Romantic Parisian Tag

  I recently completed a class on Creative Fabrica about creating a digital tag - From Paris With Love - Create a Romantic French-Inspired Digital Tag.  I really enjoyed it and ended up with a very pretty tag that I really like.

The end result.  I went a bit off-piste, but I like it.

  All the materials that Traci uses in the class are provided and she explains everything really clearly.  Despite the class being demo'd with Photoshop I was still able to follow along using Affinity Designer. However if you are using a program other than Photoshop it would help if you were somewhat familiar with it so that you can replicate what Traci does. 

  The techniques that I learned were actually super helpful in helping me to create the tag that I designed for this post.  I will definitely be putting my newfound knowledge to good use and creating more tags and background papers.  In the meantime you can download a sheet of the tag I created here.

  To view the class you will need an All Access Subscription.  The subscription allows you to download absolutely everything on the site with no limits!  There's a great deal on at the moment where you can get yearly all access for just £4.59 / $4.99 a month (usually £26.99 / $29 per month).  I'm not sure how long that offer is going to be around so get it while you can.  Just head to the Creative Fabrica homepage and click on the "Upgrade Now" button on the blue banner at the top of the screen.

Redbubble Holiday Card Design Challenge

A few weeks ago Redbubble hosted a series of design challenges and I decided to enter.  The brief for Week 1 was to create a vintage-inspired card or pattern artwork.  This was my submission:

"Eat, Drink & Get Hammered" Greetings Card

...and I was chosen as a runner-up!  You can read the post on the Redbubble blog here.  Or better yet, head over to my Redbubble listing and take a closer look.  Buy multiple greetings cards (they don't all have to be the same) and get a discount of up to 50%.

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Freebie Finds - Free Font and Graphics Downloads

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Welcome to my weekly round-up of font and graphic freebies gracing the web right now.  If you're into digital crafting or creating digital art then these free resources are worth seeking out.  Most come with commercial licences so that you can create products to sell, whether they be print-on-demand patterns and designs or to create physical craft products, but be quick as they are generally only available for a limited time.


At The Hungry JPEG there's a free font bundle worth $104 available to download.  The bundle consists of 25 fonts in a variety of styles with a few bonus graphics thrown in as well.  In order to access the download simply share the deal via Facebook or Twitter.

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At Creative Market one of the free goods of the week is "Herbaceous Greens" - a watercolour, hand-painted foliage clip art collection consisting of 62 individual elements plus wreaths, arrangements and seamless patterns.

Herbaceous Greens - Watercolour Clip Art Set | creativemarket.com

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Also at Creative Market are these adorable Summer Posters,  They would make great thank you/ greetings cards for teachers.  You could also take the designs into a graphics program to manipulate the colours or add additional elements.

Summer Posters | creativemarket.com

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Over at Creative Fabrica I discovered the "Manbow" font*.  It's a fun, art-decoesque font that comes with various options such as dots, stripes and shading.  I have quite a few art deco dies and digital images, so I expect to make good use of this.

Manbow Font | creativefabrica.com

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And finally, although not quite freebies, there are some great $1 deals* to be had at Creative Fabrica like this set of 4 graphics packs by PrettyGrafik.  These would be great for summer projects, kids' parties and also posters, clothing and soft furnishings for kids. 

PrettyGrafik 4-pack | creativefabrica.com

And in case you missed the offer deadline, you can still get each of the 4 graphics - Luau Party*, Super Hero*, Super Hero 2* and A Mother’s Love* - for $1.50 a piece.

Freebie Finds - Digital Crafting and Design Downloads

This post contains some affiliate links (denoted by *).

There are so many great font and graphic freebies to be found on the web.  If you're into digital crafting or creating digital art then these free resources are worth seeking out.  Most come with commercial licences so that you can create products to sell, whether they be print-on-demand patterns and designs or to create physical craft products, but be quick as they are generally only available for a limited time.

Over at designbundles.net the freebie of the week is a gorgeous set of 16 Mermaid Texture Digital Papers.The colours are a deliciosus combination of shimmering purples, pinks, turquoise and blue. 

Download for free or if you have missed the deadline make a purchase.

Offer ends in:

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Next, CACTUS PARADISE vector set on PIXELSURPLUS.  A set of 30 vector cactus illustrations and 2 seamless patterns (email sign-up required to download).

Cactus Paradise vector illustration set

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The Nordic-style NORTHERN WOODLAND ANIMALS* set on Creative Fabrica is so cute!  Consisting of 14 vector animals, 30 vector landscape elements, a wreath, a landscape and a seamless border, the set definitely reminds me of Christmas, but could definitely embody any occasion or time of year by adjusting the colours.

