Font Friday - Folk Font

Today's Font Friday is Folk by Marcelo Magalhães available for free on FontSpace. This fun all-caps font is available in solid, outline, shadow and sketch variations. This would be a fun font to use as a template for a word garland. In the above graphic I used the solid font and this retro graphic toolbox. I also set the type on a slight arch warp in Illustrator.

It's hard to believe that 2012 is almost over. It's been a pretty great year but I'm still looking forward to what's to come in 2013. I'm going to be taking a little weekend vacation to Pennsylvania so I'll be away for a few days. But, I'll be back in the New Year with lots more DIY goodness. (Actually, I do have something for you tomorrow so be sure to check back in then!)

Happy New Year!

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Friday Faves - What to Wear to a Holiday Party and Ostrich Sans font

The season is upon us for donning sparkles, sipping egg nog and general merriment. For today's Font Friday, I'm pairing the font Ostrich Sans, available for free from The League of Movable Type, with some completely lovable outfits holiday outfits from Ruche. Ostrich Sans comes in 6 different styles including an ultra thin dashed and a double line bold. It's an all caps font, best suited for headlines.

The outfit above is part of Ruche's holiday lookbook. (Also check out this giveaway they are doing.) The red "Passion Within Pleated Dress" is a classic, wearable design and the "Save Me the Waltz Sequined Bolero" is pretty much to die for.

Here's another winning outfit from the Ruche holiday lookbook - the "Golden Girl Scalloped Brocade Dress" and "Art Nouveau Necklace". Gorgeous, no? The dress design reminds me of Simplicity 1873.

Last but not least is this gorgeous blouse skirt combo. I really, really love the "Gumdrop Peplum Blouse". The puffed sleeves, flouncy peplum, princess seams. All gorgeous. Oh and then the flirty "Everlasting Evening Sequined Tulle Skirt". You could definitely dance all night in this sparkly number.

I have a work holiday party to go to next week and I honestly have no idea what I'm going to wear. My closet is full of dresses so I'm bound to make up my mind sooner or later. Are you dressing up this holiday season? What's your go-to outfit?

Happy party time!

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DIY Graphic Design Tip - How to Pair Fonts

Choosing a font can be difficult but choosing two that go together is a whole other proposition. When choosing a pair of fonts, you need to find a balance of contrast and similarity so that your fonts look good together but different enough that they show off each other's specialness.

Inspired by this post from the blog Frances May, I decided to feature a cursive typewriter font this week. So I found Script 12 Pitch BT (available for free, found via iDIY). Next up was what to do with this font. Seeing as it's almost Thanksgiving, I decided to do a little Thanksgiving themed graphic with one of my favorite shapes - the triangle.

The sample at the top is my favorite font pairing - Script 12 Pitch, the cursive typewriter font and Governor from Lost Type Co-op. These two fonts both have a vintage feel but there's a nice contrast between the thickness of Governor and the varying line weight and casual feel of the Script 12 Pitch. Each font holds its own yet supports the other which to my mind is the perfect pair.

Now, a few examples that I think are less successful pairings.

Here, Script 12 Pitch is paired with Ballpark Weiner. Ballpark also has a vintage feel but because it's also a script it feels fussy and overdone next to Script 12 Pitch. A script font is often a great accent font but it's really difficult to pair two scripts together.

For this what-not-to-do example, our typewriter script is paired with Gotham Medium. Gotham is a great sans-serif font but it doesn't have any similarities to our script and the design falls flat. While it is a sans-serif like Governor, Gotham is too current and doesn't have the vintage feel that complements the script so well.

The final example pairs Clarendon with our script. Clarendon is a great, classic, serifed font but it just doesn't quite work in this pairing. There are too many thicks and thins in Clarendon and the eye doesn't know where to settle.

So, what do you think? Here's another example with Governor and Script 12 Pitch. Do you think they pair well together? What font would you choose?

For more font inspiration follow #FontFriday on twitter.

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Friday's Font and a Song – Embossed Label

Today's Font Friday is Embossed Text Label available for free from fuzzimo. Remember those old label makers that embossed letters into a sticky strip of plastic? That's what this font looks like. How cool is that? It's available in 4 versions, label and text with a regular and light version of each. Above you can see both the label and text versions in regular. Fuzzimo has lots of free design stuff so be sure to check out the whole site. Find more font inspiration by following #FontFriday on Twitter. You can follow me on twitter too.

The photo is a snapshot I took at a concert. Concert photo taking tip: carefully watch the changing lights and you'll get a ton of really different photos. The text/lyrics in the graphic above are from Hall & Oates' Rich Girl. Watch it. You'll love it. You'll sing it all weekend. Speaking of which, have a great weekend!! 

