Luloveshandmade

Illustration Competition: Did You Win the Wacom Tablet?

December 9, 2013

Hello everyone and happy Monday, I’ve got some exciting news for you! :)
Do you remember last week’s blogpost about my new Wacom tablet and the illustration competition? One of you was able to win a Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch tablet (Size M) and the same person plus two other winners were able to win prints of their illustration.
Many of you handed in their illustrations in the course of the last week and yesterdy evening was really overwhelming for me, because it was hard to pick three favorites out of all those pretty, creative and super cute illustrations!
If you’re not among the winners, please don’t be sad, I could only choose a few of you and hey, you didn’t waste your time, because even without winning something, this competition inspired you to get creative and to create a pretty piece of art! :)

So here are the winners:

First place, getting a Wacom Intuous Pen & Touch tablet (size M) and 40 prints of the illustration:
Krokodilina and her winter girl in the snow: I was super impressed by her blogpost, not only because of the super pretty illustration she created, but also of all the steps which were involved (I can totally recommend reading her blogpost). :) A well-deserved first place!

Second place, getting 30 prints of her illustration:
ars pro toto and her incredibly cute animal friends win the second place and Sonja will receive 30 prints of her pretty illustration.

Third place, getting 20 prints of her illustration:
Papieraugen and her lovely winter girl & cat win the third prize, getting 20 prints of this pretty illustration in candy colors.

Fourth place, spontaneously getting a small surprise package put together my me:
Jay Bee’s Colorsplash and her cute cupcake are chosen for a spontaneous fourth prize. It simply didn’t feel fair not to send her something, because the wrote a great blogpost with a step by step guide about how she created this winter cupcake illustration.

Dear winners, I’m now gonna send you an e-mail with all the details, have fun with you prizes and especially Dania with your first prize, the tablet! :)

Dear all other participants, thank you soooo much for participating and thank you for sharing all your pretty illustrations! Don’t be sad about not having won and hopefully you will still inspired to draw more often, even without a new tablet!

Happy Christmas season!
Lu

Everything Else

Free Printable: Christmas and Holiday Gift Tags

December 5, 2013

Hello everyone! Today I’ve got a pretty freebie for you! I played around in photoshop and recently practiced a lot and made this free (for private use) printable for Christmas gift tags for you.

To prettily wrap presents, I used wrapping paper, handmade paper gift bags (DIY for paper gift bags in this video), masking tape, a puncher, skissors, yarn (mine was via Garn und Mehr) and – most importantly – the gift tags. Here is the download link for the free Christmas gift tag printable (best printed out as DIN A 5).

One of my fave types of yarn is the one from Garn und Mehr, a German family business who produces yarn in the prettiest colors. :) It’s perfect to wrap presents and to decorate something.

First of all, I used my puncher for making holes into the gift tags.

Afterwards, I also punched holes in the upper parts of my gift bags and attached the tags with some yarn.

Oh, how I adore all these candy colors, they make grey winter days so much prettier! :)

Have fun wrapping your presents and I’d looove to see photos of your presents being decorated with my gift tags. You could leave a link in the comment section or tag me on Instagram (@luloveshandmade).

Happy Thursday! :)

Merken

Everything Else

A Story about Summer and Winter // My New Tefal Freemove 9920 Hot Iron

December 3, 2013

Hello everyone! Wow, I’m super excited about sharing this post with you! ;) I recently (like some other great bloggers) got contacted by Tefal for a fun blogger campaign: they wanted to promote their new cordless hot iron and we bloggers were asked to present it in a creative way. Each of us can then keep the hot iron and has the chance to win a travel voucher. :) Because I like challenges and because the hot iron really cought my interest, I agreed and thought about a funny and creative way to show you this hot iron without making it boring for you. :)

When my new Tefal Freemove 9920 arrived, it was lovingly packed, pretty details were added to the box and the task was nicely written. Moreover, communication in advance was really personal and one could see that they put a lot of effort in preparing this blogger campaign, I liked this a lot.
So when I opened the huge box, it was filled with sparkling confetti, my new hot iron and my task: creatively showing the advantage of a cordless hot iron, embellishing a tote bag and ironing my favorite summer dress (because one can win a travel voucher). So as you can guess, the main challange was thinking about how to creatively present the hot iron’s most important feature, namely that it’s cordless and thus allows lots of freedom of movement.

After reading through the user manual and material, I first had to become familiar with the hot iron’s functions and I took some time to try it out.

Well, I normally don’t like to iron clothes (I only do this with some dresses)
and rather use my hot iron for sewing projects, but I must say that this thing is really awesome! :D Its handle is super ergonomic, its usage is uncomplicated and the steam function is awesome for treating crumpled clothes.

