Set myself a challenge

I'm having a FAB time the noo.......lol.... (image rich post further down)

It's been a wee while since my last post, but I'm still here working away. I went through a week of not being able to concentrate and work on anything creative, so stepped away from my computer and had a wee break.  It's still quite cold and wet here but when the weather allowed I was out in the garden trying to tidy up and making the most of the fresh country air. I also enjoyed watching the wild rabbits that seem to have recently appeared, I think my garden might suffer a little this year. The vegetable garden has already been fenced of with rabbit netting, in the hope it protects our veggies,  once I can get them planted from munching rabbits

Another wee visitor to the croft is a feral cat. This little cat and what I think was it's mother had been sheltering in our barn over winter. We hardly ever saw them and they were very timid, but over winter I was putting a little food in the barn for them. We haven't seen the larger of the cats for a long time but the little one is making more appearances and seems to be getting braver. It's still very timid but will sit at a distance and watch me and my dogs. The dogs don't bother about it, just like they don't bother about the rabbits hopping around, they are far too busy playing with their ball and watching the horses in the field around the croft.

Anyway this is turning into a longer post than I had planned..... so let me speed this up lol......

I needed that creative break from my computer as I ended up doodling, sketching and making notes of ideas that started to pop into my head....one idea can lead to another and then another..... not all these ideas will get developed into design or art.

To start with I have set myself a challenge to use Adobe Illustrator to create a little vector image every day for 30 days.....I love a challenge lol ........... 6 days in and I am totally benefiting and enjoying  this little creative challenge...............but will I be able to keep it up for 30 days? 

Heres the images I have created so far, which I have posted to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook everyday and have been getting some very good responses.

My favourites at the moment are the teacup and the cheeky monkey. Some of these little vector images might never been seen again, others may appear as part of a larger design and others may be developed more.

Which one is your favourite?
Do you have any suggestions of other little vectors I could create?

Till next time bye :)

Photo to Art

I have countless folders of photos I've taken on my computer and I thought it was time for a little sort out and tidy up. Everything started off fine and I was deleting those photos that were not really worth keeping. Then there was the photos of people and places I miss, so tidying up slowed down as I dealt with memories and emotions. Then the tidying up stopped when I opened the photo below of the window in the Palace ruins in Dunfermline. 

I felt the urge to get creative, so Photoshop was opened along with my folders of textures and scanned in mono prints and sketches. I ended up with this little creation which is as yet untitled.

I feel this is a portal to another place, world, fantasyland or time..... or is it a portal to an emotion? the window to my soul or a window to my dreams? 

What is through the window? Who is through the window? What or who can we see?

It was good to get creative in Photoshop, I've missed it as I've been using Illustrator when I create my vector art. 

I've also had some fun with a few wee photo shoots with my wee photographic model Gregor. We had some snow so he put on his scarf and we went outside to play.

My oldest son suggested that wee Gregor should have a sword (my family all know how nuts I am lol), so a sword wee Gregor was going to get!I made him a sword and then I maybe I got a little carried away but here he is.............. wee Braveheart Gregor :)

Wee Gregor has his own album on Flickr called the Adventures of Gregor McGregor which I add all his photos to. He has washed his blue make-up off now, so I wonder what we will get upto next? He told me he wants to go surfing...........mmmm! well I'll see if I can arrange that for him sometime in the future

#CRAFTfest & new in shop

well its been a busy weekend as I've had 2 virtual stalls at CRAFTfest, (an online craft fair) one for my art and the other for my craft downloads. Craftfest is still open today so click the image below to pop over and take a look at all the fabulous virtual stalls. You can find me at Deborah Dey Designs and Ainjewelz 

Theres been a lot of promotion for the event on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+ in the week leading upto and over the weekend.
I'd like to say a big HELLO and THANK YOU to all my new followers, likers, re-tweeters, friends and customers that have popped over to both my virtual stalls :)

I'm told today we've to use the hashtag #SSPS (Shameless Self Promotion Sunday) so have created the image below to use today when networking.

I added new greeting cards to my shop, just in time for the weekend. These are mini prints of 

A Fox Tale of Mothers Love

Buy me Here

Seafood Dinner

Buy me Here

Happy Landings

Buy me Here

These are also available as keyings from this section in my shop

I even managed to find some time to create another Craft Paper Pack Download and add it to my download shop and I have started working on a few other ideas. My head is just overlowing with ideas at the moment.

Well it's time to do a little networking and use #SSPS and then as the sun is shining here in Aberdeenshire I think I need to get outside and enjoy it for a while. This was the view from my bedroom window this morning, theres still snow on the far off hills/mountains but I think Spring is on its way.

