Happy Birthday to Me! Enjoy a Free SVG!

Welcome to February! I personally love when we finally reach February each year. January is a bit of a dreary month. Holidays are over. Everyone’s back to work and school. It’s cold and gray. But now, even though we’re still in the trenches of winter for a little while, you can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It helps that I’ve moved to New Mexico, so the weather is much more mild. It is basically how it is in spring back in New Hampshire where I’m from!

February is also my birthday month! To celebrate, I’m giving all of YOU a gift. I have a FREE SVG file for a birthday card. It is a new insert card design I created a few months ago, but up till now has only been available on Cricut Design Space via subscription or purchase. I’m also providing alternative file formats like SVG and DXF. Download by clicking the image or button below.

Already a Cricut Access subscriber? You can also find the project in Design Space HERE ready to make!

Enjoy!

Nicole

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Taking Time to Refresh and Learn

January is usually a pretty laid back month for me. The holiday season is over and all the frenzy that comes with that is returning to normal. It's typically a slower month for my freelance clients in my line of work. It probably won't start getting back to busier levels for another month or two. (I mean, this isn't to say I'm not still busy—I am a mom after all LOL—but I can find a little more free time during the day...) This is when I like to take the chance to refresh, organize, and plan for the upcoming year.

As I talked about in my last post, I didn't really make any solid New Year's resolutions this year and have decided to "go with the flow." So that's what I've been doing—just...whatever I feel like. I've been enjoying some crafting and decorating for fun, gradually transitioning my home from Christmas to Valentine's Day. I've also had two kids' birthdays to put together. (Yep, I'm one of those lucky moms with not one, but two kids who have birthdays closely following Christmas.) I played around with some new toys I've acquired recently, like a nice art supply set and wire notebook binder (The Cinch by We R Memory Keepers—such a fun toy!).

A collage of some of my January creative projects

You can view a full gallery of my January projects, as well as download my free cut file for the floral heart doily below in the CRAFT section of my site. Find it HERE.

I've also been spending my time learning! One of my Christmas gifts was an online course called Textile Lettering Masterclass by Aurelie Maron. This was right up my alley! Perhaps you may have seen some of my past digital faux felt illustrations (shown below). This course was a perfect continuation of that experiment.

My digital felt sketches from 2020

Once I went through that course, I got the itch to seek out other fun tutorials and techniques. One of my favorites was the Realistic Paper Cut Illustrations in Procreate course on Skillshare by Lisa Bardot, which ended up being a nice companion to what I learned with the textile lettering one. I ended up taking a Valentine's Day–themed lettering sketch I'd done recently and creating two pieces, each using a different technique. Both were so much fun to create. I'm not sure which is my favorite...

My digital LOVE illustrations using two different techniques—faux textiles and paper cutting.

By the way, if you're interested I've turned these LOVE illustrations into a mini Valentine's Day card printable (with envelopes!) that you can get for FREE (available starting in February 2022) in a bonus section of my website, which you can access by signing up for my email list in the sidebar or bottom of the page.

Over the course of the month, I continued to go on a bit of a video binge whenever I had the chance, exploring a variety of creative topics ranging from watercolor painting to sewing. I really do feel inspired to learn and do MORE. So although I may not have done as much "work," I feel like my January was pretty productive!

—Nicole

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And don’t forget to sign up for my email newsletter for access to BONUS crafty downloads, like these printable mini Valentine cards with envelopes, available February 2022!

What I'd Like to Do in 2022

Welcome to 2022! It’s that time of year again where everyone is talking RESOLUTIONS and GOALS. Oh boy…

Usually I really like to make lists and plans and all that fun stuff. I mean, I still do. It just all seems a little overwhelming at the present moment. Lately all my carefully laid plans become last-minute panics and rushed content with half-hearted effort.

I saw a lot of growth in 2021 as far as my Etsy shop and art output and am really happy with the progress I’ve made, but I also had some setbacks in other areas of my freelance work and business. I’m still constantly wondering what I can be doing better.

Toward the end of December, my head was full of ideas and goals for the new year. However, I was a little all over the place and couldn’t really find a focus.

To summarize, I don’t really know what I’m doing.

Then I stepped back and thought, maybe this is the year to just…go with the flow. For now, I’ll be happy exploring new ideas and see what comes of it, while putting less pressure on myself to do all the things. If there is one goal I have right now, it’s to KEEP THINGS SIMPLE.

And as a side note, I’ll be having my fourth BABY in just a couple months, so I already know that any goals made at this point would be sabotaged shortly anyway, LOL!

So, I just wanted to share these New Year’s thoughts with you. :)

Best, Nicole

Oh, and by the way, I did manage to get some new Valentine card templates out. Yay! Check out the bundle here…

…and if you haven't already, sign up for my email newsletter for access to this cute printable chocolate treat box FREEBIE!