I made this... Market stall products.

My first market is now done and dusted and I survived, whoop. I worked like a crazy girl this past couple of months but it was all very much worthwhile, I pretty much didn't sleep last week, not a wink on Thursday so the actual market day is bit of a blur but I had a super time, sold lots, met lots of new people and had a blast. So the following will be a bit of a photo dump, displaying the wares I carefully created for the event. I have also created a Christmas market folder upon my website, if you wish to see then please click here and should anyone be interested in any of my goods, then give me a shout at queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk. I am so pleased I did this as now I can and have started the cogs rolling to set up an on line shop, hoorah.

So the following were displayed alongside a VAST assortment of my personalised prints and artwork, all framed. I took A LOT of frames with me that day.

Framed cuckoo clock:

Illustrated Swiss stylee cuckoo clock. A blog may follow on how I made this beauty, I am rather loving it. 

DIY Colour-in play library kit:

Role play kit for your little librarian, ready to be fully decorated/ personalised and comes complete with actual librarian date stamp and ink pad PLUS proper librarian edge of your nose reading glasses. Amazing. I wanted to be a librarian when I was little, can you tell?

Illustrated London street sign:

Any street you fancy name it. 

...Here's two I did earlier.

Southfields illustration:

The days biggest seller. A very detailed print produced in collaboration with him indoors, my Mr King Kwak. It is a print of the locale, and the first in a series we have, a blog on which will follow soon.

Photo illustration:

This is a King Kwak special, turn your photos into illustrated artwork. That is me with the bunny ears, looking hot.

Dry wipe shopping list:

Another hit of the day, I sold out of these. Framed print complete with a dry wipe pen. Image available in blue, beige, grey and navy.

Tiara pocket mirrors:

Another good seller, I actually clapped when these arrived in the post.

Christmas colour-in temporary tattoos:

The week before the market I discovered a new world of printing papers, including temporary tattoo paper. This is the first I sampled and I imagine there will be a lot of fun coming up with the other papery discoveries. Oh and the tattoos can be coloured with make up and face paints.

Colour-in activity sheets:

Following on with the colour-in theme I made these sheets for the kiddos to do over the Christmas holidays. To the left a foldable personalised angel for on top of the tree and a mat for Santa's pie/ Rudolph's carrot. To the right a Christmas dinner set, four place settings to pop on top of your plates (before the food) and four napkin rings. I even packaged up and sold packs of Christmas sparkles to decorate such wares.

Garlands:

A bit of festive cheer, I am rather fond of the fairy light one.

Gift tags:

A bit more festiveness. I imagined these as dual purpose, tags or decorations. I think the robins upon a Christmas tree would look rather lovely, may do it myself actually and post pics at a later date.

A few more tags:

A slightly classier gift tag, would also look nice with cream paper wrap/ DIY decorated wallpaper lining paper.

Giant mistletoe:

Pucker up. Double sided hanging illustrated mistletoe.

Cake toppers:

Large banner topper for your Christmas cake and holly toppers for your cupcakes.

Individual prints:

And a whole host of illustrations were framed or sold at full size and postcard size ready for framing.

Market stall:

Shocking photos of the stall I realise, these were very quickly taken with my phone just as the market opened and people came in. Rubbish light but hope you get the idea.

And that's that. So what do you think? I hope you like it all and as I said before if you are interested in any of my goods please do drop me an email at queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk. Right I had better get cracking I now have a 5 years olds royal themed birthday party to organise.

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

Christmas Market.

