Exciting news and Nervous Days!

Haven't posted in a while due to many reasons. The main one being stressing out about an application for TRC Media's Gen Up Programme. I had to write 2 essays and spent ages on them due to the fact I hadn't written an essay in 3 years. I worte sooooo many drafts of each one and was so nervous when I handed the application in.
Anyhoo, I was called for an interview and sat in a corner rocking back and forth for the 4 days after it waiting for an answer. (Just a bit of an exaggeration!)  In the end I got a place and couldn't be more excited about starting on the 5th September. It's going to be great fun and such a great opportunity, woot!!  I've wishing for an opportuinty like this for ages now and it's finally happened, so happy! (cheesy I know, but it feels great!)

Will post a few wee bits and pieces about it if I have time over the 5 weeks the programme runs, I'll be taking up my driving lessons again at the weekend and doing some freelance while I go so it will be a busy month, but I'm not complaining :D

Another reason is due to creative block, well sort of. I've been suffering a bit from block for the past wee while, so I decided to buy a good book to help me over come it. I found The Creative Workshop by David Sherwin and from the reviews figures it was the best one. I gave the intro chapter a good read and about 2 weeks ago gave the 1st challenge a shot.
Well.....  it worked! The first challenge is to brand yourself/your company and as I was looking to redesign the Daisy*B sites I thought it was the best way to start. The book limits your brainstorming to a certain time and it really does challenge you. I came up with a new logo and font style for Daisy*B and haven't been able to stop.

 

 Some sketches from my 30 min brainstorm

New Daisy*B Design logo

 I've been redesigning the site for the past week and doing it all myself. I've learned how to use Serif WebPlus, furthered my knowledge of Illustrator and, most importantly, started desgning and drawing for myself again! It feels great and it couldn't have come at a better time, right before going on the training programme.

You might have noticed the new blog layout too, well this is based on the new site I'm desiging. I was going to roll out everything at once, but today I got too excited and had to get the blog done to go with this post. Properly Geeking out about it lol!

Feeling really positive about things today, which I hope will last. I also hope that this is the start of some good things for me, my business and for me & my other half... Fingers crossed

Thanks for reading

Daisy*B

xXx

Nerd Fest

Dear readers, you may or may know that I am a self confessed Nerd and in honour of the San Diego Comic Con thats happening this week hundreds and thousands of miles away from me (*sigh, one day!!), I thought I'd have another Nerd fest full of tattoos, art and some handmade goodies.

But to start off I will hand over to our fearless leader from The Nerd Machine, Zachary Levi, for some info on day 1 at Nerd HQ!

Now for fun stuff...

Pics:

Craft:

From Craft

From Folksy

From Craft

Cakes:

Tattoos:

Thats most of the nerdy things out the way, but I thought I'd sign off with the new pics released for the Hobbit! I finally read the book after being a fan of Lord of the Rings for years and now I can't wait for the movie.

Woot can't wait to see it!

Thanks for reading

Daisy*B

xXx

Adventures in Jewellery Making

I had a breakthrough with some designs for my jewellery ideas while on the train to visit my Mum in  Leicestershire. So I came back and got stuck in making them.

Unfortunately something went wrong with the first batch and then again with the 2nd batch, but I got 5 good ones lol!  I keep telling myself that practice makes perfect and its all about experimentation they're not ready for sale yet and the ideas keep popping into my brain faster than I can sketch them, but I'm determined to perfect this and get them up on my Folksy or Misi site.

Behold the reject pile... I think it had something to do with the paper so I think I'll buy some heavier weight paper. (and maybe let the glue set lol) 

This one was an accident after it had set slightly I dropped a pen and it got stuck. Once I lifted it up the resin came with it and kind of swirled over the top. It looks a mess, but I'm sure if I did it a little artistically it might work with a design.

 

The good ones came out ok. I still need to perfect them and possibly print the designs off at a higher resolution.

 

These are only 2 of the designs I've done, but I have a few more with different collections in mind too. I've also got some ideas with using shrink plastic as well, so fun times ahead.

