An inside garden

A collection of terrariums painted in watercolours.

Cup of cheer

Here is a little snippet of a series of designs for stationery I'm working on at the moment. The writing at the bottom is a scan of my grandmother Ada's French lesson notebook I found in a box of dusty old books in the sleep-out. I hope she won't mind me using her school girl scribbles in my artwork!

Japonica and peach blossom

My youngest brother is a Landscape Architect but is also my go-to man for any thing Adobe related, much to his chagrin. Here is a baby announcement he recently created for some friends, using my illustrations of japonica and peach blossom. 

Nice job Michael!

Retro florals

A few 70's inspired designs using my favourite mono-print technique.

Getting sorted

During last night's epic Australian Open Men's tennis final I managed to fill a couple of A4 folders with Christmas inspiration collected over the last few years. It's time to get cracking on some new card and wrap designs for the up-coming trade fairs - no tennis watching excuses now!

Flowers to make you smile

I came across these cheery 'Favourite Flowers' cards by Alice Palace today at Readings bookshop in Port Melbourne. I love the pansy - which just happens to be my botanical drawing class subject matter for tonight. Unfortunately my illustration wont look anywhere near as fun as this!

Aurelie's Illustrations

Aurelie Guillerey has a great illustrative style with a vintage French children's book illustration vibe. These lovely post-cards and note books are available from La Marelle .

Animal adventures Japanese style

More Japanese loveliness, this time from the very talented printmaker and illustrator Junzo Terada. All of these charming stationery products can be found on the Chronicle Books website.

The Claudettes

More beautiful cards from the Norway design duo Darling Clementine. I love the 50's pastel colouration, and how cute is that kangaroo? I found these at the Avenue Bookstore in Albert Park, Melbourne.





These card designs are from The Claudettes collection by Darling Clementine, and are produced by UK stationery company 1973. You can purchase these and many other gorgeous paper designs from the 1973 website here.

Tea cups and Apples

I love these Georgian inspired wrapping paper designs from Bath based company Frederica Cards. A healthy dose of Jane Austin style for a Tuesday morning!

60's wrap and roll

All wrapped up! Groovy gift wrap of the 1960's is a great visual reference into the sometimes wacky, sometimes sweet, but always beautifully designed world of vintage 60's gift wrap. Birthdays, baby showers, bridal showers, weddings, new baby, Christmas, children, husband, wife, bon voyage - it's all documented in this book by Kevin Akers, published by Chronicle Books.

I love this photo of the design department of Hallmark Cards, Inc headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. It's just like my desk here at work.

Not.

Miss Clara's latest offerings

What a wonderful world Miss Clara's imagination resides in. These whimsical illustrations are available from the La Marelle website and hopefully in Australian shops soon, as I spotted these and many more lovely examples of French design displayed on the La Marelle stand at the Life INstyle trade fair here in Melbourne. I think it's time to re-fresh my inspiration pin board!

Auspicious red

Beautiful Japanese Chiyogami papers from Sydney's Kinokuniya bookshop - a place I could happily spend a day browsing!

Patterns from the sea

Fabulous sea creatures from 1930's and 40's printed dress fabrics decorate these notebooks from the V&A Museum shop.

Hand-printed greetings

They're creepy and they're kooky..... but these are the friendliest critters I have ever seen. These gorgeous cards are hand-printed by UK designer Lisa Jones, and are available in Australia from the Lark website. I love that caterpillar!