A Snake, a Frog and Man-Flu

Chinese New Year Card Snake 2013, Across the Miles by helikettle

Another rather too busy week, trying to make up for lost time, but at least I finished the Chinese Year of the Snake cards.

The snake did look good against a pitch black background but red seems to be the traditional colour for Chinese Greeting Cards and this really dark red shows up his bright colours almost as well.

Chinese Year of the Snake Necklace by helikettle

I’m amazed at how much general knowledge I’ve picked up since I’ve been designing greeting cards! I had never even thought about the Chinese Zodiac previously, in spite of having a Chinese Malaysian son-in-law. I find it difficult to find, or even design birthday cards for someone of his age and gender so I think that, from now on, some variation on his Chinese Zodiac sign will make that easier!

Born in 1977, Year of the Snake, Birthday Card by helikettle

I still have a huge backlog of floral card designs to upload so this weekend I decided to forego my Saturday painting time to help with the catch-up.

This little poorly frog that I painted a while ago isn’t suitable for as many different cards as the floral ones so I’m hoping that getting those uploaded will give me time to upload at least some of the December Birthday Poinsettia cards as well.

                  A case of Man-Flu, do you think?


BLACKBIRD UPDATE

My resident blackbird parents are doing an excellent job of protecting their second brood of the season from the crows that gather on my chimney pots. This week, it seemed that whenever I heard a lot of commotion and looked out, I saw a crow in retreat! At times it was like watching old footage of war-time fighter plane dogfights, with both parents taking part and the crow invariably coming off worst!

It’s amazing how closely the pattern of events followed the first time around, with a lot of twittering coming from the nest for a couple of days, then two ‘chubbies’ huddling together on the side of the nest, followed by a day of Father Blackbird broadcasting warnings all day, from the time I opened my curtains in the morning to his solitary watch from his sentry post up high on my garage roof as the sun went down.

I haven’t seen the young ones out on my lawn yet, but I’m sure they’re down in the bushes, judging by the way the parents are keeping an eye out for them and heading off any likely danger.

It’s wonderful to have such a drama unfolding before my eyes!

Festive Flags and Flowers for Graduation Congratulations

Last week’s ‘bunting’ design turned into a ‘Festive Flags’ Graduation Congratulations card – something a bit different and maybe a bit more celebratory than the usual mortar boards and scrolls!

And I think the effect of the blue background I created for it on the Zazzle site is quite interesting – the blue shows through some of the lighter colours, making them look like very old, well-worn bunting!

Festive Flags Case-mate for BlackBerry Bold by helikettle

I usually paint or make collages on Saturday afternoons, having sketched some ideas in the evenings during the week. But this week, I hadn’t had time to prepare anything as I was so busy getting all my Mother’s Day cards uploaded to the four print-on-demand sites I use, Greeting Card Universe, Zazzle, CardGnome and the Netherlands-based site you may not have come across, SendaSmile.

So, when an urgent customer request came from Greeting Card Universe, very late on Friday evening, just as I was backing up my day’s work before closing down my laptop,  I was able to carry out the customisation the following afternoon, resulting in one very satisfied customer!

This customer has asked me to change the names on my flowery graduation cards in previous years so I wasn’t too surprised that she wanted a different name again this time around.

Unlike the 'bunting' collage, which was made of painted layout paper, this one is made of tissue paper that I have painted with gouache. It’s a lot more fragile and seems to become very easy to fray and tear once it has been painted so care is needed with the cutting. I cut out the petals and leaves with small scissors but the name has to be cut with a very sharp craft knife. So I craftily chose a font that has lots of lumps and bumps at the edges so that any inaccuracies in the cutting aren’t too obvious!

BLACKBIRDS UPDATE
I was surprised to spot two young blackbirds pecking for worms on my lawn this week and it made me realise how little I know about birds and their habits! Things like: where do young birds sleep when they grow too big for their nests? And: how soon after the young ones have flown the nest, will a Mother Blackbird start to build a new one?

So I consulted the expert, Jean Pell (here's her blog and some excellent photos!) and from her replies, I now firmly believe that the first nesting attempt didn’t fail at all and that the young birds I keep surprising in my garden recently are the ones who started their lives in the nest on top of my little greenhouse!

Difficult to see against the gravel path but a lot 'rounder' than the adults

They are quite big now but easily startled when I inadvertently go near a bush where they are hiding. And they keep flying into my windows! It’s happened at least three times this week. They don’t seem to be any the worse for it and maybe it’s because I cleaned the windows so thoroughly recently that they can’t see that they're there? 

