MuffinPuffART characters

It's been a while since I last posted, pretty much as I'm terrible at sticking to a schedule and I've been very distracted by other things.  (Mainly writing stuff for the website Squidoo! It's actually very fulfilling writing for Squidoo and it is actually bringing in a tiny amount of income at the moment so hurrah!)

Anyway, since I posted last month about my newest character Elliot, he's actually become quite popular.

Black Cat jumping out by MuffinPuffART

See other Cat Caseable Cases

I've sold a fair few items featuring his lovely sour face so far, so I'm definitely going to be drawing him more often! I don't know if it is because he is a black cat and because it's almost Halloween, or just because he's cute and people love cats. I guess time will tell!

Today I have another character to add to the mix. She's called Sophie and she's a very cutesy Pegasus Unicorn, or a winged Unicorn or Pegicorn, or whatever what ever you want to call them. I only gave her wings so she could fly through pretty backgrounds and because wings are cool.

Blue and white Pegasus Unicorn Mousepads by MuffinPuffART
Create your own customizable mouse pads online at Zazzle.

I have so many other characters that I need to add to Zazzle, including Chianne the flying Pig, Adam the Peacock, Sandiago the Pink scarf wearing Kiwi, and Mihearty the Pirate cat. 

I however, I first need to draw them!

The trouble is it's almost Christmas, so I've got to turn my efforts onto Christmas themed designs. So it may be a long while before they make it to Zazzle. Oh well! 

I've been writing How to Make Articles!

Hihi everyone!

I've been being a busy little bee recently. As well as my usual adding lots of nice goodies to Zazzle I've been spreading myself out a little more.

I've made myself a website, which if you are a regular reader of this blog you'll know I've been falling out with it fairly often. I like the layout but it needs a lot doing to it.
As well as my website I've begun adding a "Doodle a Day" to both my website MuffinPuffART! on Weebly and also my Facebook Page so that's been taking up a few moments each day.

Now I always like to making something. I can't help it. Crafting is pretty much a compulsion for me, if I'm making something everything else in the world feels right. I know that making things doesn't come easy to everyone, so I figured I'd share some ideas on how to make certain projects.

I have two crafting articles finished at the moment on the awesome website that is Squidoo.

How to make an easy halloween bat hairclip

How to make an easy halloween pumpkin hairclip

I tend to wear these type of things around holidays, it never fails to get a smile from some people. Easy and cheap to make and can be stored away for the next holiday.

I also have a few other How to Articles in the pipelines. There another "How to make an easy Halloween" one I'm hoping to finish either today or tomorrow.

I'm also working on a "How to Make a Rabbit Sock Doll" article, as I love making Sock dolls and I know they are popular at the moment.

GAH! Website building

I'm in the process of building myself a proper homepage for MuffinPuffART!

I've chosen Weebly as my host as a I'm a cheapskate and its completely free, also its pretty easy to use... she says. Well its simple in the sense that you aren't thrown blindly into a sea of HTML or CSS code, and the basic pages they have available look great if not simplistic.

It's when it comes to customisation that I want to pull my hair out. Now I'm not amazing at website programming, I have a basic understanding of it and can just about adjust things without breaking it all, but I am finding this particularly challenging. Which frustrates me.

Thankfully I'm okay with image editing programs and the average computer user may never even realise that my coding is terrible.

Here is my website

If anyone wants a peek while I'm messing with it. I'm trying to make the "body" where I have my writing wider, but when I move it its never aligned correctly and I loose the rounded corners. It's all very annoying. I'm so used to finding FAQs on certain websites where they tell you exactly which parts of the code you need to target, but I've yet to find one for Weebly.

I'm also at a loss on what to put on my Home Page. It's an important page but I'm really coming up blank! 

Soon to be taking Pet Commissions!

I've decided to start a little side business drawing cartoons of peoples pets. I love drawing animals, especially ones with great characters so it seems like a step in the right direction for me. I'm currently trying to figure out prices. Isn't that always the thing with Artists and Crafters? The age old question of how much should I charge? There is such a fine line with it.

