KickstART Markets

Sarah's Dead Bears print set and phone cases

My super-talented pals Sarah and Marika will be selling their creative products this Saturday 21st April at the KickstART Markets at the Perth Cultural Centre.

Hand-painted skate deck by Sarah

Sarah has been hard at work painting, chopping and sewing her wares to sell at the markets. If you have a chance you should check out her one-of-a-kind painted skate decks, hand-made phone cases, landscape photos and graphic design prints (the 'Dead Bears' set is my fav!). She tells me that she admires the works of Sitnie, Naomi Hosking, Rona Green and Perth’s own Stormie Mills. If you like tattoo art, grafitti and skate deck art, check out her stall located across from the State Library of Western Australia. View her art online here.

Marika's Autumn-themed prints and letter sets

Marika is another mad-talented illustrator/designer who is selling her goods this Saturday. An enthusiast for Scandinavian design, pancakes and pantone 551, Marika will be selling limited edition Autumn themed prints, notebooks, stickers and letter sets (her 'thank you' cards are too cute!). You can view more of her designs here.

Cinemagraphs

My friend Sarah has been making some really nice cinemagraphs and posting them on her blog. Kinda makes me want to have a go at creating some! Read her post on how to make them here.

Kustom Blogging

 http://sarahactivated.blogspot.com/

One thing I like about blogs is the ability to customise the look of it. You could be reading two different blogs that look miles apart yet they still use the same Blogger template. I always prefer reading someone's unique blog over a generic-looking Facebook page any day, and I have seem some awesomely awesome blog designs. But because I have basically zero knowledge of web developing, html, css, I've sometimes felt a tiny bit limited by some of the customisations I've seen other people do and what I was able to create.

But my friend Sarah has helped me out by explaining how to make customisations in her blog. Things like how to change the favicon icon (that small square in the tab), adding a contact form and how to add a related posts widget. I can definitely say that it wasn't as hard as I originally thought it would be.

So if you have a blog and want to know how to create some cool custom widgets and doodads, I suggest taking a look at Sarah's bloggity blog.

Hangin' with Muse

Wayne's World  Meeting Alice Cooper : We're not worthy!

If you've read some of my previous posts (like this one) you might know that I'm a massive fan of Muse. That's why I was super-excited last week, not only because I saw them in concert but because I got to HANG OUT BACKSTAGE AND MEET THEM! It was completely surreal to be casually talking to the Muse guys after years of listening to their music, reading countless interviews and seeing them live so many times. But it was great because they were super-lovely and very down-to-earth, happily signing my guitar for me and chatting to me about the cricket. Going backstage reminded me a bit of the 'We're not worthy' scene in Wayne's World. My pal Sarah (who I've mentioned before here) heard my incessant talk about Muse and came up with a comic to describe my meeting with them. It's cute! You can view it here, and you can also check out her previous weekly Friday comics here.

Patterns!

I've been looking at patterns for a while now, and it's something that I would like to have a go at, but sometimes it's so tricky getting your head around how to repeat the design. My friend Sarah does some amazing vector patterns, its the type of stuff I can imagine seeing on sneakers and notebook covers. Looking at it makes me want to try creating some! You can check out the rest of her stuff here.