by Linda | Dec 9, 2009 | DIY printables
Wednesday is hump day as we used to call it back in my old workplace. Half the week is nearly done, but still another half to go. I like to break up the workweek with something other than the things I MUST do. It’s fun for me to break up my time with something casual that I can share with you all. A little something to get you over the hump day! Hence, I declare it to be free goodies Wednesday!
Christmas is a time of many lists to check off, especially for gift shopping. I have to admit that I’m a huge list maker, in general anyway. I just LOVE crossing out and checking off items that are complete. It gives me great satisfaction and I think it’s good to pat yourself on the back sometimes and realize how much you’ve accomplished. That is why I also break up tasks into the smallest parts possible – more to cross off, right? It’s really a great feeling and breaking tasks into small bits makes it all the easier to accomplish as well. A little project management trick, I say. I am currently working on some mini sketchbooks, handbound with leather covers and I’ve written out every tiny step to make it pretty mindless, especially since I have to make duplicates.
Download the Printable Christmas List PDF
Thus, I’ve created the little owlies Christmas list for your holiday task listing! The little owlies are sort of my mascots as I created them way back, when I first started blogging and sharing my designs. Write down all your to do’s and get it off your mind. Break it all up into small steps and then cross ’em out when completed. Feels good, doesn’t it?
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by Linda | Dec 7, 2009 | my creative journal
One of the first artists I started following online is the wonderful Irisz Agocs, an illustrator living in Budapest, Hungary. Her watercolor pieces are loose and free, so full of emotion and adorably whimsical. They tell a story in just one scene, reminding me so much of childhood days and nostalgic times when fantastical worlds sprung out of picture books! I was mesmerized by her work, amazed at her skill and in effect wanted to be her. How can you not be taken in by her fantastic imagination?
© Agócs Írisz
I too wanted to evoke emotion through simple lines and vivid colors, I wanted to tell stories and ultimately I wanted to make people smile and be happy. I still want those things and although I quickly realized I wasn’t going to be exactly like Irisz, I think I’ve learned a lot just following her art blog and how-to blog. She also has an Etsy shop selling prints of which I’ve purchased, now adorning my wall and reminding me of what I love and believe in. She has interviews posted on Artful Wisdom and Inspire Me Thursday, but you can also check out her artwork on Storybird – this fantastic new system where you can write stories and use illustrations in the system or provide illustrations and let others write stories (it’s so cool!). Eventually you can sell those community compiled books or buy them through Storybird, it’s an original idea and I was so excited when the beta launched and I learned Irisz’s work was used as part of the development of the whole thing. *gush*gush*
© Agócs Írisz
You should definitely check out her work for inspiration, but also for her outlook on illustration and bringing the child out from within us all. I am so glad she shares her work online, because the online community helped to push me forward in my own experimentations. I usually take Mondays slow, filling myself with inspiration and excitement from all around. I hope I’ve succeeded in sharing a bit of that with you as well – Happy Monday Inspiration!
© Agócs Írisz
by Linda | Nov 30, 2009 | DIY printables, my creative journal
Looking for a free printable thank you card and envelope in a classic classy style? Download this set to print at home.
Whew, it’s the end of November 2009 already and thus the end of AEDM. It’s been a whirlwind of events and although I missed a week from getting sick, looking back at my posts – I realized that I have accomplished a lot. I put myself out there, more so than normally and so glad to have shared my work and thoughts.
Thank you to Leah for starting this fabulous community, so supportive and open. Also, thank you to all of you as well. I feel as if I’ve grown up a bit, matured just a little and took one step closer to my dreams and goals of being a full-time artist. No matter how small the step, it’s a step forward nevertheless. Although there’s a long road ahead and I’m sure many more challenges, I’m excited and happy to be on this journey.
