Blog Swap - Welcome Decorque

New Year, New Blog Feature. 

Today I Welcome My First Contributor To My (Hopefully) Regular BLOG-SWAP. I Have Been Followed By, And Following Decorque For Some Time Now On Twitter, And Have Had A Lot Of Interaction With Them. Decorque Already Feature Other Designers On Their Blog And If You Head On Over There Now, You Will Find My Feature Today On Their Blog And That Of Other Talented Designers. 

Hello, this is Harriet R Stevens – designer at Decorque. Firstly we would like to say a huge Thank You to Jennie for having us on her blog and agreeing to a series of contributor posts & blog swaps with us, on all things creative! Looking forward to plenty more exciting posts!

So I guess you are all wondering who we are and what Decorque is all about? Well here’s a little bit our business and what inspires us!

Decorque is a family-run business which launched in September 2012 – comprising of a talented team of four that manage all areas of the business; from graphic design, eCommerce & SEO, social media & surface pattern design. We are pretty lucky to have such a multi-talented team with diverse skills!

Decorque’s founder & head designer Lesley Rudman Stevens has been working in the textile and fashion industry all her life, and decided to apply her unique and highly decorative fashion-led designs to home, wall art & stationery products through an eCommerce business. 

Decorque aims to bring new, different products to the market, such as our Cork placemat & coaster ranges. We digitally print our designs onto the eco-friendly, premium cork surface to create hard wearing, heat resistant, and practical yet warm & beautiful decorative items for the home. Bet you haven’t seen anything like this range before!?

We turn this……into this.

Alongside these, we also take our designs onto Opaline Plastic placemats, Art Prints, Greetings Cards & Tags, and we are now expanding into coordinating Office products.

We are always inspired, whether that be through fashion or interior trends, graphic design, things we find on Pinterest, artists or via other retailers, for example. The main thing you can say about Decorque is that we LOVE pattern! We also love to combine media – by mixing hand drawn & painted elements with Photoshop & Illustrator components to create that unique design full of depth & interest. We like to take surface pattern to a new level!

We have been working hard over the last few months to build our brand awareness and will continue to expand our ranges into 2013. Along the way we have had the opportunity to work alongside some hugely creative and inspiring individuals and small businesses, and have formed a strong network of creatives who inspire us daily! We’d like to thank them all for their continued support and look forward to more collaborations this year.

We currently sell on our website, through etsy and folksy as well as partaking in offline craft, gift & art fairs in our local area. We will be looking to expand our outlets over the next year or so, and welcome any creative & licensing opportunities, also if you fancy a creative read, please do visit our successful blog, covering all creative topics as well as features by other designers, like the lovely Jennie, whose post is live NOW!

Other ways you can contact us are through:

Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/decorque/

Twitter:

@decorque 

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/Decorque?ref=hl

Main site:

www.decorque.com

Blog site:

http://blog.decorque.com

Something BIG is this way a-coming.....

SPREAD THE WORD!!!!

Cheers. 

Lets start 2013 with a BANG......

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

I know, I'm a few days late......

But I've been busy with the family and life isn't quite back to normal yet...

But lets start 2013 with a

BANG!!!!

Myself and 11 other amazingly talented designers have done a little 12 month long collaboration. 

Together we have created a FREE 2013 calendar, available for all to download from MuyMajo's blog, the creator of the collaboration. 

Download January's calendar, created by Majo from HERE.

And here is a sneak peek into the other 11 month's, which will become available on the last Monday of every month.

1- MaJoBV 2- Tiffany Designs 3- Simi Gauba 4- Onneke 5- Little Tree Designs 6- JWL Illustration 

7- Dawn Clarkson 8- Kathryn Pledger Designs 9- Groovity Designs 10- Jookiku 11- Dreaming on a Star 12- Esther Cox Kiosk

Find mine in June with my Summery fruitful design. 

Until Next Time. 

Seasons Greetings - a Post Christmas blog

Did we all have a Merry Christmas? 

I'm glad to hear it. 

So did I....... 

And so did the Children......

We left Santa a mug of warm milk and a chocolate cake, because the kids reckoned he would have had enough mince pies by the time he reached our house.....

My LOVE of all things Tea related is well documented amongst my family and friends, so naturally I received Hot Beverage related items from Santa.

My Bestie in the whole wide world, re-upholstered a Chair in my 'Hand drawn Flowers' fabric. it now sits pride of place beside my desk. Too lovely to actually use.....

I just wish the Kitten would leave it alone.....

And my amazing Husband has this waiting for me under the Tree. My very own Rachael Taylor iPad2 case. 

Just Yummy isn't it?

I had a little bit of spare time to create myself a 2013 Diary amongst all the chaos of Christmas. I used the 'hand drawn flowers' swatch I had ordered from Spoonflower a while back. I used a basic £1 diary and gave it a nice new coat.............

 PERFECT!

And finally, Christmas is all about the family. And I got to spend some time with my Husband, Sister and Brother-in-law at a chinese buffet a couple of towns over. Me and Wayne rarely get the opportunity to have our photo's taken together, so I am happy to have forced my sister into taking one. 

Me and my eldest daughter Carla, and with her cousin Harvey 

After all that celebrating and enjoying time with Family and Special Friends. Im quite glad that I can now spend time concentrating on making my 2013 a memorable one. 

Advent Doodle - Week 2

Here are our updated 'Advent Doodles'. We have added another weeks worth of drawings, and I must confess I actually banned the children from adding to them once or twice for misbehaving.... kids were NOT best pleased.

