Happy Mother's Day!

Just a quick post to say Happy Mother's Day - hope all you mum's out there are having a lovely day and are being spoilt! But a big special Mother's Day wish goes to my lovely mum - she is the best mum a girl could wish for and I can't thank her enough for everything she does, even though I know she doesn't believe it I think she's pretty amazing! Love you Mum xxx

"I got to grow up with a mother who taught me to believe in me" Antonio Villaraigosa

Venice Faces

I'm crazy busy with various projects at the minute and I'm afraid there's nothing I can show... so in the meantime I thought I would share with you some of the faces I spotted during my trip to Venice last year! I did get a few strange looks from people wondering why I was taking photo's of letterboxes, but I'm guessing I'm not the only person that has done this around Venice?

Little Snippets

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and happy new year! (It seems strange saying that on 22nd January but I've just realised this is my first blog post of 2013!) Well January is full steam ahead with lots of exciting new projects so I'm afraid I might be a little quiet on the 'social network' side of things... but in the meantime I've taken some quick snaps of some greetings card samples I've received of my designs.

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to stop by to wish you all a Merry Christmas... can you believe Christmas Eve is here already!? Thanks to all of you who have stopped by with kind words, support and encouragement throughout 2012 (I really do appreciate every single one of them!), it's been a great year and I'm very much looking forward to what 2013 has in store!

Now let's get to sleep before Santa arrives and then enjoy the rest of the festivities!
(and just in case you were wondering... yep this is me and Alfie, and yep I do have this hat!)

Also before I go, here's some quick pics of some of my Christmas designs that have been around the shops this Christmas...

Exciting News!

Just a quick stop by to share my exciting news... I'm extremely happy and excited to announce that I am now represented by the very lovely Plum Pudding Illustration Agency! I can't wait to get starting on some fun projects with them... so watch this space! :) For the time being you can take a peek at their website and see more of my work that you might not have seen before...

John Lewis Christmas 2012

I was excited to see my designs for sale in John Lewis this Christmas! I worked on these last year so it's great to see the finished products and to share them with you... a cute box of cards and a small gift bag. You can buy the cards from their online store here. The designs haven't changed from my original concept and the colours have printed out lovely (my quick photo's don't really do them justice!)

(click on the images to enlarge)

Happy Halloween!

Hope your Halloween is filled with spooks, fun and lots of sweeties! :)

And the winner is...

So I scribbled down everyone's name from my facebook and blog posts and here is the winner...

Congratulations Steven! If you email me your address details then I can get a print out in the post to you.

Thanks so much to you all for taking part, it was fun!! If you like these prints then don't despair... I just need to take some photo's of them and then they will be for sale in my etsy shop. I also have another new one to share with you all too! :)

Tigerprint Competition 'Tell A Tale'

Thought I would share with you my submission for the Tigerprint 'Tell A Tale' competition. The idea is to create a pattern aimed at children that also tells a story...

Meet Bobo, the little elephant who loves to explore - and is always on the lookout for the next big adventure! Being an elephant he is very good at remembering his journeys so he can tell all his friends how to find these great places too.
His favourite trip was a journey over the snow-capped mountains in a hot air balloon, where he landed next to a busy-bee flower garden. After following a trail into the forest he came across a fish-filled lake – here he spent all afternoon sailing in a boat and having fun in the sunshine.

FREEBIE giveaway!

Hi Everyone!

So there has been a lot going on in the world of gingerbred and I seem to be seeing lots of lovely new followers on here, twitter and my facebook page! So to celebrate all my followers and the arrival of some new prints I thought I should do a giveaway to say thank you for all your support!

If you leave a comment here or on my facebook page before 22nd September I will put all the names into a hat and select a winner at random... then you can choose a signed print from my new 'Bedtime Stories' collection. You have 'Goldilocks', 'Little Red' and 'Jack and the Beanstalk' to choose from. (click on the image to enlarge)

Good luck!! :)

Meet Maliki, Ahu and Paola

Hey everyone! If you follow me on facebook you will know that last week I spent some time working on a couple of commissions for someone special - a brand new little person who will be arriving in the world any day now! So I was asked to create something for Baby B's nursery that tied in with the colour theme and was personal to his/her mummy and daddy. So here's a few new friends that I'd like you to meet...

Firstly say hello to 'Maliki' the lovely little chameleon. His name means 'king' - he may be small but he sure is king around his local hangouts. He's a friendly little chap who loves to spend his spare time sitting on his favourite branch and watching the world go by. You may be concerned that he has his beady eye on the little bug... but don't worry that's his best friend Sid! Maliki is a vegetarian so isn't tempted by the 'bug' delicacy... instead his favourite food is cheese and chocolate chip cookies.

Now say a big hello to 'Ahu' and 'Paola' our pretty pair of penguins. These two cuties live on a small island near New Zealand hence their Maori names... Ahu meaning 'to look after' and Paola meaning 'small, humble' - I think you will know who is who! They both enjoy ice skating, fishing, playing hide and seek amongst the tree's and building snowmen.

