Giveaway time! From the Imagination of Lady Snail

Christmas is creeping up, and I’m getting super excited! For the next few weeks I’m going to be holding weekly giveaways on Hiphopsideproject, with items ranging from jewellery, to stationery, accessories and crafts. They’re my Christmas presents to you guys for reading my blog this year :) All the giveaways have been generously donated by their makers, and they’ll all be super easy to enter. So, let’s get this show on the road…

Today’s giveaway comes from Debbie of ‘From the Imagination of Lady Snail‘, an illustrator pal of mine. I first was introduced to Debbie’s work at a craft fair in Manchester, since then we’ve become local craft buddies and you’ll be seeing us sharing stalls at a few of this year’s Christmas markets!

Tell us about what you do!

Hello Everyone!
My name is Debbie and I am an illustrator and printmaker. I currently live in my hometown of Huddersfield and I have a little working space in the living room with a ‘doing desk’ and a computer desk. Drawing plays a big part in what I do, it is where all the ideas start. I draw from observation, things I do or what I see/hear or from my imagination.

I like to create characters with little stories in the hope they will one day become a book of sorts. Once I have played about with the ideas in the sketchbook, they are often made in to screenprints or other printed goods involving paper/fabric or anything else that is possible to print on. I sell my creations in my Etsy shop!

Who’s your favourite artist/designer of all time?

It is hard to just pick one so I am going to be cheeky and give two – NO – three! I would say Raymond Briggs, Shaun Tan and Oliver Jeffers. There are lots of other people that I could list – maybe next time.

That’s so cool that you like Raymond Briggs, too! I grew up reading and rereading Fungus the bogeyman :) Do you collect anything?

I had to think about the answer to this one! Initial answer to this question was going to be no but the true answer was staring me in the face! BOOKS – mainly children’s books or illustrated ones and also a few about nature/animals.

There are a few signed ones in there – one signed by Oliver Jeffers but nothing ultra rare and no first editions. I nearly started a collection of ticking clocks this summer after I found a beautiful one with a nodding chicken on it in a local charity shop but the husband decided it wasn’t such a good idea. The tick-tocking drove everyone in the house up the wall except me – I am now not allowed to wind the clock to get it going so the chicken no longer nods which is sad but it is very pretty to look at.

And finally, what’s your favourite thing about Christmas?

Another hard question – first of all I like decorating the tree/house – there are loads of decorations, old, new, rescued and handmade ones. It takes me a long time to decorate the tree, remembering where each bauble came from or who made it. But overall the best bit about Christmas is seeing friends and family as everyone travels to get together and these get togethers often involve food – lots of nice food and drink.

Thanks so much Debbie!

Debbie has decided to give away one of her adorable screen printed rain cloud purses!

“Mid – 2010, I designed my first fabric tessellating pattern using my raincloud characters. At the time I was living in Manchester – the city of rain – and it is a theme that can often be seen/found in my work or sketchbook.

These naughty rainclouds like to see the world and the best way to do this while causing mayhem is to travel around on the side of a purse. The design has been screenprinted on to calico using printing inks.

The purse is lined with up-cycled cotton fabric and is about 14 cm wide by 11 cm (6 inches by 4 inches) tall.

If you are the lucky winner of this giveaway please let us know which colour way purse you would like – bright blue, dark blue or grey OR one will be picked at random.

It will be wrapped and posted in suitable protective packaging to keep it nice and clean. The purse clouds do not like water and are a little bit allergic to washing machines, so I would recommend that you dib-dab the purse clean with a damp/wet sponge or cloth.”

To enter, simply leave a comment here telling us what your favourite item in Debbie’s Etsy store is!

For extra entries you can do the following:
- Tweet a link to this giveaway, then come here and leave a comment saying you’ve tweeted!
- Follow this blog and leave a comment here saying you have (there are subscribe links in the sidebar!)
- Blog about this giveaway/ Share it on tumblr, and then come here and leave a comment saying you have :)

That’s a total of 4 ways to enter! Wowzer, get going! :D