After I got used to ironing with my new toy, my best friend Anja came over (thank you sooo much! :-* ) to take photos of me for the upcoming picture story: After having been asked about participating in this blogger campaign, I did some brainstorming and thought about how to show you the advantages of this hot iron and here’s what I came up with, a short story in photos:

It was on a blistering cold day in winter when Lu was at home, thinking about summer and being as sad as one can be about the grey days and the cold outside .

Suddenly, an idea came to her mind and brightened up her day: what about a spontaneous holiday trip to a place where there are palm trees, where there it’s warm and where she could wear all her favorite summer dresses!? She took seat at her desk and immediately booked a last minute flight to a place where she had always wanted to go, a place where she could walk with bare feet all day and forget about the freezing cold at home.

She happily jumped through her room, opened her wardrobe and started picking out her favorite summer clothes, being full of excitement about her upcoming trip.

Of course she wanted to take her favorite summer dress with her, but it was awefully crumpled.

Too good that Lu had recently got a brand new cordless hot iron that she could now use for fastly ironing all of her clothes. She was in a hurry, because she had to catch her flight in only a few hours.

Her flamingo dress was so awefully crumpled that only her hot iron’s steam funktion could help her to make her dress look pretty again.

Without having a cord, ironing was so much easier and less stressful and allowed her being more flexible and to move around. Because Lu was in a hurry, – she very soon wanted to catch her flight to a place where there it’s warm and sunny – it helped her a lot not to fall over her hot iron’s cord like she normally does.

Tadaaaaa, prettily ironed flamingo summer dress, ready to be packed and taken with her.

Well, wait, there was something missing! Lu was confused, because she didn’t totally get into the mood for travelling.
<
Ahhhh, she knew what the problem was!

For getting into the mood for summer holidays, one needs to dress like it’s summer, so Lu took out another bright summer dress.

Too good that she had already ironed this dress a few days before, this allowed her to save time to keep on preparing everything for her spontaneous trip.

Yayyyy, so much better! Swapping a reindeer sweater for a yellow short dress made her feel like summer and helped her getting into the mood for travelling

But there was still something missing: when going on holiday, Lu wanted to take an individual accessory with her. She again took her hot iron and ironed a canvas tote bag in order to embellish it a bit so that she would have a pretty companion.

There’s no summer holiday without ice cream, so Lu took this cute image to make her bag look prettier.

Wait, not to forget her kitty! She decided to use a textile marker to make her canvas bag look even cuter so that she would have something to remind her of home while travelling the world (and not to get homesick :)).

Finishing her bag and then soon ready to go!

Wait, was that Lu’s tummy which made this rumbling sound? It was! She hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, but she would soon have to catch the flight. She had been thinking about making some cupcakes all day, but…

… oh no, there was still a huge amout of crumpled clothes waiting to be ironed and to be worn at a sunny place. But Lu was so incredibly hungry and craving some cupcakes, so …

… thanks to her cordless hot iron, she was able to do both things at once, yay! Multitasking at its finest and Lu was nearly ready to call a taxi and escape the cold winter weather, ready to fly to a warmer place. While she was preparing the dough for her cupcakes and simultaneously ironing her summer clothes, she already dreamt of white beaches, turquoise water and an endless blue sky.

Dear readers, I hope you had fun reading my colorful short story, I now definitely would really love to go on holiday and sit in the sun! :)

Thank you, Tefal, for making this possible and for sending me this cordless hot iron (all information about the Tefal Freemove can be found here), it makes ironing all my dresses and fabric for my sewing projects way more comfortable and I really had lots of fun working on this challenge. :)
Lu

P.S.: As always, please note that although the hot iron displayed in this blogpost has been sponsored, this does not affect my personal opinion and I only do write prositively about items and I really like and recommend.

Everything Else

Shop Update: New Christmas Postcard.

December 2, 2013

Hey friends, here’s just a quick update for you: I just added this new postcard to my shop, it’s a candy color reindeer illustration for Christmas. You can find this postcard here in my DaWanda shop. :)
Moreover, there’s currently a discount special on DaWanda in which I am participating and you get 12% discount on many items when shopping in my online shop. Make sure to have a look if you are still in need for some Christmas presents. :)

Happy Monday!
Lu

Everything Else

My New Toy from Wacom // Win a Tablet in my Illustration Competition

December 1, 2013

Hello everyone! Eeeeeks, this is so damn exciting, a blogpost about a really special cooperation!
I recently got contacted and asked if I was interested in receiving and testing a Wacom tablet and host a competition for giving away a second one. We thought about a few ideas and then this cooperation was born. I got two tablets c/o Wacom, one to keep and one for one of you lovely readers. I got the Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch M and the Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch S. I decided to keep the latter one and a lucky blog reader will get the first one, but more about this at the end of my blogpost. :)

