Its's a jungle in here!

I am slowing trying to engage my brain back into the working world! The Christmas break was good but like any holiday it takes a while to get back to work! In the New year I will start to paint more pictures for my Nursery Art category , Baby Keepsake category and Kids Wall Art category category. I have also recently added a new category to my site - Name Art category . I really like these prints as I use my illustrated alphabet to create the child's name. I also add Mum's name, Dad's name and brother/sister's name and date of birth. Each print is associated with an animal, for example there is a super hero cat whizzing through the sky, the name title of the print is Super Hero - John, Born- 24.2.2010 etc. These prints take quite a bit of work and are sent off site to be printed, because of this it can take a few days before dispatching but they are worth it! You can purchase my Name Art on both of my kids wall art site CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk

I am starting to wind down my work this week. Sales are still coming in but by the end of this week they should be all finished. I have had a great year, still learning about seo and online marketing, I think I will never stop learning in that area! My Google Adwords campaign was a success so I hope to continue it into the New Year. I want to thank all my customers for shopping on my children's wall art sites CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk . It means so much to me to receive all the postitive feedback and that my customers spend their time spreading the word about my children's wall art. Also knowing that so many children are enjoying my art, now that makes for a good Christmas! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Unicorn Theatre Advertisement I have been incredibly busy recently, so much so that I haven't had time to blog or twitter. I am always looking for advertising opportunities and have been working on a google adword campaign which has taken up a lot of my time. I am going to write a dedicated post about my google adwords campaign as it has taken me a long time to understand how to use adwords. I have also decided to do a nice little ad with the Unicorn Children's Theatre in London. It will be on the back of all the programmes for the Cinderella pantomine, running from 6th Dec to 24th January. I don't really do any paper advertisements as I think my advertisment budget is best served online. The reason I went for the Unicorn Theatre was I felt it was my target audience and a nice way to spread the word about my online shop in the UK - CarlaDaly.co.uk I would love to hear from anyone who runs a adwords campaign, I would great to hear how others have cracked the google empir...

I have been busy working on optimizing my website and running a Google adwords campaign (I will write a post about the joys of both these activities soon!) in the middle of this I have worked on some new wall growth charts for CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk These are a large print 132 cm x 32cm, laminated for durability. I really want to expand my children's artwork range next year, I will still work with the animal theme but take them out of the jungle and put them in some other fun surroundings! It is hard to get time to sit down and paint but the New Year is going to be my time for this. In the meantime let me get on with my Christmas orders! I hope you like the new wall growth charts and I will write a post about my new range of children's art in the New Year. I am running up to a 20% sale on both my sites, CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk for the Christmas period.

Main page CarlaDaly.co.uk Okay, don't moan, I know I am talking about Christmas early but unfortunately you have to when you run an online business. Christmas time is any retailers big selling time and I am no exception. I am getting in the spirit at CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk and have put up my Christmas sale and my main pages have a Christmas theme, so I am ready for all my Christmas orders. Main page CarlaDaly.com For those of you who don't know my work, I offer a Christmas gift for a baby or kids that they will enjoy for the next few years or until they are ready to re-decorate! You can enjoy a range of nursery art prints , kids wall art , personalized wall art , baby keepsakes (great for baby's 1st Christmas) and growth charts . I offer free shipping on all orders worldwide! I also offer 10% sale on all gift wrapping!

This is an illustration I did some years back, a friend asked me to do her wedding invite, which I was delighted to do. They are very keen cyclists and they were getting married in the cutest church in the Wicklow mountains. They wanted something fun and this is what I came up with. A wedding invite wouldn't be something I normally do but this was for a very old friend of mine, I framed and signed the original and gave it to them as a wedding gift.

My last post created a lot of interest which was really lovely to receive. I just wanted to show you a photo of where all the creative action takes place in my house. I have recently moved into a new house and we converted the attic into an art studio for me. It is lovely up there you can hear Dublin port and the noise of the city from it. The right is a built in unit with lots of storage for all my prints, it is brilliant, I can also work on the top of the unit. The left is my computer desk, where I do all my yucky seo from! I can also paint on this unit. Pretty compact, but very functional. I would love to see other artist studios if you have an photographs, please post a link.

As you know I have recently moved into a new house. The first room you come into in the house is the kitchen, so I wanted the first thing you to be one of my pieces of art. I decided on my zebra print and got it printed on tile and placed it over my hob. It looks amazing. The company who did this for me was Gilroy-Tiling , the gentleman there (Kieran Doherty) was great. I did three 600mm x 800mm images on tiles, my giraffe print and my elepahnt print . One went over the hob and the other two went into my back garden/yard. What do you think? Leave a comment.