Well hello there, it has been so long, sorry about that. I have been a very busy bee of late, work wise, non stop but absolutely loving it. I was commissioned to produce a book illustration, but alas I am not actually allowed to show it yet, boo... very exciting though. I also entered the AOI Serco prize illustration competition 2014, I worked super hard on my entry and am now awaiting for the judges to announce the top 50. I am not sure if I am allowed to show that so will hold back for now. So anyhow this is fun, lots of work I cannot show but what I can show, and what I have been working super incredibly crazy for is in exactly one week and one day and three hours from now, I shall be hosting my first ever Queen Kwak market stall!!!!!!! Yipeee.... exciting times. I am having so much fun, drawing and making stuff, admittedly I am running around in a slight panic at all times and have approximately a trillion ideas, but alas the time is ticking. Once the market is finished I hope to pop all the goodies up for sell upon my Etsy shop, which really is now coming very soon... Hoorah.
So here is a little snippet of what I will have on offer, to be fair these aren't my finest items, more a selection of what was already printed, I will update with the full set of goodies soon. So if you happen to be in the hood, or lost for things to do in London on the 29th then why not pop along and say hi. I have seen photos of the other stalls contents, WOW there are so many wondrous items for sale, so please do come along and do your Christmas shopping or come and stare at all the marvellous products in amazement. Please click here for  a facebook link to some of the other stalls delights on sale. By the way, I drew the poster above which is now canvasing the windows of a large chunk of Wandsworth, every time I spot it I do a little whoop and nudge random strangers and tell them I did that.

Personalised illustrated London street signs:

Any street you fancy, made to order.

Gift tags:

One design of a large selection.

Cupcake toppers:

Cupcake and Christmas cake toppers... a perfect touch for all the Christmas fairs and bake sells coming up.

We hope to see you there. Ho Ho Ho.

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

Illustration: TDAC Great British Sunday Roast illustrated recipe.

So I could not help myself, I have knocked up another illustration for They Draw and Cook, such addictive stuff, I love their site. This time my recipe was for The Great British Sunday Roast Chicken, an illustration I have been working on for months and months, a lot of effort went into this but I am pleased. And good timing on my part as this week is no less than, drum roll... British Roast Dinner week. Fact. Now I have no idea if this is real or something created by a roast dinner associated brand, but I like it and I like that this drawing was done in time for that, not that they will ever see it. So anyhow here is my recipe, feel free to check it out on the They Draw and cook website here, and leave your comments.

Recipe:

This is the finished recipe, a laid dinner table, hopefully that part was clear.

To the left:

Super simple roast dinner instructions, I am quite proud of my swede drawing. The clothing suggestions are suitably English and obviously what we all wear for Sunday lunch.

And to the right:

The Roast dinner. I have been having a little play lately with hand lettering, I still need to work on it but so far am really loving it.

I hope you like this recipe illustration. So come on, tell me, what/ where is your favourite Roast? Happy roast dinner week one and all.

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

Illustration: Personalised wedding portraits.

I have recently undertaken a commission for a personalised wedding portrait. My brief consisted of: An image of the wedding dress, photos of the bride and groom, the word vintage and the information that there would be hints of fuchsia pink. From there I set on my merry little way. This is the finished illustration, it was given to the happy couple on their wedding day, left on the top table to open with their meal and I believe it was very well received, phew. 

Framed:

This is a photo taken by the client of the finish piece framed, it looks very nice indeed. 

Wedding portraits are now available, I would need little more than the information mentioned above. Alternatively the image can be produced after the wedding when details are more readily available. The illustrations would also make superb anniversary gifts. Please contact me directly for further information: queenkwak@hotmail.co.uk

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

Illustration: TDAC featured collection... Woo hoo.

So following on from yesterdays post, the seaweed rice recipe was promptly approved and included on the They Draw and Cook website... woo hoo, Brilliant news. The site owners then added some amazing comments, oh yes... I was overjoyed. Then this very morning I awoke to find an email telling me the excellent news that my recipe had been chosen to be included in this weeks featured collection. Oh my days, I am over the moon, absolutely marvellous news which has made my day/ week/ month... woop, woop.


Thumbs up:

My happy little thumb.

Screen shot:

The first recipe, right bang in the middle of their home page. Woo hoo. (This will be here for one week only).

Recipe:

And here is the recipe again, just in case you had missed it. he he. Should anyone actually ever cook it, please do let me know how it turns out and whether your little ones enjoyed it.

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

Illustration: TDAC Seaweed rice illustrated recipe.

Here is a little something I have been working on over the summer holidays in honour of my little lady. A little illustrated recipe of the very first food she ate and what is still to this day her absolute most favourite food ever, Seaweed rice. I have sent it to the website They Draw and Cook, a brilliant site filled with lovely illustrated recipes (check it out, there is some amazing stuff). I hope they like it enough to add it to the site, fingers crossed on that, but here is the recipe illustration, a recipe I created myself, though I am not too sure if that is something to be too proud of, it is pretty easy plus a bit gloopy, but the little lady LOVES it.

