A Superhero has arrived...!

Two more books of mine are now out to buy...It's only grumpy Fairy Fay and the one and only Superhero Ed!

Both books are part of the I Love Reading Phonics reading scheme, which is based on Synthetic Phonics and arranged in levels to give plenty of practice in all the sounds of the English language. 

Fairy Fay's Bad Day is about a bad fairy, but what will happen when she casts a very bad spell?

And Superhero Ed, well he is just the best superhero in the world. But can he save Emu Meg when Wicked Ted strikes?

You can buy them on Amazon by clicking the names below:

Superhero Ed

Fairy Fay's Bad Day

The Big Apple

So last week I went to The Big Apple! Finally, after a looooooong time of wanting to go we found (or made) the time to actually do it...fly to New York. It was amazing. As soon as you step out from the subway station it just hits you...right in the face...noise, flashing lights, people, dogs, suitcases, noise, cars, yellow taxis, the smell of pretzels, skyscrapers and...did i mention noise?!

They says its a city that never sleeps...well I'd very much agree with that, and I'm not sure we did either whilst we were there!

Anyway I wont bore you with the rest of my trip...I'll just share a couple of photos...

In Central Park

Metropolitan Museum of Art - of course I HAD to visit this place!

Basketball! - The NY Knicks v the Denver Nuggets

The Chelsea Markets - such amazing food

Spice & teas at the markets

Just LOVE these - cookie monster's my favourite!

Just along the streets...

The Empire State Building - viewed from the top of the Rockefeller Centre

More Street Art

...and more!

In the Christmas spirit

Oh and I think I spent half a months wages and ate my body weight in MnM's whilst out there...the peanut butter ones are just TOOOO good!

SPOTTED!

Just a quick one...popped into my local WHSmith this weekend, and what did I see...

...some of my Christmas Card designs for sale! ho ho ho...

Monty has arrived!

Well its certainly a Happy Friday, as today I received my samples of the new book I illustrated for Egmont - 'Monty Wins the Cup'.

It's an action packed story about a boy (Danny) and his amazing home-made racing car. Danny's  inventor parents build him a racing car for his seventh birthday, but Monty is more than your average car. Not only does he run on chocolate milkshake instead of petrol, he can actually talk! It is very cleverly written by Jake Sparks, and illustrated by moi!

And its available on Amazon NOW! woohooooooo! Time to celebrate with a big chocolate milkshake!!! Just CLICK THE PICTURE BELOW to go to the Amazon page...

Sorry to have to say the 'C' word...

Ok so its only September and its aaaaaggggeeeesss till, yep, I'm going to say it...Christmas but I have to talk about it...purely because I have another book for sale in Marks & Spencer. Yippeeee!

It's another Touch and Feel book, this time called 'Merry Christmas'. I'd say they're perfect little Christmas Presents myself!

Just click the picture below to see more on the Marks and Spencer website.

Bear With Me Book

I am very excited to be part of a wonderful new project called 'Bear With Me Book'.

The Bear With Me Book is a charity collaboration with the best British illustrators around today, and even better all proceeds go to the charity Great Ormond Street Hospital. I wont say too much more about it now, you'll have to find out more by following us by the following methods:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Statigram
• Website

Do follow us, its going to be an exciting adventure...

New Stuff

So its been aaaaaages since I've written on here. Sorry. It's been a busy couple of months, and looks to be a busy next few!

I've been illustrating greetings cards and books...and more books...and more books, oh and my best friend got married so there was some Invitation and Order of Service design squeezed in there (and flower arranging & table decorating & a lot of celebrating) followed by more books...and now more books. So I am a happy illustrator!

And today I have just seen two more of my illustrated products are available to buy...woohoo!

The lovely folk over at Ginger Fox asked me to illustrate another puzzle and a book for Marks & Spencer, and they are now up on Mark's and Spencer's website.

See...

and you can see them by clicking HERE (for the puzzle) and HERE (for the book).

And here are some pics...

I'll pop some more up when I get my samples! Now back to the book pencils...

More Samples have arrived...it’s Lady Grace!

Well, this morning I received a very welcome parcel from the wonderful Random House Publishing. Inside were the advanced copies of two of the four books I illustrated the covers for. They are part of the book series called 'The Lady Grace Mysteries’, fabulously written by Grace Cavendish.

I was also very pleased to see rather well applied gold foiling to the text on the cover and spine - having worked in the greetings card industry I can’t help but pay close attention to things like this!! Anyway, I can’t wait to see the other two covers...

Website Update

As usual I am busy busy at the moment working on a mix of illustrations for a variety of books/Clients, including a couple of young reader ‘Phonics’ stories, crazy Monster Sums books and then some rather funny but factual Bees and Wasps illustrations. So a good mix up!

But I have just managed to squeeze in the time to update my website. Well, just a little for now. I’ve added to the book section new books that are available to buy and a few new B&W & colour illustrations I have created recently(-ish).

