Looking through Issue 39, February 2009 issue of ReadyMade and they offer on page 58, four exclusive valentine designs to clip out or download.  They come from designers from all over and offer some interesting sentiments, perhaps not so conventional?  The publication says you can find the designs online at readymade.com/valentines but as of today I don’t think their website is updated yet!  (For shame!)

The whale design is by Nicole Michels and Erin Mulcahy from birdandbanner.com – I checked out their website and learned that they make custom wedding invitations and similar type correspondence items – so cool!  I love their vintage looking designs and went on over to their Etsy shop eyeing the vintage hankie and conversation cards. Although I noticed they spelled letterpress “stationary” instead of “stationery” – yes, I’m anal like that.

The astronaut design is from Tamara Shopsin and I checked out her website to find a list of eclectic items.  There are notecards such as the pining Porcupine who says “I wish I didn’t like balloons so much” but the other beauty is the bacon scarf.  Yup!

The monster over the house on the white card is by Robert Hanson at robertsamuelhanson.com where you can see more of his design work.  Very clean and industrial looking, I like it for the simplicity and catchy phrases sometimes.

The final card is the yellow card with misregistration of text “I loved you” – pretty funny.  It was designed by Joel Holland at jmhillustration.com where you can find his portfolio of work.  He has lots of lovely illustrations with the thick line, sort of 50s style for me but with a twist in the snarky headlines, quotes and words.

You should definitely check out the great designs out there to use for your correspondences!

Posted on February 13, 2009 at 5:34 pm | Free-Template-Tutorial-Links | No comments

I found a lovely paper cutting pattern online from Little Acorn’s blog and decided to make it into a cool handmade card.  I had also seen the spotlight on this pattern from Craft Magazine’s blog as well, so had to give it a try.  It was great to do a bit more paper cutting with my trusty X-acto knife, trying to sharpening my skills, if you know what I mean!

The pattern is a large heart with squirrels inside, sort of in love and centered symmetrically around the inner heart.  Very cute and not very difficult to cut out, if you print it as a pretty large pattern.   My first attempt was actually thrown away because I printed it really small for a tiny card, but realized I couldn’t cut out the pattern properly (maybe when I have more advanced skills)  So I ended up printing the pattern about 5 inches tall and then it was pretty simple to cut out.  I stuck it on pink notecard paper and tah-dah!  It’s ready to be sent off with a personal message written on the back.  Nice!

You should definitely check out Little Acorn’s pattern and blog in general for great project ideas.  Get Back To Paper today!

Posted on February 12, 2009 at 11:22 pm | Showcase | 1 comment

The latest Caardvarks challenge is all about hearts and although I love all the girly lovey dovey red and pink hearts designs during the Valentine season, I decided to do something  a bit unconventional for my handmade card today.

As you can see, I used Milton Glaser’s classic “I *heart* NY” design and created a card for Valentine’s stating “I *heart* You” – of course, it is literally a heart…my blood pumps for you, I suppose!  (Now I am thinking Twilight and vampires…) Anyhow, I thought it was a cute idea while I was sketching out plans for cards, so decided to actually make it by hand.  I tried to cut out an anatomically correct heart, but fudged it up a bit as I wanted more cut out spots and then just kept going at it.  For the text I just used a black marker and did it freehand, so it’s all about handmade love!

After completing the handmade card I really like the design enough to go ahead and create it in Adobe Illustrator as well.  I created a similiar version that can be printed out as stationery – download the I *Heart* You Stationery PDF (65 kb)

After messing around with the X-acto knife and freehand inking, I also created a version on a dark background to use as my desktop wallpaper, since I didn’t want the glaring white for the monitor.  I think it turned out pretty nice, although I suppose it might also be a bit creepy being dark and all!  You can check out the wallpaper and download it on http://www.JustGraphic.com.

I hope you enjoy the designs and can use it to inspire yourself to get Back To Paper!

Posted on February 11, 2009 at 9:12 pm | Free-Template-Tutorial-Links, Showcase, stationery | 4 comments

Today, I followed a tutorial on MarthaStewart.com to make some cool origami valentine fold-out cards.  This is a really nice design to make a cute and original card for your loved ones.  I like that it is a bit different from a normal Valentine card and the unfolding of it for the recipient makes the experience a bit more mysterious as you can include step by step messaging.  I made a couple of them as I was testing out this new method of making cards.

First, the challenge was the origami part of the card.  I’m no origami expert, so it took me a few tries to figure out what Martha was talking about!  After learning how to do the origami on a scrap piece of white paper, I used the test piece as a template for my final design.  I tested various elements on the template and marked out the game plan for my actual origami valentine cards.

After finalizing my fold-out card design template, I proceeded with my decorative papers.  I went ahead and cut out all the pieces and multiple copies for my fold-out cards.  I actually wanted to use this card as a gift tags or gift cards along with some Valentine goodie baskets I made for some friends.  Here you can see my final creations and multiple renditions of…  I like to stir up the templates a bit, so every card is an original as well.

