New stationary designs

Lately I haven't had much time for creating due to family health issues … but somehow, in between things, I managed to do some work for the "Better Together Minted Greeting Card Design Challenge". Would have loved to do more … Oh well ok, I think in times like these the most important thing is to somehow just keep working – in order to keep one's creative muscles relatively fit and healthy.

Today I'll show you some of my submissions to this challenge. It is a contest for both copy and design. One could either work with own copy, or choose copy submitted by another artist and create for that. Something that I loved to do!
Votes and likes would be very welcome! Voting already ends on Monday evening, 15th of May (mid european time) – sorry for the rush! I simply didn't manage to post my designs earlier … Thank you so much for voting and liking!

Lovely Day Flowers

"Lovely Day Flowers" – watercolour floral design  for a birthday card with copy by Jennifer Lew: "Front: Make today lovely/ Inside: Happy Birthday".

"Walk in Flowers"

"Walk in Flowers" is a 21st birthday card featuring a shower of watercolour petals based on my own copy. Front: "May you walk in flowers and dance in the rain." Inside: "With lots of love on your 21st birthday!"

"Sunny Road"

"Sunny Road" is a another 21st birthday card based on my own copy: Front: "Wishing you … wind in your hair, joy in your heart and a sunny road to life's adventures." Inside: "Happy 21st Birthday!"

"Entwine"

"Entwine" is a wedding card design based on a copy by Lisa Sunday Rinella. Front: "Lifes entwine, dreams melt into one another, joy is on the wind." Inside: So happy you found each other." I immediately fell in love with Lisa's words and together with my watercolour details this card makes one of my fave submissions.

"Emerald Isle Blessing"

"Emerals Isle Blessing" – this one is special to me because the copywriter, Mariecor Agravante, chose my photographic art print out of the bounty of designs that are already for sale on Minted and wrote a copy for it specifically to go on a card together. Front: "Emerald Isle Blessing", Inside (excerpt):  "May the mists of the Eirinn isle, bring a glow to your dimpled smile, … And may the wings of Irish laughter, Uplift you now and ever after." Thank you so much, Mariecor!

"My own kind"

"My own kind" – here's a mixed media botanical design that I used for a mother's birthday card featuring copy by Kate Ross. Front: "You've always taught me to be my own kind of beautiful." Inside: "I'm so grateful for you, Mom. I celebrate you on your birthday and always."

"Always Love"

 "Always Love" – this sympathy card features my own photography. The copy is by Courtney Crane. Front: "Though there is loss …, Inside: "love always remains. Thinking of you with heartfelt sympathy."

"Galactical"

Finally this is a card to send to a loved one: "Galactical". It is based on a copy by Frooted Design. Front: "The moon is way too close." Inside: "Love you to the furthest galaxy and back!"

Want to see more? You can have a look at ALL submissions (3752!) to this challenge over here.
And you can find ALL OF MY submissions using the filter "Sorted by artist" and then hop over to page 71. Thank you!

Hurray for the foxes!

Hello, here's a happy surprise! My little "Woodland Foxes" won! Hurray!!!
They came up on the 6th place in the Minted Child's Play Fabric Challenge (within the top 20 winners). Thank you so much everybody who might have voted for them!
Now the foxes soon will be roaming around on throw pillows to draperies to lampshades and everything in between for nurseries and kid's rooms! Really looking forward to see them on there :-)

If you'd like to know more you can view the winner's gallery here and read a bit about the inspiration for my woodland designs here.

A peek into my world and my new Minted store

Lately, I had fun choosing pictures for the "About me" section of my new Minted store. As the pictures give you a nice peek into my world I thought I'd share them here on the blog as well.  

First up, my go-to-medium, watercolour, and a floral painting in progress. I get a lot of inspiration from our rooftop garden, so it sure had to be included.

Ok, now let's go inside :-) Here's my studio! And another work in progress picture (preparing a monoprinting session).

Me sketching outside … love doing this! Our local Lahn river valley and the lake provide a lot of beautiful scenery for inspiration.

Some more work in progress shoots, again from monoprinting.




I fiddled way too long with the store's header picture … until I finally settled on another watercolour painting scene. For now, most of my wallart prints offered on Minted are watercolours, so I think this fits quite well. Here's a screenshot of my header and store. Come have a look inside! I hope you like it! More prints will be added soon!

