Lady Beetle Dessert Platter

For my lil' sister's birthday recently we threw a "Beetle Ball" themed dinner party...I want to remain modest, but it was seriously the best-idea-ever! =D The dinning table was turned into a secret garden, with grass, mushrooms, flowers and little critter ornaments (hedgehogs, snails, gnomes and butterflies) everywhere! We dressed up as insects too, using creative makeup, wings, spots and antennae!

But when thinking about making a cake for the occasion I was unsure of what to do...We've previously done all the kid's party cakes in the theme - the butterfly, the ladybug, the hedgehog and even for her thirteenth, a large "13" covered in cute meringue "grubs". But also because we eat pretty healthily at my place, we usually go naughty with celebratory dinners, and thus this event was to be a fish n' chups kind of occasion...and thus despite being technically full, because it's a birthday, it's still fun to have a pretty cake...sooo I came up with a dessert platter! Where you have something which is fun and gorgeous to look at, but is something sweet without being a huge slab of cake (not that you ever have to actually eat a huge slab of cake, but you know how these things roll!) :)

Here's the lo-down of what I did to achieve this dessert:

I covered a cake board with aluminium foil. Then spread a batch of chocolate fudge frosting on the surface to make the "ground."

The "grass" is achieved by placing shredded coconut in a snap-lock bag, adding a touch of green liquid food dye, sealing the bag, and then rubbing it until coated.

The "logs" are pieces of liquorice dipped in chocolate and then scoured with a toothpick.

The "mushrooms" and "rocks" are lollies which can be purchased if you're lucky to find the right shops!

The ladybugs are inspired by those found in Bakerella's cake pops book, and were achieved by baking cake batter in the cake pop pans that you can purchase nowadays. Once cooled, I dipped them in white chocolate which I coloured red using powdered food dye. I then painted mentos black, using liquid food dye for the head, chopped the ends off of tic-tacs for the eyes, used heart sprinkles for the mouth, and jimmies for the antennae. Before using a tube of black food gel to add the details :)

I hope that you like this idea, 'cus I was pretty stoked about how it turned out! :) So hopefully it makes you want to get creative in the kitchen, and that this is something you can whip up when you want a sweet ending to a get-together without too much of the sweet!

Enjoy fairy dusting your world! =D

Mermaid 'Alagaesia'

Sometimes you feel inspired...and other times you feel dispassionate and are just existing, rather than living...

Sooooo the other week I was feeling more of the latter. Just pacing through the predictable motions of my day. Then, I started looking through images of artists whom I love and for some reason, unbeknown to me, this illustration by Sara Butcher was so beautiful and struck a creative chord that I stopped browsing then and there and got to work on the idea which revealed itself in my mind!

The result was Alagaesia, (a name I only devised for her this very morning, as I've been reading the 'Inheritance Cycle' by Christopher Paolini. If you enjoy fantasy novels, you should try these as the stories are as intricate and real as the world created by Tolkien).

Original dodgy sketch of the idea.

Final design in golden brown pencil.

Further polish final design with blue pencil.

The majority of the piece I finished that day, but the final touches and tweaks took me a few more days to complete as I never know when enough is enough! I hope that you like her, as I am really pleased with how it is different from my norm, with the use of blue pencil, the colour palette and filled background. But not so different as to remove the presence of my style :) What also makes me stoked is that I took a risk (of wasting watercolour paper) and drew the final design straight on the paper, as opposed to polishing it and then transferring it onto the good paper! Yay, progress!

What inspires you, and what does it inspire you to do?

Happy Fairy Dusting your life!

Alphabet Series - "L"

So Valentine’s Day has come and gone once again, and yet I’m still thinking about throwing a “sweet hearts” soiree, where everything is pink, red and white including the food, which is also cut into heart shapes where practicable =D

However, posting this illustration has to suffice for the time being to fulfil the ‘pink’ component. :) This piece used the same process as my other illustrations, but I particularly love how the hair turned out, and the fresh dance-like pose being captured. She is quite doll-esque, but it makes me smile to look at her :)

On a different note, the tertiary academic year is upon me, and I’m reluctant to let go of my current lifestyle, which is filled with exploring and enjoying all of my favourite cultural pursuits…I have appreciated it though, utilised it well, and achieved much, which is more than I can say of holidays past where the time flew past yet I had little to show for it!  

