Posts Tagged ‘freebie’

Printable: 2015 Thank You Cards

November 19th, 2015
8 Comments

I’m so excited about this year’s Thank You Printable. Or should I say PrintableS, because I’ve teamed up with the fabulous Natalie Malan. We were in the same vender area at Pinners Conference two weeks ago when we came across this great idea. She’s amazing at watercolor florals and I can do some calligraphy, so we put our creative minds together and here we are!

melissaesplin-nataliemalan-2015-thankyou-floral-calligraphy-5

The first design is a simple wreath with warmer colors. I played around with various banner ideas, but ultimately I liked the simpler text.

Each card can be printed as a postcard, double-sided (like above) or single-sided for a flat card to be mailed in an envelope.

melissaesplin-nataliemalan-2015-thankyou-floral-calligraphy-3

Seriously, aren’t these florals beautiful!? Natalie sells prints in her shop and on Minted.com. You can also find a sweet watercolor kit (hello Christmas!) available in her shop.

melissaesplin-nataliemalan-2015-thankyou-floral-calligraphy-4

The second one was screaming for an organic brush script so I played around with different styles. I chose this version of the text for the way the ascenders, descenders and flourishes play with the floral border. I like how the organic lines of the letters compliment the flourishes.

melissaesplin-nataliemalan-2015-thankyou-floral-calligraphy-2

You can download one below and the other on Natalie’s Blog.

CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD

*By downloading the above material, you agree to terms of use: This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. Altering any files is NOT ALLOWED. If you would like to use this freebie for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!

Check out past designs here:

Freebie: Inspirational Quotes

April 27th, 2015
8 Comments

Back in January, I had the joy to design a little print series for Bing for their lounge at Alt Summit. They wanted inspirational quotes to support the concept of their cloud-based services. I made a series of 4 prints that could be tiled together to create an abstract cloud, or they could stand alone.

melissaesplin-inspirational-dream-calligraphy-quotes

I’m happy with how they turned out, despite my limitations with the design and time.

Screen Shot 2015-04-27 at 7.30.35 AM

See above how I tiled them.

melissaesplin-always-more-creative-calligraphy-quote

I was very limited on the design as I didn’t have much time to execute. I was given the official ‘go ahead’ while I was flat on my back with strep throat. The next day I created the designs. By the time I had work ready to print we were less than a week away from the deadline. Obviously no time for fun stuff like letterpress, gold foil, laser-cutting, etc.

melissaesplin-look-up-at-the-stars-calligraphy-quote

melissaesplin-if-you-can-dream-it-calligraphy-quote

Of the local digital print services I tried, no one wanted to touch this job. We needed 500 of each design (2000 cards total). I sent it off to overnight prints and they pulled through for me (granted, it required a substantial rush fee).

melissaesplin-dreams-dont-work-unless-you-do

I would love to re-work these prints and get them completed with off-set and silver foil printing. I just don’t see that happening though.

As far as the design process goes, I painted the starry scene on watercolor paper with dry gouache. Added gold and glitter touches then scanned in. I lettered the quotes separately and placed them over the background.

desktop-freebie

Click the image above to download the free desktop background quote “Dreams don’t work unless you do.” By downloading you agree to the Terms of Use below. Stay tuned for more fun stuff with the other three quotes!

Are you new here? Check out the “printables” tab at the top of the page for more freebies! Interested in learning calligraphy? Let me teach you how! Click the image below for more information.

learn calligraphy online with melissa esplin

*This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. Altering any files is NOT ALLOWED. If you would like to use this freebie for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!

Printable: 2014 Thank You Cards

November 10th, 2014
23 Comments

2013 Thank You Printable • 2012 Thank You Printable • Floral Thank You Printable • 2011 Thank You Printable • Dino Party Suite • Styled. Party Suite • 2010 Thank You Printable • 2009 Thank You Printable

It’s that time of year again! Here’s another ‘Thank You’ card printable. I had a lot of fun with this one. I love the idea of making a wheat-inspired bouquet. Kind of reminds me of the fall harvest. Very indicative of the time of year around here.

melissaesplin-2014-free-calligraphy-printable-thankyou-1

I’ve been making lots of ‘Thank You’ cards for family and friends lately (so many things to thank them for!), so I thought I would make a printable that was in-line with the off-hand flourishes that I’ve been making lately.

