A Digital Fruit Salad Party Day 2: Peachy-keen Wallpapers & Printables


Here is Day 2 of the fruit salad inspired printables and digital wallpapers, featuring peaches! And, fun fact, for many southern US states we are right in the first month of peach season! Yum!

For more information about this so-called "fruit salad" project, take a look at yesterday's post, which includes similar prints and wallpapers with strawberries as the stars! And don't forget to head back to my wonderland again tomorrow for yet another set of fruity downloads!

Watercolor background on printables found here.


CLICK TO DOWNLOAD:

Peach computer wallpaper
Peach cell phone wallpaper
Peach printable envelope
“That's just peachy” punny card printable in portrait (top fold) // in landscape (side fold)
“That's just peach” punny wall art print


Are you enjoying the party? Of the two fruits so far, peaches and strawberries, which is your favorite? (Personally I gotta say "why not both?!")

Stay lovely,

**Please respect my copyright policy. If you modify or use my work, link back here for attribution. Also, don’t post this content as your own download, but rather link back to me, because everyone is free to join the fun and download through this website! For more on gross copyright things, click the link in this blog's footer.**

A Digital Fruit Salad Party Day 1: Free Strawberry-Inspired Downloads!


Here in Texas, summer is definitely already in full swing. Although I will no doubt be sick and tired of constantly sweating in the very near future, I am totally loving summer at the moment. I mean, bright and sunny weather, adorable swimsuits, and all the watermelon you can consume—it has to be my favorite season! (So she also says about every other season…) Oh yeah, and no school.

So to celebrate the warmer, pool-filled months ahead, I’ve been hard at work (meaning, I have nothing better to do) creating a FULL WEEK OF FREE DOWNLOADS as a summer kick-off! I went a little crazy with the Stamped Digital Wallpaper Tutorial from a few weeks ago and now I present to you:

A Digital Fruit Salad Party!!

Basically, every day of this week there will be a different fruit that is the star of the metaphorical show. For each fruit, I designed a patterned wallpaper for your phone or computer and a patterned envelope template. Then, I added some punny text art to the same fruits to make little cards and wall art prints! (Pssht no, I’m not super bored or anything.) Also, the cards and wall art printable are available in full color, half color, and black and white depending on which page of the PDF you choose to print. Lastly, don't forget that all PDF downloads can be reduced when you print them. The cards are 3 3/4", the envelopes are 4", and the wall art is 8", so adjust by percent according to your taste.

Anyway, the fruit of the day is--STRAWBERRIES!

Watercolor background for the strawberry printables was found here.


CLICK TO DOWNLOAD:

“You’re my jam” punny card printable in portrait (top fold) // in landscape (side fold)

Soooo yeah, enjoy, download, print, and send off fresh-and-fruity cards to all your friends. And because this is a “party” invite them over to my wonderland to get some goodies for themselves! I hope you enjoy these BERRY great freebies (hardy-har-har) and come back for the rest of this week-long summer soiree!

Stay lovely,


PS: Like free things? Although there are many available on my blog, you can get exclusive free downloads by signing up for my email list! You’ll get infrequent updates on Wonderland happenings, and can even easily invite a friend to join in on the fun. Or to see every post as it comes out, follow me on Bloglovin’! Ok, I think that that is the end of this self-promotion business. I hope you decide to extend your wonderland stay! (Yes, I was a hotel concierge in a past life…)

**Please respect my copyright policy. If you modify or use my work, link back here for attribution. Also, don’t post this as your own download, but rather link back to me, because everyone is free to join the fun and download through this website! For more on gross copyright things, click the link in this blog's footer.**

19 New Things to Try at 19


I turned 19 a few days ago and it felt like quite a big deal to me. There’s nothing inherently special about a 19th birthday (other than surviving another 365 days on the humble planet earth), but I woke up in the morning so full of hope for this next revolution around the sun! I put on the comfiest dress, let my hair run absolutely wild, and felt simply pretty from my spunky lipstick to my lavender toenails. And honestly, my day was super great. I don’t know if it was the family and friends filling me up with love or just my mood, but somehow 19 made me feel excited for the future.

Lately, I’ve been craving change and honesty and simplicity in my life. Change to the way I see my world, honesty with myself about my life and dreams, and simplicity in the little moments taken up by increasingly reflective journal entries and increasingly addictive cups of coffee. I’ve been craving trying new things as I meander my way to the person I want to be. Now one “new thing” I decided to try on my birthday was be a cute coffee shop (because I am of that trying-to-be-hipster-gone-basic variety), but we can think a little bigger too I suppose.

This is a list of 19 little things I want to try or explore at this moment after 19 years (and 3 days) of existence. Generally, I want to take steps toward living more consciously and sustainably, because those things have started to matter a lot more to me. I also want to feel like I am actively living, adventuring, experimenting, and growing, and I think this list contains a few ways that I can really attempt to do that. Okay, and a few of these list items sound just plain fun--there’s space in life for that too, isn’t there?


