Lots of free, printable notecards

Caravan is a shop full of digital downloads created by Alma and Mike Loveland and Melanie Burk. And they've just made all of their printable stationery free! Find notecards for teachers, grads, birthdays, and more right here, including a bunch of chalkboard-style designs which are super trendy right now. Save yourself a trip to the store!

Framed origami animals

I amused myself the other day by making some little origami foxes using this diagram by Mark Leonard, and a whale using these traditional instructions. (The website where I found the fox is apparently no longer active or I'd link to it.)


I thought maybe these animals need a place to live, so I made them each a habitat.


You can download and print these backgrounds, then glue your own origami animals onto them if you like. Framed, they'd be cute in a kid's room.

Download the woods.
Download the sea.

Print out the sheets and leave them 8 1/2" x 11" or trim them a bit to 8" x 10", a more common frame size. The animals were made from 6" standard-size origami paper. A full square for the whale and a half sheet for each fox. You could also shrink everything to mini size and make some little cards if you have nimble fingers.

Printable Mother's Day card

Mother's Day is coming up, so I made a little freebie you can download and print for your mum. It's a greeting card that fits in a standard A2 envelope. (4.25" x 5.5" after folding.) And it won't use up much of your ink cartridge. You could output this on linen-textured cardstock to make it really nice, and pair it with a red or green envelope. And a pie.

Download the card right here.

Build your own paper globe

I just came across Joachim Robert's Le Paper Globe, a free papercraft model you can build. Download and print the pieces in English or French, A4 or letter size. Click through the step-by-step assembly instructions on the website for how to construct this terrestrial ball.

The PDF is editable in Adobe Illustrator, so feel free to make any customizations you like. See globes made by others on Le Paper Globe's Facebook page. Globes shown here are by An-Magritt Moen, Georgia Polo, and A Merry Mishap.

DIY printable neon stationery set

Neon is a trend that's still going strong. If it's important that your life have more of it, consider printing your own neon DIY stationery set with this downloadable freebie. April is National Card and Letter Writing month, so let's send some mail!

I've designed notepaper and a matching envelope in two patterns: scallops and stripes. They turned out a bit Kate Spade-y, no? You can mix them or match them.


I printed the designs on sheets from a pack of Astrobright Neon paper I bought at Office Max. It's a common brand available at most office stores. But if neon scalds your eyeballs or reminds you too painfully of junior high, use any paper you like. Brown kraft paper would be cool, too.

Download the free, printable PDF right here.

The document has four pages; print out the pages you need at 100%.


Trim out the notepaper sheets.


Cut out the envelope templates, score along the fold lines, and fold the flaps inward. Secure them with a glue stick.

Mail a note to a buddy. Or print up sets of these, tie them with black ribbon or neon twine (I spotted some at Paper Source the other day) and give them as small gifts or party favors.

Free, printable thank you cards

I like these simple, modern thank you cards, a free download from Love Vs. Design. They look cool printed on kraft paper, too! Check them out here and download your own set.

Printable Mad Men paper dolls

Ready for Sunday's Mad Men premiere? I'm looking forward to it, even though Alex and I turn to each other after every episode and say, "Why do we watch this show?" It's miserable. But so well done we can't tear our eyes away. And the decor! The clothes! Speaking of which, Dyna Moe has illustrated Joan and Megan paper dolls with outfits from last season. Download Joan here and Megan here. Print and cut! Or post an entire sheet on your bulletin board just because they look fun.

Floral Easter eggs with printable decals

I dug out some old hand-drawn illustrations I did ages ago and arranged them into little tattoos for Easter eggs.

If you'd like to make some eggs like this, download the free sheet of decals.


Print it on ink jet temporary tattoo paper and follow the application instructions on the package. It's super easy. After the decals are prepared, just place a trimmed shape on an egg (or yourself), hold a wet cloth on it for 10 seconds, and pull off the paper backing. Smooth out any wrinkles with your finger.

I used Silhouette brand tattoo paper purchased at my local PaperSource last year, but you can also get similar stuff from DecalPaper.com.

Make a paper Hermès clutch

If you need a fancy paper envelope for a card or gift, check out these DIY Hermès Jigé Clasp clutch purses. Choose your favorite design, print the PDF (fit-to-page setting), cut, score the folds, and assemble with a bit of glue.


I didn't make the Kelly bag when it was available, but figured I should give this one a shot just to see if it works. It was a bit unclear how the side gussets were supposed to go together, but I ended up folding a crease down the center of each panel and trimming a bit off the top so the sides would align with the front panel of the purse.

Choose from these designs:

Printable chalkboard gift tags

Have you seen the printable chalkboard gift tags you can download free from Ellinée? Chalkboard graphics are all the rage, and these are particularly nice specimens. The tags come in a variety of messages; tie one to any gift and you'll impress friends with your artfulness.

