Will be back soon

Hello everyone. I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to post something. These last few months have been very hectic. I've been having major work done on my house resulting in me no longer having an office. I'm going to have a new super duper one (hopefully in the next few months) but as a result I've found I've been taking on more in house freelance work to get me out the house as it's very distracting with all the building work going on etc so the Me-MeLou brand has been put on hold until I get my creative space back. I also have a lot of work to do on Me-MeLou so I will post on the blog once I'm back and will announce it on Twitter etc. Hopefully it won't be too long. Thanks for all your support xx

Vintage Wallpaper

While demolishing my spare room and loft to make way for my super dooper office we discovered this wall paper. I'm guessing it's vintage........maybe late 50's. It's absolutely gorgeous and right up my street. It's such a shame the wall had to come down or I would've kept it. It's amazing what you find hidden away in your house!

Gorgeous!

My New Office

Here at Me-Me Lou HQ we're doing some major building work to extend our loft into an extra bedroom and a new super duper office for me! I did have my office in my spare room but I've out grown that now and need something a lot bigger especially as I want Me-Me Lou to grow into a big business. I'm now working in the kitchen as the spare room is semi demolished and It's not that easy to work in with all the distractions going on. I really can't wait for it to be finished. It's going to be brilliant!

This side will be my office!

Typography

Hello, I hope you all had a fab easter. Today I want to talk about Typography. When I'm designing I sometimes like to draw my own fonts as they are more personal to me and sometimes I can't find a suitable font for the look I want to achieve. It's quite time consuming but very worth while. I have a least 3 different fonts that I've drawn the whole alphabet for but am always adding to my collection. The right sort of font can really change the whole look of a card or print. I'm really picky about fonts and can spend a considerable amount of time looking for the right look. Maybe you can start drawing your own. Here's an example of mine below.

Congratulations Nicola and Darren!

Todays post is dedicated to my best friend Nicola and her partner Darren who are now the proud parents of little Hollie. Hollie was born on the 28th March at 1.30pm and was 7lb 1. Mummy and baby are both doing great and me and Mr G will be going to visit her tomorrow. I can't wait for a big cuddle! So this is for you guys massive Congratulations!!!!

A new card design from my new online range.........coming soon!

I love Garden Gnomes!

Something very odd has happened to me recently.............I've started an obsession with garden Gnomes! This is very bizarre as I used to hate them. If I saw them in someones garden I would cringe. With the weather being so nice recently I've been thinking about what to do with our garden and how to brighten it up (and thats where the Gnomes come in). I still shudder when I think of my garden full of different posing traditional gnomes in the dungarees or floral dresses but when I saw some gnomes in solid bright colours my thoughts changed. I can totally imagine a bright pink or bright green gnome living in there. I love bright colours so I think it's what the garden needs. Block colour Gnomes are really hard to find if they're not in candle form so I will probably have to purchase a couple of the traditional ones and spray paint them in my favourite colours. The metallic Gnome below is from heals and the two candle gnomes are from rice. The others are from Pinterest.

Ok I totally make an exception for these little guys as they are so cute!

Out and about

While I was on my little break in the Lake District I took lots of photos as I usually do when I'm out and about to help me with Inspiration. I'm inspired by everything.....even the food I eat! I wanted to show you what I get from the photos and how I make them into prints. The below show a couple of examples of what I do. Next time you go out, take your camera with you and who knows what you might see to inspire you!

This salad was my Lunch one day and I really liked the colours

A simple stone wall!

Happy Mothers day!

Happy Mothers day to all you wonderful Mothers out there. I hope you all have a lovely day. I will be meeting my Mum & Dad for a tasty lunch today ( somewhere between Leeds and Carlisle so neither of us have to travel to far ). I've been freelancing in Sheffield for most of the week so its quite nice not to have to travel all the way up to Carlisle and back when I've done a lot of traveling already this week. If my Mum's reading this I love you Mum you're the best Mum in the world :)

This is the card I designed for my Mum 

Scrapbooking

Today I'm working on designing some scrapbooking papers for my agent. For those of you who don't know what scrapbooking is, it's a very popular creative hobby, where people can create their own albums, cards and displays. They do this by using their own photographs & memorabillia along with papercraft products such as patterned papers, stickers, stamps, tags, pins, ribbons etc. I'm really excited about doing this as the prints are really fun so I'm totally in my element. Here's a few examples of scrapbooking below to give you an idea of what the finished product looks like. ( Images from Google sorry I couldn't find who did them originally to credit them )

