Crafty Kwak's: Half term, Koinobori fabric illustration class.

Crafty Kwak's craftiness this half term: Japanese Koinobori cotton wind sock creation class.

A fun filled fabric illustration & making activity, celebrating Japan's children's day.

We will be making this:

I fancied holding a drawing class this month, so as well as creating the Koinobori we will also be working on our illustration skills. YAY!!

But how??:

For those worried about their children's drawing skills, this is how we will go about it... We will be tracing over pre-drawn fish with a HUGE encouragement for the children to go freestyle and create their own fishy details for their own designs. Older children will be welcomed to draw their fishies from scratch all by themselves.

& It is BBIIGGG:

Oh yes, it's taller than my daughter... Perfect to take to the park & fly or leave to flutter in the garden.

& Here are a few pics from the window display...

Shop front:

Under the sea theme:

Close up:

The display also features a Father's day illustration promotion... more on that to follow.

Fishy:

Aerial shot:

The class will be held at Salt&Pepper Southfields, for children aged 3-10 years. Thursday 28th May. Spaces limited, book NOW to secure your child's place... queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk 
I hope to see you there. n.x

Christmas fair number one: Tonight at The Besom, London SW11.

Sorry to meantion the 'c' word a little bit early but tonight is my first Christmas fair of the season. Ho ho ho. Last year I participated in my one and first Christmas fair, this year I am doing eight. (What one earth have I done??????) But as the song says, it is the season to be jolly and it shall be ace.
So if you are at a loose end this evening around the Clapham Junction area do pop along for some festive treats. 

The Besom Chrstmas fair.
2 CROSLAND PLACE TAYBRIDGE ROAD LONDON SW11 5PJ, 
Tonight 6-9pm and tomorrow 10-4pm... See you there.
Here are a few of my wares on offer:

Battersea:

I will stock the full collection of City Celebration prints, framed and unframed, personalised or unpersonalised. My 'postcards from' illustrations with a couple of new additions to the family, such as the above produced especially for tonight. Framed and signed Battersea Power Station print. £25.

Personalised House Illustration. 

And another newbie on offer, Personalised house illustrations, framed and signed, £40. 

Shopping List:

Dry-wipe shopping list with dry-wipe pen. £8. A classier update to last years biggest seller. 

Crafty Kwak's.

And of course a few Crafty Kwak's bits for the little ones. Colour-in Cards, holds a 6x4 photo, ideal activity for children of all ages to create personalised cards for all occasions. 5 cards with envelopes and a pack of festive sparkles. £4.

Pompoms.

And I had to include a few decorations. Hands up I may have gone a little pompom crazy. I love pompoms. The little lady also shares my love of pompoms. She calls them pong-pongs which has an entirely different meaning altogether in our house (but I wont go there). In keeping with the whole personalised theme... Personalised felt, wool and jingly jangly bell gift tags.

More Pompoms.

And a few matching pompom, personalised jingly jangly baubles. All of these items can be personalsied  with sayings, names and initials.

Even more Pompoms.

These twig star decorations are about 30cm height, which clearly the photos do not show. Lots of pompoms, bells and a punched 'twinkle twinkle little star' tag. They will look fabulous in any home. Price undecided (I had better crack on with that).

Close up.

I made a whole bunch of them, they were fun.

This is only a few of the bits I shall be selling, so if you like what you see and you are in the hood, come along tonight for some festive shopping and mince pies. Its going to be amazing. See you there.

Illustration: Bespoke Magician, Superhero with a hint of Dragon party invitations.

Following the fire engine invitations which I produced, check them out over here, I have been contacted several times over by mums looking to commission sets of bespoke, personalised invitations. I am having so much fun working on these invitations and have worked on a wide range of subjects, this example being one of the stranger combinations: Magician, Superhero with a hint of Dragon... what a combination? amazing!!

