How's it going? A printable greeting card

As promised, here's a new card to print:

If there's someone you'd like to connect with via pen and paper, download my printable how's-it-going card here. 

While we're on the subject, I'm slowly, slowly working my way into connecting with friends electronically.  It's tough for someone like me who -- tragically -- was born without the chit-chat gene.  I have friends who can simultaneously tweet, chat on facebook, retweet, reply to emails, post to their blogs, talk on their cell phones and operate heavy machinery.  Me?  No chit-chat gene.  Twitter and facebook give me heart palpitations.  Ditto with commenting on strangers' blogs.  Especially the many, many talented, artistic strangers around whose blogs I lurk.  At this point, I still spend far too long thinking of clever replies to emails sent by friends containing cute kitty video clips from youtube.  Sad, but true, I'm afraid. 

Playing with patterns

Still dabbling in Illustrator.  Today, I started out with this shape that I drew with the pencil tool:

It kind of reminds me of a mushroom.  At this stage of the game -- as a beginner -- I love how the program automatically smooths my strokes. 

After some copying and colouring and resizing and flipping, presto-chango, here's what I came up with:

It's quite simple, but I'm loving that there are so many creative possibilities for someone with no formal artistic training.  One of my goals is figure out how to put colours together better.  I tend to like desaturated combinations, but when I see them up on the blog, they don't have the same oompf that I find attractive when I first put them together in Illustrator -- if that makes any sense.  So that's something to work on.


Next project -- another printable card to share.

Edited to add:  If you click on the image, you'll see a version of the jpg that's a bit more crisp.

Thank you card printable

 

I've been dabbling with Illustrator and it's no accident that my first completed projects are thank you cards.  I have so many reasons to be thankful -- happy kids, a loving husband, close family, good friends, food in the fridge, a roof overhead, and the consistent urge to try new things, failure be damned.

It feels good to be thankful.

If you'd like to download these cards for your own thankful moments, please do so!

Pink thanks
Taupe thanks

Somewhere along the way I lost my confidence.  It's an awfully long road back.

Author’s note:  I’m not at all sure about the punctuation here, or my font choice or the layout, but the message is good.  The rest, I trust, will come with experience.  Thus, as mentioned above, persistence is essential.  Now that I think about it, courage is handy too in the act of persisting.  Right then.  Persist and be brave.  And, if either starts to waver, invest in a pair of really comfortable pajamas with a quality waistband that won’t disintegrate after two washes.  It might just be me, but the occasional retreat to a soft, yet sturdy, pair of pjs takes the edge off of all of that persistence and bravery.