My godmother recently turned 100 – what an achievement!
So I made a bespoke birthday card for her special birthday.
Bespoke Birthday Card
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Tag Archives: bespoke
Dress and Mask Combos
During lockdown I sewed some coordinated dress and mask combos; loose cotton shift dresses to accommodate the inevitable weight gain paired with covid ready face coverings.
The fabrics are my own designs which I get printed to order in the UK by Woven Monkey.
These combos went down particularly well with shop checkout people, bless them, who were pretty much my only outside contacts. One chap in Waitrose complimented my outfit then looked down at his stripy shirt and said “Oh, I’m going to get a mask made to match it!” I really hope he did…
This certainly made dressing for social distancing a bit more fun.
Wedding Anniversary Card
My mum and dad celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary today. What an incredible feat of love and endurance! As is their style they opted for a no fuss approach, eschewing a party or any such public hoo-ha.
So what to give a beloved couple who have everything as a gift for their diamond wedding anniversary?
Well, apart from each other (and me), the most precious thing in their lives is their delightful little dog Sam. I decided to make them a four panel fold out greetings card with Sam as the star.
Materials: I worked from photos using pencil, water resistant pen and watercolour paints on handmade 300g watercolour paper with a deckled edge.
My dad often wonders what Sam is thinking…
He is a clever little chap but mental arithmetic probably doesn’t take up much of his time!
Apparently, multiplying by seven is no longer a valid way to convert human years into dog years. Dogs age more rapidly in the first few years of their lives so it’s necessary to apply the above equation.
As a confirmed spinster, my parents’ long and successful marriage has been a source of admiration and incredulity to me for me ages. I’ve previously written ‘Happy 100th Wedding Anniversary’ in their cards as a joke so the dog years conversion is just an exaggeration of that. That Sam is my only sibling is also a family joke.
And it just so happens that Sam does have a heart-shaped hairstyle on his bottom, my mum recently mentioned how beautiful it is…
How romantic and appropriate!
Happy Wedding Anniversary Mum & Dad!
Portrait of Haylen
I made a few portraits of a Dutch friend of mine over the past few months and when I met his family his nephew asked if I’d make a portrait of his daughter Haylen in a similar style.
Haylen’s a really animated and sweet little girl who laughs a lot and has fantastic teeth; we were all keen that she should show them off in the portrait. Her mum and dad sent me a few recent photos (none with the teeth, however) and one of her laughing when she was two.
I drew the portrait as an amalgamation of several of the photos and checked with the family that I’d caught Haylen’s ‘essence’ once the linework (below) was finished.
Finally I painted Haylen with watercolours.
Portrait of Mike and His Friend
I was commissioned to make this double portrait while I was staying in Holland. I worked from a photo and made a linework likeness in pencil, drew over it in waterproof pen and then coloured it in with watercolour paints.
Wedding Card
I went to the beautiful wedding of this delightful couple recently. It was a gorgeous day – really fun and moving.
This is the card I made them, adapted from photos I found on their Instagram feed.
I drew the portrait in pencil, scanned it into Photoshop where I tinkered with it, then printed it onto card.
Wishing them all the love and luck in the world for a long and happy marriage.