Pretty package:

So if you are on the look out for a set of personalised invitations, do give me a shout on: queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk any ideas/ themes welcome. I am more than happy to develop new ideas, however unusual. I also offer to personalise previously produced invitations, so if you fancied hosting your own Magician, superhero, dragon party I am the person to call, alternatively a selection of others are on the website here, under invitations. Take a peek to see if anything is suitable for your next party.
As well as Invitations I am also able to produce matching Thank you cards, personalised paper bags, cupcake toppers, named cake banners, embellished straws and personalised co ordinating framed prints of your invitation. Any further suggestions welcome.

All artwork copyright of QueenKwak.

Illustration: Fire Engine invitations and print.

I was recently contacted by a local mum looking to commission a set of invitations for her sons fourth, fire engine, birthday party. He is a lucky boy, it sounds like an amazing party. So the brief was fire engine with a hint of superhero. Four year old dreams. This is what I created, based loosely on a superhero comic cover, with all the necessary info. The mum was happy, it was a fun job.

Wrapped up:

I do like to package all of our orders nicely. I have a big drawer filled with strings, beads, gems... etc. It is my little ladies heaven and I often find her sneaking up there to make things.

Envelopes:

I threw in a set of matching envelopes.

Print:

After the invitations had been delivered, the mum then contacted me to turn the invite into a print for her little chaps bedroom. So with a little bit of jiggery, here is what I created, one signed A3 personalised framed print, which was again well received.

Brown paper packages:

Again I could not resist the pretty packaging.

So if you are on the look out for a set of personalised invitations, do give me a shout on: queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk all ideas/ themes welcome. There are a series of invites I have previous produced, all available to be fully personalised, just take a peek on the website here, under invitations and I more than happy to develop new ideas.

All artwork copyright of QueenKwak.

illustration: The SketchyKwak Etsy shop has arrived.

I opened an Etsy shop, hoorah!! At long, long last, hoorah!! Ok I admit it, I did it a few months ago but have not had the time to promote it or do anything with it. Still unsure how to promote it, any ideas? But I listed a new item on Saturday, and within two hours I had made my first sell...yay!! I was super, duper excited. Etsy sent me an image of a champagne bottle, alas not a real bottle but it was lovely none the less. Hoorah!! So chin chin to more sells.

Sketchy Kwak:

The logo, sure to be changed. The shop is called Sketchy Kwak, as the work is produced by the Mr and myself.

Shop front:

So the SketchyKwak Etsy shop looks a little something like this, click here to go to the shop. Categories will be added but at the moment you will find all current City Celebration prints, a selection of limited edition prints and the vintage London street signs. I hope to add further work shortly.

And as this is a sort of launch, I will do a little promotion for the weekend... Buy any two full colour A3, signed City Celebration prints and get £10 off your order. Simply type the code: CELEBRATION10 at checkout. The code will expire on Sunday... happy shopping. And here is the shop link again, just in case you missed it, ha.

London scavenger Hunt, perfect for the kiddo's.

Well hello, its been a while hasn't it? Life has been KER-azy bananas. Life/ work/ life/ work and so on. I have a bundle of things I would like to share on here and rather than instantly bombarding you with lots of work efforts I thought I would share a little fun day we spent with the babies and their friends. Now this dates back to the Easter hols (I told you its been a while) but it was a fun day and hopefully by the end of this this I will have fathomed how to add a free download onto this, yes thats right free stuff, hoorah!!
So Easter, looking for something fun to do with the littlies, a friend and myself decided to take the little ones on a stroll around London to see some sights. We do in fact live in London, but to be fair we don't really ever (ok never) go and see such sights. So the night before our adventure I whipped up this little scavenger hunt, purely as I thought it might be fun and entertain them. I happened to have a pack of union jack pencils, like you do which was a nice touch, though probably I was the only one who appreciated such things. 

London baby:

I wont lie, this is a shoddy effort of a map. I earnt a living creating plans so I am actually disgusted with myself, but I figure its simple and should be easy to read, and I very well might have made it ever so slightly super quickly. Background map courtesy of Google maps.

