Find Sincerely, Jackie on Twitter, Pinterest & Instagram

One of the scariest parts of re-branding, for me at least, is the idea of losing my followers because of a name change. However, I have finally stopped letting fear run my business, and I have taken the reins back.

After announcing Sincerely, Jackie last week, I quickly went to work updating all of my social media handles and letting my followers know that I'm the same person,  just with a new (better) name. I'll also be leaving my profile picture the same, so if you see a curly haired girl, it's still me!

For a reminder, this is me:

If you were already following me on Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram, you may have already noticed a change. Unfortunately, the handle "sincerelyjackie" is already in use just about everywhere (luckily it's being used by a variety of different people, aptly named Jackie, who find the name as charming as I do. I wish I could sweet talk them to hand the name over, but alas, I am not that persuasive). So I have instead decided to go ahead and use the following:

Twitter: @jackiemdesign
Pinterest: JackieMDesign
Instagram: SincerelyJackiePaper

To make things easier, I have also made my "personal" name on all of the accounts Sincerely, Jackie. This way you can find me by either JackieMDesign or Sincerely, Jackie. See, easy!

I invite you all to join me in my day to day posts and behind the scene antics!

(oh, and a Facebook page is coming soon! Hold tight!)

Sincerely,

Saying Goodbye to Believe Notes

This has been an emotional few weeks. This coming Friday I will reveal my new business name and a little preview of my logo. I am SO excited, however, as I prepare to officially close Believe Notes and open my new business, I've been dealing with a heck of a lot more fear than I ever imagined. I've come to realize that I am a perfectionist, and the moment I started to think that things wouldn't be perfect, I panicked.

And aside from being a perfectionist, I am also insanely sentimental and I don't think I deal well with change. Believe Notes has been an amazing adventure, and such a huge part of who I am. Letting go is turning out to be heartbreaking, in the it-wasn't-you-it's-me way, and the we're-better-off-apart way. It's crazy to think that this little business, that I started as a hobby so many years ago, has taken me to this point in my life. I'm filled with gratitude, great fortune, and a ton of amazing friends and peers - all thanks to Believe Notes.

So while I say I'm having a hard time with the announcement on Friday because of my perfectionistic tendencies, rest assure that it's a bit of a cover up. 

I realized that things don't need to be perfect, they just need to be right. And trust me when I say that everything is finally starting to feel right. Believe Notes has showed me the value of dealing with my fears head-on and using them to grow and learn, which always ends up feeling so amazing (scary, but amazing). My new business name is right, my new logo is right, my new attitude and business purpose - it's all right, and I am so excited to be moving in this direction.

And you know what, being scared is right. It's normal, it's OK, and I'm allowing myself to embrace these moments of fear, because they fuel me to continue to do the right thing.

So, everybody, please join me in saying goodbye to Believe Notes, my beloved business that has taken me on a journey I could have never imagined taking. I'd love it if you could all leave comments about how you met me/heard about Believe Notes, why you've followed me along the way, and what your most looking forward to for the new business.

When Small Business(es) Meet High Stress

I had promised to share the real ups and downs behind owning a small business, and what's more real than a post at 7:30pm on a Saturday night?

The past few weeks have been overwhelming - in both good and bad ways. It's been about three weeks since I started Designers Care, which is a shop filled with gorgeous note cards that are hand stamped using designs donated but lots of talented designers. We've had over 100 sales and raised close to $900 to donate to Hurricane Sandy victims - I'd say the shop is absolutely a success.

But for whatever reason, I just don't feel very successful. I feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and beat down. October through December is my absolute busiest season - between holiday cards for Believe Notes, papers and finals for graduate school, busy season at my full time job, and then of course the chaos of the holidays in general - I feel like I'm starting to shut down.

One day, last week, I went to work without my glasses or my watch and I only had eyeliner on one eye. 

I'm finding that in my stress I seem to be focusing too hard on the negatives: orders are backed up (I must not be efficient enough!), I don't have enough time in the day (so I should get up super early and stay awake super late, right?!), I've made a few mistakes & one of my entire product lines failed (this was the hardest on me, by far). And even though, deep down, I know I'm not failing, I really, really, really feel like I am.

