture on it again! The technology's behaving itself today.)

Advent Calendar - December 5th

2009-12-05T19:10:00.003Z

The advent calendar takes an international turn this weekend.

Click on the 5 to find out why.

PS: After an emergency dash to the Apple Shop, the computer's working fine now so normal service will be resumed tomorrow. I'll probably tart up the graphics for today and yesterday when I get some spare time, too. Oh dear, it never rains but it pours, doesn't it?

Advent Calendar - December 4th

2009-12-04T16:21:00.008Z

Click on the 4 to see something to keep the kids (and big kids) busy this weekend. Suggested by sallyk at www.williamyoung.org

Apologies for the more basic graphics. I've hit some serious computer problems so I've got to keep this as simple as possible at the moment. I'll still be posting my links though, so make sure you keep visiting!

Advent Calendar - December 3rd

2009-12-03T20:47:00.005Z

Today, something to get you in the festive mood from one of the friendliest sites on the internet.

Just click on the 3!

Advent Calendar - December 2nd

2009-12-02T12:46:00.004Z

Today's surprise is something which I've had great fun raising money for with friends and workmates. It beats Secret Santa any day!

Click on the number to be transported away.

Advent Calendar - December 1st

2009-12-01T17:21:00.013Z

Welcome to the start of Val's Work In Progress Advent Calendar 2009!

Every day between now and the 25th (yep, I'll even be here Christmas Day) I'll be putting up a mystery link to a brilliant bit of Christmas-related art, design or media. It could be anything - a silly photo, a drool-inducing recipe, a classic video or a gift for the man/woman/child/pet who has everything.

So here to kick us off is one of the greatest ever pieces of marketing, which many people now consider to be the official start of Christmas (and which caused an outrage when it was dropped for a year in 2006).

Just click on the big number (designed © yours truly, by the way) and enjoy. Hint, there's more than 1 thing it links to, so let it run on.

The Sunday Head****

2009-11-29T23:47:00.004Z

Apologies for the lack of head****ing last Sunday (we had an inspection of all the house electrics the next day, plenty plenty tidying needed!) To make up for it, here are links to a bumper crop of stereograms to give you eyestrain in time for Monday morning.

Taken from Eyetricks.com, who have over 100 more examples for you to go goggle eyed over.

Being able to see into stereograms is a bit of an acquired skill but it's easy once you know how. I find the best way is to pick 2 bits of the picture that look the same and go cross-eyed so they merge together. If you're not sure how best to view the pictures, here's some handy hints from Eyetricks.

Happy Birthday Doctor Who

2009-11-23T11:13:00.001Z

46 years ago today (which was a Saturday) the BBC aired the very first episode of its new family adventure series. The story was about two school teachers becoming concerned about one of their pupils who was behaving oddly and giving her address as a place that didn't exist. Deciding to tail her home, they discover her bizarre real life living in a police box with her crotchety grandfather.

In that moment, one of the greatest British icons of the twentieth century was born.

Sadly, the TV schedules were overshadowed by the tragic shooting of President John F Kennedy the day before, so the BBC took the wise decision to repeat episode 1 of Doctor Who the following Saturday, forming a double bill with episode 2.

In week 5 the Doctor's most famous enemy, the Daleks, made their first appearance and the series grabbed the public's imagination in a way very few shows have ever done, before or since.

So, performing my duty to show you the very best in art, design and media, here's that very first episode, An Unearthly Child, in all its YouTubed glory. Compare and contrast with David Tennant to your heart's content.

Children In Need Animated All Stars

2009-11-21T10:52:00.000Z

I know it's a good cause, think of the kiddies, yada yada yada, but I have to hold my hands up and confess I can't sit through the annual Children In Need telethon. Just the thought of singing newsreaders has me reaching for my off switch. Every so often, though, it throws up a little corker of an item and last night, while waiting for the sneak peak of the Christmas Doctor Who special, this one popped up.

Comedian Peter Kay has an amazing ability to gather the biggest names in British entertainment to take part in his charity pop videos. This time he promised a cast of nearly 100 famous faces, and he didn't disappoint.

There was just one thing that wasn't mentioned...

...not one of those famous faces was human.

Two years in the making, this is an incredible collaboration that brings together so many of the best loved cartoon and puppet characters that have been on British TV over the last 60 years. So whether you grew up on Muffin The Mule or Iggle Piggle, there's something here to bring back happy memories.

The song and video are already available to download on iTunes, and will be in the shops on Monday.

The Sunday Head**** - Doctor Who Special

2009-11-15T12:29:00.003Z

As I'm having a Waters Of Mars celebration weekend, here's my regular optical illusion with a Timelord twist.

It comes from a one-off 2008 BBC programme called Don't Miss A Trick, which was a spin-off from BBC3's highly popular The Real Hustle. In this clip, an 8 year old Doctor Who fan gets taken inside a real TARDIS (honest).

Unfortunately, the person who kindly posted this on YouTube didn't also post the solution, so you can't see how it's done. Thankfully, I remember it well so I'll give you my own explanation afterwards. To avoid seeing it as you watch the video, I'll include a lovely Waters Of Mars photo showing David Tennant defining the word dashing. You scroll past the photo, you see the secret. You have been warned. (Of course once you've seen the video you'll be gagging to know how it's done, anyway, but it's more fun if you take a few moments to come up with your own theory.)

Thanks to Blogtor Who

So now...

Are you sure you want to know?

Okay then...

Here it is...

