I know, I know, here I go again *rolls eyes*

It’s been so long since I’ve been able to sit down and get my ancient laptop to actually DO SOMETHING I ask it to do (Maybe I should have been TELLING it what to do all this time instead)

All I can do is hold my hands up (again) and apologise for my absence…and maybe blame a MASSIVE percentage on rubbish technology and joint pain but I digress…

I HAVE been busy with all sorts though. From ALMOST finishing painting the kitchen (photos soon eventually I promise) to starting a new job (yay me) – or a pretty intense health scare (thankfully all clear now) to a handful of new fur-babies coming to stay with us. It’s been a roller-coaster indeed but I’m still here and I’m still smiling 🙂

For now I just wanted to say Hi and also direct your attention to the “snapshots” on the right hand side —> That WAS linked to my personal instagram – click here if you’re an Instagram(mer??) & want to follow that account – but it has now been updated to share snapshots from my BritishChick account instead so hopefully that will let all you crafty people see the relevant things I’ve been up to…. rather than selfies of me and my dog…. *rolls eyes*

I shall return! (famous last words I’m sure but this blog is always on my to-do list so the intention is still there)

I hope you are all well and happy 🙂

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Every little helps

I was holding off posting until I could update you on finished house projects. You know the whole “before” and “after” big reveal type things? Well there still aren’t any 100% finished ‘reveal-worthy’ projects at this point (booo.) To be fair we have had a lot going on but I’ve almost finished the bathrooms – right now they are both “fine” but I still want to tweak some bits. The kitchen is half painted – its ALL wood veneer so the prep work has been the most time consuming and did I mention I now have a vegetable patch? *takes a bow*

ANYWAY, for now I will share something I HAVE managed to start and finish in the last few weeks…..*yay*

Months ago I donated a gift certificate to a local(ish) charity event (<–click to see details of the event itself) for the Me Fine Foundation  (<– click to learn about the foundation.)

The certificate was for one 12×12 custom canvas made by me and awarded to the highest bidder. The event itself was a huge success and after receiving a thank you card from the foundation and hearing nothing more on the matter I genuinely assumed someone had done some ‘pity-bidding’ with no intention of actually cashing in their prize (sad face)

BUT….a few weeks ago I was contacted by the winner *yay again*- she makes soap and wanted a custom canvas with her brand name to display at craft fayres etc. She sent me the font type and these 2 images to go from… (please make sure you visit her page(s) and show her some love – if you click the pics it will take you straight there)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And from those came THIS…..

TaaDaaaa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lighting isn’t great in these but I love it 🙂 And apparently Jenny does too which is what matters 🙂

Forbidden Fruit

It’s been hectic to say the least, I’ll fill you in eventually… or not depending on how much I feel like sharing by the time I make it to the laptop again 🙂

For now, just to wet your whistle I thought I’d share my latest canvas, a gift for my friends little girl. Another “forbidden fruit” in my book (to see what I’m talking about click HERE) so it won’t be published in my Etsy Store but wanted to share with you rather than hiding it away like some kind of dirty secret 🙂

Forbidden Fruit

I like how simple it is compared to what I usually do 🙂 

Rules are made to be curved slightly

When it comes to custom canvases I have one rule: NO EXISTING CHARACTERS/LOGOS

Mainly because there are copyright issues when recreating (and selling) character items – in fact if you’re selling things you also have to be careful of which ‘tag words’ you use…. (did you know “Onesie” is a copyrighted word??) There have been many Etsy sellers ‘shut down’ due to recreating Frozen items or using the wrong tags in their listings.

Random cat…I’m fine with that

Of course there are loopholes, some can be put under the “fan art” category or tagged as ‘mermaid’ rather than ‘The Little Mermaid‘ but I don’t really understand that or feel the need to learn more about it. It seems to be luck-of-the-draw as one quick search on Etsy will usually bring up plenty of other stores selling the same copyrighted things …and they don’t get caught BUT I choose not to roll the dice and keep anything like that off of my Etsy site.

The other reason I don’t like to do it is because I’m not that confident drawing. If I’m drawing a random cartoon cat then that’s fine, I can make it up as I go along but if asked to COPY one…. who knows what it will look like in the end.

There is ONE exception to my rule and that is friends and family. If I’m making it for someone I care about I will break my own rule and go for it without listing it on my Etsy page as something anyone can order. The frustrating thing about that is that some of my favourite items have to be kept under the radar so I thought today I would share them on here 🙂

The first one I did was a ‘Trash Pack’ themed canvas for my little man. ‘Trashies’ are grim little critters or creatures you would find in the bin or associated with rubbish i.e. “stink bug” or “putrid pretzel” There are hundreds of these little rubber things to collect and my son was crazy about them so I made this for his bedroom and it followed us across the pond. He’s now into his spider man themed room so I’ve started painting over this to transform it into his newest obsession (I’ll show you when I’m done)

Trash Pack

Second was a present for little mans best friend who has a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themed bedroom – he loves it 🙂

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I did another for an Xbox Gamer….

Gamers Dream

Most recently my sister asked me to do a ‘Superhero” themed canvas for her boyfriend and insisted I use real images instead of just hints of his favourite heroes so this is the first time I have EVER traced an image (or 4) for one of my canvases. I’m happy with it and so is her boyfriend.

