Monday, December 3, 2012

Merry Merry Photo Advent Calendar

It's me! Yes ... I'm still here! Have had a fabulous, terrific year but ran out of energy somewhere around July! I saw this beautiful post on  Makinglemonadeblog.com  about photo advent calendars and was totally motivated to make one of my own. (Calligraphic of course!)

I was so pleased with how it came out, I decided to share the love with my bloggie friends. So included below is a download of the tags which you can print out for yourself and make into your own advent calendar.



I love this idea for so many reasons. It's simple but decorative, it's fun to see pictures from throughout the year, and it creates a great photo display by Christmas. You can change the photos every year or keep some - very customizable! You can hang it on a ribbon, on a board, or on the tree.


I decided to use photos taken throughout this year but you could use your favorites from throughout the years, favorite holiday photos, etc. I rarely print photos anymore so this is a fun opportunity for the kids to see some of the pictures I took throughout the year and relive those memories.

Supplies needed:

Kraft cardstock - I purchased mine at HobbyLobby. I considered it a 2-fer as it included 50 cards and 50 envelopes for only $9.99 ($5.99 using my 40% off coupon). Now I can use the envelopes for my Christmas cards!

Mini clips - purchased at Walmart for $3.88

Reinforcement labels - again Walmart for $1.00

Ribbon (3 yards) - found an awesome one with baubles at Big Lots for $2!

Photos - size 3.5x5



So for about $15 I have an advent calendar I love!


Yes - that's my real cat - who is a complete scaredy-cat but manages to get in every photo I try to take around the house!



More good news ... leave a comment below to enter a drawing to win one of the advent calendars - all made - just add your own pictures! I will draw a lucky winner on Thursday, 12/6/12, at 11 p.m. and ship on Friday, 12/7/12.

You'll still have about a good two weeks to display before Christmas. Or you can keep for next year or give as a gift! Please remember to check back on Friday morning to see if you are the winner so you can email me your mailing address! I can't mail it if I don't know how to contact you.

One winner - ribbon may differ from that in the photo - shipped to continental US only (sorry). But you can still download the files for free below!

The files also include a bonus - 3 gift tags!


Hope you enjoy! Happy Holidays!
Truly,
Erica

These tags are formatted to print on the 5x7 unfolded kraft cards which is 10x7. You then trim them to 3.5x5. But you can also print them onto 8x10 cardstock and then trim to size.

Tags 1-8

Tags 9-16

Tags 17-24

Tags 25 & gift





Saturday, June 16, 2012

Happy Father's Day [printable card]

Hello to all you out there in letter loving land! Haven't posted in a bit and I'm on the run but wanted to share this little Father's Day printable. It prints 2-up on an 8.5x11. No scaling - should print as is and can then trim with a paper cutter to 4" square.

Sorry there aren't any crop marks - eye ball it! Gotta run! Hope you like it!
Truly,
Erica

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Calligraphy Canvas

We recently moved to a new house. The kids decided to share a "sleeping room" and use the living room as a "hang out" room. Most people think this is really unusual but my kids are constantly playing "musical beds" and half the time they end up on a cot in our room or on the couch or ... So the room truly is for just sleeping.

Anyway, I was excited about trying to find coordinating duvet covers for a 14 yo, 10 yo, and 6 yo. I loved what we came up with and designed three canvases to pull them all together.

Not sure how long this will work out but for now, the kids love it, too.

I did the calligraphy, scanned it in, designed the backgrounds and sent for printing. Each word represents a kid - "play" for the 6 yo, "surf" as in surf the internet for my 10 yo, and "sleep" for my 14 yo. Best secret in printing canvases - CVS Photo, especially when they do 30% off which is frequently. They come out wonderful, too. See for yourself!






Truly,
Erica

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Contemporary Pointed Pen & a Give Away

Hello out there!

Well, as you can see - it's been awhile. We moved in February and I have finally finished setting up my studio. Although I have not finished unpacking boxes! But I can't wait to share pictures of my studio room! That will have to wait until I can unpack some more and take some decent photos!

In the meantime, I'm really excited to share a class I taught this past weekend for our guild here in Sarasota. The members have a range of experience with pointed pen - from none at all to advanced - so it was difficult to pick a topic. However, most had an interest in learning "contemporary pointed pen" also known as modern calligraphy or even gestural writing, the styles often seen on today's greeting cards.

