Saturday, September 28, 2013

Hummingbirds - Flying Jewels

I love this time of year for a number of reasons.  First, being a keen gardener down here in the hot and humid South, I can start kidding myself that really is getting cooler outside.

And second, this is the time of year that the hummingbirds gather and prepare for their annual migration south.

This year we've been hosting them on and off since May and I've been spending a lot of time on the patio with my camera trying to catch a good photo.

I think I was successful with this shot, and the quotation by Robert Brault is very appropriate. This poster would make a nice gift for anyone.
Hummingbird Poster with "Little Things" Quotation
Hummingbird Poster with "Little Things" Quotation by 3DDesignsByJayne
View more Hummingbird Posters

Just the other day, as the sun was starting to go down behind the house next door, I saw a hummingbird approaching the feeder on the patio.  I snapped some photos and loved the way the sinking sun shone through the blur of her wings.

The only problem with the photo was the background -- a not very interesting view of our neighbor's brick wall!

So.... I played around with the photo and used a texture from a set that I had purchased to get rid of the blah background and isolate the hummingbird.  Then I did the same thing with a photo of some fuschias that I had taken and merged them together.

The result is this customizable greeting card. It can be made into a birthday card, a "thinking of you" card, or whatever the buyer is looking for.


I love the way this turned out and added it to some stickers too:

Looking around Zazzle, there are some beautiful products from other Zazzle designers featuring hummingbirds. Below you will find just a few of the selections I found.

This lovely hummingbird with fuschias postcard is available in the NationalWildlife store. I didn't know the National Wildlife Federation had a store on Zazzle, but they have some beautiful items, created with photos that have been donated to them by the artists.  

This postage stamp from tracidwilson, (no relation to myself!) features a photo of a hummingbird with a beautiful orchid bloom.

We seem to have mostly female hummingbirds in our garden at the moment (I think the males have already started heading south). I love this sticker from Diane_Jacky which shows a male ruby-throat and some bright red blooms.  Hummingbirds love red!

This lovely postcard from designer angelandspot has a vintage feel to it.

As you see in the photo at the top of this post, I have a couple of hummingbird feeders out at this time of year. But check this out!

Zazzle designer Gramabarb has used this photo of lots of hummingbird feeders on a porch.

She says: "These delightful hummingbird photographs are from http://www.ustream.tv/channel/katersch who has given me permission to make custom cards. She wants you to enjoy her Porch.

Watch the live action of these little jewels of the bird world."

What fun!
OK - that's enough from me.  I need to make some more nectar for my hummingbird feeders!

So now it's your turn. If you are a designer on Zazzle you are invited to add a link to your hummingbird themed designs in the Linky Tool below. Use Option 1 in the Link Widget on the page of the Zazzle product/design you'd like to add. It will show up below as a small thumbnail and when clicked on, will link directly to your product. 

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Gift Wrap/Wrapping Paper - Perfect for Any Occasion

Okay, so I haven't posted in here since MAY!!!!  No excuses, well unless you count a full time day job, a part time job on an equestrian website and an emerging art career, as well as my Zazzle store, 3D Designs by Jayne.

Other than the day job (pesky things, but one does need to EAT), creating art seems to have taken more priority than actually blogging about it, BUT, I promise to do better in future :-) 

There's no doubt I've been lax at keeping up with the new products at Zazzle this summer.  I completely missed out on the flip flops and I haven't got around to creating any wallets yet.

But this morning, after sweating in the garden for a while, pulling weeds, I started thinking about a white Christmas and decided to create some wrapping paper for my Zazzle store. 
Snowman with Snowflakes and Blue Stripe Paper
Snowman with Snowflakes and Blue Stripe Paper by 3DDesignsByJayne
Look at other Christmas Wrapping Paper at zazzle.com

I could even make a Christmas card and a gift tag to match, right?


But I digress, we're talking about gift wrap here and the next design I worked on was this simple, yet elegant Christmas tree, on a dark green background.The tree was part of a set of design elements purchased for commercial use, and I had fun placing it on my template so it would tile nicely.


Here's another holiday gift wrap using design elements purchased for commercial use. This one looks like golden jewelry, studded with large blue cabochon jewels.

So I'm having a blast with these today -- and I'm only thinking of Christmas at the moment - the possibilities are endless!

For example, this lovely aqua and green squares gift wrap from RiverJude will work for many occasions and is suitable for gifts for men and women.


This gift wrap from Cutencomfy features the birthday girl or boy's name in neon bright colors on a black background.


And this gift wrap from designer kitandkaboodle (love that name!) features adorable little blue, pink, green and yellow ducks so it's perfect for any baby shower, whether it's for a girl or boy.

Cute Ducks Baby Shower Wrapping Paper
Cute Ducks Baby Shower Wrapping Paper by kitandkaboodle

This wrapping paper, or gift wrap, has only recently been added to Zazzle, but already there are lots of designs, suitable for many occasions.  I've just scratched the surface here, but now I'd like to get back to making some more for my own store!

So now it's your turn. If you are a designer on Zazzle you are invited to add a link to your gift wrap/wrapping paper in the Linky Tool below. Use Option 1 in the Link Widget on the page of the Zazzle product/design you'd like to add. It will show up below as a small thumbnail and when clicked on, will link directly to your product.