Desk of the Day - 30/06/2013 - Pretty in Pink

I managed to get my hands on some pretty awesome stilettos a few weeks ago and have been dying to get painting them. I think they look pretty dramatic without the paint on. They started off baby blue, but after a few coats of paint are now striped in different shades of pink. I love how well the baby blue inside the shoe matches the baby pink paint so perfectly.

This particular set of shoes are going to have a really girly and fun theme, I won't tell you the exact theme just yet though!

If you'd like some custom painted stilettos email me at ponychopsshop @ gmail . com
These are new in so not even in the PonyChops shop just yet!

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Sponsor PonyChops in July

As I'm heading off to uni in London soon, and time seems to be slipping away shockingly fast, I figured I need to try and get as much work as possible over the next couple of months!

So, I decided I'd offer a free custom digital portrait when you buy 6 months worth of Supersize Ads. I'm also offering an extra 2 months free when you purchase 6 months of Medium Ads.

The digital portrait offer is for this listing in my shop. It's an extra £7 if you want your pet included.

I'm trialing this offer for the next month, if it does well I may keep it on a little longer :)

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Desk of the Day - 29/06/13 - I Love NY

Phew, it feels like forever since I've posted on my blog. I've been crazy busy with painting shoes and illustrating some fun projects. I'm hoping I'll have a little more time to update my blog over the next week.

Today I'm working on a few orders, but mostly I'll be working on this New York & Baby themed pattern. This is for the same project I've been working on for a while now, you can see some more work in progress shots from the same project here and here. I got kind of carried away on this project. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be using Little Baby Liberty as a part of this design now, which sucks. I had originally designed the blog around him but stupidly hadn't realised just how restrictive wordpress can be with editing. So I think i'll be sticking with a basic blog template with a bright patterned background. I've definitely learned my lesson for next time!

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Avocados are Amazing - an Etsy Treasury

As most of you probably know, I'm a bit of an avocado addict. I hardly ever go a day without eating half an avocado. Me and my bestie love avocados so much that she made her own avocado skirt and a matching avocado bag for me.

So, I decided it's time I combine my avocado addiction with my love of Etsy and create an avocado based treasury. It's amazing how many quality avocado themed items I found on Etsy, it was hard to narrow it down to 9 of my favs.

1. Paradise Beads / 2. Harp & Thistle / 3. Undercover Quilts / 4. Jewellery L and MM / 5. fwirl / 6. Hair by Creation / 7. Celentano Woodworks  / 8. Godivas Jewelry Box / 9. show me your nails

A big thank you to Claire from Dreams Are Necessary for suggesting the Avocado Nail stickers! I blame Claire if I spend all my money on Avocado themed Etsy goodies.

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Desk of the Day - 22/06/13 - Wedding bells

A couple of weeks ago a girl I used to work with asked me to design her wedding invitations. I feel so honored to have been asked to do this, and it's certainly been a fun project to work on. I've enjoyed it so much I'm considering taking on more work like this in the future.

The above picture is just a sneak peek of the invitations so far. The bride asked me to illustrate her and her future hubby as matryoshka dolls. Today I'm working on adding some extra details and figuring out the composition ready to print some samples tomorrow.

If you're interested in any design/illustration work or invitations send me an email at ponychopsshop@gmail.com

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Desk of the Day - 21/06/13 - Polka dots & Puss Cats

I've had these polka dot heels lying around now for a couple of months. I bought them intending to paint them for myself but never got around to it (this is the case with 50% of my shoes!). I've had some pretty awesome themed orders recently, one being a Maneki-neko theme which got me so inspired. I knew immediately these shoes needed to be covered in Maneki-nekos.

I'm adding some finishing touches to them today then getting on with some make up themed heels for a customer!

Meanwhile in the background I'm watching Made in Chelsea, does anyone have any good tv show suggestions? I'm going to have to rip my ears off if I hear someone saying "tbh" or "totes" one more time in a none ironic way!

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And the Winner is....

Congratulations to Michelle from Vegan in a Pretty Dress for winning my Chopstitch Pet Portrait Giveaway! I can't wait to see the portrait Ginge does for Michelle, I can already tell it's gonna be awesome.

You can keep up to date with Ginge's work at her blog Cosmos and Crayons. Or if you're super sad you missed out on a pet portrait by Ginge, you can get yourself one at her Etsy Shop.

