Gift Guide / / Bookmarks

What do you buy for the person who already has everything? Well, I can think of a thing or two...

Welcome to the weekly gift-guide: I am delighted to be sharing with you unique, inspiring & significant gift ideas on Rachael's blog. This week I bring you lovely bookmark ideas. I hope these gift ideas inspire you. Enjoy, Hannah.

 Cute button flower bookmark by Paperchase.

 Magnetic bookmark with a beautiful flower print by John Lewis.

 Carefully engraved leaves & ferns bookmark by Miltercraft via Etsy.

 Quirky owl bookmark design by mixed media artist June Pfaff Daley via Etsy.

 Silver love heart bookmark by Ava Mae Designs via notonthehighstreet.

Photography bookmarks printed on recycled paper by Julianna Grove via notonthehighstreet.

Creative Sketchbook Blog

I am excited to share with you a fantastic blog run by a lovely friend of mine called Creative Sketchbook. The blog is run by Gemma Robinson & is 'dedicated to share art & design from the past & present along with new emerging talent to provide a source of inspiration & pleasure'. As well as having featured my own work, Gemma focuses on showing 'emerging talent' such as the up & coming students of the e-course! She also features, books on her 'bookshelf' posts as well cities, art, illustration, sculpture & photography. 
You can also read our previous post about Creative Sketchbook here!
If you would like Gemma to feature you on her blog you can email her at: creativesketchbook@hotmail.com

Chris Piascik

Chris Piascik is an American artist, graphic designer & illustrator based in New England who is currently working as a freelance designer & illustrator. Chris has some amazing work which involves a lot of bold & bright colours particularly in his typography work.

Chris has many clients including Chronicle Publishing, Nike, Sims, Goodbyn, The Discovery Channel, Telerama, Akrobatik & many more. His work has been published in several books & publications.  Chris has also received many awards over the past 8 years & has managed to have his work in over 20 individual exhibitions.

After Chris had designed & shown 1000 illustrations, typography & graphic designs daily on his blog Monday to Friday, he had them all published in a book called '1000 days of Drawing.' Chris has also been involved in several exciting projects over the years.

Chris has many online shops to name a few Society6, Print Brigade, Etsy & Zazzle. You can find Chris on Facebook, Flickr & you can follow Chris on Twitter @chrispiascik

Chris is also one of our wonderful contributors on 'The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design' (the e-course) & has been a big inspiration to all of our students!

You can read more on the blog about the talented Chris by clicking here.

Enjoy :)

Hannah

Emily Winfield Martin

Introducing American illustrator Emily Winfield Martin. She makes books, paintings and is the creator of The Black Apple, which sells all kinds of art and interesting bits. Her work is inspired by her childhood spent drawing, reading, dressing rabbits up in fancy clothes and then having unusual daydreams. It is those daydreams that have influenced her beautiful work!
I love the enigmatic look on her characters faces and how they all seem to have a secret and exciting story to tell. Here's a small taste of her work. Visit her website for some more. See you next Thursday, Love Moni!

Amazing Face

Good Monday everybody, It's Moni here, I will be looking after the blog again this week, hope you enjoy the inspirational posts!
I have become quite a big fun of Penguin Books lately, I have found some beautiful books published by them that combine fun and useful subjects with art, design and illustration.  My latest find is the wonderful Amazing Face (clever beauty tricks, should-own products + spectacularly useful how-to-do-its) by former Cosmopolitan and Harper's Bazaar beauty director, Zoe Foster.
Make up can be a tricky thing, nobody teaches us how to wear it or apply it, what suits our skin and the products we should use.  This is the perfect guide to your own personal make up brilliance. Zoe gives us advise on colours, products and styles.  It is a fun, colourful and easy to follow! If you'd like to know more about it go to the website. See you tomorrow Love Moni

Tucked In: For Everyone Having a Doona Day

Hello! Continuing with my recently "lovely books" search, this is my latest find.  Tucked In, by Meredith Gaston is a fab book for bedtime reading! "Whether you are young or old, nimble or wobbly, tucked into bed on doctor's orders or on your very own whim, you can use your time in bed to explore your creative soul."
You will learn how to interpret dreams, what your sleeping position says about your personality and lots of other quirky things about the happiness of sleeping.  It is full of playful illustrations and cute surprises!  Here's it's website in case you want to know more!  I hope you like it! Love Moni!