Today, I decided to offer a free printable to say thank you to everyone. Even though Thanksgiving has past, it’s always a good time to give thanks. We can’t take for granted all the caring people around us and online that help us through our everyday challenges of living our lives and getting through the days, good or bad. Here’s my way of giving back a little, I hope you like it!
Download the free printable thank you card and envelope below…
Download Thank You Folded Card PDF
Download Thank You matching Envelope PDF
I designed the thank you folded card and matching envelope above, feel free to download for personal use. Grazie mille for your support, your thoughts, your feedback…and really just for hanging around so I don’t feel so alone on this creative journey. Thank you.
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by Linda | Nov 19, 2009 | DIY printables
Check out my holly leaf pattern designs with free printable paper downloads, so you can create your own cards and holiday papercrafting projects.
I was doing some digital illustration today decided to use the little holly wreath for a quick digital card design. All the elements were created digitally and I simply went with the classic green and red holiday colors.
Free to download the holly leaf pattern paper I created for your personal use – FREE DOWNLOADS below.
holly leaf pattern green bg PDF
holly leaf pattern white bg PDF
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by Linda | Nov 18, 2009 | DIY printables
Classic printable star pattern paper for all your papercrafting projects. In yellow and white background variations for free download.
Here’s a quick design I created following the latest Sweet Stop sketch challenge. It turned out smaller than I though, dunno why I worked in such a small size! I am really into the scribble-ish line look at this point…so using it in a lot of designs!
I created PDFs of the star background paper so that you can download them for personal projects.
Download the Printable Star Pattern Paper
yellow background with white stars version
white background with yellow stars version
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by Linda | Nov 18, 2009 | DIY printables, my creative journal
Download this Free Printable Snowman Stationery Set to use for your gift wrapping and holiday stationery needs.
It’s been a fabulous month in terms of experimenting and furthering my hopes, dreams and goals of being an artist full-time. I’ve experimented with new mediums and also met so many fantastic folks online throughArt Every Day Month.
I appreciate ALL feedback and visits to this blog and know that it really means a lot. Besides experimentations, I have also been trying to work on my design illustrations. One of my many goals is to open up an Etsy shop to sell my wares – art prints – stationery – creations of all types. Since I have so many interests, it’s definitely hard to define exactly what I do, but I know it all starts with sketching out designs.
Printables make me excited because they can be delivered immediately and give you instant results. You can print what you want to use and as many as you need. Also from my business point of view, it’s a low upfront cost alternative for someone just starting out a business. A bit like print on demand, which is vastly becoming an common way of offering up products for sale.
I have offered some freebie printables previously on this blog and through this experience, some research and my own use of the many wonderful free printables out there, I’ve come to a few conclusions.
- I tend to print out designs that don’t use up too much ink, because I prefer to print on textured or colored paper as an alternative.
- I love sets of printables, so that I can match up everything such as wrapping a gift, labeling and writing up my card or note.
- I like the simplicity of just cutting paper in half or quarters and don’t like wasting any part of the paper printed.
- I totally understand the need for designers label or credit via logo and text, but hope it’s tastefully implemented and not using up too much ink.
- I also like printables that are customizable – you can type in some text in Adobe PDF before printing.
I haven’t yet figured out number 5, but I worked on a sample snowman stationery set with the other items in mind and would like to offer it as a FREE download today. I hope you enjoy these designs I have created!
Download this Free Printable Snowman Stationery Set
Snowman Stationery Envelope
Snowman Stationery Flat Notecards
Snowman Stationery Folded Cards
Snowman Stationery Labels/Tags
Snowman Stationery Paper
Each part of the stationery set is labelled above for download, so you can pick and choose what you prefer.
I’m definitely still learning when it comes to variations of designs and how to format the layout. For example, I provide a lot of variation on each sheet, lined and blanked versions. Perhaps it is better to provide full sheets of one style only, in case a person prefers one over the other, rather than both on the same page that must be printed together? What about all pages in one file, do you often select print even though you didn’t mean to print out the whole file? Or are separate files too unwieldy? What about the fact that I include “designed by tortagialla.com” on everything as a small text rather than my very yellow and ink-soaking logo?