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Desk of the Day 17/6/13 - Superga x House of Holland

A couple of weeks ago a customer sent me her Superga x House of Holland platforms. Last week I painted some pink clouds on them and today I'll be adding some cute little cats.

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Mario & Friends Treasury

A few days ago I was brainstorming ideas for new sets of Russian Dolls and I realised I still haven't done a Mario themed set! I've been a big lover of Nintendo games (particularly Mario games) since childhood, so I'm pretty sure I need to make myself a set when I get time.

In the mean time, I've been scouring Etsy for the cutest possible Mario & Nintendo themed goodies. Here's my favs:

1. Shhh Couture Latex / 2. Art by Ken / 3. loopzart / 4. the Gorgonist / 5. Bunny Bumm / 6. Could Bee Yours / 

7. How Do i Rock / 8. Cute Memories / 9. Olechka Design

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My Dr Martens & Uni interviews - An update!

Earlier in the year I announced my plans to return to University and study shoe design at London College of Fashion. I also applied for a years internship in the Made in England factory at Dr Martens.

I originally didn't get the Dr Martens job, so I accepted my university offer at LCF which I am incredibly excited about! So for the past couple of months I've been pretty sure about where my life is headed, and been excitedly making plans to move to London in September.

Last week I got a phone call that is probably going to stick in my head and torment me for a long time! Dr Martens phoned me and offered me the internship. I think someone must have had to leave and I was their next in line for the job. I was stunned, I'd dreamt about having that job for months! Working for Dr Martens would be such an amazing opportunity.

My automatic reaction was to turn it down (literally 2 seconds after I said no I was like "WTF did I do that for??"). I had an encouraging phone call with the lady from Dr Martens, who assured me that I would be able to apply for a design internship there in my third year at LCF, which would be freakin ideal, and actually my dream job! I feel a little less uneasy about turning down the factory internship now. I still REAALLY hope I get to work with Dr Martens in the future, I'm such a big fan of their brand, and I'd love to get expanding their vegan range ;)

Phew, If you just read through all that you probably deserve some pictures. Here's the shoes I designed & painted for my Dr Martens and uni interviews.

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Desk of the Day 13/06/13 - The Little Bear

Hey everyone! I have some awesome custom orders I'm working on at the moment that I'm really excited about. I'm hoping I'll get chance to post lots of Desks of the Day over the next week or two! Over the past few weeks I seem to have had so many fun projects to work on. I'm so greatful my customers have such fun ideas for me to work on!

This is a project I've been working on a little while, it's for my friend Diana's blog Parents and the City. Remember Little Baby Liberty? This is for the same project. It's taking me a while to finish this project because it's the first blog design I'm doing for someone other than myself, so I want to make it perfect.

This bear is going to be way smaller and may not even make it in to the final design, but I wanted to show you it in a little more detail. Either way it's good practise to be doing more work on illustrator. This guy's not quite finished yet, he needs a few more highlights to make him pop and then we'll see how he looks next to Little Baby Liberty.

Oh and DON'T forget to enter my Pet Portrait giveaway for a chance to win a portrait of your pet by Chopstitch! Only 10 hours left!

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Adventure Time High Tops

This was a super fun pair of shoes I did as a gift, I love doing anything Adventure Time themed! I had so much fun doing these & the Adventure Time Russian Dolls that I think I'm going to have to paint myself some Adventure Time themed converse.

If you'd like your own pair of custom shoes check out my Etsy Shop or email me at ponychopsshop @ gmail . com

You can check out more of my Adventure Time Art here.

All of the characters here are copyright of © Cartoon Network. This is just my own fan art & I am not associated with Adventure Time or Cartoon Network in any way.

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Warthog Russian Dolls!

I got a really fun custom order a couple of weeks ago from a family who love Warthogs! They wanted the family painted as warthogs.
I love getting imaginative orders like this! Especially when it means so much to the people receiving them. The Mum & Dad of this family like to call the kids "their little warthogs" - I think that is so sweet!

If you want your own set of custom Russian Dolls, check out my Etsy Shop or email me at ponychopsshop @ gmail . com

Check out more of my Russian Doll designs here.

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Mad Men Treasury

I always seem to be the last person to get into all these big tv series'. I've finally started watching Mad Men, I seem to have managed to watch a whole two seasons in two days while doing my painting.

While I'm not as obsessed with it as I have been with Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad & Carnivale, it seems to be the perfect show to watch while I'm doing work. Plus, I get a bit of a kick out of all of the sexist comments. I love how one guy on the show compared hearing a woman say something clever to watching a dog play a piano.

