Love and marriage... and illustrations!

The past few months I've been excited and busy designing my own wedding invitations, menu and other paper goodies. And I must say: it was quite difficult for me having to postpone this blogpost with the endresults until after our wedding day. ;-) But now I can finally share this... Yay!

My wedding theme was autumn, since John and I married on October 15, 2015 (15 years after we met in the fall of 2000). Here's what the envelopes with my very own stamps looked like...

I had been wanting to make our own address stamp for aaages, so now was the time!

Here's the complete wedding invitation suite (including the leaf-placement-cards, cake-toppers and thank-you flags to put on our wedding favours, which were little plants).

I wanted the card to tell a personal story. At the front I made an image of our two hands holding each other while sitting at a table. My hands are different, because of my juvenile rheumatoid arthritis; smaller and more fragile. But they can still love and create. This is how we often sit together at a restaurant... Simply enjoying each other company, sharing an apple pie, listening to music and each enjoying our own interests (me: a notebook and pen to write and make drawings / john: his iphone that symbolises his love for gadgets; being a software engineer and nerd in general).

And then at the inside it was all about our autumny wedding and our venue: De Hortus Botanicus in Leiden...

And to conclude: our matching menu...

All in all it was quite some work, but a joy to make!

Mr. Ice Cream loves Sundaes...

Animation love...

Lately they're everywhere... And I must admit: I'm truely fascinated by animated illustrations. For instance the ones I recently discovered from illustrator Maori Sakai, those from Thoka Maer or the ones from Oamul. I mean: WOW. 

And so I really want to learn how to make my own animated illustrations. How fun would it be to make my drawings move?!

Here's a first, modest attempt: Just a girl enjoying her music. I have loads to learn still, but I'm happy I managed so far. ;-) Hope to post more (and better) animated gifs in the future!

August is here...

In summer time we all fancy an ice cream every now and then... I especially love pistachio, chocolate and hazelnut. :-P What are your favourite flavours?

For the August wallpaper calendars I drew all sorts of ice creams. There are other ones included on the iPad and iPhone calendars, so go check them out ;-)

Have a lovely month. Hopefully with lots of sunny, ice cream filled days!

DOWNLOAD HERE & Enjoy!
Desktop     /     iPad     /     iPhone

Summer time!

Somehow my month June flew by super quick. Maybe it had something to do with the theme of my previous wallpaper? Anyhow... July is here now! And so to get into the holiday mood, I made a new wallpaper out of my recent island pattern. Hope you like it :-) PS. watch out for the red crab. It likes to pinch toes :-O

Have a wonderful summer time everyone!

DOWNLOAD HERE & Enjoy!
Desktop     /     iPad     /     iPhone

Hello June!

June is here! With more sun and blue skies, I hope. That makes flying even more fun...

Have a lovely month everyone! (and grab a flying machine wallpaper if you like ;-))

DOWNLOAD HERE & Enjoy!
Desktop     /     iPad     /     iPhone

Deniz's favourites

My friend Elif asked me to make a custom illustration for her husband Deniz, as a gift for his birthday. Deniz travels a lot to conflict areas all over the world for his work as mediator at Red Cross. And with this gift Elif wanted to give him a reminder of all the things he likes and loves. How sweet is that! 

I watercoloured a few of his favourite things, including some inside jokes... like his not-so-very secret spoons of Nutella or his occasional sneaky sigarette. And yes, this man has a love for beautiful math equations too. Above all he loves his family, including doggy Nena.

Happy birthday Deniz! And thanks for this lovely custom request Elif! 

May Calendar

Hopefully May will bring us a lot of good things... At least these butterflies will try to brighten up your days. :-)

DOWNLOAD HERE & Enjoy!

Desktop     /     iPad     /     iPhone

Note: This calendar is free for personal use only.

Back to the island...

I didn't make it to the Top Ten Flying Machine Patterns last time in my first ever Spoonflower challenge... However: with 248 votes for Fly with me I got placed 15th from the 280 artist. Obviously I was dancing through the house, when I saw that!

For my second Spoonflower challenge I made a watercoloured island themed pattern. Palmtrees, shells, waves, fishes and mermaids... they all gathered to turn into one happy, beachy pattern.

With 154 votes my Back to the island pattern got place number 43 from 236 attending artist. Not in the Top Ten either ;-), but still very fun to get noticed by so many people :-)

April Calendar

My first downloadable calendar is born! And so are the baby rabbits, lambs and chicks... Luckily they know how to shelter for the spring rain. April showers bring May flowers, right? (I do hope so!) ;-)

DOWNLOAD HERE & Enjoy!

Desktop     /     iPad     /     iPhone

Note: This calendar is free for personal use only.

Flying off to my first Spoonflower contest...

I never entered a Spoonflower contest before... This week was my first. I sketched and painted these flying objects and joined in for the Flying Machine Pattern contest. Crossing fingers that my pattern gets noticed... So many talented illustrators out there! 

Back to pattern making again...

Finally I started making new patterns again. First I made this baby boy one using old sketches and Adobe Illstrator..

At the end of last year I took an online course on skillshare from surface pattern designer Elizabeth Olwen called: Pattern Design: Creating Inspiring Repeats. I found it very fun, insightful and indeed: inspiring! I still seriously need to practice, practice, practice to try and master Illustrator though.

I made the other new feminine make-up pattern with much more ease using Adobe Photoshop. I'm quite happy with the warm and watercoloured look of this pattern...

All in all I hope to keep making more patterns of my sketches in the future... and to get more involved into Spoonflower. It's about time to join in some of their contests and open my shop!

Floris is born!

In 2012 I made the birth announcement card for Sjoerd and Elsbeths first born baby girl Iza. She's now nearly 3, and turned into a big sister this month! Her baby brother Floris is born on januari 19. All is well with him and his mother. And Iza is a happy and loving sister. It was a pleasure for me to make Floris' birth announcement as well. When Sjoerd and Elsbeth asked me, they already had an idea in mind. At the front of the card they pictured themselves a street with typical Dutch houses... and baby Floris in his buggy in front of his own home. On the inside I drew a queue of fancy old cars (boys will be boys, and will love cars after all) and big sister Iza walking up front proudly pushing the buggy. Baby Floris curiously peeking round a corner. ;-)

Congratulations and all the best wishes to this dear family!