Cardboard Colin Goes to Mars

I've gone a bit Etsy mad lately. Have you noticed? Here's a new comic. "Cardboard Colin Goes to Mars"



Here it is for sale in my Etsy shop

Cards

These are some greetings cards which I've been drawing by hand. I like doing these drawings, even though they take ages. It's quite relaxing really.



These pictures make them look a bit massive, but they're only A6 really. They come with matching envelopes.



I've put them for sale in my Etsy shop. They are available individually, or in a set of three.

My Cardboard Life Volume 2

A new My Cardboard Life book is now available in the Etsy shop!




here's the listing.

It features 12 of the comic strips over 20 pages. The front cover is decorated with a Paper Pauline.

Some nice things I found in Etsy

I've been browsing around Etsy, and I thought I'd share some of the interesting items I found...



A art print by Mara Girling at Printspace. I find these little birds very endearing, and I love the use of different shades of grey.



I'm a big fan of this tea cosy from Vintage Town. If you're under the impression that you don't need a tea cosy, you obviously don't serve tea in a tea pot. Or maybe you do, but you don't have a problem with drinking cold tea! Anyway, Vintage Town also makes beautiful tote bags, so perhaps you should look at those too.



A slightly crazy vintage graphic sweater. I enjoy the fact that it's raining, and also it's in my favourite shade of yellow. This Sweater/jumper is available in a shop called VonlenskaVintage which has a great range vintage clothes.

Experimental animation: XYZ

XYZ from The Juzzard on Vimeo.

I made this animation at the weekend. It's a load of mini abstract paintings. The circular print is made using an old cotton reel.

Doodle Time

Not sure what these are, but I don't suppose it matters.

Is Folksy the new Etsy?

No, clearly not. It's still in beta, and it's different anyway. I think it's only for UK or something. But anyway, the point I'm getting to here is that I've got a Folksy shop as well as an Etsy shop now...here it is. I'm just trying it out really.

Not really sure why I used a picture of the sassy octopus for this. She's not in my Folksy shop, she's in my Etsy shop. Maybe I'll move her?

Mini Colin book

A new mini comic which is available to buy on Etsy. It's the "Day in the Life of Cardboard Colin" in book form.

Here's the listing

or alternatively, just read it for free on www.mycardboardlife.com

Doodlechicks

Laurence

Another crochet plush guy that I've made. His name's Laurence.



The bobbles on his tummy are made with a stitch known as 'popcorn-stitch' which I enjoy very much. It involves doing lots of double crochets in the same place so that it makes a bobble. I've done these in different colours.



The face was the biggest drag of the operation taking the same amount of time as the duration of Mad Max 2

White Chocolate-Marshmallow cookies

I made these cookies for Valentines day. It's just a basic cookie recipe with chopped mini marshmallows and white chocolate added, plus while chocolate and mini marshmallows on top. I also used golden syrup in place of some of the sugar to make them more chewy.

Illustration Friday: Celebrate

It's number 50 from 100 things to do. Throw a party. Sometimes it's nice to have a party which isn't celebrating anything in particular, like a good old tea party perhaps.

It's Valentines day tomorrow so I predict a lot of 'celebrating Valentines day' related Illustration Friday submissions. Not to mention all the party hats, like what I've gone and done.

100 things to do updates every day with new things to do.

Doodle car

I don't drive, but maybe if more cars like this were available I'd consider learning.

Chocolate and cream cheese mini cupcakes

Some mini cupcakes that I made for eating with a cup of tea. I used a chocolate sponge recipe, and added chocolate chips and a bit of cream cheese. The icing is cream cheese icing made with butter, cream cheese and icing sugar. Every time I make this it goes way too runny, not sure where I'm going wrong with it so if anyone knows a cream cheese icing related secret, let me know!

The heart shaped chocolates on top were made by piping some melted chocolate onto a bit of greaseproof paper and leaving them to set in the fridge before peeling off.

Doodle of a flying machine

100 things to do

A new hand made comic/zine that I've been drawing for what seems like forever, and finally got it copied and put it together.



100 things to do is a collection of activities and ideas for combating any boredom you might have.



The book is available to buy on Etsy

It will also appear on its own Webcomics Nation page as an online comic, with a new 'thing to do' every day for 100 days.

Illustration Friday: Time

It's Sunday's My Cardboard Life strip and it was inspired by this weeks Illustration Friday topic "time".

Paper Pauline's time machine is really a time wasting machine. I don't think I need one of these, I'm quite good at wasting time in my own special ways.

Tall doodle

A doodle of a block of flats. Usually I draw doodles on bits of paper left over from making collages. This one was draw in a sketch book. It's my new doodle habit.

I'm with my BEST FRIEND

Today's comic was about a slogan t-shirt. It's actually based on a T-shirt I've made for myself with the same design. I wore it the other day when I went to the shops with my Mum. I think she appreciated it, certainly a bit more than Paper Pauline does!

I'll be making more of these t-shirts soon to go on the good old Etsy shop so we'll all have the opportunity to declare our best-friendship!

Olive

A toy I made using crochet. I called it olive because that's the colour of the wool (not very imaginative).



He/she is stuffed with polyester filling. I didn't bother with a pattern, as I find them a bit tricky to understand, so that's probably why the arms are a bit lopsided, and there are a few messy areas, such as the armpits and the crotch.



The heart on the tummy. I enjoyed changing colour's to add the heart and the face.

Mocha Walnut Cake

This was my Mum's birthday cake that I made today...



Ingredients:

6oz butter (or margarine/stork whatever you like)
6oz sugar (I used a mixture of caster sugar and soft brown sugar)
3 eggs
5oz self raising flour
1oz ground almonds
chopped walnuts (use as much as you like, about a couple of handfulls)
coffee granules
teaspoon of cocoa powder

for the icing....

4oz butter
8oz icing sugar
tablespoon of cocoa

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees (gas mark 4)

Use an elextric mixer, or just a spoon if you can be bothered, to mix the butter and sugar until pale, add the eggs bit by bit. Fold in the flour and ground almonds and the teaspoon of cocoa powder. make some very strong coffee with a few teaspoons of coffee granules and a bit of water. Make sure the granules are fully dissolved and then fold into the cake mixture. Bake in greased and lined round cake tins for 20 minutes.

to make the icing, soften the butter in the microwave DON'T LET IT MELT THOUGH! And then stir in the icing sugar. Mix the cocoa powder with some boiling water 'til it becomes a smooth paste, then mix that into the icing. If you like, you can whisk the icing with an electric mixer. It makes it easier to spread, but some people prefer their icing dense.

Sandwich the two cake halves together with half of the icing spread in the middle, and then spread the rest on the top. You can decorate with chopped walnut pieces, or whatever else you might want to decorate it with.

doodle

ducklings

Feb 1st, hourly comics day.

Yesterday, 1st February was hourly comic day. The idea is that you make one strip for every hour of the day that you are awake.

Most people do autobiographical ones. Here is the forum with lots of different hourly comics from this years hourly comics day.

And here's my effort.