cake, commissions, cases and coding ★

so as i mentioned in my post on Sunday, i've spent the past few days working busily on various commissions for clients across in the UK, there've been logo/banner designs for a cupcake business, CD and book cover designs for a meditative training centre as well as a few new flyer designs for various vintage festivals/shows around the country

busy busy busy

and STILL no proper start on any college work :O

for the first time in my life i think i'm going to have to stop accepting new commissions! something i thought i'd never ever do

sad times :(

anyway, in the midst of all my editing/business meetings over the phone/drawing today, i popped up the hill to check to postbox and was delighted to see that my little prize had arrived from my friend Laura at 'I Love Crafty'

she ran a little giveaway on her blog and i was one of the runners up so i won a super duper cute pair of battenberg bow earrings!

and they arrived in the cutest, teeniest little package ever!

and had a cute mini packet of love hearts all wrapped up with them!

so lovely! i love little surprise parcels like that! i mean i knew i'd won the earrings but i'd sort of forgotten about them being posted out, so busy i forgot i'd won a prize! geez louise!!!

anyway, I Love Crafty is the most AMAZING shop in Bristol over in the UK, sadly i've never been to it myself but i love seeing snaps and vids of it on Laura's blog/site/facebook page

it looks absolutely divine! and i really REALLY hope i get to visit it one day and meet Laura in person! oh lord i can just imagine, it will be the longest shop post ever... i'll just want to snap so many photos of such an incredible store!!!

luckily though, Laura also sells lots of lovely handmade crafty and kawaii type things online as well, so even if you can't make it to the actual shop, you can still treat yourself (or someone else!) to something super duper cute and sweet!

like i said hopefully one day i'll get to go myself so i'll do a MAHOOOSIVE feature about the shop then (i sooo will!) but in the meantime i recommend that you check out the awesome ILC website here - I Love Crafty

you can also 'Like' the shop via facebook - I Love Crafty

and follow Laura on twitter for updates and info about the shop + all her crafty/arty goings on - @ilovecrafty

so thanks again to the v lovely Laura for sending me the divine little earrings! :)

(cute pictures here via I Love Crafty ©)

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in other news, i found out this morning that red bubble have just started selling iPhone covers featuring members artwork/designs

i already sell iPhone covers and skins via Society6 (you can see them all here - Jade's iPhone covers)

but i've a few different designs available via red bubble now, here's the full range so far...

my red bubble shop is here - Jade's Red Bubble shop

 oh and fyi i don't set the prices, if i did... they'd be a lot lower! ;)

ps - and all of the designs there are also available as stickers + printed on t-shirts, hoodies and baby onesies.

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apart from all that i've not really much else to share, maybe because i haven't been out of the house (other than to check the postbox) since last Friday!

oh AND i also spent a good 2 hours last night getting a crash course in web coding

now before you snigger, i've been able to (v basically) code stuff for my blog and my tumblr for years but as far as i was concerned, my website existed via magic and witchcraft, maybe a bit of fairy dust...

however my Jedi Master (aka Richard my web designer pal) has now taught me everything i needed to know to update the site + add images etc

it was mind bogglingly insane and complicated but 100% worth the epic coding headache!

right, back to college for me tomorrow, i think the plan is to get some printing done (if myself or Jennie remember how to do it!) so who knows, i might have some cool stuff to post about tomorrow!

then again maybe not!

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

Friday Stuff ★

so i've been quiet this week i guess! back to college on Wednesday = uneventful day

ill on Thursday = also uneventful

then today i had a niiiiiice day :)

i met two of my best friends for lunch, Becky who i've known since i was twelve and Courtney who i've known since i was thirteen. it was great to see them especially since Becky will be dashing off back to University this weekend and i rarely get to see Courtney because she's always so busy at work

so we had a nice catch up in the Alpine (of course!!!)

and it was raining sooooo much outside that i decided to stick around a little while longer after lunch so treated myself to a cheeky cupcake to pass the time!

before the girls left they also helped me organize the stickers on my macbook...

i got a few of my own designs mainly because i was curious to see how they'd print out. as it happens they all printed out fab but my camera takes such godawful photos you can't really tell...

