I had teachers in mind when I made these giraffe circles, but you can use them for any occasion that calls for motivation outside of the classroom. (Like praising your children for doing their chores). Of course, you can use them for a variety of products: cupcake toppers, scrapbooking, cards, magnets, jewelry, charms, stickers and more.

Dimensions:

- 1.75″ in diameter with a .25″ bleed (circles will print as 2″ – you can either use a 2″ punch or a smaller punch (up to 1.75″) to cut the circle)

FILE FORMATS:

- 1 PDF formatted to 8.5″ x 11″ letterhead sized sheets
- 12 circles per sheet

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Who says a ladybug can only land on a pink flower? She was just too cute to leave on a flower, so I placed her on some 2.5 inch circles.

These cute ladybug circles can be used for a variety of products: cupcake toppers, scrapbooking, cards, magnets, jewelry, charms, stickers and more.

Not good at cutting circles? (I know I’m not very good at it) Try punching them out with a circle punch and mounting them on different shapes or you could punch them out with a scallop circle punch. The possibilities are endless!

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Here’s another printable student desk nameplate for all you teachers out there! Today’s design features a birdhouse and ladybug.

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Education is a big part of my family, since most of my relatives are involve with the education system. With that in mind, today’s design is aimed at educators, even though school is almost out for the summer. It’s never too early to start planning the next school year and gathering supplies for your new classroom. ^_^

I know teachers love to print stuff  (and find economical ways to make their classrooms beautiful), so I made some printable cute giraffe desk nameplates:

These are perfect for labeling a student’s desk or supplies. You could have the student practice writing his/her name on the top line and underneath write the seat or table  number/letter. If you laminate them you can preserve them for the entire school year!

Dimensions:

- 9.5″ x 2.875″

FILE FORMATS:

- 1 PDF formatted to 8.5″ x 11″ letterhead sized sheets – Boy version
- 1 PDF formatted to 8.5″ x 11″ letterhead sized sheets – Girl version
- 2 Desk Nameplates per sheet

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These adorable cuties made their way into some gift tags!

The listing is for a printable PDF that you can use over and over (once purchased). The file is formatted for a 8.5″ x 11″ letterhead sized sheet for minimal effort. Simply open the file in Acrobat, print on your favorite type of paper and punch the whole on the top.

The sheet includes 6 copies of a 2.5″ x 4.075″ gift tag. I couldn’t leave the bottom of the paper blank (reduce waste AND make the most of your paper), so I included a bonus 7.7364″ x 2.1277″ gift tag (previewed below).

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My beautiful cat, Emily, passed away yesterday. I wish I could tell you that she died of old age, but I can’t. She died of cancer- this stupid disease that debilitated her in less than a month and made her a shadow of her former self. Hama and I took her to the vet yesterday, so that she wouldn’t suffer anymore.

It was the hardest and most painful thing I’ve ever done in my life. But, it was also the humane thing to do. I couldn’t allow the disease to eat away at her any longer. She lost weight very fast, barely moved, didn’t eat, and developed lumps (the cancer tumors) all over her body. We spent the last weekend together, feeding her with pet syringes and bathing her with pet wash cloths. We decided to cremate her and spread her ashes somewhere- probably in Puerto Rico, since our current city is not the fondest of places for any of us.

But that is not how I want to remember her. I want to remember all the good times and all her cute mannerisms- with her little “Pom Po Pom Pon” music and her annoyed meowing when you petted her too much. She had a long happy life with us and she truly was la gata mas linda del mundo.

Emily spying something that moves

I used to wonder why Mustang (my newest cat) had arrived at my door. Now I know that God sent him my way. I mean, out of ALL the doors in my apartment complex, he chose to meow at mine and he refused to leave. I’m glad he is here. Not only does he help fill the void, but he keeps my other cat, Spooky company.

I miss her terribly. She will always have a special place in my heart.

You knew it was coming sooner or later! I don’t just create the cute clip art, I also create cute items using the clip art. ^_^

Yesterday I browsed  through some Etsy listings, looking for inspiration for a different project I’m considering undertaking, and I came across some really cute birthday invitations which led me to create my own.

They are available in two colors through my Zazzle store:

- Blue Sakura Invitation: HERE (new window)

- Pink Sakura Invitation: HERE (new window)

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This one has been in the works for a long time, ever since I installed Adobe Illustrator actually. One of the features that initially attracted me to Illustrator CS4 was the Live Trace feature. The idea that you could take a sketch, hit a button and get a vector graphic in a few steps was very enticing.  So, I made sure that Illustrator was included among the Adobe CS4 programs.

When I first used the feature, I must confess, I was disappointed. Initially I scanned some of my pencil sketches, hit the Live Trace button and the results I got were not what I expected, or wanted. Sure, the feature is absolutely fabulous, but it doesn’t work THAT great with pencil scans. Now, I am no professional inker, so most of my drawings are in their original pencil stages (I tend to ruin the lines and the feel of the piece when I ink them) which means that every time I tried to vector a sketch I got the same poor result.

At this point I decided to leave it well enough alone and went over to Photoshop and perfect my skills with that program. But, in the back of my head, I still wanted to create vector graphics. I kept trying it, watching and reading many online tutorials. At first it was obvious, I had to ink my drawings with a felt pen so that the Illustrator could recognize the lines and create better looking vector graphics. So I tried that and I liked some of the results I got:

The Hug Your Snowman graphic was created by inking the original pencil drawing and using the Live Trace feature in Illustrator. I colored and applied textures and patterns in Photoshop. I was happy, but not overjoyed by the result. Anyway, long story short, I started playing with drawing in Illustrator, the results which you’ve seen in the previous posts (starting with Veda). The difference is that all those little cuties were created by manipulating different shapes. This new vector graphic was created using the Pen Tool in Illustrator.

The Pen Tool can be very intimidating. When you look for tutorials online you get this flood of high speed videos where the illustrator makes this incredible piece in five minutes and he/she doesn’t explain the process. Not very instructional. BUT it drives home the following message: open the program and play with the tool until you create something cool. SO- that’s just what I did. Here is the result (link takes you to her listing):

Just for fun I created the side-by-side comparison so you can appreciate where the graphic started and how it ended.

I’m really happy with the end result. She looks amazing AND she was completely created in Illustrator. Some of the gradients used on her came from Deziner Folio’s Web 2.0 Gradient Swatches. (Find them HERE)

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A dew days after I create the Goth Dolls I made this cuties, the Gothic Lolita dolls. The aim was to make a full skirt, more ruffles and some detailed stitching on the sleeves and skirt.

My favorite is the black version, she almost looks like a maid. ^-^

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