I spent four weeks preparing a hand out and I was thrilled to have some fabulous contemporary calligraphers participate by sending me tips to include and examples of their work to share. Thank you so much to Masha at Ornamelle, Molly at Plurabelle, Patricia at Primele, Mara at Neither Snow and Lindsay at Lindsay Letters. A very special thank you to John Stevens at John Stevens Designs who gave me permission to use some of his work from a new book, The Art of Calligraphy and Lettering. This book is a goldmine for calligraphy and hand lettering lovers and I highly recommend it!

I used all recycled materials to put together folders and included some hand-marbled paper - refuge triangles left over from a job I did over 8 years ago for a Mercedes Benz Maybach launch party. I KNEW if I held onto them long enough I would find a way to use them! I just couldn't throw out those beautiful little triangles and now I'm so glad I didn't.


We began the class by learning about contemporary pointed pen and looked at over 30 greeting cards - all featuring a different style of pointed pen! We then reviewed the tips from other lettering artists, and finally created our own style of contemporary pointed pen using our own handwriting.

There has been much discussion in blogland about whether some of the styles of modern lettering artists is truly "calligraphy." In my book, the definition of calligraphy is "the art of beautiful writing" and beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. On dictionary.com, it even simply defines it as, "fancy penmanship." Some are of the opinion that you must study the traditional hands of calligraphy for years before you can break free and break the rules to do a more contemporary style.

I would suggest those who don't have previous calligraphy experience may have an advantage in that they are freer to express their own style. There is a free-ness, a fluidity, to these styles which I think is sometimes hard to achieve once you have spent years trying to master the "perfect" letter. It was interesting in class that some of those with years of lettering experience had trouble letting go and integrating their own style into a pointed pen alphabet. And those without lots of formal training had difficulty integrating the thicks and thins of pointed pen into their handwriting.

Master calligraphers like John Stevens clearly have a talent for developing modern styles and his years of experience are reflected in such. Some of the wonderful contemporary lettering artists of today have never had any formal training but have developed beautiful styles which are very popular.

As I said in class, the variety of styles of contemporary pointed pen is virtually limitless. Anyone who reads bridal magazines or looks at lettering in blogland knows our newest lettering artists are some of the hottest around and their styles are the haute couture for those looking for something less traditional but still upscale.  In the end, there is a happy medium out there for everyone (pun intended!).

The final project of the class used a technique from Italian lettering artist Massimo Polello featured in the book, All About techniques in Calligraphy another relatively new calligraphy book with some fabulous advice and work. We used a sea sponge to make a swash of gold paint on fine art paper. Then we lettered a quote using our new contemporary pointed pen style in a variety of directions. The results were beautiful and it was so fun to see the different styles emerge.

Some of my handouts (no, that is not my furry hand but one of my furry friends who refused to move):



I hope everyone had fun in the class. And for the artists who graciously shared their talent with us, I've sent you a package which should arrive by the end of the week. (Hope I didn't spoil too much of the surprise.) For all you other readers, let me know you are still out there by leaving a comment to enter the give away! I have one extra packet left from the class. I will use a random number picker to choose one lucky letterer to receive a packet! P.S. You don't have to have any previous pointed pen experience!

You must comment by 12:00 midnight Monday, May 14. :-)
Truly,
Erica

Saturday, January 14, 2012

New Year ... new ideas...

The first month of the new year is already half over ... WHAT?! How did that happen? I know someone accidently hit the fast forward button and we've been spinning toward the future ever so quicker than before.

I made a LOT of Christmas presents but haven't had time to post the pictures yet. But I will share a New Year's invite I did. This was a really simple invitation but fun design for an afternoon New Year's Day party. The cool thing about the design was that it worked in both black and white and color.




Our Christmas cards were a bit of a challenge this year. Only because I had several ideas and no one could agree on what we were going with. I was a little disappointed in the final cards because I felt like they were simliar to cards we did a few years ago. But I guess I'm the only anal one that would notice. Also, my original idea was to zentangle the background (thus the reason the children are in patterned black & white outfits) but everyone liked the snowflake design better

I loved the ornament/snowflake shape to the cards and made the mistake of putting a hole in them and putting a string through it. I figured people would just use it to hang the card on the fridge but LOTS of recipients hung our card on their Christmas tree. Feeling a little guilty about the moral obligation/dilemna this presents to some who really don't want to put it on their tree but feel obligated.

I also added glitter to the snowflakes prior to sending. I was happy with the results but would have been more happy with one of the other ideas I had. I suppose I'll have to use one next year but my oldest is 14 and she made it known loud and clear her appearance on the annual card is reaching its end. Phooey!



Sorry it's a little late but I hope you all had a Happy and Safe start to the New Year as well.
Truly,
Erica