New tags + Don't forget my Giveaway!

I've been doing some more Christmas tags. They are a bright and cheery red.

I'm finishing them off with the red and white twine I bought from Kikki K a couple of weeks ago. I had these in mind when I bought it.

Don't forget I have my very first giveaway happening over here. These red ones are a bit bigger than the others on the giveaway.

Come over and have a look. Follow for 1 entry, post about it on your blog. Come back and leave a comment about your post for a 2nd entry. Let your followers on Twitter know and/or your friends on FB, come back and let me know for a 3rd entry!

Entries close Sunday 5th December at midnight (Eastern Aust Daylight Savings time). Please make sure you leave your email address so I can contact you when you win.

Sorry to anyone overseas, this giveaway is for Australian followers because Christmas is so close, but I'm planning another giveaway in January for my blog's anniversary.

Have a safe and happy Christmas everyone!

New Design

I really love the colours in this one. It's a fairly simple design but the element of repetition makes it interesting.

Haven't got a name for it yet. Any ideas?

Frankie Magazine 'Spaces' - finally got it

I finally picked up this great mag/book yesterday. Have you bought it yet? It has some really interesting spaces like the illustrators studios in an old pencil factory.

I started reading it on the train this morning.

My Creative Space and Christmas giveaway

It's been a while since I've posted a 'Creative Space' piece. I have been doing a bit, trying out new designs, making things, lots of bits and pieces but nothing really concrete yet. You've seen them regularly when I've done individual posts about what I've been up to.

This Creative Space is a bit special, for me anyway. I made it to 3000 page views on Tuesday. Because of this I thought I'd offer a giveaway of one of my designs. We are fast approaching Christmas, so I've made some Christmas tags. You could use them for your Christmas presents or perhaps to decorate/dress the table.

{Christmas Tag Proof in green and complimentary stripe}

The tags have a complimentary stripe AND because I liked the design so much, I did them in 2 colours, green and blue. The sets include 10 Christmas tags and 10 matching striped tags.

That means you could win yourself 40 tags and you can decide how you want to use them, together like I've displayed them, or as individual cards. I'll even send some extra ties to you, just in case you want to use them as separate tags.

To be in the running and have 3 chances to win:

1. Be or become a Follower of 'designed to a T'.
2. Post about the giveaway on your blog and come back and leave a comment about it.
3. If you Tweet or Facebook, let your followers and friends know then come back again and leave another comment.

I need to get them to you before Christmas, so the giveaway will finish on Sunday 5th December at midnight (Eastern Aust Daylight Savings time). Please make sure you leave your email address so I can contact you when you win.

Good luck everyone and thank you for following and your support in my (almost) 1 year of blogging.

Sorry to anyone overseas, I'll need to keep this giveaway to Australian followers because of the time frame but I'm planning another giveaway in January when I reach my blog's anniversary.

You can see more fantastic Creative Spaces at Kootoyoo here every Thursday.

Enjoy and have a safe and happy Christmas.

New additions to the holiday house

I thought I'd show you some of the changes at the house. There's a few handmade ideas in these pics also, possible products for jane on jane st.

TYPOGRAPHY

Janette from My Sweet Prints got my mind working when I saw her great ideas using typography as her Art. For the spare bedroom's decor, which I suppose is 'technically' influenced by the beach location of the house, I've done a simple 'life is a beach' saying in an Ikea frame, finished with a sketch of a nautilus shell.

The font is scriptina and the shell is a clipart file readily available from the internet. The font, shell and border are in a teal colour.

Thank you Janette.

BTW the shells are from a little gift shop in Port Macquarie, can't remember the name of the place though, sorry. They are sculpted from balsa wood. Very cute and they fit in so well with what I'm trying to achieve in this room. The bedside table is looking a bit crowded at the moment, but this will change when my Bulter's table arrives from Whiteport.

I've always loved text in art and I'm a HUGE fan of vintage advertising and film posters. Art.com have some fabulous vintage artworks/posters. I was a regular user of the site for inspiration and images when I was doing my design study over the last few years.

My favourite is the Alfred Hitchcock 'Vertigo' poster. I saw it recently on a television show I was watching, can't remember what show it was, but as soon as I saw the print, up went the shout, 'That's my print!'.

Another frame I've done is this one, 'Nothing in life is to be feared....It is only to be understood'. A quote from Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie. I think it says a lot just with those few words. 

The quote is complimented with a background character from Zen calligraphy. I chose Zen because of the philosophy behind these beautiful characters....

True creativity is not the product of consciousness but rather the "phenomenon of life itself". True creation must arise from mu-shin, the state of "no-mind," in which thought, emotions, and expectations do not matter.

The Ikea frame had a creamy coloured matt, so I flipped it over to the white side as a temporary measure. When I get a chance this week I'll go to a framing place and track down a red one. I think it is a bit too bland at the moment.

FURNITURE and ARTWORK

The space at the bottom of the stairs is now filled. 

My search took about 18 months, but I finally found another kang table to suit (console table, they call them 'kang' but I'm not sure what it means). 
The Ikea frames and prints are mounted on shelves (another Ikea wonder) and are complimented with some smaller frames that I've filled with shells, seed pods and starfish. The backing for the starfish is just a medium weight sandpaper. Simple but effective. (Sorry, that photo didn't turn out very well, so I haven't posted it.)

I've had the rattan travel bags for about 4 years now, and they've been lonely up until now, sitting on the floor in the corner.

There was some red 'Circles and Squares' Florence Broadhurst wallpaper left over from the wedding pressie I made Kylie C, from My Flying Ducks, so I grabbed a piece of leftover mdf and covered it using some spray glue.

I collect old chinese calligraphy brush sets and have used a set in a red case to add some more red to the corner. Last thing to do when I can find and purchase a ceramic or stone urn, is to use the 'free' bamboo pieces I 'obtained' from a flower arrangement at work about a month ago.

Well, they were only going to through them out!

Christmas Cards - TICK

First cab off the rank - Christmas Cards. DONE

Last week I revealed the Christmas Card design I'd been working on. Well, they're finished.

The design looked much better as a small image, so I've gone with A5 size (folded) on ivory card with a pearl finish.

I just need to find an appropriate phrase for inside, which I'll print on a transparent paper and this will be glued to the fold. I'm finding it hard to come up with something I'm happy with for the greeting.

Somehow 'Merry Christmas' doesn't sit well, especially if you've gone to the effort of making the cards yourself. They need something special.

Any ideas??

Paper Design draft

It's a gradual process getting some designs together.

The problem is, I have so many ideas going on in my head, I never really now which way to go.

This is the one I finished today, 'Filigree'.

 
Another I have been working on but still haven't refined it yet is 'Hummingbird'. I'll show you that one soon, maybe...I'm not entirely happy with it yet. Not sure where it fits in with the themes I'm wanting to do for 'jane on jane st'.