I also know that the more stressed I am, the more stress I put on my husband, and that of course leads to stupid bickering and hurt feelings. He may not be as busy as me in terms of working + school + 2 businesses, but he's NYPD and he certainly has't had a stress-free experience dealing with the hurricane aftermath. Long hours & overtime combined with seeing the underbelly of a city in crisis has definitely lead to an exhausted husband. He and I handle stress in completely different ways - he likes to sit back and do nothing but watch TV in order to escape, while I like to bury myself in even more work to take my mind off of things. But then, of course, we argue about the stress itself because I constantly push us both to do more, more, more, and he is trying to do less, less, less. At this point I think we can agree that we'd both like to just ditch the jobs, and school, and businesses and just try to catch up and cope with all the madness. And thank goodness this is temporary - things always calm down a little in January.

So yes, I feel like I'm failing sometimes - at being a good friend or wife, at cooking healthy dinners, at being present for the people around me. I can beat myself up all I want for missing a deadline or making a mistake, but then I get an email like this and it all seems to melt away:

Jackie,

I know you've been totally swamped! If I can help with anything, let me know. 

By the way, you really inspire me!

--Ann

 

When I'm up at 4:30am working on a design, bleary eyed and exhausted, I can't imagine being any form of inspiration for anything (other than maybe Dunkin Donuts). But I wake up almost every morning to amazing emails from amazing people and I remember that I am not in this alone, and I am not doing this for myself. 

And even in writing the blog post, I may be feeling uneasy about it in the morning, but I wanted to share some of what really happens during high stress - you may be seeing beautifully styled photos, and RTs from fabulous people, but that isn't the whole reality. The whole reality is me at 7:30am in my office building noticing that I have eyeliner on one eye.

Custom Recap + Brklyn View Photography

One of my goals for this year is to network more and send heartfelt notes to people I really admire.  Jainé, the photographer behind Brklyn View Photography, is one of those people. I had been following her blog for a while, and when I saw her get published on Style Me Pretty I was so darn excited that I finally decided to email her and introduce myself. After exchanging a few emails (and enjoying really awesome burgers and drinks together) we decided to collaborate on some stationery and head shots. Turns out that Jainé is a paper junkie, and I'm a picture nut, so we were like a match made in heaven!

Jainé loves all things pink and fun, so we decided to create two stationery looks for her. One features lively confetti with her logo on the back, and the other has a hand embossed "thank you" on the front in gold, with bright pink and red stripes on the back. Sounds awesome, right?! I've been playing around with hand-embossing lately and loved that Jainé was on board.

I know, I know, these cards are totally awesome. The icing on the cake is that both sets of cards were paired with hot pink envelopes and gold envelope liners! And I'm not going to lie, I think I'm in love with hand embossing, it's such a beautiful way to add an extra element to designs. Labor intensive, yes, but so very worth it!

Holiday Cards Now Available at Minted!

One of my favorite parts of being a stationery designer is having the joy of Christmas in May. Yes, I said May. You may not realize just how much work goes into designing holiday cards every year, so trust me when I say it's a lot of work. As a designer, I'm thinking about the holidays all year round, and it's always SO much fun when Minted has their holiday challenges in the Spring. It's such a blast to play holiday music in warm weather with the windows open. My neighbors must think I'm crazy.

Anyway, I have two designs that will be for sale this year through Minted. Snowy Man is a fun, simple design featuring a little snowman and simple type.

I'm so excited that Snowy Man is now available, and if you're one of those super organized go-getter types that started buying presents last year, well now's a perfect time for you to start thinking about your holiday cards!

Announcing the Tiny Little Note Stationery Line!

A few months ago I gave a little preview of the newest Believe Notes stationery line, and I am excited to announce that the new line is officially here!

Please join me in welcoming the Tiny Little Note line to Believe Notes! These note cards are small in size - measuring in at A2: 4.25"x5.5" - but BIG on impact. They feature hand drawn details, fresh colors, and matching metallic envelopes. They come in sets of 12, and are available in a variety of coordinating themes. From florals to sweets, you're bound to find a set that speaks to you!

A secret? I've been using these as my own personal stationery for a rather long time now. 

I'll be introducing the rest of the line on the blog, but for now, head over to the Etsy shop and check out the Tiny Little Flowers line, featuring the three designs above!

Now For Sale at Minted: Handy Thank You Cards

Head on over to Minted to purchase my latest design, Handy Thank You Cards.

This Handy design was so much fun to work on - it features hand drawn elements and fun typography! It was one of the first times I submitted a design to Minted that featured hand drawing. I've been trying to do a little more drawing for my designs, so be on the lookout!

Behind the Scenes with Believe Notes

There are a lot of big things happening for Believe Notes, and I am super, super excited! Big things mean busy weekends and evenings, since that's really the only time I have to work on my stationery business. I work full-time in corporate America during the day, which means my entire brand needs to developed on my "off" time. It's busy, but it's so incredibly rewarding.