A good excuse to do more painting and less window-cleaning!!!!!!

PS CardGnome are beginning an exciting 12-day Mother's Day promotion on Wednesday (May 2nd) with prizes including a grand prize vacation. So keep an eye on the CardGnome facebook page for details and you might be a lucky winner!

A Lesson in Persistence!

The Morning Glory design turned into quite a lot of greeting cards:

It wasn’t quite the right shape, though, to make into a repeating pattern easily. And as a one-off, it was too tall and thin for some of the products I would have liked to create on Zazzle.

But I think it does look quite pretty on this tea pot 

Blue, White, Green Tea Pot, Morning Glories by helikettle

 - and on this Ladies T-shirt:

Blue, White, Green Ladies T-shirt, Morning Glories by helikettle

I was decidely premature last month in thinking that Spring had sprung. We’ve had a fair amount of sunshine in April, but biting cold winds and showers of rain, sleet and hail, with snow on the mountain tops!

Sadly, I think the pair of blackbirds who built their nest just outside my dining room were also caught out by the changeable weather. On Wednesday I had seen the two ‘chubbies’ sitting outside the nest and on Thursday morning one of them was on my back lawn with Father Blackbird.

But that was the last I saw of them and the nest remained empty all day.

Father Blackbird spent practically the whole of Friday, perched up high on my garage roof, giving out his warning song and by the time I closed my curtains in the evening, he was looking quite forlorn and bedraggled! Meanwhile, Mother Blackbird banged into my kitchen window whilst attempting to land in my window box where she often comes to peck out my seeds!

She seemed fine though the following morning, when I spotted her building a new nest, high up under the eaves of the house next door, where I can see it more clearly than the one under my honeysuckle bush. It’s a much bigger nest and it was finished by lunchtime, so she’s obviously learning from her experience. And Father Blackbird has been treating us to his usual beautiful song ever since!

What a lesson in persistence for all of us, when we are tempted to give up because of setbacks!

Somewhat inspired by her persistence, I made up my mind to tackle the December birth month flower, Poinsettia. I'd been putting it off because it didn’t feel like the right time of the year to be working on something so Christmassy.

I was also wondering how I could differentiate it from a Christmas card and I hope the solution I came up with – using a non-Christmassy colour for the pot and the lettering – will work.

Here it is, my Poinsettia painted paper collage, and it completes my set of birth month flower greeting card designs.

I’m sure I’ll also be using the image as a Christmas Card design and maybe a Christmas T-shirt or Apron? In fact, it’s not too soon to be uploading Christmas designs for next year from the search engine point of view . . .

Feeding the birds!

In November I posted a photo of the nasturtiums that I had reluctantly removed from my garden when they began to take over the paths!

In the background were the fallen apples, that I leave for the blackbirds and I was beginning to wonder what was happening as there was no sign of the birds - until last week when we had snow!

We didn't have a lot of snow, compared to Scotland and the North-East of England but it was enough to cover the apples and, as we had some of the lowest temperatures in the UK, presumably to freeze them too!  So I thought they would be useless to the birds in their hidden and frozen state.

But that was precisely when the blackbird appeared, accompanied by a second male blackbird and a female and they tucked into the apples with enthusiasm!

I'm absolutely no bird photographer! Apart from anything else, any birds that I spot through my kitchen windows are well gone by the time I open the door! And my new camera can cause me problems in some light conditions as I can't alway see what I'm photographing! So my first attempt to catch a blackbird enjoying an apple (above) was pure chance! And so was my second -

I did a little better with the sparrows up high in the apple and pear trees because I could more or less see what was going to be in the picture -

But it took a lot of standing very still in the snow without a coat or boots on, waiting for the birds to return after they'd fled when I opened the door! I wish we could puff up our feathers like this one, to keep ourselves warm!

The following day I noticed from inside that there were not only the blackbirds and sparrows in my little fruit trees, but two blue-tits and two thrushes as well! The only thing missing in the pear tree was the 'partridge'!

I think I could get quite hooked on this bird-watching. I've never known a tiny garden with so many different birds. There's a robin too and some nights I can hear an owl very close by, though I've never managed to see it. And I'm sure the birds in Wales sing more sweetly, in good Welsh tradition, than anywhere else! Maybe it's a consolation for not having a cat these days?

But I realise that I need to improve my photography somehow, especially when I see the wonderful bird photos that Jean posts on her blog!

Maybe, one day, I'll have a go at painting them instead!