Recipe Illustration:

The entire piece.

To the left:

So you can see it in a little more detail.

And to the right:

A bit more detail for you.

Gloopy:

So this is what it really looks like. Serve gloopy, in a porridge like consistency. And its not just for the babies,  King Kwak has been known to often enjoy a bowl, though admittedly it is not really my cup of tea.

First sampling:

The little ladies first sampling of the wondrous stuff. She is just too cute in these two photos, it makes my heart ache. She is 6 months, we were on holiday in Jeju Island, a little island off of Korea, and the restaurant brought her a bowl. Having only had powdered rice/ porridge and fruit until that point, we figured why not and that was the beginning of her love. My recipe is my interpretation of what was served that day. No idea if it tasted similar, purely based on appearance only I'm afraid.

Nom nom:

Still going strong, here she is about a year ago properly devouring it. Look how overjoyed the doll behind her is, proper wooping and air punching... Go seaweed rice!!

I will keep you posted if it is included on the website.

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

DIY: Sketchbook and Pen Travel Wrap.

First off apologies for the absence, we had ourselves a little holiday down in the Devon and Cornwall counties... two whole weeks off, absolutely lovely. So back to it, I thought I would post a non illustration related post, things have gotten a bit illustration based around here what with setting up the company and website, so here is a little DIY I recently made. Righty ho I believe I may have mentioned King Kwak draws once or twice? He carries a sketchbook and pens around with him all the time, to sketch when the mood take him, all of which rattling around in his bag. He often draws upon the tube to work and home, so for one recent special occasion I decided to make him this little wrap to carry all of his supplies in one easy place. About a year ago my dad had given me a load of old rice sacks, and my husband he is rice's number one fan, so it was a no brainer that I used one of these sacks. I did not photograph the process I am afraid as it was a bit spontaneous one nap time. You can see from the photos how simple it is, but effectively it has been made from one piece of sacking and felt sewn together then wrapped. The length of which equals two times the width of the sketchbook, by just over the length of the sketchbook.

Front:

Sacking outer with leather fastening, I like that the use by date is still upon it. Please excuse the dodgy stitching.

Reverse:

The sacking was cut according to the print upon it, I wanted the rice text to be the focus upon the back. 

Fastening:

I made this little fastening from leather, hole punched and sewn on with a nice little punched name detail. I acquired a great little set of steel alphabet and number punches from my dad, similar to which are available on eBay. It is best to do this part outside, as I unfortunately discovered it goes through the leather and my wooden floor now has Kwak imprinted upon it. Oops.

Inside:

A pocket for the sketchbook to the left and to the right I sewed in two little pockets with embroidery thread. One smaller pocket of felt to hold little bits like rubbers, pencil leads, tape... etc. And below a more heavy weight pocket from the sacking, I chose a piece from a nicer part of the graphic and sewed (very basic) lines to hold the individual pens and pencils.

Bits and Bobs:

As you can see the wrap has been aligned to safely hold the sketchbook to the left, the little pockets are able to hold all the supplies King Kwak may need.

Sketchy Kwak:

And should he fancy drawing a heart any time, then now he can do it. No more rummaging around looking for pens. Ok I admit I drew the heart.

Anytime, Anywhere:

And there you have it, he carries it around in his bag all the time and can whip out his sketchbook whenever he fancies drawings something. Job done and an actual miracle I made something for him which he actually uses... Hoorah. On a side note, I spent really rather far too long stamping out bird poo from this photo of the park bench, lovely.

Cost: Nothing.
Supplies: Sacking, felt, leather, embroidery thread, embroidery needle, scissors, leather hole punch, scalpel and alphabet punch with hammer.

Time taken: Two hours: One baby nap time.

I do hope that basic description and the photos make sense? Should anyone want a real tutorial, then please send me an email and I shall whip up something for you. I hope you like it, so for any sketchers out there, would you carry this around? And should you see my husband using this on the tube then do say hello.