His Eye Is On The Sparrow!

Pssst!! ~ See below, for a GIVEAWAY! Read all the way through this post.

As I was thinking of a new design for a hang tag, the sentence "His eye is on the sparrow" came to me. I believe this is the title or lyrics of part of a song. 

I began to look for some graphics and found some from Karen, at The Graphics Fairy. I found all the perfect elements that I would need for the new tag. I found the bird graphic, here and the frame, here. The background is also from Karen's website, but could not find it again to give you the link. 

This is how I created the tag:

I set the background, of course, then I brought in the frame and embossed it....all with Photoshop program. I brought in the bird graphic, found the perfect Bible scripture and then colorized the whole tag. I love how it turned out!

FREE GRAPHICS!!

Read the rules, below...

Here are 3 gift / hang tags that I have for sale in my Etsy shop at www.primperfection.etsy.com but these are free for you!These are digital files that you have to print on your own. I love the vintage music score covers and I have gotten these from Karen, as well. I have, further, embellished them with more graphics and enhanced them into a black and white graphic.

If you choose to receive these, you will get a 8.5" x 11" digital file .jpg sheet with 6 images. (P.S. these will only be available, for a free giveaway, for this week only...5/21/2012 thru 5/26/2012).

Here's what you have to do:

1.  Become a follower of my blog.

2.  Send me an email at primperfection@yahoo.com, so that I may email you the graphics.

3.  Leave a comment on this post telling me that you have done so.

BONUS!!

I will also send you a digital file of the new bird gift / hang tag that I described, above!! These will go on sale on my Etsy shop, later, as part of a 3-piece (design) digital file.

That's it!! Hope you enjoy...and have a blessed day!

~ Deborah ~

~THE NAME~

Prim Perfection is the name of my shop on Etsy and eBay. So, where does the name, Prim Perfection, come from...you may ask? And...actually, no one has really asked me that question before, but when I tell people the name of my shop they give me a blank or inquisitive stare, lol. I assume others that visit my shop might be wondering the same thing. So, I decided to do a little splainin'...

I first have to preface this with telling you that my shop (including the name) and genre have gone through many different phases over the years, as well as, the designs of my banners...

I have 2 styles of crafting/designing that I like which are polar opposites. Shabby chic and primitive/country. About a year and a half ago, I started making hand painted wood signs. The kind that are heavily distressed with a lot of flogging, chipping and sanding. And, of course, when a person lists their items on eBay or Etsy they have to write a description. Sellers were always describing their primitive wares, as "distressed to...prim perfection!" This phrase really caught on with me, so to speak, and I was always putting this into my descriptions, as well. So, hence, I thought it would be a cute name...and, changed the name of my shop.

Being a person that always analyzes things, to a fault, I thought that people might think that I was being "braggy" and implying that I think that I am perfect. Lol. Which is totally not the case! I'm a little more modest than that! So I redesigned my banner and hung the crown on a flourish to make it look like it had fallen off....thereby, implying that, while the name of my shop has the work perfect in it...I am a not-so-perfect person :)

And, of course, the lovely graphics of the crown, roses and the little blue bird that sits atop the letter "P" are from Karen at The Graphics Fairy.

P.S., you can visit my Etsy shop, here, where you'll find lots of shabby chic and French inspired graphic designs. Oh, and leave a comment, if you like!

Menu Bar Buttons

Menu Bar Buttons

As I continue to take it easy after my car accident, I'm doing more graphic design than ever before. Since I can't really cut and sand wood for my handmade signs, I'm sitting with my laptop just designing away. So, I thought I'd revise my old Menu Buttons. I don't use these anymore on my blog, but a while ago I was wondering how to make these and insert them into a blog. I searched around and found this really sweet website, called Cute n Cool Blog Stuff. If you follow the link, you'll be able to learn how to do it, too.

I read the simple instructions.....now, what to do about actually making the tags?? I really love turquoise and remembered that The Graphics Fairy had a postcard that I was interested in.

So, I brought it into Photoshop and "erased" all the lettering and created this blank image.

Now, for some lettering.....I added the appropriate places where I wanted people to link to.

On the original postcard from the Graphics Fairy, since it is a scan of an original postcard (I believe) it shows the areas where it has been worn, and shows up as brown on the bottom. I decided to keep this in the design, as it adds kind of a "drop shadow" for the tag. However, this is what it looks like without it....

Please feel free to use any of these tags for your own blog. If you do, I would really enjoy seeing the finished result!

ENJOY!

Etsy Banner

ETSY BANNER

This past weekend I did some graphic design and made a new Etsy banner for my shop (however, in my last post I explained how and why I closed my shop), but I thought you might like to see how I created this banner using some graphics from, none other than, the Graphics Fairy...follow the link.

I Loved what she did with this fluer de lis!
So I decided to flank both sides of the banner with this awesome design. Loving black and white, together, I wanted to make this entire banner something sharp and distinctive.

A while ago I came across this label on Karen's website and decided to save it in my "file" until I decided what to do with it.

I decided it would be the perfect inset, in the middle of the banner to put the shop name and tag line. (also used on one of my other banner designs).

So, I brought all these images into my Photoshop program...created a new, blank, file for the Etsy banner for which to place my images. To make an Etsy banner, it needs to be 760 x 100 pixels. Once I had that set, I shrunk the fluer de lis so that it would fit in that area...flanking both sides. Next, I took the black and white label and cut out a portion of the middle, including the sides with the white stripes and "plopped" it in the middle of the banner. Then it was ready to add the type for the shop name and tag line.

The fonts are Elizabeth and Papyrus .

It's so fun to play with graphics! Hope you enjoy.

The Great Smoky Mountains

This past summer while vacationing in Gatlinburg, staying at the Westgate Resort...what a blast it was! During our stay, we went to Cade's Cove which is a 30 mile drive up a mountain to the cove. While driving around the 'loop' at the cove, we spotted deer grazing near the road...seriously, about 10ft away. Apparently they cared nothing of all the cars traveling along and some stopping to look and take pictures.

These are some of the images I captured.