Gingerbread Cottage ★

so i may have mentioned it already but i'm not feeling particularly festive and christmassy this year! no advent calendar, no decorations, no festive spirit whatsoever!

well to try and drag myself out of this bout of doom and gloom i had a little go at decorating a Gingerbread House (well mine is more of a cottage but it's supposed to be a house i guess!) using a nifty little kit from Ikea

the 'PEPPARKAKA HUS' kit contained a flat pack set of gingerbread panels ready to be assembled into a little house!

it was actually LOADS of fun to build and decorate! even if my decorating skills aren't exactly the neatest...

i bought in a bunch of sweets + tubes of icing to use and i'm not going to lie, i had a lot of fun icing it all and sticking on the sweeties!

next year i might just have a go at baking one from scratch myself but for now... this will have to do!

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in other news, the very uber cool Tim Easley (illustrator, graphic designer and sneaker aficionado) sent me one of his groovy little Rudolph Xmas cards 

as well as a very awesome Zombie Moustache sticker

truly coolio stuff for sure! big thanks to Tim!!! to get your hands on your very own Rudolph Card head on over HERE (+ they're on SALE at the moment!) or for a 'too cool for school' Zombie Moustache sticker, head over HERE

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in other OTHER news, last night i finally switched my Facebook over to the new Timeline, although this isn't the most exciting news in the world, i did have fun fitting together a little 'website matching' cover image for my profile page!

do you like it? or loathe it... 

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not much else to tell for now, i spent today zooming around Douglas and Onchan delivering Xmas presents to various cousins and family members! but hopefully i'll have some more stuff to share with you all tomorrow night or Xmas eve!

son until next time, that's all folks... ◕‿◕ ★ xX

Acrylics and Apples ♥

So today I actually had a genuinely nice day... for a change!

No illness (fingers crossed I stay well tonight!!!), no bad times at all really! Surprising really since the FIRST thing I did this morning was block in the colours of a painting that my tutor Ian made me start working on. Honestly... i'd barely been in college 10 minutes when he appeared with a massive canvas and happily told me I was going to spend the day painting a pin-up girl onto it!

Errrr.... WHAT?!

There was honestly no arguing with him so I just did as I was told. I hate the painting... obviously! Well I should explain, this painting is big and bold and very messy! I had to paint it with a big brush and little jars of pigment acrylic. All I had to go on was a quick biro sketchy outline of the figure and a little A5 photo (I decided to use the picture of Bernie Dexter from THIS post - Patterns and Pinafores ♥)

it was hellish but I knew it would do me good to paint like that! You see... when I normally paint I use tiny tiiiiiny little brushes and little canvases with small sharp brush strokes and general... neatness! I am a control freak after!!!!

anyway it wasn't so bad once i'd gotten into it a bit (do NOT tell Ian I said that) so I may paint some more tomorrow... we shall see!

As i've already mentioned though, it has been a nice day today, also because... I left college a little earlier (I figured that since I work through two 30 minuter breaks and my lunch hour EVERY DAY... i'm entitled to leave at 2ish every once in a while!) and went laptop hunting with my mum (hers has broken... sad day in the Boylan household!) 

and since the place we wee hunting was next door to McDonalds... well, all i'd eaten all day was an apple (minus one slice because my tutor Andy ate that one instead) so I kind of deserved some food... right?! + It was nice hanging out with my mum for a bit, even if we didn't find her a replacement laptop! ◕‿◕

nice day though, also made nicer by my afternoon which was spent flicking through yet another one of the awesome 'All American Ad' books I still have stacked on my desk. Today it was the 60's book and my golly gosh... it was a good 'un!

I decided to scan a few pages because I just HAD to share some of this stuff with you! Such amazing old ads!!! today they're not so much 'funny' (no Gaylord shaving ads this time around but if you want to see the genius that is the Gaylord ad then check out THIS post - Giggles and Gravity ♥) this time the ads are just plain 'fun'! i love this juice ad, such sugary sweet colours and a lovely cute style. 

this was one of my top faves of the day though. where do i begin! the colours, the style... the colours! it's gorgeous! the character is called Dolly Dingle and was very popular during the but i never realised she was one of the campbells soup kids as well! so soooo adorable!

i found this one as well, i don't like the advertised items so much... but the figure in the ad is just super duper. once again there's just something about the style of it that i really like.  

in fact... i liked it SO much i drew this......

i know my eyes aren't quite as neat as the original but hey... i tried my best!

in other news...

i currently appear to be ONE 'Like' away from hitting 300 fans on my facebook illustration fan page... if you would like to become a fan and bump me up to 300 (and maybe beyond since i seem to lose a fan every other day... those heartless people!)  that would be super-dee-duper! you can 'Like' the page riiiiight here - Jade Boylan Illustration

 i would do a special 'give-away' type thing but to be honest... i don't really have anything i could give away as a prize! how about i give special shout out (on my blog/twitter etc) to whoever is the 300th fan?!

i know it's not much... but it's the best i can do! if YOU want to be the one to get the shout out... then get 'Liking' the page! x

i chatted to MIke for a bit when i got home, he may or may not post a new blog tonight so guess what... no links for you today Clarkey! 

+ he was also taking the michael (pardon the pun) about the music i was playing during the conversation (bit of Vivaldi, some Wagner, few tunes from Carmen and a bit of Rossini's Barber of Seville) 

so... it's your own fault my friend and your own fail...

anyway, i'm off for an early night i think! might pop Moulin Rouge on for a bit and snuggle up in bed for a quick sing-a-long (i know... i lead SUCH a thrilling life don't i!)

until next time!

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ♥ xX

well, well, well...

It hardly seems possible but it's true, i've finished my first year of the National Diploma in Art and Design at College. It has literally flown by and now I find myself faced with a seemingly endless summer (good times). On Monday i'll start my (lengthy) journey driving down through England and France to Andorra. So this means that sadly I won't be able to make any updates due to the total lack of internet access at the house in Andorra, but it also means that I will have lots of time to draw, so should come back with loads of new pictures! We were also given our College Summer projects, we can do the on basically whatever we want, so thus far, mine pretty much consistes of Fashion illustration and Graphic design. Anyway, i'd best go, lots to pack etc. lots o' luv :-D x

ps: please check out my Facebook Fan Page here (now finally up and running) and why not take a look at my latest attempt at a website here, it isn't anywhere near finished, but it's a start! my friend Kyren has kindly set up my own wordpress site, but I haven't really had time to work out how to use it yet! when i do, i'll post a link :-D x