What have you been upto this week?

Who wants a FREEBIE?

I've been busy today creating a new Craft Paper Pack Download Scribbles and Circles, which has been added to my download shop

I also created a few tags as a FREEBIE which you can DOWNLOAD HERE these will let you see how the colours print on your printer. **colours may vary slightly depending on printer, ink, paper or cardstock you use**

I'm hoping to get some more creations added to both my shops in time for #Craftfest starting on Friday, so I better get my finger out and get busy :)

Have you got a stall at Craftfest?

Are you going to pop by and see the stalls and make a purchase or 2?

Have a wee read of the Craftfest brochure

Hope to see you all at #CRAFTfest

Another Puffin

The 3rd puffin in my series of puffin prints is called Happy Landings which is available to purchase from my online shop as A4 and A3 prints. Greeting cards will also be added to my online shop by the end of this week. I'm so happy with how this has turned out and it's my favourite piece of artwork at the moment.

I had a few issues with my printer so have a number of  A4 Half Price Whoopsie Prints of Happy Landings. All good prints but the blue background was not printing the same as my other puffin prints. 

Printing issue has now been sorted but if you would like to purchase a half price print with FREE UK P&P just let me know here or over on my Facebook page. It will be a Lucky Dip which print you receive and you will also get a 10% OFF Discount Code to use in my shop. These can also be sent Internationally but I will need to charge for postage. Payment will be through PayPal.

I've had a week off from being creative as my daughter came to visit for a few days.  I then drove her back to Fife and stayed there for a few days so I could catch up with my family and friends. I've had a great week catching up with everyone and now I'm ready to get busy this week because Craftfest starts on Friday 26th till Sunday 28th Feb. 

Hope you all pop over to Craftfest and have a wee look around everyones stalls, theres lots of lovely creations for sale which are all made in the UK. Pop over now to Craftfest the Online Craft Fair and browse through some of the stalls and you can even start buying from most of them now too.

New Prints & CRAFTfest

It's been quite a while since I last blogged......am I slipping into my old lazy ways? Well not really, I've just been so busy............but it's time for a quick catch up.

I finally finished the Fox Heart Art that I have been working on, it took my ages to decide on a background colour, but I got there in the end. This is now available to purchase from my online shop and I will be getting some greeting cards printed very soon.

A fox Tale of Mothers Love

 I also created another Puffin print and was totally surprised when I sold the first one only a couple of hours after adding it to my online shop, this will also be getting printed on greeting cards. I've also started on another Puffin idea, so there will be 3 Puffin prints to choose from or you could buy all 3.

Seafood Dinner

The latest creation to be added to my online shop a photographic art print, digitally created from my own photographs. 

Homeward Bound

 I've taken the plunge and have a vitual stall at CRAFTfest on 26th - 28th February, I've never done anything like this before but thought it would be good to give it a go. I'm really looking forward to this event and I will be adding more crafty creations to my shop in time for this, so I'm going to be even busier....I love being busy though.
If you're a crafter why don't you join in....... theres still time to book a stall. Just pop over to www.craftfest-events.com. You can find lots of us who are taking part in CRAFTfest on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest and using #CRAFTfest on our posts.

Before I go I've just remembered I created a watercolour name doodle for one of my granddaughters, I found this so relaxing to do and enjoyed getting away from my computer to create :)

bye till next time...... I'll try not to leave it so long :)

Feathers, Dreamcatchers & a Fishy

It's been a wee while since my last post, but my feather obsession continues :)
I've painted another 2 dreamcatchers and theser are available to buy from my shop

Keep Dreaming #3

Keep Dreaming #4

For now I think my feather obssession is almost cured, I've worked it out of my system..... it's time to move onto something else. Just what, I don't know yet!

The weather definitley changed at the weekend, winter is here! We have a wee dusting of snow and it's freezing.

For the last 2 weeks my house has been turned upside down while I get a new kitchen fitted. To start with I wasn't really happy about having this work done as I would be losing my large walk in larder and the back lobby where we keep wet coats and muddy boots. So walls have been knocked down, outside walls insulated and new platerboard is up, got a new ceiling too. It's all slowly coming together, some  of the units have been fitted, but unfortunately the joiner is now doing jury service, so I don't know when he'll be back. The units are ok, not what I would of chose but I can live with them, but the worktop is horrendous. This is one of the downfalls of living in a Scottish Estate house, someone in the estate office decides what kitchen will be fitted. Also in the last 2 weeks we've had the central heating not working, pipes leaking, washing machine broke down!..............my stress levels this weekend peaked and I thought my head would explode lol so to calm and chill myself I stuck a peice of watercolour paper to my drawing board and when I felt stressed I doodled with the watercolours left on my palette...... I just doodled and doodled and my mind wandered and I created a little fishy doodle.

