Rainbow Pinata Cross Stitch Pattern

As you probably saw in Sunday's blog post, my newest craft addiction is cross stitch. I initially started is as part of my uni project, but I think I'm going to continue with it. It's been a much more relaxing way to stay occupied on long tube journeys than playing angry birds and pet rescue saga!

Besides a few little cacti, this Rainbow Pinata is the first proper cross stitch project I've done in years. It's inspired by my Mexican Project and the adorable Adventure Time pinata Manfried.

Here's the pattern for anyone wanting to stitch this!

Picture Catch Up #1

Over the past few weeks I've been frantically crafting and sewing ready for the start of term on Monday. This project is based on Mexico so I've been drawing inspiration from Mexican parties, plants, artists, food and crafts so I've been doing lots of colourful embroidery and applique as well as lots of illustration and pattern ideas.

Here's some pictures from my sketch book work, I'll be posting a pattern for my Pinata cross stitch later in the week.

Don't forget to enter my Kelsea Echo Giveaway for your chance to win a $40 gift card for her shop!

Desk of the Day - Flowers and Kisses

I often get emails asking me to do Las Vegas themed wedding shoes. But this has been one of my fav Las Vegas themed orders. The bride wanted a bright colour scheme with kisses, cards and dice, so I opted for baby blue with magenta, hot pink and bright orange for the colours.

I can't wait to show you the finished shoes!

Etsy Love - What Would Kyary Wear?

This term at uni we've been asked to base our project around music. I chose to base my shoes around the J Pop artist Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, who has the most amazing style and crazy music videos.

Here's my Kyary inspired Etsy finds, I think she'd rock every single one of these pieces.

1. GlacierMilk / 2. Gatumi / 3. Moonshine Baby / 4. Starchild by Saffron / 5. Sew Cool Creation /
6. Cosplay Wig Store / 7. Frilly Pops / 8. LME Masks / 9. Roxie Sweetheart

Check out Kyary being awesome in the video below:

Lady Rainicorn Etsy Love

I love Lady Rainicorn, she's like a noodley unicorn of happiness. Who's your favorite Adventure Time character? 

More Adventure Time // More Lady Rainicorn // More Etsy Love

1. The Geek Garden / 2. Hatpire / 3. Pretty Little Polish / 4. KNICKEROCKER / 5. Gogo vintage / 6. iDoll Shop / 

7. Iggy Starpup / 8. Cupcakes by Christy / 9. Hello My Sweet

Desk of the Day 23/03/14 - A Rainbow of Russian Dolls

I've finished uni for the Easter Holidays now, so I'm finally getting a chance to paint again! Today I'm working on some fun and bright Russian Dolls.

 

Etsy Love - Geometric

For my latest project I've been working on some geometric shoe designs, so I decided to search Etsy for some geometric beauties.

Here are my favs:

1. BOOWAH / 2. Emotypo / 3. Bottz Studios / 4. Tiny Kiwi Prints / 5. By Samantha / 6. Sevenstone / 

7. ACKEE Costume / 8. Cake Print Shop / 9. Dana Decals

Etsy Love - Monstrous Toys

Happy New Year everybody! I hope everyone has had a great holidays. Lets start the year with a little Etsy Love. Here's some awesome, fun and monstrous art toys that I wish I could buy.

1. Lonely Puddings / 2. Bryan Collins / 3. Whimsical Funk / 4. Bryan Collins / 5. Chep / 6. Cyclopean Genome / 

7. Brendan 345 / 8. Robot Soda / 9. Double Parlour

Remake & Remodel - The inspiration

Most design subjects at uni require you to show your ideas through colour boards and mood boards. Here are the inspiration boards for my Remake & Remodel project. As you can see, my main inspiration came from bacteria and the simplistic 3D shapes of DNA. I wanted to combine the bright, business of the bacteria with simple and futuristic shapes.

You can see more of my uni work here.

Etsy Love - My Little Pony

The My Little Pony converse I did a couple of weeks ago got me searching etsy for some fun My Little Pony inspiration. There is so much bright and fun MLP love on Etsy, so I thought I'd share a little of it!

Check out more of my Etsy Love here.

1. Ketchupize / 2. Ika Boushi / 3. Captured My Soul / 4. Shnookers / 5. Hungry Panda Supplies / 

6. J Seames Illustration / 7. The Paper Pony Place / 8. Hipster Octopus / 9. Athenas Wink

My Little Pony Converse

This is a pair of My Little Pony Converse that I finished painting last week. I haven't watched MLP since I was about 4, so it's crazy to see how much their cartoon characters have changed. As always, I love doing a fun, bright and cartoony theme, so these shoes were very fun to paint!

Check out my other shoes & shoe designs here.

If you have any questions about getting your own pair of customised shoes you can contact me at my Etsy Shop or at ponychopsshop@gmail.com

You can see the Adventure Time shoes featured in the first picture here.

Fashion Favs Friday - 1/03/13

1. Aida Coronado - Fun and colourful mexican clothing made with love.
2. You're A Doll Narwhal - How awesome is this shops name? They also do adorable jewellery, I love their little llama necklaces.
3. Kindah - Hand painted, unique, bright and fun fashion accessories.
4. Lady in Silk - Painstakingly hand woven jewellery in a fantastic selection of colours.
5. Field Guide Design - This shop sells awesome pet rock necklaces! I think it's a genius idea. I also love the intricate boxes they come in.