One thing I do LOVE about the show though is the clothes they wear, particularly Christina Hendricks. Here's some of my fav Mad Men inspired items on Etsy.

1. usbtypwriter / 2. blackrufflebrigade / 3. Katarina Couture / 4. The Headmistress / 5. Rekindled Passions / 

6. Cyberoptix / 7. Michelle Tan / 8. Collectable Spectacle /  9. gogo vintage

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Alex & Arthur

 Remember my Desk of the Day from Sunday? Well here is the finished illustration!

This has been my absolute favorite digital portraits so far. It's for Alex & Arthur, one of my fav blogs! I actually did some Arthur shoes for Alex a few months ago too. It never feels like work when you get to look at the adorable Arthur for reference pictures!

This felt like a super easy portrait to do because I already felt like I knew Alex's style and the kind of colours she likes. Alex asked me to include her dinosaur necklace, which I think works well. I wanted to find a way to make it a feature but not to over power the illustration.

You can get your own custom portrait here. Or if you don't have an Etsy account you can contact me about custom orders at: ponychopsshop@gmail.com

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Art Feature: Ryna Ordynat

While browsing Etsy for Adventure Time themed items for my Adventure Time Treasury & my Game of Thrones Treasury, I came accross Ryna Arts, and decided this talented lady deserved her very own post.

Ryna is from Melbourne and is an archaeology student but draws and paints in her spare time. She specialises in painting fan art and fantasy in her own unique style. Ryna uses mainly watercolours and graphite pencils in her work.

Most of you will know by now that I'm a massive Adventure Time geek, so I almost squealed with excitement at seeing Ryna's fan art of Fionna! I'm also a big Game of Thrones fan and I absolutely love the way she's captured the Game of Thrones characters in her own style.

[Etsy] [Deviantart] [Facebook] [Tumblr]

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Chopstitch Poochy Portrait Giveaway!

I'm super duper excited to bring you this giveaway today. Firsty because I think the prize is freakin ridiculously awesome! And secondly because it's being hosted by my bestie, Ginge.

Ginge is an illustrator and runs her own Etsy shop; Chopstitch. She sells customised portraits of peoples pets and lots of other craft stuff. She also has her own blog where she documents her illustrated adventures with her friend sloth & also some cool science facts.

This giveaway is for a customised A3 portrait of 1 pet/animal from Chopstitch (it dosn't have to be a dog!).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Adventure Time Russian Dolls!

Remember my Work In Progress photos from a couple of weeks ago? Well, I've finally finished the Adventure Time Matryoshka and got around to photographing them. Unfortunately Tofu wasn't around to "help out" this time.

These have been my all time favorite thing to paint so far!! I could stare at the Ice King's worried and handsome face all day long.

These Russian Dolls won't be up for grabs for a few months yet, sorry! They're going to be a prize for an exciting giveaway I have planned in August.

If you'd like your own set of customised Russian Dolls check out my Etsy Shop. Don't forget to enter the code "PCBLOG15" at the checkout to get 15% off for being a PonyChops the Blog reader! If you don't have an Etsy account you can contact me about orders at: ponychopsshop@gmail.com

All of the characters here are copyright of © Cartoon Network. This is just my own fan art & I am not associated with Adventure Time or Cartoon Network in any way.

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Desk of the Day - 02/05/13

Today I'm working on a digital portrait. I'm loving doing this girls hair and make up! I need to make her lips a little smilier and add some more tone to the hair. I can't wait to start adding her accessories & her little doggy friend.

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Game Of Thrones Treasury!

Lately I've become a bit of a Game of Thrones geek. I'm not a fan of fantasy type shows or anything with dragons (or Sean Bean, lol) in really, but after a few months of listening to everyone go on about how awesome the show was I decided to give it a try. I'm now completely hooked! I've even started reading the books.

It's great catching up on a show that already has a couple of series out, because it means I can watch them back to back and become a recluse for a few days. Now I'm up to date with it all I hate waiting a week between episodes! So while I've been waiting for the next episode, I've been browsing Etsy for lots of Game of Thrones loveliness. Here's my favs:

1. The Black Cat Pendants / 2. kateslittlestore / 3. The Designers Nursery / 4. Lullaby Mobiles / 5. Paper Paper / 

6. Captured My Soul / 7. Fencing & Archery / 8. Haz-matic Designs / 9. BCoArt

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