Click here to go to my website:

The Learning Gang

Recently I was approached by ‘The Learning Gang’ who asked me to create some illustrations for their new blog/website...of course I was delighted to do so! The Learning Gang (TLG) was founded by David Evans, an experienced qualifed teacher who provides tutoring services for children aged between 7 and 13 in the London boroughs of Richmond and Kingston upon Thames.


The Learning Gang blog can be found here: http://www.thelearninggang.blogspot.co.uk/
which explains more about TLG as well as featuring an Education News section for parents and a Fun Page (for children only of course!!). They can also be followed on twitter at @TheLearningGang

Have fun exploring The Learning Gang...

Two more books out to buy!

Last year I illustrated two very funny stories for the publishers Igloo Books. They are really comical tales very cleverly written by Melanie Joyce, and were such fun to illustrate.

‘The Bunged Up Trunk’ tells the tale of a very frustrated elephant who has a sticky bun stuck up his trunk, and all his friends in the jungle try to help him get it out, with quite hilarious consequences.

‘Cock-a-doodle-who?’ is a story about a rather bossy cockerel who throws his weight around the farm yard...all until the other animals have had quite enough and congregate together to take action against him.

I have been really excited to see these in print, and I have yet still to do so. However, I have noticed they are up on Igloo Books website and available to buy/order on various websites. To buy, or just find out more click the links below:

THE BUNGED UP TRUNK

COCK A DOODLE WHO?

Tilly has arrived!

On Friday I received some very exciting post from Egmont Press...my samples of ‘The Terrible Time Without Tilly’. It’s still so exciting to receive the actual printed copies of any book I have worked on rather than just seeing it on screen. 

I illustrated this very funny story (wonderfully written by Hilary McKay) last year, and its available to order on Amazon now...Click HERE. It’s a humorous story about a girl named Tilly, who never has time to tidy her bedroom because she is too busy helping other people! But she’s had enough, and decides to leave home...but how will her family cope?

My agents over at Advocate have also kindly featured it on their blog. Click HERE to see what they have written.

Moving on...

So as usual I have neglected my blog for a while. However I do actually have a valid reason...we recently moved so I had no internet for a whole 10 days!!!!! “How did I cope?” do I hear you say...well, the iPhone was my life saver! At least I could still keep in touch with clients through email on there. Otherwise I suppose it was quite refreshing not to have the internet...no twitter, no Facebook, no wasting hours looking up rubbish. However it did prove a little tricky when needing to send a client an urgent job they asked me to do...all worked out in the end though, quite nicely in fact.

Anyway, I’ll stop rambling on about that. So I have my new little (teeny weeny tiny) Studio set up now and am feeling much much more relaxed now I can work properly again. I’m playing catch up on a few projects including book covers, books samples for potential new projects and yet more greetings cards (if I can fit them in).


Also, last week I was honoured to be featured on the lovely Sunshine Smiles Publications website. 'Sunshine Smile Publications is dedicated to celebrating children's books and is a fantastic platform to showcase talented creators of children's books & YA fiction.’


They Kindly featured me as one of their showcased Artists. To go to the feature click the Sunshine Smiles logo beneath...

  

Sammy’s Stripes & Lily’s Lost Spots arrive!

I received very exciting post today...my sample copies of Lily’s Lost Spots and Sammy’s Stripes, from the fabulous publishers Caterpillar Books. It feels like such a long time ago since I drew these its great to see them in print.

These samples are the prints for Brazil, hence the foreign text!!!

 The first inside of spread Sammy’s Stripes... 

And the last spread of Sammy’s Stripes...

They’re both on Caterpillar Books website too. Just click the picture below...

Greetings (cards) all round...

Recently alongside more fun book work I have been illustrating lots of greetings cards, which has been a really refreshing change as its something I tend to have less and less time for when I am busy with illustrating books. I have just recently finished off a new 12 card range for the lovely people at ‘Original Poster Company’ so fingers crossed they will be out in the shops sometime soon this year. (And hopefully I’ll be able to share some pics of these soon).

I have also just illustrated various designs for Nigel Quiney and a couple of online companies, as well as just finishing a new xmas range.

Ooh and last week I spotted one of the designs I illustrated last year for 'American Greetings’, its on their website...just click the card below if you want to go to the link. It plays music and everything!! (the card that is, not the website!)

MORE Princesses and Fairies!

A very long time ago (well, actually this time last year, but it feels like a very long time ago) I illustrated four girl’s activity books for the fabulous publishers Igloo Books. And finally they are available to buy...woohoooo! There are two Princess books and two Fairy books, each full of puzzles and activities, as well as fun make-and-do’s. They also contain over 50 stickers and press-out pages to play with. Just a bit of fun and magic for the little girls!


Click the books below to follow the links to their website...