As you know my pet hate in life is seo (search engine optimization). I came across this site holding a competition for 6 months free seo, this is worth a lot of money. The gentleman who runs this company has helped with an seo issue I had. Thank you Mark! I thought I should pass on the good karma. So, any of you with a website you want to promote on the internet should enter. Apply here - 6 Months SEO Free

I am really tired! Yes, I have finally done the big move. It nearly killed me! I had to clean the house I was moving into from top to bottom, to get rid of all the builders dust, I then had to clean the house we moved out from. On top of all this myself and my brother are getting work done on my Dad's house. I am starting to think I need big projects to feel complete! My mother was a hoarder and while emptying out my Dad's house we were brought back to our early years with some of things she had collected. One thing I found which I thought I might share with you was a pop up book I created during college. I always loved pop up books and would love to have done one commercially but it never happened. So here in my handmade, one of a kind, pop up book- Count with Warty Witch! I remember this being quite a difficult project but I loved every minute of it. When I left college I had a Warty Witch book published by Oxford University Press. I never made any money on it but she was a g...

My seo company thought I should be on YouTube. Supposedly your nobody if you are not published on YouTube, or so I am told! So my nursery wall art site has been added. I think it is cute, what do you think? I really welcome all comments on my blog, if you feel really inspired please leave a review on- YouTube

I haven't painted in ages, so my creative work is on hold at the moment (this is about to change!). Sales are ticking away but my creativity has ground to a halt. This isn't unlike me as I can do this a few times in a year. I do enjoy switching off, taking a look at what else is out there, get some new ideas and start creating with a new va-va-va-voom! One thing I continuously struggle with is that dreaded seo and advertising of my sites. Also translating hits on my website into sales. It drives me crazy! My CarlaDaly.com site is working very well and I have a seo company working on it. It is my CarlaDaly.co.uk site that I am struggling with a bit. I did have an seo company working on it but they didn't really do much so at the moment it sits in seo limbo. My wish would be to sit painting all day and the business side of my company be handled by professional seo comapnies/advertisers. If only I could find the right one for my UK site. Anybody with any ideas please leave...

20% Sale on this children's world map. I must apologise for my lack of posting recently but I am moving house and studio next week. At last our extension/renovation is completed and the big move is on. My new studio is lovely, small but designed well with lots of storage etc. I can't wait. I the meantime please enjoy a sale on both my sites - CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk There is up to 20% off on some products! There is one thing, I am off on my first trip to Ikea tomorrow, yes, my first trip ever! I am really dying to see what is on offer. Don't worry I have my list!

The beginning- Chillin' I don't know why but I started to think about giraffes today. Strange, I know but I always loved drawing giraffes and it was a giraffe image that started me off in my children's wall art business. I was really looking for a new project with my work when I had my first child - Timea. I wanted to start a business with my art that I had total control over. It was when I saw children's prints selling in Habitat, that I thought.... I could do that and.... BINGO I did! Off I went and produced, my still ever so popular giraffe print- Chillin' . So today I am celebrating giraffes and what one giraffe print did for me! Below, more giraffe products that sell on my sites CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk Giraffe Door sign Giraffe Growth Chart Giraffe Alphabet Sticker

I feel about as creative as a frog! I am temporary on hold at the moment, creatively I mean! My online sales are going well but creatively my art is on hold. I am building a new art studio in my new house, and I feel this will be inspiration for new art ideas. It is a lovely studio and hopefully I should be in it by September (forever the optimist!). So while my creative life is on hold and I am running around trying to pull a house together, my blogging, twitter etc have also come to a grinding halt. My sales online at CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk are still in full swing so if you order a print don't worry I am working hard on my shop and dispatching orders. So, please excuse me if my blogging has got a little slow but I will be doing lots of new work in September and will be posting photos of my new art studio. Oh I can't wait!

Background Illustration for my Twitter page I wanted to take the time to thank all my followers of this blog, my Facebook page and on my Twitter page . I recently revived my Facebook page and am now putting up posts on what I am doing during my day. If anyone wants to follow me on Facebook or Twitter it would be much appreciated. At least I won't feel I am writing posts to myself! It is always nice to know there are a few people out there interested in what I have to say. I am also interested in what you have to say so please feel free to write on my wall, or post a message on my Twitter page. It is a lonely old world as an artist, so, please let me know what you are doing on your Blog, Facebook or Twitter.

I woke this morning to a lovely email from a gentleman in Peru, Ricardo. Ricardo entered my competition for a zebra print and won one for his niece, Micaela. Here is Ricardo and his niece with my zebra print, isn't it nice that they took the time to take a photo and send to me? I hope Micaela enjoys her print!

