A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

~ inspired by SouleMama

P.S. Today has been a day of really good news.

~ We found out this morning that my lovely Dad is now totally cancer free!

~ And that our landlady isn't selling our house so we don't have to move out.

~ And I signed my notonthehighstreet.com contract so my fancy new shop will be coming soon.

~ And two of my Christmas products have been chosen for the Etsy Winter Lookbook.

~ AND Clara & Colin products are now available at Florence and Grace. 

Phew! I told you it had been a good day!!! Hope you all have a lovely long Jubilee weekend xx

Hi Laura, thank you so much for joining me today! I first got to know you working on One Stitch at a Time, and since then I am continually amazed by you. You illustrate, write, craft, and have recently opened your own shop on etsy. Wow! So onto the questions…

~ How did you first get into the children’s book world? Did you study illustration?

 I graduated from Norwich School of Art and Design in 2000 with a First class Ba Hons in Visual Studies. It was a combined arts course but I specialized in my final major project in children’s book illustration.

I have always loved books as objects but never really knew that jobs existed to create books for children until that point. I was very inspired by European children’s books, mainly because their illustrations were very artistic and unusual. It was at that point that I was inspired to create my own children’s book by using a mixed media style and so I wrote and illustrated my first book ‘I’m afraid too!’ on my final degree year.

After graduating I decided my best route would be to work as a designer within children’s books to satisfy my love of illustrated books. I was employed by an independent publisher, as the sole designer for the children’s English and dual language list. They also saw my book in my portfolio and were keen to publish it too. My graduation book went on to be Commended winner at the V&A Illustration awards!

I was fortunate to find a publisher that believed in my style and supported both my designer role (later promoted to art director) and my illustration ambition.

With them I have since published 8 further children’s educational, board and picture books and it also opened up further book projects with other publishers. 

~ You work as an art director too right? Have you always illustrated your own books alongside the day job? And how easy is it to do both?

 I have worked as a full time designer in children’s books for 12 years now. I became freelance after five years of employment and was keen to have a bit more flexibility to work on my illustration work. However I have had constant work in design (and work in house for two publishers each week), so yes my illustration work has always been created in my evenings and weekends.

I do really enjoy working as a designer and working with very talented illustrators and authors on their books and this also inspires me to continue with my own books after my day job.

I also enjoy the occasional school/activity centre workshops that I do that are based around my books. It’s great to read my books to children and get their reactions to the illustrations. So it is a bit of a juggling act but a great one to have! 

~ And how on earth do you fit everything in?

 It can be hard fitting it all in and I’m sure you understand this! Especially when deadlines for book illustrations are tight. But I do love what I do so I rush home from my day job to fit it in. I do have a very supportive and creative husband who is a Design Director in marketing and advertising and really understands my drive to illustrate and create. He has to put up with me disappearing to our garden studio during the evening and weekends, whilst he often cooks the evening meal! 

 ~ You have worked on some gorgeous books – do you have a favourite?

 As a designer I have worked on a variety of books from baby books to adult books and all in between. My favourite books are the ones that I have worked on from the beginning concept to the end publication. It’s great to help formulate an idea and then source a great illustrator to make the idea come alive in a book format. One of my favourite’s would have to be One Stitch at a Time working with you! It was lovely to design a book that combined my love for both illustration and craft and working with a fab toy maker. I did also love receiving your felted animals through the post!

In terms of favourites with my own books it would be hard to pick. Each one is special to me and I am always happy to be able to have my stories and illustrations published. I’m pleased with my most recent books for Collins as they challenged me to create short little stories in a limited amount of words!

~ If you could illustrate any book/text from any time in history, what would it be?

 It would be fun to illustrate some popular stories such as Alice in Wonderland. As a child, I always loved Arthur Rackham’s illustrated version. My mum gave me the book on my 8^th birthday I thought the illustrations were amazing I can imagine creating the grinning Cheshire cat! 

 ~ Do you have new books in the pipeline?

 I am working on a few picture book ideas that I hope to get published in the future. I also spend time creating various samples for my agent (Bright Illustration) to try to keep my folio fresh and new and working on samples for books when publishers approach me. I love to create my art in a craft format too and so have started in the past year to create a collection of handmade crafts to sell, as well as taking on commissions for bespoke craft pieces.

~ You’ve also just opened your shop on etsy – how are you finding it? 

 It’s great to have an online shop to sell my crafts and the amount of talent on Etsy is amazing. I think it does come down to time to promote the Etsy shop and to always keep it fresh and updated. I am constantly thinking of new ideas to work on and am looking at printing some greeting cards and make your own kits to sell in my shop along with my handcrafted items. It’s a new area for me and eventually I would love to get some of my art into shops and also hold a stall at a few craft and design shows. 

 ~ How have you found creating your own products as opposed to illustrating for books?

