Spreading Joy Through Illustration

14 Illustrated portraits in 35 days…

Hello! Welcome back to my blog. It has been quiet around here for these last few months for as some of you may know I set out on a trip of a lifetime last September. Beginning in Prague and through Austria entering Italy, it was in many ways a dream come true gap-year so far (I promise to share more about it soon) but right now I am living alone in a small flat in a Tuscan beachside town in a state of lockdown. It hasn’t been easy to put it mildly. There have been so many emotions and moments of pure defeat but little by little I’m pushing through. At the beginning of Italy’s tough quarantine measures over a month ago now I decided to connect with my most engaged Instagram followers in a different way. If I was going to survive this new lifestyle there had to be something creative for me to do within these four walls and I knew that I had everything available to me to undertake a new and creative project unlike anything I’ve ever done before. So I asked a select few followers to send me a photo of themselves that I could turn into an illustrated portrait of them. In an effort that spanned over 30 days I took up the challenge of sitting behind my laptop daily, stylus pen in hand, drawing tablet at the ready and Adobe Illustrator at my fingertips to create something meaningful for them to cherish and something that I hoped would take all our minds off the news headlines. Today I completed this project and I’m super proud of all 14 portraits I managed to create. It has been a true labour of love. The hashtag for this project was #spreadingjoythroughillustration and if you would like to head over to Instagram you’ll find lots of cool things about this project including a funky new process video I just uploaded. In reality I had so much fun bringing joy to people all around the world and I would consider myself truly blessed to have had this opportunity. Just as musicians are continuing to take to social media to entertain us during these difficult times with their voices, this was something I felt I could contribute to the world to hopefully bring a smile to someone’s face.

So here are all 14 portraits for you to see. Stay safe, keep thinking positively and together we will get through this. Lots of love to everyone.

Introducing “Mail my way”

Snail Mail has truly experienced a comeback in recent times and we’re so thrilled that more and more people are putting pen to paper in our technological age. So today we’d like to showcase our newest product range called “Mail my way”, a series of illustrated letter writing sets to encourage you to send more mail and write on some very cute paper and envelopes. This first one is the “Mishka Edition” and features our signature panda.

Design process: Mishka is always hand-drawn first to start the ideas flowing. Then we use a bamboo stylus pen and create illustrations directly in Adobe Illustrator, add a pop of colour and the result can be seen below!

What is included in this pack:

• 6 x A5 lined letter writing paper
• 2 x envelopes
• 2 x envelope seals
• 1 x paper clip

All this for $10 AUD plus shipping.

“Mail my way” packaging is professional and our product is of a high quality.

Visit our online shop to get your “Mail my way” kit today!

We’ll be at The District Makers Market this Sunday, 17th of June so you can shop directly from us then if you’re in Melbourne!

Snail Mail Challenge

I participated in a letter writing challenge as part of International Correspondence Writing Month (aka InCoWriMo) where we had to mail out a postcard or letter every day in the month of February.

I wanted to share some of my outgoing mail with you and say I really enjoyed taking part but feel like we really have become a society too dependant on technology. It felt so great to pick up a pen and write to a stranger or friend. I look forward to trying this again next year!

Happy snail mailing!

Merry Christmas!

Just popping in to wish you and your loved ones a very Happy Christmas!

May you have a splendid day surrounded by love, a day filled with great food, joy and laughter.

Christmas Events

Sorry for the lack of updates on here, dear friends. Somehow time just got the better of me.

I’m excited to share that this month, the very last in 2017, we’ll be at two Christmas events in Melbourne where you can buy our products. The first is happening this Sunday December 10th, at Sir William Fry Reserve in Highett. The event is called Carols by Kingston and for the first time we’ll be selling from inside a marquee!

We’ve been super busy getting everything ready for what promises to be a very exciting night filled with handmade goodies, gourmet food, cheerful carols and celebrity appearances. Please come along if you can! We’ll be there from 6.30pm until 10pm.

These are just a handful of products that you could expect to find when you shop at our stall. Your support means the world to us and we always get such a kick from interactive directly with our customers.

The second event this month is happening at Clarinda Community Centre on Friday 15th of December from 5pm – 9pm as a twilight Christmas market. We’re just as excited to be part of this smaller event.

Hope to see you at one of these great events soon! Have a lovely weekend!

Naira

Cute Parcel of Birthday Love

We’ve shown you our other two themes for “Cute Parcels” and today we’ll showcase the Birthday-themed goodies you can choose from to make your very own cute parcel. Remember, you choose one item from each category (four items in total plus we include a special FREE GIFT), then securely checkout with PayPal. We’ll create a lovely package of your selections and ship it to you worldwide. It’s very simple!

For the “Cute Parcel of Birthday Love” we have these products for you to pick from…

Greeting Cards:

Stickers: 

Mini Cards:

Gift Tags:

Has something caught your eye? Don’t forget that you can add a “Cute Parcel” to your shopping cart and mix it up with other products from our Online Shop before checking out! We sell stickers, postcards, greeting cards and wall prints on our website too.

Take me shopping!

Mishka’s Message

With everything going on in the world right now, we felt compelled to post this.

Pour yourself a cup of tea and don’t worry, it’s going to be ok. Hang in there.

Monthly Stationery Club: Mishka Mail

Where did the first 13 days of 2017 go? It feels like just yesterday when we were eagerly anticipating the countdown to the New Year with champagne in hand and now suddenly it’s almost half way through January! Hopefully everyone’s had a great start to this year so far.

We have planned out our Mishka Mail kits for the year and wanted to let you know the themes in advance. Drum roll please…

January – Love/Romance

February – Travel

March – Birthday/Easter

April – Europe

May – Graduation

June – Motivation

July – Gratitude

We are so excited to bring all these kits to life over the next few months and can’t wait to see your reaction and receive your feedback.

Sign-up for January’s parcel entitled “Love Story” before we close subscriptions at the end of this weekend. We have uploaded the sneak peek as well, which can be seen here. Click the image below to go to our Mishka Mail website and subscribe to this month’s box. Cheers!