I hope you like them! :)

IF - Lost

My submission for this weeks 'Illustration Friday'...

William thinks he will never get lost because he spends so much time looking through maps!

Published work

I've recently been receiving some samples of my published work so thought I would take some very quick snaps to show you... so here's a peek of some of the things I've been working on!

Meet the Three Bears...

I've finally managed to open my shop on 'Envelop' and I would like to share with you the first items I have designed... My 'Three Bears' collection of pillows. So say hello to Papa bear, Mama bear and little baby bear! Do you have a favourite? You can click here to see more information and maybe even purchase a pillow (or three!), and they come in three great sizes too... all good things come in three's right?? :D

NYC Fun Times!

So... you guessed it, work is still keeping me very busy! Until I can show you some of the work I've been creating I thought I would share with you some snaps from my trip to NYC back in December. It's the first time I've visited New York and I must say I fell in love with the place... it's always been on my 'to do' list so I was majorly excited that we finally had the opportunity to go. So now... when can I go back?? My feet have never ached so much in all my life but it was worth every second, and I think we spent the whole 6 days wandering around in awe and disbelief that we were actually there (here's a very quick sketch to show you!) :)

Catch - Up!

Wow... can't believe how long it's been since my last update!! (time flies when you're having fun right?). Thought I would share with you some sneak peeks of what has been keeping me so busy lately - so here's a few tiny snippets of work for a variety of clients - I can't show you the full finished designs as some of them are waiting to be published etc.

You can also find my work in two books... 'They Draw and Cook' and '100 Illustrations Annual' - click on the names to direct you to Amazon. Both are yummy books and feature a bunch of really talented peeps.

So huge apologies for being so quiet!! I will try and pick up the habit of updating my blog on a more regular basis!

TDAC - submissions

Yesterday I submitted two recipes for the latest 'They Draw and Cook' competition 'Eat Pretty' - here they are! You can check them out on the TDAC website here... fingers crossed now! :)

Sainsbury's Christmas 2011

This time last year I was approached by Sainsbury's to work on some characters for Christmas 2011... it was a great brief and so much fun to work on. Today I popped into our local Sainsbury's and what a lovely surprise to see my characters on their products!! I've taken some quick snaps to share them with you - I spotted two rolls of wrap designs, a pack of money wallets, a box of cards, a pack of die cut cards, children's crackers and a couple of baubles! How exciting!! Let me know if anyone spots any other products in Sainsbury's with these characters on... :)

Happy Movember!

So one week of Movember has gone... how's everyone's moustache coming along?? :)
One of my best friends is taking part... if you want to follow his progress and help support this great cause please click here

R.I.P Steve Jobs

Today is a sad day and I just wanted to say R.I.P Steve Jobs. He is a man that truly changed the world, there's not many people you can make that statement about.

Looking at my desk now with my collection of apple items it makes you realise what Steve Jobs was a part of... My iPod; enabling me to listen to my huge music collection 'on the go', without carrying around suitcases full of CD's or cassette tapes. My iPhone; I really do use this for everything, it's so much more than a mobile phone and I don't know how I managed before! But my biggest saviour has to be my iMac; my work buddy, my digital side-kick and my helping hand. I couldn't do what I do without it... Ok, well I could still draw but I would be painstakingly sat painting for weeks on end!!

So thank you Steve, you've changed my world for the better... and you told me what I needed before I even knew myself! :)

Gingerbred on Oprah.com!

I've had an awesome surprise today... my recipe 'Monster Bangers & Mash' has been featured on an article for the oprah.com website!!! Click here to see the full article and the other selected recipes. Today is a very happy day! :)

TDAT - Sheffield

WOW!!! Didn't realise how long it it has been since my last update! Time flies when you're having fun! Sorry for being a bad blogger everyone!!

Here's a map I've illustrated for 'They Draw and Travel'. There's so much to do in my home city of Sheffield that it was hard to decide what to do, so the map just includes a few of my favourite things. You can view a larger version on the TDAT website here...

And the winner is...

I used a random number generator to pick the winner... so the winner is Kelly Medina!! Congratulations Kelly! Email me your postal details and I will get a stash of goodies in the post for you... info@gingerbred.co.uk

Thanks so much for taking part everyone!! It was fun... must do more of these eh!? :)

Freebie Giveaway!

To celebrate that I now have over 200 followers (wow! How did that happen!?) I thought it was about time that I had a freebie giveaway of some Gingerbred goodies! I will leave the contents of the giveaway as a surprise... so you will have to wait and see. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on this blog post... on Wednesday 1st June I will pick out a name at random and announce the winner (the lucky winner will then have to email me their postal address).

Good luck lovely peeps and thank you so much for your continued support! :)

A sunny break at the coast

Hi everyone! Sorry I've not posted anything for a while... we went away for a lovely break to the coast with our dog Alfie - and now I'm playing catch up with work loads... so I promise to post some more bits and bobs soon! In the meantime I thought I would share with you some of the holiday snaps! You may feel inspired for some lovely colour combinations from these... I'm liking all the muted beige colours with a hint of blue and orange.