Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day everyone, I hope you can spend it with the ones you love. I'll be settling down soon with my other half and enjoying our dinner of homemade fried rice with pork and peppers in black bean sauce. I'm sure we will follow that with a glass or 2 of wine as we get cosy in front of the wood burner. It has been icey cold here today, even in the house, and Storm Dennis is blowing a hoolie out there!

I've been away from my blog for a couple of years now, but thought it was time I maybe came back to it. I'm looking at it and thinking about some changes, but we'll see how things go.

My new website and online shop has been up and running now and so far I'm happy with it. I'm still on Etsy as Deborah Dey and Ainjewelz Printables, but I much prefer my own website. I've always loved to share so I added a freebie page to my website, where every now and the I have been popping on a freebie.

Todays FREEBIE is a Colour Me Heart Mandala in honour of Valentines Day. If you would like this free printable just click here and the download page will open in a new browser window.

I always love to see how creative you get with my freebies, you can share your coloured image in the comments or if sharing on social media feel free to use the hashtags #DeborahDeyDesigns and #ddeydesigns. I look forward to seeing the colours you use :)

Kraft Paper Downloads and Digital Washi Tape

Something new from me is Digital Washi Tape and this set uses the same designs as my new Kraft paper and Tags downloads. I love how the white designs pop on the natural looking soft texture of the Kraft background

These are all available in my shop .

There will be more Digital Washi Tape coming soon.

If you use any of my downloads in your craft projects, please share what you have created with me and I will share your images on my blog for all to see :)

Black Friday and Sales in my Shops on Etsy

Time flies by so fast and as usual it has been ages since my last blog.... I just don't have enough hours in my days to do everything :)

This week I've been creating a few quick digital illustrations while having my breakfast to post on Instagram. I seem to be able to post regularly on Instagram and Facebook because it's just an image and comment, so much quicker than a full blog post, but I am going to attempt yet again to post more regularly on my blog.

I also post discount codes and if any of my shops have sales on Instagram and Facebook, so if you like what I create please follow me.... instagram - @ddeydesigns and Facebook.com/DeborahDeyDesigns

It's getting to be that time of year again and Christmas is getting ever closer and I can't believe it's Black Friday again already! Having said that I'll post below all Sales and discount codes that are currently running in my shops, so pop over and take a peek, you never know you might just discover  what you've been looking for, without even knowing you were looking for it lol

Deborah Dey Designs on Etsy 

Ainjewelz -Download Shop

Deborah Dey on Redbubble

Deborah Dey Designs on Zippi

That's all for now as I need to get back to what I love doing....being creative.... I'm busy creating some new downloads and I'll be back to tell you all about them when they are finished :)

New Grandson and Name Doodle

It's been a while since I last blogged but I've just been so busy with this and that...... I also started to type this post in December and it is now February!!!!....I'm such a bad blogger lol..........

One of the most exciting and amazing things to happen in the last wee while has been the birth of my new grandson Tommy, who arrived in time to celebrate Christmas with his family.

Tommys arrival meant it was time for me to go visit all my family for a few days and meet my new grandson, who is just so adorable. I had lots of granny hugs with all my grandchildren, love them all to bits.

I was so disorganised this year for Christmas that I did most of my shopping while on my visit so I could leave all their Christmas pressies ready for them to open on Christmas Day. I also finished off a name doodle that I had started for Tommy, I had to wait for him to be born so I could fill in his name, date of birth and time.  Tommys doodle features Humpty Dumpty, I totally enjoy doing these doodles, I find that I lose myself in them and it's quiet relaxing........I will be doing more of them :)

My doodles come alive when I get my watercolours out and start to add some colour.

To complete the doodle I framed it in a white square box frame.

Before I created Tommys Humpty Dumpty doodle I created an Owl and a Pussy Cat doodle, I have put it somewhere safe and can't find it. When I discover where this safe place is I will post a pic of that doodle too. i have plans to create more of these nursery rhyme doodles.

Wht Nursery Rhyme should I do next?

Challenging myself

After the struggle I've had to concentrate over the last couple of weeks, this morning while having breakfast I challenged myself to go back to an old design and re-work/change/update it and add something new to it. I scrolled through my files and picked a design at random.

The design file that I opened was Over The Hills and Far Away, this was created for Visual Communications class when I was at college away back in 2012/13. I remember the tutor had 2 bags with words in and we were to choose a word from each bag, my words were Rural and Texture. The texture was created with corrugated card which I already had a scanned file of on my pendrive, it reminded me of ploughed fields. This was, as far as I can remember a quick in class design that I created in Photoshop.