melissaesplin-2014-free-calligraphy-printable-thankyou-3

The printable is a simple double-sided post card design that could be sent as a post card, or printed single-sided and used with an envelope for more formal sentiments.

melissaesplin-2014-free-calligraphy-printable-thankyou-2

I kept the design simple with just black and white line work. Embellish with sparkly pens, colored pencil, markers and more! Print out a bunch and let kids color and decorate at the Thanksgiving table! A great Thanksgiving-themed activity, if you ask me.

melissaesplin-2014-free-calligraphy-printable-thankyou-4

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

 

*This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. Altering any files is NOT ALLOWED. If you would like to use this freebie for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!

Last-Minute Happy Easter Printable

April 18th, 2014
23 Comments

How did Easter creep up so quickly? I can’t believe it’s already here. Our celebrations this year (as with everything this year) are going to be simple. An easter basket filled to the brim with candy that Penelope and Felix have to find. No dresses, no decor, just keeping it simple.

There’s something to be said for that. I love the idea of going all out for celebrations; but when mental health lies in the balance it’s all about simplifying.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

In collaboration with Brittany of House that Lars Built, I made a little printable easter banner. The printable is available in three sizes: 2″ wide (above), 10″ wide and 16″ wide. You can use the banners as inserts in candy-filled Easter eggs, as a little banner above Easter baskets or as a decoration at the breakfast table.

Photo by Trisha Zemp

Brittany styles the banner with a mossy basket and paper flowers. To learn more about how to make Easter Awesomeness like this, check out her awesome DIYs here and here.

Want to learn how to do your own calligraphed banners? Take my brush lettering class online right here.

Photo by Trisha Zemp

I ended up using the artwork as a little printable for an activity I co-hosted for the ladies at church. We had a simple devotional about the real meaning of Easter with a little social afterward. The candy-filled Easter eggs were a sweet takeaway. The event was very simple, but just what I needed.

Lately, I’ve been enclosing my Easter eggs with washi tape to make sure they don’t randomly split open. I’ve gathered quite the collection of washi tape over the years (which I’ve now finally organized in a cute dispenser!), so it’s great to put it to good use. My mom and grandma used to tape Easter eggs shut with regular tape which was perhaps a little too effective. The sticky residue of clear tape lingered year after year. The washi tape is a nice solution because it’s easier to remove and doesn’t leave any stickiness behind.

So what will you do with the Easter banner? I’d love to hear/see what you plan on doing with the artwork!

Click the button above to download. If you enjoy the download, make sure that you follow along via feedly, instagram, facebook and/or twitter!

*This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. Altering any files is NOT ALLOWED. If you would like to use this freebie for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!
*Tape dispenser provided by We R Memory Keepers.

 

Freebie: Please Knock Printable

March 5th, 2014
0 Comment

This post is inspired by a note I saw on Instagram yesterday. I thought I’d get all paper crafty and bust out my fancy decorative papers for a quick printable DIY. Let’s make notes telling our visitors to knock cute today. You can get fancypants with decorative paper, or go plain jane and simply print on the paper you’ve got on hand.

melissa-esplin-please-knock-calligraphy-free-printable-4

Simply print, cut and (if applicable) fill in the blank!

melissa-esplin-please-knock-calligraphy-free-printable-1

There’s a fill-in-the-blank version for any other need you may have. We had a doorbell busted sign on our front door for about 3 months, then Chris discovered that fixing the doorbell wasn’t as complicated as he had once thought. 5 minutes later, the sign was gone.

melissa-esplin-please-knock-calligraphy-free-printable-2

I used an ombre paper and 6 inch Lucky 8 punch* to make my sign just a tad cuter. And as luck would have it, it nested perfectly inside my coffee filter wreath.

Side note, the coffee filter wreath has done remarkably well considering it gets wet everytime we get rain or snow. Color me impressed!

melissa-esplin-please-knock-calligraphy-free-printable-3

And the No Solicitors sticker has been doing its job as well. Lucky us! Click the below link to download the printable knock sign.

And hey! If you like this printable, subscribe! Follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter or RSS. Thanks for stopping by!

This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. Altering any files is NOT ALLOWED. If you would like to use this freebie for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!

*Products provided by We R Memory Keepers. Printable, images and thoughts are all my own. 

 

mobile site