Printable letters for party banners

HP has a big library of printable files, including these letters and numbers you can print and string to make banners. Nothing says "I love you" like using up an entire ink cartridge on someone you care about.

(Or use the smart tip Krysalia left in the comments on this post: get the letters printed by a photo service. Twenty 4x6 prints might only cost you $2-$3.)

Print your own Post-it notes

Surprise somebody with messages left in drawers, stuck on mirrors, or hidden in suitcases with this printable template. You can print the page on colored paper and cut out the notes, or get fancy and turn these into custom Post-it notes.

Click to download the free template.

If you plan to print your own sticky notes, here's how:
1. Print the PDF on regular paper at 100% size.
2. Place a sticky note in each square and press it down firmly. Make sure corners are lying flat.
3. Put the paper back into your printer* and print the file one more time.

*ONLY TRY THIS if you understand how paper is fed through your printer. The top edge of the notes should be pulled through the printer first or you're asking for a paper jam.

Fill in the blanks and leave notes throughout your house.

Printable 2013 Oscar ballot and bingo game

The Oscars are on February 24th. Whether you're hosting an Academy Awards party or planning to lounge on the couch in your PJs, it's fun to mark predictions on a ballot and try your luck at Oscar bingo.

Folks at your party will be counting the number of winners on stage, hoping the presenters will botch their lines, and cheering for the orchestra when it cuts off a speech. Movie theater gift cards, boxes of popcorn, or little Oscar statuettes from a party store make good prizes.

A bingo refresher: The first person to mark off five squares in a line wins. It could be a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line, and the center square counts as a freebie.

There are 20 different game cards in the downloadable file. Save the PDF to your computer, open it in Adobe Reader, and print the number of pages you need at 100% size. (Then select the best sheet for yourself, of course.)

Download the Oscar bingo game
Download the Oscar ballot

Like every year, my standard disclaimer applies. It might be possible to get a bingo ten minutes into the telecast, or maybe your group won't have a winner at all because my psychic powers have failed this time.
Good luck!

To join the bingo mailing list for next year, sign up here.

Free printable Valentine cards

Love vs. Design has posted a pretty set of folded cards and Valentine's Day coupons to give to your sweetie. Download them right here for the nice price of zero dollars.

Make unconventional Valentine treat boxes

These free Valentine box templates at Mr. Printable made me smile. Who needs pink anyhow? Choose heart-shaped favor boxes with faces, or two other options with triangles and stripes.

Printable birthday party game sheets

Anyone in need of birthday party games for adults might enjoy this one. For my husband's birthday, I collected photos of celebrities and asked party guests "Is this celebrity older or younger than Alex?"

The photos came from Google image searches with the "large" size selected in the search filter. I saved each photo on my iPad and put them in an album to make flipping through them easy. You could also use magazine clippings. Or just read a list of names without using photos, but guests who don't know what a particular celebrity looks like will be at a disadvantage. To find the ages, I just Googled "[celebrity's name] age" and it popped up at the top of the search results.

Guests could number their own pieces of scrap paper. Or you could get all fancy and make your own answer cards personalized with the guest of honor's name, which is what I did.

I also made this generic version in case anyone wants it. Download the game card PDF here.

It turned out to be really fun. Alex did fairly badly, which was even better. It's good for some laughs! I had no idea Keanu Reeves is 48.

A printable 2013 calendar for the office

I just paid a visit to A Pair of Pears blog to see what those kids are up to. The pair didn't disappoint—I found a free printable 2013 calendar designed for Emma Magazine. The illustrations of office stuff are pretty darned cute! Download the calendar here and print yourself an 11x17 poster (or shrink it if you like).

Printable New Year's gift tags for bottles

As 2012 draws to a close, I wish everyone a happy new year! Thanks so much for reading, commenting, and sharing ideas with me this year.

If you'll be heading to a party, you might make use of these printable gift tags I whipped up. Download, print, trim, and fill out the "to" space to make a bottle of wine or champagne a little more festive.

Download the PDF here (2.4 MB)

On a related note, I used a gift certificate from Moo.com, the printing company, to make some matching greeting cards. I'm always on the lookout for good printers in my line of work, so I was eager to give them a try. Opening the box I got in the mail was like Christmas, since it had fun stickers and graphics printed inside. I've never seen a commercial printer put so much thought and care into their packaging. The cards and envelopes were snuggled in their compartments securely, and they were flawless. Vibrant colors and thick paper stock. And the cool thing about Moo is that I could have put a different design on every single card in the pack if I'd wanted to, all included in the price. I'm impressed. Put Moo in your rolodex for future reference.

And with that, I'm signing off for now! I'll resume posting the second week of January, after a holiday break full of traveling and hosting visitors. Happy 2013!