I get a lot of people asking me how I do it all. How do I manage my time? Well, the answer is, not very well! I spend almost all of my spare time working on designs, photographing recent projects, blogging, researching, and recently I'm focusing on trying to network more.

A typical weekend for me begins around 6:30 or 7:00am. Yes, it's early, but I have a lot to do. And no, I don't use an alarm.

Here's an idea of what a typical Saturday or Sunday looks like:

• 7:00am: Wide awake, stepping over the sleeping Miss Juliet to get to my Tassimo for some caffeine. 
• 7:15am: Check emails, facebook, twitter, instagram, blogger, pinterest, and etsy.
• 8:20am: My husband comes home from work, which wakes up Juliet momentarily. I tear myself away from my computer long enough to greet him and ask how his shift was. Sometimes, on Sundays, he brings me the newspaper, flowers and some bagels. This is why I love him.
• 8:45am: Back to my computer. At this point Juliet wants to cuddle and go back to sleep, so she usually waits for me in my office before eventually curling up by my feet. 
• 9:30am: The sun is perfect right about now for taking some pictures of recent projects. I wish I was more skilled with my camera....
• 10:15am: I want to make a bow as a photo prop. My bows look like poo, so I turn to Martha Stewart.
• 11:00am: All the pictures are uploaded, and it's time to edit them. I still haven't perfected taking pictures of my work, so I rely on the editing. But it's a timely process, and I need to reheat my second cup of coffee. 
• Noon: Juliet is starting to wake up. She piles a bunch of toys at my feet. Maybe I should take a break and play with her. 
• 1:00pm: Time for errands - I stop at the Post Office first, to drop off orders. Then it's off to Target, Walbaums and TJ Maxx, which are right up the street from me. TJ Maxx, although never on my actual errand list, tends to take up the majority of my shopping time (and budget). Whoops. 
• 2:30pm: Lunch & cleaning before returning to my computer to finish up whatever I was working on in the morning. My plants look thirsty. Maybe I'll give them some water. Maybe I'll see how long they'll survive without the water...
• 3:30pm: I try to draft a bunch of blog posts for the week and schedule them to auto-post during the week. Sorry if that spoils the excitement for everybody, but I am not magic, and I cannot be at two places at once. So, while I'm off in corporate America during the day, my blog is programmed all nice and nice. I decided to do this because I've noticed that I have a larger audience during the week - and since I put a lot of time into my blog posts, I want to make sure they reach as many people as possible.
• 5:30pm: Time to wake up the husband and attempt to make dinner.
• 7:00pm: Husband and I hit up the park with Juliet. All the neighborhood dogs meet at the park next to our development every night. It's like a big ol' doggy play date. 
• 9:00pm: I can barely keep my eyes open. My husband and I do some more chores around the house. I head back to my computer for a little while, but by 11:00pm I'll most likely be passed out on the sofa. 
• 11:15pm: Time for bed. 

The busier I've gotten, the messier my office has become (as you can see in the title picture). Although, my favorite accessory is Miss Juliet, who is always by my side when I'm in my office - I couldn't even take a picture of the space without her leaving her spot. I've also had to pull an upholstered chair from my dining room to replace my favorite orange captains chair (which is now shoved in the corner). My butt was literally starting to go numb from the lack of support, ouch! I'm also in desperate need of more storage space in my office, and I'm trying to save up some money to build out and entire wall unit for my desk. 

Le'Sigh. Now you know a little more about what my day looks like, and how I barely manage my time. How do all of you manage your time? I hope your days (and desks) are as cluttered as mine! 

National Stationery Show 2012

May 19th-23rd was the National Stationery Show, which is like Christmas for those of us in the stationery world. I couldn't go last year (it was the weekend before my wedding) but this year there was just no excuse not to be there! Besides, it's right here at the Javits center in NYC, just a few subway stops away!

The show was amazing, with tons of booths for different designers, wholesalers, printers, retailers and so on. However, the best part of the show was, for me, meeting all of the Minted designers who traveled from near and far. A bunch of the Minted ladies got together to walk the show, but we got split up and I ended up spending the day with Tanya of Frooted Design - who is awesome! So glad I got to meet and spend time with her!

The Sunday before NSS, Kimberly FitzSimons of Daily Sip Studios organized a little "Minted-Meetup" over cocktails at a hotel in Times Square. I had SO much fun meeting all of the Minted ladies, as well as a bunch of other talented designers. We had a pretty good sized group, and it was so nice to talk about stationery with people who actually cared! It's so funny to put real people to the profile pictures, and apparently all of us are shorter in person, and I have a bit of a New Yawk accent - what can ya say,  I was bawn and raised on Lawng Island!

