Tuesday 31 May 2011

Fantastic Bookmark Givaway

Here is your chance to win a Bookmark of your choice from the Mouse Illustration Shop!  It can be a fantastic treat for yourself or a great gift for somebody special!


How To Win!

To enter you must LIKE the Mouse Illustration Page on Facebook (if you have already then well done you are ahead of the game)

Then LEAVE A COMMENT below (including your name) telling me what your favorite product is in the Mouse Illustration Jewellery Shop And Why!

The winner will be selected at random from all the answers on Saturday June 4th and you will be able to take your pick of your favorite Bookmark!

 Good Luck!

Website Relaunch

I have been a busy little bee over the past week redesigning my website.  I treated myself to upgrading to Illustrator CS5 (which in case you wanted to know is Amazing!) but that is a whole other feature.  I redesigned my banner using my new BFF Illustrator CS5 (well at least until they upgrade again) and also have designed an easier to navigate Jewellery Shop which will hopefully attract more customers.

My New Banner Designed in Illustrator


Old Layout and Banner using Photoshop


My New Home Page designed in Illustrator


I have also made my jewellery shop easier to navigate with each product now having their own order page and giving more detail about each item.

Page from the New Jewellery Shop
It has been a lot of work creating the new jewellery shop but it has been worth the effort.  When I designed it before I have to say I was a bit lazy with attention to detail.  Well lazy isn't maybe the correct word to use..........maybe inexperienced is a better one.  To begin with I looked at it from a customers point of view and realized I needed more detail and explanation about each individual piece, and that's exactly what I did.  I am still learning with web design as I go but I definitely feel that I have improved and learned a little bit more during this project, and have hopefully made a more attractive and user-friendly site along the way. 

You can have a look here at the new Mouse Illustration website and as always I would love to hear what you think. 

Friday 20 May 2011

A Sneek Peek at the Process

Well despite my wisdom teeth issues and taking way too many painkillers I did actually manage to get some work done yesterday.  Starting with my delicious Two Tier Cake.

Two Tier Cake Pendant

Some More Little Charms

I also took a few photos while I was making an animal bookmark and charm to show a little bit of the process.

Sheep Bookmark

Ice Cream Cone with Wafer Charm

Well its Market Day tomorrow so hopefully all the goodies that I have made will fly out of my stall and I will be making lots more next week.  I'm off to pack up my car and get ready for the morning.  I hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of the process of how I make my little charms, I plan on doing a more in-depth tutorial soon.


Wednesday 18 May 2011

Some More Little Friends

I have had a completely unproductive few days!  Tomorrow however is going to be a different story altogether.  I am making and creating tomorrow so I will have my play list ready and get into the creative zone.  This all of course depends on my dentist appointment in the morning.  If I end up with a swollen mouth and no feeling down one side of my face due to a giant needle then I will of course, well maybe, allow myself the afternoon off.  So, positive thoughts for tomorrow but absolutely no pressure!



In the meantime I thought I would introduce you some more friends that I made earlier on in the week.





Tomorrow will be awesome!

Saturday 14 May 2011

Injection of Colour

Earlier this week I decided I needed to jazz up my stall at the market and inject some more colour into it.  I think it will be an ongoing project but I thought I would share with you some of what I have done so far.

This is the before shot

And the After

 I decided that a bit of pink and some new display pieces would do the trick. I needed to add some height which I did simply by wrapping some boxes in Pink paper and using them to raise the new plates I bought.


I also wanted to make my charms look more like actual sweets as I always get a good reaction from people when they get a little closer and discover what they actually are.  I decided to buy some silicone chocolate moulds and used them to display my charms on a cake stand.


The last thing I added were new labels to display prices.  I decided to hand write them (despite my very bad handwriting) because I wanted them to be more personal and engage my customers in a different way.  I want my customers to feel like they are buying something really special and let them know that everything I make is handmade with a lot of love and attention to detail.

Today I am happy

This was a great day because....

Yum Yum!

Oh Happy Days

This is my progress so far with my display.  I just wanted to say a thank you to the lovely lady who came up to me on Saturday just to tell me how beautiful my display was.  It made my day to know that my efforts last week have paid off, I'm sorry I didn't ask your name but a big thank you as I really appreciated the compliment. Perfect timing!

Wednesday 11 May 2011

New Stall Idea

When I am not working on my online business I am making more goodies for my stall at the Arts and Crafts Market in Queenstown NZ.  Weather Permitting I am there every Saturday setting up early doors and drinking lots of coffee to get me going.  I am always trying to think of new ideas for my stall, how to present it and keep customers interested. 


To be honest today has been a bit of an unproductive one where I spent most of the afternoon clearing up my studio space (if you can call working out of the corner of your bedroom a studio) ha ha.  Anyway I went for a coffee and I came across Amy Atlas and her eye candy section!


Needless to say I have been inspired to jazz-up my stall and use some more colour and height.  Hopefully by the end of this week I will have a before and after photo for you of my display. 

These photos from My Sweet and Saucy just put a smile on my face and had me dreaming of birthday cake! Yummy!



Oh I wish I wish I had an Ice Cream Cone Cake!

Tuesday 10 May 2011

My Little Friends

I wanted to introduce you all to some of my little friends.  I started making these bookmarks about three months ago and they are definately proving to be a favorite amoung my customers.  I love to get new suggestions about what to create next and people are never shy in telling me what animals they think I should be making.  I have custom made some requests as everyone has their own favourite animal but when someone asked me to make them a centipede I had to draw the line!  I could just imagine myself sitting all day making tiny legs!
My Personal Favourite My Little Ladybug


Moo Moo Cow

Pinky Pig

Fluffy Sheep

These plus more Bookmark Designs are available from my online shop.

Monday 2 May 2011

Sombody's Darling

The Story of Somebody's Darling:

In the 19th Century The Central Otago gold rush days saw many men from all over the world flock to the area to stake their fame and fortune.  In the year 1864 a man called William Rigney was out for a stroll when he saw a dog wimpering over an object in the distance.  The object turned out to be the body of a young man who had drowned on the river while looking for gold.  Despite Williams efforts nobody came to claim the body of the young man so he himself took responsiblity for his funeral arrangements, as he was overcome with emotion for the poor boy.  William dug a grave and arranged a funeral to which the entire town attended.  He then made a headstone on which he engraved:
"Somebody's Darling Lies Buried Here"
It is said that the dog sat by Somebody's Darlings grave intil the day it died where it was then layed to rest in the same grave as its owner.


The New Story of Somebody's Darling:



Two local designers in Arrowtown New Zealand have recently opened up a gallery and retail space and have adopted the name Somebody's Darling.  Sarah Muntz and Holly Hargreaves have put together a delightful collection of work from local artists and you can also see the two artists themselves creating in the studio space.



I wish Sarah and Holly all the best in their new venture and you can find their details on their facebook page Somebody's Darling