Boat Trip Birth announcement print When I started to create my prints to sell I didn't realise I would develop such a large online shop. At the time I was torn between selling wholesale into shops or selling directly to my customers online. My online presence developed organically and felt a very natural way to sell my products but when I started I did approach a few retailers and online shops. One lady who ran a very nice shop called SimplyBaby.ie really loved my work, at this stage I only had a few prints on offer and we set up a meeting to look at them. She turned me on to the idea of personalising my art. I knew that this was popular in America but didn't think of it for the Irish market, which at the time was the market I was focusing on. I now sell my art worldwide, how things change! Jungle Fun Birth Announcement Print This was the beginning of my birth announcement prints, they are a lovely gift for a newborn. You can add baby's name, date of birth, weight, mum...

Home It is always nice to return home after a holiday though I feel like I have been treading water for the past week. I went straight into getting my orders out that had mounted up over my holidays and renovating our new house at the same time! We plan to move in August, so I have been working on my online shop and house renovation. Our house project is particularly exciting for me as I will have a new art studio in it. At the moment I work from two places, an art studio where I paint and a packing studio where I pack my orders do admin and computer work etc, etc. I feel my working life is a bit fragmented and can't wait to have everything in one place. I will post some photos when my studio is finished. I am having a good sale on both my sites at the moment CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk I hope you time to have a look.

Yes, I am still enjoying my holiday in Transylvania, I am located in the Carpatian Mountains in a town called Csikszerada. Wow, it is really beautiful. I had a lovely review of my work on an Irish website called MummyMaps that I thought I would share it with you. I also have a review and giveaway on Simple Stacies blog. I better get back to holidaying and be well rested for work next week. I have had lots of orders while on my holidays (the downside to online selling, my shop never closes!) so there will be a lot of catch up to do. Bye for now!

I am on my holidays in Transylvania posting this blog, I am having a great time by the way! One of my winners of my Zebra competition just emailed me with a link to her blog showing her and her winnings. I just thought I would share this with you, as it was such a nice thing for her to do. Here is her winning entry Aileen- 1. I love it, if I didn't why would I apply for this. 2. The illustration is really cute. 3. I can't find anything like it here. 4. I accidentally linked to your blog via Mundo and really love it. 5. Not my fault if I love it, your illustrations do. 6. There are 6 zebras there. 7. I think that prints going to look really cool at my bedroom. 8. and I think, I'll be able to showing it off to my little nephews & nieces. 9. Because I just can't copy paste the JPEG from your website and print it on my own, cause it doesn't taste original; while I prefer the original flavor. 10. I love colors. 11. Zebra smells bad but those in this print must be sm...

I have decided to take a break and am off to visit my husbands family in Transylvania. I just wanted to do a last post before I go with an update of my work. I am delighted to announce that I am licensing my work to the canvas reproduction company - Happy Spaces. They are launching a new online gallery for little people in July. You can go to their website and request to hear more about their launch. There will be 140 art pieces for children's walls for sale, not all mine I might add! Children's artists from all over the world will be represented. I can't wait to be selling my work with Happy Spaces, I think my images will look great on canvas (I hope!). Here is their link- Happy Spaces. Anyway, goodbye for now and I will leave you with an image of my husband and I on our holidays ;)

Well my competition was just great! I could never believe I would get such an interest and such wonderful comments about my work. I realized quite quickly that I wouldn't be able to choose a winner and asked a mummy/work colleague to choose the winners. She decided on these five (it was meant to be four!). I will also give a 10% discount to the other contestants. So, thank you all for entering and here are the five winners and their entry comments! Andrea- I'd love one of your free prints...please please! It's my birthday tomorrow (and at 32, I must be one of your oldest fan!) ...it would be a great pressie! Craig- I'm a kids teacher over here in sunny Thailand. Your poster would look awesome on my classroom wall. The colours are knockout. Please! Please! Make my classroom more beautiful and put a smile on my students faces. Laurie- I have used several of your prints to decorate my son and daughter's rooms. Jacob's favorite is Circus Lion: Roar, and Hallie...

I have at last added a wallpaper category to my online shop. Unfortunately it is only available to my U.K clients at the moment. They are produced by a U.K. company called Digitile. You have to order a minimum of four rolls and each roll is 500 cm high and 46.5 cm in width. I think these would look amazing as a backdrop to a bed or cot in a child's room or baby's nursery. Just having these images featured on one wall would make all the difference to your childrens bedroom. I will add more to the range as soon as I get a chance. I will keep you posted and please leave let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment. All opions welcome!