This morning the psd file was opened in Photoshop, there was no pressure on me to create anything in particular or for anyone apart from myself. I was just playing and getting those creative juices flowing again. I used all the elements that were already in the design, I changed colours and layout. then added an extra background layer, rotated it, changed colour and blending mode to give more interest to the top of the design. This done it reminded me of a sunset, so I added some sunrays. This is now the 2016 version of Over The Hills and Far Away.  I love this new version.

Which version do you prefer?

I might go back to a few of my other designs and re-do them, I feel the creative juices starting to flow again.

Over at Illustration Friday this weeks challenge is STRIPES......there's stripes in this design so I think I'll submit it :)

Struggling to concentrate...

Over the last few weeks I just haven't been able to concentrate on anything creative. I have a sketchbook full of ideas and several projects started but have just not been able to focus on completing anything!!! It's so annoying!

I also need to update my website and make it responsive as most folk are accessing the internet on their mobiles now. I read somewhere that Google is not going to list websites unless they are responsive.
What is a responsive website? I hear you ask. Well I need to create my website so that it "responds to" or resizes itself depending on the type of device it is being viewed through, ie. pc, tablet or mobile phone. I still also want to add a shopping cart to my website too, but one thing at a time as I need to have a clear totally focused head to do this lol

One thing I have managed to create over the last few weeks was a hand drawn watercolour name doodle for my great niece. Even this took weeks to do though as I kept leaving it and going back to it, but I finally finished it and gave it to my nephew and his wife. I was so pleased they loved all the wee images that I had incorporated within it that have meaning to them.

Winter is creeping up on us now and every day more and more geese are arriving at the Loch of Skene. No chance of a long lie here as Mother Natures alarm call gets me up every morning as the geese leave the Loch for the day and then return in the evening when it's time to cook dinner. I love watching them.



I had a few days away visiting family, which I totally enjoyed but now I'm home I miss everyone so much. Looking forward to my next visit though because grandchild no. 9 is due on 23rd December.

Now I better try and get some work done, hopefully stay focused on one thing and complete something :)

If I Had Wings....

.....is the title of the digital project I was working on for NEOS 2016. I created the wings in Adobe Illustrator and manipulated a photo for the background in Adobe Photoshop. I wanted this printed on an A1 floating acrylic and when it arrived from the printers I wasn't disappointed. Acrylic is not the easiest material to photograph and this photo really does not do it justice. The acrylic keeps the vibrancy of the colours and gives the whole image a depth.

If I had Wings greeting cards are available from my online shop along with quite a few other new creations. Pop over to my shop for a wee peek.

 I also created some big pencils that are in my garden

NEOS 2016 is over now and I had some lovely people visit my studio and met a few local artists too. Will I do it again next year? I'm not sure at the moment, but I did enjoy it.

Here's a short video of the cabin all tidy and organised for #NEOS2016



If you would like to pop into the cabin to see what I do, just get in touch so we can arrange a suitable time. It's always nice having visitors and a warm welcome awaits you.

its been a while......

..... since my last post but as always I've been busy busy busy.
This is a picture rich post!

The wee garden makeover is just about complete now, so we can enjoy it when the sun shines.

From an overgrown part of garden that we never used, the pampas grass (which I hate) was all removed

The large leylandi trees were thinned, to let the light in for other plants and the birch tree.

We built a log cabin

It's handy having the use of a tractor and trailer to collect 5 tonnes of gravel from the quarry

We laid gravel in front of the cabin

and around the greenhouse and herb border

 and also on the path to the bottom of the garden. What a difference this has made and it is a joy to sit here, when the weather allows. We even managed a bbq one day :) all our hard work has paid off!

I had my first bloom on my Passion Flower, this is planted in a large pot at the moment as I was unsure where to plant it. I think when the temperature drops I will put it in the greenhouse and hopefully it will survive till next spring, when I should have decided where it wil be planted in the garden.

 I collected my Neos 2016 directories which I have to distribute to help promote the event. The days are passing far too quickly now and the event will be upon me soon. I still have quite a bit to do to be ready to open my studio, which will be in the log cabin, but everything is coming together nicely so far. If you're in the North East of Scotland, Aberdeenshire between 10th - 18th September and you see the yellow NEOS signs outside studios and galleries etc. pop in and see all the lovely artwork and creations that local artists and makers will have on show. the directories are FREE and can be picked up from Tourist Info offices, libraries, shops, galleries, Dr's, vets, just keep your eyes peeled for them :) Fin me on page 33 of the directory, I'm number 60.