The driving force behind my prices would be time. I am genuinely considering doing pet pencil drawings quite cheap just as they don't take me particularly long to draw. I've got a few pencil cartoon samples I need to scan in.
Digital Pet cartoons however would cost a bit more as they can take me anywhere between 40 mins to 2 hours or more depending on the complicity of the design and I really don't want to sell myself short.

Anyway, below is a recent picture I did for a very good friend of mine. It's of her Tonkinese Cat Charlie wielding a Crow Bar ready for the Zombie apocalypse, she and her wife are both very into Zombies so it seemed only fitting that Charlie would be too. I left it a surprise up until the very end and needless to say she was thrilled with the final picture. I had a lot of fun drawing this and I think it shows!

Thanks for reading!

Introducing Elliot!

Over the last month of so I decided to start focusing my efforts towards one of the next big Holiday's which is Halloween.

I pretty much just let my pencil go mad when I'm coming up with ideas, which is why I have books full of stuff that rarely even makes it as far to getting digitally inked. It literately took me four years to get to digitally ink my recent cupcake designs. I knew they were cute, but there are so many other things that need doing!

Anyway in between all the ghosts and skeletons, a little cat kept reoccurring. He had big angry eyes and an expressive face, and I really couldn't help redrawing him again and again to the point where I have about 32 different pencil sketches of him now all waiting to be coloured.  He is just a completely joy to draw and honestly it feels like he draws himself. There are subjects which are clunky for me, animals which I find hard to get the lines to flow, but the cat? He isn't like that at all.

I decided to call him Elliot, after T.S Elliot who wrote The Old Possum's Guide to Practical Cats which was then used to compose CATS the Musical.

Well I've only got up a few of his designs so far, but he seems to be proving quite popular which is wonderful, and I hope everyone else loves him as much as I do!

Black Cat jumping out Mousepad by MuffinPuffART
Create unique photo mousepads on zazzle.

Grumpy Black Cat Wont be Merry Christmas Cards by MuffinPuffART
Create custom cards online at zazzle.com

Trick or treat black cat jumping from pumpkin by MuffinPuffART
Create a greeting card online

MuffinPuffART! on Facebook and Twitter!

I've decided to give twitter and Facebook a go in terms of promoting my brand. Whether or not it shall work I have no idea, it just seems like a fun thing to do.

I find it very hard to promote myself to be honest, there is just something about going up to people (even people online) and going hey check out my stuff that I find very awkward. I'm not sure if its because I am introverted or just even shy in some ways... but its always been a bit of a problem for me.

Anyway to follow me Twitter my Handle is @MuffinPuffART and to follow me on facebook please go here:
MuffinPuffART @ Facebook

If this works, hopefully this post will go straight to Facebook as I've set up a feed. We shall see however!

TBA - Cupcake edition

I was going to blog about some of my newest designs yesterday, but I got distracted by a friend on Skype who wanted to know about Zazzle.

Anyway, about 4 years ago I drew 8 cupcakes and coloured them in with marker. I've been  meaning to finish them for so long. Anyway after finding the brilliant free program that is "Smooth Draw" I've been able to ink them digitally and colour them in. I've used a lot of different computer illustration programs but I've never quite found a program which works so well with my Wacom Tablet until Smooth Draw. It really is that awesome.

So I finally finished them, and I'm really pleased. I've honestly been meaning to use them for years. The trouble with me is that I have a terrible tendency to draw more than I can use. I've got stacks of papers full of doodles and illustrations meaning to be inked and digitally coloured, but there is only so much I can do at once. So my "To do pile" grows ever longer.

Well I've popped my Cupcakes on a few different designs on Zazzle and I'm pretty pleased with how they all turned out. They must look pretty cute as I've been noticed again and Zazzle has awarded me a TBA.

Today's Best August 11th 2012

Cupcake Pattern by MuffinPuffART
View more Cupcakes Bagettes Bags

As for some other designs I've made using my cupcakes, here are a few of my favourites. Here is hoping they are popular!

Its time to party cupcake birthday invite by MuffinPuffART
Create announcements with Zazzle.com

Big cupcake with candle and sprinkles Birthday Greeting Cards by MuffinPuffART
View other Yummy Cards

Blue cupcake customisable age card by MuffinPuffART
More Cupcake Cards