Hi folks, are you ready for another fabulous giveaway? Today I’m delighted to introduce Jennifer from Love JK and her collection of pretty, pretty things! The Love JK collection is made locally in Melbourne and includes a range of stationery, wall art, invitations, bunting and giftware.

Hi folks, are you ready for another fabulous giveaway? Today I’m delighted to introduce Jennifer from Love JK and her collection of pretty, pretty things! The Love JK collection is made locally in Melbourne and includes a range of stationery, wall art, invitations, bunting and giftware.

If you take a little stroll through the Love JK store, you’ll enjoy adventures to the moon, sail the high seas, pat some pretty horses, feed a few farm animals and make friends with a robot. You’ll have fun decorating your kids living space, planning a birthday party, or picking up something pretty, just for fun.

Love JK is available for purchase online, or you can visit them on Facebook to keep up with all the latest news.

Now that you’ve fallen in love with the Love JK collection, we’d like you to win something for your little lad or lass! We have one boys gift pack and one girls gift pack to giveaway. To enter, simply visit Love JK and then tell us in the comments section below which design (from any collection) is your favourite. Two winners will be drawn on 8 February, 2012.

Are you super keen to win our Love JK prize? You can score an extra entry into the prize draw by sharing this competition on your blog, twitter or facebook page. Please leave a separate comment for each so your extra entries can be counted.

Girls Prize

• Dala Horse Cushion is valued (rrp. $34.95)
• Small Lovey Dovey Dala Horse Print (rrp. $34.95)
• Dala Horse greeting card (rrp. $6.95)

Boys Prize

• Mars Explorer Cushion (rrp. $34.95)
• Small Off To The Moon (rrp. $34.95)
• Cheeky Monkey Greeting Card (rrp. $5.95)

Our Monday morning smiles come to you today from Valeria Cis, a storybook illustrator from Argentina. I’m quite enchanted with Valeria’s whimsical style, and love how she incorporates little stories into each of her art pieces. Her use of colour and added little details make these prints perfect for kids [...]]]>

Our Monday morning smiles come to you today from Valeria Cis, a storybook illustrator from Argentina. I’m quite enchanted with Valeria’s whimsical style, and love how she incorporates little stories into each of her art pieces. Her use of colour and added little details make these prints perfect for kids rooms or play areas.

Valeria works from a little studio in Rosario, Argentina which she calls La Casuni. She is a Mum of two little ones, Facundo and Olivia. In Valeria’s store you’ll find a range of art prints, stickers, rubber stamps, postcards and magnetic games. There’s also a lovely array of multicultural faces to be found, which is especially refreshing and joyful.

You can visit Valeria’s store on Etsy to purchase prints, or you can view some of her books and illustrations online at her website.

Hello friends! If you have a soft spot for owls, elephants, squirrels and adorable woodland creatures, then you’ll go crazy for our Designer of the Week. The lovely Nancy Lee from Lee ArtHaus has sent us a gorgeous “Woodland Animals in Tree” print all the way from Seattle, USA!

Hello friends! If you have a soft spot for owls, elephants, squirrels and adorable woodland creatures, then you’ll go crazy for our Designer of the Week. The lovely Nancy Lee from Lee ArtHaus has sent us a gorgeous “Woodland Animals in Tree” print all the way from Seattle, USA!

I think it’s fair to say that a work of art featuring woodland creatures is always welcome in any child’s room or nursery. However, in the interest of full disclosure I should say that this particular work of art has earned itself a spot on the shelf in my office! Sorry kids!

Nancy Lee’s artwork is a mixture of rich colourways, interesting textures and pure sunshine and whimsy. Each creature is bursting with personality, and her lovingly designed little owls get up to all sorts of mischief, from flying planes, to zooming around on scooters, sailing the seven seas and chilling by the campfire. Her pricing is reasonable, and with dozens of designs to choose from you’ll have no trouble at all creating your perfect wall makeover.

The Verdict… Warm, Welcoming and Whimsical

Nancy launched her business, Lee ArtHaus, in August 2008. During her college years, she enjoyed studying the Bauhaus period and chose her business name as a play off the word “Bauhaus” whilst also incorporating her surname, Lee.

