Custom Recap - Brklyn View Gold Confetti Holiday Cards

One of the hardest things for me, when it comes to growing my business, has been networking and making time to be able to meet new people. But when I saw Brklyn View Photography, I knew I had to reach out to Jainé!  I am so glad I did because we've become good friends and awesome collaborators - take for example, Jainé's holiday cards.

Jainé loves all things confetti and gold, as you can see in her custom stationery I shared a few months back. So for her holiday cards, we decided to stick with the theme, but make it perfectly celebratory for the season. We went with square cards that feature confetti around red and green typography. We also made a tiny circle stamp, so that we could stamp gold bits of confetti for extra glitz and glam. I love how festive and classic these look, perfect for a holiday greeting!

Jackie and Mike's 2012 Holiday Card

Before the holidays are too far behind us, I wanted to share the cards I sent to friends and family this past year. With Designers Care and my busiest Believe Notes holiday season ever, there were a few weeks there that I just didn't think I'd be able to send cards at all. Luckily, inspiration struck and not only did I get to send cards, but I absolutely love the way they came out. I've been trying to practice my hand lettering lately, so I thought the holiday cards would be the perfect opportunity to test out my new skills.

I like for our cards to be really meaningful. but still fun and good-looking. Since a huge part of 2012 turned out to be Designers Care, I decided to go with a clean black and white design, and the backer pattern has a "stamped" effect. Something else that I do every year is create a pattern that features objects that were important to us throughout the year. Since this year marked the year of renovation (we did all of our floors plus the kitchen over) I decided to include hammers and stoves, along with paw prints (for Miss Juliet) an NYPD shield (for Mike's job) and apples since my husband and I are die hard Mac lovers.

I had my heart set on black envelopes, and since the only way to write/print addresses on them is either by hand (with a white, silver, or gold marker) or with an address label. I'm not typically a fan of address labels - they make me thing of those God-aweful ones that people print at home and then slap on cards. Since I was too lazy to hand write each address, I knew I needed labels, and so I though some round labels with hand lettering would spruce things up and turn them into an added design element. They also shaved a ton of time off, which was awesome, because these cards went out late. The labels were placed a little off-centered, which is exactly how I wanted them, and I love the way they came out! The finishing touch was the gold stamped return address (I used this stamp) and a little gold washi tape.The cards themselves were printed on super thick recycled stock with rounded corners.

The photo was taken by the super talented Jainé, of Brklyn View Photography, during my head shots for Believe Notes. Mike was there to help me keep Juliet out of the way, and Jainé was kind enough to snap this super fast family shot. I love the way the lighting fades off, and the beautiful NYC sky line in the background makes it even better.

I know it's a little late, but from my family to yours, I hope you had a great holiday & are off to a wonderful start in 2013!

New Holiday Cards Now For Sale!

Two new holiday cards are now for sale in the Etsy shop!

Check out the very classic "Tuxedo" design

And the very fun "Underlined" design

I hope you've started thinking about holiday cards! Only 40 days left!

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!

Holiday Cards 2010

Here's a peak at some of my holiday cards for 2010. This year the inspiration was bold, fun graphics with a modern flare. You'll see lots of stamps, fun graphics, cool typography, and some funky colors. This year we are keeping the cards simple, but totally, totally awesome!

To see the rest of my 2010 Holiday Collection, and to make a purchase visit my BelieveNotes Etsy Shop.

HELLO winter!

Anybody else have a totally crazy holiday season and winter?? It's nuts! I'm pretty sure I have some major time judgment issues, I cannot believe tomorrow is February!!

The past month, for me, has been filled with creativity, fun, and lots of work. Here are some of my personal favorites:

Cards I made for some of my family members, friends, and future family members. I love creating things for family, it's so personal for me, and while making a client happy is the goal, it's just amazing when I get to make my family happy:

 

This was my holiday card this year, which is my absolute favorite card of all time:

 

Congrats to a very special couple and your first child!!':

Elegant Thank-You cards:

Oh, and my new slippers which have been doing a fab job of keeping my tootsies warm! :]