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 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 | Oct 12, 2009 | my creative journal
Can you believe that winter is fast approaching? The temperatures are dropping day by day and I find myself more and more inclined to hibernate in bed! Today happened to be especially rainy and stormy with massive winds battering everything outside. Scary! I am snuggling indoors, thankful that the internet allows me to connect with you folks despite the weather and distance.
This weather also makes me pretty lazy and groggy feeling and real work assignments are starting to pile up! However, I seem to have no issues working on creative distractions, such as the doll panel fabric design for the latest Spoonflower theme. I have seen many cute girl doll designs and matrioska doll panels, so really wanted to go in a different direction for my design. I thought it would be nice to create something for a little boy and have been tending towards eyes closed, mouth open type of faces.
I designed a singing doll boy, winter themed and although it is compact enough to be cut to exact shape, I added the snowflake background so I can make a doll/pillow. What do you think? Bit blurry in this graphics but you can also see it within the spoonflower designs.
I still have to learn a bit more regarding colors printed on fabric, because many times the swatches arrive looking quite different from the intended design colors. Either way it is exciting to be able to create your own fabric designs and get them printed. I will be testing this design out and making little pillows for a plushie show this December as well. BTW, did you know Spoonflower now allows you to buy fabric direct from their website? Check out my Spoonflower profile here ->
by Linda | Sep 24, 2009 | my creative journal
I am loving Spoonflower and all the great designers currently using their platform. It’s not cheap to design and print your own fabric, but the satisfaction of having created something from scratch really drives you to make the best possible product in the end. I also love the empowerment their platform is giving to designers such as Liz Scott, who runs Wonderfluff on Etsy – her own fabric designs printed using Spoonflower. I can’t wait until they go out of beta and enable you to sell your fabric designs direct to the public. It’s great innovation and a grand opportunity for all of us.
I’ve seen so many great designs and professional fabric patterns from independent designers, it’s really fantastic that so many people have been empowered. There’s also a great community as well – designers who are all passionate about textile design. Very cool stuff! The internet has given all of us the possibility of communicating worldwide and now there are companies popping up to help with business and manufacturing – Spoonflower, Etsy, Lulu, Blurb…to name a few. I wonder what other innovations will pop up via the internet for independent designers and artists? It’s definitely a fast changing world out there and supremely exciting!
After creating my birdie pattern and realizing it would make great fabric for PJs, I signed up with Spoonflower and ordered a swatch to see how the colors will turn out. It’s so exciting to be able to have such power of creation upon my hands…woohoo! Also, there was a special theme presented for competition on Spoonflower, a fabric design with spoon and flower design(s) incorporated somehow. I decided to take part and created a spoonflower bud pattern. A simple repeating design with bright colors that I think would make a nice tablecloth or napkins! What do you think?
You can find this spoonflower bud design as fabric on Spoonflower here…
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by Linda | Sep 15, 2009 | my creative journal
Inspiration can come from just about anything and yet, artists spend a great deal of time searching and even waiting for that special spark. I am inspired all the time, seeing new patterns and designs in everything that surrounds me. The swirls in my morning cup of coffee or even the splotches on the ceiling of my bedroom inspire. Images suddenly come to mind when I hear certain phrases in conversation, especially since I am learning Italian and practically every word is a new discovery.
Being online for a large part of the day, I must also mention the many blogs out there that inspire with words and photos. You can see my blogroll on the sidebar, but there are many more in my trusty RSS reader. I’m always excited to see what others are up to and I think we fuel each other with our creativity. I also follow theme websites such as Illustration Friday and Inspire Me Thursday. They offer a weekly word or phrase to be interpreted in any way you see fit. There’s also Creative Every Day and Monday Art Day…what blogs and theme websites do you find inspiring?
All this inspiration can sometimes feel like information overload. Thankfully, we all have that trusty tool called a sketchbook. I have always found myself jotting down lists of ideas. Very stream of consciousness and seemingly random as my mind leaps around a lot. Unfortunately, inspiration isn’t executed upon all the time, maybe just a few here and there are followed through to the end. In reflecting on this, I realize that I’m an idea person. I just love brainstorming most of all. No limits, no boundaries, just spout out anything and everything.
I thought it was such a shame that my lists of ideas usually get left behind and forgotten. I’m already on to the next idea after all. But wouldn’t it be better if I shared my lists? No worries on how silly some might seem…I would rather give it a chance – for the possibility of promoting some creativity somewhere. I offer it all with no strings attached because it seems better that an idea can be nurtured rather than lost forever – effectively unused potential. Think of all the amazing things that could be created if the right idea was matched with the right person to execute it? It makes me happy just thinking about sharing ideas, so moving forward I will do just that along with posting the one idea I personally do follow through with. So here goes…
In Good Company is the theme this week at Inspire Me Thursday and honestly the first thing that came to mind was the movie, In Good Company. (Duh!) But from there my stream of consciousness went on…
- your hands gripped together, like in the movie during the speech by the big boss, good graphic poster
- something about people, family and friends together
- I like hugging, snuggling – even with your pets, kawaii!
- drinking wine and hanging out – the wine glass and bottle make me think of merry jolly times
- anything together especially in cold weather, seems like a good time to snuggle
- thinking of warm colors – tans, browns – earth colors – in the midst of the cold white snow
- roasting chestnuts over the fire, even smores over campfire
- camping, always good company around you, cozy
- animals in their burrows, very cozy together – babies with mommy in burrow smushed up together
- baby sleeping with teddy bear or hugging blankie or sibling babies cuddling
- babies in yin yang formation
- idea of fitting together perfectly
- ultimately the feeling of comfort, security and love with something else = in good company
- the holidays come to mind, xmas especially
I could go on, but I stopped on something I wanted to illustrate, fluffy birds snuggling together on a cold winter day! I decided to make it a repeating tile because patterns are just so darn cool.
You can find this design on fabric in my Spoonflower shop –>
It’s a cute little pair of birdies looking cozy for you. What do you think? I hope you feel in good company on my blog, because I do appreciate your support! Thanks for sticking around. Ciao ciao!
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