Offer ends in:

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Society Sunday - Cherry Blossom

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I noticed some reports on the news about the arrival of cherry blossoms in Japan and its associated celebrations, which is what has inspired this edition of "Society Sunday".

My first pick is "Sakura & Fat Birds", featuring my favourite colour palette.  The artwork is clean and simple and the colours are fresh and vibrant .  Plus I love those plump birds!

"Sakura & Fat Birds" art print

Next up, a traditional Japanese-style illustration - "Cherry Blossoms - Pink".  Simple and understated, but very pretty.

"Cherry Blossoms - Pink" rectangular throw pillow

Do you change your home decor with the seasons?  I like the idea of that, but I'm a bit too lazy to actually do anything about it.  But if I ever got my act together I'd consider these window curtains featuring "Sakura Love - Grunge White".  They would be perfect for a Spring/Summer revamp.  The flowers are actually images of embroidered blossoms and branches which results in an interesting visual effect..

"Sakura Love - Grunge White" window curtains

Pretty, delicate, soft; that's how I'd describe "Cherry Blossom #3".  There's something so calming about this image.

"Cherry Blossom #3" art print

Cherry blossoms are generally pink, but in "Sakura Blue" the artist has rendered them in blue hues.  The colour palette and the ambiguous nature of the placement of the blooms, where one ends and the next begins, gives an overall effect of viewing the blossoms through water.  

"Sakura Blue" art print

From today (25th March) until the end of play tomorrow (26th March) PST you can get 40% off throw pillows, 30% off tapestries and + art prints and 25% off everything else with the code HELLOSPRING, so it's the perfect time to head over to Society6 and get everything that you need for a Spring revamp.

Redbubble Round-Up: Geometric

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So, it's time for another Redbubble round-up.  I'll be looking at GEOMETRIC designs on home decor products.

First up is my design "Octagonal".  There's something about this design that reminds me of a swimming pool and the acrylic block really helps to accentuate that effect.  I think that it would look doubly good on a windowsill or somewhere where it would catch the sun.

"Octagonal" Acrylic Blocks by Merry Makewell Designs

Next up, "Pink, Grey & Gold Geo" Throw Pillow by Blue Banana,  This style of design is very popular right now. I love the mixture of muted pinks and greys with gold.  It would definitely suit a clean, minimalist setting.

"Pink, Grey & Gold Geo" Throw Pillow by Blue Banana

This "Kilim In Summer Shades..." design is in my favourite colour combination of pink and aqua/teal and the design is visually striking.  It's gorgeous!  It looks great on a duvet cover and could easily be teamed with pink or teal pillowcases for a more cohesive look.

"Kilim In Summer Shades..." Duvet Cover by MagentaRose

I really like this style of geometric landscapes.  Despite being very simple, the colours and shapes and the interplay between the different layers give an interesting and playful result.  This "Native Lands" throw pillow would be great in a kid's room.

"Native Lands" Throw Pillow by Jenny Tiffany

Finally, another one of my designs.  I love, love, love the "Geo Wheels - Red" surface pattern.   Here it is looking great on the tall mug.  It also comes in mint, white, mustard, lilac and teal.

Check out these and many more designs over on Redbubble.

Bloom and Grow - Free Backing Papers

I love the idea of designing my own backing papers, so, with a little help from Daisytrail and CraftArtist 2 Professional, I did just that.  I used the Bright Blooms free digikit to create a set of 6 x A4 backing papers in soft shades, perfect for Spring.

  

  

  

As the true test of a backing paper is its usability, I had fun being my own design team and made a set of cards to show the papers off.  They work really nicely together.  Download the papers and use them in your own projects, then leave a link to your creations in the comments 😊.

Digital Geometric Shards

Remember the geometric pattern card that I created a few posts ago?  Well, I liked it so much that I decided to create a digital version of it using the CraftArtist2 Professional software.  I love the idea of creating products using my own designs so on a whim last year I opened up a shop on Society6 (it's called Merry Makewell Designs) and uploaded my digital rendition of the card design.  I originally tried to reproduce the card faithfully, but the combination of teal and purple didn't really work digitally for some reason, so I used a grey outline instead.  I also made a pastel version using a white outline.

Here they are as notebooks:

Purple Shards notebook

Pastel Shards - Notebook

 I've also added the design to a whole range of other products, like tote bags, phone cases, laptop sleeves, pouches, mugs, wall hangings and even shower curtains.  I think that they look pretty good.

If you have a chance go and take a closer look.