A few of the Minted designers during cocktail hour. From top left: Meg of Moglea, Kristie Kern, Kimberly of Daily Sip Studios, Lauren of Palm Papers, FRONT ROW: Laura Hankins of Duncan Park Papers, Lesa from Paper Nest by Lesa, Me, and Alston of B. Wise Paper

Once of the really fun things about the NSS is how much fun loot is given away. I ended up with bags and bags of stuff. I also apparently dropped by business card in lots of fish bowls, because I'm still having loot sent to my house. Just a few days ago an incredibly large and heavy box arrived from Neenah Paper - it was an entire set of samples for EVERYTHING they have. Holy crap, I tell you it was like Christmas came early! Now I just need to find some storage space for all the stuff!

Strolling through the booths was so inspirational. There were actually a few Minties that had booths, and man, they blew me away. I've always admired the work of fellow Minted designer Meg Gleason, of Moglea, but after meeting her and seeing her letterpress in person, I am just down right in awe of her. Her booth was amazing, and she's been getting tons of awesome press, it's so well deserved! You go Meg!

After the show closed on Monday, Minted hosted a little party for current designers, interested designers, and a few members of the press. Mariam Naficy, the CEO and owner of Minted (and awesome, awesome person all around) spoke to us for a little to share some Minted insights and future plans. Here's a group shot with most of us:

I cannot wait to go back to NSS in 2013! I've already decided that one day was just too short, and so next year I plan to give myself at least two days to walk to the show!

Thanks A Million! Minted Submissions

As I mentioned in my last post, Minted has been having back-to-back challenges to keep us designers super busy. One of the challenges was the "Thanks A Million!" thank you card challenge. Thank you cards have always been one of my favorite things to design, and they were actually some of the very first items I had for sale in my Etsy shop.

It was a lot of fun creating these designs - I tried some new techniques and really pushed myself out of my comfort zone by using new fonts, textures, hand drawn elements and different type layouts. At the end of the day, I love the designs I submitted and am proud that it's such an obvious sign of growth for me as a designer.

handy, dignified, gratitude, curled, opaque, petite gratitude, sky high, steele

Voting is still open for the Thanks A Million challenge, so please head on over and tell Minted what to sell! 

Minted's Women's Stationery Challenge, Voting is Open!

Minted has certainly been keeping all of us in the design community on our toes lately! We've had challenge after challenge, and while I haven't been able to submit designs in all of the challenges, I was able to squeeze out a few submissions for the recent Take Note! Women's Stationery Challenge. It would be fantastic if you could take some time to go vote for all of the designs that you'd like to see for sale on the Minted site in the future.

Below are the designs that I submitted into the Take Note! Women's Stationery Challenge:



Cool Shades

  

Effortless

 

Petra



Serviette

Vintage Monogram

I'd love if you could help get my designs for sale by voting on them!

Mark Your Calendar Challenge :: Voting is Open!

Minted has been keeping me on my toes lately, and I'm really excited about the designs I submitted for their last challenge, the Mark Your Calendar Save the Date challenge. I've grown so much as a designer in the past year, and I think my submissions for this challenge are by far some of my best work to date. All but one of the designs feature a hand drawn element, which makes me happy and really adds to the design. Voting is now open, so please go and vote on as many designs as you can!

Here are my submissions (click on them to vote) :

"Charming"

"Darling"

"Pack Your Shades"

"Striking"

"Warmth"

The 2011 Holiday Collection

It's finally here!

Even though I'm feeling a little under the weather this weekend (seems like everybody has a cold!), I still managed to get almost 75% of the holiday line up on my Etsy shop!

Here are a few of the designs:

To see the entire line, head on over to my Etsy shop - and check back often, as more designs are coming!

Oh What A Week!

Happy Saturday morning to all! And boy, am I glad this work week is over! This past week was particularly busy for me, as at my 9-5 job we hold a week long training class that sucks the life and energy out of my group (we're the trainers teaching the thing!). In addition to the week long class, this past week was also mid-terms at grad school, and on top of it all we had to juggle all of the issues with insurance and whatnot for our flooring problems. It looks like we'll be getting all new floors within the next few weeks, I should be excited, but really I'm just stressed.

I'm also almost finished printing all the samples of the holiday cards! I know I'm running super behind, but I'm planning on having a few cards for sale by the end of the weekend. I've decided to put together digital samplers to show all the color and backer options for my designs - as opposed to printing hard copies of everything. Digital samplers are a great way to show options without incurring the extra costs associated with time and printing. I've always used digital samplers when working with clients, and I thought it would be great to use them for my online shop as well! Here's a peek at one of my sampler sheets:

Can't wait to debut the rest of the line :)

Enjoy the rest of your day everybody!

