Now that Halloween is officially over, I'm even more so in the mind set of the upcoming holidays. I shared with you my holiday card line last week, and this week I was up to a little fun with the hot foil press and have two new sets of pencils in the shop that are perfect to use as stocking stuffers.
I had a lot of fun pressing these! Not only will they be in the shop this holiday season, but you'll be able to snag them up at a few shows that I'll be doing in the upcoming months.
In addition to sharing these pencils, I also wanted to say a big thank you to all of you for such an amazing October! This past month was the third busiest month I've ever had, right behind January and February. That says a lot since January and February are truly the busy season with Valentine's Day cards being the big thing. After some really unexpected issues cropped up after our trip to Australia, I worked the hardest I ever have on my shop to try and make the best of it, and it paid off.
I am feeling incredibly lucky to have such amazing customers that continue to come to shop with me, and to be able to realize this big dream of mine. I wasn't sure that this would work as a full time endeavor because it was such a huge risk, but two months into the school year, I know now that I made the right choice not to go back to the classroom. I'm looking forward to even more exciting things throughout the holiday season and into the new year!
As a big THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, I want to pass on a 20% discount to you all. Use the code THANKYOU20 today only on any items in the shop. You guys continue to make me feel grateful to be able to do what I love and what makes me happy!
It has been a crazy few weeks in my home studio as I've had one of the busiest months this year and have also been working diligently on my new holiday line. After several weeks of work, I'm happy to say that the full line of holiday cards is officially here! Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah combined, there's a bit of everything-- some simple, some funny, a few naughty, a couple bright and fun, and a lot of eco-friendliness going on in there too. Many of these cards are 100% recycled paper content, something I've been striving for recently. While not all of the cards are listed in sets, I am happy to do sets for you if need be, so feel free to get in touch with those sorts of requests! Now, here's a look at the full line of cards. You can click through the photos to find them in my shop!
What do you think of the new holiday line? Which are your favorites? It is hard for me to choose which ones I like the best because they all turned out just as I had envisioned, which is a super exciting thing! Are you preparing for the holidays yet?
Growing up it was tradition that not only did we celebrate Christmas, but we also celebrated Saint Nicholas Day on December 6th. This tradition is where Santa Claus, as we know him, originated. My mom grew up in Belgium and brought the tradition of celebrating Saint Nicholas Day to our family. The night before we would lay out our shoes (or in the normal tradition your wooden clogs). In the morning, there would be small gifts left from Saint Nicholas if you had been good and some sticks in your shoe if you had been bad. Usually we would get a Christmas ornament, some marzipan, speculoos (the most wonderfully tasty spiced holiday cookies you could ever want!), chocolate, an orange, and that sort of thing.
After going off to college, my mom still sent me St. Nick's packages in the mail on December 6th. As I left to go out on my own after college, I still wanted to celebrate the fun tradition, so I still continue to leave a little something for Andrew for when he gets up in the morning. I can see now why my mother probably had so much fun with this tradition. For me, picking out the items to include are so much fun! Here is a look at some of the things I included in Andrew's Saint Nicholas Day surprise this morning.
An ornament! And I found this fantastic handmade ornament from My Hideaway-- perfectly simple and bold in color. It will fit right in with our tree that we'll be decorating this weekend. Mary has so many cute ornaments in her shop, but I loved the color scheme of this one.
I like to include tea because it always seems like a cozy thing to have handy in the colder months. Usually I buy Celestial Seasonings, but this year I couldn't pass up this tin and the wintery name of this tea!
I added a candle as well for the same reason as the tea. I always associate candles with this time of year. And the coziness factor is much better with a few candles lit around the house.
And of course, I'll be enjoying the cookies, chocolate, and tea with him! ;) Have you ever celebrated Saint Nicholas Day? What are some of your family holiday traditions?
I have been MIA for a few days here. In the event that you were wondering where I was, I've been diligently researching today's post which you will most likely thank me for. Due to popular demand I have decided that the tacky Christmas decorations post must happen after all. There were just too many tacky Christmas decorations that needed to come out of the woodwork. And if you happen to have any of these little gems, I apologize. Really, I do. I apologize mostly for the fact that you have these hideous items in your house. And I apologize just a tad in the event that I am making fun of one of your beloved Christmas decorations. Without further ado...
We all love M&Ms around the holiday season, but is it really necessary to pair the green M&M with frilly pink and then pretend she is a nutcracker?
I don't even have a witty caption for this one. It just freaks me out. It sort of reminds me of something my grandma might have in her house. And apparently it plays music too. The crazy part is that it sells for $45!
Usually Target is right on target if you know what I mean, but this is Mrs. Claus meets Bubble Boy or something. I actually sort of feel bad for her that she's trapped in there!
And of course, my favorite has been saved for last. Nothing says "Merry Christmas" more than a deer-hunter Santa. Hide your eyes children because apparently Santa is hunting his reindeer? I thought Santa liked deer. Maybe that was just some sort of made up thing that I just happened to hear once long ago. Thank you Wal-Mart for allowing Andrew and me to laugh so hard we almost peed our pants while we looked at this for five minutes straight.
It has taken quite some time for me to prepare my holiday card collection this year. I never had any set block of time where I could really sit down and work on the designs I had floating around in my head. However, I can finally say that it is now ready (for the most part)! I still have a few more design ideas that I'll be working on this coming week, but for the time being I thought I would share what is currently available in the shop. I have included last year's designs in this year's collection as well because they have been tweaked a bit so that I am 100% satisfied with the final product. I have the cards listed as either singles or sets, so if you need a different quantity than what is listed, I am more than happy to accommodate! Here's a quick look at the full line of cards available in the holiday section in my shop.
I'm super excited to finally be finished with this project and share it with everyone! What do you all think?!
