2BSquared Designs: 2012

Design Sneak Peak: A Storybook

Available in my etsy shop now.

A not so very merry

Okay so my mailbox is starting to stack up with lots of pretty little envelopes filled with impossibly gorgeous photos of families exclaiming Joy, Merry Merry and Peace and Goodwill to all. As a greeting card designer... you'd think this would not illicit sweaty palms, panic or cold sweats. Ordinarily you'd be right. But you see this year... I fell a little behind. OKAY! I fell alot behind and didn't get to my own cards until super duper late. And because I was operating on design fumes this year, my cards are not only not overly inspiring in the design department, I sorta also forgot to put a very merry of any kind on them.

Oh yeah. In my design genius, I created a holiday card featuring a rather nice shot of my brood taken this summer with a lovely little watercolor treatment to match but forgot the really important part of the Christmas Card... the part about Christmas.

So dear reader if you happen to find, in your mailbox, a lovely picture of an oddly matched but not unattractive family of four at the beach minus a warm holiday hello. Please flip that baby over for a hastily dashed but a warmly sent very merry.

The Case of the Traveling Pants

December is the craziest month of the year in my house. Aside from the fact that, I always feel like I am still stuffed from thanksgiving, lo and behold suddenly my days are supposed to be merry AND bright. Seriously. Wasn't Thanksgiving like yesterday? And just in case I am not quite one black Friday away from shopping overload it's also happens to be both my sons and my nephews birthdays. So it’s not only crazy, it ridiculously expensive. And just in case your wondering... nope we didnt even space all that shopping goodness out. The birthdays fall just days before and days after Christmas. Throw in a blooming little design business with last minute wedding and holiday orders ( all while prepping for a 10 hr road trip over the hills and thru the woods to Grandmas house) and by mid December I'm so broke, tired and foggy, a major meltdown of epic proportions is only a roll of forgotten wrapping paper away.

Or in this years case. You single handedly manage to purchase, wrap, unwrap, repurchase and wrap the wrong pants, not once but twice. Whose got that kind of skill? Apparently, this girl. *cue the jazz hands* UGH. This month of all months, should be filled with joyous celebration, instead it's ripe with vicious paper cuts and gift woes. Next year. I am starting early. Like Easter.

Confessions of a Dangerously Minted Mind

So I have a confession to make... I have most recently come to the conclusion that my creative juices may have come to a screeching halt. I am not sure when the tap may have actually turned off but after careful review of my last entries in the Perfect Match Minted Challenge, I'm pretty sure it was just about....there.

What I had hoped was inspired was questionable. What I had hoped was modern looked half finished. My attempt at watercolors looked like a third grader gone wild with three very angry crayons. My very very retro seemed well just plain weird. How did I not see that BEFORE I designed them? How is it that I am only able to recognize how awful they were after I am dumbstruck by the absolutely stunningly, gorgeously and ridiculously creative works of the very talented around me? Where does that kind of creativity come from? Can I order that from Amazon with overnight shipping please?

You know I have this fear that what it takes is the studious application of copious amounts of time and energy spent trolling pinterest, voraciously reading twenty blogs a day, daily ripping editorial pages from a stack of magazines waist high, weekly visits to art museum's and gallery openings, learning the art of using my smart phone to catapult me to creative genius thru instragram and tweeting my every creative thought real time. For the love of all that is holy, please someone tell me that's not true. Because if it is I see an epic fail coming on. Where does all that free time come from? Am I just not doing it right or is it as I fear ... I used to be creative and now I am just not. I tell you dear reader, the worry is great that the well has gone dry. Or as my husband says...maybe you just need a vacation and bigger glass of vino. Not sure just yet I hope sincerely you will stay tuned as I try to figure it out.

Photo: Daniel Everett

Font Friday: Doodleista

Because into everyones life must fall a doodle or two. Remember math class? C'mon I wasnt the ONLY one not listening to the square root of pi. So to honor the doodlers. I present Doddleista from Filiz Sahin. Once again, from the kindness of a typographers heart - it's FREE.

Font Friday: Early Addition with Citizen Slab

I am in love. There are no other words for how I feel about Citzen Slab font. I want to put it on EVERYTHING. And the creater Joel Felix says - the very kind soul that he his- that you can have it for free. Get it here.

Designers Care: It's not just pretty paper

I want to share something wonderful with you that I am very proud to be a part of. After Hurrican Sandy hit, Jackie Mangiolino, the Long Island designer behind Belive Notes, decided she wanted to help the local communities devastated by the storm. So she reached out to all of us in the design community and asked if we would be willing to donate designs to be turned into stamps and then used to create small art cards. The answer. "How fast do you need it?"

And so Designers Care was born. Each card available in the shop has been donated by established designer, then had stamped or hand embossed onto a small wallet sized card or larger note card. The cards range from simple thanks...

to the inspirational ...

One Inspirational Note Card - "Go with The Flow"

to the very personal...

This initiative is a non-profit, so all proceeds (aside from shipping and transaction fees) will be donated to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief. We hope to make a difference. Help us by sharing what we're doing with your friends and family.

Happy Veteran's Day

On this day and every day we honor the the monumental sacrifice of sons and daughters everywhere. We shall always and forever be grateful.

Photo credits: Brooke Daniels Photography ( my amazing neighboor)

Font Friday: Ragazza

What has more flourish than you can throw a stick it but still manages not to be fussy? Ragazza Script for Latinotype!

Let's Play Catch Up

Life is full of triumphs and epic fails but I like to think that's what life is all about. It's not the destination ... but the journey. Right? And since my epic fails are a bit too numerous to recount, and I quite sure to make a few more I'd thought we'd just go with some of the cooler things of late.