 I have always loved creating art through mixed media. My illustrations often have a 2D effect to them as I include materials and textures such as balsa wood, leaves, felt etc. So really my illustrated work gravitates naturally towards the craft area. I also see the product side as a 3D extension of my illustrations and most of my handcrafted products are inspired by children’s stories such as: The Frog Prince (for my felted frog) and Red Riding Hood (for my peg dolly).

Laura thank you SO much for popping by today. You are such an inspiration!

Definately head to Laura's blog, shop, twitter, and facebook to find out more about her work. 

Yesterday afternoon provided one of those rare moments where everybody was equally pleased with the same activity. For us it was watercolour painting. 

Whilst I did a little bit of work on some exciting new illustrations, Matilda and Theo created their own masterpieces. A while ago I made a few watercolour painting sheets, and that's what the little ones used yesterday. They are great for not too messy painting with super quick results. They had tons of fun!

Matilda was experimenting with mixing the colours to create new colours.

And Theo was trying watercolours for the first time.

We just love watercolours, do you?

I was working on something quite exciting. Those of you that follow me on twitter/facebook will already know that I've been trying to decide whether to accept my offer to sell on Not On The High Street for a while now. Well, I've decided to go for it. They seem to like my style a lot, and as they only accept 5% of applicants I figure maybe they think I will do well on there. 

It's a big decision for me, as the fees are rather high, but the exposure could be huge. 

So, these new illustrations are ideas I'm working on for a range that will be exclusive to my NOTHS shop, when it's all ready. The range may even include the option to have products personalised. I'm pretty excited about that, but what do you think?

P.S. The new series of Illustrator Interviews will start in the next day or two. So do pop back!

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

~ inspired by SouleMama

~ Outside today

It's the last day of my little "let's get down to business" week on the blog, and I wanted to share with you some awesome creative business folk. These are people whose footsteps we would like to follow, well I certainly would! 

~ Gabrielle from The Green Gables

Gabrielle creates beautiful decorations, stationery & gifts that are completely eco-friendly. And all of them are made in the UK - isn't that awesome? She exhibited at Top Drawer in January, her products are featured in tons of lovely magazines, she is a huge inspiration, and I'm sure her business is going to be huge in the next few years. And she's absolutely lovely. Today on her blog are some gorgeous free twitter backgrounds that she designed. 

~ Becky from Dots and Spots

Becky has built her amazing stationery and gift business so quickly, and seems to be growing more successful by the day. She is like the Cath Kidston of stationery! I am truly in awe of Dots & Spots and how they have developed. Becky also writes a great blog and their progress is lovely to read about. She's lovely too, and so generous in her help & advice to others. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Dots & Spots shops start popping up around Britain over the next few years. 

~ Inside today

~ Sarah from Sarah Jane Studios

Sarah illustrates books, designs fabric, and has created her own very successful lifestyle brand. I am in awe of Sarah - everything she creates is beautiful and seemingly incredibly successful. And she has three small children. It has been amazing to watch her journey from a small etsy shop to launching her second huge range of fabric & publishing picture books. I can only dream of doing even a quarter as well as Sarah.

~ Mandy from Belle and Boo

Mandy is another superhero in the illustration world. The range of Belle and Boo products is just outstanding, and like Cupcakes for Clara the brand is based around two characters. Picture books, clothes, stationery, and party goods are just a few of the products Mandy & her team design. And they have just won Junior Magazine's Best Online Toy/Gift Retailer for 2012. How amazing is that? 

~ Lauren Child

I couldn't mention people whose footsteps I would like to follow without adding Lauren Child, the creator of Charlie & Lola to the list! She is just amazing!

I hope some of these lovely folk might inspire you in the way they inspire me. And to inspire you even further, next week I am starting a series of illustrator interviews. I have some AMAZING illustrators dropping by on the blog over the next few weeks - it's very exciting! 

Going out on a hunt for holly felt pretty strange today in the lovely 24ºC sunshiney weather. And as strange as it sounds, I needed holly for my Christmas photoshoot. In May. Yep, that's right!

But I promise there was a good reason. Christmas magazines start putting their features and gift guides together in the next few weeks. And I am determined to be brave and send press packs to lots of lovely magazines this year. 

Of course I'm not sure exactly what to put in a press pack to pitch my products to magazines. I've had some great advice from a couple of lovely people who are experts at sending out their work, but any advice would be most appreciated. 

My lovely Dad also lent a hand at the weekend, photographing a range of my products against white backgrounds. Using his fancy cubes the photos are now perfect for cutting out ready for magazines/wholesalers/features. I put this little sheet together just for fun, and to see how well the cut outs worked - pretty well I think. I can really picture them on magazine product pages grouped with other awesome stationery, can you?I have been thinking a lot this week about the right market for my products, so alongside a press pack I will be putting together wholesale information to send out to potential retailers. If you know of any particular shops where you would love to see Cupcakes for Clara products available, definitely let me know!

