New picture book

Thought I would share with you my new picture book idea. I have had this idea in my head for a while and as soon as I had a day off from work I wanted to visualize it! I have nearly completed the story, although I am sure it will change and develop as time goes on. I often feel inspired by the animal character first and then love to create him/her to inspire the writing side. I have a few other title ideas for other animals to form more of a 'series' and am hoping to visualize these after xmas!

Secret Santa

Well last week was Secret Santa time at work. Every year I try to create a handmade item. My gift this year was for a workmate learning to drive. Like me, she is hoping to pass her driving test next year. She is learning in a Mini, so I decided to make a Mini Mouse for her car, once she passes. I stuffed Mini Mouse with a handful of dried lavender too!

My Website is now LIVE!!

Well I'm very happy to announce that my website (that has been in progress for a couple of years now) has gone live today!! You can click on this link to view it:
http://www.laurahambleton.co.uk/

My charity envelope

Once again I am very excited to be asked to create another envelope for the great charity campaign called Pushing the Envelope. The charity help to raise money for The National Literacy Trust. They have invited me, along with many famous faces to create an envelope for the theme of 'Inspiration'. I decided to illustrated the quote: Reach for the moon. Even if you miss you will land among the stars.
The envelope will be sold on ebay to raise money for the trust. I hope it sells for a good amount to help them. You can view all the envelopes so far at: http://www.pushingtheenvelope.info/

Pendant designs

Thought I would create some of my illustrations on pendants :)

Happy Halloween!

A Halloween themed peg doll to
wish you all a spooky Halloween!

Spongebob

My work mate is a huge Spongebob fan and I couldn't resist making a one off one (out of a real sponge of course) for her 50th. Hehehe!

Friendship

A little illustration for Sunday 'Friendship'.

Joy

Fourth in the series of prints. Today it's 'Joy' :)

Chiswick Book Festival

I had a lovely morning reading from a couple of my stories and then creating a craft session for the under 5's today at St Michaels church for the Chiswick Book Fair:

http://www.chiswickbookfestival.org/programme/index.php

The organisers had even brought a special author armchair to sit at whilst reading the story to the children! They had also decorated the room with balloons and banners so it felt like a lovely fun atmosphere in the church.

The children seemed to enjoy creating their own chameleons after my story session and got quite messy with all the glitter's and sequins.

One girl, Lilly, one of the oldest of the group (aged seven) coloured her Chameleon and gave it to me to keep. Below is her colourful chameleon.

It was great to sell a few books and sign some copies too.

Overall a lovely way to start the weekend :)

My little books have arrived!

I am very pleased with my four lovely little books from Collins. They arrived today and look as colourful and bold as I had hoped! I hope you like them too? If you would like to buy them then Collins sell these: www.collinsbigcat.com or amazon and very good book stores should have them too. :)

Happiness

Another idea for a print along with my previous posts of 'Memories' and 'Hugs'

Hugs

Memories

A Toucan Crossing

A toucan crossing is a type of pedestrian crossing found in the UK that also allows bicycles to be ridden across. Since two-can, both pedestrians and cyclists, cross together, the name toucan was chosen.

My Animal Alphabet

Yippee! The day has arrived for my set of four Collins Big Cat books to be out in the shops! You can buy them here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=

pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_sq_top?ie=UTF8&keywords=collins%20big%20cat%20laura%20

www.amazon.co.uk
They are especially for children learning phonics as read alone books (so 5+). However they are simple stories so can also be read to younger children too.

A Bear Hug

Another little card idea. This time a big Bear Hug!

Top Dog

A little pic for bank holiday Monday. It's Top Dog!

The Chiswick Book Festival 2011

I have been invited to read from one of my books and hold a small art session at The Chiswick Book Festival. The event is taking place on September 17th at 10.30am (for an hour) in St Michael's Church, Chiswick. It's a non-profit making event raising money for literacy charities. Please see this link if you would like to pop along:
http://www.chiswickbookfestival.org/

Love Bug card

A little Love Bug card to go with my Love Birds card

Love bird card

Red Riding Hood

Red Riding Hood in the woods with wolf.

Animal Parade

An animal parade art piece!

My little online shop!

I have started to develop a little shop online.
You can buy limited products at:
htpp://laurahambleton.bigcartel.com
I am starting off with just a few products to see how things go and hope to enlarge the shop if all goes well! All products are lovingly handmade by me. :)

A spotted crocodile

Another transfer print character design. This time a lime green spotted crocodile!

peg dolls

Here's a batch of peg dolls I have made. Ready to sell!

More animals

Here is an elephant and a lion from my transfer print range.

Peg dolly bases

I tried out my little stamp on the peg dolly bases and think it works quite well. What do you think?

Fabric badges

These are my first attempts at fabric badges.

kangaroo and peacock

Here is kangaroo and peacock as transfer characters.

Transfer character pieces

Thought I would show you how the character pieces look before sewing them together. I quite like them flat on the material!

A little stamp

Just got a little stamp made for when I post out any craft parcels or for little paper bags :)

Transfer print characters

Here's my design's for two more transfer print characters (and Mr Fox too of course).

Mr Fox

A canvas version of Mr Fox. All he needs is his bike!
Today I experimented with printing on canvas and quite like how bright the colour prints on the fabric.

A painted dog

Here is my one of my dog card designs in painted form.

A male peg doll

Many of my peg dolls have been female ones and so I thought it would be a good idea to create some male ones too. Here's the first one. A wooden soldier.

New peg dolls!

I have been working hard on more new peg dolls. Here are some of them. Hope you like them!

Peg Dollies promotional cards

Thought I would try some little designs that advertise my peg dollies. They could even be used as little identity cards that can be housed within their doll boxes!

And some more...

Another couple of card idea. Fox on an old fashioned bike and a sheep in a plane.

And more cards!

Cards featuring dogs

My Collins Books

Am very excited to see that my next four books (written and illustrated by me) are soon to be published! They are called; Best Bird, Bad Bat, Goat's Coat and Panda's Band are you can see them by clicking on the books and seeing the links.