13 Free Halloween Fonts and a ‘Bat

September 08, 2008 // kristen // 0 replies

Planning any Halloween projects yet? My mind has been on Halloween decorating for at least the past couple of weeks. My plans are always grand, but I never seem to have enough time to complete anywhere near what I’d like. Since I’m starting early this year, my ambitious plans may stand a chance!

At least one of my projects always involves fonts of some sort, be it gift tags, a banner, invitations, or a decoration to hang on the wall. And what fun would Halloween be for us fontaholics without a bevy of free distressed, scribbly, melty, and blackletter fonts from Dafont for all of our spooky-fun projects? I’ve chosen 13 of my favorites plus a dingbat font for your Halloween project planning pleasure.

Fonts by name: Undo35, Lugosi, Gipsiero, Old London, Spider Dingbat (from Monster Masher), Distro, A Font with Serifs, Infiltrace, Alias (I loved that show!), Nightmare5, Stamp Act, Inked God, Moony Cat, and Cloister Black.

Jen Skelley Exotic Bird Gocco Prints

September 05, 2008 // kristen // 5 replies

Eep! How adorable are these exotic bird prints by illustrator Jen Skelley? The colors, the cuteness, the feathery foof! Seeing these birds reminds me of a foofy experience that I had during an art class in college. My theme was “goddesses”, and I was so inspired that I just kept going and going with one of the goddess’ hair until she had tentrils and twists sky high.

I loved it, but my teacher didn’t have the same appreciation for it (his loss) as I did and poked fun. The entire class laughed, and I think that any aspirations I had to be an artist were crushed right there in Drawing 101 or whatever class it was. Good thing I was an art history major, huh? Anyway, I still loved my goddess’ over the top updo, and I still harbor a not so secret love for the foof. My only problem is going to be deciding which of these exotic birdies to purchase:

Jen Skelley Exotic Bird Gocco Print

Check out more of Jen Skelley’s wonderful illustrations here, and see more Gocco prints (of exotic birds and other fun things) at her Etsy shop.

images from Jen Skelley

Zoe Bradley

September 05, 2008 // kristen // 0 replies

Wow. Just…wow. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about incorporating paper decor into the design scheme of our new apartment, and paper flowers are something that’s been on my mind. So, it was rather serendipitous that I came across the work of sculptural artist Zoe Bradley the other day on Design Sponge. Zoe’s signature medium is luxury paper, and boy does she ever take the art of paper flowers to a new level!

Her portfolio is an inspirational must see, and her work will be on display at Kate’s Paperie in Soho starting today, September 5. If you’re in the area and love paper, well, you know what you’ve gotta do.

images from Zoe Bradley

Eco Friendly Paper : Typoretum

September 04, 2008 // kristen // 3 replies

UK based letterpress shop, Typoretum, just launched an outstanding line of hand-printed, limited edition cards created using antique wooden and metal letterpress type, decorative borders, and printers’ fleurons. I’m loving their use of the antique type to create modern cards, and I’m drooling over the pictures of antique type that compliment the images of their card line at their website.

Typoretum’s cards are printed using vegetable-based inks, and the paper used is 100% cotton fiber, a by-product of the clothing industry. You can purchase cards on Typoretum’s website.

images from Typoretum

Bow and Arrow Letterpress Cards

September 04, 2008 // kristen // 3 replies

A little bit of lace (available in pink and black exclusively at Anthropologie), a little bit of lattice, and a whole lot of stylish letterpress are on display at Brooklyn, NY based Bow & Arrow. Cards range from birthday to thank you to all occasion and are available in sets of 6 of one design for $15.00 at the Bow & Arrow Etsy shop.

A selection of some of the letterpress lovelies:

images from Bow & Arrow