Nancy is Mum to 4 year old Truman, who was the initial inspiration for the artistic direction of Lee ArtHaus… “After giving birth to my son, I was inspired to draw owls and woodland animals because I was looking for art other than cars, dinosaurs, and airplanes, etc. to decorate my son’s nursery. I also wanted to introduce some different color palettes instead of the typical primary colors.”

Before we leave you today, we’ve asked Nancy to share three interesting facts about herself… “I love cooking fancy dinners. I once spent a whole summer just cooking French food.  I also enjoy snowboarding with my family in Whistler. Another hobby that I enjoy is jewellery making. I often make earrings to match an outfit if I cannot find something that I like at the department store.”

All of the Lee ArtHaus designs are printed on a high quality Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Matte paper with Epson Archival Pigmented Ultrachrome inks. This ink is rated lightfast for more than 100 years. I spent the better part of half an hour just choosing which images to include in today’s showcase. These are a few of my personal favourites, but you can visit Nancy’s Etsy store to view the entire collection.

Hello my fellow Australians and worldwide handmade lovers! I’m so delighted today to present my interview with Helen from Poss & Wom. Since launching her business in 2010, Helen has been celebrating and revitalising classic Australiana with her representations of much loved Aussie icons such as possums, koalas and wombats!

Hello my fellow Australians and worldwide handmade lovers! I’m so delighted today to present my interview with Helen from Poss & Wom. Since launching her business in 2010, Helen has been celebrating and revitalising classic Australiana with her representations of much loved Aussie icons such as possums, koalas and wombats!

Poss & Wom is…

A unique and quirky Australian children’s brand created by myself, Helen Shadforth, a Sunshine Coast designer and mother of two. When I was pregnant with my first daughter I became very uninspired with nursery décor that was available to me, I couldn’t find the right colours and everything was either too girly, too boyish, too bright, too gaudy or too commercial. I also wanted something Australian but most of the items (when I managed to find them) were just not the look I was after! This is when I decided I would take it on board to just do something myself.

Poss the possum and Wom the wombat are two characters that were inspired by motherhood and my pug, Daisy. When my first daughter was born I nick named her ‘Possum’ which was shortened to ‘Poss’. One day I was thinking if she was a boy I probably would have nick named her ‘Wombat’ which would shorten to ‘Wom’ and voila! The concept of ‘Poss & Wom’ was born!

Each design is created with love and consists of soft, soothing colour tones that are beautiful and understated and most of the designs are gender-neutral. Poss & Wom fine art prints are created using the gicleé process – vibrant pigment ink onto museum quality archival rag paper with a 90 year expected lifetime. I print all of them myself and they are far from commercial or ‘run-of-the-mill’. They come ready to mount and frame. I also offer the option to have them mounted behind a mat board for that extra finishing touch. I have designed them to fit into store bought ready-made frames. I also make all of my cards and stationery and take a lot of pride in the packaging and presentation too.

I have recently added to my range with a selection of beautiful fabric wall decals, organic cotton tote bags and handmade Wom softies that my mum helps me make. I am also excited to say that a children’s story book is in the making!!!

My artistic / educational background is…

I am an accomplished graphic designer by trade, with over 12 years experience in Australia as well as internationally. I ran my own graphic design business for 3 years before I put it all on hold to have my first daughter and this is when I had the epiphany that is Poss & Wom. My graphic design business is now sitting in the shadows while I stay at home with my two girls and create Poss & Wom (my third baby).

My design style is influenced by…

Unique beauty – The Australian flora and fauna are so unique and so beautiful it needs to be honoured and celebrated more.

Icons – in the footprints of Beatrix Potter, I am trying to create a new, modern day icon. Something that is uniquely Australian but Modern, fresh and beautiful at the same time.

Quirk, humour and not taking life seriously – Why can’t a wombat sleep in a deck chair? The beauty of being an artist is that you make anything be whatever you want it to be! I love making people smile and I don’t mind if sometimes people think I’m a little wacky in the process.

