Clare Willcocks

Clare Willcocks: January 2015

Sunday, 11 January 2015

Wedding card paper cutting templates


Today's post comes to you from a brand spanking new, bright pink laptop! I've had my old one for seven years and have suffered its slowness for far too long, so the beginning of a new year seemed like the perfect time to treat myself to a new one. It should make things like designing paper cutting templates a lot quicker and easier.


Speaking of which, a while ago I designed some paper cut wedding card templates but have only just finished cutting them all out. I decided that I wanted to package them up as a bundle of four templates, as the Christmas bauble designs which I sold on Etsy seemed popular as a set.


I have finally finished listing them in my Etsy shop, which, what with taking photos, writing a description and filling in the rest of the details, actually takes quite a long time! If you fancy having a go at your own wedding papercuts, please show me how you get on as I love to see how the templates are used.


The program I use to design all of my paper cutting templates is Inkscape. It's free to download but does take a bit of practice to get your head around how to use it!


I haven't really played around with infills before, but with this flowery heart template I thought it would be a good opportunity to give it a go. The result is very pretty, but I'm not sure I have the patience for too many infills!


In other news, if you read my blog last week you'll know that one of my New Year's resolutions was to get my ears pierced a second time. Well, I decided that it was now or never, so I went to Claire's accessories in Barnstaple on Saturday and got them done. I can't remember the first time I got my ears pierced so I wasn't sure how much pain to expect, but it didn't hurt much at all! I'm now really looking forward to all the earring combos I can try (very sad, I know!). This is a little watercolour sketch to remember this momentous occasion! I'm sharing this one for Paint Party Friday.


One of my other New Year's Resolutions was to draw a miniature portrait each week, so number two is Stephen Fry, who, as you've probably heard, got engaged to his partner this week. For those of you who aren't from the UK, Stephen Fry is a comedian and presenter, and a very intelligent man.


I've also been busy making some slippers this weekend from an old jumper, but I think I'll save that story for another day.

I'm sharing this post on the following blogs: Paint Party FridayThe Queen of Creativity, Handmade Harbour and Blue Chair Diary Illustrations!

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Sunday, 4 January 2015

My New Year's Resolutions


Happy New Year everyone, here's to a fantastic 2015!

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, mainly because I never have any ideas, but this year there are a few things which I hope to do and achieve in 2015.

To give me more motivation to succeed, I've written them out, or rather painted them out, in the style of a journal page.


I really enjoyed making this today. I used it as an excuse to experiment with my Winsor and Newton watercolours. I've never really known how to merge colours successfully, so blending pink into purple was a bit of a challenge! For the most part it worked really well, although the right hand side of the 2015 rectangle looks a bit dodgy.

Anyway, back to my resolutions...

#1 Draw or paint a miniature portrait every week


I've done quite a few miniature portraits now and thought it would be a fun challenge to complete one per week, not only of celebrities but 'normal' people too!


This is my first one of the year, a coloured pencil drawing of Angelina Jolie on brown paper. I think I'll get bored if I do them all in the same medium, so I'll chop and change depending on how I feel!


#2 Make my art business flourish


Those of you who've read my blog for a while will probably know that I work full time and use my spare time for art. 2014 was an exciting year for me as I took more commissions for drawings, paintings and paper cuts than I ever have done before and I hope that 2015 will see many more!

If you would like to help me along with this resolution and commission a piece of art, please let me know! I can do mini portraits like the ones above, paper cuts, paintings, doodles...have a little flick through my blog or Facebook page and see what takes your fancy.

At the moment I'm working on some wedding card paper cutting templates for people to cut themselves. This is one of them. I have another two to cut before they'll be up for sale on Etsy as digital downloads.


#3 Get my ears pierced again


Bit of a weird one this! I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to get my ears pierced again. My sister got her second set done a while ago and I like the way you can wear dangle earrings alongside studs.

#4 Wear high heels to work


Again, another odd one! I walk to work every day, so wearing heels isn't really practical, but some of the girls keep a set at work to change into. I do like wearing heels, so thought I'd give it a go. Not sure how long this resolution will last!

In other news...


I ordered some new pens the other day and decided to put them through their paces to create a mandala. This is far from finished and there will be more inking on the section you can see here, but I'm very pleased with it at the moment!


I had a sudden urge to draw octopuses (octopi?) so they've made it into one of the rings!


Not sure what to include in the outer rings, so if you have any suggestions, let me know!

Finally, I'll leave you with a photo of Croyde beach where we started our walk to Saunton today.


I'm sharing this post on the following blogs: Paint Party Friday, The Queen of Creativity and Blue Chair Diary Illustrations!

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