P.S. I'm sure you've heard of Lucky Magazine but have you heard of the Lucky Community? Basically it's user generated version of the magazine. You can submit your own fashion and beauty related blog posts or just browse through and see what you'll find. I'm pretty excited that I already have two posts up. Check it out! xoxo

Friday Faves – Che's Bone Font

Today's Font Friday is Che's Bone by Filiz Sahin available for free on Behance. This is a fun dog bone themed display font that even comes with two frames. This font could work really well for a You will only be able to utilize the font if you have a vector editing program like illustrator. It is not available in traditional font file format. It comes in .ai, .eps, .jpg and .pdf. It's fun to play around with and I did a fair amount of fiddling with letter height and spacing to get my graphic just the way I like it. The photo is one I took of a building in Santa Monica a few weeks ago and then edited in PhotoShop. The phrase is of course from this song.

For more font inspiration follow #FontFriday on Twitter. You can follow me on twitter here. For more of my city photos, follow me on instagram @bethwould or on flickr. Have a great weekend!

Friday Faves – A Font & Fall Outfits

This week's Friday Font is Lust from My Fonts. It's a beautiful, bold and elegant font with dramatic thicks and thins, rather like the old classic Didot. The font has 9 variations although besides regular and italic they are not significantly different. This font would work well on sophisticated and – dare I say it – sexy designs. Here I'll show you how I might use this font and some Fall fashion inspiration.

Shown above: Font from top to bottom: Lust Italic, Lust Didone, Lust Display. 

Outfit: No. 2 Pencil Skirt from J.Crew

Shown above: Font from top to bottom: Lust Display Italic, Lust Display, Lust Display Didone

Outfit: Kindred Spirits 6 from Ruche

For more font inspiration follow #FontFriday on twitter. You can follow me there too. Or if you're looking for more fashion or fall inspiration check out my Pinterest boards. Have a great weekend!

Friday Faves – Oct 5

This week's Friday Font is Homestead from Lost Type Co-Op. This all-caps font pretty much screams fall in the coolest retro way. The font is all-caps which can be a bummer but it comes with 6 variations that you can layer for even more looks. The three shown above (from top: Display, Inline and Regular) work perfectly on their own. Inline has a very collegiate feel and would be perfect for back-to-school designs. The top one in blue – Display – is my personal favorite. It looks like letters cut out of plaid fabric. Amazing right? Wait until you see them layered in different colors.

Friday Faves – September 28

Today's Friday font is 2Peas Platform Shoes a fun, retro style handwritten font available for free on FontSpace. I was playing around with this font this week on some retro style posters and I thought it was so much fun that I just had to share. If you're looking for more font inspiration follow #FontFriday on twitter. And you can follow me on twitter here. What fonts have you been loving lately?

Friday Faves - September 21

Today's Friday Font is Magna by Hendrick Rolandez. This tall and thick font is sophisticated with a strong hint of Art Deco flavor. The font is available for free here. Follow #FontFriday on twitter for more font inspiration. You can follow me on twitter here.

It probably comes as no surprise that I'm a sucker for pattern. When shopping for anything, I know that a solid is the sensible way to go but all I really want is pattern, pattern, and more pattern. So, this week I'm sharing some of my favorite quirky fabric patterns from around the web.

1. Madrona Road - Farmstead - Powder Blue from eQuilter
2. Chicopee Fuchsia Heatwave Stripe from Fat Quarter Shop
3. Echino - Fall 2011 - Purple on etsy
4. Stella-69 Play Date - Campgrounds - White from Fabric Depot

So, are you a pattern person or a solid? Do you struggle with finding a balance between the two? Have a great weekend everybody!

Friday Faves – September 14

This week's Friday Font is Veneer from My Fonts. Veneer is an awesome, grungy cool all-caps font. Veneer comes in three "weights", italic and dingbats. The weights are really just different levels of grungy distrress. And (bonus!) the dingbats are available for free. Can't get enough font inspiration? Follow #FontFriday on twitter.

This week I wanted to show you how I would use this font. So, I did a little designing. Inspired by this song, I designed the graphic above using veneer and its dingbats. I layered the letters and dingbats over paper (available for free from Fudge Graphics) using different transparencies. Pretty cute right? If you need more design inspiration, check out my design board on Pinterest.

Or, if you want to combine Veneer with some photos, you could layer it over your favorite Instagram shots. I took these photos during a trip to Madison, Wisconsin last weekend. The two above are from the University area and the ones below are from the lakes and arboretum that the town is built around.

You might be wondering how I get such intense colors in my Instagram photos. First, I take a photo using the iphone camera, then I edit it in the app Aviary to increase saturation and sharpness. Finally I load it in Instagram and filter it. It takes longer but I really like the intensity of the photos.