Scrapbooking papers 

Made in yorkshire

Oh dear, I've been a VERY bad blogger recently. Usually when I don't blog it's because I have been very busy so I hope you can understand. I've been working very hard on making purses for my new stockists "The Bowery" in Leeds which is so exciting as some of the fabrics have been designed by myself! I have also been featured on their website as a made in yorkshire artist (see below) so I'm thrilled. I've also been trying to do my projects for the art & business of surface pattern design course which has been tricky with my workload (***Please note Module 3 starts in April so there is still time to register for this amazing course. Click on link for more info) and freelancing for one of my usual clients so I really have, as you can see been swamped but it's all really exciting stuff. This is what I have been dreaming of......I'm really excited.

Check out me on The Bowery website!! 

Happy Valentines day!

Well it's the big V today and I hope your loved one is spoiling you! I got a lovely set of sticky notes and tabs from paperchase. Now you might say thats a strange gift but for those of you who know me will know I love stationary so thats a perfect gift for me.  I love this day as I love looking at and being inspired by the many cards people get. I know I can spend hours finding the perfect card but I designed my own for Mr G this year as we were away in Austria visiting family last week and I've been working on my Surface pattern course AND I've got lots of purses to make for my new stockists The Bowery in Headingly, Leeds so I've not had time to venture around the shops and spend hours looking at the gorgeous designs out there. I hope you have a fantastic day everyone!

My card for Mr G

New designs for Pure

As some of you know, aswell as working on the Me-Me Lou brand I (Michelle Gemmel) am represented by Pure Illustration. I like to try lots of different styles in my greetings and surface pattern and Pure allows me to do this whereas the Me-Me Lou brand has a very specific look and feel to it. Pure have recently asked me to do some designs that can be translated into scrap booking which is so exciting so I thought I'd share with you some of the ideas that I've had for that. Hope you like them.

And the winner is.....

Hi everyone today I'm announcing the winner of the giveaway and as there was only one comment the winner is Roobarb! Congratulations to you! the 5 cards will be coming your way. Please email your address to memeloudesigns@yahoo.co.uk :)

Giveaway

I often buy cards, giftwrap and whatever I see with a print on to the point where my poor house is bursting at the seams so today I am giving away 5 cards that I no longer have use for. There's a mixture of cards  (one even has glitter on!) so you can either send them to someone or just keep them for decoration like me! To win them, all you have to do is post a comment about why you would like them and I will pick my favourite one. The winner will be announced on Wednesday.

All these cards could be yours :)

Artist-Yoshitomo Nara

My best Friend Katy got my a gorgeous notebook for my christmas present by one of my favourite Artist's Yoshitomo Nara. He is a contemporary Japanese Pop artist who lives and works in Tokoyo, Japan. I first saw his work when I went to an exhibition in Las Vegas and fell in love with it. His work is very simple and is often of people. I love simplicity, I think you can get so much across to people without having to go into a massive amount of detail. I couldn't find a website on him buy if you want to find out more about him or see his collection of works here's a link on amazon which has a few books on him. 

A bit of Valentines day Inspiration

With Valentines day fast approaching I thought I'd add some pictures of things associated with it. Perhaps it will give you some ideas of things you can make or do for you loved one or perhaps it will inspire you to do some designing! Me and my other half are always trying to out do each other in the gift department. I win in the card making side but he usually wins with the food! I think I will try and get him to make a cake like the one below for our valentines day. Enjoy!

Images from Pinterest

Some inspiring words

Today I thought I'd share with you some inspiring words that I found on Pinterest. I'm always one for staying positive and believing in yourself so I hope they give you some positivity to kick start 2012!

Happy 2012 Everyone

Happy new year everyone! I hope you all had a great Christmas break and are feeling positive about 2012. I had the best time over Christmas. I decided to have a full break as I had been doing loads of freelancing work so felt I deserved it!
I spent lots of time with my family in Cumbria and got to see my Cumbrian friends which was lovely. I ate lots of food, watched lots of films, did tonnes of shopping and generally enjoyed myself. It was bliss.
I took my Christmas tree down last night and the house feels so empty without it so now I think I need to invest in some twinkly lights to fill the space. I also need to get back into the gym.......but I'll do that tomorrow!
Keep watching the blog for a giveaway as I've been having a clearout of my inspiration boxes and have decided to get rid of some greeting cards that I don't need and I think they should go to a good home.
I hope 2012 brings you good health and happiness :)