P.s.: I am still shaking my head about all this … when I stumbled into my first Minted competition in the summer I didn't even know that I could win myself a store! I just thought it'll be nice to do something different – it was a competition for photography … and then I was totally taken by surprise when I won my first editor's pick and got included into the Minted wallart collection. A few competitions later I have 8 awards under my belt and Minted is just selling my first prints, yay!

Stargazing :-) and some happy news!

Ok, this post was meant to be about my second playfabric collection but now I just have to share these good news first! Two times success in the Minted + Domino contest, wohoo!!! Thank you so much everybody who voted for me! Here's my winning watercolour painting "The Willow Twins" that came 23th place in the top 30 winners! Out of 4841 submissions, so pretty chuffed here :-) 

And one of my fave figure studies "Seated in Blue" won an editor's pick! Both works will be licensed as wall art for the Minted collection and will be available for sale soon. You can find the gallery of all top 30 winners here: http://www.minted.com/winners

And now, without further ado, here's part 2 of my submissions to the "Child's Play Fabric Challenge" on Minted, my "Space Adventure Collection".





No special inspiration here, except maybe a little bit of stargazing ;-) It's just one of the classic storybook themes for little boys' designs that I have always loved. All handdrawn and vector again.

"Milky Way Stroll" - please vote for it here

"Spaceship Parade" - please vote for it here

"Little Space Critters" - please vote for it here

I especially enjoyed creating those little critters from outer space and the way the play with stars and planets :-)

If you'd like to see part 1 of my submissions, just scroll down, you'll find them in my last blogpost.
And again, if you like my designs, I would be gratefull for your vote! Thank you so much!!!

5 wins and a new contest … 5 Preise und ein neuer Wettbewerb

… and I need your votes again ;-)

But first of all a BIG THANK YOU to everybody who voted for me in the Minted for Art's sake competition (see my last blogpost). It was totally amazing, I won! My "Cloud Symphony, Ring of Kerry" came 5th place in the top 20 winners, out of about 4700 submissions. And to even top that I won 4 more editor picks as well! Honestly I am still shaking my head in disbelieve as I write this … :-)
Here's the winning painting:

And these are all my works that got picked. All of these will be licensed and included into the Minted collection of wallart, for sale soon!

And as I was just preparing the pictures for this blogpost, I got some more fab news! This time about the Fabric 8 contest by Moda Fabrics and Spoonflower with the theme of "Botanical sketchbook". The semifinalists have just been announced and I am in!!! Very happy :-) Here's my design , my "Rooftop Garden Book " which is b ased on a real sketchbook that I did when we started to plant our garden on the roof. Lots love and good memories in this one! 

And here's a peek into the garden book that was the starting point for my pattern:

I am really having a bit of competition frenzy at the moment (more to come …) but ok, there were just so many fab comps around at the moment!

And now for some shameless vote asking: PLEASE vote for my design if you like it, I would LOVE to get into the finals! The lucky winner of this competition will will be offered a contract to design a fabric collection for Moda Fabrics plus advance against royalties, and a Wacom tablet. Who wouldn't love to win that!?
You can vote here http://www.spoonflower.com/contests/317 until September 2, 2015. Thank you so much! Would be fab if I could share some more happy news with you soon …

Something nice for Valentines … ich hab' hier was für den Valentinstag!

My snap-on cases are ready! These are available now here at Keka Case featuring the designs I licensed to Keka last year. As some designs are part of my sweetest collection so far (the "Candy Forest Collection", featuring a lot of hearts) they would make perfect Valentine's gifts!

Meine snap-on Hüllen sind fertig! Sie sind jetzt über Keka Case erhältlich, mit den Designs für die ich letztes Jahr Lizenzen an Keka vergeben habe. Und weil einige der Designs zu meiner bis jetzt "herzigsten" Kollektion (der "Candy Forest Collection") gehören, sind sie als Geschenk für den Valentinstag bestens geeignet!

"Candy Circles" and "Lovebirds", snap-on cases for IPhone 5.
"Candy Circles" und "Lovebirds", snap-on Hülle für das IPhone5.

"Les Lapins" and "Candy Forest", snap-on cases for IPhone 5.
"Les Lapins" und "Candy Forest", snap-on Hülle für das IPhone5.

The snap-on cases are avaible for: iPhone 4/4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s and 5c, Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4, the iPad 2, 3 and 4, and for the iPad Mini.

Die snap-on Hüllen gibt es für: iPhone 4/4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s and 5c, Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4, den iPad 2, 3 and 4, und für den iPad Mini.

