www.beetletongue.co.uk

Beetletongue Art and Photography has arrived! The website dedicated to my art and crafts and my brother's wonderful photography has finally landed. The basics are up, photo's, work for sale, all that stuff, now all we need is a logo....

As for the name, I took a leaf out of Cosmo Cricket's book and went on one of those websites that generates random names for use in books, role playing etc. I only hope now that the name proves memorable!

MS Found In A Bottle

I'm not entirely sure what to call this slightly odd set of pictures. I have occasional bouts of insomnia, and on this particular occasion I ended up doing the first drawing in the set, inspired by a magnet on my mother-in-law's fridge (a clown's head), and a Chanel ad campaign. After that it sort of snow-balled....
All drawings were made using printmaking ink, fine liners, and pencil on pages from the Selected Works of Edgar Allen Poe.

August Birthday Cards

It's Dave's birthday today, so I was up for quite a while last night attempting to make a nice masculine-ish card to give to him. In the end I took a card blank from one of the new Basic Grey card kits, and rather than follow the instructions with the pack I added embellishments of my own, including sticky lace, paper flowers and some big black sequins which I love.

I am aware that despite my best attempts this card is not in the least bit masculine ( Perhaps the pale pink card stock lets it down!) but it's a reasonable attempt given that I'm not good at creating cards for men!

A super quick card created about ten minutes before I was due to be at a birthday celebration, using gift wrap from Paperchase and die-cuts!

Old Work Revisited

Finally! I've been going through my sketchbook and I've realised I've got tons of under developed work I want to have finished by the end of the year. Of course it doesn't help that I'm so easily distracted but I WILL do it!

Here's a taster...


Both pages from my sketchbook, recent development of pattern and colour studies for painting of Lakshmi (see earlier post). I'm really just stalling for time, but the exploratory stage is necessary, even if it doesn't really need to be so detailed!


I'm still toying with the idea of painting with real henna. The process of Henna application does have a genuine meaning behind it, my designs are for the most part made up, (though I have been buying Asian Wedding magazines) so please let me know if I've inadvertently included any dodgy symbols!

Happy Birthday Pop-up Card

First I'll start by apologising for the image quality, I'm not the best photographer, and of the 112 photos I took of this card these are the best.

This is the first time I've properly experimented with pop-up mechanisms, despite meaning too for ages. Its also my first time using individual alphabet stamps- as evidenced by the slightly wonky text. I love wood mounted stamps, there's something so vintage and retro about them. On Saturday I even bought a set of gorgeous French butterfly stamps mounted on dark stained wood- Ooh La La!

The only major problem is I have issues lining them up easily, I have one stamp that's tiny- yet mounted on a block so big it would fit about four stamps on there. This is why clear stamps are much easier to use, but not nearly as satisfyingly chunky and pleasing to the eye.

Incidentally, I have a question or two for anyone actually reading this. There are a number of Inkadinkado stamps I would like, the Halloween ones, the little note owl, and Brenda Walton's designs, however I live in the UK and can't find a decent stockist anywhere! Please could someone point me in the direction of a site with a good range of Inkadinkado stamps, ideally UK based. Also while we're on the subject of stockists, does anyone know where/if I can get Eco friendly stamps (that I don't have to carve myself- I'm not to be trusted with sharp things!) with mounts made from sustainable wood. Thank you!!

Soo... the card. It is fairly simple in construction, a rectangle topped by a half ellipse, folded over. I covered it in a foam stamped vintage-esque paper ensuring the pretty swirl was on the front, and inside I used a nice sheet of recycled but not shiny wrapping paper from a place in Peterborough called Reba. The pattern is cherry blossom, I had originally thought to either make a birds nest pop-up, giving the impression of birds in amongst the branches, or a set of butterflies flying amongst the flowers.

However, given I'm a newbie to the world of pop-up construction I decided for once to do something simple. I cut the paper so that the butterflies would stand one centimetre from the back of the card- I've since realised two would have been better. However for a first shot this isn't too bad, and as usual its spawned about a million new ideas for future works!

As with all pieces I make with hand cut-outs (so gotta get that die cutting machine!) I use an emery board to smooth the edges and refine the curves. The scalloping around the cards was the result of a little cheating on my part. I have scalloping shears and a notoriously un-steady hand (probably need a scalloping punch too- the other half is going to love me!), so I made lots of cuts into white card, and sandwiched each curved piece individually between the backing and paper covering the card. I painted the scalloping with pearlised white and iridescent gold paint.

Because this card is intended for a relative who has lost their sight the challenge is producing something for someone who experiences things primarily through their sense of touch. I chose the pattern for the front of the card primarily for its raised texture, the larger butterfly inside the card is foil embossed, giving an interesting smooth contrast to the matt paper used on the pink butterfly.

As usual I was heavy on the bling, ribbons, bows, pearl brads and paper flowers all came out to play on this card- the more contrasting shapes and texture the better!

This is a bad photo, but I couldn't resist a little artistic pretension, after all it pays to advertise!

It's a Pretty Cage, but a Cage None The Less

I saw an advert in a magazine recently, the caption read "my hands are jealous of the work my brain does." This really resonated with me, I've frequently bemoaned the fact that I can't create as fast as I can come up with ideas. Sometimes the process drives me mad, there never seems to be enough hours in the day, and as for sleeping... such a waste of time!