You should definitely check out the tutorial and make your own cards.  Get Back To Paper today!

Posted on February 10, 2009 at 4:14 am | Free-Template-Tutorial-Links | 1 comment

I just happened upon the Papertrey Ink Online store that specializes in clear stamps and a custom line of exclusive paper crafting embellishments and accessories.  I was pleasantly surprised to realize that they offer paper samples online as downloadable PDFs that you can print out.  Of course, these are just swatches of the paper you can buy from them, but the swatches let you test out design patterns before you purchase.

The printable samples are listed on the website and there are quite a few patterns to choose from as they release them every month or so – check out the entire list of paper samples.

I find that using the paper samples, even in swatch form, can result in pretty cool handmade cards and designs.  When you find something that you really like, then you can go ahead and purchase from the online store.  Very nice of Papertrey Ink to offer up the samples.  You should definitely check them out and get Back To Paper!

Posted on February 4, 2009 at 6:59 am | Free-Template-Tutorial-Links | 1 comment

If you look creatively for materials around the house you can definitely save a lot of money and make your own greeting cards at home.  Before you groan and say that you are not artistic enough, don’t have the time or that handmade cards are too cheap to use, please give me a chance to offer some tips.

Keep it simple
You don’t have to make super fancy designs to make loving greeting cards.  You should really keep it simple by choosing one motif to focus on.  For example, I made some Valentine cards and simply used the heart motif in various sizes and colors repeated.  I put them on a blank sheet of paper, folded in half and stamped the phrase, “A Valentine Hello!”  You can also hand-write in a message or cut out sayings from other materials you might have around, like postcards, magazines and various junk mailings.  Keeping it simple helps you focus your message and really gives you an elegant design in the end.  I made these cards in just a few minutes time, my second “thing” for February, part of my Thing-a-day.com challenge!

Organize and use up lost time
I am sure there are little chunks of time throughout your week that are seemingly wasted.  You really can capitalize by first organizing your materials and tools, so you are ready to create at any moment.  Then use the little chunks of time throughout the week to make handmade cards or even multitask during other activities that don’t require your full concentration and attention.  Plan ahead by collecting materials and tools into one spot, maybe you can put everything in a basket or box you have around.  When a little free time comes or when the magical creative inspiration hits, you are ready to make a few cards in a flash, without having to run around and find things at a moment’s notice.  Also, think about the time you spend watching television – multitasking is possible!

Handmade with love
Making your own cards does not mean you are a cheap skate.  Besides the fact that yes, you might be saving a few bucks, it’s really the better thing to do for the environment.  Inevitably you will be using recycled materials lying around the house, why toss them out to fill up our landfills?  Not only are you helping out the environment, remember that handcrafted works are your form of art that say you cared and thus spent time for the person you are sending the card to.  Handmade always means with love and care.  Your recipients do feel that and appreciate the effort more than any material item.

Recycled materials you can use
All too often, people don’t see the wonderful papers that are lying around the house, just wishing they would be used in a craft project!  Here are some ideas of what I like to look out for and keep for paper crafts and making handmade cards:

• old greeting cards and envelopes, sometimes envelopes are unwritten on or just have a name that you can cover up.  old greeting cards can be dissected as well – especially the commercial type that you want to spice up with a handmade design
• envelopes can be easily homemade as well, just look for a template online and trace onto a big sheet of wrapping paper or a paper bag
• old calendars, shiny paper and lovely photos and pictures to use
• paint chip booklets and other catalogs with lots of color in them
• magazine covers and pages and various junk mailings that happen to use nice paper – keep those bits!
• old wrapping paper, ribbon and fabric scraps
• paper bags from various stores, some are made of very nice paper, all you have to do is use the part without a logo (or with it if you choose!)
• nature items like pressed leaves, flowers or dried seeds/flakes
• the possibilities are really endless, just look at things with a different eye!

Posted on February 3, 2009 at 2:35 am | Back To Paper, Showcase | 2 comments

Today I started up with the Thing-a-Day.com challenge.  The basic idea is that in the month of February (this is a yearly effort), you are challenged to create something new every day and post about it.  There certainly aren’t any punishments if you don’t do it or miss a day, but it’s more of a collective effort to be creative in general and you have to manage yourself.  It sounded like a great challenge to get creative and focused for a month, so I signed up.

For my first time ever Thing-a-day post, I put my efforts into illustration and drew a cow angel in Adobe Illustrator.  I made it into a desktop wallpaper which you can check out at http://www.JustGraphic.com but then I decided to use the graphics to create a printable stationery page as well.

Now I have the cow angel illustration as a printable stationery page to write correspondence to friends and family, pretty cute, huh?  I have made it a PDF so you can also download this template and print it out for use.

Download the Cow Angel Illustration Stationery Page PDF (931 kb)

Posted on February 1, 2009 at 10:53 pm | Free-Template-Tutorial-Links, stationery | 3 comments