New Month, New Blog Improvements

Hello everyone! After coming back to my blog I realized it needed to be spruced up a bit. You will notice I have added a few changes, and will be making more as I notice things that can be improved.

Focus of my blog

My blog previously was dedicated to trying all the new print on demand websites and finding which one worked best for me. After testing them over a couple of years I have settled on three favourites: Zazzle, DesignByHumans and RedBubble. I will be shifting my focus to be more art based and will be sharing my designs from my shops - including new collections, gift ideas & tips and tricks with new products. I will still occasionally review and visit new PODs (I won't be able to resist a good new POD!) - but this blog will be more art based.

Lots of you are artists yourselves and as you know, we are always learning :) I want to continue sharing tips, tricks and freebies for designers such as Photoshop & illustrator tutorials, mockups, new programs I try and overall - just design and POD related things that I find useful and other designers might like to know too.

I've been posting twice a week and would like to keep that going with a post every Wednesday & Friday. The days may change as I figure out which ones work best, but there will always be a post twice a week :)

Rose Gold Floral Pattern

Happy Wednesday everyone! I have added a new design to my Zazzle & Redbubble shops, my Rose Gold floral pattern! I made this pattern a long time ago, it was originally blue, yellow and grey.. but I ended up playing around with the colours and liking it better in shades of pink, with a touch of rose gold glitter. I really like how this one looks on home decor. I've also added a customized monogram to certain Zazzle products as well, to make cute gifts. 

Here are some of my favourite products from the collection...

A Little Magic & A Lot of Caffeine Design

I've come up with a cute little design for those caffeine addicts out there. You know, the ones that have to have a substantial amount of coffee each day to function. I am quickly becoming one of those people, as I am not a morning person, but coffee is so so good! :)

This design says "I get through each day with a little of magic & a lot of caffeine"! The magic = the miracle that you actually got out of bed and made yourself coffee. The caffeine is why you were able to make human sounds at work all morning.

This design makes a great & fun gift for coffee lovers! Written in a hand drawn font, it is funny and pretty too. Take a look at some of my favourite products from this collection, on mugs, tumblers, pins & more...

New Red Panda Design with Monogram on Zazzle!

I've been wanting to draw animals lately... and not all animals, just a specifically odd collection that contains ferrets, parrots, racoons, lemurs and other random creatures. :P I've now crossed Red Panda off my list with this design!

I really enjoyed creating this pattern :) Sometimes its just great to go back to the sketchbook and draw something completely random. Something that you don't see every day, can look up pictures & read about. This was red pandas for me. I had always seen them in the Zoo and thought they were the cutest animals there. I was more than happy to dive into the world of the red panda once again and look at cute pictures of red pandas lazing around in their natural habitats for hours. I drew my red pandas in different poses (even included a cute sleeping one with z symbols in there!) and gave them a simplistic look that is almost cartoonish. To complete my pattern, I added in drawings of bamboo leaves, because those are a red panda dietary staple! The green leaves really went well with the reddish brown shades of the pandas fur.

New Gold Foil Greeting Cards at my Zazzle Shop!

Recently Zazzle added a highly anticipated option to their already wide lineup of cards - the option to design in gold or silver foil! This gives any design, text or photo that is added to the front or back of the card a shiny look and texture. Its really great fun to work with and I'm really enjoying the results so far! Plus as someone who does add faux glitter / confetti / gold foil elements to her designs... I really appreciate the fact that I can now offer customers my customizable designs in a real, shiny texture!

I added a bit of a preview of what I've been working on in an earlier post, but I'll share more of my designs here! So far I've been working on mainly typography centred cards, with a custom photo element where you can add your own family or pet photo.

Here are my favourites so far ! :)