All my designs besides the envelope are designed to be cut in half or quarters exactly, no waste of paper. It’s important of course to remember to print as high quality as possible on your preferred paper and at full 100% size, as these are designed for Lettered Sized paper. Although for myself I design on A4 sized paper and would offer those variations for all printables – I love my US and Int’l peeps equally! I’ve wondered also about the quality of files as these are saved as high quality PDFs specifically for printing at home – pretty big downloads. Or would smaller sized downloads with less quality be acceptable? All things to consider and think about!
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by Linda | Nov 12, 2009 | DIY printables
Looking for a cute cookie pattern paper printable? Here’s a free download from a little illustration I created for a card challenge.
I got a note in my inbox announcing a Digi Day Cookie Exchange Party & Challenge in the SNR Card Universe Ning Group, so I had to participate with the free digital stamp they offered up. How cute is that gingerbread cookie? I believe it was created by Digital Delights by LoubyLoo! Talk about talent…woohoo! I used the image in the digital card layout below after coloring it in Photoshop, but decided to design my own digital elements to go with the whole layout.
I really like how my cookie pattern paper turned out, so I wanted to share it here for you to download.
download the PDF of cookie pattern paper
Hope you have fun! Thanks! Keep checking this blog for upcoming posts and if you don’t want to miss out on free printables – Sign-up for my email newsletter to get all the updates >>
by Linda | Nov 12, 2009 | DIY printables
Print your own supplies with this Christmas paper printable free download, cute repeat tree patterned paper and stocking illustration!
Hello folks! Just wanted to say thank you to all who visit my blog and check out my designs. If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I started out cardmaking traditionally but switched to all digital, so that I could use my own designs and print the card when I actually would send them out. I am a bit sad today, because I found out that a group I was part of online removed all my photos in the ning group because they were digital and not real cards. They only want real handmade cards and photos of them. Sigh…sort of sad. I understand groups have their own rules and such…but it’s sad to think that somehow my digital designs are just not worthy enough. I can make anything on the computer since it’s accessible to me, but I can’t buy everything I want from all the great scrapbooking and cardmaking stores out there. Boo hoo.
I’m definitely a bit down today, but I can’t let it stop me from doing what I want to do and enjoy the process of creating. The latest Digital Tuesday challenge is themed for holiday wishes, so I decided to participate with a digital card design.
I created all the imagery used so you can download for your personal use as well!
Christmas Paper Printable Free Downloads
Download the xmas stocking drawing – digital stamp
Download PDF of the xmas tree pattern paper
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by Linda | Nov 9, 2009 | DIY printables
Here’s a set of freebie printable striped paper in the tan brown coffee colored theme and matching whimsical swirl pattern. Free download for personal use!
I’ve been playing around with digital design and creating patterned papers for digital cards… so though I would share the downloads with you for some fun papercrafting time.
For coffee lovers, here’s a cozy, stay indoors themed digital card design. The layout is from a Stamp TV sketch and I simply used a coffee brown color palette and created all the design elements. From a printable striped paper to a coffee swirls paper and little elements here and there.
Since I already have the pattern paper designs done, I thought it would be fun to share them with you here on the blog. Feel free to download the PDFs below by clicking on the thumbnail previews to get the full-size PDF downloads. They are totally free downloads for your personal use. I hope you have some fun with papercrafting!
Download Printable Papers
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by Linda | Oct 29, 2009 | DIY printables
Another week and another card for the current color challenge at digital tuesday. We have to use kraft, orange and another color, so I decided to go for the Halloween theme. Here’s my little cat doodle with a witch hat accessory, a little startled from the ghostie! Simple and quick card design…check it out!
Here is a digital stamp of the cute cat image, if you would like to use for your personal projects. Enjoy!