Behind the Scenes Holiday Collection 2011

Today I am putting the finishing touches on a few more of my holiday cards for the 2011 collection. I've been finishing between 2-4 designs each weekend, and I know I'm a little behind. I've definitely been struggling lately to keep up with work, school, homeowner problems and a growing stationery business. I'm so thrilled that the business is growing, but I'm nervous too! This holiday season is going to be a busy one!

This morning I woke up late, which is good, because I was in desperate need of sleep. It may be 2:00 in the afternoon, but I've been cleaning all morning and just sat down with my coffee to work on my holiday cards. Here's a peek at my desktop (and a little glimpse of one of my designs!)

My husband thinks I'm nuts, but I've been having my coffee in my holiday mug since June. I've gotta get into the spirit somehow!

Enjoy the rest of your day everybody!

Font Lust

I wish all beautiful fonts were free! But no, they are not, and so I cannot have them all...

Right now I have a major, major, major crush on Aphrodite. Usually when I love a font it's easy not to buy it because it could cost well over a hundred plus dollars for just one font....but Aphrodite is hard to say no to, since it's only $37.

Isn't she lovely?

Alright, so how about this, the next time a $35+ item sells in my shop, I'm buying this lovely little font :) That's a good excuse, right???

What's Inspiring Me?

It's Sunday night on a holiday weekend, which means no work tomorrow! So I'm staying up late working on finishing some design work and I find myself completely smitten with Adam Levine & Maroon 5. I've always been a fan of their music, but for some reason these two new songs just made me realize that I love them.

So, thank you Maroon 5, Adam Levine, Gym Class Heroes, and (dare I say) Christina Aguilera for the inspiration to keep me up late tonight!

Enjoy!

Not Enough Time In The Day

Tonight was my first night back to Grad school for the semester. I love my professional 9-5 job, I love learning more and continuing my education, but I don't love the feeling of needing just a few additional hours in my day.

It seems my job is getting busier, my classes more intense, and my business is growing - these are all good things, but I think I need to find that perfect balance to make sure they all happen successfully. I am blessed to have such an amazing husband (who would stay up all night with me working on stationer orders), but I definitely need to keep better track of my business transactions and costs. Moving forward I need to make sure that all of the work I do is appropriate both in time and money.

Eeek, and somewhere in the equation I need to add a little "me" time. I haven't had a vacation in a while - my honeymoon didn't count since it rained the whole time.

Although I had been planning on launching a new wedding line soon, I thought I would hold off until I got a handle on this semester at school. In the meantime, I am LOVING all of the custom projects I have been working on, so keep 'em coming!

Oh, and if you have a magic way to add three hours to my day, pretty please email me!

Please vote for the Minted Great Ideas Notebook Challenge!

Minted just finished up yet another challenge! I know, they've been keeping us designers super busy with back-to-back-to-back challenges!

I submitted several designs for the Great Ideas Notebook Challenge, and would love if you could head over and vote. Don't just vote for me though, vote for as many designs as you'd like!

"French Trifle"

"Tipsy"

"I Forgot"

"Worth Writing"

"Parlor"

Head over to Minted and rate all the designs! I appreciate it greatly (as go all of the designers!)

Exciting Things!

Daily Squee

Design has been keeping me super busy lately. Today alone I somehow sold the same item four times! I've also had the pleasure of creating quite a few different custom designs. The more business picks up, the more I learn, which is great because I'm in need of some streamlining.

Next week I start graduate school again - which means that two days a week I'm out of the house from 6:45am until 10:30pm. Definitely long days, but I keep telling myself it's worth it - and it is! However, I'll need to make sure all of my ducks are in a row so that I can keep on top of my growing stationery biz while I'm also juggling school and corporate life.

There are some big things on the way from Believe Notes....the website, while still a work in progress, is almost ready to at least be viewed. I'm also setting up a bunch of wholesale accounts so that I can continue to provide fair prices for high quality designs.

I'm struggling creating a policy around my work, but after having a few rough experiences, I do realize that I need to protect myself and my designs. My time is valuable and I need to make sure that I'm paid fairly for the work & services I provide. It goes against my nature to be too "rigid" or "demanding" but I'm starting to realize that this is a business, and I can't give away things for free, including my time. If anybody has an suggestions for policies, please let me know!

Here's a little glimpse of one of the projects I was recently working on...