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 ...

 

 

 

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.