Working with Clip Art

Shiny Happy World has clip art now!

Here’s the first bundle – 25 pretty flowers. 🙂

Cover image showinf a bunch of rectangles filled with pretty flowers clip art - some in color and some as black and white line art. Text reads: 25 Flowers - Shiny Happy World - Clip Art Bundle.

You can find it here.

I’ve been drawing a LOT, and I get a lot of requests for patterns using a lot of my new drawings. But some people want applique quilt patterns, some want embroidery patterns, some want felt applique patterns. And then there are the people who purchase my quilt patterns, but never use the instructions because they’re actually painting furniture or decorating cookies or making greeting cards with the designs.

Add to that a recent survey where a number of people mentioned that they didn’t need the step by step instructions for my applique patterns because they’ve already made several. They just need the templates (but understand the need to include the instructions in every single pattern).

That got me to thinking.

What if I start releasing some of my drawings as clip art? That way I can make more art available faster, and you can get the designs for less because I’m not taking the time to make detailed tutorials.

Everybody wins!

That means these clip art designs (when used as craft patterns) are most appropriate for folks who already have some experience with the craft they want to use them for.

Craft Projects

If you’re starting from fresh – never fear! You can find all my free lessons and tutorials here. And if you want a project to teach you my methods before you jump into, say, designing your own applique pattern from one of my drawings – there’s a treasury of free patterns here. Pick one and work your way through it as a free introductory workshop.

I do have one post here specifically about how to turn ANY drawing into an applique pattern.

Digital Projects

For those who are not interested in using my clip art designs for craft patterns, here’s a bit more very general info for you. Specific instructions will vary depending on the specific design or photo editing software you’re using, so Google is your best friend for those. I’m also a HUGE fan of Skillshare for art and design classes.

When you download your zip file you’ll open up a folder (or folders) with individual files for each design. Everything is 300 dpi, which is the resolution you need for nice, clear printing.

Most designs are sized to print as either a 12 inch square or an 8 x 10 inch image. You can make the images smaller, but making them larger will result in some blurring. That may be fine if you’re using them for pattern purposes (like making a giant applique) but not for printing and framing.

Most bundles will include both JPG and PNG images.

I use JPG images when I want you to have a full image with a background – like a pretty pink flower on a dark blue background. You can print those and frame them, use them in scrapbooking or greeting cards, etc.

I use PNG files when I want you to have the image with a transparent background. So, for example, you can have that same pink flower with no background at all – allowing you to drop it into a birth announcement or scrapbooking project or anything else – without an icky white background.

I also use PNG files for black and white line drawings – so you get JUST the lines with no background, allowing you to drop them on a colored background, or group a bunch of them together on a single page to make a coloring sheet or more detailed pattern.

Clip Art Permissions

Your purchase gives you a limited commercial license to the designs.

For an extended commercial license – talk to me! (smile@shinyhappyworld.com) I’m a big supporter of cottage industry and we’ll negotiate a fair agreement that works for both of us.

Personal Use

You may use these designs in any way you like for personal use. 

Selling What You Make

You may sell things you make with the designs, as long as you are making them yourself. You may not resell the designs themselves.

For example – if you want to program your embroidery machine to embroider one of these designs on pillowcases that you then sell, that’s fine as long as you are making them yourself.

If you are hiring out any part of the making, then talk to me and we’ll negotiate a fair extended licensing agreement.

If you want to sell the digital embroidery machine files you created, talk to me and we’ll negotiate a fair extended commercial licensing agreement.

Using with Print on Demand Sites

You may upload the designs to Print On Demand sites for your own personal use, but not for sale.

For example, if you want to upload one of the designs to Spoonflower to have tea towels made to give as gifts, that’s fine.

If you want to upload one of the designs to Spoonflower to have tea towels made to sell at a craft fair, talk to me and we’ll negotiate a fair extended commercial licensing agreement.

If you want to use one of the designs to create a new pattern to upload to Spoonflower to make it available for others to buy, talk to me and we’ll negotiate a fair extended commercial licensing agreement.

I hope you enjoy the new clip art options! I can’t wait to see what you make with it!

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Finishing Your Work, Plus Other Ways to Use Embroidery – Learn to Embroider

Once you’re done stitching, there are a number of different ways to finish your work. I’ve also included here some extra lessons about other ways to use embroidery.