P.S. Inbetween taking Christmassy photos today, I was interviewed by the absolutely lovely April from Blacksburg Belle. How exciting is that?! I was super nervous because I have admired April for ages, and she is somehwhat of a business hero to me. But she soon put me at ease, and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with her. Hopefully I didn't sound too much like a bumbling English girl talking nonsense about her "make it up as I go along" business!! 

So on day two of my "getting down to business week" I thought I would share some of the businessy type books from my bookshelf that I love and find really inspirational. 

~ The Handmade Marketplace by Kari Chapin is a fantastic guide to getting started with your own handmade business. It goes into selling online, at craft shows, and wholesale. A good all rounder.

~ A Book About Innocent by Innocent is an incredibly inspirational book all about how three guys followed their dream to produce smoothies without using concentrated juices. I promise you'll love it.

~ Crafter's Guide to Taking Great Photos by Heidi Adnumbook is a great little photography book focusing specifically on taking pictures of your products for online selling.

~ Open Studios with Lotta Jansdotter by Lotta Jansdotter isn't strictly a business book, but it does contain lots of gorgeous office/studio spaces which is a necessary part of business right?!

~ Sweet Dreams: The Story of Green & Blacks by Craig Sams & Josephine Fairley is the story of how Green & Blacks got started. I bought this after my mentoring session with Jo and hearing a little bit about how they began. Very inspirational too.

~ Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey is a very pretty book providing lots of useful information if you plan on blogging as part of your business. Lots of lovely blogs to check out too.

~ A Space of My Own by Caroline Clifton-Mogg is another "not really a business" book but awesome non the less. 

As I am *hoping* to branch into picture books, these three books are an invaluable addition to my bookshelf.

~ The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook is awesome. The best guide ever. I have the 2011 version but will be updating to the 2013 version when it's released on July 5th. I also have the Children's edition. 

~ Illustrating Children's Picture Books by Steven Withrow

~ Illustrating Children's Books: Creating Pictures for Publication by Martin Salisbury

I would love to know some of your favourite business books, or non-business books that you find particularly inspirational/helpful for your ventures. Please do share in the comments. Next on my list to purchase is The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Book - it looks great!

My mind is a whir of inspiration right now. Last week I started sketching book spreads and it seemed to get the wheels of creativity turning. It is very exciting!

Then on Saturday I met up with the incredibly lovely Gabrielle of Green Gables fame. It was so lovely to meet her in "real life" as opposed to the online land of twitter & email. We chatted for a couple of hours about so many businessy things. And seriously my brain hasn't stopped for a moment since! 

I'm thinking trade fairs, new product designs, new book ideas, wholesale catalogues, press releases. You name it & it's probably whizzing around my little mind at this very moment! 

So this week all of my blog posts will be themed around "getting down to business." I'm in need of opinions, have inspirations to share with you, and hope that by the end of this week I might be a teeny tiny step closer to achieving my dreams, and have helped you get a little bit closer to yours too.

First up... trade fairs.

Inspired by my chat with Gabrielle, I *may* have completely designed my first trade fair booth. Of course I haven't actually got a fair booked but I am dreaming that it will happen one day. And after last weeks craft fair saga, I'm thinking that trade fairs might be the step forward that I need to take. 

I roughly sketched my design out, mainly so that I don't forget, but I can picture it perfectly in my head. And I'm hoping with all my might that it will become a reality within the next couple of years. I've also started a pinterest board of some amazing booths to see how the pro's do it. You're welcome to take a peek.

So what I'm wondering is, who has done a trade fair. Who has visited one? Which one would you recommend to debut at? Top Drawer? Harrogate? The Spring/Autumn Fair at the NEC? I want to go and visit a few this year to get a feel for them. But obviously these things take a lot of planning, and are expensive, so any opinions are most welcome. Please do share your thoughts in the comments. 

And today I managed to sneak in a little sketching whilst Theo slept & Matilda sat beside me painting. I was planning new products mainly, with a little bit of the book thrown in, and of course dreaming of my "one day it might happen" trade fair booth!

Oh yes, these photos are very early sneak peeks of possible products of the future! 

P.S. A range of Cupcakes for Clara products are now available at the lovely online store Card Couture. How exciting is that?!

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

~ inspired by SouleMama

Today has been all about sketching. And more excitingly, all about sketching pages for the second Clara & Macy picture book.

Of course it's no secret that I'm *hoping with all my might* that Clara & Macy will one day grace the pages of their very own picture books. (And maybe even an animation series!) So I really need to get into gear with the dummy books & finished sample spreads so that I can pitch them to an agent, and then a publisher.

But I have been slightly putting it off. I'm not sure why - I think I'm nervous of making too many mistakes. Silly right? So today I got myself a cup of tea, laid out the storyboards that Tom & I have been working on (yes, my awesome author husband is working on the books with me - it's SO much fun), got my pencils out, put my mind into bravery mode, and started sketching.

And I had a blast!