Category: Designer Resources

I have been neglecting the “Designer” area of my blog, so I thought I would write a quick post about some of my favourite clipart resources. I love using clipart on my card making sheets – it’s cute, popular, and quite often CHEAP!

You need to be careful when you find a clipart resource that their terms of use allow you to use the clipart in products that you sell. Even more than that, as a designer, you need to ensure that they allow use of their clipart on digital products, and that they have CU4CU terms. This means “Commercial Use For Commercial Use”. Basically, it means that you buy the clipart, make a sheet, sell the sheet, a customer buys the sheet, they make a card and they are then able to sell the card.

If you are thinking of using a new clipart site, then read their terms of use very carefully. It is a good idea to contact the site owners before you buy anything, and tell them exactly how you want to use their products. They can then tell you if they allow their clipart to be used in this way.

Some artists require you to purchase a license to use their clipart. Examples of these are Cheryl Seslar and Nitwits Collections. Again, reading the terms of use will tell you all you need to know about buying licenses. Some of them are lifetime licenses, meaning that you can use their products forever, whereas others have an expiry date, usually a year, after which you must buy the license again or stop using the products.

Here are my favourite clipart resources:

1. Graphics Shoppe – http://www.graphicsshoppe.com/
2. CraftsUPrint designer resources - http://www.craftsuprint.com/designer-resources/
3. Crafting Clipart – http://www.craftingclipart.co.uk
4. Outlaw By Design – http://www.outlawbydesign.com/
5. Cheryl Seslar Designs – http://www.cherylseslardesigns.com/
6. CraftsUPrint clipart – http://www.craftsuprintclipart.com/
7. Digi Scrap Kits – http://digiscrapkits.com/digiscraps/
8. Nitwit Collections – http://www.nitwitcollections.com/shop/
9. Graphics Factory – http://www.graphicsfactory.com
10. Clip Art Emporium – http://www.clip-art-emporium.com/clipart/

Welcome to my first Photoshop tutorial! Today I will be helping you to create your own custom patterns. Patterns are fantastic for use in crafting projects, particularly when creating backgrounds. Instead of filling an entire A4 sheet with shapes, e.g. hearts, you just create a small square of them and save it as a pattern, then it’s just a couple of clicks to fill the whole A4 sheet. The best thing is that patterns can be used over and over again, so you will never have to make the same one again!

1) Load up Photoshop!

2) Click File > New in the top navigation menu. Create a new 6x6cm Photoshop document, at 150dpi

3) Click the Shapes icon (Circle 1), followed by the icon that looks like a splodge (Circle 2), then the drop down arrow (Circle 3). Finally, click the heart shape (Circle 4).

4) Draw some shapes. Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard whilst you draw each heart to keep the aspect ratio of the shape and stop your hearts appearing stretched or squished.

5) Go to your layers palette (usually bottom-right of the screen, see image above).  If you can’t see your layers palette, click Window > Layers in the top navigation menu. Alternatively, press F7 on your keyboard to bring up the layers palette. Once you have the layers palette, right-click on the white Background layer. This will bring up a menu like the one below. Click Delete Layer. You might be asked to confirm that you want to delete the layer. If so, click OK.

6) Right click on one of the remaining layers (your hearts) and click Merge Visible

7) In the top navigation menu, click Edit > Define Pattern. This will bring up a pop-up box. Type a name for your pattern and then click OK.

8 ) Create a new Photoshop document which is A4 size, at 150dpi.

9) Click the Fill Tool icon on the left (Circle 1). A drop down box will appear at the top of the screen (Circle 2). Select “Pattern“. This will bring up another drop down box to the right of the first one. Click on the arrow next to this second drop down box, and click on your hearts pattern.

10) Click Layer > New > Layer on the top navigation menu. Click on the A4 Photoshop document to fill the new layer with your hearts pattern. And there you have it, a backing paper filled with your pattern!

EXTRA: Use colours and styles to customise your Photoshop document. Don’t forget to save it!