Find out more about the Advent Doodle HERE by the lovely Faye Brown. 

And we featured on her blog last week, read about that HERE. 

Lets share my attempt's first....

So my Elf looks a little insane and I cheated on the 'Three OF Kings', but I gave Rudolf a red nose. So I made up for it..... 

Carla - Age 8......

Copied my evil elf idea, and bah humbug'd on the Christmas Carol section. She doesn't like her 3 wise men, because she wishes she drew a 3 of kings (as if it actually exists)....

Alexander - Age 5......

My little pattern finder did a good job here. Said he didn't know 'how to draw the christmas spirit' so drew a stocking instead. And decided Rudolph needed lots of planets around him..... as did Santa's elf. 

Oh.. and his 3 wise men are now Aliens....

Come back next week for the final 8 doodles. 

Until next time. 

Sunday Blog - ETSY FINDS : Christmas card Special

Welcome back and thanks to all that had a peek at our Advent Doodle attempts so far....

THIS IS MY 100th BLOG POST!!!!!
happy dance

Anyway....

Today's Etsy Finds is a little special, as it is CHRISTMAS related. 

I love Christmas, its so fun, and merry and bright. 

A few weeks ago I put a shout out on Twitter for any creatives who wanted to take part in a Christmas Card swap. I had lots of interest and swapped some of my cards with 3 lovely ladies from various parts of the country. 

Here are their Etsy stores so you can see what beauties I have in my possession:

Worthy Designs 

Sarah Catherine Designs 

Sarah Fleming

Contact sarah via her FB page to purchase any cards, or have a peek at her work:

https://www.facebook.com/SarahFlemingDesigns

Now I just need to decide which lucky recipients will receive such LUSH cards. 

Lets KEEP GOING.......

Not one to be biased on just sharing Etsy Finds, here are some Fabulous Folky Finds from:

Kate Marsden

These are just Super cute, Super Simple and Super Festive. 

Thats all for now Folks. 

Until NEXT TIME. 

Advent Doodle Challenge - Faye Brown

Etsy Finds blog post will be along shortly, With a Greeting Card Special. So make sure you come back later for that....

But for now, I'd like to share a fun little Festive challenge, set by the lovely Faye Brown.

She has created this fabulous Advent Doodle challenge and my children have decided to join me in this little venture to create 25 festive little doodles. 

See Faye's blogpost about the challenge HERE

And these are our Daily Challenges:

Image belongs to Faye Brown Designs. 

We have completed the first 9 days, as we started late.

My son Alexander is just 5, and still learning to grip a pencil, so mummy had to help with the details a little: 

Carla is 8 years old, and loves to fill every square space of white with patterns:

And here we have my attempt...

 Im quite happy with black and white for now: 

I will blog every week, with visual updates on our little challenge. The kids had so much fun, they are looking forward to coming home from school and adding to the challenge. 

Until Next time. 

iPhone License - Iconemesis

Welcome back.....

I'm super happy to share that my license with Iconemesis has officially begun. 

Originally my Pretty Paradise design was being used for iPhone 5 cases, but they are now available on iPhone 4/4s cases also. 

Please take a peek here. 

 For a Limited period, there is a 20% discount on this design using code: ICON220 at the checkout. 

Dont forget to check out my fellow ABSPD classmates designs who also gained a License with Iconemesis. 

Have a Great Day. 

Monday Blog post: Etsy Finds

A day late...

I know, how terrible of me. 

Before I share this weeks Gorgeous Etsy Finds, I'd like to thank Rachael Taylor for featuring me on her lovely blog today. Its such an honour to be showcased by someone who I have admired for many years. 

Thank you.

View the blog post here. 

Moving on......

Worthy Designs

I had the pleasure of doing a Christmas Card swap with Gillian, of Worthy Designs, and I absolutely love these cards, and I'm unsure I could actually give them to people this year, I want to keep them. 

(Click image to see Etsy store)

Tree Hill Cloud

Here we have some gorgeous Christmas Cards by Natalie of Tree Hill Cloud.......

.....and some gorgeous Digital Prints:

Hello Dodo

I Follow Hello Dodo on Twitter and absolutely love their prints, I just had to feature them here today:

This is my favourite design:

Until Next Time. 

I've been unwell....

....Thats my excuse for lack of posts anyway. 

I apologise for not doing Etsy Finds on Sunday, I just couldn't muster the energy to search the food cupboards for a snack, nevermind the wonders of Etsy for glorious eye candy. 

I'll make it up to you. 

At some point. 

Moving forward, maybe you've noticed the new layout? Its only a slight modification, but I wanted to share links to my fellow ABSPD ladies, and thought I best give them their very own column, they deserve it after all. 

I've also just added a YOUBLOG list to the left, as I will be regularly blogging over at Tigerprint's new online feature, where lots of lovely designers will join me in blogging about all sorts design related. Click the links to the left to see my first two posts. 

Also, I had a little feature on Print and Pattern yesterday, it was awesome and unexpected and hopefully you all saw it?

You did? Brilliant. 

Lets keep it moving. Here is this weeks Spoonflower entry. The theme was 'Under the Sea' and was to be placed inside a little girls T-shirt as part of a collaboration between Spoonflower and One Yard Wonders . See here for more info.

Finally, I have expanded my product ranges, There's some awesome new products, Courtesy of Awesome Merchandise. 

Pocket Mirrors: 

Mini Badges

                           

And some Products I have made myself, including Key-rings, Coasters and Fridge Magnets. 

All available to purchase Via My Etsy Store: 

www.etsy.com/shop/jlwillustration.com

Until Next Time