And here is one more that you could give as a present of lasting flowers:
Und hier ist noch ein passendes Design – statt Blumenstrauß:

"Jolly Garden", snap-on case for the iPad Mini.
"Jolly Garden", snap-on Hülle für den iPad Mini.

All images are courtesy of Keka Case. 

More designs are available! Go and get them here to brighten up your day!

Alle Bilder mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Keka Case.

Es gibt auch noch mehr Designs – gute Laune, die hier zu bekommen ist!

Some things that happened … was sonst noch so passiert ist …

… while I was at school:
A while ago a collection of my designs was licensed on cases for iPads, iPhones, Kindle and Galaxy Families through San Francisco based company Keka Case. Now "my" cases for iPads and Kindles are available! Just in time for the holidays ;-) These cases are similar to hardback book covers, resistant to stains and water and double as presentation stands. I love the fact that they are made using traditional book binding techniques and eco-friendly inks. Check out my collection here!  And I am working on designing snap-on cases for iPhones, the Galaxy Family and iPads right now – these will be available as well soon :-)
Here are some of my favourite designs (all images courtesy of Keka):

"Lovebirds"

"Candy Forest"

"Magic Feathers"

"Sunny Day"

… während ich in der Schule war:

Vor einiger Zeit schon ist eine Kollektion meiner Designs für Hüllen für iPads, iPhones, Kindle und Galaxy Familie lizensiert worden – für Keka Case aus San Francisco. "Meine" Hüllen für iPads und Kindles sind jetzt erhältlich! Gerade mal rechtzeitig für die Feiertage ;-) Die Hüllen ähneln Hardback-Buchumschlägen, sie sind wasserfest und schmutzabweisend und können als Aufsteller für Präsentation benutzt werden. Mir gefällt besonders, daß sie mit traditioneller Buchbindetechnik und umweltfreundlichen Farben produziert werden. Hier können Sie sich meine Kollektion ansehen! Und gerade arbeite ich an den Designs für Snap-on Hüllen für iPhones, die Galaxy Familie und iPads – diese werden auch bald erhältlich sein :-)

Hier sind ein paar meiner Lieblingsdesigns (alle Bilder mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Keka).


Then … just totally out of the blue I was on the shortlist to illustrate a childrens' book through my US agent! The project didn't come about in the end but anyway I was quite flattered :-) It's  fun and ironic in a way as there was a time in my life when I really was keen on illustrating a childrens' book. It didn't have much luck back then and nowadays I am much more focused on children's fashion and interior. So this really was an interesting "knock on my door" – hmmm? Maybe I should think about that again?
Und dann … total unerwartet kam ich über meinen US-Agenten in die nähere Auswahl für Kinderbuchillustrationen! Am Ende ist nichts aus dem Projekt geworden, aber es hat mir schon geschmeichelt :-) Es ist schön und auch ein bißchen ironisch, denn es gab mal eine Zeit in der ich ganz wild darauf war, ein Kinderbuch zu illustrieren. Ich hatte damals nicht viel Glück – und heute konzentriere ich mich mehr auf Kindermode und Interiors. Interessant, wenn dann plötzlich jemand an die Tür klopft – hmmm? Vielleicht sollte ich nochmal über Kinderbücher nachdenken?


And the carpet competition? I didn't win. But one of my collagues did! You can check out Deborah Velásquez winning design "Stripe Over and Under" on the Carpetvista Homepage. Congratulations Deborah, really happy for you! Thanks to everybody who voted for me! This was the very first time that I did work for carpets and I was happy that my designs translated so well to that "format". I've had some very nice comments about my designs and was quite content to be included in the finals. OK – catch up finished! Next are my MATS designs! The first blogpost is coming up at the end of the week.
Und der Teppichwettbewerb? Ich habe nicht gewonnen. Aber eine meiner Kolleginnen! Hier auf der CarpetVista Homepage können Sie sich das Gewinnerdesign von Deborah Velásquez ansehen. Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Deborah, ich freue mich für Dich! Vielen Dank an alle, die für mich abgestimmt haben! Es war das erste Mal daß ich Teppiche entworfen habe und ich war ganz glücklich, daß sich meine Designs so gut auf dieses "Format" übertragen ließen. Ich habe einige sehr positive Kommentare bekommen und war sehr zufrieden, bis ins Finale gekommen zu sein. OK – das war die "Nachlese". Als nächstes sind meine MATS Designs dran! Die erste Blogpost kommt am Wochenende.