For these collages, I used the PicStitch app to make the photo grids. Then I added the text and dingbats in PhotoShop. If you want to stay up to date on my Instagram photos, follow me at @bethwould or on flickr. Have a great weekend everybody!!! Happy creating/crafting/making!

Friday Faves – Sept 7

Today's Friday Font is Canoe Handwriting from My Fonts. Canoe captures a casual hand made feeling that fits so well with quilt month. Adorable right? It's a font that you could like take camping or maybe eat granola and tea with.

Inspiration can be found anywhere from a dirty alley to a spindly tree to an architectural gem. Here are some of my favorite instagram photos that I've taken over the past few weeks. That blue sky just kills me. Love. You can follow me on instagram at @bethwould or on flickr.

Have a great weekend everybody!!

Friday Faves – August 31

This week's Font Friday is Metropolis from Font Fabric. The font is available for free (yay!). You should really go check out the samples they have for this font. It's some cool design. Get more font inspiration by following #FontFriday on twitter. You can follow me on twitter too!
I had a really hard time deciding what to feature for the "faves" this week and finally settled on four recent favorite pins from Pinterest. If you're anything like me, you're kind of addicted to pinterest. Collecting a visual catalogue of ideas is a dream come true for me. So, here's a little sampling of things I've found inspiring.

1. From my "Design" pinboard: Design for Hot Dang burgers by Make & Matter, a design studio in Austin, Texas The Design board is collection of graphic design that I find inspirational.

2. From my "Color Study" pinboard: natural dye from Anthropologie The color study board is anything with a particularly beautiful color palette. You will find a lot of art on this board.

3. From my "Works in Progress and Beautiful Messes" board: Brownie cookies with Salted Caramel Filling from Bakers Royale This board celebrates the creative process and the messiness required to be creative.

4. From my "Yummy Pretty Eats" pinboard: Oat Milk Smoothie from Golubka The name of this pinboard perfectly describes the contents: beautiful photos of delicious food.

Have a great holiday weekend everybody!

Friday Faves – August 24

Today's Font Friday is Petit Lisa designed by Lisa Congdon and available from My Fonts. This thin, all-caps, handwritten font is so lovely and sophisticated. It's sure to bring a touch of whimsy to anything you're working on. Need more font inspiration? All you have to do is follow #FontFriday on twitter. P.S. you can follow me on twitter and facebook too!

An embellished collar is a great way to dress up any outfit and very fashion forward. Here are some great DIYs for a little almost weekend inspiration.

1. Studded Collar from Refinery 29
2. Studded DIY Collar from Kingdom of Style
3. Sequined DIY Collar from Stripes + Sequins
4. Scallop Edge Detachable Pearl Collar from Megan Nielson Design Diary

Not enough DIY goodness? Check these out too:
4 Collars from Refinery 29
Detachable Vintage Glitter Collar and Detachable Fabric Peter Pan Collar from Cotton & Curls
Peter Pan Collar from Honestly WTF
Detachable Collar from Rookie Mag

Follow along with my DIY fashion and accessories finds on Pinterest.

Friday Faves – August 17

Today's Friday Font is Mission Script from Lost Type Co-op. It's a lovely, condensed retro-style script inspired by San Francisco's Mission District. It's the kind of font that would make a lovely embroidery on say a handkerchief. Need more font-spiration? Follow #FontFriday on twitter.

This week's faves are some hat and belt DIY projects. I love this group of natural accessories. They are perfect for perking up a summer outfit.

1. DIY Stitched Hat from Honestly WTF
2. Summer Hat from Martha Stewart (how-to here)
3. DIY Colorblock Thread Wrapped Belt from studs and pearls
4. Plaited Twine Belt from Say Yes to Hoboken

And if you need a little more inspiration check out these DIY's:
Mini Leather Belt from A Beautiful Mess
Sun Hat on BurdaStyle
Kids Sunhat from Prudent Baby
Reversible Sunhat from Craftzine
10 Free Hat Tutorials & Patterns from The Sew Weekly
Wide Brimmed Sunhat from The Weekend Designer

See more of my DIY finds on pinterest. Have a great weekend everybody!!

Friday Faves – August 10

This week's Friday Faves is brought to you by ...drumroll... GEOMETRY. How can you not appreciate the beauty of geometry? Simple shapes are the beginning of everything and when used simply they can be quite inspiring. Today's font is Yumo from My Fonts (currently on sale for $15). This blocky, distressed, geometric font is perfect for headlines. Or, maybe you're designing something with a vintage eighties look? It's Yumo to the rescue! Need more font inspiration? Follow #FontFriday on Twitter.

