Christmas Ornament Coloring Pages

Battle holiday stress with free Christmas Ornament coloring printables!  Treat yo’ self to some peace and quiet. Then when it's time to sing, "all is calm, all is bright," you can actually mean it. 

Coloring has a special place in my heart because it allows you to easily create something beautiful . Coloring allows you to create without judgement and without fear of the empty page. There are times I sit down to draw and end up giving up halfway through because I just HATE it. Or I can't make myself break the blank perfection of the unblemished paper.

Coloring is perfect for those moments when I want to be creative, but my mind is too busy to allow for any spontaneous creation. I think of it as a sort of creativity warm up. I intended to make these ornament coloring pages for adults, but added one page of a super easy ornament for kids. Let yourself slow down, if only for 30 minutes. Put on your favorite music and enjoy!

I had my little sister, Jordan, hand model for me. She did a great job, don't you think?! I'm thinking about starting a column of coloring printables on our blog. I really enjoyed doing my last coloring printable from Harry Potter. What theme should I do next? 

Download the HIGH-RES PDF here.

The Toolbox: An Ever-Updating List of Resources for Makers + Designers

Finding the right tools for your small business can be tough! Dusty and I have come across some great resources as we build our business. Welcome to our toolbox! This is a list of tools that have made our lives as makers and designers a whole lot easier! Consider us your encouraging wingwoman/wingman as you break into the freelance dance. We will be constantly updating as we find new things, so check back soon!

(Are we missing the best thing ever? Have a suggestion? Leave a comment below!)

Graphic Design

• What Font Is for when you're wondering, "What font is that?"
• A list of Stock Photos that Don't Suck
• Pinterest for collaborating with clients. 
• Adobe Creative Cloud for everything, because you kinda have to these days. 
• Canva for when you don't want to use Adobe. 

Email Marketing

• Mailchimp for intelligent email marketing and easy to design newsletters.

Websites + Portfolios

• Squarespace for building something beautiful. 
• Squarespace Template Comparison Chart for when you want to build something beautiful, but you're not sure what it should look like. 

Writing and Blogging

• Hemingway Editor for keeping your writing clear and kicking passive voice to the curb. Unless, that's your thing.
• Headline Analyzer for writing better, clickable headlines.

Social Media

• Buffer for scheduling out social posts easily.
• Latergramme for scheduled reminders for Instagram posts. 
• This Editorial Calendar template for Makers.

Project Management 

• Trello for managing a small to medium workload.
• Asana for when you have a large or heavy workflow.
• Google Calendar for giving yourself time to work and time to not. 

Ecommerce

• Etsy for small batch makers looking to be part of a community. 
• Squarespace for when you need simple, beautiful ecommerce.
• Shopify for when you need both POS and ecommerce. They get a high five for allowing you to sell on Facebook and Pinterest too!

Accounting + Money Management 

• Freshbooks for time tracking, invoicing and accounting all in one. 
• Tax Jar for painless sales tax reporting & filing for online retailers. 

Emotional Support and Avoiding Burn Out

• She Reads Truth + He Reads Truth
• Gather Workshop

So what do you think?! Were you using any of these? Do you know of better versions? 

Logo + Identity Design Process: The Stranded Sheep

This design project is so close to my heart! Not only is Barbara Billings of The Stranded Sheep a great friend of mine, she's a creative entrepreneur doing one of the coolest things I can imagine: she takes wool from sheep, spins and dyes her own yarn.

I was so honored when Barbara asked me to design her logo and brand identity for The Stranded Sheep! I was excited to learn about spinning, dyeing and fibers in general. I love working with entrepreneurs because there’s so much soul in the company. Most entrepreneurs start projects that are a direct reflection of themselves. It starts with something they liked to do, but there’s always a really meaningful reason why. I love that. To kick the project off, Barbara and I met up for a brainstorming session and worked on compiling a Pinterest board. From there, I got to work and prepared her concepts:

Brand Themes

Barbara learned to knit and followed the supply chain back from there all the way to the farm. Her desire is to one day own her own sheep farm. She wants to host the entire supply chain, from farm to skein. She finds so much joy in returning to the simple. She’s worked in the digital space for so long, that she has incredible value for the things you can touch. Knowing all this, I came up with some brand themes. These are the themes that would guide the logo concepts and color choices. You should be able to look at each piece of the brand and see these themes: earthy natural elegance, composed, classic, but not too careful, and relaxed strength. Looking at the left column in the chart above, you can see how these themes translate into design elements.  

Colors

Along with the brand themes, I chose color palettes and photographs that reflected the themes.

Concepts

Then I sketched out some logo concepts. These are quick sketches, each one playing up a different aspect of the brand themes. 

Recommendation 

I always like to give my recommendation. Designers always have favorites. I think instead of trying to strategically place items in a deck, it's best to just to tell your client who your favorite is! This was my official recommendation for Barbara. We met up and talked through everything. After getting a good understanding of her feedback, we started revisions. 

The Final Brand

Ta da! The final brand! Working on this project was such a wonderful shift from my usual. Dusty and I usually team up for design, but I was selfish with this one! I loved having a chance to work with a more feminine brand and getting to use my lettering skills. I am so excited to see The Stranded Sheep grow! 

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If you'd like to learn more about logo and identity design, head over to our about page and drop us a line! Let's build a brand you love!