When I was contacted by Wacom’s PR agency, they told me they got attracted by my creative work, my past illustrations and the tutorial for how to turn a simple illustration into a print which I posted a few weeks ago. Before I first heard about the Wacom tablets, I knew that these things excitest, but I never really thought about them, neither did I recognize which new doors they could open for me concerning my creative work. The more excited I was when I did some research and when we then started talking about this cooperation, I couldn’t wait getting started! :)

When the tablets arrived, I couldn’t wait to try them out and first of all to find out which size works best for me. After unpacking both, I installed the software and it was super easy to get started (well, to be honest, at first I tried getting started without the installation cd – what a dork – and wondered why the pen didn’t work… :)) and to find out how it works. During the first few minutes, working with this pen instead of a mouse was a bit strange, but I got used to it really quick and now I simply LOVE it!
This pen can perfectly substitute your normal mouse and it makes photo editing sooo much easier, because the pen is way more sensitive and responsive.
When I first opened photoshop with it, I made a few doodles (upper left photo) and of course it looked as if I had made it in paint. ;) But no one becomes a master without practicing and only a few hours of working with this tablet made a huuuge difference.

What I absolutely love is that I can now add notes and doodles to my photos, thus using my handwriting and showing off my really personal style, this is fantastic!

Moreover, writing onto photos adds a super personal touch and makes them look fresher and more fun.

The very best thing is that – with some practice – I can now make illustrations directly with the tablet, because this electronic pen substitutes my normal pen and I do not have to scan every sketch and illustration. Instead, I can make them directly on my laptop and finish everything in photoshop. Of course there will still be days when I traditionally draw by hand or make sketches on the train, simply using pen and paper, but now having this new technology makes many things easier and offers a wide range of new opportunites for me.

What is more, I love learning new techniques and skills and I’m always so happy about enlarging my horizon and doing something I haven’t done before, there’s hardly anything more satisfying! :)

After some first doodles, I made this simple illustration only using my tablet, I made it about an hour after I first got started, so you can see the progress which can easily be made with some practice. :) Wow, so much fun!

On my second day working with the tablet, I drew the four items on this Christmas card, also only using my tablet and pen. Only the letters have been added as normal font in photoshop. I’m super happy about the progress I have made within only one day and I can’t wait to try out more and to make hundreds of cute illustrations and I’m super thankful for this new toy I can now call my own! :)
When I had to decide which tablet to keep, I decided on the smaller one, because my workspace isn’t that huge, my laptop isn’t, too, and I like working at different places, so it’s important to stay flexible and not to need too much space for the tablet.
The features of both sizes are the same and as you can see in this blogpost, they offer lots of varieties for design and photo editing. After this one day of using my tablet, I even got used to do normal photo editing (like adjusting colors, contrasts and brightness) with the tablet, because it’s much better to handle than the normal mouse.
How much I love my new toy! :)
So after reading all of this, I hope you are now super inspired and want to get started with your own illustration and maybe the following competition will be interesting for you:

Get creative and make your own Christmas illustration!
Design a recipe card, a gift tag, a postcard, your personal wishlist, a piece of wall art or anything else which comes to your mind and is related to the upcoming holiday season and then win a Wacom tablet and prints of your illustration. Here’s how it works and what you need to do in order to take part (make sure to read the conditions carefully!):

Because I wanted to have equal chances for advanced people and those who are new to this, you can either make your illustration by hand and then scan it or take a good photo of it or you can make it on your computer and even use a tablet, do it any way you like! This illustration competition is not about technical perfection, but it is about a pretty, original, creative and aesthetic idea for a Christmas illustration and it’s more about what you make of it than about how technically advanced you are!

So be creative, make an illustration and blog about it (yes, you need a blog in order to take part in this competition, but if you don’t already have one, feel free to create a new blog) and link my blog and Wacom in this blogpost, telling your readers about this competition. Then post the link to your blogpost in the comment section below this artice until next Sunday, December 8, 6 p.m. and also leave your e-mail adress. I will then decide on the three winners.

One person will win the tablet and the people with the three most creative and original illustrations will also get them professionally printed. So this is what you can get:

First place: a Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch M (worth 199€) and 40 prints of your illustration
Second place: 30 prints of your illustration
Third place: 20 prints of your illustration

The winners will be contacted by December 10.

So here’s your checklist for taking part in this competition:
– Make an illustration (by hand or on your computer)
– Blog about it and link to Wacom and my blog and mention this competition
– Post the link to your blogpost below this article in the comment section
– One entry / illustration / submission per person
– Don’t forget to also leave your valid e-mail adress in the comment section
– This competition ends on Sunday, December 8, 6 p.m.

Can’t hardly wait to see your ideas!

P.S.: Thank you a lot to my dearest friend Anja who took those photos of me working on my desk with my new tablet. :)
P.P.S.: Although this blogpost / the items in it are sponsored, this doesn’t touch my personal opinion and of course I only write what I really think, getting a tablet for this cooperation does not change this!

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