paper crowns

freebie: bunny desktop wallpaper.

 

In the spirit of Easter/spring/bunnies, I made this origami-inspired desktop wallpaper. Feel free to download and enjoy!

Download here.

And if you're in the mood for more origami-esque bunny art, check out this adorable DIY Easter gift tag tutorial from Eat Drink Chic. 

Have a great weekend!

(P.S. this wallpaper is for personal use only/please don't make available for download elsewhere. Thanks!)

some recent paper crowns blog designs.

Kyle and I got back late last night from a wonderful week in New York City (thanks so much for all your excellent tips and suggestions on things to do while we were there!) I can't wait to share some bits and pieces of my trip once I'm able to sift through all the photos! In the meantime, I thought I'd share a couple blog designs that I completed before I left.

For her blog, Itsy Bitty Things, Brittany wanted a design that was really fun, colorful, playful, and bold, but still clean and modern. I knew she wanted something that didn’t overwhelm, so I worked to come up with a color scheme that was somewhat unexpected but not overbearing. I wanted to pair colors together in a way that was bold and fresh, that evoked a kind of clean feeling.

Brittany also wanted something that had a bit of a ‘60s vibe to it, so I tried to find a way to evoke a pop art feel while still keeping the design very clean and modern. Essentially, I wanted to do a modern twist on retro.

I ultimately came up with a design that was centered around a colorful rainburst. I tried to create a look that was defined by color, clean lines, and that pop art aesthetic. Brittany also loves bunnies, vintage Volkswagen Beetles, and bows and arrows, and she wanted to feature them as motifs on her blog. Bows and arrows in particular mean a lot to her, so I made sure to incorporate them in three different places that were prominent in the overall design. I'm really happy with how everything turned out :)

For Lauren’s blog, Blooming Leopold, I completely switched gears. Lauren wanted her design to be very pared-back and monochromatic. She’s really into art nouveau and wanted a design that would evoke that aesthetic. She also wanted her design to feel very ethereal and otherworldly, but to be anchored by clean lines and minimalism. I tried to come up with a design that hit all of these notes in equal parts.

Within that art nouveau aesthetic, Lauren especially likes the work of the illustrator Aubrey Beardsley. I designed the header using some Beardsley-style peacock feathers, and an art nouveau style font. I thought that creating the header in a subtle, silvery color would help to bring in a bit of an otherworldly feel, especially with the hint of gold on the right side, which I wanted to almost resemble a beam of sunlight.

Lauren chose to have an alternate header designed as well, with the font anchored by two simple lines on the top and bottom, so that she can switch out both headers whenever she wants a bit of a change:

 

 

Working on this design was a thrill for me, because it’s an aesthetic that I’m very drawn to personally, and I’ve been eager to work on a simple, monochromatic design for a while now. Getting to create this design for a lady as talented and inspiring as Lauren was icing on the cake! Seriously, go check out her blog and shop. She and her designs are wonderful.

Thanks for letting me share!

some recent paper crowns blog designs.

I thought I'd share a couple blog designs that I've recently finished with you today. Both were so much fun to create and I got a rare stroke of good luck with both of them, because the design concepts came to me pretty quickly, long before I actually started working on either. They're examples of my favorite kind of design experiences. When the challenge is getting what I've conceptualized in my head to actually translate to the screen, rather than it being a challenge of coming up with a concept in the first place. I absolutely have plenty of experiences where I'm racking my brain for three days, trying to come up with a good idea! So when they happen to come easy, it's always a bonus.

For her brand-new blog, Chelsea came up with the name "Sea, Field and Tribe". She wanted her blog design to illustrate her deep love for nature, in a way that was simple, subtle and pared-back. She really wanted watercolor elements to be incorporated, as well as shades of sage and turquoise. I chose to use watery versions of both colors as a way to evoke the kind of ethereal, airy aesthetic that I knew she really wanted. I wanted to touch on each element in her blog name without being too literal. I chose to go with misty mountains to represent "field," and a little scattered pattern of triangles, as a way to represent "tribe" in their geometric shapes, and "sea," in color and stream-like flow:

Chelsea also wanted me to create a landing page for her blog and "sea, field and tribe" brand. I stuck with the same colors and theme to create a watercolor "burst" look, which Chelsea had mentioned really wanting to incorporate. My favorite part of the design was creating the little rollover icons for both the landing page and the navigation bar on the blog, representing various "sea, field and tribe" elements. A different icon appears when you hover over each word, and I'm so happy with how they turned out.

For her blog, Shannon Hearts, Shannon wanted a design that was soft, feminine and cheerful. She also wanted the design to be simple and anchored by a clean, white background. She wanted me to just run with any ideas that I had, which was great! I drew the flowers and chose shades of pink and orange for the color scheme. I wanted to incorporate a heart motif in a way that wasn't too heavy-handed, so I decided to have a little heart pop up when each word in the navigation bar was rolled over. I'm really, really happy with the way it turned out. It's a personal favorite of mine.

 Thanks for letting me share a bit of my work with you :) Happy Thursday!