by Linda | May 19, 2010 | DIY printables
Today I needed a quick shape template as a guide for cutting out some tag embellishments, so I opened up Illustrator to mock up a shape for printing. What began as a quick and easy shape suddenly turned into a discovery of all the preset brushes and decorative patterns in Illustrator. I was able to whip out a bunch of cool shapes in no time at all! Now my only problem is decided which one to use…hehe! I thought it would be cool to share with all of you, so here’s a PDF with all 3 pages of tags, blank and lined versions.
Download the Journaling Tags Frames to Cut PDF
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Feel free to use in any of your personal projects and let me know if it’s useful to you. Journaling tags are often included in scrapbook pages, but you can also make altered decorative tags for gifts, use them in your art journal and add them to altered books. It’s always nice to have a slightly fancy shape to use rather than just a plain rectangle or circle. I don’t have a die-cut machine so I have to cut shapes out by hand. I find having a guide helps a lot, so that’s why I create them digitally to print out and cut or sometimes I use the print-out as a cutting guide on top of patterned paper.
Hope you enjoy…ciao ciao!
by Linda | May 14, 2010 | my creative journal
Woohoo! I am so happy to have finally completed my first tissue paper mini album…sweet! It seemed to take forever, given this new format and the tags inside the flattened tubes. Although I’ve learned a few things for next time around, I’m super satisfied with the results.
First of all…mini albums are just uber cool. I’m not worried about archival issues and I want it to be touchable and explorable for kids and adults alike. The size makes it a less challenging project as well. I used papers from an Ikea stationery set and just printed out photos at home.
This mini album is just select fun times when we were in the USA. Disneyland was a big component of our fun times. Partly because I worked for Disney and we went there for free all the time 🙂
The little tags come out from the inside of the flattened tubes. It was a bit tricky because I had flattened them out so well and glued paper over that it was hard to stick tags in! I actually used my bone folder to “stretch” out the openings a bit.
The book “pages” are just tied into the binding. Pretty simple way to bind the book which I like more because I’m not a fan of loose rings. Besides the fact that I like bookbinding anyway, I like to have the solid structure where pages stay together nicely.
The size of the mini is perfect as well. Not only for adults, but I think it would be attractive for kids to flip through…I cannot gush enough about my discovery of tissue paper roll minis. Where have I been, right?!
The binding just has scrap cloth tied around. It’s nice decoration, but also strengthens the binding and keeps each of the pages separated a bit too. Overall, it was a fun process with a pretty result. Time to share with peeps… 🙂 Hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of my mini. I will definitely be making more with the tissue paper rolls I’ve been saving! Check out my post about crazy for mini’s competition as well…
by Linda | May 12, 2010 | DIY printables
This week has been full of computer-time and digital work for me, so when I needed to make a birthday card for a friend I naturally started with a digital design. With birds on the brain from my daily bird exercise, the phrase “bird-day” instead of “birthday” popped in my head.
I decided to go with it and designed some pieces to print out, then put it all together for more tactile feel. I will be creating a nest for the birdie with strips of kraft paper on the front of the card. Who doesn’t love hybrid handmade, goodness, right?
I thought I would share the graphics with all of you, in case you want to make a quicky bird-day card for someone!
Download Happy Bird-Day Designs PDF
Feel free to use it in your personal projects. The printable has the first page for the front of the card and a second page for the inside panels, if you want to include them. Happy hump day to all and until tomorrow…ciao ciao!
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by Linda | May 5, 2010 | DIY printables
Looking for printable telegram papers for your next papercrafting project? Here are some free downloads I have created…
Another hump day and my list of to do’s is definitely piling up. Even with some pressing items, I just couldn’t help myself and started working on a scrapbooking mini album. Sometimes you just have to take a break, right? I recently discovered tissue paper roll minibooks and posted the beginnings of my obsession. A 3-inch by 4-inch book seems pretty small and easy to complete, but it actually takes quite a few steps from preparing the photo layout to embellishing.
At one point I had to get on the computer and create a journaling design. I need lines to journal on because I can’t handwrite straight and the easiest thing is to design and print journaling tags at home! My design will go on the back of photo tags that slide into the flattened tissue paper rolls.
My design idea is a vintage telegram look, but I can’t decide if I will print it with the old paper background or print on white paper and distress myself. Either way I thought it would be nice to share the design with all of you. Perhaps you will find a good use for them – collaging, art journaling or maybe a few tags like me.
Click on the images to download the hi-res JPGs (For some reason some people don’t see the images, so you can download the ZIP file here.) I would love to see what you create with them as well, feel free to post a comment. Here’s a peek of the my minibook in progress…wish me luck on getting it done, so perhaps I can finally get back to work!
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by Linda | Apr 28, 2010 | DIY printables
Looking for a free printable paper dolls? Check out my template here that is free to download and print. A great DIY crafty activity to do with the kids.
Today I decided to revisit my old paper doll template because I wanted to change up the proportions and create variations. Let me share a new printable paper dolls template with you.
I recently read a post on Violette’s blog about leveraging a drawing, reusing it multiple times or perhaps creating variations by making multiple copies to work with. I don’t know why, but previously I always thought I had to create everything from scratch.
It’s the romantic assumption that original must be better?! I realized that it’s just crazy to limit myself like that. Why I am creating rules to box myself in, right? When you draw something, if you keep working on it, them you can experiment even more.
I suppose the idea of copying – even if it’s yourself – seemed wrong. My thoughts suddenly drifted to discussions and debates about how nothing is original and we all build our work on top of those before us. And that’s a whole other discussion….
Suffice to say, I sort of had an epiphany and have freed myself to do whatever I want. I can reuse my own drawings and I don’t have to work from scratch each and every time at all.
It’s funny how sometimes we get so deep into our work that we lose sight of the big picture. I totally lost perspective regarding the freedom of creation and the fact that there are no rules.
Glad to get that out! So, all this led me to revisit my printable paper dolls template, creating two different body proportions to play with.
Feel free to download the free printable PDF below. Use to your heart’s content and I hope you have fun with it! The first page is meant to be cut out and put together to make a moveable printable paper doll and the second page is just the outline to draw directly onto if you want the full piece.
Download Printable Paper Dolls PDF
I used the printable paper dolls to play around with body positions. You can place the parts in a certain way with temporary glue or tacky glue and trace over to experiment with drawing different positions.
It can serve as a nice guide for drawing the body form… or you can just make yourself some pretty paper dolls. That is definitely fun as well, especially with your kids!
I started to work in my art journal and on one page I drew a granny and a scary girl doll then made a photocopy. Now I can always have the original to experiment with and I can cut out the copy for collage.
Hope you are inspired to go make some paper dolls and copy your own Art! Sounds funny, but sort of daring too, huh?
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