Lots happening with Dreaming on a Star!

Hi everyone. Hope everyone is well on this sleepy Sunday. I'd just like to update everyone on what Dreaming on a Star has been up to.

As you may have noticed, I've updated my logo. I wanted it to reflect more my cute style. My inspiration was an ice-cream palette of raspberry, mint and banana! I hope you can taste and smell all those lovely colours.

Here is my inspiration board for my recolouring:

I've also started a weekly feature on my blog called Animal Love Day where I showcase lots of cute animal patterns and illustrations (and the occasional toy) and come up with an animal design of my own. I pick a different animal each week and create an illustration/pattern of it and then showcase some fabulous animal designs by great designers.

So far I've showcased Monkeys, Dinosaurs and Bunnies.

I have some exciting news about Dreaming on a Star that will be revealed this month. I can't wait to share the happy news. But I would like to mention a fabulous group that I am a proud member of - The Little White Book of Surface Pattern Designers. Check them out. It's a relatively new website but it's already making waves in the world of Surface Pattern Design!

Apart from all that, I am busy making lots of cute stuff for the relaunch of my Etsy shop later on this month. So lots to do yet!

Thank you for reading and enjoy the rest of your Sunday! ♡

(Inspiration board - Images copyrighted from the following sources - Ice cream, Raspberries, Mint ice cream,Green jacket, Clothes)

You can find me all over the internet, where I'm pretty active -

Web | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Email.

Thank you for reading and feel free to get in touch ♡

Another youblogger :)

Hello there,

I’m Nadine Mnemoi, I’ve got the pleasure to become a contributor to Youblog . Before starting I thought I might introduce myself a little bit.

I’m a self- taught freelance illustrator, I mainly draw women and anything related to their world. Recently, I decided to embark myself on new ventures so, I graduated from “the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design” an e-course  from Rachael Taylor and Beth Nicholls and other courses to become a surface pattern designer. And I'm currently building my website dedicate solely to pattern. In the meantime, if you wish, you can check my blog. (info below)

Passionate about anything related to creativity, I love to experiment, learn new things, try new mediums. I’m also a firm believer that it’s never too late to learn and turn your dreams into reality.

You can also find me there:

illustration: website blog  facebook instagram twitter     Patterns: blog facebook twitter

Finally on Track!

Hello everyone - crikey its been a while since I last posted! I've been on a one way road all the way to the Progressive Live trade show in May and phew I think I’m almost ready!

The designs are all finished and waiting to be printed, stationery products packaged and even a little seasonal promo animation crossed off my to do list! I had no idea of just how much work my first trade show would entail but despite all the hard work it has been incredibly fun – I took my time planning and developing ideas and  colour was a challenge I wasn’t expecting.  I usually work in bright colours but somehow a softer more candy coloured palette has emerged without me being aware of it. I’ve also grown very fond and quite attached to some of my characters and looking forward to developing them.

Of course more ideas are coming in quick and fast now I’m only 3 weeks away (why does that always happen?!) but I’m demonstrating restraint and just concentrating on what I’ve got prepared and extending those designs into other products.

Planning the show has been a bit tricky due to restrictions on what I could do with the space.. so all the ideas I had of painting it and putting up shelving etc had to go out the window but hopefully what we have planned will work. Exciting!

So if you are in London and fancy stopping by to say hello please do - we look forward to seeing you there!

In the meantime here's the little promo we did. Hope you like it! xkirsti

https://vimeo.com/64185822

A t-shirt a day

Hi all

This is my first Youblog post - I thought I'd introduce myself after reading so many inspiring and interesting posts here in the past months. I'm a creative from Durban, South Africa, who fell in love with surface pattern design when I took Rachael Taylor's amazing e-course. I have a passion for the sea, for fruit, and for t-shirts, and I love that lifestyle combination so much that I created my own t-shirt range under the label Moon Rabbit Designs. Here is one of the t-shirts:

Here is the rabbit that inspired the label's name:

And here is the beach in the early morning:

Some say t-shirts originated in the Navy as an undergarment, others that they started in the industrial revolution in England when mass production became possible. Whatever the truth of their origins, there is something both deliciously casual and political about t-shirts with just about any design, slogan, or mark of identification. For me, t-shirts are about lifestyle and positioning within or outside any circle or system. They mean freedom and finding your own path, and a wearable canvas for endless design possibilities.

In addition to t-shirts I love creating patterns for fabric and homeware. I like to think of my style as relaxed, open, and inspired by what is natural and organic. I leave you with a pattern design from a recent collection.

You can follow my blog, see more designs or get in touch on my website, or find Moon Rabbit Designs on Facebook. Thanks for reading!

Alice in Wonderland Book Illustration

Hi everyone. I've been going through stuff on my computer and I came across this illustration.

I did it for my illustration class in college a couple of years ago.

The brief was to illustrate a two page spread of a fairytale. I picked Alice in Wonderland.

I am influenced by Japanese Kawaii and I designed the figures to look like Kokeshi dolls.  I wanted the figures to be very cute so they are holding hands like happy friends!

I compiled the illustration like a collage. Alice and White Rabbit were modified in Illustrator, printed on photo paper and cut out. They were placed on two layers of paper - sugar paper and natural wrap paper. I drew some grass with pencils onto the natural wrap paper. Around the entire picture is a border with spade cut-outs to represent the border of a playing card.

The text was printed directly onto the natural wrap paper. And I cut out some cards in the sugar paper and used the negative spaces as confetti! I thought it was fun to think of the 'hearts' and 'spades' falling out of the cards.

I love using negative space. I made a lot of papercuts in the past and I was very careful to preserve the negative spaces so they could be used elsewhere. This is one thing that really clicked with me in college.

I really enjoyed this project. I love fairytales and I love the marriage of image and text. 

One of my ambitions is to write and illustrate children's books. I've written an older children's book and I think I will go back to it and add in some illustrations. Another thing to add to my 'To Do' list!

Thanks for reading! ♡

You can find me all over the internet, where I'm pretty active -

Web | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Email.

Thank you for reading and feel free to get in touch ♡