Stephanie Fizer Illustration

Freebie: Printable Stress Relief Tips

It's been nearly a year since I quit my day job to dedicate my time to my little illustration business.  I'm finally getting into a groove with a lot of good things regarding my business, but I'm having some issues with stress management these days.  

There are brief periods of respite when I have everything under control but then suddenly the stress monster rears its not so attractive head and I'm drowning in worry again.  I say drowning, because it's not just business related stress that gets me, it's every day stress that nails me too.  

I have a tendency to worry about everything little thing, a lot of which I can't even control.  

But over the last few months, I've made great strides in calming down but with my growing business and the prospect of home ownership, I've been sliding back down the slope.  

So with the help of WebMD, I made a little list of stress management tips to post by my desk, just a few friendly little reminders:  

Download, print and enjoy your own little version of this print!  

Download Stress Management.pdf (2148.5K)

As always, this is for personal use only!  

A Friday Freebie: Printable Food Diary Sheets

Hi all!  I just wanted to drop to deliver a tiny Friday Freebie and remind you that today is the last day to enter to win free printables from Digital Sweets(check the post below for details).

Today's freebie is Lil Monster Daily Food Diary Sheets.  

Weird?  

I think not :) 

 

Download Daily Food Diary Sheets.pdf (759.3K)

Working from home has many advantages, however one of the disadvantages is that I find it difficult to maintain my healthy diet now.  Strange, right?  

When I worked in an office, I woke up at 6am to walk a couple of miles with my boyfriend before work.  Then I packed up my cup of green tea, bottle of water and fruit for breakfast before heading out to the office.  

Lunch was a salad or whatever was left over from the previous night's healthy dinner.  Right in the door after work, I would work out for an hour or 45 minutes, then dinner would be something healthy and simple--because I was running my illo business in the evenings too :)  

Of course when I left my office job, I thought "hey, I'll work out even more and eat even healthier now!"

So wrong.  

Working out isn't the problem.  I've always enjoyed working out, probably from all of my years as a ballet dancer.  

Eating is the problem.  

The kitchen is directly across from my studio and I will zero willpower, so although I'm a vegetarian and generally eat only fresh fruits and veggies, if we have junk food in the house, I will eat it immediately.  

I've also found it really easy to just skip meals because I'm so busy and then randomly decide to grab some awful fast food when I'm out running errands because I'm so hungry I feel like I might just commit murder for a french fry.  

And then if I'm not working on something or if I'm having a creative block or something, I EAT because I'm BORED.  

So I designed these little printable food diary sheets to help me manage my intake, something that used to work for me back in my dancing days.  

And I thought I would share those cute little sheets with you, so enjoy!  

Friday Freebie: Modern Spring Printable Lists

Let's celebrate the arrival of Spring with a new *free* printable to-do list featuring my newest design:  

This new design "Modern Spring" will soon be available as a printable stationery set and printable monthly/weekly calendar pages in the Digital Sweets shop.  

But in the meantime, I thought it would be lovely to share these pretty new printables lists with you :)  

Click the link below to download the high resolution PDF file.  Save it to your computer and then feel free to print as many of these as you would like.  For the best results, we recommend using a nice cardstock and the photo settings on your printer.

  

Download Free Modern Spring To Do List.pdf (320.8K)

PLEASE NOTE:  As with all images on this blog, this image is copyright Stephanie Fizer 2009.  These are intended for personal use only so NO commercial use is allowed.

Modish Feature

Yay!  I was featured on Modish today!  And just for you, when you click over to check out the article, I've done a free to download & print to-do list to share with everyone:  

Hopefully it will help everyone get in the mood for spring! I can't tell you how badly I want to pack away my winter coats and scarves so I can get reacquainted with my lovely summer dresses!  

Feed Your Soul: a free art project

You might remember a mention a few weeks ago of a free art project through Indie Fixx.  Several different artists are working to provide free illustrations for you to download, print and frame.  

My illustration was released today:  

You can download a high resolution PDF of this illustration here.  To print this, you will definitely want to use the best settings on your printer to get the best clarity.  You probably also want to use a nice photo paper to print on :)  

As with all of my free downloads, this is for personal use only so NO COMMERCIAL USE OF THIS IMAGE.  

Oh and this free print color coordinates with my Stack of Books print as well!  

And not free, but newly listed in this shop is this cute Orange LoveBot ACEO that I finished up this morning: 

 

Enjoy!  

A Sweet Valentine's Day Freebie For You :)

A sweet Valentine's freebie for you:  a sheet of 10 printable gift tags or stickers.  The sheet contains 2 each of the Lil Valentine Monsters designs, plus heart, love, be mine and you're sweet designs as well.  

Download the Lil Monsters Valentine Tag PDF (2157.6K)

These can be used as gift tags or as stickers.  Each circle measures 2 inches across so it's time to grab the circle punch if you have one.  Otherwise, there are handy dotted lines around each tag for easy scissor cutting.  

As always, I recommend printing these on some sort of cardstock--linen finish is always my favorite--and using the photo settings on your printer for the best print quality.  

Have Fun!  

Freebie: Lil Monster Valentines Envelopes

To coordinate with yesterday's Lil Monster Printable Valentines release in the shop, I'm offering free Lil Monster Valentine Envelope templates:  

  

Download Monster Valentine Envelopes.pdf (14126.5K)

This free download is in PDF format so you will need Adobe Reader to view and print it.  Feel free to print as many of these as you would like, with the usual stipulation that these envelopes are just for personal use.  

Each printable 8.5 x 11 sheet has two envelope templates on it.  Print the sheet on the paper of your choice.  Cut out the envelopes along the hearted lines.  Fold the side flaps, bottom flap and top flap using a bone folder or a butter knife.  Use a tiny bit of glue to affix the bottom flap to the two side flaps.  Insert your Valentine card and then seal with a cute sticker.  

I'm pretty pleased with how the envelopes turned out and as someone who isn't the greatest with scissors, I can vouch for the simplicity of making these :)  

The finished envelopes measure 4.25 x 2.75 inches.  Enjoy!

Happy 2009!

Here's wishing everyone a happy 2009!  Looking back, 2008 was a fantastic year for me, mostly because I ditched my dayjob to focus fulltime on my illustration business which has been growing every month.  Of course, I'm hoping for continued success in the new year :)  

Outside of the business I've got a couple of resolutions for the New Year and because a) I like to make lists and b) I'm a visual person, I made some sweet cards to write my resolutions now: 

I've got these pinned up on my inspiration board as a daily reminder. 

This Year I Will Not worry about things I have no control over.  I'm a notorious worrier.  I worry about every little thing, even those that don't affect me and in most cases my worries were just a waste of time because the big bad I'm always worried about never even happens.  In recent months, I've worked hard to stop doing this and have made much progress--aided a lot by the fact that I don't constantly watch/read the news like I used too.  So in 2009 I will continue this on this path of not worrying about every thing, instead I will channel my energy to the things I CAN change in my life :)  

This Year I Will Love My Body.  So I was a ballet dancer from the age of 3 to the age of 25, including a three year study at UMass.  I loved every second of it, however it did leave me with some pesky body image issues that I can't seem to ditch.  Having been far too thin for many years, in the last year or so I've reached a size 6 which is a pretty big deal for me and something I've been hating.  I'm realizing though that I am working out regularly, eating well and honestly feeling good overall, so what's wrong with being a size 6?  Nothing I say and this year I will not weigh myself, I will continue to be healthy and I will learn to be happy again when I look in the mirror.  

So what about you?  What are your resolutions for the New Year?  Feel free to share here or just print out a set of these sweet little resolution cards for your own use.  Enjoy!