April Promotions at Society6

Great opportunity about the FREE GLOBAL shipping on ALL products in my JUST KIDDING shop!

FREE Worldwide Shipping + 15% Off Wall Tapestries when you order from my ‪#‎Society6 Store

https://society6.com/justkidding?promo=J2VJKBB43Y66

My Steampunk design story

Today we google everything so I learned a lot when I typed in the word Steampunk.

It’s a famous upmarket trend, a term for an expression of art. This name Steampunk was not known to me in the eighties and early nineties when I called it my Time creations.

Apparently the Steampunk designer trend started from a science-fiction sub-genre rage in the 1970s. In my blog article: A Steampunk designer story I have shared how my own time piece jewellery came about, and how today these cog-wheel creations look great on leather texture designs.


The first print on demand projects I created with my Steampunk design was with Live-heroes.

This is my Life Heroes banner.

The artistic expressions by Victorian writers, such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells during the 19th century when steam power was the main source of power must have inspired artists. To portray clocks, cogwheels and other workings inside watches became the elements to describe the fictional machines like The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.

The following links will take visitors to some of the clothing, home decor and accessory products with my Steampunk designs on Redbubble & Society6 . I’ve also written several articles about the illusions of time, and what makes us all so trapped by click time.

 Society6 for the print all over top and pillow can be seen here.

 These products are found in my Redbubble shop
 The girl's all over print can be purchased from my designs at Oarttee and the t shirts with the time piece jewellery are found at: Treadless  or at my Just kidding shop at zazzle.

 Soon I will start designing wedding and birthday invitations on Zazzle using my original leather work and my creations on a theme of time.
Thanks for reading my post.
Nadine

The Real Story about Valentine's day

Valentine is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it is not a public holiday in most of them. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance.

http://www.zazzle.com/collections/
valentine_easter_birthdays_weddings_christmas-119196161359293563

More than a billion couples are expected to be given away in matrimony in the United States alone during February. But there’s a lot more behind it than just cards and gifts.
There’s a true-life story. It’s a story that teaches us a lot about the true meaning of love, sacrifice, and commitment. St. Valentine (Christian priest) gave his life so that young couples could be bonded together in holy matrimony.

 (Short version of the story) 

As Valentine was awaiting execution, he fell in love with a blind girl who happened to be the jailer’s daughter. On the eve of his execution, Valentine is said to have written her a sonnet in ink that he squeezed from violets. Legend has it that his words made the blind woman see again. They may have killed the man, but not his spirit.

Even centuries after his death, the story of Valentine’s self-sacrificing commitment to love was legendary in Rome. Eventually, he was granted sainthood by the Catholic Church.

They might have picked February 14 as the day of celebration because of the ancient belief that birds (particularly lovebirds, but also owls and doves) began to mate on that very day.

 
While giving a gift and card, having a candlelight dinner, and sharing special words of love, these acts are all important, but the true spirit of Valentine’s Day needs to last throughout the year

Valentines day by nadinemay featuring an i love you mug

Happy New Year

I recall that in the years gone by garages, local shops and other businesses gave away calendars! These days that is not done anymore. Now it becomes a very well appreciated gift. I will add the images from my own Calendars here, or visitors can find more under my

Zazzle promotion page

 

Greetings from the Souls of Africa

The 12 African designs in this calendar are also published on several other Zazzle products.
They were inspired due to my love for our African heritage, and for being grateful that I live in Cape Town, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  

To buy click here

From my Calendars & Wall Art collections at Zazzle

 
  

Show Case Gallery

The art of creating calendars is in itself a showcase gallery. Each calendar consists of thirteen images of a design topic, and each calendar can automatically be re-ordered for the following years.This month will be a calendar promotion month. Five of the calendars are printed with Zazzle and the ocean topic calendar with Redbubble. Every month I will promote different products. The next promotion will be products for Valentine day.

Reflection Calendar

I was inspired by the many quotes about a water nymph that becomes a reflection of every woman that will look into a pool of water.
When they see the mirror reflection of themselves, then every month there is an important message that has a deeper meaning.
Have a look on line to see the other 12 designs for each month.  
To buy click here

From my Calendars & Wall Art collections at Zazzle

Floral Treasures from the Cape

This calendar has twelve random designs of flowers, plants or succulents from the Western Cape – South Africa.
The richest floral kingdom in the world. Most of the original photos were taken by me from what is flowering or growing in our own garden. They are also published on several Zazzle products. Enjoy.  
To buy click here
From my Calendars & Wall Art collections at Zazzle

Fantasy collections

Story telling from just looking at every image in this calendar will delight every child at heart.
Several of these fantasy designs were created as decor for the small Wendy house in the fairy garden in Clovelly.
To buy click here

From my Calendars & Wall Art collections at Zazzle

and my absolute favorite.

 

 
High Fashion & Anton Pieck

Anton Pieck is still one of my favorite Dutch artist. He was responsible for designing almost everything for the fairy tale park Efteling in Kaatsheuvel,Holland. Today it’s one of the major theme parks in Europe. Over the years I have collected most of his work and incorporated some into my product designs and used Photo Shop to create this High Fashion calendar. To buy click here
From my Calendars & Wall Art collections at Zazzle

Aquarium visit in the Future?

The images in this calendar were inspired by a project I was involved in just after the largest accidental spill in world history.The Gulf oil spill on July 15, 2010 killed hundreds of birds and marine life. Pictures could teach young people how important it is to take care of our planet.
  To buy click here

Designer Home Décor by Susan: Decorating with Leather Textured Throw Pillows

Designer Home Décor by Susan: Decorating with Leather Textured Throw Pillows: Many people like the look of leather but do not like real leather so the next best thing is to decorate their home with  leather texture thr...

The Self Employed Housewife

The Self Employed Housewife by nadinemay featuring red ornaments

Personalized Gifts

The popular online print on demand shop ZAZZLE offers just that.
It took me a while to edit some of my products that I thought were available to be personalized, and apparently were not. I created a collection for these products and will keep adding more as I go along.

Its a real shame that the South African Rand is so unfavorable against the dollar, otherwise I would be tempted to buy a personalized gift and send it to my family in Holland and the UK. We are having to pay 14.2 Rand to buy $1.00. So you can imagine what even a postcard will cost us. The only advantage in this otherwise corrupt currency control is that any royalties I earn that gets paid into my PayPal account buys me more here in South Africa.

I hope that there are a lot of succulent gardeners out there that would love to own the T shirt I designed for them. I've written an article about my own fascination with succulents titled: The Hanging Gardens of Clovelly Thanks for reading my post. Nadine. #nadinemay

My most popular graphic designs are:

#My+most+popular+graphic+designs+are:

Nadine May

"If you're really passionate about what you do, but it's not going to make you a lot of money, should you still do it?” My reply would be YES. Keep dong what you love to do. Read my blog post titled :Earning while loving how you do it. There are two genre designs that seem to be the most popular so far. My African designs and my Anton Pieck incorporated designs.
What have I learned from this?
Read my full article on this topic titled: My-most-Popular-Designs to read more about branding your own graphic signature.
Because I'm an international designer and all the print on demand websites like Zazzle, Society6,Redbubble and Cafepress are based either in the USA or Australia, for me who lives in South Africa a different approach was in order.
Combining photos taken by me, and adding graphic illustrations or scanned images with other elements from my personal library of images that I have collected over the years for my many book cover designs, I started to have great fun incorporating these into the designs for the online shops that I have published on my menu bar.
Thanks for reading my post.
Nadine

Gone shopping

Gone shopping by nadinemay featuring star christmas tree ornaments