The Solution

The main deception in this trick is the right-hand monitor showing the top-shot of the TARDIS. It's a very clever split screen. The left of the shot (the front of the TARDIS) is live. The right of the shot (the back of the TARDIS) is actually a photo, lined up at precisely the correct angle to match the rest of the image. But it's only flipped into place once the girl's led the boy round the back of the TARDIS (which she does to prove there's nothing behind it). Then Kate, the presenter, distracts the parents and sister to look at something on the left-hand monitor so they don't see the right-hand one being changed.

While the man is telling the boy all about the keys, the behind-the-scenes crew are opening up the back of the TARDIS and the white wall. Full-length curtains mask the join between the open sets of doors. So when they eventually enter the TARDIS, they're actually walking into the room behind the white wall.

When they decide to take out a souvenir, they deliberately pick a statue that's way too big to fit in the police box, to add to the illusion that it's bigger on the inside.

Hey, if you can't play a prank on an 8 year old, especially one that makes his year, who can you play it on?

Socktor Who

2009-11-14T14:23:00.003Z

If, like me, you're hyperventilating with excitement waiting for the last Doctor Who special before The Big Two-Parter (gulp), here's your chance to relive the Easter episode, Planet Of The Dead...

...As performed by sock puppets...

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre Company.

Getting Dirty So Your Clothes Don't Have To

2009-11-11T17:05:00.001Z

Café Press have added 3 new colours to their range of aprons so you can look extra stylish cooking your Christmas turkey/goose/vegtetarian alternative.

Khaki and lemon aprons have been added automatically to all shops. To see them, click on the white apron in the Home & Office section and you'll see the other options. Select the colour of your choice and you'll then see what it will look like with my design printed on it. (Here's a clue - bloomin' gorgeous, that's what it'll look like!)

Aprons in white, khaki and lemon

Dark (navy blue) aprons are also available but I need to add these manually to the shops, so I'll be rolling them out along with the general update I told you about last week. So far you'll find them in the heart, apple and beachball designs.

Navy blue aprons - turkeytastic!

All aprons are 31" long x 29" wide, made from 100% heavy cotton twill and are machine washable. They feature a neck loop and waist-level drawstring. Two generous pockets are fitted to hold your cooking utensils, paintbrushes, gardening tools or whatever other use you want to put them to.

At £14 for the light apron and £15 for the dark*, these are great value, hard-wearing and stylish. You'll stand out from the crowd in my eyecatching exclusive artwork and I won't even mind if you get gravy all down it, honest!

To visit the shops, just click on a design you like from the buttons on the left of this page.

* Prices are set in US$, prices in other currencies are based on the daily exchange rate and therefore may vary.

An Alternative Thought For Armistice Day

2009-11-11T12:35:00.005Z

I found this through Twitter and it seemed kind of appropriate for today.

see more dog and puppy pictures

Click here for more information and to make a donation.

The Sunday Head****

2009-11-08T10:47:00.001Z

Just to prove head****ing isn't a modern phenomenon, here's something which dates from around the late 19th century (actual date unknown). It was produced by the Liverpool photography agency of Brown, Barnes and Bell.

You might want to click on the image to see him in all his gloriousness (and work out his secret.)

For more about the gorgeous young thing in the photo, visit the source article at Mighty Optical Illusions.

Oooh! Aaah! Woo!

2009-11-07T11:45:00.006Z

If the dodgy weather's stopping you from getting to a real display over this bonfire weekend (it's never just November 5th now, is it?) here's a crazy (and totally safe) firework display to keep you amused for a few seconds.

Take a couple of minutes to check out PES' other animations as well, they're all really creative and very funny.

Product Update: Organic T Shirts

2009-11-05T17:16:00.002Z

I'm in the process of updating all my Cafe Press shops to make sure the full range of products are available for you to order in time for Christmas. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be highlighting some of my favourites. If you're enjoying reading my blog, please lend my shops your support. Each one contains over a hundred products that are perfect for all your gifts, greetings and homeware needs.

In the current update, I'm adding Cafe Press' new range of organic T shirts to each shop. There are 13 styles, to fit everyone from babies to adults. Adult shirts come in standard and fitted cuts, and most of them are available in a range of colours.

The T shirts, produced by companies such as American Apparel and Econscious, are made of 100% certified organic cotton, so you can be guaranteed of their quality and comfort.

Here are some examples from the apple, beachball and heart shops, which are the ones I've updated so far.

All other shops will be updated over the next week and I'll keep you posted with my progress. You can get instant updates by following me on Twitter or Facebook, just click on the round "t" or "f" buttons on the left.

Also on the left, you'll see the buttons that take you to the shops. Just click on the design you like, and you'll be taken to all the amazing products you can have it printed on.

More product updates soon - keep watching!

Posted For Truth

2009-11-05T09:21:00.001Z

see more Funny Graphs

Sunday Head*** - The Halloween Hangover Edition

2009-11-01T10:38:00.003Z

Just to make you feel that little bit worse after a night celebrating all things horrific (or watching the X Factor - same thing) here are some nice creepy ghosts to freak you out.

Click on the image to start the animation. Keep staring at the red star and you'll soon see things glowing at you.

Illusion taken from http://www.coolopticalillusions.com

Scary S*** For Halloween

2009-10-31T10:43:00.002Z

Never mind ghosties and ghoulies, this is what scared the b'jaysus out of me when I was little:

UK Public Information Film, 1973

Happy Halloween. Just don't come knocking on my door.

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