So as I go back to school, I'm conscious about how we all have to ensure that we stay balanced, and not neglect doing those things we love! So if you tend to lose track of the little things in life which bring you joy, schedule them into your diary, as you would any other appointment. As the most important appointment you can make, is the one where you give yourself time to you! :D

Happy Fairy Dusting Your Life! =D 

Alphabet Series - "K"

Valentine's day will soon be upon us, and whilst the societal focus of the day seems to have shifted towards dating-status, I have adopted a different approach. I use it as a reminder to take the time to let those who are integral in my life, know that I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to know them...Celebrating those who are special to me has re-ignited my art-making, as I loving giving to others, and bringing joy, and luckily my hobbies have the ability to bring joy to most people :)

This alphabet illustration is a lot more simple than the others I have been making, it was however the first one I had drafted back in July, before I dove into the project in November with more developed characters. Nevertheless, I still love it, as it is such cute character and the look is quite sweet and perfectly suited to the recipient, a most genuine and lovely young lady :)

There are many ways to give, with words and acts often being much more meaningful than other forms of gifts. So embrace the day as an opportunity to acknowledge the special people in your life...

Happy Giving :D

Alphabet Series - "S"

Here's another illustration from my alphabet series which I made for my Aunt's christmas gift. I really enjoyed making this one, because I was in the zone, and having fun with doing a 70's style dress, seeing as that was the time of my Aunt's youth :)

I got the pose idea from the Snow White DVD cover and used a couple of different magazine clippings to develop the wavy hair design. The hair worked out a lot quicker than previous illustrations! I used cerulean blue for the dress, using the faintest of washes and then layering countless times and slowly doing more in the shaded areas to achieve the ombre look. The hair is a reddish-brown I created using burnt umber and alizarin crimson. The skin uses faint washes of burnt umber, with tinges of rose on the elbows, hands and feet.

The letter 'S' is so much easier to work with than other letters, as you can pretty much use whatever pose you desire, whereas with others you have to be careful in the body's placement for it may be difficult to tell what the letter is!

It's currently raining cats and dogs here...so my question is what are your go-to rainy-day activities? Mine are pretty much the same as those I generally enjoy doing! But I do love bunkering down and watching a good movie with some hot chocolate too :)

Happy Fairy Dusting! :D

Alphabet Series - "A"

Just a quick post of another one of the illustrations I made as a christmas gift. I tried a number of different things with this piece, using smooth watercolour paper (which I didn't like that much as it shows up mistakes), did a shorter dress design and tried to make it look like she was swirling it. Also, because of the different pose it took me ages to develop the final layout as the hair, dress, limb and head positions needed a lot of tweaking to sit 'right'.

I still have plenty of illustrations to keep showing you, but I've been having a break from drawing and instead been reading and researching quite a bit. This has been great for my imagination, developing new ideas and getting enthused about being creative again!

Enjoy, and happy fairy-dusting your day! :D

Young Jack Skellington

Well Hel-looo 2013!

Albeit a couple of lull periods, I continued to blog throughout 2012, and I'm so glad that I didn't neglect it too badly... It's been incredibly nice to have something to work on and nurture, so thanks for being supportive of this for me :)

I intend to keep going with this venture, firstly for myself, because you will struggle to maintain doing something if your sole priority is to please others and not stay true to enjoying it for you...and secondly for you guys, my readers, to bring you more ways to add fairy dust to your day, and thus make your life sparkle :D

Here is an illustration made for my sister's friend, whom loves all things Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I created the layout of the piece surprisingly quickly, despite never having drawn him before. I started by doing a couple of practice studies of Jack from internet images, before deciding on the final look, and then created a polished final layout. I was so pleased with the end result, and I hope you like it to :) It was such fun to do, especially because it was quite different to my typical illustration style, and also because I enjoyed doing the background, which I normally don't do :)

I recently created a facebook page for this blog, so feel free to "like" it, so to get notifications of new posts, and also for the links and ideas I find for other great ways to add magic to your day!

Happy Fairy-Dusting Your Life :D