by Linda | Apr 1, 2010 | my creative journal
Did you know it is the month for letterwriting?! I think a heartfelt handwritten sentiment goes a long way any time of the year, but having a whole month dedicated to the art gives us pretty good motivation as well. If you are cardmaker like I am, it’s a good time to send them out to friends and family. RedLetterDayZine has a great post all about this April month of National Letterwriting. There are great links for more information at the end of the post as well.
I can’t believe April has already started because I feel a bit behind in my letterwriting already! I have my dip pen and wax letter sealing kit ready…but want to create some new stationery for the occasion. Watch out for some more lovely printable stationery here – I will be posting my designs! Also, stayed tuned for some hybrid cardmaking print-outs or kits, because sending a card counts as well. Let me know if you have any themes of topics in mind…until then!
by Linda | Jan 27, 2010 | DIY printables
I know it’s considered pretty geeky to watch and subsequently become obsessed with anime series. Stories range from classic romance to funny, whimsical characters and even quirky or downright weird at times. I’ve certainly gone through my fair share of passionate obsessions. I have a 200GB drive filled with subbed anime from my college years! Although it’s impossible to follow all the series, the bright side is that there’ll always be something new to watch.
One of the more popular stories that made it’s way to the USA audience is titled Trigun and you might have heard of it already. I learned a great phrase from that series…“love and peace,” says Vash, the main character (I’m pretty sure this is not the first time I am mentioning him on the blog). It might sound childish and simple-minded, but hey, it makes me happy and I have no issues learning life lessons from cartoons. I totally love watching the newer generation of animated movies like Shrek and Wall-E that aren’t so classical fairy tale like.
The image you see above is a desktop wallpaper I designed for myself. I thought it would be nice to share it with you as well, perhaps you can print it out as a card or even wall art.
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I got the idea of offering free art from illustrator Stephanie Fizer (an artist I totally admire) and she offers occasional free downloads and pick-us-all-up messages, too. I really like her free art for the IndieFixx Feed Your Soul Project – you can see the print here. Enjoy!
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by Linda | Jan 18, 2010 | my creative journal
This lovely Monday morning, I am looking through the work of illustrator and graphic designer, Lara Brehm. I have to say wow, wow and wow again because I love her work in illustration and pattern making immensely! Lara’s blog provides a lot of visual inspiration for any artist or crafter, just for sheer beauty of her color palettes and cute whimsical illustrations. I love how her look is so clean, yet full of vibrance and color at the same time. She is another artist I look up to and aspire to be…hehe…hope I’m not sounding too geeky and starry eyed at this point.
via Lara’s blog
I also really enjoy seeing her mockups for various products and the variety of which she creates with her designs, really showing how versatile illustration work can be. From patterns to scrapbooking pages to printables and tactile products…all the things I would like to work on realizing myself as an artist.
via Lara’s blog
Not to mention her work is always joyful to me, something that really picks me up no matter how crummy a day might be. How can you not smile at these uber cute illustrations? I hope they can brighten you day as well. It’s nice to know there is so much positivity and goodness in the world.
via Lara’s blog
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 | 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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