 I listed my OOAK Handmade Purple Rain Book in my Etsy shop this week as it is time for me to part with it. It's strange how something I create I just want to hold on to them for a while and other things I can let go straight away. Pop over to my Etsy shop to see more pics.

and finally...... A while ago I started to create a digital collage of my grandad and thanks to my mum for posting me a photo I was needing, it is now complete. Grandad Bertie will be hanging in the cabin throughout NEOS 2016 along with a lot of my other work.

I also created this graphic as my OH keeps saying "build a cabin and they will come" whenever he is talking about NEOS 2016. I will be using this graphic on my promotional material for the event.

I'm off to sit in the cabin to work on a project for NEOS 2016, hopefully get it completed this weekend and sent off to the printers.....................but I'll tell you more about this another time.

and still it rains.....

Where is our summer? We seem to be getting rain every day! Today is quite warm but we are still getting the odd rain shower, in fact it's absolutely bucketing down the noo. So today like many before, I am working in the garden when it's dry then running into the house to work when it rains. The weeds are loving this warm weather and rain though!

Work on the log cabin continues and we are slowly getting near to total completion. Last week I was half down painting one of the sides when the heavens opened and as I sheltered in the greenhouse I could of cried as I watched my hard work run down the side of the cabin wall. I eventually got the whole of the outside painted but it needs another coat, I just need a day of no rain to do it.

We now have insulation down on the floor and the last of the floorboards are going down tonight, so I will soon be varnishing a floor.

I received a couple of car stickers and postcards to start advertising NEOS 2016, so my car now sports a sticker in the back window. I'm getting excited and nervous about being part of this event and really need to find time to get creating some new artwork. 

Last week while nipping in and out of the house between rain showers I decided to give my wee egg safe a makeover. I've had it for a few years now and was getting bored of the cream colour. I had a tester pot of green emulsion, but it was not the green I wanted. I just mixed some acrylic paints into it until I got a colour I was happy with and it goes well with my light green kitchen wall (hard to see in pic). I couldn't find sand paper so used a nail file to rub off some of the paint on the edges and then gave it a wax. the wooden bead that is the wee door knob was then painted a deep dark red. I love it, it looks so much better sitting in my kitchen now.

...... and finally here is some summer colour, covered in rain drops. Beautiful red lilies that grow in the garden at the back of the log cabin. At the end of the season I'm going to have to split these so I can have some planted in the garden so I can see them so I can see them while I work in the cabin.

How has your weather been, are you having a summer?

A Log Cabin is born

We had been planning on building a wee summer house in the garden this year, so we have somewhere sheltered that we could enjoy the garden and the amazing view we have on those not so sunny summer days. It could also be a creative space for myself and my OH, who plays traditional flute and 4 string banjo. After looking online at summer houses our plans and budget grew a little and we thought we would get more use out of a log cabin, so a log cabin was ordered.

OH has been busy clearing a space in the garden and laying a concrete base. We took our time deciding on the best position for the cabin as we wanted to  capture as much sunlight during the day as possible, be able to see our beautiful view, see the sunset and hopefully in the winter see the northern lights.

On Saturday we unwrapped the very large package and started to work our way through this massive jigsaw puzzle pieces that would be our log cabin. We laid all the pieces out so we could work better, ie back wall pieces at back of base, side wall pieces at the side of base etc. and what happened?...... it rained! not just a shower but torrential rain with thunder and lightening! So there we were running about like loonies trying to find anything we could to cover all the timber pieces to help keep them dry.

I filmed a couple of wee time lapse videos of us working hard. 

The rain really held us back and the only thing we managed to do on Saturday was build the base frame.

We were up bright and early on Sunday and the sun was shining so building started, we worked hard as we needed to get as much done as possible. Near the end of the video I knocked the tripod over with a roof beam and didn't get it in exact same position and then because we were so busy I never noticed the battery in the camera had died.

We managed to get the front half of the roof on the cabin and the guess what?.....We live in Scotland and yes it's summer..... so it rained! Luckily we have a big tarpaulin to cover the back of the roofless cabin but this was not easy to put up in the wind and rain, but between us we managed.

Monday evening when OH came home from work the rest of the roof was put on

There's still some work to be done for it all to be finished, but I'll fill you in on that as it happens.

Yesterday morning it was raining AGAIN! So I grabbed my camera and went into the garden in search of some summer colour, a lot of the flowers are still in bud so I'm looking forward to them opening soon, but here's a few that are blooming at the moment.

A big daisy like flower, not sure what it's correct name is, but if you know please tell me.

delicate Love in the Mist

and finally my beautiful bright Lupins surrounded with buttercups.

What's in flower in your garden?