The series of Vintage Folder Icons is inspired by vintage textures, retro textiles and Technicolor films and bring a hint of nostalgia and glamour to your digital environment. Vintage Folder Icons go perfectly together with the popular series, Luminous Folder Icons and help you get stuff done by color coding your projects.

Vintage Winter Folder Icons

< — Save Winter Vintage Folder Icons to your computer.

< — Save Heart Icons to your computer.

Valentine's Day mini cards

Here’s a batch of free mini cards or gift tags for Valentine’s Day.

Time to celebrate love! Send a Valentine to your sweetheart or to a friend or make Valentine’s day a special day for yourself. Tickets for two? A night out? A romantic gift? How about treating your friend to lunch out? A visit to a museum? A scenic drive? A cup of tea, a movie or dinner with someone you love?

I’m sharing the mini cards or gift tags with you in a printable PDF-file for you to print out, cut up and enjoy! I’ve also included the design as a set of small digital cards, just the right size to pop in an e-mail. I hope you have fun using and sharing these Valentine designs!

Save these Valentine’s mini cards/gift tags to your computer.

Vintage Folder Icons Seaside is inspired by vintage textures, retro textiles and old films and bring a touch of nostalgia and the glamour of Technicolor film to your digital environment. Vintage Folder Icons go nicely together with the popular series, Luminous Folder Icons and help you get things done by color coding your projects.

This collection of folder icons is inspired by the seaside. In red, white and sand, Vintage Seaside Folder Icons bring the ocean, marine fashion and a minimalist vintage touch to your desktop.

Inspired by the seaside and the rich, saturated palette of Technicolor film, these folder icons help you create a personal desktop environment with a hint of nostalgia. Five folder icons in colours borrowed from the seaside, red, blue and sand or On the Beach, Ocean Liner, Powder Blue Cadillac, Warm Retro Red and Red Velvet Cinema.

< — Save Vintage Seaside Folder Icons to your computer.

A Bed of Roses. Collage.

New Year’s Eve will be lit by a Blue Moon and the moonlight will welcome the new year, 2010. Obviously, this only happens once in a blue moon!

As I prepared my dreamboard for the Full Moon Circle, I thought a lot about this. The Blue Moon shining as fireworks go off and the new year rings in. The passage between the first and second decade of this century.

Then I thought about the word I’ve chosen to guide me through the New Year. My word is “ease”. I thought of clouds and minimalism. But in the end my research of the word and its origin lead me to the synonym “bed of roses”, and that was irresistible! So here it is, passionate, romantic ease!

The creative process of The Full Cold Moon

Here you can get a peek into the creative process of The Full Cold Moon.

How it started off with the basic composition with bare trees and a full moon. How I added snow and then a bird that got too detailed to fit in with the rest of the image. How I gave the bird flat colours so it would fit in with its surroundings, although I still miss the bird in all its glory!

Dreamboard. Full Cold Moon. December 2009.

Something astonishing happened while I was creating this dreamboard. Three nights in a row, I heard a bird sing just as I was watching the moon. That’s something quite unusual at this time of year, to hear a bird sing at all, and particularly at night… So I realised that a bird had to be part of this dreamboard, and I created a bird that is red and alone, so the bird would stand out as clearly as the birdsong I had heard.

I’m asking December to bring me a peaceful and white winter. Time to recharge. To appreciate the beauty around me and bring it into my home. I see effortless, playful minimalism and strength in this dreamboard too. And music.

This is the third dreamboard I’ve made and the first one that actually has the moon in it. Here you can see some images from the creative process behind The Full Cold Moon.

My previous dreamboards have been about exploring creative expressions and giving my creativity wings, but when I look at this dreamboard I see a winter holiday card and a pattern for textiles. I’d like to make curtains like this! I’m not sure how I could make it a repeating pattern vertically, but I’ll see what I can do to put this idea into print. This is a creative dream I’d like to bring into my new year!

I love the intuitive process that these dreamboards bring out! It’s so exciting and powerful! Thank you Jamie for hosting the Full Moon Dreamboard Circle!

iPhone photography: Autumn landscape by the lake

This time of year each day comes with subtle or startling changes and it makes me feel so present, my senses alert, my heart happy and grateful.

iPhone photography: Yellow and orange leaves

Sometimes I wonder if I could express my impressions in the form of textile prints and tableware, but the whole industrial process seems pretty daunting!

iPhone photography: Oak and pine tree

On my walks I’ve been listening to CraftSanity podcasts, a recommendation from New York artist Dana Barbieri who is working on a an inspiring Art Book project. I also joined a Facebook group “Faceless for six days”, the idea is to see how it feels to not use Facebook. So be warned, my Facebook footprint will be even tinier than usual!

Saturday’s The Experience Animation and Technology Exhibition 2009 where students of Hyper Island featured interactive and digital art powered by Wii technology turned out to be an exciting sensory overload! A few projects that made a deep impression were Soul Music (create music and light effects by dancing), The Jacksson Pollock Experience (make your own virtual “drip” technique paintings), The Triforce Installation (create ambient sounds and light animations) and the ingenious ThisPlay (hand held touch screen paper displays).

iPhone photography: Orange leaves

Here’s another image with leaves that makes me think of transferring my impressions into pattern design.

Then again, I’m enjoying the ease of photography. The fast process is perfect for capturing ideas and makes such a contrast to the long and sometimes complicated process involved when I create with other techniques.

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend and that next week will glow exhilarating!