Just in time for Christmas we've got a new fun, festive and educational free download. Kids give the polar bear an ugly sweater by adding in lines of repeating patterns. You can draw them, stick on sequins, or here we even used pom poms! A cute project to help with pattern recognition. Print onto A4 or letter sized paper, or easily blows up to larger sizes if you prefer. 
Download here.

With Halloween just around the corner I thought we'd take a quick look at a few cool green monster inspired cake ideas! Starting with this amazing monster slime cake, recipe and video on tastemade. Decorated with spooky eye candy and black and green icing.

Decorate cupcakes with a quick and easy at home printable monster eye set available to download from our Halloween section here! Or for something a bit more tricky how about an edible green slime monster cake with oozing insides. Recipe available from Spotlight.
Happy Halloween!

July was a busy month as usual with school holidays and EOFY admin but, managed to fit in some new illustrations - sloths! Yay! There are a couple of cute new prints plus an adorable baby onesie and a fun hardcover notebook.

Are we alone? Be inspired by an other-worldly trend we're seeing more of lately - flying saucers.
Here are some other alien ideas we love - a UFO made of a paper plate, half of an acrylic ball and a pom pom. A fun kids activity great for party decorations too. Delicious looking UFO cupcakes by Donna Hay. The recipe is no longer available but you can use this very similar step by step on Sweetest Kitchen.

Maybe you are waiting to find out the gender of your little one, it's a shared bedroom or just want to stay away from the traditional blue for boys and pink for girls? A gender neutral nursery is very easy to achieve without appearing bare and bland. Here are our five top tips for a fun gender neutral nursery.

1. Pick a theme that is gender neutral. Themed rooms are always fun. Simply pick something gender neutral such as animals, mountains, under the sea, fruity or twinkle little star.
2. Start with the furniture. As it's probably the most expensive item in the room so start with a crib you like, then change table, storage and seating and build your other choices around that. Aim for furniture that has straight lines and smooth surfaces.
3. Wood adds warmth. Adding wooden elements is a great way to add warmth to a room especially if you are going with a neutral color palette for the walls.
4. Add a statement piece. Emphasize a single element for impact like beautiful artwork, wall paper or a mural. A statement making piece will add drama and interest to a gender neutral nursery. 
5. Black and white always works. Add in some bright pops of colour with artwork and furnishings for a bold beautiful nursery.

Just in time to make a beautiful Mother's Day gift idea - we have a selection of six new limited edition prints. Each one is taken from an original abstract painting by Australian artist Jennifer Bell and there are only ten of each at 16x16" or 16x20" size so get in quick! Shop now.

I was a little surprised to see the platypus come out as the worlds weirdest animal, maybe because I'm so used to sketching them and seeing them at our local wildlife park. But, when the platypus was first sent back to England from Australia they thought it was a joke and someone had sewn a duck bill onto a rat!
Here's a little video the kids might love - 21 World's Weirdest Animals.