Friday, February 27, 2009

Do you O or U?






What do you call your Mum? We did two versions of this card for people who have moms as well as the people who have mums. I remember when I was little and the film "A Mom For Christmas" was on television. I thought it was such a funny word because so much emphasis was put on the oommm, like a religious chant or something. When you purchase this card from Able and Game you have the option of choosing the spelling and with Mother's Day less than a month away in the UK and Ireland you might need to start planning a breakfast in bed menu for your own world's best mum.




Monday, February 23, 2009

Fancy a dip?





Maybe this card should read: “thanks for scaring me half to death” because I got pretty scared when my Mum did this to me as a child. However I can now swim and don’t have a fear of going for a dip in the ocean, so I ended up all right. My memory of this was on the Ninety Mile Beach in East Gippsland and Gareth’s is from the south of France. We now have six Able and Game Mother's Day cards available from our website including this one. Have a look and tell us what you think.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Mummy McDonalds






Gareth and I worked out that over the years your Mum probably cooked you over 6000 meals. We thought that feat deserved its very own card to say thank you. Gareth said his favourite Mum meal was chicken in white sauce. One of my favourites was the Okinomiyaki my Mum made for Sunday night dinners. The main reason I liked it was because it meant my Dad wasn't making Fish Finger Stir Fry, the meal my Mum still raves about how fabulous it was. In my Dad's defence he did make a mean lasagna.

This is one of my favourite Able and Game cards, mainly because I enjoyed drawing all the food. The hamburger comes from a meal we used to have called Mummy McDonalds. Growing up in Gippsland, the closest McDonalds was about 2 hours away, so we didn't have it much. To make up for it Mum used to make home made hamburgers, including making all the bread rolls from scratch and called it Mummy McDonalds. I remember the rolls sitting up in front of the open fire proofing and getting all excited and we would often plead with her to make it for dinner on a regular basis.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Beautiful Birds






I decided four cards was enough to form a range and so Beautiful Birds is now a range. I spent a while playing around with the colours and realised two colour combinations work really well. I think the dark and pale pink and the black with green and pink are my two favourites. I'm looking forward to making more, designing flowers and creating patterns in the birds tail and wings is really fun. They will be up on our Etsy site really soon and if you're a shop, they are already up on our wholesale site.

Oh and a big thanks to Jena over at Modish for featuring Able and Game today. Gareth just loves being called my honey!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Birds, trees and Mother's Day glee!






Gareth and I looked in our diary and realised how soon Mother's Day is in the UK and Ireland when you take into account the 7-10 days for cards to arrive on time. While I should be spending all day drawing sweet and charming Mums I took a little break to draw this birdy card. It will be part of a new range of Able and Game cards featuring birds and flowers for when you want a pretty card that doesn't have an occasion attached to it.

In the mean time, if you're in the UK or Ireland and are thinking about Mother's Day we have three cards available in the Etsy shop with more to come.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

What's Next? Mother's Day!





With the sickly feeling of too much chocolate and too much love almost worn off we look forward and ask what is next for Able and Game? Mother's Day is the answer of course. With the special day sprinkled across the year for different countries we have already started listing them. In Australia Mother's Day is on the 10th of May, however for Gareth it is right around the corner as he is from Scotland and the UK celebrate Mother's Day next month, on March the 22nd. We have three cards already available on Etsy with more designs in the works.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Where can you get Able and Game cards?





Brunswick Bound is located at 61 Sydney Road in Brunswick, Melbourne on the same side as the Spotlight shop. They have a great range of art book and stationery from Australian designers.

Betty Mim is located at 167 Darby Street in Cooks Hill, Newcastle. They have a focus on non mass produced items, independent labels and local designers.

The Hive Gallery is at 25 Lonsdale Street in Braddon, Canberra. Hive Gallery sources high quality Australian contemporary art, craft and design for all budgets so it can be appreciated by all.

Leeloo is an online boutique run by the charming Angela. Leeloo is an online community and store where treasures from emerging Australian designers and artists can become yours!

Tender Loving Empire is our newest stockist and we are super excited because they are located on NW 1720 NW Lovejoy #109, in Portland, Oregon in the USA! They are a purveyor of things artistic and not only have a store, but also do custom screenprinting and have a record label.

ableandgame.etsy.com is where we are currently selling out cards online, but plan to have our own online shop up and running on the website really soon. Gareth is working hard on getting all the back end computer geeky oohlala coding done while I'm working on the design.

Rose Street Artist Market is located at 60 Rose Street in Fitzroy, Melbourne and we have a stall there every Saturday. This Saturday is Valentine's Day so we will have lots of cards available, and it isn't going to be 47 degrees, it says it is going to be a lovely 28 degrees, just perfect some Rose Street shopping, then a long romantic lunch on Brunswick Street.

If you're interested in stocking our cards you can go to our wholesale section and sign up for an account.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Help out a cute bald guy





This little guy has been getting a little bit of attention over at Etsy, in fact he has been entered into a beauty contest of sorts. The closest he has ever come to winning one was drawing the Community Chest card in Monopoly, coming second and spending the $10 to pay rent on someones Old Kent Road property.

Lucky this competition doesn't see him parading around in a swimsuit while Jennifer Hawkins, Roberto Cavali and Donald Trump Jr mark him on how big his smile is and how shiny his skin looks. You get to vote and let me tell you, there is some stiff competition. If you're a member of Etsy you can
vote, if not it doesn't take long to join. This little guy wants to parade around in a sash and let the world know he is beautiful!



I have drawn the Valentine's Day competition. In a weird twist, Alex, who won the comp I had last year won again with the blog comment, and Marie won the mailing list section. Thanks for everyone who entered!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Giveaway!





To celebrate the launch of Able and Game and our new range of Valentine's Day we are having a giveaway. The details are as follows:

How do I enter?
Join up to the mailing list or leave a comment on this blog post.

What can I win?
2 Valentine's Day cards of you choice from our Etsy Shop. We will draw a winner from the people who sign the mailing list and the people who leave a comment, so you have two chances to win if you do both. We currently have 22 cards in the Etsy Shop for Valentine's Day that you can chose from, by next Tuesday there may even be more.

I live overseas, can I enter?
Yes, we will post to anywhere Australia Post allows.

When does the competition close?
Tuesday the 10th of February at 12 Midday Australian Eastern Standard Time.

If I win, will my card arrive by Valentine's Day?
If you respond to the winner email and give me your address by Tuesday afternoon AND you live in Australia, most likely. If you're overseas it wont arrive by Valentine's Day. But a Valentine's Day card a few days late is still as sweet.

How do I join the mailing list?
There is a link on the left sidebar where you can join.

If I join your mailing list will you send me lots of annoying emails and give my email address to people who have $5 billion they need to get off their hands?
No. We wont give your email address to anyone ever and we will only send a newsletter out once a month. If you don't want to be on it anymore, you can easily unsubscribe.

Can my blog comment be anonymous?
No, you need to have some way for us to contact you, otherwise we can't notify you that you won.

How will I know I won?
You will recieve and email asking for your address and which cards you want from the Etsy shop. You don't need to purchase the cards from Etsy, just let us know the names of the cards. We will post the winner on the blog on Tuesday afternoon, if you have a blog we will post a link to your blog also.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Become a fan on Facebook






You can now become a fan of Able and Game on Facebook. Click this link and it will take you to the page where you can join up. It will give you regular updates with information on new products, sales and giveaways.

Monday, February 2, 2009

20 cards available





We have rammed the Etsy shop with 20 different cards for Valentine's Day. There is something that will appeal to everyone, from the cynical romantic through to the mushy gushy Notebook loving romantic.