Tag: nature

INSPIRATION GATHERING

From inspiration to design

Anyone who’s ever taken a walk with me will know I usually come home with a few ‘finds’ in my pocket which I use either as inspiration for a drawing, digital sketch or just to photograph and scan into Illustrator. These were my finds from last week, a collection of seeds, nuts and berries gathered during a long walk in the forest with my dog.

I love this time of year especially for the seed heads which are everywhere. I find them just as fascinating as the flowers they started out as. Sometimes they’re even better and more interesting. This collection made a perfect study for drawings and photos.

By the middle of the week I had a few images ready to work on in Illustrator.

After a bit more work plus finding a suitable colour palette to work from I came up with a few designs I really love. I’ve turned these into greetings cards which are now in my Etsy shop.

I’m super happy with how they turned out and so glad I walk everywhere with my eyes on the ground and a little net bag in my pocket.

Have a great week and I’ll be back soon

Jaine x

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A visit to Sicily

Villa Rica, Patti in Sicily

Our weather here in Luxembourg this Summer has been a bit up and down to put it mildly. We’ve had stunning sunshine prompting pool parties in the back garden to heavy rain and flooding on a scale not seen for ages. I’ve even resorted to putting on the heating a couple of times! So we were pleased to spend some time away in Sicily. It was roastingly hot even for the locals but like all mad dogs and Englishmen it didn’t stop us from getting out and enjoying some sight seeing. It’s always lovely to recharge and get a new perspective on things by getting away. I think the different culture, food, scenery and colours have freshened up my crafting which lately had started to become a bit stale.

I couldn’t help but be inspired by the colours around me but even though I took my sketch book with good intentions, sadly it didn’t come out once.

Coming home again had me all fired up to stop procrastinating and get on with something productive. As I have a workshop coming up in the Autumn I need to make a mockup for, I thought I’d sieze the opportunity to get started on it.

Gel prints with leaves

The workshop is based around gel printing with botanicals so I thought I’d have another go at gel printing with leaves and ended up with this little lot. I’m much more confident with how they’re turning out, I think I seem to have mastered it at last. I actually like what I’m managing to print. The idea is to make a small journal out of them ending up with all of these colourful backgrounds.

While I was out with the dog I found this pretty feather on the path, so tiny but it gave me an idea for the cover of the journal.

A little collage of scraps from my bit box and the tiny feather looks lovely againsed the calico cover and the little bird rub-on was a lost treasure from an old pile of forgotten rub-ons. Does anyone use rub-ons anymore?

Enjoy the weather and the end of the Summer where you are and find some new inspiration in the changing of the seasons.

Jaine xx

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INSPIRATION JOURNALING

I think one of the most important tips I can pass on to anyone is that of keeping an inspiration journal. It helps creativity in so many ways from interior decorating to card making. It helps with choosing colour schemes, images, sketching ideas and looks pretty too. Go to page 2 to learn more.

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Pages: Page 1, Page 2