So you can see the route we took, it was not that far, and fine for the two three year old's in the party (with buggies for back up) to manage. We began at embankment, headed to Downing street and so on. The entire route took us about 5 hours in total with a lunch break around the Strand. 

On your marks:

Get set, GO. Little lady very eager to start.

Downing Street:

The police guarding the gates were very friendly, chatted away, and posed for photos with the friends (my children were scared). We saw a few cars being searched and we ticked off a few treasures along the way. Happy children.

Horse Guards Parade:

With a stroke of luck we rocked up at the Horse Guards Parade just in time for the changing of the guard. Brilliant, the kiddos LOVED it. Loved the horses, loved the guards, they had a lot of fun.

Say cheeeessseee:

A few poses at the horse guards parade. The boy wasn't up for posing that day.

Backs:

I LOVE this photo, bless them. My son is in blue on the right, and the love of his life/ apple of his eye is standing next to him, he is properly in love. Aged 3.

Trafalgar Square:

Stuck on Nelson.

On guard:

At the Stable yard guards.

Buckingham Palace:

Coo-eeee Queen.

Big Ben:

We passed Big Ben on the route back.

Complete:

And this was my two's completed sheets, even the little one got into it and postboxes/ buses are forever more pointed out on your daily travels.

Free Stuff:

So this is the image you can download, it is at A4, and as you can see there are two hunts per sheet. To download please click here. Please DO NOT download to sell/ make profit from/ take credit for the artwork, this has been purely created as a fun activity by me Queen kwak. I appreciate  the free stuff isn't quite free gold but if it gives one family something to do this summer holidays then I shall be a happy bunny. Happy London hunting all, tell me how your adventures went if you do use the hunt.

All Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

Illustration: Southfields postcard print now on sale.

Following on from the last post about the exhibition I recently had work featured in, and this post about our work within the exhibition. Due to popular demand the coloured postcard I produced for the exhibition, featuring our local hood, is now available to buy. This is one more so for the locals, or any Southfields fans out there, should you know of any do pass this post on please. The framed Postcard is available signed, on matt heavyweight 167gsm paper, in a limited collection of 25. The frame is as seen above in a light wood measuring 263x203mm, actual print 170x120mm and is available for £25.

Close up:

A little reminder of the illustration, the watermark will be removed on the actual print. I am just finalising my Etsy shop (at long last, woop) but until then it is currently available to buy at Salt&Pepper, 177 Replingham Road, Southfields, London, SW18 5LY or alternatively do email me at queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk ...hurry they are selling fast. So has anyone even heard of Southfields? I am currently working on similar prints of other areas, should anyone have any suggestions on where to add to the collection, please do send me an email. Commissions welcome. Toodlepip.

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

Illustration: The charity postcard exhibition.

Here is the footage from the Sheringdale Charity Art Project postcard exhibition held at Southfields Gallery, Wandsworth on the 7/8th February. Admittedly more like footage of just our work which you read about in this post, and again admittedly this is a month late, but better late than never hey.

Check us out:

King Kwak's and my postcards right there in the middle, both of mine were displayed in the end, and check out the red dots, woop. I was told they sold very quickly (and not to ourselves I may add). I believe the colour version of mine was bought by the gallery owner and the wooden postcard by parents from my daughters class, unaware of the connection. I have no idea who got the Mr's card.

Other works:

Lots of lovely work, but sadly we got there a little bit too late and weren't able to buy the pieces we liked. Boo.

Receptions entrants:

Well some of, check out the talent. My daughters Sunflower card is just above the robot.

Red dot:

Well she had to have a red dot didn't she. Bought by us, now framed and currently awaiting hanging.

The artiste herself:

Looking very proud. She got to meet the local mayor too.

The big sellers:

And finally here is a rubbish shot of the exhibitions big sellers, the top by David Cameron and the bottom by Paul Weller. (I didn't take the photo at night, through the window, honest) The exhibition was a huge success and I believe made the Princes Foundation for Children and Arts a lot of money.


Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.