i'd quite like to see my CMYK cupcake and Matryoshka stickers though so who knows, i might be tempted to get them next...

to see the full range of stickers available, click here - red bubble

anyway after that i ended up in Waterstones book shop (just like always) and couldn't resist getting a few new Picture Books

i've built up quite a picture book collection over the years but i'm always looking to expand it and i knew i just HAD to have these books!

there's 'Little One's Bedtime' illustrated by Rosie Reeve and written by Suzi Moore

a very cute book full of adorable illustrations!

then we have 'A Bit Lost' by Chris Haughton

a really fantastic book, wonderfully simple yet effective illustrations + an amusing story. amazing colour scheme for this book!

then we have 'You Can't Scare a Princess' illustrated by the fabulous Sarah McIntyre (who was very helpful to me, giving advice during my own FMP picture book project) and written by Gillian Rogerson

Gillian's stories are always so cleverly written and Sarah's illustrations are always divine so i knew i had to get this one!!!

it didn't disappoint! i love love LOVED it!

and then last but not leaste we have 'Hubble Bubble Granny Trouble' illustrated by Joe Berger and written by Tracey Corderoy

it's another fantastic picture book! bursting with colour and wonderfully drafted characters

really super duper stuff!!!

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after that i ended up at Tesco helping with the weekly shop, cue me getting ridiculously excited when i  spotted a pack of Hershey's cookies n' creme kisses in one of the aisles!!!

i know, i'm sad but i LOVE Hershey's chocolate! i've mentioned my eternal love of American sweets before so there was no way i wasn't going to get these!

anyway that was my day, not the most thrilling of days but i enjoyed it nonetheless!!!

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ok so i've spent the past few days working on a couple of new candy characters + a special spooky pinup girl, hopefully i'll get these finished this weekend so i can share them with you either tomorrow or Sunday

so until then, that's all folks... ◕‿◕ ★ xX

T-shirt Feature + other stuff ★

so... i'm all alone at Chateau Boylan keeping myself occupied by watching near endless 80's/90's movie marathons, reading stacks of magazines and books + drinking a hell of a lot of tea

my parents have gone away for 2 weeks so i'm looking after the house/plants/birds/fish

i've also spent most of the past few days on 'Google +' sorting out my links and circles, if you have a G+ account be sure to add me on there - Jade on Google +

oh and if you DO have a G+ account don't forget to hit the +1 button at the bottom of the post

anyway, i remember last Saturday or Sunday or whenever it was that i said i'd show you my new Princess design

well as you can see, she's based on the big sister of the little Cupcake Princess and is as girly and as pink as ever!!!

but i also did a variation, this one is a little on the dark side though! 

who knows, maybe they're sisters and one's Kawaii and girly while the other is all Gothic lolita!

I have been listening to the 'Wicked' soundtrack a lot lately though so i'm guessing that i've maybe been a little inspired by Glinda and Elphaba!!!

but today i spent most of the afternoon on Society 6 putting things in my shop on there, but the groovy thing about it is that as well as prints and stretched canvases, you can also upload your designs to be sold on iPhone and iPod cases/skins, macbook/laptop/iPad skins and t-shirts/hoodies

check out my stuff on some of these bits and bobs... 

funky stuff right! hhhm, kind of makes me wish i had an iPhone JUST so i could get one of my designs on a case/skin (sad but true!)

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in other news, today my work was featured on the super duper Tee Gazette site!!!

the lovely Jared over at Tee Gazette and Design Juices asked me last week if i'd be up for a feature on the site for my tee designs from red bubble and all tropical

so of course i said YES!!!

it's a nice feature and i was very chuffed to be asked to take part in it :)

you can see my red bubble shop here - Red Bubble

anyway to read the full feature + see all the tee designs you can check it out here - Artist Spotlight: Jade Boylan

oh and if by chance you have an 'All Tropical' account, could you be a star and vote for my pinwheels design on there??? - RATE RATE RATE

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not much else to report for today, i'm hoping to actually leave the house tomorrow, providing my friend Jenny can come and pick me up!

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