That time Ryan Gosling got given my tea towel!

This happened and it's weird and crazy and makes me very happy to live in the internet age. Yeah that is Ryan Gosling holding a Dear Colleen tea towel.

I've often spoken to friends about how the famous people I've drawn would react if confronted with the 'Dishes' tea towel. I never ever thought I would get an answer. A huge thanks to Grae Drake for finding my tiny shop and catching the moment on film. I kind of love the fact I'm painted as a crazy fan girl who spends her days drawing pictures of Ryan on homeware, I really wish that was true. I've only been able to watch the clip through once, I get as red faced and embarrassed as Gosling. Luckily there's no one around to film me.

Being featured online is always a double edged sword and 'Dishes' is a diverse design, that's the thing with working with humour. I'm ok with that, although of course it hurts a little when people tell me they don't like it and I know I'll be seeing lots of those comments over the next few days. I'm also now racked with fear that a big company will steal the idea and mass produce the tea towels, as has happened to so many indie makers before me. If any big companies happen to stubble across this I urge you to work with me, I'm totally open to doing commission work and licensing designs. Please don't kill my livelihood for a quick buck. Sadly it's the price you play for awesome things happening publicly and I'd rather have them happen than not. I rarely say any of my work is good and Dishes is far from perfect but as a concept 'Dishes I'd rather be doing' is something I'm very proud of and I'm very pleased that an A list star now owns their own face on a tea towel. I really hope it's not in a dressing room bin:)

As a side note thank you everyone for the shares and well wishes on social media, emails, DMs. I've had so many I'm not sure I'll be able to get back to everyone but I'm hugely grateful without you I couldn't do this. 

Love Cats DIY

Incase you want a more adventurous Valentines card for your sweetheart, here’s a pair of love cats. Their tails join to make a heart for an added awww factor. The grey cat also has a little square on his side for writing your own message. They won’t take you more than 10mins to make and all you need are a couple of sheets of 250gsm thick paper, a pair of scissors, a ruler, some double sided tape or glue and a craft knife would also be helpful.

Download the love cats here...

1. Download and print out the love cats on two sheets of 250gsm paper.

2. Cut around the outside grey line.

3.This is the tricky part! You also need to cut out the white square on the base of the cats head. Ideally you would use a craft knife but if you don’t have one it can be done with a pair of scissors, you’ll just need to create a hole in the centre of the white square first (this could be done by poking a sharp pair of scissors through or with a hole punch). Once you have a small hole, you can put your scissors in and start snipping.

4. This step is optional. If you have a craft knife you should now cut a slit on the marked dotted line at the back of the cats body. If you don’t you can stick the tail on later.

5. Using the back of the scissors and a ruler score along the white dotted lines.

6. Fold the scored lines and add double sided tape or glue to the flaps to stick them in place. The head makes a oblong box and the body a flat topped triangle.

7. Push the hole in the bottom of the head over the top of the body.

8. Finally add the tail either with glue or through the cut slit. Make sure the coloured side of the tail faces front.

9. Repeat the steps above to make the second cat.

10. Squeee!

Valentine's Day or You Know What Ever Printable!

Wow two weeks in the new house and still no internet, I can't express enough how hard not being online is for an online store. I'm keeping everything running as best I can but I'm way behind with everything including this blog.

I had a number of free printables all set for Valentine's day but time is fast running out and with no sign that Orcon will fix the problem this week I'm burning some 3G to at least share my favourite of the freebies with you.

This could be a Valentine's Day card or a card just because. I'm not much of a hearts and roses girl but it's always nice to tell someone you think they're pretty cool. I couldn't think of anything more awesome than 2-pac on a unicorn apart from maybe Biggie on a flying dolphin, so it really is quite the compliment.

Download here...
The download includes two A6 (148mm-105mm) cards to fit a C6 envelope (once folded) I've not put any instructions as you basically just need to print out on nice thick paper, around 250grm and fold.