19 New Things:


1)      New coffee shops (yes more) and different varieties of coffee (All that slow drip and French press nonsense at coffee shops, you know? Also, fair trade!)
2)      Kale (No, I have never tried kale. Yes, I am wary of its greenness. No, it will not defeat me.)
3)      Spontaneous adventures in nearby cities or my hometown
4)      Cruelty and toxin-free beauty brands
5)      Thrifting again (I used to love this, then stopped for a while, and I want to pick it up again!)
6)      Applying for the Disney college program (and, fingers-crossed, working in the happiest place on earth for a semester!)
7)      Guest writing for websites and/or blog collabs (Any takers?)
8)      Rock climbing (I love nature and jungle gyms—should be easy, right?)
9)      Composting
10)   Colorful hair and a facial piercing (It’s for a summer camp thing, I promise. Pssht, why would I want gorgeous lavender hair all the time?)
11)   An open-mic night (my church has the most non-judgmental one and I think that is great.)
12)   Different varieties of ethnic food (of the vegetarian variety… conflicting goals, I know!)
13)   Designing with Photoshop
14)   Cooking new recipes with healthy ingredients
15)   Regular, actual-real-life-in-person interactions with friends (These things take planning now as an “adult” and I am not great at that yet.)
16)   Forming opinions about controversial topics (I kind of have a fear of confrontation that keeps me from researching matters that could incite controversy. But I have thoughts and opinions and a voice and it’s time I got to using those things.)
17)   Working hard and resting consciously (Buh-bye, Netflix binges?)
18)   A yoga class! (And general fitness routine, but we’ll start with yoga…)
19)   De-cluttering like crazy (my closet, my crafting supplies—everything.)

Are you interested in trying any of these new things? What else do you think I could add to this list?


Stay lovely,

PS: In case you couldn't tell, I got an Instax Mini 8 for my birthday! Totally impractical but I think that's basically the point of birthday presents. Anyway, be expecting an excess of polaroids in the near future because it is probably the cutest thing I have ever owned. K, that's all. *kisses*

Some of My Favorite Free Watercolor Textures


Howdy guys! I'm working on a little design project as a kickoff to summer, and in the process of that have been stocking up on downloadable watercolor textures! I figured I'd pass on a list of 'em today so that you can get designing for yourself! You can also make your own watercolor textures fairly easily, but I tend to have issues with the colors looking correct and saturated appropriately. (Basically, I need to invest in a good scanner or camera or lighting setup...yay college.) And besides, these are all ready to go, are actually easy to download, haven't given me any pop-ups or tried to install things on my computer, and live on cute blogs with minimal ads, unlike many "free graphics" websites! I hope this is helpful for any projects you might have, or just for some fresh computer backdrops!

Free for personal use:

Design Love Fest (Don't forget to get free graphics on this site every week!)
Craftberry Bush
Angie Makes
Pixejoo

Free for commercial use:

Gold and Berry (make sure to download the .zip file!)
Hello Geri
Lost and Taken (so many free textures guys)

Not sure how to use these? Try the techniques in my Gold-Foil and Watercolor Text Art Tutorial, including some free painted textures of my own!

What are your favorite free resources for making cute graphics and text art?

Stay lovely,

Disclaimers: Like all things on the internet, you click links at your own risk. I would never intentionally publish content containing bad links. Also, follow the copyright policies listed on each artist's individual site. They are clear and easy to find, and if you aren't sure, be respectful to the artist above all else. PS I use this copyright policy.



DIY "Stamped" Digital Wallpaper w/o Photoshop + Free Citrus Wallpapers

Left click to download




While I was busy revamping an old Monday in Wonderland as a printable for my email subscribers, I discovered an easy technique for making a fun, patterned digital wallpaper! And then, upon adding a little color, I ended up with a ton of fun wallpapers and wanted to share them with you and show you how it's done. Now, as you may know, I’m trying to make it by without Photoshop for the time being, so this easy technique will only use PicMonkey and Paint! Also, you can click to download all the wallpapers throughout this post so yay for you getting free things!

And I don’t have much else to say for this intro so let’s just get into it!

For a 2-color pattern (above):



Step 1
Draw a simple, repeatable, silhouette design with black pen onto white paper. You can also use online clipart images, but I kind of liked the messy, imperfect vibe I got from my own drawing!

Then make your image digital! You can either take a photo of your drawing in bright light (without shadows) or scan it in. Either way, you will want to decrease shadows, increase highlights, and ramp up exposure and brightness until the image is completely black with a blank, white background. If you notice any uneven or patchy lines in the image, the simple brush and eraser tools in Paint can be used to carefully clean up the lines. I like using “oil brush” because it is wide and has soft edges. As you clean the image up, also utilize the zoom feature to make things easier.

When you are happy with the solidity of the image, crop as closely to the edges of the silhouette as you can, and save as a JPEG or PNG.