So I still have workmen in my kitchen with the front door wide open and I'm freezing, but I have a ham joint cooking in the slow cooker and smelling yummy and I'm not going to stress anymore because my dream cooker should be getting delivered today. Hopefully my kitchen will be finished by the weekend and I'm looking forward to cooking on my new cooker :)

Feather Obsession

Over the past couple of weeks I seem to have developed a wee obsession for painting feathers and dreamcatchers. Totally enjoying working away from my computer for a while and discovering more about working with watercolours.

It was my youngest sons girlfriends birthday and he asked me to paint her a dreamcatcher using shades of purple and grey. At last I've managed to get the stringing on the dreamcatcher look better, I created a cardboard template to draw around of the shape I wanted. Still not totally happy with my feathers but my sons girlfirend loved her painting.

I found a watercolour tutorial on You Tube of how to paint feathers and I love this technique. I now have lots of lovely feathers in my watercolour pad.
I decided to use a few of these feathers to create a wee greeting/note/inspirational card design, which can be purchased from my online shop over on Etsy or there's a Special Offer on my Facebook page, both being DeborahDeyDesigns.

I love my puffins so much I have now created some keyrings to share with special people in my life and thes can only be purchased direct from me through my Facebook page, DeborahDeyDesigns.

I also finished a watercolour landscape which I had started, I am very pleased with how this turned out and will be attempting some more landscapes in the future.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but I'm enjoying all this painting. Christmas is getting nearer and I haven't even started on a Christmas card design, I'm way behind this year. So today will be spent developing an idea I have for this and at the moment I'm thinking this wil be a digital design, but all that could change. :)

Are you ready for Christmas?

Keep Dreaming

I'm still designing and creating on my computer but I'm also trying to spend more time getting back to creating in more traditional ways again. This week it was the turn of my watercolours to come out in my creative space, they haven't been out for a long long time. What fun I had, music playing, standing drawing and painting with a wee dance thrown in too..... much to the shock of my 2 dogs who looked slightly traumatised by my weird dance moves :)

I thought I'd paint something quite easy to start with.......mmmmm did I say easy?

I gave the paper a colour wash background and then gradually built the dreamcatcher up from there. I am quite pleased with how it turned out, having said that though I am not happy with the stringing in the centre. I am going to try another dreamcatcher soon with better stringing

This week I have also added Wings of Change greeting cards to my shop (only 2 available)

and Cool Yule Penguin Christmas cards (larger the pack the cheaper they get)

Winter is definitely on its way now, the swallows have all left to go to warmer climates and the geese are gathering down on the loch, they are my alarm call in the morning when they fly over the croft to go feed for the day. Almost every morning now there's a chill in the air and the mist is trapped in the valley.

Yesterday it took till almost lunchtime for the mist to totally rise and vanish, but then we had quite a warm sunny blue sky day. I even  ate my lunch outside and managed a spot of gardening.

As the sun sets the chilly night air starts to close in again and it's time to get cosy in front of the woodburner.

We've also been having some beautiful clear star filled skies at night, so I'm thinking I should try a little night time photography. If this works out I will post pics here.

I've just remembered what is was that I forgot at the end of my last post lol There have been Red Kites in the area for a few years but now they are flying up over the croft. The buzzards in the area seem to gang together to frighten the Kites out of their territory. Such beautiful amazing birds I could watch them and the buzzards for ages.

Hows your week been?

Love You....

....to the Moon and Back print.
I have been trying to get back to being creative away from my computer a little more and set myself the challenge of trying some hand lettering. Not an easy challenge but I gave it a go and I will be doing more as I enjoyed it, even though my intial sketch ended up on the computer and was finished off in Illustrator.

If you like it the print is available as A4 or A3 to purchase from my shop.

I have also at long last got my new website up and running and I'm pleased with how it looks. I kept the design simple and clean, so it didn't distract from my graphic designs and artwork. I'm thinking about incorporating an online shop within the website, so this will be a test for my old grey brain cells. Oh well I love a challenge and to be busy. Just realised I seem to be going through a phase of having images in circles!

There was something else I was going to share but can't think what it was now! Old grey brain cells playing up again, never mind I'm sure it will come to me later.

Till the next time I blog byeeeeeeeee