Category: Creativity

Cricut Print and Cut Penguin Candy Cane Gift

Posted on by admin CreativityCricutDesignFree Stuff

My daughter goes to a small preschool in our neighborhood and they are having their Christmas party tomorrow. (Note: We feel SO lucky to have a small, safe, mask-wearing preschool opportunity right now.)

I had purchased candy canes for her to give to her classmates, but last night, I decided they needed to be cute. And, bonus, my daughter LOVES coloring right now, so she got to customize them for her class!

Here is the Cricut project link so it’s already set up for you if you have a Cricut.

Penguin Candy Cane Craft

If you have another cutting machine, here are two SVG files for the print layer and the cutting layer. You’ll need to add a line on the penguin’s left flipper for the candy cane or you can hand cut that with an exacto knife.

Penguin SVG Cut Files

My Top 5 Favorite Procreate Brushes

Posted on by admin CreativityDesignFree StuffLettering Love
I earn from qualifying purchases when you use the affiliate links in this post. There is no additional cost for you to use these links. 

There are two things I could spend hours downloading – fonts and Procreate brushes. Even though I already have a ton of brushes and I’ve made some of my own, I can always find more I’m excited to download and try! When I share videos on Instagram and TikTok, I often have people ask which brushes I’m using and which Procreate brushes I love best, so, here is a list of my top five favorite brushes or brush sets I’ve downloaded.

5 Best Procreate Brushes for Lettering

  1. My number one favorite brush to use is a monoline brush. You can download the one I made and love for free here: Free Monoline Procreate Brush
  2. My most-used brush when I’m lettering in Procreate is my custom round brush. I love using this round brush for digital lettering because I love lettering with an actual round brush + watercolors in “real life”. I created this round brush set with three different round brushes that are perfect for lettering.
  3. These Alcohol Ink Brushes from Blush River Design are SO much fun. I love creating backgrounds with these and using a round brush for lettering over the top.
  4. The “Sketcher’s Collection” from Super Nice Stuff (This link gets you 10% off!) has such fun distressed edges and adds a more casual feel to lettering projects.
  5. Finally, I love these lettering brushes for modern calligraphy. The thicks and thins are so perfect for making great downstrokes and upstrokes.

Lettering Love: Inexpensive Materials for Beginners

Posted on by admin CreativityDesignHandletteringLettering Love

When I was about 14, I remember doodling in a notebook during a choir practice. One of the tenors leaned over to me and said “Wow, you should design fonts.” I smiled, thanked him, and kept doodling whatever I was doodling.

Years later, I now know that what I was “doodling” is actually called lettering. Lettering is a form of art that basically means drawing letters instead of writing letters. I spent a lot more time doodling letters and words than I ever spent doodling people, places, or things. My chemistry notebook from my Junior Year of High School has some really pretty lettering of words like “barium” and “molecules”.

It wasn’t until I graduated from college that I started investing in more “advanced” markers, pens, and tools for lettering. One of my favorite things about lettering is the fact that there is SO much you can do with inexpensive tools. Grab a pencil or ballpoint pen and you can start right away. However, if you’re ready to experiment with new lettering tools, I’ve got a list of favorites for you to start with and most of them are under $15.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases when you use the links in this post. There is no additional cost for you to use these links. 

  • Tracing Paper – Good paper is always my first recommendation. Using printer paper can shred the tips of your markers, so it’s important to use smooth paper. Tracing paper is an inexpensive way to go!
  • Marker Paper – Marker paper is a step up from tracing paper. When I’m just practicing, I love to use one of these two types of papers.
  • Crayola SuperTips – These are the perfect place to start if you love the look of brush lettering. The tips of these markers offer great angles for downstrokes and upstrokes.
  • Tombow Fudenosukes – These come in both soft and hard tip. They’re a great place to start for brush lettering.
  • Tombow Dual Tips – These are my personal favorites. I love the larger brush tips and the variety of colors. The non-brush end is a nice round marker tip. It’s labeled as “fine” but it’s somewhere between a Sharpie and a fine point Sharpie. I think it’s the perfect size.
  • Micron Pens – I love having a set of these in a variety of sizes. These are fun for a variety of lettering styles and for embellishments and floral frames around your letters.
  • A Round Brush and a basic watercolor set – I learned that it was easier to manipulate the style of my brush lettering with an actual brush. Once I found my groove with a brush and watercolors (you can practice with these on watercolor paper or printer paper), I was better at using the brush tip markers.

One of the best things you can do is to just become familiar with how the markers and pens work and what kind of strokes you like. Seriously – just have fun. Once you’re more familiar with the tools, then it’s time to start with tutorials and finding your style.

I’m working on a whole series of Lettering Love posts. Comment below and let me know what you’d like to learn next!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Posted on by Elise Creativity
A picture is worth a thousand words, yet somehow, without words, nobody could ever understand exactly what this picture means to me. 
[90] Most of the nails are not all the way in the board, but that rusty nail is the one that towers over them all. Welcome to my life as the tall girl with acne. When I took this picture, however, I focused on the rusty nail because it was beautiful. It stood out. It has tone and color and texture. It tells a story. And in its weathered, beaten state it still retains its metal core and holds strong. Perhaps, sometimes, we’re meant to be a little weathered and beaten. 
[81] Look at that focus, the clarity, the perspective, the lighting, the composition. Think of the training behind this picture: which lens to use, which f stop to choose, which angle to shoot from, where to focus, how to focus. Some of it is left to chance opportunity. How did I spot that nail? How did I happen to find it during such ideal lighting? I’ll let you run with the billions of life analogies that can come from photography on your own.
[84] The place where this photo was taken, Wheeler Farm, holds so much of my childhood. We often passed it on the way to my grandparent’s house, we’ve had family reunions there, I went on field trips there, and one time during an Easter egg hunt I got “lost” in the woods with my cousin, Ashley, and we found a mysterious plastic egg filled with a creamy white substance. (Let’s just say that shaving cream is less appetizing when you think you’re getting marshmallow cream.)
[150] The day this picture was taken was an incredibly happy day. It was a warm Sunday afternoon. Nothing but sunshine, the cute boy I was dating, a camera, and endless photo opportunities. For a while after that boy and I broke up, I couldn’t look at this picture. No matter how proud I was of the quality and beauty of the picture, it reminded me of a happy time that I wasn’t having anymore, because I attached that happy time to that boy. He was, of course, a big reason for that happiness. But, my happiness didn’t end because the relationship did. There is beauty in happy memories, in fresh starts, even in being single. With time and learning, this picture has come to represent hope. A wonderful boy loved me once and it wasn’t right. Someday, a wonderful boy will love me again. And someday it will be right. 
405 words.
Not even half of a thousand and not even half of what the picture means to me. 
Or what it means to you.
Maybe it speaks to you differently.
Maybe it doesn’t speak to you at all.
Isn’t it beautiful to know that somehow, even though we all have separate brains, life stories, experiences, and emotions; through images and words we can share and experience life through others?