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Even if you weren't in London over the weekend I'm sure you will have seen news coverage of a giant image of Queen Elizabeth II being projected onto the facade of Buckingham Palace as part of the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations.

'Face Britain' is a project created by Prince Charles' Foundation for Children and the Arts which invited British schoolchildren aged between 4 and 16 years old to submit a self-portrait to be used to form the Royal montage. Its always lovely to see how children choose to portray themselves and with 200,000 artworks submitted, the inspiring galleries on the Face Britain website are well worth a visit to see the wonderful diversity of children's creativity. 

Image: Face Britain

I was just about the snooze off last night when a direct message popped up on Twitter to tell me the exciting news that I'd been 'Elfed'!

I met Cathy Brumby (also known as Ziggy Shortcrust) on Twitter a couple of weeks back after a mutual friend suggested I seek her out. As well as working in the amazing Seven Stories, the national home for children's books in Britain, Cathy's alter ego Ziggy writes a blog which includes lots of posts featuring her Five Minute Face's. You really must pop over to her blog to read more about these wonderful Elfish drawings which Ziggy creates directly from the profile picture of anyone who asks. Isn't that lovely! 

So, having put a request in myself a couple of weeks ago, may I introduce you to 'Rose Elf'.......

Tucked away in one of the creative areas of Newcastle is a gallery and studio dedicated to all things print and print-making. If you are familiar with the area you will know I am speaking of the fantastic Northern Print where you can view and purchase prints in the gallery and create and learn about printmaking in the studio.

During the school holidays Northern Print run the Inky Print Club, a drop-in session which is open to children (and their accompanying adults). Its an opportunity to try different printing techniques whilst creating a piece of artwork to take home and treasure. Master M and I are always really pleased with the results of our efforts and having used them to make lovely notecards I approached Northern Print about a possible collaboration. I was delighted that they were keen to promote my service to families attending the February Half Term event by offering the opportunity to purchase bespoke notecards featuring prints created during the session. This will hopefully be a collaboration that continues and develops so I will keep you updated.