Blog — "cards"

Day two of summer vacation is under way and I've already been productive in the design department. So far, I've come up with two unique summer designs-- one a day. And quite frankly, they may be some of my best to date. So, motivated by a previous summer challenge of a photo a day for the entire summer, I am going to embark on a similar mission. Ideally, I'd love to have a new design every day for the summer, but I realize that I may be a bit over ambitious. So I will start with a design a day for the next 30 days. I will post the results on this lovely blog so keep me motivated and encouraged! I am envisioning wonderful summer designs with lots of color to come! I'll start with my first post tomorrow so I'll leave you with a quick sneak peak!

My latest stationery design is a simple splash off light, summer color on crisp linen card stock. The wave design started as lines. They became waves by sheer accident when I recolored one set of lines as a fill color rather than a line color. I was happy with the minor mis-click of my mouse and decided to stick with it. I've paired a blush pink with creamy orange, sun yellow with aqua, sky blue with grass green, and lavender with green.

Three and half weeks out, I feel that I have actually prepared for Mother's Day in my Etsy shop. I had to make the decision way in advance to make Mother's Day cards. I don't know that you will be able to expect the same from me come Father's Day as it is already quite a feat that I am this well prepared! To put it in my own mother's words, when I had noticed a recent influx of interest in one of my cards, my mom stated, "You mean people buy cards and prepare in advance for that!?"

Yes, my family has never been one that thinks months in advance for any holiday. We were always those people trying to scrounge around for a decent looking Christmas tree the week before Christmas. Or the one's that realized a holiday had come and passed before we had even stopped to think of it. So now, as you can see, it is really quite a feat that I have prepared myself well in advance for this occasion. But in the end I suppose mother's are most definitely worth it. At least I know mine is! :)

I recently came across some of the most fabulous cards and envelopes-- beautiful white linen cards with envelopes to match. I am obsessed with quality so despite the fact that they were a little pricier than some of the papers I had been previously purchasing, I felt that it was a must to purchase these. I had a bit of a lull in the card making last month due to school obligations, but I have finally had the time to sit down and work on some new designs. Finally, this past weekend, I was able to print my designs using the new linen cards, and man are the superb!

As seems to be the usual case, my designs are quite eclectic. One design is arts and crafts inspired. Another is whimsically designed with a cursive "hello." And lastly, one design features a Moroccan inspired pattern. However, one things always remains the same-- they look amazing on these cards! Is it possible that I could potentially design the ugliest thing out there and have it look like a million bucks just because of the cards? I am convinced (not that I plan to do that). Already, I have sold two sets of luscious linen sets and I am printing several other sets for an upcoming trunk show at Alexandra Webb on Charles Street in Baltimore's Federal Hill. I plan on ordering more of this fabulous paper and designing quite a few more of these goodies in the upcoming week. Hope you love these lovely linen fibers just as much as I do!

I spent a good portion of today designing and working on my chair project. Andrew had gone into the office to work on drawing for their latest deadline and I was at home by myself on a lazy Sunday. Obviously that meant I had to do some sort of crafting to fill up my time! I spent the morning sanding and refinishing the legs of the old vintage chair that I wrote about yesterday. It is coming along quite nicely. I used a dark walnut finish that turned out amazingly! I am still debating whether or not to do another coat, but I have decided that I would like a bit of sheen instead of the matte finish I had originally planned.

I have decided that the easiest parts are now finished. I am most concerned that when it comes to cutting and fitting the new upholstery fabric I am going to fail horribly. Andrew continues to tell me that the chair is going to turn out to be amazing, yet I continue to remind him that there is still plenty of time for me to royally screw up! This is my first go at reupholstering an old piece of furniture. I have no fear when it comes to woodworking aspects. After all, my father is a woodworker and luthier so I learned many tricks of the trade from him. And now that I think about it, I guess I am fairly decent behind a sewing machine so I am not sure what my worry is. I think it is just the perfectionist in me that does not want to fail when the potential outcome could be that awesome.

After I finished working on the chair for the day, I spent some time making a new set of note cards. I recently found some rather elegant satin ribbon that featured butterflies. I decided to pair the ribbon with some pearlized card stock that I had purchased. I was rather pleased with the final outcome-- a very elegant yet simple note card. The cards are vertical in orientation with the fold at the top rather than horizontal. I don't think that I would choose these cards for myself-- they're almost too girlie for me. However, I am still happy with the end result from a design standpoint. The cards remind me of pearls so I've dubbed them Pearls and Butterflies-- how lady-like!