Here are all the posts about finishing embroidery projects.

Basic Finishing

Other Ways to Use Embroidery

Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.

Happy stitching!

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Other Stitches – Learn to Embroider

Here we are at the random catch-all group of lessons – Other Stitches. 🙂

This is where you’ll find all the other random embroidery stitches I use – everything that’s not an outline stitch or a fill stitch.

Two of these stitches have already been covered in the Four Beginner Stitches lesson – lazy daisy for drop shapes and French knots for dots.

There are thousands of available embroidery stitches – these are just the ones I use in my own work, and that I recommend in my patterns.

Here are all my lessons for other stitches.

Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about finishing your work.

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Fill Stitches – How to Embroider

Any time you want an area of solid stitching in embroidery, you use what’s called a fill stitch. I usually recommend satin stitch for beginners, but that only works for smallish areas, and it has a very particular smooth texture that might not be the look you’re after.

There are thousands of available embroidery stitches – these are just the ones I use in my own work, and that I recommend in my patterns.

Here are all my lessons for fill stitches (besides satin stitch).

Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons for all the other stitches.

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Outline Stitches – Learn to Embroider

Any line in an embroidery pattern can be stitched with any outline stitch. I usually recommend backstitch for beginners, but beyond that you can choose anything you like.

There are thousands of available embroidery stitches – these are just the ones I use in my own work, and that I recommend in my patterns.

Here are all my lessons for outline embroidery stitches.

Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons teaching fill stitches.

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The Four Most Basic Embroidery Stitches – Learn to Embroider

Regardless of what the instructions say, you can embroider almost any design using just four super simple stitches. You need something for lines, something for dots, something for drop shapes, and something to fill in solid areas.

Here are my lessons for the four most basic embroidery stitches I recommend for beginners.

Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons teaching other options for outline stitches.

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Knots – Learn to Embroider

Knots.

Yes – I have more than one lesson about knots! They’re a hot topic in the embroidery world. 🙂

Here are all my posts about knots.

Before you knot that thread you need to know how much to use, so here’s one more post that doesn’t really have a better place to live. 🙂 How Many Strands of Thread Should I Use?

Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons for the four most basic embroidery stitches.

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Working with Patterns – Learn to Embroider

When it comes to working with embroidery patterns, there are only a few things you need to know – where to get patterns, and how to transfer them to whatever you’re embroidering.

If you’re getting a little more advanced you might also want to know how to enlarge or reduce a pattern to make it exactly the size you need.

Here are all my posts about working with patterns.

Pattern Sources

How to Resize a Pattern

Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.

Move on to the posts about knots. Yes – a whole section about knots. 🙂

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Tools and Supplies – Learn to Embroider

Embroidery requires very few tools and supplies. Basically you need a needle, thread and fabric – and that’s it!

Of course, there are a few extra tools that can make things a little easier or more fun. 🙂

Here are links to all my posts about embroidery tools and supplies.

For Beginners

Specialty Fabrics

Threads

Stabilizers and Pattern Transfer Tools

Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.

Move on to the posts about working with patterns.

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Learn to Embroider! Embroidery 101 and 201

Let’s learn to embroider!

Embroidery is a fabulous craft – inexpensive, portable, and as easy or complicated as you want to make it.

I’ve organized here all the embroidery tutorials on Shiny Happy World into groups that walk you through every step of the process – from choosing materials to transferring your pattern, lots of different stitches, and suggestions for finishing and displaying your work. Think of this page as the table of contents linking out to all the info you’ll need.

If you’re just getting started, you’ll be able to work systematically through these posts with any Shiny Happy World pattern. So jump right in!

Each of these links will take you to a page with more info on that topic – usually including links to other pages with more detailed info and tutorials.

Each of those pages will have suggested links to keep moving you through the lessons. There will also always be a link back to this – the main Learn to Embroider page – so you can refer back to the main Table of Contents as needed and jump to any topic you like.

Tools and Supplies

Working with Patterns (including enlarging, reducing, and transferring your patterns and tips for working with digital patterns)

Knots

The Four Beginner Stitches

Outline Stitches

Fill Stitches

Other Stitches

Finishing Your Work

That’s it! You can find a similar table of contents for all my quilting tutorials here.

Happy stitching!

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