Step 2
You now want to create a small sample of your total pattern that you can later replicate onto a bigger scale. I found this easiest to do in PicMonkey, although it can be accomplished with Paint as well.
Go to the PicMonkey website and select “design”, choosing whatever “canvas” size you like. Then, click on Overlay > Your Own, and insert your black and white silhouette onto the canvas. Decrease the size to your liking, so that you can fit 5-10 copies of the image on the canvas. Once it’s the right size, right click, and select “duplicate image.” From there, you move and rotate the “overlays” to create a sample of the pattern. Once again, save this image as a jpeg.

You can make this sample randomized or grid-like, depending on the image being used. The easiest way I found to make a standardized, gridded pattern was to actually insert a grid as an overlay first, then delete it once all the silhouette overlays were in place.

Step 3
Repeat step 2, this time starting with a canvas to the dimensions of the wallpaper you want. There are cropping options for an iPhone, iPhone 6, and the dimensions of your computer screen within PicMonkey to simplify this process. Don’t forget that if you want to make multiple sizes, work from biggest to smallest to speed up the process (by taking the big image and cropping it down to smaller sizes).

Also, this time you will be inserting the sample of the pattern again and again the create a fully stamped background. You can either keep each sample block the same, or utilize the flip and rotate options to keep the background random. Fill the entire canvas with pattern!

If need be, insert the original, single silhouette as an overlay, shrink it to match the rest of the pattern. and use these individual shapes to fix any awkward white spaces.
Step 4
To make the background 2 colors, you first need to “combine all image elements” with the button next to the settings gear in the tool bar above your canvas. This will flatten everything into one image for your next step. Then, go to Effects > Warhol, and pick the two colors you think best work together for your background! Save and you’re are done.

You can also download the black and white version of this citrus print and use the Warhol effect to play with colors yourself!

For a multi-color pattern:

In Step 2, just change the color of the individual overlays! This should be easy to do if the images are completely black and white. Additionally, it is easy to use the eyedropper thingy to match repeated colors throughout your sample. Then just create repetitions of those colors throughout your total image. To color the background, I combined all image elements, then adjusted the temperature of the image down slightly, although you could also use the "texture" tool, like I did in my Gold-Foil and Watercolor Text Art Tutorial.

For a pattern around text:

Either draw and digitize, or digitally create your text, and save it in black and white with minimal white space around it. You will insert this text as an overlay onto a blank canvas of your desired dimensions, just like you did with the pattern. (You could also skip saving the text separately, and just combine image elements after the text is in place, but I liked being able to move it easily as a unit and use it in wallpapers of multiple dimensions.)

Repeat steps 1-3, with or without multi-color, getting each pattern sample as close as you can to the central text. (Don’t’ forget that you can right click and “send to front”, etc to change the order of the overlays on the canvas.) Then, use the individual overlay of the image to fill awkward white spaces as you did in step 3. Following this, you would combine the image elements, and use the Warhol effect if you are going with 2 colors like the image above!


And because I do this out of love, I did a little cropping so that you can get any of the designs above for your cell phone too!

Click here for the lemonade phone wallpaper

Click here for the multi-colored citrus phone wallpaper

Click here for "When life gives you lemons" phone wallpaper

I hope you enjoy these fun, citrusy wallpapers, and I look forward to seeing your own versions, for any season or fruit! I've loved designing these guys honestly, and am so so happy to share!

UPDATE: Some people have been having trouble with a couple links so try this!
Multi-colored citrus wallpaper
Lemons quote computer wallpaper

Stay lovely,

PS: Sign up for my email list for a printable, 4x6 version of the "When life gives you lemons" quote that you can color and hang up yourself! And other free goodies, and very sparse emails, I promise! Okay, bye!

Playlist: Second Semester Jams


When I first started blogging, I had a lot of fun putting together little playlists for you guys, and I wanted to do the same today! Now unlike those initial lists, I don't really have a theme going here. This is simply a list of songs I seem to be repeating this semester, some because they have a message I needed to hear, others when I needed to chill and do homework, others for reflective, quiet evenings, and still others that are just plain fun to listen to. (Ya know, for those kitchen dance parties that I have regularly.) I have a pretty broad taste in music, so there's that, and I can't really even promise a consistent mood and tempo with this playlist. It's simply a hodge-podge of things, but regardless, I love listening to others' playlists and thought you might too!


The Scientist / Coldplay
Grow Up / Paramore
Interlude: Moving On / Paramore
Shake It Out / Florence + the Machine
Love Yourself / Justin Bieber
Stressed Out / Twenty One Pilots
Golden Days / Panic! At the Disco
Electric Love / BØRNS
Ophelia / The Lumineers
Pity Party / Melanie Martinez
Wild Things / Alessia Cara
Stone / Alessia Cara
Blue / Marina and the Diamonds
Colors / Halsey
Hello My Old Heart / The Oh Hellos
I Lived / OneRepublic
Roses / The Chainsmokers
Up 2 U / Walk the Moon


Let me know  if you share any of these Spring-semester faves, or if you have a favorite song you would add to a list like this! I am always looking for new music!

Stay lovely,

PS: If you are missing the Wonderland downloads and DIY's, bear with me! I'm sure they will be back at some point, but I'm not stressing and neither should you my friend! In the meantime, just make all the food! (That's what I've been doing...)