As for my seminars and workshops. I've got  this week. One tomorrow on becoming self employed and 2 on Thursday for business planning and marketing, I'm really looking forward to them. The first one I went to was a business awareness one, basically designed to make us aware of everything that could crop up while starting up. It was really interesting although quite scary lol.

Got loads going ont his week heading to the 3 workshops and then at the weekend myself and Peter are heading to the Merchant City for the 3 Years to GoSports Challenge for the Commonwealth Games, there's a possibility that Peter's work for the Tontine Building will be on display too which is exciting!! Then we're heading to the Britannia Bazaar in the The Britannia Panopticon Music Hall, a building I've never been in, but am looking forward to after seeing the website and hearing about it. So many things to see in Glasgow :D

 The Britannia Panopticon Music Hall

New Adventures

This year is shaping up to be an exciting one, even though we're already half way through. I've finally decided that the only way for me to get a rewarding job that I will love for the rest of my days is to do it myself. I might not be a millionaire by the time I retire, but hey I'll have tried!
For the last wee while I've been thinking about where my tattoo designs could take me and I think if I keep designing them only for tattoos I'm not going to get very far, I have to branch out. So after much debate and full on mental fisticuffs with my inner pessimist, no full time employment and recent inspiration and encouragement from others I have decided what the hell, I'm going for it!

My only problem now is where to start...
I have enrolled on a few courses in the next few months to get me heading in the right direction. On Thursday I have a seminar run by Business Gateway to go to about starting your own business and next Tuesday I have a workshop about being self employed. I figured this was the best way to start.

As for the creative side, last week I finished a 2 week course in resin jewellery making and it was fab. I also have to say that I came away feeling so inspired and have now got some ideas floating around my head to turn my tattoo designs into jewllery pieces. I also met some great like minded folk and can't wait to get stuck in to some ceramic painting or sewing at The Life Craft when I get back from a trip to my Mums.
If anyone is interested the same Resin class it's being run on the 20th and 27th July, just visit the Facebook page for details. It's great fun and well worth it.

My resin creations 

Bats isn't mine, it was made by tutor Addison St Louis of Freak Carousel, but I sanded it, drilled the hole and put the chain on :D

This very ungraceful Matryoshka would not keep her backside in the resin, so I ended up with a very promiscuous pendant, oops!

I've also booked into a cupcake decorating class on the 14th July in Make it Glasgow, but thats just for fun really. I'd love to decorate cakes for a living, but I really only love to bake for my family and friends and a certain man who happens to love my food lol :D (Note: Dear family & Friends, commissions accepted, but only Peter gets cake for free as he is the guinea pig)

In October I've signed up for a weekend course in screenprinting in the Glasgow Print Studio. I'm really excited to see where that could take my designs, I've wanted to try it for years and Tshirt/bag design is THE dream!
There'll be other Business Gateway courses to go to as well, so I can get as much information as possible.

I'm finallly feeling inspired and more energised in getting things going for myself and I plan to report back here about how I'm getting on, what I'm up to and other ramblings so that maybe they will help other folk in the same situation. I'll be 100% honest and say that I am terrified at the thought of going out into the big bad business world on my own, but I know whatever happens it'll be worth it because at least I've tried. Something I'm no longer scared to do...

Wish me luck!

Daisy*B

xXx

Rita Vectors & Jewellery Class

So I finished my Rita Hayworth portrait, yay! It was fun to finally get stuck in to some serious vectoring in Illustrator as I've wanted to do the portrait for ages, not too sure about the hair though, but practice makes perfect I guess.

I also designed a tee for my brothers birthday, he hasnt seen it yet, but I dont think he'll be reading this so I think its ok lol!

He's a musician with a love of old sounds and cassette tapes and was born in 87, hence the "Rare Mix '87". Hope he likes it!
Got a busy day ahead, already I've been working on a top secret gift for my Grandma, soon I'll have to leave for work and later I have a resin jewellery class. I'm pretty excited as I've wanted to use resin for a while and my own experiments failed miserably so I thought a little tutoring wouldn't go amiss.

My class is in The Life Craft in Glasgow. They do a load of different classes so if anyone is interested check the website.

I will blog soon to see how I got on :D

Thanks for reading

Daisy*B

xXx

Allergies & Old Movies...

