Blog — "design"

Over the years there is one thing that many paper lovers will acquire, and that is overabundance of the thing we love. It would be a lie if I were to say that I don't have paper spilling out of drawers and taking over my studio. Paper can be inspiring. Sometimes I need to buy new paper in order to get my creativity going again. However, the result can be too much paper.

Last weekend, I spent part of the morning reorganizing my drawers full of paper when I suddenly thought of a fun way to both minimize my stock in paper and provide an economical set of correspondence for my customers. I paired bright colored card stock with contrasting envelopes. I cut flat note cards from light-weight 80lb card stock and printed each card with a handwritten hello. The end result? Bright, fun, and bold flat notes for the economically minded. Right now there are three limited edition sets of 8 flat notes available in the shop, and each set is only $10. And I have a few more color combos in mind. These cards would be perfect for a simple note to a friend-- nothing too fancy, but a blast of color to brighten someone's day.


I think I'll even start using these for myself to send a little cheer to my family and friends. Sometimes the simplicity of color is all that we need.

I've been trying to do better with updating this dear old blog more frequently. I was a self-proclaimed success after a post on Monday and Tuesday. Two days in a row-- success indeed! I've also been super busy with new designs and trying to get them into the shop. I spent a larger portion of last weekend printing, editing, and photographing some of my latest cards. I feel as though I've had a plethora of creative ideas, but having the time to get the final product into the shop has been a challenge. In addition, to a few new items that I wanted to share today, I have some new holiday cards and Thanksgiving cards that will soon be listed as well. But for now, I'll share with you some of my newest favorites.


My latest anniversary card may or may not be from similar personal experience.


I love the fine print on this one. Not going to lie-- I may have felt a little old this year on my birthday. Only one year away from the big 3-0 is kind of crazy!


A few people suggested that I make some fun cards with no occasion in mind. This is one of my favorites as a result of that suggestion.


I love the simplicity of this love card. Reminds me of those grade school crushes.

What creative endeavors have you been working on lately?

You may or may not remember my little feature of StarSeventeen, my sister's Etsy shop. Recently, my sister asked me to work on a branding concept for her shop. I was super excited to do this because it is something I've been interested in dabbling in for a while. And of course I was super excited to be helping out my sister! She is an extremely talented artist, so for her to ask me to design something for her was quite the task.

Her art focus of choice these days happen to be painted hats such as these.


She wanted a logo that represented both her signature "portal design" (as you see in this hat) as well as an urban retro feel. The end result?


In addition to the logo, I created a banner for her facebook page and her Etsy shop. My last job was to make post cards, merchandise tags, and business cards for her as well. Everything turned out just as I had envisioned and my sister was by far the easiest client I have ever worked with. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we have ESP. And by ESP, I mean, that I'm familiar enough with her art that I could run with the suggestions she gave me.

Anyway, be on the look out for lots of new super awesome stuff in my sister's shop that goes beyond just the hats! She also just started up a new blog, so feel free to show her some love there as well! And to any of you looking for some design work, I may or may not be just a little happy if you ask me work on a new logo for you. ;)

Any new projects or concepts that you've been working on lately?

It's been a while since I've updated my shop with new card designs. I've had a lot of these cards waiting to be listed for quite some time. I get so lazy and don't want to have to edit photos and write up the listings for my shop. It always seems like such a chore compared to the rest of the things I get to do as part of owning this business. Anyway, here are a look at the new designs. Click through the photos and you'll land at the listing for the card if it's one that you've just got to snag up!

For when you're super duper sorry...


For your secret (or not so secret) crush...

For that awesometastic friend of yours...

An anniversary card...

And the Valentine's Day version too...

This birthday card was originally designed for Andrew's birthday a year ago. I like it enough that I decided to modify it and list it...

And for the long distance relationship or that person you really miss...

Now THAT is a lot of cards! Seven! I clearly felt like being a super productive person. And by felt like, I mean a bee tried to attack me while I was suntanning on my roof deck so I could not longer be lazy and needed something to do indoors. So I decided to take productive to a whole new level and start shooting new photos for some old cards. Here are a couple old, but new listings if that makes any sense. Old cards, new photos-- so they kind of feel new, you know?



I like. You like?

By the way, if you need some cards or stationery, you probably want to order soon. I'm going to be on vacay for a ridiculously long time in the near future. Ridiculously long = 16 days. I'll be putting my shop on vacation mode while I'm gone since I'll also be in the complete sticks at times with no way to communicate. (If I don't return by mid August, someone send help. A bear may have attacked me in the middle of the mountains). Freaking out a little about going on vacation mode since I've heard some bad things about doing that-- like that your shop pretty much falls off the radar and you have to start back from square one. I don't like the sounds of that. Anyone else had to do this before? Did you have problems or were you good to go upon your return?

I have something to admit. It may or may not be something you have or have not noticed. I've fallen way behind on my Design a Day Challenge thingy-ma-jiggy. It sort of started when Andrew's parents were in town, and then I never really got back on track. I'm ok with it though. I've still designed a lot of stuff, and to be quite honest, I have been enjoying summer break too much to update you every single day. I haven't even had the chance to get everything in my shop yet.

It was another busy weekend. Andrew and I painted our bedroom, and we had important errands to run like going to the home brew store to get more supplies for our home brewing adventures. I had a little bit of time while Andrew was doing paint prep to list my new line of recipe cards that I had been working on this past week.

While I was brainstorming a few weeks ago with Andrew for design ideas, he had suggested a summer theme of some sort. I think his exact words were, "Draw a lemonade pitcher and a lemon and put it on a note card." In fact I have something sorta like that written down on my ridiculously long brainstorm list.

I thought it made more sense to put a lemonade pitcher on a recipe card, so I started with that idea in mind. When I drew my lemon, I decided to turn it into a lime because I like limes better than lemons. Maybe it was the fact that it was 107 degrees outside and a mojito with some fresh squeezed lime sounded really good at that moment. I don't know. But regardless, I decided that the lemon should be a lime. End result? A lime on a recipe card.

No lemonade pitcher. Ooops. I guess that's why "lemonade pitcher card" is not scratched out yet. Anyway, this recipe card got my juices flowing (pun TOTALLY intended... I'm cheesy like that) and I rehashed an old avocado design I'd used a couple years back and slapped that on a recipe card.
Dear old avocado then gave me the brilliant idea of creating a few more fruits or veggies to complete the scene. So in came Mr. Peach.
A juicy red tomato.
And clearly, summer wouldn't be summer without some cute little peas in a pod.
And now I have a cute little family of fruit and veggies on some recipe cards.
And in case you feel like investing in a few of these guys, you can click through the photos to be taken to the listings. I have to say, I'm quite content with my little fruit and veggie medley. I like the summer crispness of the cards if that makes any sense. Bright and simple and perfect for summer if I must say so myself.

What sorts of projects or designs have you been working on lately?