Subtlety – Simple design with strong character and a subtle nature. I love soothing colours that reflect nature.

The first handmade product that I made for my store was…

My art prints. I bought a shiny new giclee printer which I just love. I am so proud of my work and print and package them all myself. The cards and invitations are all done this way too.

The next handmade item I plan to make is…

I am currently collaborating with an extremely talented, local singer/songwriter who has come to know my characters so well and we are putting together a book that we plan to create and launch by ourselves. Yes, Poss & Wom is going paperback! Oh I am so excited!

When I grew up I wanted to be a…

I have always loved animals and I remember at a very young age I wanted to be a marine biologist. I used to walk down to the rockpools near my house and study shells,  sea slugs and all kinds of weird and wonderful things. But as I became older I realized my flair for art and I used to doodle constantly, just ask my family. No piece of paper laying around was left untouched from having some sort of silly looking character drawn on it!

So I guess there always was part of me that knew I was meant to illustrate, particularly for children. I ended up deciding to become a graphic designer because I thought taking a more commercial career would be more successful in earning a living.

I am happy with my decisions and I believe all my years as a designer has refined my skills and has also taught me a better business sense too.

The motto I live by is…

Don’t take things so seriously! There’s just no point sweating the small stuff and at the end of the day, things always work themselves out. I like to just ride the wave.

Three things that make me smile each day are…

My children laughing, my husband when his hair is sticking up in the air (yes, it happens everyday!), my pug trying to wag her tail but it’s actually her whole backside that wags

If I were a superhero, my superpower would be…

To fly. If I could fly, I would just do it all day long. I would love to fly around and do loops and twists without any worry that I will land on my scone. Oh and of course I would wear a flappy cape and shiny eye mask too!

Three things most people don’t know about me are…

Most of the time I actually have no idea what I am doing, I am the queen of ‘winging’ it! I saw my first real wombat only 6 weeks ago! I am a mean player on the spoons!

Thank you Helen, we truly enjoyed getting to know you a bit better.

If you would like to view more of Helen’s work, you can visit her website, Etsy store, or Facebook page.

It’s giveaway day, and this week I’ve teamed up with Kylie from Wallfry to stimulate your artistic senses, invigorate your imagination, and kick your creative energy into overdrive! School holidays are a fabulous time for a redecorating project, and we’d like to give TWO lucky readers the chance to win [...]]]>

It’s giveaway day, and this week I’ve teamed up with Kylie from Wallfry to stimulate your artistic senses, invigorate your imagination, and kick your creative energy into overdrive! School holidays are a fabulous time for a redecorating project, and we’d like to give TWO lucky readers the chance to win a complete wall art set from Wallfry!

Kylie from Wallfry is based in Melbourne, Australia and when she’s not looking after her two little boys, she loves to spend her time creating original works of art. She has a love of colour, and specialises in customising prints to perfectly suit little individuals. In her collection you’ll find a range of Safari Animals, Woodland Creatures, ABCs and 123s, Dolls, Dogs and Dinosaurs, Typography… and even the occasional Octopus!

Congratulations to our winners, Eloise N. and Jessica M.

This week TWO lucky readers will have the opportunity to choose any FOUR art prints (8×10) from Wallfry. To enter the giveaway, visit Wallfry and then tell us in the comments section below which prints are your favourites. Two winners will be drawn on 22 December, 2011. OPEN WORLDWIDE!

Are you super keen to win our Wallfry giveaway? You can score an extra entry into the prize draw by sharing this competition on your blog, twitter or facebook page. Please leave a separate comment for each so your extra entries can be counted.

These sweet wall dollies from Tutika tickled my fancy this week when I was hunting for wall decorating inspiration. Each one is made from thick foam, felt and fabric and come ready for hanging. You can choose from all sorts of different hair colours and outfits and this month as [...]]]>

These sweet wall dollies from Tutika tickled my fancy this week when I was hunting for wall decorating inspiration. Each one is made from thick foam, felt and fabric and come ready for hanging. You can choose from all sorts of different hair colours and outfits and this month as a Christmas special you can have it delivery (anywhere in the world) for free.