My 1st Book Illustrations

I had to share my excitement, I finally received a few copies of the 1st childrens book I have illustrated. It took a long time to complete and it was a lot of hard work but I am very happy with the finished product. Below are some pics of a few pages.

This delightful childrens book was written by Kendra Vallone Matthews as a surprise gift to her father, who by the way, will only see it next week for the 1st time. ;-)

It is a story of a little boy who goes to visit his gran with an empty milk bottle, along the way he discovers a number of different, creative uses for his bottle.

You can purchase this book through Amazon and it will soon be available at popular book stores, please see the link below
http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Bottle-Kendra-Vallone-Matthews/dp/150764048X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427326423&sr=1-1&keywords=The+boy+and+the+bottle

Free Printable - Colour and craft Easter Basket

I am still struck with Easter fever and created a fun easy to make Easter Basket. It is a colouring file so I could try out my new Copic Markers, as you can see I still need a bit of practice with them but enjoyed colouring regardless. 

Follow the link below to download your free printable colour and craft Easter Basket.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/20wpf8zvz0my553/Easter%20Basket.pdf?dl=0

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

1. Home printer or local print shop
2. A4 sheet of card preferably
3. Scissors
4. Colouring crayons, pencils, etc.
5. Glue or double sided tape.
6. Bone folder tool but you can use the rounded back of a butter knife if you don't have one.


HOW TO MAKE:

1. Print the page and colour in.
2. Cut around the outline, being careful not to cut off the tabs.

3. Use bone folder or butter knife to score the base folds and the tab folds.
4. Lightly fold basket. 

5. Put glue or double sided tape onto the tabs.

6. Bring sides together lining up the edges.

7. There you go the base of the basket is complete, now for the handle. 

8. Put glue on one side of the handle.

9. Lie the basket on it's side then attach the handle to the top centre of the large Easter egg.

10. Now glue the other edge of the handle and attach to the other side of the basket.
11. Done your Easter basket is complete. 

Hope you enjoy creating this fun Easter project!

Sweet Winter fabric

This is a sweet fabric I created some time ago for the Spoonflower penguin challenge (14 Jan 2015), I think it is too cute not to share, if you love this fabric pattern as much as I do please visit my Spoonflower shop to purchase. My sewing skills are not the best so I would love for you to share your finished sewing projects using this fabric, with me.

Easter Gift Bag Toppers - Free Printable Download

With Easter just around the corner I thought I should share an easy inexpensive gift project with you along with a free hi resolution pdf, printable download see link below: (If the link doesn't work you can copy and paste into address bar)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/si2v68pwtg0hjmr/AABUM01gx9jlOjliyVX6WLUDa/Happy%20Easter%20gift%20pack%20topper.pdf?dl=0

What you will need:

• A4 sheet of Paper or Card
• Home Printer or you can print the PDF at your local print shop.
• Sciccors, craft cutter or trimmer
• Ziplock bags - I used 150mm x 90mm bags (roughly 6" x 4") 
• Double sided tape or stapler

The Gift Bag Topper is 150mm wide x 100mm high - after fold height will be 50mm


How to make:

• Print and trim the topper.
• Fill ziplock bag with your choice of mini easter eggs or sweets.
• Seal ziplock bag
• Fold the gift bag topper in half, hold corners together when folding to ensure an even fold.
• Slide topper over the top of the bag, covering the ziplock and then staple or stick on with double sided tape.

There you go simple as that!

You will see in the picture below that I have done both the staple and the double sided tape option, they are both easy to do, it will just depend on what you have available.

Hello

Think it would be best to introduce myself and what I plan on sharing with you via my blog. 


My name is Tanya Laporte, I reside in Townsville, which is a small town on the North East Coast of Queensland. I was born and raised in South Africa but decided to take the plunge and move to Australia with my husband in 2013. Packing up and selling everything you know and love to move to a new country which you have never been to in your entire life is a huge leap of faith and is definitely not for the faint hearted but I am so happy we did it, we love the lifestyle and have settled in very well!


After finishing school I went on to study Textile Design at the Technikon Natal, although a lot has changed since then; Textile Design is better known as Surface Design and the Technikon Natal is now known as the University of Technology. We learnt things the old way ie: creating drawings/art, arranging them into a repeat pattern, hand painting the colour separations onto acetate to create positives and then burning those onto a silk screen in the dark room. From there we would hand screen metres of fabric using crop marks to align the repeats, even though it may have taken a bit longer and was some what harder it was a great way to learn how to create patterned fabric!! I guess you could say modern technology has made things a little easier. Whilst at "tech" we were introduced to computer design but this was on a very basic level, I have gained all my computer design experience through working for different companies in different industries, from screenprinting to sign manufacturing and digital printing.
Yes I still use Corel Draw and of course Photoshop, I just love Corel Draw and think I always will!

As a freelance surface designer and artist, this blog will be a platform for me to share with you different crafting projects and designs with links to where items can be purchased and the occassional free download. You can also follow my facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Tanya-Laporte-Art-Design
At present you can purchase:
My fabrics at www.spoonflower.com/profiles/tldesigns
My seamless patterns at www.patterndesigns.com/en/designer/278/Tanya-Laporte
My crafted and printed items will be sold soon once I have opened an online shop.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my first blog, I look forward to sharing new projects with you soon. :-)