1. Gold Leaf Geometric Necklace from Poppytalk
2. Beaded Diamond Pendant from How Did You Make This?
3. DIY Chevron Necklace from Dismount Creative
4. Tubular Geometric Necklace from Stylehive

Need more DIY jewelry inspiration? Check out my DIY Fashion Accessories pinboard.

Friday Faves – August 3 + Photoshop Tutorial

The perfect font to start off Accessories and Embellishment month here on the blog, GRN Burgy is a rounded display face with little cut out highlights that resemble exclamation points. You can download it for free on Behance from user Marco Goran Romano. One trick to this font that you'll figure out pretty quickly is that there are no lowercase letters. So, turn on that CAPS LOCK. Looking for more font inspiration? Follow #FontFriday on twitter. You can follow me on twitter here and stay up to date on all my DIY.

Those little cut outs make for a lot of fun. But to make them filled with a contrasting color you'll need to do a little work. So for a little DIY design fun, here's how I made the graphic above using Photoshop. It's a pretty brief tutorial, you'll need to have a little experience in Photoshop.

Cut Out Color Graphic Tutorial

1. Open a new document. Use the rounded rectangle tool to make a brown-grey box.

 2. Type your desired text with GRN Burgy and size to fit box. (You might have to do some playing around with the size of the box and the text.)

3. Duplicate type layer and rasterize.

 4. Using the magic wand tool to select cut out areas that you want to fill with color. Make a new layer under text layers and fill the selection with pink color.

 5. Add a drop shadow to the text layer. Click the fx in the Layers palette and select drop shadow.

6. Now save all that work you did! Here's a look at the final layers.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Friday Faves – July 27

Today's font is Travel Diary from My Fonts. It's a thick handwritten font reminiscent of chalkboard art and perfect for summer travel inspiration. Follow #FontFriday on twitter for more typographic inspiration. 

Continuing this week's them of colorblocked dresses, here are some sewing patterns so you can make one of your own.

1. Vogue V8805

2. Kat Strapless Dress from Grainline Studio

3. Front Pleat Dress from BurdaStyle

4. Color Block Dress from BurdaStyle

And if you're looking for some sewing related twitter action, Tilly from Tilly and the Buttons is hosting a Sewing Social on Sunday. Check out her blog for the details. Happy weekend everybody!!

Friday Faves – July 20

Today's font is Maven, a new font from Lost Type Co-op. Maven is a collection of three light weight fonts. Perfect for the summer heat, no? The above sample is Maven Pro 2, the middle weight of the three. Want some more font goodness? Follow #FontFriday on twitter.

This week I'm featuring a selection of amazing shirt dresses. Check 'em out.

1. Bateau Trench Dress from J.Crew
2. Lilium Shirtdress from Anthropologie
3. KENZO Medallion Print Jacquard Shirtdress from Nordstrom
4. Long Sleeve Band Collar Shirtdress from DKNY

I don't know how the weather is where you are. But I've been hangin' out in some hot places lately. What's your favorite garment for beating the summer heat?

Friday Faves - July 13

This week's font is Oval from Fontfabric. It's a condensed, rounded font that also has some angles to (check out the A and V). I couldn't resist putting this font in color because it really seems to work best in "display" form. The sample above is Oval Single and Oval Black, both available for free. There are a bunch of other weights available for purchase as well. What do you think? Could you see using this font somewhere? 

Follow #FontFriday on twitter for more font inspiration.

For your crafting inspiration this week, here are some knit dress DIY's all with tutorials included (yay!).

1. Mini Knit Dress from Dixie DIY (pattern available for FREE on BurdaStyle) This dress is so cute. The sleeves are the perfect length for the short skirt.

2. Knit tapered dress with peter pan collar from Cotton & Curls Isn't this dress elegant?

3. Knit Sweater Dress from Me Sew Crazy I love the pleats in the skirt on this dress. She also includes a pretty detailed tutorial.

4. Casually Cute Knit Dress from Made it on Monday This dress is cute and fun with rows of shirring at the neckline.

Just in case you need a little pick-me-up, check out this video. Cookie Monster spoofs the song Call Me Maybe. Who doesn't love a singing monster? Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Friday Faves – July 6

Today's Friday font is Mr Moustache from My Fonts. I love the cute handwritten look of this font almost as much as I love the name. (Honestly, the name might be my favorite part. Mr. Moustache sounds like something I might have named a stuffed animal when I was a kid.) This font comes in two widths, each in standard case and unicase plus frames, ornaments and dingbats in outline and solid. The family is available for $39 but the dingbats are free and they're super cute. (yay!)

Get more Font Friday fun by following #FontFriday on twitter. And don't forget to follow me on twitter too.

Here are some of my instagram photos from the week. If you like, you can follow me here. I'm off on a mini vacation and I plan to be taking lots of pictures. So excited! Have a great weekend everybody!