Fashion Favs Friday 18/01/13

1. New York Couture - Fun and bright kawaii clothing at great prices. You'll certainly turn heads in this awesome clothing.
2. Equeglitz - Smart bow ties in a fantastic range of colours and textures. I wish I had a suit job so I could wear one of these every day.
3. TUFT - Pastel, on trend & girly clothing and jewellery. Perfect for all the fashionable fairy princesses out there.
4. Broken Ghost Clothing - Unique upcycled clothes. They have an unusual and original mixture of textures and patterns.
5. Wear it Well Vintage - A great selection of beautiful and classic vintage pieces. This is one of my fav shops for vintage clothing.

Fabulous Flamingos

When Tottie from Pouting Penguin asked for some Flamingo heels I was so happy. I love Tottie's fashion sense and the beautiful shoes she features on her blog, so I was very flattered to be asked to paint some shoes for her! Tottie loves pink and turquoise which is one of my favorite colour combinations too!

I have loads more of these heels for sale, so if you'd like your own custom ones send me an email at ponychopsshop@gmail.com

The Skeleton Disco

While I love Halloween and it's orange, black and purple colour scheme, I often find myself wanting to add an extra bit of colour to my Halloween displays & costumes.

Are are my favourite bright skully items on etsy right now:

1. Skeleton Headband - £20 from Janine Basil

2. Skeleton Sweater - $24.99 from Tian Yang Tees

3. Colourful Skull Necklace - $78 from AMMA Arts

4. Day of the Dead Material - $12 from Kitsch Parade

5. Surfboard Kindle Cover - $24 from Gothic Creations

6. Skeleton Plush - $18 from The Doll City Rocker

7. Punk Baby Shoes - $22 from Bugabooties Boutique

8. Nothing But Bones Necklace - $28 from Shh By Sadie

9. Skull Party Decorations $15 from The Doll City Rocker

Fruity Fashion

When Mel from My Billie posted this tutorial on how to make geometric collages, I couldn't wait to have a go!

So I used one of her lovely collage ideas to show you some fruity and colourful fashion - after all, Autumn and Winter shouldn't have to mean our wardrobes get gloomier too! Let's wear some sunshie outside, even if the sun isn't shining!

1. Watermelon T Shirt Dress - £30 from Drop Dead

2. Strawberry Socks - $14.99 from ModCloth

3. Pinapple Sweater - £29.95 from Qcumber

4. Fruity Leggings - $70 from Uptights

5. Fruit Punch Mini Dress - £16.50 from Motel

6. Fruity Bamboo Bag - £35 from Bow & Crossbones

Fashion Favs Friday 21/09/12

1. Woodii - Woodii mainly sells cute vintage clothing and Illustrations. But I am just so in love with their Terrarium necklaces. These little necklaces would make any outfit look more whimsical, natural and earthy.

2. Mimi Hammer - Possibly some of the nicest swimsuits I have ever seen. A great attention to detail and wonderful design features at awesome prices!

3. Glacier Milk - Harajuku inspired upcycled fashion - can it possibly get much better than that? This shop is a feast for the eyes with exciting and flamboyant outfits photographed to perfectly compliment the outfit.

4. Dewi Design - Beautiful hand carved fake gauge earrings. These earrings will certainly stand out from the crowd. There isn't one pair of earrings in this shop that I don't love.

5. Mary Wool - Felt & wool jewellery and accessories. I particularly love their scarves and their colour combinations. These items would make a great gift for almost anyone.

Father and Son shoes

On Thursday I set off to New York. So you will either be bombarded with pictures of New York over the next few days, or, I might discover I can't get on the interwebs and slowly go insane from lack of twitter/tumblr/blogging. I'm writing this before I leave just in case I don't get chance to blog while I'm there.

We're off to visit some good friends, Steven and Diana. They're expecting a baby, which is very exciting to me because they're the first of my friends to grow up and start a family, instead of eating chocolate for breakfast which is what the rest of us do.

Steven is a big Blackburn Rovers fan, so I did him some Blackburn Rovers shoes and also some matching baby ones. We also ordered a baby bib that has "Kean Out" embroidered on it.

And here's a super cute top that I couldn't resist buying for the baby! It's from Zara.

Etsy Shop Feature: TOSYA & TUSH TUSH

TOSYA is a unique and fun etsy shop, full of energetic illustrations and pocket mirrors. Everywhere you look in this shop is full of toothy grins, bright red noses and happy faces.

Tosya is the work of Tali, a freelance illustrator from Israel. She has an amazing talent to create vibrance and energy on paper.

Tali is not only a skilled cartoonist, she also has great ability at working with oil pastels and acrylics. She sells these in her other shop, TUSH TUSH for very decent prices. If you're interested in collecting great quality art but don't have a big budget I definitely recommend this shop!

Etsy Shop Feature: Original Animal Magnet

The thing that drew me to Original Animal Magnet was they they did sparkly horse magnets. There's something about sliced up plastic animals that makes me want to buy them. THEN I saw the dinosaurs! And I had to buy some.

This shop is full of awesome magnets, they're perfect for gifts when you don't know what to buy anyone.

Original Animal Magnets are a husband and wife team who have been etsy sellers for over 5 years. They also have a blog full of fun things.