What a lovely post London time I've had. After getting burnt while away and using a certain so called "natural sensitive skin" cream I ended up with a swollen face and looking like Rocky's sparring partner. I don't know why I bought the cream considering I've had a reaction before, but hey I was knackered!

So although I've had an itchy, burnt, swollen face and had to take a few days off work, I have caught up on some design stuff and today started a vector project that I've been wanting to do for ages.

 Can you guess who it is? Hint: I finally decided to start it after watching a certain movie with the wonderful Glenn Ford and some gratuitous hair flicking.

So now I've been watching old movies all week while off and todays film is The Haunting.

ooooh its creepy, much better than the ridculous remake. And what is it that makes it so creepy??  Its that you dont see a thing, its all in your own head and if you have an over active imagination like myself, this is the best/worst type of film to watch! That and some classic camera angles and sound effects. Trying to think of some other old horror films to watch after it, so if anyone has any ideas of movies for me to check out please comment :D

Also its the last day to vote on my Threadless submission so I'd really appreciate anyone who hasn't voted already to do go have a wee peek.

Score this design: "Tattoo Me," to help it get printed on Threadless!

As for tattoo designs, I've finished work for Leanne and Chris. Leanne wanted a small cluster of stars and Chris wanted a Saltire flag.  Here are the finished designs.

 

I really liked the thistles in this one so I might need to use them as a base for another design in the future.

Thanks for reading

Daisy*B

xXx

Ice Cream, Hans Zimmer and Squirrels

Hello folks, just back from an odd trip to London to see the Royal Philharmonic's Film Music Gala. I say odd because myself and Peter spent most of the time in a trance of exhaustion from an uncomfortable bus journey overnight on the dreaded Megabus! The concert itself was amazing, the Royal Albert Hall was a beautiful building and the orchestra were incredible. However, London itself was a haze. 

When we arrived at 7am we could do nothing but walk about to kill time. So we headed to a local Sainsbury's near our Easy Hotel and sat for a while probably looking quite strange and rough to the locals. We dumped our bags in the hotel that wouldn't let us check in til 3pm and then headed out for the 5 hour wait til check in and a decent sleep. We walked around Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park with Ice Cream at 10 in the morning which was lovely and relaxing UNITL... were accosted by squirrels.

 

The squirrels were quite intimidating and funny, they came right up to us and almost jumped up on Peter's shoulder ready to pounce on his 99 cone and run off with it! This did make us a bit freaked out and paranoid though as we were really tired and began to think the squirrels were stalking us, I'm pretty sure it was the same one that followed us all over Hyde Park.

We eventually relaxed at the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain as we lost the squirrel and fell asleep on the grass. Half an hour later I awoke to slight burning feeling on my face and realised I had not put any suncream on!!! Being Scottish and of the (slightly) ginger/fair-skinned persuasion, it is fair to say that the sun and I are not the best of friends. Of course I was lying with my head to one side and am now sunburnt down the left side of my face with a lovely white streak where my glsses were,  thank God the Albert Hall was dark.

So we eventually were allowed into the hotel where we got a couple of hours sleep and then right back out again to the Albert Hall. It's such an amazing building and I really fell in love with it, especially the ceiling.

The orchestra were great, it all sunk in when they played te main theme to Gladiator as the brass section was AMAZING lol! Got a bit teary eyed when they played the Out of Africa theme too it was just incredible, we both loved it.

So now we're back home very tired, but having to dive straight back into work mode as we both have projects to be getting on with.

The most exciting email awaited me as I got back. My Tattoo Me design was put up for scoring on Threadless while I was away, pretty excited to see how it goes. You can see and vote for the design by clinking the linkydoo below or the button on the side bar.

Score this design: "Tattoo Me," to help it get printed on Threadless!

Thats about it from me for today, I'm off to get  caught up on some work and maybe some sleep lol!

Thanks for reading 

Daisy*B

xXx

New Work

Yesterday I did some work in Illustrator and came up with 2 new pieces. I've been wanting to get practice with it for a while so I had fun!

Will hopefully have some more new stuff up soon

Thanks for reading
Daisy*B

xXx