I tried my hand once again in Minted's Holiday Card Challenge. Super excited and very honored to receive an Editor's Pick for Serendipity. Next up? My first art print challenge.

I was very hesitant to try my hand with what I consider to be one of the harder challenges Minted presents. The Art Print challenge.So many uber talented designers out there creating amazing stuff! But I LOVED my print and the book that inspired it and thankfully Minted did too! Sweet Pea will be on sale soon!

Super Mom. Super Wife. Super Woman. Super Tired.

A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen or so the saying goes... right? But I've been thinking what if dirty dishes piled up in the sink cuz nobody has five minutes to swap them with the clean ones in the dishwasher, or the trash that needs to be taken out (Seriously. What is that smell?) and the groceries that need to be bought on top of the groceries waiting to be put away means it's plain you've just got too much crap going on?

I mean, between football practice that runs into basketball practice that overlaps with the PTA meeting that conflicts with my neighborhood board meetings, that all conflict with being a small business owner. I suddenly feel like my desire to be all things is moving beyond my type A personality and converging towards crazy? But when I consider dropping any one of them I am appalled at the thought that I won't be my kids biggest cheerleader, make sure warm nutritious meals are on the table for my family, be a contributing member of my community or that I wouldn't ( gasp!) blog, pin, tweet, create, promote, and tag my way to building my small business.

I don't know. Suddenly, I'm struggling to make all the pieces fit and I am just not sure what to do about it. I want to be a super mom, a super wife and a super business woman but how do you balance it all? For now what I do know...am I a super mom? Vote's still out on that one but a plate of warm chocolate cookies never hurts to sway your constituency. A super wife? That strikes me as a loaded question... but I'll run with you betcha. A great business woman? Not sure. I have a tremendous amount of self doubt and competition is fierce. Being seen, being heard and being original gets harder all the time. I am not leading a nearly interesting enough life to tweet about, there are not enough hours in the day to pin, I am not nearly creative enough to DIY myself into a corner and then blog about it and with major changes over at Etsy. Some super focus is now needed to keep my little shop from becoming irrelevant.

Super mom? Maybe. Super wife? I like to think so. Super Woman? Ah no. Super tired? That would be a yes.

American Elections: Vintage Typecuts

Have you seen the humorous drinking poster on conservative intel? Create your own like I did, using these great FREE Vintage Election Graphics fromWeblays. They're only free until Nov. 6th!

Finally, New Stationery Designs!

So I said I would have some new stationery designs and well... now I do! The new designs, are all available in my etsy shop!

TAILORED STRIPE

MODERN ARROW

IN BOLD PRINT

BRIDE + GROOM SILOHUETTE

NAUTICAL KNOT

MODERN DOT

VINTAGE FLORAL

Hope you all love the new designs! More pictures can be found on my website and in my etsy shop! And last but not least! I am testing the waters with a couple of holiday cards but my next big push is graduation announcements. So keep an eye out!

Holiday Photos Cards: My First Collection

So excited to introduce my first collection of holiday cards. Now available in my Etsy shop

Found + Featured: The Knot Boston

My favorite feature on every designers website is the Found or Featured page. You know where they show you these AH-mazingly glossy covers of fantastic magazines they're printed in. Yeah, no dice here... that is until today!

Imagine my surprise... here I am on a cold wet Sunday, spiffing up my website ( which is looong overdue) trolling for one last pic a real wedding - that I designed and shamefully DID NOT feature on my blog- when I trek over to her photographers site. Only to discover that my bride and her stunning photography was featured in the Fall/Winter 2012 issue of The Knot Boston. Seriously this is making my year! Now to just get my hands on a copy!

Making my list...and checkin it twice

OK folks... I've just completed my proverbial " if I haven't sold it in 6 months it's never gonna sell " list. The list is spectacularly long. Geesh! Why such a poor showing this year? Bad design. Bad photography and in one case a healthy dose of both. So I am cleaning shop. It's time to hunt down the items that fall into the "what was I thinking when I designed that" category in my shop and send them to the stationery graveyard. Which sadly, works out to be pretty much my entire current wedding collection!

On the upside...that makes room for a whole new collection which is almost complete. I've got some great pieces I am really hoping are gonna be truly reflective of how much I've grown as a designer. The designs will include matching save the dates as well as matching escort cards too! I am super excited about their release which I hope will be early Winter and just in time to thrill all you lovely ladies ( and gents) who decide to get hitched over the holiday season. So stay tuned!

Make Your Own Fabric: Project Runway for the Rest of Us

Ever wanted to make your own fabric? Now you can. Spoonflower, a website for crafters and aspiring designers (that's you), has a design-it-yourself-fabric service. And if that wasn't enough they've just launched a design-it-yourself wallpaper and decal service to turn your artwork into one-of-a-kind removable wallpaper.

Both services are super easy to use. Just upload your design and behold as Spoonflower transforms it into a repeating wallpaper or fabric pattern. You can preview your designs as they will actually look too. Adjust things like the size and nature of the repeat and once you're happy, simply purchase by the roll ( $60) or the yard ($16).

You can also turn your fabulous artwork into peel-and-stick decals ( $5 to $30, depending on size), which are perfect for everything from walls to dressers. Plus the wallpaper and decals are self-adhesive so they are easy to put up and take down.

You were born an original...

My son is fourteen and each week he strolls out of his room and it seems like he's got a different personality on. Last week he was all jock, this week apparently he's a pod person for Holister. Next week is anybodies guess. At first it bothered me that he had seemingly multiple personalities so I got "mommy anxious" and asked him about it. His straight faced response ... "Mom, I don't have multiple personalities. I have two. Awesome and freakin awesome. Once I got done laughing up my coffee all I could think of was...