blog relaunch....coming soon.

who needs an eye tattoo?

So I've been seeing this craze happening and well I'm too poor and not willing to actually go out and get eye tattoo makeup done. That is until I saw this little tutorial....

I think the result is fabulous! Be sure to check it out the post at DesignbyReBirth's blog

retouching wonder

my retouching rates - mention this blog for a 25 % discount on all orders!

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I absolutely adore working on Photoshop. Be it retouching images or creating artworks, I can be working away on it for hours.

yes this girl was gorgeous to begin with, but there's something just absolutely stunning about symmetry. 

this is a little collection of retouch work I have completed for a range of clients the world over

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Here's a collection of digital artworks...once upon a time these started as run of the mill photos!

If you are after your images retouched or worked into a new work of digital art please do give me a bell :)

You can check out more of my portfolio by either visiting my Model Mayhem page or visiting my carbonmade page

moo - I ♥ u

I arrive at work to find this little parcel sitting on my desk

Have any of you heard of moo.com??


Well if you haven't, it is one of the cutest design and printing companies out there. I was so lucky that I managed to score some free business cards from them.

The cards I ordered were their standard business cards. They also have rounded cards, mini cards, postcards, greeting cards and even stickers!

I received 50 cards in total for free, only paying for shipping cost (thank you Royal Mail for being so economical *grins*)

There is a promotional black strip at the bottom of the front of the cards. A small price to pay for such high quality printing.

When these cards run out, I will definitely be looking at ordering some (non-promotional) cards from Moo!

What do you think of them?

chicken okonomiyaki happiness ♥ (aka Japanese Pancakes)

Who here loves okonomiyaki?

For those who are staring blankly at their screen – it's a Japanese pancake J

I must admit I absolutely ♥ okonomiyaki, particularly seafood okonomiyaki. I thought I'd make my own, but since the mister at home doesn't really do seafood I'd try a chicken version. After searching online for a recepie and also looking at the one at the back of my okonomi sauce bottle, I saw there were just soooooo many different ways of creating this dish.

Here's my take on chicken okonomiyaki J

(serves 4)

Ingredients:

Pancake mixture:

1 ½ cups self raising flour

1 sachet dashi

1 cup water

6 leaves Chinese cabbage – shredded

 2 shallots – finely chopped

½ BBQ chicken – shredded

To serve:

Okonomi sauce

Japanese mayonnaise

Bonito flakes

 Method:

1)      Dissolve the dashi in the water

2)      Sift the flour into a mixing bowl

3)      Add dashi, water and eggs to flour – mix well to form a smooth batter

4)      Add cabbage, shallots and chicken – mix well

5)      Spoon approx 2 ladles of mixture onto a frypan

6)      Fry over a low heat until bottom of pancake browns

7)      Carefully flip over and cook until both sides are brown

8)      Serve with a line of Japanese mayonnaise and okonomi sauce squirted on top and bonito flakes

9)      Enjoy! J

If you're wondering what on earth, dashi, okonomi sauce, Japanese mayonnaise or bonito flakes look like? Here's what they look like. You can find them at specialty Japanese grocery stores such as Tokyo Mart  (Northbridge Palza - http://www.northbridgeplaza.com.au/) or the Japanese foods section of large Asian grocery stores and some supermarkets.

Dashi

Okonomi Sauce

Japanese Mayonnaise 

Bonito Flakes

more cute paper notebooks

Well after making my mini notebook yesterday, I decided to make some a little more practical in size. One is made from another art postcard, the other 2 are made from digital scrapbooking patterns printed on cardboard that I had lying around.

I never need to buy another notebook again!

♥

cute little paper notebook

I recently discovered this very cute and simple tutorial for making mini notebooks out of playing cards http://www.elizabethabernathy.com/2011/01/tutorial-tiny-playing-card-book.html

Though playing cards are cute, I wanted to see how it would turn out if I substituted a playing card for one of the multitude of postcards I've got lying around the place.

This is my first attempt at it, and it's really mini - 4cm x 5.5cm. Also instead of having uniformed folded pages I ripped pages to give it a bit more of a rustic look.

Let me know what you think :)