Four Zebra Prints To Win! Competition ends June 6th. I have four zebra prints to give away, just contact me here and let me know why you would like to win this fun zebra wall print! I will do a post on this competition later with some of the comments you made. Good Luck! I am receiving some great comments, PLEASE keep them coming, the more people enter the more fun it is. It is great to hear all these lovely things said about my work (not going to my head at all!) Don't forget your print will be sent to any destination in the world, a great gift for a child (or adult!) and fun decor for their walls.

Rolling ! I haven't quite been on a roll this week but have managed to finish my new growth chart - Rolling. I am trying to offer a larger range of growth charts to my customers and have been illustrating away on this new image to add to the range. The idea was in my head for ages and I just had to get it down on paper. It has taken me a couple of weeks to illustrate and will be for sale on my children's art online shop in the next week or so. I am also thinking of offering wallpaper to my customers. I would love to see my illustrations filling up a whole wall. I have to illustrate some new images for the wallpaper, so I am eager to get started. The company Digi Tile will be producing the wallpaper, their work is amazing. It would be great to hear your opinions on Rolling , it has been wonderful getting all your comments on my blog. I love hearing your thoughts so please leave some more!

New growth chart design to add to my Wall Growth Chart category. Yes, I have gone growth chart mad! I have had an idea buzzing around in my head that I just had to get down onto paper. I started the rough today, I want this to be totally opposite from my cat growth chart in my last post. I want this to be very simple with strong bold colours. I never lost that excitement you feel as an artist of having an idea in your head and getting it down on paper. I used to be a bit more obsessive about my work, and would paint until the early hours to get an illustration finished. I am a little more controlled now and enjoy stepping away from a piece I am creating to do something else. Oh, the maturity of age! Anyway back to my growth chart, I will post the final artwork as soon as I have completed it. I hope you like it!

New growth chart design to add to my Wall Growth Chart category. This has taken me forever to do but at last it is finished. I feel like the lion on top of the chart- very happy! From the first post a few days ago to this finished growth chart, what do you think? The next step is to send it to my printer for a proof, then if I am happy with the quality of the print it will go into production. I will let you know when it is available for sale on my online shops- CarlaDaly.com and CarlaDaly.co.uk PLEASE leave a comment.

New growth chart design to add to my Wall Growth Chart category. Phew, is right, it has taken me a long time to get my new growth chart finished and guess what it isn't finished yet! I thought it would be nice to show you the progession of the chart. This is the first stage completed, the illustration of my image. The next stage (which I will blog about later in the week) will be the completed chart. I will have added the cm and inches to the growth chart and it will be ready to go to the printers. I would love to hear what people think about it so far? Please leave a comment.

World Map now available at my shop selling art for kids I have been illustrating two new growth chart designs, both are still unfinished! Where does the time go? I try and paint as much as I can, unfortunately time is restricted. I find this frustrating as I have to work on the other areas of my business. Alphabet wall art now available at my shop selling art for kids . I have managed to create three new prints, two are images that I have used on other products on my site, my world maps and my alphabet. These two new prints are now available in my Kids Wall Art category. Boat Trip new baby art keepsake print I have also illustrated a new image for my Baby Art Keepsake category. My baby art keepsakes are very popular and I really have to widen this range further, when I get the time. People love the personal touch that is created with these prints. You can add all the baby's birth details to the print- name, date of birth, weight, Mum, Dad, brother's and sister's name....

Above- How I fell this week! Last week everything was geat I was on a roll, creativity and sales were on a high. Well, I took a little dive this week, I had to dump my growth chart illustration that I had been working on and in the process lost over a weeks work, it drives me crazy when this happens! To add to this my seo company have not been doing the seo work they had claimed they were doing on my .com site selling nursery art ! Sometimes I could pull my hair out! On the upside, I have started on a new idea for my next growth chart illustration and have a great idea for a second growth chart, so everything isn't so black! It is good to struggle with a drawing as it makes your next one better. (I hope!) Relating to a blog post I did earlier about getting a licensing agent, I haven't done much on that front yet, but did add a page to my website about licensing my art . Please take a look.

Rough artwork for my next growth chart design. Wow, my week has been great. Sales on my online shops selling nursery art have been brisk. So, I am juggling kids, painting, packing and delivering orders, blogging and twittering! This week on the creative side - I want to create two new illustrations for my growth chart range. I am starting with a circus growth chart and am undecided about the second growth chart illustration. The first illustration I have been painting is on a circus theme, I have been illustrating it for over a week now and still have a lot more work to do. Crocodile growth chart You can see a very early rough of my illustration above. This shows you how I start my ideas. I work over and over on a black and white rough until my layout is decided. I then start to paint in the black and white line. For my growth charts I us traditional paint methods with adobe photoshop. I paint the image first and then I add the cm and inches with the adobe photoshop. For this c...