Creative Goals and a Free Printable

A few days ago I posted my favorite simple craft projects from Pinterest. I’m big on not expecting too much of myself this year, because baby and family stuff is my top priority, but since my word of the year is create, there are a couple of things I’d like to learn and get into.

Getting into sewing, crocheting, and knitting — the more practical crafts — has been on the radar for at least a few years now, but it’s been really difficult for me to find a hook, a project that makes me want to take things to the next level. I’m kind of uncoordinated and bad with my hands, so this is something I’ll have to continue to work on with baby steps projects. Paper has been more my speed for a while, and I think doing this kind of stuff came more naturally for me.

Practicing in my SMASH book brings out a lot of that, “I wish I knew how to do this better” feeling. For one, I realized I haven’t taken out my Nikon D90 a whole lot in the past year, and while I don’t necessarily mind the quality of my iPhone snaps (the best camera is the one you have on you, isn’t it?), the real push behind all the scrapping for me was the photography hobby. Every time I do break out my “real” camera, I find I’m having to scale it back to really basic knowledge. I’m back in A-mode (as opposed to straight up Manual) and I haven’t been too happy with the way I’ve been focusing my shots lately, so that’s something I definitely need to work on and re-learn. I’m a little ashamed to admit this, but I got Nikon D90 for Dummies when I bought my camera, and it’s actually been a SUPER helpful manual, not just on the camera itself but also on the basics of photography and how to get a great picture.

I’ve also always wanted to learn off-camera flash, but I’ll probably have to save that for wayyyyy down the line when the girls are bigger and can give me more time to set up shots and stuff.

And thanks to scrapping and Pinterest, another thing that’s really gotten me going is hybrid/printable scrapbooking and digital designing. Since graduating college and not needing to handwrite as often, my handwriting has devolved into an ugly mess, and I can’t write on any paper that isn’t lined or it’ll look like a foreign alphabet. I’ve been stealing journal cards out of my Project Life Amber core kit for the pages that aren’t lined, but very few of them match the color scheme of my SMASH book.

Well, I just discovered the digital PL line on JessicaSprague.com. I really love all of the designs, but can’t bring myself to spend another $25 or $50 on the core kits when I might not use all the journaling cards, so instead I spent maybe $10 to get myself most of what I need from the Clementine line and set up some .psd’s with multiple cards on them so I can print them out in Photoshop. This system works so much better for me! I can use my favorite designs as much as I want without having to worry about running out of cards. This is such a no-brainer but another huge perk is that I can easily type out what I wanted to write in a much prettier, more legible font without having to go through the trouble of printing and measuring a template for the cards I already have (though Paislee Press has a great tutorial on how to do that).

This revelation (along with upgrading our piece of shit printer for Christmas to an awesome Epson Artisan 835), has opened up an entire new world of printable files for me. I’ve been so far removed from zining that I forgot why clip art and dingbat fonts existed. It’s also allowed me to make my SMASH book more my steez. Scrapbooking elements are too laced with corny, sentimental bullshit, and while I get into that every once in a while, most of the time I really just want to quote rap songs that are relevant to my life. The other day, I pasted Ice Cube lyrics to my SMASH book. It didn’t come out terribly pretty, but it was absolutely fitting for the content, so the next logical step is to figure out how to make these ideas prettier.

Also, I’ve forgotten how easy it is to make shit you can print on cardstock and frame for around the house. I’ve been obsessed with tracking these types of things down and I’ve found a treasure trove of inspiration and freebies at Kind Over Matter.

So the most immediate thing I’d like to figure out is how to design my own printable scrap elements that fit my style a little better — something to combine the gritty with the cutesy (cutesy in the style of my favorite designer, Amy Tangerine). I’m working with some pretty basic-to-almost-intermediate knowledge of Photoshop right now, but maybe down the line during maternity leave or later in the year or something, I’d like to take some online tutorials on Photoshop and Illustrator.

In honor of that, I’m sharing something with you guys that I made a few years ago. You may have seen it on my desk.

Yes, it’s been used in a gajillion rap songs and I think it originates from Uncle Luke’s “I Wanna Rock,” which is basically the most misogynistic song ever, but fuck it, I think I really needed the motivation that year without having to read The Secret as suggested by my mom.

So here you have it, my very first printable for your enjoyment:

Enjoy, and please let me know what you think in the comments (I may have fucked up the settings so it only prints in low resolution, so if I did, please let me know so I can fix it!), but be gentle.

Tagged as: crafty, creativity, free printable, illustrator, photography, photoshop, printable, scrapbooking, She's Crafty