SuperHero

These canvases make me feel like I’ve dipped my toe into some sort of dark, criminal world BUT I love them and I’m proud of them. I think as long as I’m not mass producing or blatantly selling them I’m ok with bending my own rules slightly from time to time 🙂

POW she’s back in the game

Recently I opted in to a promotional “thing” set up by Cody of Lu & Ed . Cody sends out “swag bags” to existing customers. These bags contain samples from various other businesses -namely crafty ones who focus on items for children. It’s a sweet way of thanking the customers but also a great opportunity to get other small businesses out there, so I decided to go for it.

Most of my items are custom orders and for a while I’ve been wanting to branch out so I can turn up to craft fairs and events armed with ready-made British Chick items rather than a pen and paper to take orders (It’s on the resolutions list – well maybe not THAT list but shhh)

Superheros are always a hit…right?

Being set the task of making 25 samples forced me to think about what kind of ready-made item I could work on.

I had shown Cody this canvas an example of what I do. Immediately she suggested mini versions saying “POW” or “BAM” Duh! How obvious! What better way to sample my painting than with a tiny painting? And what kid doesn’t like superheroes?

I set to work on them and managed to make some stupid mistakes along the way which longed out the process massively – for example:

• I used basic acrylic paint despite knowing that outdoor paint has much better coverage – this meant painting each one 2 or 3 times
• I painted Dark Blue strips before Red even though I know blue is going to be harder to cover up -and I would need to cover it up
• I underestimated just how many paint pens I would need and about had a breakdown when Walmart ran out of stock

Super Fridge Magnets

However, I also had a “yay” moment when I realised that with the simple addition of some magnetic tape these bad boys are not just mini canvases any more – they’re kick-ass fridge magnets Whoop Whoop! 🙂

After what feels like a lifetime (in reality about one week) I’ve finished 🙂 It’s definitely been a challenge and an experience where my feelings about them changed by the day – if not by the minute. Now they’re done I love them

I’ll be sending them off shortly and keeping my fingers crossed that the stranger I’ve entrusted them with does something other than sell (or set fire to) them – Wish me luck 🙂

Here are some photos of the process

It starts with a base coat

The dreaded blue strips

Adding the red

The first coat of splat

3rd coat

Outlined in black

Adding some words

Sealed and finished 🙂

BAM

Packed and ready to go

 

 

 

 

 

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Pipe Dreams

Well, it seems the weekly writing challenges are rather elusive these days – which kind of removes 50% of my blogging fodder – hopefully they will start them up again.

This week I signed up for a promotional “thing” where 25 of my samples are sent out with orders from another store so I will be working on those samples over the next few days. I’m thinking little tiny versions of these…

“Superhero” is always a hit…right?

Obviously a little less detailed and rather than saying Lucy Lu they will say things like “POW”. When your focus is custom items it’s hard to find a happy medium for ready-made items but I think these will work well 🙂

We have started packing up the house ready for the imminent move and established that my little man wants a SPIDER MAN theme bedroom (It was either that or Pokemon) so I’ve picked up a few bits from the local charity shop and WILL be fixing those up (and posting pics to prove it). I have a feeling I’ll be dreaming in red and blue in a few weeks time.

3 steps to world domination

Ok so maybe that’s a SLIGHT exaggeration…

Happy New Year 🙂 The start of 2015 marks the start of my 2^nd year here in the states.

I seem to have settled in nicely – I’ve made friends, we have a new addition to our family, I can now drive without wanting to open-mouth-scream-cry at the sight of a 4 way stop AND I’ve started my own small business. Yup, I’m doing what I love and painting for people other than my mother (yay). Admittedly it’s still getting off the ground and I have a few other tricks up my sleeve but I have faith in what I’m doing and building my British Chick Empire is top of the list. So what better way than to kick off with some resolutions?

Start an Etsy Shop: TICK

This crafty stuff has always been a hobby; moving here I joined a local a craft group and it stemmed from there. I discovered a little giftshop which holds hand-made items from over 40 local vendors – now including me 🙂 I set up a facebook page dedicated to my business and an actual online shop seemed like the next logical step. Its very fresh and rather daunting but it’s open and I’m adding to it every day (it’s here btw)

Blog again: TICK

I have missed blogging. However – busy schedules aside- the physical act of typing has a lasting affect on my body (cause to be determined) Because of this

I think I’m going to need bigger pots…

I find it easier to avoid typing too much too often and that didn’t suit my previous blog schedule so it fizzled out completely. This time I am aiming for shorter posts and/or less frequent. I really miss the writing challenges so I think with all things considered it makes sense to change up the old blog and focus on my passions.

Get my DIY on: (Pending)

We are in the process of buying a house (eeeek) it’s definitely a fixer-upper as far as cosmetics anyway and I know we are going to have to do a lot of work to make it a little more bearable to live in -IF the sale goes well. I really want to try and do as much DIY as I can (or as my body will allow lol) and hopefully learn some new skills along the way (I’m sure the disasters & triumphs will make entertaining blogging material) I hope that by this time next year I will be a DIY QUEEN with a beautiful house – or at least part way there.

Of course the list could go on forever with the usual stuff like call grandma more often or stop nagging PEOPLE *cough cough* for leaving the toilet seat up…so I’ll leave you with a few ongoing aims (in no particular order) that have made it on to my list:

THIS is our new addition – Toby

Work in progress:

Understand Taxes – a must when registered as self employed

Train the puppy – Pee pads are expensive

Be nicer – think/act/sound

Ebay/Donate/Throw away the clutter – started and vow to continue (if only to make money and room for more clutter

Health sorted – always a good one

New Recipe each week – I fear my family may run away at the sight of yet another spag bol

Family games night once a week – we got loads more games for xmas (and actually played them) so I want that to continue

……I think I’d better get started 🙂

What are your New Years Resolutions?